returnjourneylogs | SET SAIL: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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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.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Finally.

[ Caught up in his annoyance, Rhys has forgotten about keeping his nametag obscured. It reads: Rhys Strongfork, Likes programming, has killed 10,000 people give or take. ]

Y'know how big a fire safety violation this is? Huge. Like, class action lawsuit huge.

Rhys. [Strongfork, likes programming, has killed--

Claire frowns. She'll just ignore whatever he said.]

10,000? That has to be a mistake.

[There's your first question. Sorta. Maybe?]

[ Ah, shit. Rhys slaps his organic hand over the nametag, scowling. ]

It is.

[ Admitting to the Helios crash last time did him no favors, so there's no point in people here knowing about it. It wasn't his fault, it was Jack's and Fiona's and everyone else who screwed him during operation Gortys. He's not taking unnecessary heat again. ]

I'm no worse than the next guy who participates in the capitalist machine, I shouldn't be here.

[Well, he's not gloating about it, at least.]

What do you reckon the actual number is?

He pauses to give that some actual thought. Who had he maybe, possibly killed (like, directly?)

I dunno. Two, maybe three people? But it was in self defense, they were trying to kill me first.

Is that common, where you're from?

[She's not sure she buys that, but. For the sake of questions...]

Hah, Pandora's the kind of planet where you're lucky if you don't have to kill in self defense like, once a week.

[ Helios could be like that too, in a much more cold and calculated sort of way, but he'd never iced someone up there (directly!!) ]

So really, this is all a big misunderstanding. You gonna let me out now?

I think the rule is I have to ask more questions.

[She thinks it's silly, but she's been to many a shitty holiday party with ridiculous games--]

What do you like most about yourself?

[ Rhys tilts his head back, giving a dramatic sigh before dramatically dropping into one of the provided chairs. ]

I already did this whole interview thing on the last ship with the little girl welcome committee.

[ He pauses, then raises his hand, counting on his fingers as he lists traits. ]

I'm smart, I look great, my sense of fashion is top-notch, I'm successful...Need I go on?

This is very much not the "little girl welcome committee," I'm afraid. So, lucky you, Rhys. You're experiencing something new.

[As for those things he lists, Claire just sort of gives him a once over. No comment.]

Yeah, lucky me.

[ He gives another exaggerated sigh before adjusting his posture so he's sitting up properly. ]

Fine. Let's just get this over with.

Are you always so cheerful?

[Okay, that's not a real question, but. Claire waves it off.]

Any talents?

Oh yeah, that's one of my nicknames y'know? "Mr. Cheerful."

[ That is totally a real question, it counts! The next question gets a quirk of the lip from him, he's never one to pass on the opportunity to brag about his many accomplishments and talents. ]

Plenty. I'm a five star programmer and robotics engineer. See this?

[ And he raises his robotic arm. ]

That's all state of the art Rhys-tech.

[ Okay both his arm and the name could use some work but that's not what matters right now. ]

[Most people love talking about themselves. Claire's brows go up when she takes a good look at his arm. As much as she can with him in this box, anyway.]

Really? You made yourself a... robotic arm?

[No lie, that's impressive.]

What happened to it? Your arm, before you obtained that one.

[ That small quirk of the mouth he had morphs into a full blown 'cat who got the cream' expression. ]

The eye, too.

[ And he winks before pointing to his left eye, it's colour a distinctive golden yellow compared to the brown of the organic one. ]

Before? I had a different robotic arm.

[ Obtuse or stupid? You decide Claire. ]

[Christ. Claire rolls her eyes.]

Did you have another robotic eye before that one then, too?

[Except no, she's genuinely curious about all this.]

Does your eye see as well as the other?

[ His smug little smile fades a bit at that, remembering exactly why he has the new arm and eye in the first place. It's been over a year now, probably, after he factors in the time on the Barge (hard to know how long that was.) But his feelings over everything are still raw as the day they happened. ]

Yeah. Eye too.

[ He's got less of that showman ship edge now, explaining it more matter-of-factly. ]

It should do more than see just as well, which it does. Normally it would be synched up with my arm and port, and then connected to the echonet- or whatever the local network is. But uh...I'm having some technical difficulties on that end.

[That sounds a bit out of her league, but she can make an educated guess--]

It has some sort of... digital capabilities, then? That's amazing. To what use?

[ Rhys's ego is as easy to dent as it is to inflate, and he's back to smiling again at her calling his tech amazing. Because he knows it is! Even moreso than if he'd gotten to make it in a proper lab, in some ways. He had little to work with resource-wise on Pandora compared to the R&D department at Helios and he still made all his shit work! He is a genius. ]

You're one of those people from somewhere low-tech huh?

[ Carol had been like that, Tess too to a lesser extent but she was still a luddite far as he was concerned. ]

Mostly to make my life and my job more convenient, it gave me a good edge against my peers if I could do stuff like get all the registered info on any item or person with a quick scan.

[Technically, he's not wrong, but... oh, well. Might as well let him assume what he wants. Claire nods.]

Comparatively, yes. What did you do for work?

[With the robo-arm and the robo-eye. Unfortunately, in any time Claire has been in, missing both of those would be quick the setback. Fergus was lucky to lose a hand and not the whole arm.]

[ Ah... the tech-unsavvy, so easy to impress! ]

Well if you're nice to me, I'll show you how this baby works. Maybe I'll even let you touch it.

[ Said like he is offering her something invaluable. ]

What don't I do? I'm a CEO who worked his way up from middle management to the top. That's a big reason why I can't be here, loooots of work to get done back in my neck of the universe. A company can't run without its main man at the reigns.

[ And okay, not only is that a total gloss over of everything regarding his current work position, but Hyperion absolutely carried on without Jack and Atlas has like. No employees (except him.) YET.

But she- oh, he hasn't checked her nametag yet- Claire doesn't need to know any of that! ]

[Ew. Claire gives him a Rather Unimpressed look, but even so she pulls out her CommLink because he did answer a number of questions. It takes her a moment, but Rhys is released from his little box.]

I feel like you're leaving out some important bits, but I'm sure I'll have time to hear them at some point or another.

[She's not sure about that big ol' kill count and surely he's not as forthcoming as he seems. Right?]

[ Noooo not ew!! Charming! He's charming...

His face falls a bit at her unimpressed look, but it's overtaken by one of relief as she gives him sweet sweet freedom. ]

Well I'd love to say this has been fun and all but. You know.

[ He gets up, rolling back his shoulders and tilting his neck side to side in a stretch. ]

But isn't the mystery part of my allure? Haha...ha. Uh. I'd be happy to show my cybernetics in more detail to you, we'll see about other stuff.

[What allure? Claire lifts a brow, but is nice enough not to say it.]

Cybernetics. I'm certainly interested. If you don't mind.

[ C'mon, work with him here! ]

The tech lab'll be the best place to show you, if this ship even has one of those.

[ And it'll be a good excuse to be allowed in and scope the place, if the one here is locked like the last to people in hi position. ]

Always happy to show off the merchandise and vet my sales pitch.

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whoops forgot the action brackets

fired!!!

please i have a family

should have thought of that before hitting enter

:(

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