acatamods: (Default)
acatamods. ([personal profile] acatamods) wrote in [community profile] acatalepsy_logs2019-02-12 12:27 pm

welcome to the horologium.






welcome to the horologium.
Some of you know it is coming. The World Jump, the chaotic thrust into a new universe. But some of you are new, and though you know what the mission is, it is a bit . . . troubling, sitting around and waiting for something to happen. But eventually, you get a message on your watch. It shows Astoria . . . dark hair framing her features, her voice light and musical. She sounds like herself, for the first time in some time . . . that spark of determination back in her eyes.

A MESSAGE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH.
"It is time, my beloved Travelers, to go to our new destination . . . and I want you to know that I have the utmost faith in you. Akvos' loss has hurt us all, and I know that many of you doubt our mission. But please believe me when I say that you have done the best job anyone could ask of you. Akvos' destruction was not your fault . . . and to our newest members of our Circle, welcome to our journey. I can only hope that your journey here will work out to the benefit of us all."

That being said, you are journeying to the Horologium . . . it is a ship that has sent out a distress beacon. I am not sure when, or where, but I can feel great darkness, emanating from that place. I believe you all can combat what is done there, without interacting with the Void . . . so please, be safe, and I will see you all when you return."

And, just like that, there is a pull in your stomach . . . your vision blacks out and you feel the sudden sense of vertigo, a sensation of falling, and then . . . nothingness. You open your eyes, and you are suddenly waking up in the midst of . . . fog?


THE AWAKENING.
When you wake, you are greeted by metal — there’s an expanse of silver all around you. The cot you’re laying on is somewhat rigid, like a flattened wedge of cotton more than anything, encased in a capsule-like structure. Should you inspect your surroundings, you’ll find that there are three more cots in your room..or more notably, another person in the room in of itself. Depending on where you’ve been roused from your slumber, however, you’ll find that your circumstances differ.

➜ If you’ve woken up in the northeast wing of the ship, there seems to be a pool of saturated pink goo at your feet. It sticks to the bottom of your heel and collects at the very center of the room, oozing from the cracks and crevices within the metal lining of the walls. And even more notably, the goo has a particularly saccharine scent, as though it’s meant to be...consumed. Looks like you had the misfortune of waking up in the wing adjacent to the kitchen.

➜ In the northwest wing, the ship is functioning at an all time low. When you wake, the room is illuminated for a brief moment...before flickering out, only to leave you in pitch darkness. Power returns to the room intermittently and only for a few seconds at most, but it appears as though you and your newfound roommates will have to navigate the darkness if you want to leave.

➜ In the southwest wing, the fire alarm in your room has been activated for some inexplicable reason. It’s an obnoxiously loud siren that slices right through the whirring of the machinery around you — and it goes as far as to trigger the sprinklers hanging from the ceiling. Water sprays from above you, hopefully ensuring that you’ve woken up if nothing else has. It doesn’t seem to be draining either, so it may be for the best that you escape with some haste.

➜ In the southeast wing, your circumstances are for the most part rather unremarkable. An untouched room, mostly intact...until you try to open the door. It won’t budge — unless you have some form of super strength, your muscle power is rendered useless on its own. You might just have to commission someone else to help you...

Beyond your room, the word “Horologium.” stretches across the wall.

Welcome to your new home.




WHISPERS IN THE DARK.
In a way, it feels as though you’re suspended in time.

The ship is always humming, always whirring as it makes a haphazard attempt to function. The noise comes to a halt every so often, leaving you with nothing but silence and the idle creaking of the floor beneath you.

There are remarkably large, bright white doors that divide each and every wing. A circular window is positioned at the center of all 4 of these doors: but nothing can be seen through it. It’s likeness is that of a black hole’s, like someone had gone as far as to paint over it.

On every door, the same word is emblazoned in black lettering: EXIT.

Except the word itself appears to be scratched out to some degree — as though it were scrubbed out in a fit of desperation but remained no less.

When you see the door, you might be overcome with excitement. Or perhaps not. Regardless of what your reaction is like, the lights around you will dim and flicker at an alarming frequency. For a moment, it’s almost as though the gravity around you has slowed, and the hallways are becoming narrower by the second.. Voices and faces from the past emerge in your mind. You see someone you shouldn’t; they’re calling for you. They’re here with you right now, beckoning you to come closer...

If you reach the door and attempt to open it, it won’t budge. And the further you walk away from it, the more the effects will subside.

But there’s no telling if you’ll sleep well tonight.


INVESTIGATIONS
The ship is fitted to house approximately 500 people — it’s a bit of a ghost town, however, lived in but abandoned no less.

The chairs are in the mess hall aren’t aligned perfectly. The tables are a bit crooked. The lounge is lofty, but not pristine. The rooms may be barren, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that they were somehow someone else’s before they became yours. There’s an array of locked doors, varying in sizes and shapes, all of which withhold something potentially useful to you. You may be inclined to visit the lounge, the mess hall, rifle through the bedrooms . . . the ship is yours to explore.

However, how you interact with the ship is….entirely up to you. There is something to be found everywhere. Regardless of what you do, where you investigate and how, you might be tempted to look behind your shoulder.

After all, every decision you make matters...right?

(Every Player’s investigation prompt has the potential to differ greatly as your investigation will require mod input. We encourage you to ask as many questions as you would like, we are here to help and provide you with the information necessary.)

Additionally, please feel free to write up and work with your own prompts! These areas of the world are presented as jumping off points for your characters, not limitations. The idea of this world- as with all the others- is to explore -- you may use as much leeway as you want in order to come up with what your character will do.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them back on the various threads back in the OOC post from before!
fuck1ngusernam3: (uhHUH)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-02 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, see? There's a good reason for the food goo I didn't think about. They 'evolved'. If I ever evolve that far I want one of you assholes to put me out of my misery.

[He nudges his tray further toward her.]

You hungry, or should I put this back in the kitchen for the next guy who's desperate enough to try and eat it?
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-06 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[She wrinkled her nose.]

I "ate" already, but thanks.

[And she's not cool with it enough to go in for a second helping.]
fuck1ngusernam3: (huh)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-06 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh huh, no problem.

[He grimaces at the goo for a second.]

I’ll just put it back. [He considers the kitchen, the smells in it. He makes a brief, uncomfortable noise.] In a second. Then we won’t have to think about the stuff for a while.
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-06 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zari nods in agreement, before taking a moment and actually looking at Hank.]

Are you okay? Goo related issues aside.
fuck1ngusernam3: (considering 2)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-06 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh.

[He could tell her. It seems more okay, telling someone who doesn’t know him, doesn’t have any opinion about him to fuck up. He thinks about it for a second, watching her. Then he huffs a breath out through his nose and looks down with a dry little smile.]

You know, I haven’t figured out what to tell people when they ask that. Would you buy it if I said uh, maybe I get spacesick?
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-07 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
[Her eyebrows go up a little at that, because she's not normally one to push people on their secrets. Their business is their business, and it's not her job to get in the way.]

I probably would, if you didn't preface it with asking me if I believed it.

[She's just saying.]
fuck1ngusernam3: (knowing smile)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-07 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[He makes an amused noise.]

Yeah, probably. I just felt like testing it out, you know, since I don't have a clue if spacesickness is a real thing. Never been up there myself. Until now, I guess.
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-07 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[There's an amused look of her own in return.]

I haven't either, so I say why not. Artificial gravity probably messes with you somehow right?
fuck1ngusernam3: (it's not not a smile)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-07 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, definitely. Who knows what kinda weird shit sci-fi astronauts have to get trained for.

[He swallows and then takes a slow breath, assessing himself. He still feels shitty, but bullshitting with someone, even a little bit like this, it... helps.]
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-07 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zari is happy she can help. She smirks.]

Just take it easy, okay? This place is going to get worse before it gets better.

[Just ... based on what she knows about the missions the Circle has been sent on so far.]
fuck1ngusernam3: (listening)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-07 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[The noise he makes now is still amused, but it’s sharper, a little more... well, a little bitter, maybe.]

Shit, do you always pile on the optimism like that or am I just special?
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-07 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[She snorts. Zari is not the one you would consider an optimist.]

I tend to be more of a realist. And I haven't had an easy world hop yet.
fuck1ngusernam3: (general headtilt)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-08 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
You know that realist thing's what all the pessimists say, right?

[He's only half serious about that though, meaning more to give her shit than to make a point, and he moves on right after he says it.]

But uh, yeah, I guess if they were easy our uh, host wouldn't of kidnapped so many poor bastards to throw at all these problems. So, how many go-rounds of all this have you been on so far?
Edited (nitpicking) 2019-03-08 01:35 (UTC)
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-08 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Three, counting this one. Struxta, Akvos and here, wherever here is.

[None of them were very fun, and she's just waiting for the other shoe to drop here.]
fuck1ngusernam3: (general 2)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-08 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
And it's gonna keep being a blast, I bet.
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-09 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I don't doubt it.

[That much is certain.]

I'm hoping it'll swing closer to Struxta though. A problem we can solve, that doesn't have quite as high a risk if we fail - not that we knew that in the first place.
fuck1ngusernam3: (honesty/surprise)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-09 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, everyone who needed saving here's already dead, so at least there's that.

[He smiles at her very faintly, briefly.]

How shitty is it if I say that part, uh, when I found out about it it was actually kind of a relief?
Edited (clarity) 2019-03-09 16:54 (UTC)
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-11 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
[She shakes her head, because no. She was a bit of the same.]

Not at all. It's easier when the only people we're risking are ourselves. We at least know what we're getting into, kind of.
fuck1ngusernam3: (general 2)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-11 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Kind of. I was kind of dreading another- [Another Akvos.] -some city with a bunch of people counting on us, or some bullshit like that so that's uh, there's that - but it'd be nice to actually know what we're getting into before we get thrown into it. That'd be cool.
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-11 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
When I was working with Hathaway, they gave us dossiers.

[If she sounds slightly bitter about that fact, it becomes clearer with the statement that follows.]

I didn't realize that that was a high standard to meet.
fuck1ngusernam3: (ugh why)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-12 11:55 am (UTC)(link)
Right? Jesus shit. And something afterward, you know? I never thought I'd go so low as to start missing getting reviewed, but- fuck. Something. But it's like she's just patting us on the butt and telling us to have fun out there, like some airhead mom who doesn't give a shit where her kids go play as long as it's out of the house. Except there are lives on the line.

[He grimaces. Might be psychosomatic, the way his gut starts churning when he thinks about that shit, but that doesn't mean it stops feeling shitty.]
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-13 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zari shakes her head.]

Some people I've talked to say that we have to take control of this situation somehow, but honestly, I'm at a loss for how, sometimes. She just seems to hold all the cards.
fuck1ngusernam3: ([more doubt])

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-13 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. I think, uh...

[He thinks about it for a second, running his hand through his hair. It means all the sweat in his hair gets on his hand, but it also gives his dumb, jittery body something to do for a second, so.]

I mean, I've only done one of these things before and look how that one turned out, but uh, if our little watches keep cutting out whenever they want responding to any kind of emergency's gonna be tough, and if people keep leaving with no warning or anything it's gonna be hard to get some kind of chain of command going.

Not to mention, uh- can you imagine trying to even set that up? Say I decide to go around telling people I've been a cop longer than most of you guys've been alive so you've all got to do what I say from now on. Do you know what people would say to that?
hackedhistory: (Default)

[personal profile] hackedhistory 2019-03-20 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Cops where I'm from sucked hard, so I'd probably tell you something not very polite.

[Which she isn't saying that she believed he was on the equivalent of ARGUS SWAT forces, but context is context and she's sure other people have other horror stories.]

It'd be a hard sell, yeah. But I hate to think that there's nothing we can do but keep banging our heads against a wall and hoping that we're making the right choices. That's gonna drive us crazy sooner rather than later.
fuck1ngusernam3: (considering 2)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 2019-03-21 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[He nods, easily accepting her answer. It'd been pretty much what he expected, after all.]

Sooner.

[He says it with a faint, bitter little smile, then sighs.]

There's so much shit that goes into making a team like this work, and it's- we're not even volunteers, none of us even wanted to be here. I don't know, maybe there's a way to make decisions on the fly when every single person here gets an equal say, but I don't know what it is.

Maybe you should be talking to an optimist about this instead, huh? I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be all that helpful.

[He raises his eyebrows at her, an arm still wrapped around his stomach, looking a little amused at himself, rueful.]

(no subject)

[personal profile] hackedhistory - 2019-03-22 01:03 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 - 2019-03-22 03:14 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] hackedhistory - 2019-03-22 21:53 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] fuck1ngusernam3 - 2019-03-23 00:24 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] hackedhistory - 2019-03-23 01:02 (UTC) - Expand