melodiesofeternity | FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS || INTRODUCTION LOG

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FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS || INTRODUCTION LOG

Who: All characters (New Arrivals and Native OCs)
When: April 11th
Where: The Dream Width (Airship), the Curti Center, and the Housing District
What: For the first time in 10 years, outworlders have been found the Dream Width. This unprecedented number of new arrivals are rescued and brought to Vaikuntha, and must now try to start adjusting to their new home.
Warnings/Notes: All players can put up a toplevel. Please post to the NPC toplevel if you have an IC question for them.

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. The makeshift infirmary is becoming uncomfortably warm, packed to its capacity with people.

Stepping out, there is a lobby space that bears the signs of having once held some furniture, now cleared away to make space. Even with the sparse accommodations, the space quickly fills to standing-room only.

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 to play again. ]

’Welcome travelers’…

CURTI CENTER

[ Finally after hours of flight, you arrive at the Curti Center. The other NPCs await you along with the Native OCs. 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 today. Indeed, here you are. No one knows why such a large number of people has been found at once, but the Curti Center is a place dedicated to piercing the Dream Width's secrets.

Cid also introduces the other ones: his assistant Jessie, Claire, the woman looking at the group in horror upon being pointe 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 despairs at the pile of paperwork she must complete by the end of the week), 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 specifically during this introduction, please respond to the toplevel with the name of the NPC in the subject header. The mods will try to reply at least once a day for each NPC. ]

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. ]

A BAD OMEN

[ Wandering around, you may stumble upon an old and tired-looking moogle wearing what can only be described as a decrepit fortune-teller attire. Upon seeing you, or any of the new arrivals for that matter, he will slowly approach and tell you all the exact same speech. ]

If you stay here, you're doomed. She will find you and make you suffer hell. [At which point his eyes will grow exorbitant.] This world is cursed. You will die and never be free. [And finally he'll fly right into your face.] Never!

[ Then he will leave and go say his speech to someone else, without doing anything but repeating different variations of his warning if asked for details. Should you ask your assigned Moogle, Biggs or Wedge, they will mention this crazy moogle can't be reasoned with and sometimes stick around the center, even though he's always chased away. He never says anything besides doomsday predictions. For unknown reasons, he's always been particularly nasty with Biggs and Wedge... And with you as well now, it seems. ]

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 the sudden and unexpected number of 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?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah. They're... disgusting.

[ He takes his glass of milk-adjacent liquid and offers it to Yue. Chase it down with something, friend! Hunk's face, however, is grim and foreboding- they have made a horrible mistake this day. One they can never repress. ]

If you plug your nose, you can't taste as much, y'know.

[ And then he makes a twitching motion, because that taste is lingering. ]

If the two of you don't like them, I'll happily take them off your hands! [says Koko cheerfully as her not-so-human charge gulps down that milk. Phew!]

...Ah, do you do that a lot? Plugging your nose.

[Better to just avoid stuff like this, right? Even if......he takes another few sips, hoping the continuing waves of non-kupo flavor might help drown it.]

Not really! [ Hunk ignores that moogle's request. If anyone would get these leftover mistakes, it'd be his moogle. ] Most of the food is pretty edible here.

[ And then he looks like he fondly remembers the past, or at least something vaguely resembling fondness. ] Earth had these things called durians. They smelled horrible, and tasted okay. So I'd plug my nose whenever I'd end up eating one.

[ Not that he'd recommend it, of course. Food is supposed to smell nice! ]

Durians?

[Yue stares curiously over the rim of his cup. If it smells bad, doesn't that mean it's bad to eat? Like, it's rotten or something. Hmmm.]

Earth sure had a lot of interesting things, huh... [It seems like practically everyone comes from earth, after all--and his idea of a world doesn't extend any farther than a small peninsula, anything larger than that is ???? how does earth have such a wide variety of stuff...]

Oh, so you... didn't come from Earth? [ Hunk looks at Yue kinda funny. but then it kind of clicks that with those wings and claws, he probably doesn't come from Earth. Or at least, not his Earth. ]

What was your world like? [ Hunk isn't sure if he ever asked. And he shows it, because he looks kind of sheepish about it. ]

No, I did. I think. [He shakes his head as he says this, despite the vague answer. And reaches for one of Hunk's random non-kupo nut edibles as he contemplates that other question.]

Um, let's see...I used to live in a shrine--we mostly ate things like rice, and miso soup, and... [gosh, it's been such a long time since he had miso soup, he kind of misses it, does he even remember what it tastes like?

This is probably a bad track to be thinking on. Reeling himself back a bit.] ...Well, after I...moved, we mostly had stuff like sandwiches. And cakes, I like cakes a lot. [A pause, and he makes a face as he nibbles at his current snack.] Coffee tastes pretty gross though, I like tea better.

[ Hunk had a smile at the mentions of rice and miso, things he recognized, but it starts to fade, to fall towards a frown as things progress to sandwiches and cakes. Liking tea over coffee is fine, but... ]

That's horrible. You know... [ And now he has a devious little smirk. ] I could definitely whip up some miso soup sometime later, if you want to eat some home food.

[ Hunk makes an assumption that a shrine with miso might put him as Japanese, but... it doesn't explain the wings and claws. ] Was everyone on your Earth all... birdy?

[It's not like sandwiches are the only things he ever ate, and they still had tea there, but. Who needs details! Not Yue, that's for sure.

Especially when he's getting offers of real authentic home food.] Ah, really? I'd love that, thank you!

[His whole day has brightened up! And his face, his face has brightened up. Even the earth questions won't bring down this temporary happy.]

Hm? Um, there were birds! And Sato-san was a crow, I think? But he could make himself look like a human, so I never saw him looking like this. [Could they even look like this? He remembers the rabbits saying he had a tail once, so maybe he could? Questions....]

[ Hunk stares at Yue as his mood lightens, and he finds his own doing the same. Smiles and happiness are the best kinds of contagious.

But as he talks about birds, Satosan the crow who looked like a human, and Yue's own appearance, he found his brain struggling to wrap itself around the topic again. ]

So your Earth didn't have bird-people like you, but it did have someone who was a crow who could turn into a human. Are you a bird that can turn into a human?

[ Hunk takes a few moments of silence after this, and just lightly groans at the mental gymnastics he's trying and failing to perform. [

I'm...a bird-person who can turn into a bird! [A pause, his smile turning a little awkward.] Though for some reason I can't turn into a bird anymore, here. So I guess I'm just a bird-person?

[Ah, maybe he should explain that Sato-san wasn't from Ryslig? He doesn't really feel like it though...not yet, anyway.]

Oh, that's cool! [ Hunk's grinning with wide-eyed fascination. He's glad Yue could piece together the situation for him, because now he's leaning towards the bird-person who can turn into a bird, as if expecting more information. ]

Is that normal for your Earth? My Earth doesn't have anything like that!

Mm, it seemed pretty normal to me, at least! I didn't get to see people change very often, but Kurogitsune was always changing between being a fox and being a fox-person, and Miko-sama never bothered hiding her tails...ah, but everybody mostly kept it a secret from humans, so maybe your earth had it and you just didn't notice?

[It's a lot easier to talk about the less personal aspects of his old home when he's explaining it to a guy this excited about it. Yue can't help grinning himself, as he swipes another snack from Hunk's pile o' eats.]

[ Hunk gasps at the notion that his Earth could have weird shapeshifters. He'd hardly even considered the notion, but now? Especially with him knowing a Human/Galra hybrid? It didn't seem that impossible. ]

Oh man, that would be crazy. Those names sound really Japanese, so...

[ He looks away for a moment, calculating his words. ]

Do you think they're just in Japan, or could they be all over the world? Did your friends know about other... animal-people?

[Yue looks thoughtful at that, gaze turning upwards as if answers can be found in the sky. Or the ceiling?

Either way, he still barely understands what Japan is, so...]

Umm, they could be all over? I don't think Ryslig was part of Japan, and the people there came from all sorts of places. [His thoughtful expression turns a little more...sober, for a moment - it'd probably be better for Hunk if there aren't any ayakashi or Ryslig monsters wherever he lives - but he doesn't say as much out loud.]

...If they're there and you don't know, though, that probably means they're hiding, huh?

[ Hunk notices that expression sober up, and he thinks it best not to probe any deeper for the time being. That said, "Ryslig" didn't sound like a Japanese name, even though Yue seemed to come from Japan. It was unusual. ]

I guess, yeah.

[ And then Hunk's demeanor takes a step closer to somber. ]

...I haven't been to Earth in a while though, so I wouldn't know.

[Hey, people can travel! Maybe he's an immigrant! He eats sandwiches and everything!

The fact Hunk's joining him in somberness makes him worry a little, though--he's never liked seeing other people sad...the harpy flutters his wings a bit, a slightly unsure look on his face.]

Ah...where were you before, then? Was it somewhere very different?

[...wait, he might be curious but that's not helpful at all.]

...Maybe you'll go back someday. [There we go.]

[ Hunk shrugs. As much as he wants to feel bad about being separated from his universe... ]

Yeah, I'd like to go back to Earth one day. [ He sighs, but there's a clear smile. ]

I mean, space is no big deal. And once I think about it, neither is another universe- this is better than the last time this happened to me.

[ And he shrugs again, but this time he's laughing. ]

Space.....

[Yue still isn't smiling, exactly, though it's changed from an unsure frown into more of a questioning one.]

I've been to another world before, and other...cities, I guess? But I don't know Space or universe...s. [A thoughtful hum.] ...Is Space a different place from like, an open space?

[ Hunk just looked more and more enamored with Yue's words as he spoke. His bird pal's been to another world? But... he doesn't know space? Huh, weird. ]

So space is what's outside the Earth's atmosphere, past the clouds, where the stars are. It's... cold, dark, and empty. And it'll kill you if you're not prepared. [ More so because of vacuums than aliens, but he's not going to bring that up. ]

But what's this about another world? That sounds a bit more important to us being trapped here. [ Hunk laughs, trying to use a good mood to get more information. ] I mean, we don't even have any spaceships.

[Well he's not sure about the atmosphere part, but imagining a cold, dark, empty, killer place past the stars.....yeah the frown's not going away.]

That sounds...kind of scary, actually. [Because it'll kill you!?] You must be a really brave person, Hunk.

Ah, the other world was...you see, there was this god, and she liked pulling people from other words to live in hers I guess? I'm not a god myself though, so I don't know if that'd help at all... [accidental travel, y'know.]

[ Hunk doesn't like that Yue's frowning. That's unacceptable, in fact. ]

I'm not that brave. It's like how you have to be careful when you're swimming so you don't drown. [ He's exaggerating, obviously, because no. Swimming is way safer. But he didn't want to say he's kind of an anxious coward. ]

I mean, someone else mentioned that they were pulled here from another world. [ Marshall Sparks Nevada didn't seem like the sort of person Yue would know, so he didn't namedrop. Different realms, deliberately bringing in people from other worlds? The fact that it was so common was... troubling. ] Maybe there are patterns?

Mm, I guess if you're careful and you're used to it then it might not be as scary, huh...

[Considering Yue almost drowned in a bathtub once, Hunk's example is actually perfectly acceptable.]

Mm, I met someone else who was from the last place I was at, too [or multiple people? Whatever.] What kind of pattern do you think it is, though? Do you think this place has gods too, somewhere?

M-maybe. Hopefully they're nice gods. [ Hunk shivers a bit at the thought. ] The last god I ran into was actually a giant bug using a moon as an egg.

[ Gulp. ] It tried to kill us. Not a fun time.

A giant bug...... [Yue doesn't shiver, but he does look a little bothered. He'll never forget that pillbug incident......ew.]

...Why'd it try to kill you? Did you get too close to its egg?

It hatched out of the moon, and it was angry. Or hungry? [ Hunk whines, and looks up towards the sky. ] It wasn't fun. But we took care of it, because otherwise it'd start ripping planets apart.

[ He pauses, and then his eyes go wide to emphasize the shock-factor. ] It was as big as the moon.

FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS || INTRODUCTION LOG

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these two are so fun

they're learning!!

like velociraptors!

the most educated velociraptors!

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