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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Comments

[testgasm]

[Wheatley's gaze sort of follows them out of the room, as if he expects to see something suspicious--suspicious beyond everything else going on. He's certainly not able to sneak his way anywhere, which means he mostly just glares at them when they leave.]

Probably a distraction. Like we're stupid or something, and we're not going to notice how shady all this is.

[Who's stupid! He's not stupid. He knows there's something going on.]

You can have mine, at any rate. [The drink. The crostini.] I can't exactly do anything with it.

[constrainer]

[ Sigh... all this frou-frou food is not his style, but also like, he knows rich people love to see their guests at least indulge their insane richness? He nods in acknowledgment to Wheatley's offer, begrudgingly taking the flute of champagne from the table. ]

Right. I suppose you don't require any usual sustenance...

[ other than like... oil?? He guesses? Kurapika knows nothing about robots. In any case, a talking robot is hardly the weirdest thing compared to his own home world, but that doesn't mean it's not a little interesting. If these people want them to be distracted, then he can at least make small talk while he waits for one of these maids to do something suspicious. ]

You're autonomous, correct? You're not controlled by another passenger?

[testgasm]

Thank goodness for that, right?

[Wheatley isn't convinced that their gracious hosts aren't trying to poison them, or something. He supposes that if all the passengers start dropping dead, he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it, but it is sort of relieving to know that if it does happen, he won't be among them.

Not that he's going to say any of that out loud. It's easier to explain robots to Kurapika, instead.]

Autonomous, yes. Not being controlled by anyone, no man behind the curtain, as it were. This is--this is all me.

[constrainer]

[ He hums in understanding, silently awed. Technology like this is a thing mostly of fantasy where he comes from, and even moreso, from his own life experience. He hardly knew what a bus was about five years ago, so a fully autonomous machine is something to be appreciated, at least from the technical standpoint. Now that he thinks about it, he's pretty sure someone mentioned a "beach ball" passenger to him... ]

You must come from an advanced universe, Wheatley. [ He agrees, anyway— easier to talk about robots than how intensely suspicious the free food and fake-nice welcome is. ] That's your name, isn't it? I've heard of you, on the network. Nothing bad.

[ It's said neutrally, because he is 100% lying. But he's waited to use his judgment until he actually met the robot in question— whether or not he's as suspicious as Fukawa told him. As it stands, nothing seems too suspicious about the guy, nothing that sounds alarm bells, at least. Anyone is a potential ally to Kurapika— even the morally dubious, anyways. ]

You can call me Kurapika. [ Here's where he'd offer a handshake in Official greeting, but like. No need! He just nods his head politely. And then, dryly: ] I'm not being controlled by another passenger either, for the record.

[testgasm]

[He mostly only hears one thing.]

Yes! That's me, Wheatley. Very advanced. I see my, uh. Reputation precedes me.

[Nothing bad is good! Wheatley isn't necessarily well-liked, back home, so he's enjoying this displacement as a sort of fresh start, if nothing else. There's a bit of a nervous edge to his voice, like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop, or for Kurapika to say 'just kidding', but when that doesn't happen he seems to perk up again.]

No, I wouldn't think you are, I mean, you lot are generally fine on your own, from what I understand. [He likes to think he has a working understanding of humans, having looked after them for so long.] Nice to meet you, though. Wish it were under better circumstances!