SET SAIL: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

[returnjourney]

SET SAIL: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

January 1, 2022 – January 7, 2022
Welcome to the new year and the Return Journey's opening event! We're starting with something light to get everyone acclimated and so no one feels they've missed too much if they app after the holiday season. We'd like to make it easy for any new players to jump in right away.

If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.

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1. What? My name is who? My name is—

Salutations! Now that everyone's respective warden and inmate orientations are out of the way, you've been given a helpful, mandatory name tag. It instantly appears on your shirt and can't be taken off, though where it appears on your shirt is a bit more unpredictable; it's an imperfect science, so it's just as likely to pop up on the back of your shirt as the front. If you try to remove your clothes, the tag appears on your skin; they're waterproof, so a quick shower won't get rid of it, either. What can we say — it's mandatory.

While the tags all follow the standard "HELLO my name is" format and have your name or most common alias, they also include some other information. For wardens, it features a space that declares "I LIKE" and one or two of your most choices hobbies. For inmates, it features these hobbies and "I have killed [x] people" (this may be a specific number or something akin to "a lot of" or "no"). Fun icebreaker, right?

2. Twenty Questions

Speaking of icebreakers, a brief announcement summons everyone to the observatory. Again, yes, it's mandatory; wardens must retrieve absent inmates before any more information is revealed. Better hop to it!

Upon arrival, passengers will discover that the Peregrine's resident bot force has reconfigured the observatory with small, portable cubicles, each with a transparent wall that retains a lovely view of the observatory's massive window. Each inmate is assigned their own cubicle and, upon entering, cannot leave without a warden's say so; the door only unlocks with a warden's CommLink.

Wardens are tasked with interviewing at least one inmate, to get a feel for their prospective charges. They can have as much time as they need to formulate what questions they want to ask, but that might leave some inmates waiting. Maybe that's on purpose, though. In any case, the exercise is over once an inmate is asked five questions and a warden receives five answers.

Archimedes will collect name tags after the interviews for incineration. The robotic owl is, notably, the only one who can remove them.

3. Polite Picnic

The greenhouse doesn't always have enough fresh produce to go around (and often what is collected is frozen and preserved), but given the circumstances — a new mission and new passengers — everyone can reap the rewards this month...if they share. A bot stationed in the mess hall mechanically tells anyone who crosses into range (whether they mean to visit the produce table or not) that they aren't to take more than three fruits and/or vegetables. If you choose not to abide by the rules...well, that depends if you're caught and by who.

The produce available are as follows:

Adalfane: Tastes like cocaine, but very nutritious, especially when eaten raw.
Tuadath: Smells awful, but very hearty when cooked, tasting a little like steak.
Tsanyi: Pure, sugary sweetness. Can be made into a refreshing drink, eaten raw, or sprinkled over a desert.

There are notably fewer tsanyi than adalfane or tuadath. But if everyone's nice and cooperates, each person can get exactly one.

Comments

[hiddenblade]

“That we do,” he agrees. The selfishness of his own proposed windfall gnaws at him with newly sharpened teeth. There’s so much more in the world it could be used for. “You have a lot of faith in this, then?”

[nineteenfortyfive]

"I think it's more... hope, rather than faith." There's a difference, to her. "I'd like for this all to go well, for obvious reasons. Both for our sakes and the inmates themselves."

[hiddenblade]

"I have never been one for hope," he replies. "Nor faith, if I am being honest. Not when our work so often determines our results."

He takes her right to the infirmary door, just where he had passed it before, and he fishes out his communicator to unlock the door.

[nineteenfortyfive]

"I find hope to be less harmful than faith," Claire says, but the door opens and she's eager to step inside, letting go of Ezio's arm.

"My god. I can already tell this is far more advanced than any hospital I've set foot in."

She's going to live here, goodbye.

[hiddenblade]

He smiles as she steps ahead, following her at a lazy place. He takes in the room with a limited idea of what he is looking at; it is impressive, of course, but if someone told him the machinery was for chopping logs or roasting hens or just for sleeping in, he might have believed them.

"Is there means of measuring such a thing?" he wonders. And then wryly: "I cannot imagine how leeches would play a part in this."

[nineteenfortyfive]

"Just a sense," Claire says dismissively. She's seen the differences between hundreds of years with her own eyes. This just feels incredibly beyond her, though she's eager to become familiar with everything in sight.

However...

"No leeches to be found in space, I imagine. But possibly good to keep on hand if we find any. You never know when advancements will fail." Said as she taps on the outside of a stasis pod. Remarkable.

[hiddenblade]

He's more interested in her, watching the way she pokes and prods at things.

"I have seen..." He doesn't know the name for them. He has to pull up the closest thing, accompanied by a gesture with two fingers, a small space between: "Little loaves, often white. They take the place of herbs. It is impossible to say what any of them do just by looking at them, unlike the different leaves of herbs."

[nineteenfortyfive]

He does draw her attention away from the pods, and she smiles maybe a little too fondly. It's endearing. Jamie would probably say something very similar.

"Pills? Medications," Claire supplies, and wanders over to a supply cabinet that looks like it might house as such. She's glad to see it locked. She trails her hand along the door before putting a few things together, brow creasing. "Where did you see that? You said something about living among advanced people before?"

[hiddenblade]

"Pills, maybe," he replies. He waits a beat before answering the second question, expression just fixed in a smile. "This is the second ship I have served on as a warden. I was not on the first for long, but it was enough to familiarize myself with some things."

[nineteenfortyfive]

Huh. Claire looks surprised, eyebrows lifting.

"Like Loki. Do you know one another, then?" Except Loki had gone from inmate to warden, he'd said. "Or is it just a coincidence?"

[hiddenblade]

“We came from the same ship, though we did not know each other there,” he replies. “This is your first?”

[nineteenfortyfive]

"First and last, I hope." She's a little tired of these constant separations from her husband, willing or not. "I don't think I'm selfless enough to do this twice."

[hiddenblade]

"But selfless enough to do it once," he remarks, intrigued. "You've left behind a family, I assume?"

There's rings on her finger.

[nineteenfortyfive]

"An ever-growing one," she replies fondly. Marsali and Fergus are doing a wonderful job of making sure there will never be a shortage of Frasers in America. "And yourself?"

[hiddenblade]

"No wife or children to speak of, but many friends and students," he replies. Not nothing, but to leave a friend's side for some time is hardly noteworthy. "This work is full of men and women who have little to lose by risking their lives here."

[nineteenfortyfive]

Risk here or risk at home. Claire didn't see this as an opportunity she could just let pass by, but she keeps that to herself for now.

"Students?" She asks instead. "Are you a mentor of some sort?"

[hiddenblade]

"Mentore is my title, at least," he replies, a touch amused. "My time is deeply scarred by conflict, often between tyrants and the people. I counsel young people in politics."

Of a sort.

[nineteenfortyfive]

The spark of interest isn't as bright as the one the infirmary brought upon seeing it, but there's an undeniable curiosity there.

"You counsel young people in politics... that should be useful, here. You must have some patience."

[hiddenblade]

"I am patient as long as I can be," Ezio replies, with a touch of warning. "Some people from the future move very quickly. I am more agile than most, but there is only so much any man can do about the cultural differences."

[nineteenfortyfive]

She nods in understanding.

"Hopefully it won't be much of an issue between wardens working together. The rest shouldn't be so bad as long as we can band together." Because she's already sensing that even she's going to have a hard time with some of these people from the future moving quickly. She's too used to being one of them.