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

[lessandmorethanhuman]

At least in the position he's in, Alex's nametag can't easily be read. Hints of words like "Mercer", "nd Scie", "lot o". Taking a moment to think, before responding. "Exploring this place, finding out if it has a library. Preferably getting to work on however I start getting redeemed. Trying to figure out if all of this is for real."

[hiddenblade]

"You'll have plenty of time to explore," Ezio replies. As far as he has seen, inmates won't be kept to their rooms, but security seems moderately tight. Plenty more places he has had to tap his communicator to unlock something. "There is a library, but not one in a form I would recognize. Perhaps you might find it more useful than I."

But that's all set dressing. There's something more pressing:

"You sound eager to get started, just the same."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Sooner I get things figured out, sooner I can start to unravel things if needed." Also the sooner he could get back to cleaning up the mess he made. "Not what you were expecting, huh?"

[hiddenblade]

"Most inmates are resistant to the idea at first," he agrees. "Is this a change of heart from arriving here, or are you seeking redemption in your home world?"

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Alex pondered how he wanted to answer, before shrugging. "Got a mess to clean-up back home." Which said everything and nothing.

[hiddenblade]

Ezio just raises an eyebrow pointedly, and gives a little 'go on' gesture.

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Piercing blue-eyes looked over, studying the other from under his hood. Before Alex shrugged. "Was already trying to. All of this is probably too good to be true, but hey--why not? It's not like I survived the nuke, apparently." Not that Alex had expected to, really.

[hiddenblade]

Too good to be true is a good thought, in Ezio’s mind, but strange things have come to pass before and will again.

“You will have to explain what a nuke is,” Ezio replies.

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"A "nuke" is short for Nuclear weapon. Basically it was a missile, whose explosive power comes from nuclear reactions via fission, or a combination of fission and fusion." Pausing, checking to see if the other was following. "Nuclear fission involves a reaction produced by splitting the nuclei of an atom into two or more smaller nuclei. You can get a large amount of energy and power from a small piece of matter."

[hiddenblade]

Most of that goes well over Ezio's head. He could stop to ask –– missile, nuclear, fission, fusion, nuclei, atom –– but he suspects it does not matter when weapon does the heavy lifting.

"Much more complicated than in my time," he replies. Or, he supposes, an explanation his people have yet to come up with for why things explode. "But I see. Were you attempting to stop it?"

He was seeking redemption, after all.

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Where, or when are you from then?" Alex asked in turn. "Basically it was a weapon capable of leveling a city. Which is what it was almost used for." Alex raises an eyebrow. "I took the 'copter it had been transported on and flew it out over the sea. Hopefully far enough away that it wouldn't do that."

[hiddenblade]

"Rome, 1507," Ezio replies. Well beyond living history for Alex, he is sure. "How do you feel, then, about your attempt not passing muster?"

It's blunt, but a worthy question as far as Alex's motivations go.

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Passing who's muster?" Alex retorted, brain noting the other response. ...Huh. It was even-odds the other was lying, but if he was trying to be from that era then there would be tells. Alex was a skeptic, but saw no reason not to go along with it for now. Hell, maybe there'd be bonuses for 'good behavior' or crap like that.

"If I kept Manhattan Island from being destroyed then it was worth it." Even if he'd have rather survived the attempt. Still too much to do for clean-up, but he'd at least started things in motion. Broken the back of the infection, prevented the military fanatics from outright destroying the city and everyone in it.

[hiddenblade]

"Worth it, certainly," Ezio agrees. "But I imagine any man would have feelings on sacrificing himself for the greater good and ending up a prisoner just the same."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Can't say if I'd survived I wouldn't have ended up a prisoner there, so..." Even if Alex had gotten good at evading the military and Blackwatch. He'd have to have stayed in hiding for his whole life from then on. And who knew how long his life would be now?

"Besides, isn't the whole point of all this being we do 'service' and gain redemption? Is it broken down to just a numbers game? You do so many hours of service and it equates to so many lives taken and evens out? Or is it more transformative and they're expecting us to grow and change and shit. Probably both." Another shrug.

[hiddenblade]

"There is no numbers game," Ezio confirms. If it was, countless inmates would never stand a chance. "But I am not asking for the logic of the situation, or the logistics of what might have happened otherwise, or even how this place works. I am asking what your feelings are on the matter."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Frustrating, but hey--I agreed to it, right?" Alex's tone was deliberately flippant. Mostly because he didn't want to get into how he felt really.

[hiddenblade]

Ezio nods.

"So you did," he agrees. And, the faintest bit teasing: "Are you an evasive man?"

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Depends on the situation. I don't trust easily, which includes opening up and talking about my feelings. I'm a private man." But he was being genuine about that.

[hiddenblade]

A superficial image of openness, Ezio notes. Why else confess to not trusting, to not talking about feelings?

"Convenient, then, to be in a place where it may be pried from you."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Sure, call it that. Doesn't mean I have to like it." Alex still didn't seem to care much. "They give you guys some kind of official questionnaire or something?"

[hiddenblade]

"Nothing of the sort," he replies, smoothly. "And even if they did, I would ask my own questions just the same."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"They just give you an orientation? We got an orientation. Telling us about all the things we're not allowed to do or have." Alex asked curiously. Honestly the orientation hadn't bothered him too much--he had somewhat known what he was agreeing to.

[hiddenblade]

"Our was an outline of our work, but little direction on how to achieve it –– fitting, as all inmates need different things," he replies, and he pauses to ruminate on that. The breadth of experiences, the complexities of different situations. He gives a contemplative rumble. "May I see your communicator?"

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Why?" Said with curiosity, and a tinge of suspicion.