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.
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fiachdubh: (018)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-09 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ If it's honesty he wants, then Ronan is definitely there. Lying is a pointless exercise, in his opinion. He's not a people-pleaser. ]

Doubt you'd say I remind you of anyone if you knew me better.

[ If he knew what he could do, anyway. Ronan's abilities are pretty unique, after all.

(If only he knew how wrong he is.) ]


Note that this isn't an invitation to try.
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fiachdubh: (015)

damn my html!!!!!!!

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-10 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan raises an eyebrow at that. ]

Oh, do I, now?

[ It's biting, slightly mocking. But there's a part of Ronan who's genuinely having a nice time, talking with Axel. So that's something. He grins, thin and dangerous. ]

Thanks, but I'd pass on the introduction. I'm not interested in a threesome, you see.

[ He keeps his tone neutral as he speaks, but it's a joke - he doesn't mean for Axel to take him seriously. Hopefully, if he's really used to assholes of Ronan's kind, he'll get it. ]
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fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-13 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Despite wanting to keep a stony, blank facade, Ronan can't. He tries, but the corners of his mouth twitch up, and then he's laughing, more genuinely than earlier. It should be enough to tell Axel he wasn't serious about the threesome thing - it's not a thing that people just bring up like that. At least, not Ronan. ]

Man, you're awkward. [ Like he isn't, himself. He's not that good of a pretender. ]

Although I can't say I dislike being disconnected.
(deleted comment)
fiachdubh: (011)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-16 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, you've gotten complacent and comfortable, I see.

[ One side of Ronan's mouth lifts up in a smirk. He's definitely not there - the fact that he and Adam are still dancing around labeling what they're even doing means that Ronan cannot be anything but cautious and extremely far from comfortable.

Not that he's ever comfortable when other human beings are around. ]


Well, that's deep. Disconnect creates disconnect.
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fiachdubh: (011)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-19 10:34 am (UTC)(link)
Disconnect brings you back around? To what? Craving human connections?

[ Ronan scoffs. He'd like to say that he's never craved it, or never craved not being alone; most of the time he is perfectly fine in his own company, but then there were the times where he'd sit by Gansey's side in the middle of the night, just watching him build his mini-Henrietta, just to be close to someone. The times where he pulled Adam to the BMW and took him along on joyrides or to the Barns, just because.

Whatever. He lives alone now, on the Barns, and it works for him just fine. ]


How old are you?
(deleted comment)
fiachdubh: (026)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-21 09:46 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's fine. I'll be dead by then.

[ Ronan Lynch does not believe he'll live to be 70 years old, even less 80. He loves fast cars and reckless men way too much for that, and he is not, unlike present company, immortal. ]

So you're... immortal? Because excuse you, but you look about 12. And I'm 18.

[ He juts his chin out, in defiance. ]
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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.
(deleted comment)
fiachdubh: (003)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-26 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Jesus fucking Christ.

[ So this is real. Vampires are real? He has to remind himself that this world isn't the same he's come from, and that rules are different. That they may be even more different in Axel's homeworld. ]

So you do the whole bloodsucking thing? You're dead? I guess it explains the age.
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fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-28 09:07 am (UTC)(link)
They're fiction, where I come from.

[ Because he doesn't believe they could be real. They have magic, and time bending places, and ley lines, and they have him. It's enough. It must be enough.

Ronan isn't being very open-minded, but then again, he is not Gansey. ]


I know more about what my world hides than you think. And it's got some weird shit, but nothing like Dracula. That's Halloween shit.
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fiachdubh: (011)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-06-30 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ronan crosses his arms over his chest, the bottle of whikey dangling between his fingers along his side. ]

We have magic. Magic fucking tress who stop time and talk latin and change terrain whenever they see fit. They're generally assholes.

[ That's far from behind it, but Ronan will never not be cagey about his powers. He's no Kavinsky, who flaunted it and almost destroyed Cabeswater for it. ]
(deleted comment)
fiachdubh: (008)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-07-04 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
No. They don't move, they don't have faces or whatever. Don't be a dick, there are no Hobbits or Elves or whatever. The trees, they speak through the wind.

[ Which doesn't sound any better. ]

And there are people with some magic in them. Pulling things from dreams, or being able to follow invisible energy lines. Stuff like that.

[ Nonchalantly. He could be talking about anyone. ]
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fiachdubh: (Default)

[personal profile] fiachdubh 2017-07-10 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's totally better. ]

So you don't consider the whole - [ Ronan waves a hand in Axel's general direction. ] - vampire thing to be kinda magical? Like, how did you came to be? Genetics? Mutations? Anything scientific?
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