Priority Log - Part 1

[locomodo]

Log 02 Priority (Part I)
The Mine Car

As characters enter the car, their phones will notify them of a new message…

> ▮▮▮▮▮▯▮▮
> ▮▮*
> OVERRIDE: TUTORIAL MODE DEACTIVATED.
> OBJECTIVE:

>

NAME: The Mine Car
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT: Gothic era
DANGER LEVEL: High
GENERAL STINKINESS: High
COMMON DENIZENS: Humans, ornithrops, bearkin
CUISINE: Peasant gruel, bird seed

There is no sender. Or objective?

But that's fine, probably! The car itself is completely functional, and features a fully developed society.

Passengers will arrive in this car and be immediately greeted by a fog that chills them to their core. The car around them is vast, and yet deathly silent. They'll find themselves starting off in a forest of petrified wood, the ground hard and unyielding underneath their feet, with flora and fauna in various stages of decay around them. While the fog around them is thick, the lights of a nearby village can still be seen from a distance, and as they travel, the dirt road will give way to cobblestone.

Eventually they'll be greeted with a signpost, welcoming them to the town of MINECRAFTIA.




While Minecraftia's denizens are harrowed and distressed, they're quick to warn the passengers traveling through of the ailment, a mysterious illness that is plaguing their town. It's been leaving even healthy youths bedridden, and while the town mayor has passionately declared that he will find a solution, it appears that there's no cure in sight.

Locations

Minecraftia is a foreboding little town, even in the daylight, with murky skies above and fog blanketing the roads. Still, the denizens persist through their daily routines, and won't stop the passengers from exploring.

Clinic: The town's only clinic with the town's only doctor. It's a small, rickety building that operates all hours of the day. Between the rapid spread of sickness and the steady depletion of supplies, it's a grim place to be nowadays. Anyone healthy who visits might be roped in to help, and those who look ill will be quarantined with an uncomfortable bedroll and thin blanket.

Cemetery: Located on the outskirts of town, the cemetery is home to dead bodies, even deader earth, and a deadpan gravekeeper. The exit door is here in a flower-covered plot, but cannot be opened.

Chicken House: A barnyard building home to the town's chickens. Lately they've been more worked up than usual, and taken to flying the coop and finding refuge by digging their claws into the scalps of bystanders. Agitating one chicken may cause a whole flock to descend on you!

The Dark Woods: The village is surrounded by what was once lush woods, but the trees now stand dark and eerie, an unusually thick fog rolling between them. While there are some of the usual, woodland creatures chirruping in the dense silence, they're hard to find. Monsters, meanwhile, are much more common.

The Mines: In the heart of the woods are entrances to the town's expansive system of mines. Stepping inside shows that the dirt and stone is laced with beautiful gems and minerals, but passengers will be shooed away by miners if they try to explore any deeper. It seems there's several dangerous mine shafts underfoot, as well as past attacks by what seems to be mole monsters.

Mayor's Mansion: The largest building in Minecraftia, situated on a hill. While Mayor Chadsef's staff welcomes guests, they will be cautioned not to explore past the lobby, which just smells a little like cleaning chemicals thanks to a diligent maid crew.

Denizens

Players may use denizens as convenient in threads, as well as these NPCs, except for the Mayor. He's a very busy man!

Madam Vermeer: The Madam is a human extremely afraid that she'll die before seeing her son marry. Which means that she is hunting the streets for eligible men and women, and whisking them in droves away into her mansion to be made over, trained in the art of serving, etc. before presenting them to her son.

Cassy Cassatt: Cassy is an ornithrop and the owner of the chicken house. She's shorthanded nowadays, but business-savvy enough to prey on considerate bystanders. She'll rope anyone she sees into helping out, whether it's collecting eggs, feeding or breeding.

Turner: Turner is a bearkin, and one of the nurses at the clinic. He's taken to drinking his weight in mead whenever he's off the clock, and it's not uncommon for his body to be seen unconscious on the road. He'll try to flee or swat blindly if anyone tries to help him, but he really does need help getting home.

Chadsef: The mayor of Minecraftia, who is notably wealthier than the rest of the citizens. He's young and inexperienced, but carries a Birds of Economics degree, and is determined to bring jobs to the town. He'll just need to make sure people are alive to do them first!

Other

The longer that passengers remain in the car, the more they'll learn, and soon they'll realize the following:

1. They are not immune to the illness. They can't determine what it is that triggers it. At first it's a sense of fatigue, then hunger and irritability. Then, the numbness will begin, starting in their extremities and spreading up their limbs, until that numbness turns into pain. Eventually that pain will lead to madness, a state of delirium where they begin to behave erratically, endangering themselves and those around them.
   
   
2. There is something in the woods. Though the passengers saw nothing when they arrived in the woods, at night they can hear growling. Venturing outside will reveal grotesque creatures emerging from the fog, rampaging into the town and tearing flesh and stone with their massive claws. These creatures appear rabid, familiar but warped, and they swarm the town with no regard for their own safety or benefit. Examples: (1) (2) (3) (4)
   
   
3. Corpses are disappearing. Despite deaths, the cemetery isn't seeing any more business. Rumour has it that a certain wealthy denizen has been paying to have the corpses taken away. But to where, and why, remains unknown…

Numbers

Numbers! Everyone starts with one that glows on their bodies — as a fun thread mechanic, we suggest they're somewhere visible, but it's up to you!



Because while this is not IC knowledge yet, numbers are determined by how troubled your character is. This may be based on their past actions and crimes, but also alienating habits, regrets, personality flaws, trauma, etc — a higher number does not necessarily mean they're a bad person, but it may signify a difficult time in their life, or substantial personal issues.

As passengers enter this car, they'll notice that their numbers may begin to change in response to certain actions and decisions. The general rule is that numbers change as characters work through their issues. If they make a decision that serves to better themselves, their number will decrease. But if they make a decision that is ill-intentioned, their number will increase. Players can change their number as they see fit going forward.

OOC Notes

Exploration: Players may submit on-going threads here to get a short mod tag with further discoveries in any given location. Characters can potentially earn items or clues as to the car's objective this way. Please limit your explorations to one per player; we will let you all know if we have the capacity to do more!

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locomo e2 traincation

FAQ & Game Info / Calendar / Taken
Applications / Reserves / Hiatus & Drops



FULL NAVIGATION

Comments

[testgasm]

That's...not a name, but fine, okay. What should I call you, then? Hey, you? [And then, a little bit under his 'breath'--] Wouldn't be the first time.

[Wheatley can do nothing but watch as Nanu ransacks the house--he doesn't necessarily feel for the people getting all their stuff touched (maybe they shouldn't have left if they didn't want that to happen)--but he is a little nervous that whoever lives here might come back.]

My name is Wheatley. I can't--can't actually see my number so that's not really of any use to you. If that's what you're planning on calling me, which you shouldn't, because I have a name.

[kahunanu]

[Hey, you would probably be fine in any other circumstance where Nanu would reason he'd never see Wheatley again after this but that's very likely not going to be his luck. ]

Wheatley. [ He repeats. Sounds like a Pokemon name. He returns to the table with his supplies and sits. Before he tends to himself he predictably cracks open the liquor and takes a swig. Just one. ]

Mine's Nanu. Number's here. [ He relents, hooking his finger in the collar of his shirt and tugging down just enough so the glowing 430 can be seen. He figures there's no reason to be cagey about it and the exchange of this might even be beneficial. He seems to continue to procrastinate taking care of his own wounds to fish out his phone. It doesn't take him long to find Wheatley's profile, especially now that he has a name. He smirks briefly at what he sees and then puts his phone on the table and slides it across, leaving it upright so Wheatley can see his own homework. Presumably he can access the network... somehow... and this might be redundant, but just in case he's being a little too optimistic, ]

This you? Wheatley "Property damage" robot?

[testgasm]

[Wheatley watches all this with an appropriately skeptical squint, partly because he doesn't really care about anyone else's number, partly because he is pretty sure that alcohol doesn't belong to Nanu. Then he's on his phone, and Wheatley has no idea what he's doing on it until he announces that he's looked up his profile and slides the phone across the table as proof. Not great! He looks about as flustered as a little robot without facial features can.]

Wh--property damage? I don't--I don't know who wrote that. Sounds like libel. Or slander, maybe, I always get those two mixed up.

[But, unless there are any other eyeball-robots on board this existential train ride, the profile in question does, in fact, belong to him. His optic moves from side to side as he reads it over.]

Middle management and test proctoring, though, that's--I suppose that's correct. In a sense. Not sure where they got the rest of it.

[kahunanu]

Uh huh. [ He doesn't sound so convinced but he also doesn't seem to think less of Wheatley for it. His profile had some labeling too so apparently this train has a sense of humor. Which is weird to think about. He pockets his phone and starts to finally clean up his wounds. He'd be perfectly content to sit here in silence but he has a feeling Wheatley won't last long for that, and better to keep the conversation on the little robot instead of himself for as long as he can help it. ]

Test proctoring? For this Aperture, is that it?

[testgasm]

Honestly! I’d like to complain to whoever’s in charge here. You can’t just say whatever you want, not when someone's reputation is on the line.

[Wheatley seems a little desperate to convince Nanu that most of the things on his profile are horrible lies. It’s probably not very convincing, and he seems to realize this, so he jumps on the chance to change the subject, if only a little.]

Aperture Laboratories, yes. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of it?

[kahunanu]

Haven't heard of it. [ He frowns briefly as he works some of the sting out of his wounds but it seems to do well for keeping his focus. ] Imagining something close to Aether's labs but supposing you haven't heard of that either.

Lots of white walls and floors, sterile and oppressive, full of secret research? That sort of shtick?

[testgasm]

Uh, yes. Exactly that, actually.

[Wheatley manages to look surprised--an impressive feat for someone without a face. Nanu says he doesn't know Aperture, but that's certainly an apt description of the place. He narrows his shutters, a bit suspicious.]

Are you sure you haven't been there? Or heard of it, at least? Because that's a--that's a fairly accurate description that you just gave.

[kahunanu]

[ Nanu, as ever, looks unmoved. A little harder to be self-satisficed when his interrogation subject (shit he guesses that's what this is? Does he even know how to have a normal casual conversation with a stranger anymore?) isn't human. The expression is close enough, he'll give it that. Impressive for something without a face. ]

I just described Aether's labs. Seen one science lab you've seen 'em all, I guess.

What'd you do there?

[testgasm]

[Wheatley can't actually attest to that, because the only place he's ever been is Aperture. Is it true that all science labs look the same? He's kind of skeptical--because how many of them are run by omnipotent central AI systems?]

Okay, doubt it, but at least you've got some frame of reference.

[Maybe he's uncomfortable with the prospect of more places like Aperture.]

Lots of things. Looked after humans for a while, proctored some tests, as you--as you've seen. On your phone.

[kahunanu]

What kind of tests?

[testgasm]

Oh, you know, the cube-and-button-based kind.

[Said like that's supposed to explain anything.]

Enough about me, though. What do you do, besides let your cat murder other people's livestock?

[kahunanu]

Cube and what now...

[ That didn't explain anything! Anyway the subject's back on him and sharply so. Nanu narrows his eyes and decides he's gotten to a point where his wounds are as clean as they're going to get and worth wrapping up. Casually and monotone, he dumps some food food the little robot to chew on. ]

She's a Pokemon. I train them. I'm a Pokemon Trainer. There's a lot more like that, not all cat-shaped.

[testgasm]

You know, putting cubes on buttons.

[He doesn't even seem to register that this doesn't make much sense. The works Pokemon Trainer doesn't make sense either, so he supposes it's all fair.]

Train them to...do what, exactly? Terrorize people?

[kahunanu]

[ Cubes... on buttons... Some mutual non-sense making going on but Nanu tiredly attempts to continue. He's done this to himself there's no going back, really. At least until he's done wrapping up his arms. He figures he can just leave Wheatley here if needed, at least he'll be safe and dry and not in a hive of chickens. ]

Battle other Pokemon, typically. [Their primary utility, for certain, which sounds when phrased like that. He's not going to lie about it. That said he adds very much as an afterthought all the other things they legitimately do. ] Transportation, service, search and rescue. All kinds of things.

Just like all you robots have different forms and functions or something, right?

[testgasm]

[Cubes on buttons! Everything about that makes sense. Unlike the things Nanu is saying, which make him squint a little harder.]

Battle? You mean, fighting?

[Animals fighting seems a little suspect, but at least the rest of the list is reasonable. He is, however, a little horrified at the thought of there being more than one kind of this creature.]

I guess, though I don't see why you wouldn't just--just use robots.

[kahunanu]

Too much time, material, and money to build something to just to see it beat up.

[ Super fighting robots--yeah no that'd never go anywhere. Pokemon were too plentiful and could do so much more, say nothing for the ever important empathetic bonds one could have with the creatures and not so easily with cold unfeeling robots... or at least in his imagination. This little robot was the most talkative and human-like one he's ever met--maybe someone was into that (not him)--and he's still going to be more than happy to leave Wheatley alone in this house after he's done with his arms here. Which he nearly is.]

No offense but you don't look very comfortable to ride around on. Or even capable of it.

[testgasm]

So, you let your pets fight each other instead. Makes perfect sense.

[It's clear Wheatley doesn't understand why anything is fighting anything, and also he's not sure robots would be a suitable replacement for that. Better to just move on from this subject entirely.]

Look, I'm willing to chalk it all up to cultural differences. Sure, you wouldn't be able to--to ride around on me, and I wouldn't want you to do that, either, but there are other models.

[He seems to realize that he's going off on a tangent.]

Have you found anything yet?

[kahunanu]

[ He wrestles with spitting out another quip, defending what Wheatley is effectively framing as senseless animal fighting, which really he's not wrong in this context... just wrong in a Pokemon context. The mere thought of arguing over the morality of it with this guy is exhausting. Nanu lets it slide. His numbers stay stagnant.

He's also vaguely curious about the other models but only to the point that if they were also here on the train he'd probably be able to identify them quickly and easily without Wheatley's preface. He fastens the last of the bandages on his arms, good and tight. ]

Sure did. [ He stands and takes a swig from that bottle one more time and then leaves it on the table with a heavy clunk. ] Found you a safe new home.

[ Nanu's satisfied Wheatley will be safe here and he hears no chickens braying anywhere near the door any more so he moves for it to leave. ]

[testgasm]

[The good news is that Wheatley isn't really judging the animal fighting--mostly just the fact that Nanu chooses to put himself in the general vicinity of animals in the first place. Well, he supposes he can't begrudge humans their strange quirks. It takes him another moment to realize what's happening, but as soon as it clicks, he's halfway to panic again.]

Wait, wait, you're not--don't leave me here, mate.

[Look! Look at him, all pathetic and limbless and flapping his little handlebars.]

What if nobody else comes by? You don't want to be responsible for stranding me, do you?

[kahunanu]

Sure am. [ He says as does one last final body check and turns for the door. Wheatley continues and Nanu waves him off without even turning around. ]

I delivered you somewhere safe. That's my good deed.

[testgasm]

I can't believe this.

[Well, he can, but only because he's so used to being thoroughly disappointed by humans. That's the worst part about this train--being totally at the mercy of people like Nanu, who will abandon him here without a second thought. He'll have to call for help over the network now, and hope that someone else is feeling a little more magnanimous.]

Fine, go ahead. Abandon me. All alone here, with no--with no arms or legs! Completely at the mercy of anything that might wander by, so if anything happens to me, it's all on you. See if I ever do you a favor!