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acatamods. ([personal profile] acatamods) wrote in [community profile] acatalepsy_logs2018-07-11 12:02 am

World Jump #2: Struxta









welcome to
the collected nations of struxta.
It will happen at random- you could be asleep, or wandering the Temple, or a variety of other options. It will feel a little strange, like a sudden warmth spreading across your skin, and then your bracelet will light up. When you blink again, everything has shifted - changed, developed, like in that blink of an eye you have advanced thousands of years into the future.

Around you is a city, a technological marvel. Buildings rise up from the dirt and through the clouds, figures of all shapes and sizes buzz around you. They seem to pay you little mind - a quick glance, maybe a pause, and then they will continue on their away. Ahead, there is a low rumble of thunder, a dim flash of light. It doesn't seem to be raining, but there is an electric hum in the air.

A NOTE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH


But before anything too weird can happen . . . your watch flashes again, beeps once, and on it has a new message, a hologram-sparkly image with a young woman who (to some individuals!) looks a fair bit brighter than she did a few weeks ago. To those who are new, you will recognize the voice -- Astoria, the guardian of the Temple (or, if you're a bit more pessimistic, your effervescent kidnapper).

"Hello, my beloved travelers ♥ and new ones, too! My name is Lady Astoria the Witchess-san." The way she says it, though, it is very clearly something of a joke. "I'm so glad you are settling in, adjusting to your new powers . . . I apologize for not coming forward and greeting you all like last time. But I am feeling much more like myself, and ready to send you to a new world ♥

This one is named Struxta . . . Struxa? No, I think it's Struxta. It's very metal. I'm not sure what's wrong in this world . . . but I can feel something building. Pulsing, it's very chaotic. I'm afraid I can't be more detailed than that, I did have a headache earlier . . . Akira told me I was fine ♥" And, again, you can likely guess that Akira definitely did no such thing. Astoria clasps her hands, her bright blue eyes shining, with a bright smile. "Now! Please be safe, and please mind your manners, and tell me all about it when you return! I'll see you soon. ♥"

And, just like that? The humming in the air grows louder, you feel an odd tug in your stomach, and before you can properly adjust yourself to the sensation of being cast across the universe . . . you find yourself in Struxta. (Astoria, it seems, did have it right the first time.)





THE HOSTEL
Just as it was in El Minha, it appears that upon arrival, each character is outfitted with a room at one of the largest, arguably most impressive skyscrapers in the city. Nearly two hundred stories tall, and with each floor containing nearly sixty rooms. Every floor, every room, every door is of the highest tech and the more advanced security. The watches that Astoria has given each of the Circle Members act, in many ways, like a key, a credit card, an ID, and any other form of identification the players will need during their stay.

The rooms themselves are simple - one bed, roughly full sized, with a light, a desk, a chair, and a variety of plugs and buttons. Characters are welcome, if they are able to find the appropriate plug, to charge any and all devices they may have. There is a TV of sorts in the room as well, with access to all manner of shows and news stations.

The bottom floor of the building is almost as large as a city block. It is open, sleek, and clean-cut. A kind of open meeting room, which has - upon inspection - been modified to include what appears to be a restaurant. Which, given the fact the group of Circle members who have arrived in the city are the only natural bodies around? Includes the fact you are the only members of the city who have to consume food and nutrients. Upon even closer inspection, the technology used to make the food seems a few decades behind that of the rest of the city, but it still works, and the food can still be produced. It might taste a little weird and turn out to be some sort of glorified goop, but it has some nutritional value.

The rest of the floor has a variety of seating arrangements and places to sit and chat with your other Circle members, but beyond the Welcome Committee, who is set up on the far northern corner, there doesn't seem to be many of the natives walking through.
THE SUPER CENTER
Have you ever wanted to go shopping in the most technologically advanced superstore possible? Here is your chance! It appears that if you use your watch, you have been given a moderate amount of credit to buy clothing, toys, electronics, items, and anything else that might suit your fancy. You will not have enough to buy anything significant, such as limbs, organs, advanced computer technology, etc. But you are more than welcome to find a job to help collected more credits! Many of the stores within the Supercenter are hiring - greeters, cashiers, manual labor, errand runners, and everything in between!

The Supercenter is attached, as most of the buildings seem to be in this city, by a roadway of interlocking bridges and stairways- to a point that you could, if you wanted to, move about the entire city without stepping foot outside. There are bridges on every level of the Supercenter, as well as a network of pathways and semi-roadways within the center itself.

There are no restaurants or bars, but there are plenty of areas to relax and people robot watch if you so desire. Otherwise, shop, explore, find weird mechanical devices of the likes you could never imagine back home. There are all manner of stores, some art galleries, music centers, arcades, and more here. There is no limit to what you can find and what you can experience.

Everything is automated, but there are still helpful employees of various appearances at each of the stories to help you decide and browse- small, flying blocks that speak in primarily beeping noises that (thanks to Astoria's wonderful watches) you can somehow understand, completely human-appearing androids of the utmost style and elegance, and everything in between. Take your time, do a little shopping or go to work, and enjoy the pique of futuristic capitalism.

THE RACES
In the south-eastern district of the city, a large section of the city has been modified into a multi-level, vast, complicated race track of sorts. Think Tron, meets Speed Racer, meets a type of racing that is something all their own. It's fun as hell, fast as hell, and dangerous as hell. Sounds great, right?

What is simply known as ‘Racing’ here in Struxta is complicated, but at its heart is exactly what it says: it is a race. A race of cars, bikes, and everything in between through an obstacle course of everything you can imagine. It seems to all be linked, electronically, to a motherboard that decides - each race - what the drivers will find. Each race was drastically different, with dangers galore. One day you might find that the road is full of spikes, the next it might be slick as oil, there could be loops that defy gravity and breaks in the road that seem to be impossible to cross, but that's what the modifications and specialists in the garages are for, right?

The rules are simple: if you have a vehicle, and you have a driver, you are allowed to race. First one to complete the track, wins.

Surrounding the main track is an entire industry of shops, stores, garages, meeting places, lounge areas, and viewing rooms. There are robots who make entire livings on the industry surrounding the Races, without ever having to step food onto the course. Some of the areas will be cleaner, like the rest of the city, while others may air on the side of back-house garages. While there won't be any dirt or natural life forms, for the first time you might catch sight of rusted metal, oil slicks, broken down previous versions of what's out on the road. There are some practice tracks, some experimental safety sections to test out new additions, etc.

The one thing that holds everyone together, here, is the excitement around watching. The excitement around the competition. There are Races every five days, so that gives you just enough to get settled. And maybe find a car.
THE LIBRARY
As many have already come to hear, there are plenty of libraries and museums all across Struxta. However, there is one that is known as The Library, which archives anything and everything in the history of all of Struxta, spanning back its entire history, over thousands and thousands of years. The building itself is as large and impressive as The Hostel, nearly two hundred stories tall, possibly more, and as wide and long as a city block. But where in the Hostel each floor had been made up of rooms, each of these floors are large, open areas, with dark, imposing servers held behind tight, clean cabinets.

No one else seems to be here, which gives the impression that The Library is not open to just any native of Struxta, and that in fact - as members of the Circle you are being given special access to what would normally be off-limits.

In the middle of each floor, there is a small collection of tables, with large screens. These touch-screens will be your access into the Library archives. And that is the thing - you will have access to everything, but as it turns out, everything really means everything, and with backups spanning the course of thousands of years in the past, it will take a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of research determination to find anything of use. Not because it is difficult, just because it is so massive and so overwhelming.

The only natives you will find will be on the first floor, as a kind of secretarial position for the building. They are more than happy to try and help guide you through the search process, but they will not follow you up to any of the other floors, and there is a distinct feeling of being entirely alone when you do go up to begin your search. Alone, but watched, somehow.

Remember- if there is something that you wish to look up specifically, please ask over on the world interactions post so we can be sure that the correct information is shared! The best way to go about finding something in the Library will be going at search terms in teams, as there is so much information there is no way one person will be able to wade through it all.


Additionally, please feel free to write up and work with your own prompts! These are presented as jumping off points for your characters, not limitations. The idea of this world- as with all the others- is to explore. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them back on the mod questions thread back in the OOC post from before! And if you have any ideas regarding how your character will interact with the world, also feel free to check back into the world interactions comment from the OOC post from before, as well!

From this point forward, the Circle has become involved with the Collected Nations of Struxta. What your character finds out, decides, and does from here on out will affect the future of this city- one way or another! But what you do is completely up to you. What you discover, explore, and uncover will be yours to discover, explore, and uncover. Who knows what you might find? :)
adelphoi: (🍰 ʙɪᴢᴄᴏᴄʜɪᴛᴏ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-11 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ this is it. this is how she dies. here, on some strange faroff metal world, with nothing to eat but.. slop.

no cakes. no cookies. nothing even remotely appetizing. she will wither away, or contract some sort of deadly food poisoning, or drown in her own vomit attempting to get this gruel down. who knows? but surely she will not make it off of this planet alive.

alisaie is stirring her bowl of oatmeal(?) morosely like a toddler picking at steamed vegetables, her chin in her hand, when she is startled from her self-pitying reverie. her head snaps up with a sharp inhale - but oh, it's just some guy. not, in fact, the grim reaper here to collect his due. ]


.. I've no idea, if I am honest. I suppose I must choose between violent stomach upset, or slowly starving to death.
bleps: (11)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-12 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
[He’s seen a few members of the Circle take the food in stride; observed them somewhat curiously from afar as they ate the rather... gelatinous stuff with little issue at all. Others were the opposite (there was rarely someone skewing in the middle of the spectrum of "how gross do you consider this food") and couldn’t seem to bear gulping their portions down. And though Connor isn’t exactly grateful for his inability to eat, being in this place tends to make it feel like an advantage. One less thing he needs to put time and energy into; one less potential displeasure to ail him.

Still, he looks apologetic. This young woman obviously belongs in the group having difficulties reconciling these strange forms of sustenance as food.]


I’m sorry to hear that. If it’s any consolation, you’re not the first I’ve encountered to share this opinion of the food we’ve been provided. Still, starving yourself to death should be avoided if at all possible.
adelphoi: (🍰 sʜᴏʀᴛʙʀᴇᴀᴅ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-12 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ did he take her seriously? this amelia bedelia fucker over here.. ]

I was being facetious.

[ mostly. this food is pretty horrible. but no, she must persevere, she has so much still to live for.. anyway, alisaie heaves a sigh, and sets her spoon back down for now. ]

I can't imagine you have found anyone who wouldn't share my opinion; have you not tried it yourself?
bleps: (94)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-13 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[It's not like Connor takes everything too literally or anything. No, not at all. Why would you think that.

But at the remark about being facetious, He blinks. And supplies a helpful:]
-Oh.

[Sarcasm is a tricky thing. Connor knows how to use it, too, but everyone applies it so differently.]

No, I haven't. I don't eat.
adelphoi: (🍰 ʙɪᴢᴄᴏᴄʜɪᴛᴏ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-14 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ man this sure could be something great to exploit for comedic purposes..

good thing alisaie is a sweet, gentle, innocent girl who would never do such a thing. thankfully, she's in too much of a Mood to do anything even remotely funny right now, but his answer earns a look of open surprise. ]


.. pardon?
bleps: (67)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-15 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Connor is the most serious and not at all slightly goofy, and therefore unavailable to be used for various comedic purposes. How dare she even consider it, truly.]

I don't eat.

[A helpful repetition of his last statement. Yet Connor knows that clarification is key with many of the individuals here.]

I'm an android. Do you know what that is? [The latter question is not meant to sound patronizing, it's asked only because there have been a few here who have looked at him in confusion when he gives this explanation.]
adelphoi: (🍰 ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ & ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-15 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it's a good thing that he doesn't sound patronizing, because alisaie came out of the womb yelling 'fite me' and is easily offended, but it's pretty clear that this guy is something special. ]

No, I do not. Are you some sort of spirit?

[ she actually knows what an android is just by another name.. being ye oldey is hard. ]
bleps: (15)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-16 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
No. It means that I am a machine. A synthetic being.

[Connor does his best to never sound patronizing! He is a helpful android (most of the time.)]
adelphoi: (🍰 ᴋᴜᴇ sᴀᴛᴜ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-17 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. So like.. a mammet. An automaton.

[ wow though, he doesn't look it at all?? the clockwork creatures she has seen before have all been very well made, but this is another thing entirely - forgive her while she squints right into his face, as if she can somehow trace any hint of difference. ]

That is.. astounding, if you do not mind my saying.

[ she's so rude i'm so sorry.. ]
bleps: (91)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-17 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[It seems to be fine, because Connor doesn't appear to take any offense. On a scale from 1 to 10 of how he's been treated because he's an android, this ranks at a -2.]

Androids are a technological achievement, and their influence has changed how society functions back in my world.

[In other words, he agrees. It's astounding, from a fairly empirical point of view.]

Though I've never been called a mammet before.
adelphoi: (🍰 sᴘᴏɴɢᴇ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-18 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[ thoroughly ignoring her food by now, alisaie sits back, crossing her arms loosely over her abdomen, wrinkling her nose thoughtfully. ]

They are far more rudimentary than yourself, to be sure. Something like.. clockwork dolls commissioned as assistants, they can be quite charming.

[ and, through a chuckle: ]

And annoying. Are they all androids, where you come from? Like this place?
bleps: (07)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-19 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[Clockwork dolls? Connor can run a parallel in his own mind, thinking back on the earlier models of androids that he knew existed in his world. That still do, to some extent -- looking exactly human, but created only to perform menial tasks, or manual labor. No need for higher social functioning, for working directly with humans, much like himself.]

I hope you don't find me annoying. [A little something at an attempt at humor.] But no. There are many humans in my world. Androids exist simply to make their lives easier.
adelphoi: (🍰 ᴄᴀsʜᴇᴡ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-20 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Not yet, at least.

[ she says through a sharp smile. conner is very well behaved! not annoying at all, especially in comparison with an ornery mammet. but she hardly knows him, who knows what bothersome traits he might have beneath the genteel exterior. ]

Is that so? Sounds rather the short end for your folk. Are you at least well compensated?
bleps: (40)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-20 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Annoying traits include putting crime scene evidence in his mouth and dying a lot. Does that count?

The smile fades by only the smallest of degrees, but fade it does.]


There is no need for compensation. We are simply doing what we were designed to do. What we were created to do.
adelphoi: (🍰 ᴠᴀɴɪʟʟᴀ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-25 08:51 am (UTC)(link)
[ i mean. yeah that sounds pretty problematic tbh. don't put crime scene evidence in your mouth?? not like alisaie ever has the room to judge anyone for almost anything, but still.

anyway, she recognizes that imperceptible little change, and moreover, the almost.. cookie-cutter explanation he spits out soon after. ]


Rubbish. If I had done everything my parents expected of me, my life would be far different. I would not do you the disservice of prying into your affairs, but for your sake, I do hope you do not take that idea too seriously.

[ but i mean, she's got authority issues.. ]
bleps: (16)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-25 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[And Connor is on the cusp of an existential crisis which he is practically in denial about. It'll all be fine.

To his credit, his expression doesn't change very much. Just the knitting of his brow, ever so slight, and the quiet consideration of her words.]


Of course I take it seriously. I understand that it's different for organic life, but when I've been created to fulfill a purpose, why would I not adhere to it?
adelphoi: (🍰 sᴘᴏɴɢᴇ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-28 08:13 am (UTC)(link)
[ she understands how he feels, how a lifetime of being told what you are can make you believe that is all you are, and all that you can be, but the very idea makes her heart feel heavy.

no one deserves to feel as if they should be any one thing. especially when that one thing is serving others without question. ]


Because your life is your own. 'Tis no different for organic life. We are expected to live a certain way, follow certain rules, fulfill certain requirements we are pressured to fulfill, that I choose not to. Should you decide the path presented you is not one you prefer, you should be free to choose a different one.

[ she has strong feelings about this.. ]
bleps: (114)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-28 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Somehow, he's run into all the things he doesn't wish to think about. Departed from home, it's easy enough to leave all of his internal uncertainties at the door -- to focus on the missions here, with the experiences of home to only act as foundation. Not distraction.

Talk of individuality, of being able to choose who you are, is the kind of conversation that digs it all up again, like casting a net into somewhere very deep and seeing what breaks the surface when you pull it back out. His LED flickers brightly a few times, not quite troubled enough to go yellow, but processing all the same.]


It isn't as simple as that.
adelphoi: (🍰 ɢᴀɴᴀᴄʜᴇ)

[personal profile] adelphoi 2018-07-30 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ sorry, friend.. she has a way of saying things people don't want to hear. it's a natural talent.

his answer has her arching a brow, however, her gaze meeting his eyes, sharp and focused and unyielding. she won't press it further, he's heart her answers, her reasoning, it is not her place to force the point - but still, she hopes that it at least gives him something to think about. if he is happy with the state of things, if it gives him purpose and pleasure, then who is she to question his way of life? but if he is not..

well. best to know he has options. ]


I am sorry you feel that way.

[ a breath, and she rolls her shoulders in a shrug. ]

Nevertheless, at least you need not eat this slop.
bleps: (127)

[personal profile] bleps 2018-07-30 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's fine, it doesn't take much these days. Especially not in a city like this one. And to her credit, Alisaie at least doesn't press the subject further; Connor can find a sort of appreciation in that, the ability to read the in-between the lines of a conversation, though he'll not say as much.]

No need.

[And that's that, apparently.]

Will you be able to function all right? With food like this.