acatalepsy_logs | welcome to the horologium.

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welcome to the horologium.

I ▫ main	IV ▫ premise			XI ▫ applications	XIV ▫ activity
II ▫ logs	V ▫ rules	VII ▫ bestiary	IX ▫ canon updates	XII ▫ taken	XV ▫ drop/hiatus
III ▫ ooc	VI ▫ faq	VIII ▫ setting	X ▫ mods	XIII ▫ reserves	XVI ▫ players

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh, thank god, she's not alone. And androgynous voices are nothing new to her.] How should I know? Maybe it's bad circuits? [She says in the direction the sound is coming from, though she surely can't see anything at all.]

Don't suppose your magic power is magic lights?

Hmm, I guess that would explain the flickering... [It's easier to identify the direction of the voice if they're actually conversing, so Ren's movement closer starts to get a little more sure when Sheryl's actually speaking.

He has to stop himself from laughing at the idea of him ever having a power like that, though - light was never really his area.] I'm afraid not...I guess yours isn't either? I'm starting to wish I brought a torch...

[He's getting reasonably close to her now, judging by the sound of his movement and voice, and is slowing down again so he doesn't end up bumping into her.]

[From her direction, Ren can hear the sound of... an electric guitar playing a descending arpeggio riff, then Sheryl speaks again.] How are you with echolocation? [She says, her tone dry.

The lights flicker on for another split second, and Ren is about two feet away from her. Sheryl actually jumps with a gasping yelp.] --ah!

You couldn't tell I was that close?! Be careful!

[Not that it's really his fault or anything.]

[That's an...interesting sound to be hearing in the midst of all this, and it makes Ren pause, since it sounds quite close.] I don't know, is that your power...?

[It could be useful - but a moment later, the lights flick on again briefly, and Ren catches sight of the girl across from him. In the knowledge that she's so close, he comes to a full stop there, but he does sound a bit huffy when she calls him out about it.]

I'm not used to following sounds...but we know now, so it's fine, right? Though we should probably start looking for a way out...

[She huffs as she turns around. He'd really startled her.] It is. And I was joking about the echolocation; do I look like a bat to you? [Even if they are as blind as one.]

To answer your question, though, it is. Not that it's going to be very useful for this.

Anyway, did you see anything that looked like an exit while the lights were on?

Well, I couldn't tell when you said that, could I...? [Though echolocation would probably actually be a reasonably useful power, while it sounds like whatever hers actually is - sound generation, maybe - won't be so much.

At her question, the sound of movement comes again, Ren tapping the toe of his boot against the floor experimentally, which gives a sharp clacking sound from his position.] No, but I woke up in this direction... [He takes two steps left and taps there.] ...so maybe we should try this direction first?

[He walks back to his original position and then a few steps further to the right, and taps his foot again there.]

[Unfortunately, from her perspective, both of them just kind of sound like they're coming from the same direction, if maybe very slightly angled differently. She's attuned to sounds by nature, but the metal room makes things kind of echo-y.] Sure. I don't have any better ideas at the moment, but I'll let you know when I do.

Either way, just keep talking; I can follow the sound of your voice.

Okay, let me see... [The voice starts to trail off to the right a bit, and the sound of his footsteps starts to go in that direction as well. His pace is a bit slow, because he doesn't want to walk into a wall.]

This isn't your first world jump, is it...? I wasn't sure what to expect, but this wasn't really it. [He pauses, at that point, as does his movement, before there's a small tapping sound.] I think I found the other wall, but no door yet.

It's my second. [She speaks softly, not wanting any important sounds to get drowned out by her own words. She hears him move and follows, moving in slow, deliberate steps with her feet sliding along the floor in case there's an obstruction or elevation change.] Honestly, we're not all underwater, so I'd say it's looking up, for sure.

But I'm probably a little biased. This already reminds me more of home. [A pause.] Maybe not the power outages.

Ah, so you were here for that last one... [Ren seems somewhat preoccupied with that for a moment, because heck knows he's heard a lot about Akvos since he got here. He's not really interested in watching this situation go south in the same way.

He doesn't want to linger on that too long, though, so he grabs for the obvious potentially interesting subject there, speaking a little on the quiet side as he moves along the wall rather cautiously, feeling around it as he goes.] Oh, what was your home like? Did you live out in space?

I was. And I did. [The second topic is something way more appealing to talk about than the first, so Sheryl opts to focus on that one instead.] The Circle is the first time I've ever really spent more than a few days on a planet at once, actually. I lived in space my whole life.

[And she really does kind of miss it, to be honest. At least, some of her modern conveniences. How long has it been since she's cared properly for her hair?]

Find anything yet? A wall?

Oh...? That sounds kind of interesting. We hadn't gotten that far with space travel in my world... [Which is a real shame, considering it means Ren's psychic link with another planet galaxies away from his own will only ever be that. They don't have the means to send untrained civilians up, let alone jump between points.]

Well, there's lots of wall here-- [And then he cuts off with something that sounds almost like a quiet "oh" of...more curiosity than surprise, honestly. A moment later, there's the sound of something person-sized faceplanting on the ground at about where he'd last spoken from, and Ren speaks up from somewhere decidedly ground-adjacent.]

Never mind, I think I found a door...

I hear that a lot here, actually. [And it's still only marginally less weird now than it once was, knowing that other people aren't from a world like hers-- that she's the odd one out.

Sheryl jumps a little when she hears the thud of a person falling onto the ground. That would've been close.

She extends her foot out experimentally and kind of winds up kicking his foot. Okay, that's where he is.]

What, did you trip over something?

[Oh, also:] Are you okay?

Mmm, does tripping over my own feet count...? [There's some sound of movement after she kicks his foot, of him reluctantly dragging himself upright.] I'm fine. That sort of thing just happens sometimes...but this must be the way I came in, I guess.

[There's a brief pause, and the sound of rustling hair as he turns his head from side to side. Usually, he's not great with directions, but he really doesn't want to be stuck in here much longer, so it only takes him a few moments to remember enough about his route to work something out.]

I'm pretty sure I came from the right, so I think we should try left, maybe? If it's a hallway, we might at least be able to see more of it the next time the lights come on...

I was friends with a very clumsy girl back home, but even she didn't trip over her own feet. [Sheryl sounds a little judgmental, mostly because she is. A little. Just a bit at the moment.

She waits until she hears Ren stand up, moving forward and reaching out blindly until she finds wall and then the absence of wall that's an opening.] Good thing that whatever's wrong with the power isn't keeping us stuck in a room. Where I'm from, a power loss means that the magnetic door seals turn on, just in case there's a hull breech.

--you mean you didn't wake up in this room like I did?

Hey, it's not like I would have seen it if I actually had tripped over something... [Ren's response is in a somewhat exaggeratedly pouty tone, as if he's Extremely Offended (which is a great indicator that he actually isn't). She does have a point about the doors, though.]

Maybe more than just the doors failed...? Or maybe they just seal off the ship in bits or something when that happens. Being stuck in a room with the power out doesn't sound very nice...

[And on that note. There's the sound of Ren rubbing the back of his hair.] Mmm, I woke up in another room, and I was trying to find a way out when I must've wandered into another one instead.

Could be. But that's pretty complicated, isn't it? That the power's off, but there's more failures, or something like that. [Sheryl thinks to herself for a moment.] Honestly, it might just be the lighting system that's failed. That'd be pretty simple.

Hopefully that's all.

[Another pause.] You sure you didn't bang your head or anything, right? I'm not very good at first aid.

That could be it...though I guess we won't find out until we find our way somewhere that's lighter. Or until we find someone from the crew, maybe?

[That's a bit hopeful, honestly, since he figures they're more likely to run into other Circle members in this area, but maybe they'll get really, really lucky.

There's a slight hum of dissent at Sheryl's question.] Oh, no, I'm fine...that sort of thing happens to me pretty often. It's not really a big deal.

[He's faceplanted in worse situations.]

That's not really something to be proud of, you know. [Don't brag about being used to taking hits to your head, Ren!] Anyway, we'd probably have to find someone who actually knows the ship or does maintenance-- most normal crew members probably wouldn't have a clue.

I know that I wouldn't have much of a clue about the specifics about a ship where I lived.

Hey, I'm just saying you don't need to worry... [He doesn't really consider it a brag, but they probably have more important things to focus on right now anyway. She has a point about them probably having to find a very specific kind of crewmember, though, and he lets out a bit of a huffy sigh.]

I don't know if we'll get that lucky... [A moment or two after he finishes saying that, the lights flicker on again, about three times on and off before they plunge into darkness again. But it's enough to show that they're definitely in a corridor with a door at the other end of it, and lined with other doorways that are probably more bedrooms.]

Oh! They're back-- [Off.

Sheryl looks down the hallway where she'd definitely seen that door, and gives a very long-suffering sigh.] Great. Either it's faulty wiring, or they're screwing with us at this point.

You saw that door, right? Down that way. [She points, in the direction of where she'd seen the door.

Not that he can see her arm.]

[Ren certainly can't see her arm, but he did, at least, see the door, and it's hard to misdirect himself too much on what's essentially a straight shot, so he keeps walking forward at a slightly more brisk pace now that he knows he's not just going to walk straight into something. Probably.]

Right, right...it doesn't look like it's too much brighter down there, but maybe we'll be able to see something more when we get there. [Even if the lights are on the fritz here, it's possible that door might have other paths from it, and that some of them might have visible lights to use as a guide.]

I wonder how many people usually live on this ship, if there's this many rooms...

[How far away was it? Sheryl tries to keep in her mind, trying to count her steps. It's hard to judge distances, after all, and she doesn't want to bump into anything.

Which is why she makes sure his voice is coming from ahead of hers. He'll collide with something before she does.] I don't know; this is probably just a crew quarters. When you think about it, all the rooms we've seen are probably for... twenty people? Thirty?

They could sleep in shifts, though. I hear military vessels do that.

[Ren's holding a hand out in front of him to at least make sure he's not going to break his nose walking directly into a wall or something, so he doesn't mind going ahead too much.] I guess you probably wouldn't want everyone on a ship like this asleep at once, would you...though there doesn't seem to be many Circle members around here, either. Maybe there's other sleeping quarters?

[It'd explain why they haven't run into anyone else just yet, since he figures there'd be more people to bump into if they were all in one place.]

I don't think I've ever been on a ship where the crew all slept at the same time. Doesn't just that seem like a really, really dumb idea? That's why crew shifts exist. [She walks slowly, trying to gauge where his voice is coming from. Maybe she can tell where the walls are by how their footsteps echo?

...no, she can't, but it was worth a try.]

welcome to the horologium.

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