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Priority Log - Part 1
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:
- 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.
- 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)
- 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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no subject
What's the p-point then? That's just like putting lipstick on a pig. Or...or wrapping a crap in g-g-gold foil!
[Her eyes dart over the wedding dress. The gorgeous girl beneath it. Sure, perhaps it was overly frilly and out of date, but she still looked like a painting. High glamour, even in this dump.]
I'll bet... [She stifles a hiccup. Wow, that ale was powerful stuff.] I'll bet you could be c-covered in garbage and people would still worship you!
no subject
Angrily, she takes her wand back. ]
What's wrong with you? What do you even mean when you say that stuff?
[ Damn.. The fabric of her dress is too heavy to dramatically storm out quickly. So, she sits, stuffing her wand into the garter around her thigh. ]
People don't.. Insinuate other people are pigs with makeup on or gold foiled shit!
no subject
Wh...What are you g-getting offended for?! Isn't it obvious? [She points to her face, the blight of all blights. The be-all end-all of gothic horrors.] I'm the pig! I'm the t-t-turd!
[Was she listening at all? She would know if Toko was insulting her. She'd aim straight for the jugular.
Her head is back in her hands, mashing her glasses into her face. She speaks more to the table than any living creature.]
Uuuugh. What's the p-point. Girls like you wouldn't understand what it is to b-be reviled...be used as p-punchline...the lowest...
[She doesn't finish that one. It feels too grim, even for the foul clouds fogging her thoughts. She wishes she had insulted the girl now. Something nasty to send her running and grant her swimming head peace.]
no subject
[ Lottie says, awkward and forceful, somewhere under her breath and just loud enough to catch between all of Toko's jabs at herself. But then she just, gives up at trying to protect those lens (because she sure wishes she had hers — Lottie is a good blind half the time now). Instead, she just grips her wand beneath the table and frowns, suddenly feels a lot more older hearing Toko speak like she has the world on her shoulders.
Man, she can't believe she's going to say this, but, ]
Look. You're not a turd, okay.. You're just a [ Teenager.. Teen.. Student??? What word should she use.. ] girl stuck in a shitty situation. Shittier than it usually is in the real world.
And I understand! [ Mumbled, in a bit of a rambling daze because she's not sure where she's going with this tangent: ] I was a teen once.. I had a lot of growing pains and I don't always feel like an adult, either. But, I don't know, life sucks sometimes. People suck. It's just how things are, even for girls like me.
cw: mention of child abuse
Well, no. Either of her moms were likely to slap her if she put on the waterworks in public, but they'd never be taking her to a pub in the first place. Still, Toko manages to convey the peevishness of a regular disgruntled teen, pointedly pulling the frames free to dangle in one hand. They are prescription, she's got a point. That doesn't mean she's got to be happy about it.
She will also be conducting the rest of this conversation in a slight squint. Near-sighted blues.]
They are? [She sniffs, covering her nose with her sleeve. It's hard to imagine a living fantasy like this girl being a gawky outcast. Not unless one part of her face grew in before the rest, or she's had like, thirty plastic surgeries. She doesn't look fake, though.
The real clincher is the humble mumble she spills her wisdom in. It could be the truth. It sounds like the truth. If she were faking there'd be some kind of cloying energy to it, none of this shame or shrinking away.
Doubtful, maybe still bitter, but more curious than anything, Toko peers closer at her company.]
...H-How?
[Make it good, Lottie.]
no subject
Suddenly, she feels stupid, wearing this gaudy gown in this rundown bar. What is she doing, even? ]
My ex-boyfriend broke up with me after five years together. He's the only guy I ever dated. [ She frowns, ] I still haven't told my family because it's easier to just let them think we're still together.
I had a stalker, who wanted to be me. He dated her when we were on a "break". She said when she was trying to be me she felt so miserable. And then she kissed me and Caroline pushed her off the roof. Allegedly. [ A pause. ] Going to court sucks.
And, actually, honestly, all my friends suck. And probably will never believe any of the stupid crap happening right now, even if I told them. No one listens to me. I can't talk to people. I play myself all the time. Everyone in my family thinks I'm crazy for being a blogger.
[ There's a moment where she doesn't say anything, clearly about to let loose something ("And I think I killed my crush one time, but she's alive so I don't even know anymore.") but chooses not to. ]
..And more, obviously. A lot of stuff has been going on.
no subject
She has a moment to lament that people who sounded perfectly intelligent in person turned into illiterate goblins online, but that's the way the world wants to go. Nobody appreciates the beauty of language anymore.
Nevermind that. Even through the drunken haze thickening her thoughts, Toko can tell this is A Lot. Her mouth purses over the words.]
Sh-she was murdered?
[Court isn't fun, yes, this is true. Toko's never made it to a proper tribunal but the class trials were a foul enough taste on their own. And to have a thing like that happen so casually, without some insidious mastermind behind the scenes? Toko's used to killing by now, but that's in extreme circumstances. Not a normal day in a normal life.
Toko looks down to the table. She pulls at her fingers. The knuckles don't crack, but the motion soothes all the same. She's not had the same experiences at all. Or rather, she has, but inversed. This is loneliness via desire, a maintenance of appearances, rather than a flagrantly repulsive existence. And if she were to put it in a context she's intimate with...]
...It's th-the plight of nobility. [Toko's eyes are fixed to the side. Her voice is low and steady. She feels more herself when she can think about what's between the pages of a book. How many historical romances has she gobbled up in her lifetime?] To have something c-coveted by all is to draw their ire. A single misstep c-can cost their position. Any friend can turn into foe. Yet they cling to their seats of p-power, because they know even to have something that costs them everything is b-better than having nothing at all.
[It's why Byakuya presents such a cold front to the world. How can anyone be trusted when he is at the head of such a prestigious organization? Any number of usurpers could rush to take his place the second he slips up. She never thought about it in the context of someone beautiful. But in the world of blogging or modelling, she supposes there's countless cutthroat bitches looking to take the top spot, by any means necessary. As for the rest of humanity?]
And for those who h-have nothing...they cannot sympathize. All they see is what they're d-denied.
[She trails off, still staring at the wall to the side. Ugh. She's gone and said a bunch of weird stuff again, hasn't she?
Well. It's not like this beauty queen has a shining impression of her anyway. Toko curls back in, but not before reaching for the long-forgotten pint on the side. Pigeon-poured or not, she wants to forget everything they're talking about. This is too depressing.]
no subject
Or at least, interrupt without sounding as smart and poetic as she does. A lot of what she says flies over her head at first, but she thinks she understands. It's a concept Lottie battles with virtually all the time: the real Lottie Person and the fake Lottie Person. The one she has to constantly show to the public to try and reel in her image as much as she can from ruin, because it's either going to be herself that does it in or her inconsiderate friends. Her ex. Caroline, who clearly doesn't mind murdering or cajoling her into her worst. The list goes on.
Some small part of her likes to think that people can sympathize. It's not like she's Beyonce or Rihanna.. Most of her fanbase are women and all of them call her "Mom". But she's moderated, curated, her comment sections enough to know people can turn on her easily. That when rumors spread about her and her ex boyfriend splitting up circulated there was equal amounts of catty glee and sadness about what could be.
She stirs and stews and sits in this feelings, the reminder that her life isn't so simple — certainly isn't right now — and that this girl is really literate when she's drunk (go figure). It makes her wonder what kind of media she's consumed to slap this all together, to make being an influencer sound.. Important. Like it actually means something to people other than a pretty face to look at, because Lottie knows she has a pretty face. Has been advertising said face for eight years until she started gaining traction.
Quietly, silently, she halfheartedly slaps (a more dejected, depressed pat) of Toko's hand away from the drink. She doesn't take the easy solution of drinking it herself to stop the teen (it messes with her allergy medication, as tempting as it is), so she instead draws the mug closer to the wall. Right by the edge of the table and out of sight. And then, she heaves a sigh, carefully rubs at her face to remind herself.. She doesn't know, shit happens. She says aloud, not really wanting a response because she can't figure one out for the life of her she'd like: ]
Everybody wants what they can't have, right?
[ Like, they want to get off this train but for some reason they can't. And Lottie wants to be someone with the capacity to care for people longer than it takes to paint her nails, but for some reason she can't. There's a long moment where she snaps out of her own self spiral, stares at Toko and the small way she curls into herself — ]
C'mon. Where are you staying right now?
FUN FACT i wrote this in a doc when the work wifi stopped working and then...forgot to post it
No matter. The blogging sensation sums up the whole spiel in one tidy cliché. Toko sobers some, her ire fading.]
Yeah...
[That was the crux of it all. Her boiling envies and bitter hatreds. Everybody had things she couldn't grasp. Beauty, affection, acceptance, respect, love, family and friends. Each slipped between her fingers and fell into the waiting grasp of people with better luck. How was it that some people were made to live off scraps while others were served on silver platters?
Not a unique lament. It's been echoed in other mouths since the dawn of time. But Toko can't help the sharpness with which she wants.]
Um...j-just one of those Happy Home shelters. It's n-not far. [Her head is rather heavy. Maybe this girl's got the right idea. Toko sighs and wipes her eyes once more, then sets her glasses back into place.]
C-can you walk in that...
[It's a rather billowy affair. That style of wedding dress was probably popular in the eighties.]
OMG... it sounds like your job's wifi and i need to have a talk 🔨
..She's worried about her right now? Lottie's pouts her lips ever so slightly, a bit surprised at the question.
A reply doesn't happen straight away, but comes loose after she shimmies out of her side of the booth (it's a whole affair, if she's being honest, because she's so wide with this dress, but she manages after a few moments). Besides, being able to waddle in this dress doesn't matter so much because her home is not that far, and distance be damned, she can definitely do that! ]
Yeah, I'm used to walking in heels.
[ So much that she's used to the callouses and blisters, the aches, that come with it. She doesn't mention that part, but instead dusts off the lace front of her skirt and crosses her arms down at Toko. The real question is, ]
Can you walk, though?
pls it is a nuisance
Me?
[Somehow she failed to factor herself into this equation. Toko slides out herself and finds her knees much less solid than they ought to be. She wobbles, gripping the table. Steadies herself. Just. Take it slow. As long as she holds the side of her head and sort of feels around the air with her other hand]
...Yeah, 'm fine. Just go b-back to your...wedding.
say no more im coming!!!! 🥊🥊🥊
Lottie completely forgets the fact there's a teen who has impaired vision, wobbly legs, and is thoroughly smashed and emotionally compromised when she hears the insinuation she is, in fact, married?? Some part of her feels bile rise up because the idea is so foreign, so unattainable, that her body reacts on its own. ]
My.. [ She starts laughing, just a tiny awkward one. ] No, this is because I was saving some [ random cute boy ] guy from getting married to that weirdo! The one with the super aggro mom.. It's not real. Why would I get married here??
okay to wrap about here?
[Well, she did, but they both agreed it didn't count once she started pitching a fit about it. Funny enough, it's the same sweet Jedi boy Lottie rescued! But we don't have time to unpack the alternate reality convergences in dwrp, so nevermind about that!]
I agree. N-no one should get married here. This is one of the worst places I've ever been to. [And she's been living in an apocalyptic hell hole. But look, no one had to eat bird seed or fight freaking zombie beasts, plus there was electricity.] L-let's just get the hell out of here then.