spoofer: (tower)
Xistentia: Mod ([personal profile] spoofer) wrote in [community profile] xistentia2017-05-31 11:00 am

Mingle Log #1: Landmarks of Xistentia

Characters: All characters who opt in
Summary: A party to mark the first wave of incoming characters in Xistentia, punctuated with weird physics and an unexpected trip to the heart (or mind) of F.A.T.E.S.
Date(s): Late May 2017
Warnings/Notes: Sexual content and other potentially offensive or triggering material to be noted in headers.

Mix and Mingle
Landmarks of Xistentia

It starts with the daemons, because of course it does. At sunset, they begin to ring and beep and urge you to follow directions through the city. For those with animate daemons, be they animals or people, the programs are even more intrusive. Pushing and pawing and urging you to get up and go. The destination is not far from the first reclaimed parts of the city— a tall tower covered in overgrown moss and trees, located near the beach, the Westernmost edge of the city. Even with the chaos of vegetation growing over it, it's clear that the building is a miracle of technology and style.

"Connection is essential," the daemon tells you. "However, genital contact is not required."

You have reached the Central Citadel, and it's time to party!

EARLY BIRDS

But F.A.T.E.S. is as susceptible to peer pressure and trendy trends as anyone else! Early birds will find that the atrium lounge is a true mess at first. Birds nesting in the ceiling, thorn plants all across the floors, and the bottles and cups at the white bar are empty. As parties go, this sucks. However, within a few minutes of the first arrivals, changes begin to overcome the club area visibly. It is exactly the same as the way the city has begun to accommodate the visitors, but far more accelerated. Soon, the lights begin to power on, filling the room with ambient illumination. Plants recede, but do not disappear entirely. High above, the ceiling suddenly morphs to display the starry night sky. And most importantly of all, there's booze.


With any luck, someone around here knows how to bartend, because F.A.T.E.S sure does not. Various liquors from across the multiverse are available, along with drink umbrellas, speared olives, mixers and wedges of fruit. However, the cocktails that automatically fill the glasses vary in taste from acceptable to horrific. Luckily, the bar does not keep anyone out.
FASHIONABLY LATE

If you're more than thirty minutes late, the kinks have worked themselves out. The party is now in full swing. F.A.T.E.S. has surrendered drink mixing duty to various refugees[1], resulting in much more palatable alcoholic beverages. Someone even found chicken fingers, which are making the rounds.

However, it appears that the invisible supercomputer is still trying to DJ. Predictably, the music ranges wildly based on the listeners-- one moment, you have 17th century lute music; the next, Trance. Blink 182 may even make a brief auditory appearance. It is not particularly easy to dance to this nightmarishly incoherent soundtrack, but it does provide a cross-section of multiversal experiences, for those of us who care about that kind of thing.

Alternatively, you can explore. The Central Citadel is filled with odd rooms. In the presence of only one or two explorers, the tidying effect doesn't happen nearly as quickly. Characters may find jungle-eaten conference spaces, computer laboratories, or even more sophisticated situation rooms thronged with vines and flowers. Somehow, the screens and monitors seem to work just fine with blossoms poking out of the harddrives. Rooms with beds are available as well, some of them already pre-carpeted with romantic roses. You might also find your way into a gym, where slightly rotted bokken and a dusty boxing ring nonetheless make for an interesting way to meet people who aren't into roses and laptops.
BONUS ADVENTURE: THE TEMPLE

Characters who meet new CR at the Citadel have a special experience. When the two (or more) individuals get to talking, their daemons both abruptly interrupt with a very important, not at all loaded question. "Do you want to see something cool?" If the daemon was too big to come inside, the question is posed via earpiece or whatever other device.

The correct answer is "Yes." And with that, the characters are abruptly transported to The Telexistence Temple, on the Easternmost edge of the city. The sudden quiet seems deafening; the darkness is almost blinding before one's eyes adjust to the lines of light running through the tall stone walls. It is much cooler here than it was at the Central Citadel, but it has its own eerie dignity.


"In the future, this is where you may access information about your worlds. Recovery information, save points, and both passive and active world entry points are located here." A beat. Possibly the daemon is watching you stumble around. "Most of the tools have been disabled in order to prevent damage from inebriated users."

However, two pieces of technology continue to cooperate. First, a huge slab of glossy black stone the height of a desk, emitting holographic Head Up Display upward, the Chronological Cartographer. Your character must touch the device. Immediately then, a bright flowing diagram of data begins to spin through the air, whirling with lines and circles and familiar names. It is a chart of the worlds your characters have lived in before and the people they have met in the past timeline. The splitting point to Xistentia is clearly marked, and your future here is a red line wavering in darkness. Toy with it a little, and you'll even be able to pull up significant dates, friendships, enemies. Moments of transformation. F.A.T.E.S. remembers it all, and it is only a quick teleport from the Citadel. (Fortunately, it is also a quick teleport back.)

Second, there is a monitor with another HUD. It displays a HUD with a single prompt: Amenities needed?[2]

Starting the next day, the Temple will be accessible to all characters at all hours. Those granted access the night before will be able to find their way back with companions.



Footnotes
  1. Some may be NPCs! Please avoid killing or maiming them without mod discussion first.

  2. Go here and fill out the form, reply to that comment, if your character is going to take F.A.TE.S. up on the amenities request.
hasitsthorns: (Nᴏᴡ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-22 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Nothing wrong with good old straightforward adventuring. That had been Rose's life - although not quite so perilous - for a good while before Eudio. Before this world, no. Though she imagines she's going to get back into the habit of a bit more dangerous adventures if the creatures they've seen so far are any indication. ]

Nothing wrong with a little excitement, I think! The place I was before was just, like, living. Pretty normal.
fiachdubh: (007)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-22 01:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Jesus Christ.

[ He punctuates the words with a helpless laugh. He'd like to keep a straight face and all, but she is just. Too much. ]

Do you just live in the past, is that your thing?

[ Ronan lived in the shadows of his own past for a long time, before he was able to start looking forward again. He wouldn't begrudge her. ]
fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-22 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan barely resists spitting between the two of them. Their father taught them just a smidge more class than that. Still: ]

Fucking asshole.

[ The fact that the fight has not turned physical says a lot about their relationship and how much it's changed recently, but it's still so fraught with tension and aggression that it's difficult for Ronan not to simply throw a punch. It's a lot easier than using words, when it comes to Declan.

Instead, he also turns around, and stalks back towards the door. He's done with this. ]
fiachdubh: (010)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-22 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan runs a hand over his head, looking down at the floor between them for a moment before taking a long swig of his bottle. The thought - contemplating it is difficult. ]

So you think we are organic, right?

[ He wasn't about to open himself up to check - despite what Gansey might have thought for a while, Ronan had never been suicidal. But it was something he'd been mulling over since he got here, since he was told he was inside a program, right now.

Nothing better than that to make you question your own humanity. ]


Like, we're like in the Matrix, or something.
fiachdubh: (023)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-22 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
no, we didn't physically fight
he's just
talking about how everyone back home is dead.
fiachdubh: (016)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-22 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan just groans, leaning his forehead against Adam's. He doesn't want to; even if it's sensible and makes sense, but he doesn't want to. He wants to stay right where he is, right now, with Adam - and only with Adam. He isn't a social creature.

But Chainsawd is insistent, and Barricaded is being loud and impossible, and he's not sure they have a choice, exactly. ]


Fun.
hangingtree: ℍ𝕌ℕ𝔾𝔼ℝ 𝔾𝔸𝕄𝔼𝕊 ❚ alone (UPRISING NO. 006)

[personal profile] hangingtree 2017-06-22 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Katniss can't - or doesn't bother trying to - stop the scowl that comes to her face at the idea of them being copies or something similar. It's too close to Muttations for comfort, and she's already suspicious enough about this place, about the daemon that refuses to leave her side.

But no one's been killed yet, at least not that she's seen, and there hasn't been a cache of weapons in some obvious spot, free for the taking. (Not that they were ever free at the Cornucopia...) She tries to take solace in that, though it hardly helps. ]


Or that's just the crap they're trying to sell us on. [ A brief glance in Cinnad's direction and then Katniss's attention is back on Axel, her scowl still present. ] But that's what I mean: I don't trust or like this place. [ She crosses her arms over her chest. ] I just wish there was some way to check all of this out; I'm not good with blind trust.
hangingtree: ℍ𝕌ℕ𝔾𝔼ℝ 𝔾𝔸𝕄𝔼𝕊 ❚ alone (UPRISING NO. 028)

[personal profile] hangingtree 2017-06-22 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Katniss notes, before the guy looks at her, the way his daemon nudges him towards the entrance. Towards her. She can feel Cinnad behind her, his desire to do the same practically tangible, and so she takes another step into the room. But while it's towards the other occupant it's also away from him, in and off to the side.

She doesn't smile in return, though her expression isn't hostile, either. It's actually rather relaxed for her, considering the circumstances. ]


I'm pretty sure all of them are opinionated, at least in their own way. [ Cinnad plops down beside her and Katniss glances over for a moment at the noise, then looks back towards the man. ] Mine's knocked me into a couple people already. It's really obnoxious.
hangingtree: ℂ𝔸𝕋ℂℍ𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝔽𝕀ℝ𝔼 ❚ alone (UPRISING NO. 082)

[personal profile] hangingtree 2017-06-22 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Or maybe Katniss was just more paranoid by nature than Blue, which was the far more likely of the two possibilities.

Her gaze shifts to the leaf the other girl picks off and then once more looks over the room, this time taking in the details rather than specifically looking for danger. ]
A lot of the rooms are like that. [ Cinnad shifts behind her and Katniss moves further into the room, though it's not to appease him; she steps up to the table and reaches out to run a couple fingertips along the green vines stretched across the top of it. ] I guess whatever cleaned up downstairs didn't expect us to come up here.
hangingtree: ℍ𝕌ℕ𝔾𝔼ℝ 𝔾𝔸𝕄𝔼𝕊 ❚ alone (UPRISING NO. 047)

[personal profile] hangingtree 2017-06-22 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[ His comment makes even less sense - reenactment of what? - but Katniss lets it go. She'd rather focus on something she's actually familiar with than wasting time on whatever that was meant to be.

Still, curiosity burns somewhere in the back of her brain, the thought not completely discarded. ]


Just that this place needs a serious trimming. [ She likes plants, don't get her wrong, but all the overgrowth in the building is odd to her. It's also pretty evident that they weren't necessarily expected or meant to explore the area if you compare the plant life here to the plant life in the main room where the party's happening. ] How long have you been wandering around?
miss_brilliant: (look)

[personal profile] miss_brilliant 2017-06-22 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[if she hadn't already run into someone she knew in another world, seeing Arthur when she's tipsy might well have been the thing to push Amanda to actually crying finally. But seeing Kavinsky shortly after she arrived and living with him to boot--and she's still debating how smart that decision was--has reinforced some of the emotional barriers she'd worked pretty hard to build as a teenager.

Those barriers don't keep her from grinning widely, though]


Arthur! God, yeah, same here I--I'm glad you're all right.

[it's pathetic, and she curses her awkwardness around touching for an instant--she would have thrown her arms around Nick without a moment of hesitation, she knows--but she also knows she's still shellshocked. She's done trauma before, even if it is basically a lifetime back]

I'm guessing you're as lost as I am?
mindmeld: (046.)

[personal profile] mindmeld 2017-06-23 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ Spock shoots Jim a look at that request, eyebrow raised. Would Jim actually slow down after a brush with death's door? The wound was healing at a decent rate, despite the lack of advanced medical supplies, and his strength was returning.

Mestrald ignores Jim, which is an accurate depiction of a sehlat - if I-Chaya had not wanted to listen, he did not. But Spock does push back slightly, mostly so he does not stumble into the stone until Jim has a chance to activate the stone.

He takes the tricorder, scanning over the readings that make no sense, and watches as Jim places his hand on the stone. ]
Jim-

[ He starts to say something, the thought lost as a timeline spirals above them, revealing Jim's life spread out in front of them. ] Fascinating.

[ Spock can read quickly, his brain moving faster than human normal; he can see events he knows all too well - the Narada, Khan - and notices others he is unfamiliar with, and above all, notices a lack of a specific place. ]
fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-23 10:47 am (UTC)(link)
A vampire. [ Ronan scoffs. Excuse him, Axel, you're the first he ever meets, and he is not quite ready to accept all these things. Magicians and time going forwards and backwards and stopping entirely, sure. Vampires and fairies? Fucking please. ]

This isn't fucking Dracula. C'mon now, really? You expect me to believe that?

[ Why does he tempt fate, all the time? Damn it. Lynch, you pull shit out of your dreams. Why wouldn't vampires be real? ]

I have no problem being 18. But I'm not a kid.
fiachdubh: (008)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-23 11:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan leans down to worry one of the leather knots wrapped around his wrist. Even after all these years, the material was still butter-soft and unmarked. Dream things. ]

Did your daemon not explain? From what I gather, this place is like... the last place from where we can fight what's happening back home. It's not the demon anymore, it's this virus that's looking like the Unmaker.

[ Not that Ronan understood exactly how they could fight, or how they ended up here, and why it was them, and not Gansey and Henry or anybody else. He was just as much at a loss as Blue was. ]

This place, it's a computer program. I think. I don't know what it means about us. We might be in the Matrix, or something.

[ Ronan went back to gnawing at his leather bands, his stomach roiling over what it could potentially mean. ]

You found out where you're going to live, already?
hasitsthorns: (Eᴀᴄʜ ʜᴏᴜʀ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-23 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She's oblivious to his thoughts. While she'd love to hear him play the violin (or any instrument, really) she'd likely be just as happy to play for him someday. Her guitar did manage to make the trip here, after all. ]

You got it, dude! [ she'll exclaims, punctuating it with a grab of his hand before dragging him off towards the back rooms of the atrium. Hopefully he doesn't mind. It's a residual habit from Eudio - from her constant handholding with Vanyel - more than anything. ]

The source of the music has got to be here somewhere. Wonder where F.A.T.E.S. is hiding it...
hasitsthorns: (Aɴᴅ ɪғ ʜᴏʟᴅɪɴɢ ʜᴇʀ ᴍᴇᴀɴs)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-23 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ To be fair, that's a reaction she enjoys drawing out of people. It makes her feel good to make people laugh after so long of being forced to inflict misery and pain on others. ]

I mean, the 90s and early 2000s were just a great time for music. But, yeah, I gotta' say I'm pretty partial to the late 80s, early 90s. Great times.
fiachdubh: (014)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-23 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
So you are, indeed, a million years old?
hasitsthorns: (Aɴᴅ I ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄʜᴏᴋᴇ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-23 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm, like, three hundred forty! That's still young for my kind, alright!

[ Jeez! ]
fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-23 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan's eyes go wide, betraying his actual, genuine surprise. ]

Seriously?
aberth: (( sixty - three. ))

[personal profile] aberth 2017-06-23 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
We will.

[ Adam will find them because that's what he does. He's never met a problem he hasn't been able to untangle, nor a solution he's been too afraid of. Once you sacrifice yourself to a mystical forest then everything else is kind of a moot point. ]

Did you all arrive together?

[ Part of him is still holding out the hope that he'll be able to find Gansey, that he's just somewhere else, too caught up in exploration to look for them. ]
miss_brilliant: (gaze)

[personal profile] miss_brilliant 2017-06-24 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, well. I don't have as much practice as some figuring out how to get my feet to listen to me in less the optimal lighting evening without alcohol in my system. Just goes to prove, high IQ does not equal common sense.

[she doesn't say it like bragging. She knows she's a genius, of course, but her skillset is limited, and not nearly as much as her life experience. Even her time in Eudio didn't give her much practice with being drunk in the dark.

She tips her head a bit at his explanation, taking a hesitant step towards the panel]
What? That's...well, I'd say ridiculous, except I've seen more unbelievable things even before all this. [she needs to make a list of 'impossible' things she's lived through and rank them, at some point.

The fingers of both hands curl in for a long moment as she considers. Then she draws a breath; she'd promised in Eudio that she wasn't going to back away from new experiences, and she's going to try to hold to it here. She steps forward as quickly as she trusts her clumsy feet to move, then puts an only faintly trembling hand to the panel.

At first, she only squints at the glowing display, then as she picks out names and follows where they are on the line, a soft breath leaves her lungs]
Oh. [that's all she can manage for a moment, as a shaky hand moves up to the display, zooming in on Nick's name and further back--but not far enough, not really--the word 'accident', before she yanks both hands back so the glowing words and lines disappear.

She does manage to smile when she turns back to Jim]
Uh, yeah, I'd say your theory on what that is is right. ...wow. That's...really something. But I guess considering what we've been told about everything going on here, it's not terribly surprising something like this exists.
hasitsthorns: Cᴀᴜsᴇ sʜᴇ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ sᴜɴʟɪɢʜᴛ (Wʜᴇʀᴇ I ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇʟᴏɴɢ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-24 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ She likes it, the steadfastness in his voice. That kind of determination will serve him well. ]

Sort of, [ followed by a thoughtful hum. ] My boyfriend arrived around the same time as me, but... We got a separated on the way here. He went home for a while, actually, but no time passed for me. Kind of weird, but.

Seems like he wasn't the only one either. A couple other time distortions or whatever happened with some people.
hasitsthorns: (Aɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜɴ ɪs ɢᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-24 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
Seriously, [ she replies. ]

I look human, I know, that's the point. But I'm not. [ Which is something she never thought she'd be comfortable saying. ] My kind live to be, like, a thousand though. And I look good for mid three-hundreds, okay.

[ So there! ]
astralera: (respects)

[personal profile] astralera 2017-06-24 07:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ She must have been spending far too much time with Alphinaud, for her first thought was that 'normal' is quite subjective. Realizing it's something her young companion might say forces Era to promptly abandon that response. ]

My normal has been slaying false gods. It shall be strange to have no need for such a skill.
hasitsthorns: (Cᴀᴜsᴇ sʜᴇ ɪs ᴛᴏᴍᴏʀʀᴏᴡ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-06-24 11:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ Rose wouldn't have argued that point. 'Normal,' in her opinion, is what wish were true. The reality is often anything but. ]

Well, jeez, you don't mess around. Can't say I've ever slayed any gods, false or not...

But who knows! You might still. Hopefully not, of course. A lot of people from where I was before - nicknamed 'cuddle city' - might not be quite ready to face all that.

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