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

[saklas]

I still don't understand how there was a person in there, but alright.

[He is careful - it does neither of them any good if the lift is too uncomfortable to maintain. He sticks the undersole into Rhys' metal palm so that the sharp part of the heel hangs over, which isnt an ideal way to balance but works in a pinch, and steps up.

He scrabbles to get a grip on part of the metal facade of the vehicle - if he can hold some of his weight he should.]

[smugreport]

He wasn't a person- or he was, but the version in me was a program of a them....it's a long story ok?

[ He understands how he probably sounds, even if Volk came from a place of higher technological means it'd seem far fetched.

Bracing with his knees Rhys lifts and stands, helping Volk reach whatever purchase he can hold onto and hopefully get a proper look inside. ]

Hff-- I'm gonna [ strained grunt as he adjusts ] let you in on a little secret, dude. It's called "washing your clothes once a week" and it's really effective at making you smell halfway decent.

[ Because boy, does Volk reek of old cigarettes and coffee. Has he ever washed that jacket? It looks worn to shit. ]

[saklas]

You can't wash leather! It cracks!

[He scrabbles, chips a nail - fuck! - and peers inside.]

What am I looking for? ...It looks like they just made the inside up to be a spaceship, too. There's ... controls, I think, near the front. A - what is that you call a steering wheel for an airplane? Joystick? One of those things, you know.

[smugreport]

You could at least [ a strained sound, he's trying not to breath in too deeply ] spray it down with something.

[ Rhys tries to adjust as he scrambles, the weight distribution becoming painfully uneven for a moment before Volk catches himself, getting a "careful- careful" from Rhys, though the concern is mostly for himself. ]

Just... keep telling me what what you see. A control stick means the thing is probably manual, not self driving. How many screens? Does it look like there are any flux ports? Proton drives? The important stuff.

[saklas]

[Volk says something that's not in English, but by the tone is easy enough to guess is "Jesus Christ" or similar. Proton drives.]

It's not a stick! It's a - YOKE. Yoke.

[There's the word.]

Hard to tell what's screens and what's just a black shiny part of the ship, but I think I see ... ssssseven? Wait, what am I doing. Are we fucking animals?

[He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his comm, snaps a rapid series of photos. MUCH easier than describing what's going on in there.]

[smugreport]

What about proton capacitators? hydraulic indicators ---augh you wouldn't know.

[ Volk whipping out his comm and snapping pics is actually the smartest move, Rhys should have thought of that!! Annoying... ]

You got everything?

[saklas]

I think so.

[He's going to try to crane his head backwards to step down, not really trusting Rhys to not just drop him like a sack of potatoes.]

[smugreport]

He wouldn't drop him! Unless it was between dropping Volk and saving himself then he totally would. But that's not the case here! This time.

Rhys politely lowers Volk, crowding him and shaking his arm.

Okay okay let's see.

[ He's really interested now that they've gotten this far to see the kind of space faring tech this place is working with. He'll have to check the front of the small ship next, see if there's any obvious signs of weapons or defense. ]

[saklas]

[Volk is familiar enough with sharing screens, holds it between them and lets Rhys scroll if he wants. It's not like its Volk's phone, they just gave it to him when he arrived.]

It's pretty big. It looks like there's manual steering, if we can get inside. That's all I care about. We can drive it, assuming it works at all.

woops sorry about the brackets mistake

[smugreport]

[ Rhys looks up from the photos, mostly too dark to really get a good idea of what they're working with, and gives Volk a long, tired look. ]

Okay man. You can't- you can't still think this is fake right? I mean, look out there

[ And he gestures to the open deck, stars as far as the eye can see. ]

This. Is. Space. This?

[ He pats the side of the arvo. ]

Spaceship.

[saklas]

Really, really don't want to argue about this, just want to escape.

[Having people tell him that what he's perceiving is wrong is in his top 3 things he fucking hates.]

Do you think you can get this working.

[smugreport]

[ Well that's really too bad Volk because you are, in fact, wrong!



Probably. ]

On the chance that we can get it open in the first place....mmmaybe? Escape pods are probably a better bet, they'd have supplies, maybe some kind of emergency signal?--

[ He pauses, before firmly shaking his head like he's trying to knock something loose. ]

Why am I even discussing this? I'm not gonna go out there and get stranded in space with you!

[saklas]

We are stranded in space!

[Volk gestures vehemently to the entire garage.]

We're trapped in an enclosed building with people we don't know, that we already know don't care about us and are willing to hurt us, too far away for anyone to hear us scream. Do you understand how being alone might be a BETTER scenario?

[smugreport]

Being stuck in a confined space with a guy I just met, floating through space till we die of starvation or choking from a lack of oxygen does sound way worse, actually!

[ Volk's not entirely wrong, they are stranded. But at least here there's room and board and gravity and air supply. In terms of weighted risks, they have a better chance hunkering down in here then going out there without a plan.]

[saklas]

[Volk presses his eyes shut. The space thing, the fucking space thing.]

Okay. I think this is where we part ways, then.

[He waves, is going to walk off.]

If you don't hear from me, assume it was Martians, or a sun storm, or something. Use your imagination.

[smugreport]

[ Rhys can only give a dramatic shrug in response to all that. This guy isn't going to get far. At best he's gonna get caught by setting off an alarm when he tries to break into one of the arvos, at worse he dies? But Rhys can't keep holding the hand of someone who insists on being this delusional. ]

Uh huh, I'll tell everyone you went out a hero.

[ He turns back toward the direction of the loading pays entrace. ]

See ya at dinner call.