Introduction Log || It's Happening Again (Again!)

[eternitymods]

Who: All characters (New Arrivals, Previous Arrivals, and Native OCs) When: June 5th Where: The Dream Width (Airship), the Curti Center, and the Housing District What: It is happening again. More outworlders have arrived in the Dream Width and must be rescued and brought back to their new homes on Vaikuntha Warnings/Notes: Only new players can put up a toplevel. Previous arrivals and native characters can respond to new characters' toplevel posts. MEMORY [ You've been here before...? No, wait, why would you think that? You're here in the moment, everything is as it should be...(?) The memory you are trapped in has completely enthralled you. You stop questioning and accept, you relive and repeat. Luckily, you are not alone. Others have arrived to help you. The travelers in the airships will enter the nebula formed by your memories and attempt to wake you up and bring you back to the present. The dreamer's mind will shape how these newcomers are perceived and how the NPCs in the memory respond to them. For more details on the mechanics, please refer to this post] ARRIVAL [ You wake from your dreams, from your memories, on a narrow cot. There are fleeting impressions- recycled air, humming machinery, movement, strangers waking around you. The room you wake in is lined with cots, with barely enough space between them to walk to the door, though not all of them show signs of having been occupied. The makeshift infirmary seems like it was prepared to hold many more than are here. Stepping out, there is a lobby space that bears the signs of having once held some furniture, now cleared away to make space. Your footsteps echo in the emptiness. As the automatic door slides shut on the infirmary, a light flashes on the far side of the room. A flickering holographic projection of a man’s face and gloved hand appears projected in the space above the arrivals’ heads. He backs up so his upper body is in frame for the recording. An arm, covered in the same orange flightsuit sleeve, hands him a tablet. The man begins to read. A written version of the message scrolls along the bottom of the projection as he speaks. ] ’Welcome travelers’… That’s way too formal. Hey everyone. Hi! [ The second man leans into the frame to add his greeting. ] Don’t panic. You were floating out there, but we pulled you in and rescued you. Yeah, we’re heroic AND handsome. And also the only ones crazy enough to come out here to get you. [ A woman’s voice calls from out of frame. ] Can you two be serious for ONE moment and stick to your scripts? [ The two men give each other a conspiratorial eyeroll. This does not appear to be their first take. ] Anyways, no need to panic. Seriously, don’t do anything reckless. We got our fill of that with Skywalker. [A huff is heard offscreen, and the men finally spare the tablet another glance.] ‘Your pilots will be navigating treacherous environs as this message plays…’ Claire, seriously? Nobody talks like this! [ The tablet is tossed to the side and lands with a thunk offscreen. ] We’re gonna wing it. Look, everyone, we’re workin’ hard to get you planetside safely, and it’s gonna take some tricky flying to do it. So the door to the cockpit is locked so we can focus on not getting us all killed. Don’t try to open it, unless you want to be stardust. We promise you’ll get answers about what’s going on once we land. But for now, please trust us. Right now, we’re your only hope. [ The second man leans forward, close to the recording device, and presses a button. The projection freezes for a moment, and then the message starts on the next recorded message. ] CURTI CENTER [ Finally after hours of flight, you arrive at the Curti Center. The other NPCs await you having been notified of your retrieval in the Dream Width. Cid gives a short and to the point welcome speech, explaining what the situation is: you were lost in a space called the Dream Width. You are now on a planet called Vaikuntha: for ages, the people of this world have used Airships to rescue people lost in the Dream Width, with one person being found roughly every ten years. No one knows why this happens, but this has been a mutually beneficial exchange, with the people from Vaikutha rescuing people lost in the Dream Width and the rescued ones sharing their wisdom with the people of Vaikuntha. Ten years ago, something unusual happened: two people were found at once, Biggs and Wedge. But that was nothing compared to what happened two months ago. And now, here you are. No one knows why such a large number of people has arriving lately, but the Curti Center is a place dedicated to piercing the Dream Width's secrets. Cid also introduces the other ones: his assistant Jessie, a young woman fascinated by the new arrivals, Claire, the woman sighing and writing in her schedule book upon being pointed out as the bookkeeper, Kupoto and Mogaruru, their Mognet representatives and finally the Native OCs: those brave and kind souls who have accepted to help you all on a daily basis. After Cid finishes (and Claire grumbles at her work never being done), the employees, including the Native OCs, provide a tour of the facility and help the newcomers navigate their future lives. Now is the time to ask questions and look over pamphlets regarding locations, Jobs, life in Vaikuntha... ] [ If you want to contact an NPC, you can do so on the NPC Contact Page. ] A BALL OF FLUFF NAMED MOOGLE [ It has been a long day, perhaps now you would like to find your way to a place to sleep? Or perhaps you'd like to get some answers, but you can't be bothered to go seek people out? And lo, just as despair begins settles in, a Moogle slams into you! Or stops by your side if their aim is decent... It's the Moogle Cid mentioned in his speech earlier! And they'll be informing you that now, they will stick to you like your shadow and help you in anyway they can! They're also giving you your iMog Slate- Now you can get onto Mognet! Isn't it great? ] A QUICK CHECK-UP [ Whether it's your Moogle, Native OCs or NPCs, all will urge you to stop by the hospital wing for a basic check-up. You may disagree, but listen. You've just been thrown into a space between worlds, rescued, and brought to another world. For your own sake, that's a good idea. Should you give in and go (or should you be dragged by your Moogle or a Native OC), you will find yourself in the cold and white space very reminiscent of an hospital. For characters with specific medical conditions necessitating help, this is where they will receive it if asked. The doctors and nurses are all White Mages or Chemists, with various levels into their Job as well as medical knowledge. Don't mind the confused looks if you look like nothing they've ever seen before... It's hard for a doctor to be unable to give a proper diagnosis to a patient! For everyone else though, they'll be let go with smiles and be given a candy as they leave. No one likes medical check-ups, but it's a very quick and basic one: testing reflexes, taking your temperature and the likes. On the bright side, while you're grumpily sitting on a bed with a thermometer on your forehead or in your mouth, it might be a good time to socialize with your fellow new arrival who's having lights flashed into their eyes by a doctor. Misery loves company, after all. ] PRETTY SIGHTS [ There's plenty of rooms to wander about in, with several points of interest apart from the offices. The Airship Hangar is where the airships are kept and the first room you entered. Workers keep guard to prevent the outworlders from getting too close to the vehicles. Airships are expensive and they don't want you messing with them, after all. Venturing into the Research Section, you can walk through public exhibitions on astronomy, airship design, and asterisk studies. A good place to get used to the basic science of this world. The laboratories lie behind a thick locked door with a sign reading "EMPLOYEES ONLY". No going there, for now anyway. Not too far from there are the Employee Quarters - work stations, apartments, and lounge areas. The latter are available to the public, whereas the rest is locked to Native OCs. But if you get them to be friends with you, perhaps they'll let you visit? Also open to all is a Cafeteria - a standard food court with stalls serving all types of Vaikunthan cuisine. The Chef is a very jovial and absent-minded Hypello. Beware of long lines and crowded tables. Should you prefer open spaces, then the gardens are for you! There are different sections in the gardens around the center. One boasts a wide array of blooming flowers, another more practical with herbs commonly used in Vaikunthan cooking. One had been cultivated for butterflies and hummingbirds to visit. Paths have been laid through so that visitors can safely navigate, and moogles will swoop down and shout at anyone who strays into the flower beds. Or perhaps, you want to wait till the sunset. Dusk on a new world, but a beginning of a new life... The sea shines bright in the orange light. A good moment for quiet contemplation. ] HOUSING [The housing accommodations are the best the Curti staff could provide, given that they are still also sheltering most of the previous arrivals from the Dream Width. The keys have been entrusted to the moogles who will be guiding the new arrivals. The new arrivals can stop by the Curti Center storage room to collect some essential supplies that have been donated by charity organizations from around the world (there are boxes of toothbrushes and whitening toothpaste sent from the Zora, hair brushes from the Elezen, quick-drying towels from the Hypello, among the various donations of clothes, toiletries, and blankets), before heading to their temporary homes. The people of Vaikuntha have done their best to provide for their new neighbors and help them get on their feet. Still, things will be a little cramped until the off-worlders can find employment and move into better housing. The staff hopes they can get along with one another until alternate arrangements can be made. You can survive living with roommates for a few months, right?] THE JOB FOR YOU [An important part of life on Vaikuntha is the Job (or Jobs) you choose to take. No, not the way you earn your living. Your Job Class. Most Natives only choose one or two, but you'll have an opportunity to take on more Job Asterisks after you master your first Jobs. The Curti Center's resident Job Master, Ganeshan, is more than happy to arrange transportation to the various Guilds so that you can claim your first Asterisks. ]

Comments

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie smiles ruefully. "That... well, I also know that too well. My very first mission I couldn't even move because I was too busy trying to figure what form I should be using like a complete idiot. Honestly, though, this is partially, to, uh," she rubs the back of her head, glancing at Lion, "get my mind off things." She taps her slate another few times, conjuring a water bottle that she takes a few sips from.

[arosetowar]

It remains difficult for Cornelia to make sense of the lion, but because it seems docile she only focuses on it when Connie does and never lets her gaze linger. She'll ask about it later if the opportunity presents itself; the same applies to the slate and to the water bottle. Though both matters are strange and confusing and necessitate questioning, she sees no need to address them right away. At least not while Connie seems troubled by something.

"Are you all right?"

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie brushes a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Um, well..." she looks away. It would be weird to vent to a nameless stranger about all this, but she couldn't talk to Futaba, and Papyrus was busy and she had no idea where Hunk was and screw it she at least looked kinda friendly and Connie really needed to get some stuff off her chest.

"...not really. I, uh, ran into some pretty messed-up stuff in the Dream Width when I was up there rescuing the new arrivals. It's kinda funny, though. What hurt the worst wasn't seeing everybody else's bad memories. It was being yanked out of my happy one."

[arosetowar]

Out of everything Connie says, only Dream Width really registers. Cornelia doesn't recall having been rescued, only waking up on the ship. She witnessed no strangers' memories and experienced none of her own, at least not to an extent where she needed to be yanked free of them. It's more information to take in; it's more questions she cannot answer. And to ask for elaboration feels selfish when faced with a child who needs to speak.

She leans fowards and asks, "What was the memory?"

[conniemaheswaran]

"It's... hard to explain." Connie purses her lips, wringing her hands. How could she explain fusion to a well-intentioned adult without making it seem weird? Plus, Cornelia hadn't been exposed to Vaikunthan weirdness yet, so she might question magic's existence depending on her exposure to such things on her own world.

"The memory was before everything got... complicated. Before the abductions, before the Cluster, before the handship, before even Peridot... I didn't even know anything about the kind of trouble my planet was in back then. I didn't even know how to fight. It was just a nice night on the beach." Smiling ruefully, Connie shakes her head. "The best night of my life, really. I'd be lying if I said if it didn't also get complicated, but that's part of why it was so great, really."

[arosetowar]

There's something like magic in Cornelia's world but it's a dark power, twisted, corrupt. It has cost her more than she can bear to think about. She won't question its existence but is not yet prepared to embrace it as a positive force.

Very little of what Connie says makes sense to Cornelia, but the sentiment is familiar. "The first sacrifice any warrior makes is their own sense of peace," she says, her tone soft, reflective. "It's no wonder you wanted to remain there."

Now, she finally motions to the lion. "Was the memory from a time before him as well?"

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie seems almost surprised when Cornelia points out Lion, then laughs a little bit. "Actually, no. Lion--no, I didn't name him, yes, that's the only thing he responds to now--is actually the one that dragged me to my first battle. Without him, I probably wouldn't have earned this," Connie gestures to the massive sword, still beside her. "or become a combatant at all. I was involved in the more... odd aspects of my world for a long time before I finally had to step forward to the front lines."

[arosetowar]

Perhaps one day, she will grow accustomed to asking such fantastical questions; right now, though, she treats each word she speaks as if it's foreign.

"You became a combatant on the whim of a pink lion?"

[conniemaheswaran]

Oddly enough, Vaikuntha made Connie's Earth seem even weirder in some areas. True, she was living in a place filled to bursting with JRPG cliches, but on the other hand there weren't conquering empires of genderless space rocks waiting to suck the planet dry. "...kinda. My friend had the brilliant idea of riding this weird new pet that he got on a mission to the movies, and it ended up running across the water and teleporting us to some secret armory, where he made the brilliant decision of activating a training robot meant for seasoned warriors and not some goofy kids. I ended up pulling the sword out of Lion's mane and we used it to reflect the robot's blasts back at it."

...Cornelia would probably need some proof. To demonstrate her point, Connie walks over to Lion, whose mane and eyes begin to glow white at seeing her intent, deposits Rose's sword within the mane's pocket dimension, and subsequently pulls it out. Shaking her head, Connie says, "I wish I could say I'm making this up but I'm not."

[arosetowar]

The lion is a pocket dimension. Of course the lion is a pocket dimension; why wouldn't it be when every new story Connie tells seems designed to add a new layer of absurdity onto her situation. There's so much Cornelia can tackle in these latest revelations that she suspects it would take hours to clarify everything. So she focuses on something simpler.

"What else does he hold within his mane?"

Cornelia must be getting a headache

[conniemaheswaran]

"A lot of things." Connie pauses. That... didn't explain much. "Okay, maybe it might be better if I showed you. Hold on." Taking a deep breath, Connie dives into Lion's mane, emerging a few moments later dragging a large workdesk out of the nonplussed cat before diving into the breach once more, retrieving tools, spare weapons, large tomes on magitek, and other oddities. "...like I said, a lot of things," Connie says, gesturing to her belongings. "It's like this huge, endless savannah with this big pink tree in the middle."

Demonstration over, she begins shoving her belongings back into Lion.

Her life is a headache rn.

[arosetowar]

A workdesk.

This child dove into a lion's mane and reemerged from within with a workdesk. A workdesk. And other things as well, of course, but despite how strange most of the items were, watching them be pulled out of th epocket dimension was less absurd. It's not the size of the desk or her assumptions about its weight that stand out, but rather its almost comical presence among a variety of objects which do make sense to have on-hand. She stares at it until it's gone, befuddled, then sighs and shakes her head in an attempt to refocus herself.

One question answered opens up another. It's becoming a pattern. Cornelia purses her lips, contemplative, then asks, "Does anything live in this savannah?"

[conniemaheswaran]

Noticing Cornelia staring at her desk, Connie blushes, a little bit embarrassed. "When you're in my line of work, it pays to have everything you need available immediately when you get hit with inspiration... even if it's just increasing the recharge rate of your force nodes by 0.5%."

At her other, voiced question, Connie says, "I... don't know. It's completely airless in there, but there's some other kind of gas that makes up its atmosphere. Something might be able to live off it, I don't know. There was somebody living in there before, though, but... she's gone now."

[arosetowar]

"Your line of work...?"

Briefly, Cornelia considers whether Connie is a still a child after all. Even in her world there are people who command powers which halt their aging, and being an old mind in a young body would make some degree of sense. Growing up in an atmosphere which bred precocious ambition and ability, however, she is also not too disbeliving that one child can have so many focuses. Even her most power-indifferent siblings preferred keeping themselves occupied than to sitting idle. Or rather, they did when they were young.

Not wanting to bombard Connie with questions, Cornelia sits on the rest of what she's said for now.

[conniemaheswaran]

"I'm a Magitek Knight!" Connie proclaims proudly, then pauses. That... probably sounded completely ridiculous to somebody unfamiliar with the job and to spare Cornelia headaches, it was most likely best to elaborate. "By channeling crystalline energy through specialized technology, Magitek Knights are able to create unique effects similar to magic that can be improved upon and studied through experimentation," Connie explains. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Taking out her iMog Slate, Connie taps and swipes a few times, bringing out her job gear once again, and with a snap of her fingers a massive greatsword made out of purple force flashes into existence, even larger than the pink one she was practicing with earlier. She does a few practice slices with it, showing off a simple combo with Rose's blade, before dismissing the Moonlight Module and her gear. "I can do a lot of other stuff too, but I don't want to damage the gardens."

[arosetowar]

"Similar to magic, but not magic itself?"

Another weapon materialising seemingly from out of nowhere. Another element of mystery, another part of life on Vaikuntha that will be impossible to predict. Cornelia doesn't like it, loathes not knowing what weapon a potential enemy might be wielding, and that may show in how her eyes narrow and in the way that her mouth tightens into a much thinner line.

That has nothing to do with Connie, though, so she also leans back and asks, "Can you describe those other abilities then, or do they need to be witnessed to be understood?"

Sorry for the wall of text

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie would be glad to ramble at length about her projects. Usually, the only ones willing to listen to her were Papyrus and Futaba, and Papyrus was busy with his old friend while Futaba was... well... Shaking off those depressing thoughts, Connie first gestures to her gauntlet. "The glowing circle at the center of my palm here is actually a small forcefield designed to protect some very, very delicate machinery inside, designed to perform one of four functions. I used to have to snap my fingers to choose the laser's mode, but my helmet has rudimentary thoughtscan technology to detect simple triggers and activate one of my gadgets.

"Anyways, the way that this gauntlet either fires a gout of highly focused light--your classic "laser"--or rapidly cools the air from the point of origin to the target in a narrow column, then launches the condensed ice crystals with extreme force; or generates an overwhelmingly negative charge that produces a small burst of lightning; or gathers moisture from the air, compresses it, and launches a lance of highly pressurized water. With the last function, as it's hard to aim when you're firing a projectile that fast and that small, the gauntlet creates a simple hologram of rushing water. If I need to be stealthy, I can deactivate this projection."

Connie lowers her hand, and a large cannon rises from the back of her armor and rests on her shoulder, swiveling back and forth. "This weapon works on the same principles as the gauntlet, but it exchanges power for the ability to fire sustained blasts. I can target multiple enemies in one go with the beam. My gunblade design is likewise a minaturized verison of the gauntlet weapon, as each of the bullets pass through the chamber they pick up a small magitek wiremesh that wraps around the projectile. One mesh superheats and melts, turning the bullet into molten metal; one mesh cools the air around the bullet, coating it in sharp ice; one mesh has an overwhelmingly negative charge to the bullet's positive one, electrifying it; and the last uses less powerful iterations of the water lance to soften the target before the bullet impacts.

"Unfortunately, as the gunblade has to create these meshes in the middle of battle, it also needs specialized materials to manufacture them," Connie pops open a small container on her hip, revealing a variety of metal cylinders, each shining a shade of either red, blue, cyan, or yellow, "and the process to change out the raw materials used in the process is incredibly fiddly, so I can't hotswap modes in battle.

"Then there's the force nodes," Connie points towards the small circles of light contained within ornate gold rings all across her armor. "Like with the gauntlet, the light is really protecting some of the smallest, most delicate machinery I could get my hands on. Placed across my armor in this way, the force nodes can rapidly accelerate my body's regeneration process, but I can only use it in short bursts or risk developing cancer from rampant cell growth.

"The force nodes also serve a secondary function: to absorb a portion of the energy delivered by elemental magic, and funnel some of that energy to the Moonlight Module--that magical sword I showed you earlier--and some to my nervous system, which increases my reaction time and allows me to immediately strike back with the Moonlight Module while still having some space to activate the force nodes to recover or to follow up with another attack.

"Finally, there's the Moonlight Module. I wish I had an ultrascientific explanation for this one, but it's the device I've 'cheated' on the most. It projects a plane of magical force similar to size, shape, and cutting power to a sword, or overlays an additional layer onto my gunblade if I want to go for two-handed strikes rather than a a faster, but less powerful, dual-weapon flurry. Either way, the damage amounts to pretty much the same, due to how fast I can cut with the Moonlight Module in my other hand.

"Any questions?"

is coo is coo

[arosetowar]

This time when Cornelia takes in everything Connie says, she doesn't look quite so lost. There are parallels between her equipment and Knightmare Frame technology and although they're faint, they're easy enough to follow.

"Most of that doesn't come standard to being a Magitek Knight, does it?"