welcome to the horologium.

[acatamods]

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!

Comments

[blindfoster]

Yeah. There's just nothing. I haven't seen any signs of anything. No damage, no blood.

[If Toby were here, she could say that for certain.]

Maybe if the power comes back on there will be something in the computers? Some sort of log, like in Star Trek maybe?

[foundafamily]

[Star Trek? He shakes his head, snorting as much at his own ignorance as anything else.]

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about there. If the "computers" are anything like what they had in Struxta, that's not even gonna be helpful. It took us forever to get through those.

[He asserts those words with a grumpy authority, though that was his only ever experience with computers or technology of that level.]

[blindfoster]

I don't know anything about Struxta, but if they're anything like regular computers, hopefully it won't be too hard.

[But who knows. Space ship computers are definitely new for him. He really wonders what he's gotten himself into with all this.]

Was Struxta one of the other worlds? What was it like?

[foundafamily]

[He raises one skeptical eyebrow because he remembers computers being plenty hard. But, well, maybe that's the difference of several decades.]

Yeah. It was a lot like this one, only more lights, lots of fast cars--lots of everything.

[He winces just thinking about it. Being from the big city himself, he would've thought that he'd be able to handle it no problem, but Struxta was more overwhelming than he thought any place could be.]

It wasn't empty, either, but all the people were robots.

[blindfoster]

Oh.

[Blink.] Robots.

[Okay. He nods.] Interesting. I've never met a robot. ...April is sort of part machine. I guess. But full of any sort of people seems like it'd be better than totally empty.

[Because this is just unsettling and he can't shake the creeps it's been giving him.]

[foundafamily]

You've got that right. All the other places had somebody.

[Except this one. At least, nobody who's willing to reveal themselves, which makes it all the creepier--just thinking along these lines makes him glance around to make sure that they really are as alone as they think they are.

To try and distract from his unease, he thinks back to an earlier remark.]

How's somebody part machine?

[blindfoster]

So this is different? Is that a bad sign?

[Probably a bad sign right?

Awesome. Extra creepy. And because thinking about empty stranded spaceships is definitely unsettling, Quentin will latch onto the topic too.]

April was a dryad, still is really. But her tree got destroyed. And her mother managed to save her by merging what was left of her tree and her with a computer server... thing. The entire county of Tamed Lightning is incredibly good at computers and technology and getting it to work with magic and alchemy. It's all pretty impressive. But April is one of a kind. ...actually, if she were here, she'd probably be able to get this power back on pretty quick.

[Too bad it's just him. Need courtly etiquette or hockey stats? He's on it. But fixing a space ship? Way out of his skill set.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo pauses, his internal musings probably matching up closely enough with Quentin's because his conclusion is a sober nod.]

Probably. It means shit's already hit the fan here.

[They've come in at the end or the middle of something, it feels like--which he can only assume means that the next wave of trouble will be worse. A cheery thought.

He touches his forehead in a pained grimace that's only partially feigned. Between their impending doom and weird magic-science mumbo jumbo, the latter is a more palatable topic. But only barely.]

Sheesh, I'm sorry I asked. Is everything that confusing where you're from?

[blindfoster]

Basically, yeah.

[Quentin admits, a grin threatening his features despite himself.] Nothing is simple in Faerie.

[And then beyond that,] And it's even less simple when you hang around with Toby.

[He says that fondly though, because he wouldn't trade a minute of following Toby despite the trouble and danger and confusion.]

[foundafamily]

[And here's another lifeline away from their dreary surroundings. As someone who enjoys talking about his people, Firo welcomes it from others, particularly as a distraction when they're all far from home. There's something familiar about it, even when he doesn't know the people himself.

He casts a wary glance down the hallway to reassure himself that nothing's moved, then allows himself to zero in on the mention of this Toby person.]

Another friend of yours, I'm assuming?

[blindfoster]

Yeah. Toby's a friend. And my knight.

[Quentin is definitely happy to talk about things that aren't how creepy and terrible this space ship is. They need to figure that out, but for the moment it's still mostly just unsettling.]

She's pretty great. I'm learning a lot from her.

[foundafamily]

A knight? That sounds like something out of a story.

[So do fae, he supposes, but this detail is new and therefore still remarkable to him. And a lady knight at that?]

[blindfoster]

Well, they call them faerie tales for a reason.

[Quentin offers with a twist of a grin before adding.] It gets worse anyway. She's Sir October Daye, Knight of Lost Words, Hero of the Realm, sworn in fealty to Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills.

[And the titles of full on nobility are even longer and worse.] And I'm her squire.

[foundafamily]

[Jesus. If there's one thing he's learning about Quentin's home, it's that everything seems to be needlessly complicated. He shakes his head.]

Yeah, I liked "Toby" better.

[At least a squire seems pretty straightforward; he sort of remembers those from old books Luck read.]

So that makes her your boss?

[Even though those flower things way back when had said he was a king or something? Whatever. Firo doesn't know how this stuff works.]

[blindfoster]

[He just laughs at that because yeah. Toby is a lot easier.

But he nods, quite proudly honestly.] That's right. She's training me right now, until I'm ready to become a knight myself. And then, well, then I guess I'll be a knight errant until I come of age.

[At which point in time his life gets complicated. But Fae come of age in their thirties, so while he's basically an adult by human standards, he's in a gray area for Faerie.]

[foundafamily]

[Come on, Quentin, you can't just leave off there when he's good and curious. Firo nods as he takes it in, and then he's ready to zip onward.]

So then what?

[blindfoster]

Then... well. Then I guess my blind fosterage will end, and I'll be ready to reclaim my family name and return home.

[Step into his role as crown prince, he supposes, since he doubts his parents will abdicate immediately. He hopes they don't. They probably won't until Penthea is ready to come home as well.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo squints; for once, he understands the individual words but not the picture they paint.]

Knights aren't allowed to go home?

[blindfoster]

No, nothing like that. I mean, knights are bound to whoever their fealty is sworn to. But right now, back home, I'm a foster in the household of Duke Sylvester Torquill. And I'll be there until my fosterage is over.

[Which right now is fine by him. He misses his parents, but San Francisco is home right now. It's where his friends are, his new found family.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo cants his head to the side.]

Sounds pretty complicated. Where I'm from, you've got your Family and you're with 'em until you're in a box.

[blindfoster]

Complicated is right. It's all politics. And Fae politics are a mess.

[He's come to realize this way too clearly in the past couple years.]

Your Family? [To Quentin that sounds like something more than just kin, right? Maybe? In fact,] That sounds a little mafia.

[Especially the until you're in a box part.]

[foundafamily]

[After having to fight to convince Hank that he was a gangster at all, Firo almost smiles to hear Quentin on the right track. Almost, because there's a very important distinction. He shakes his head:]

We're Camorra. It's a different organization.

[To an outsider's perspective, though, they are very similar--hence why Firo is so insistent on the terminology.]

[blindfoster]

Camorra?

[Quentin repeats, like he's trying out the word.] I've never heard of that, but that's probably not super surprising. But... same idea anyway? So you're like a gangster?

[Firo is much cuter than the idea of gangster in Quentin's mind, but hey. He's seen small cute people who are terrifying so.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo smooths out the front of his jacket and nods.]

Exactly. I run my Family's casino back home.

[blindfoster]

[Yeah see? That's also adorable. Quentin is developing a whole new image of gangsters now. Go figure.]

Huh! That's... actually pretty cool.

[Illegal, right? And his little law and order and hierarchy self has that thought, but for now he shrugs it off.]