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[sphererpmod]

Holiday mingle log

It’s the most wonderful (welcome) time of the year

Christmas is coming earlier and earlier every year, which isn't a surprise but hey they're starting the Christmas/Winter stuff the week before thanksgiving. Because why not. this month’s party takes place in the Merchant dome. But it’s not the everyday appearance of the merchant dome. No, for the next five days the Merchant dome’s appearance has been altered to look like a sort of Bavarian Christmas Market. There are small clusters of tables every so often, so people can just sit and chat and eat and drink.

Some enterprising person has even managed to make it snow through some unknown means. It’s not cold, but the snow is soft and steady and slowly building up.

The entire dome, all of the streets and all of the merchant stalls are practically glowing with white fairy lights that are strung everywhere. Vendors in their stalls gleefully cry out to paterons passing by, offering them free food or drinks. The food consists of the sort of things that one might expect to find in a place like this: sausages on buns and on sticks, pretzels, pizza, loads of cookies of every variety that one could think of, including elaborately decorated gingerbread, chocolates, fruits, french fries. Think winter fair food, and be as absurd and as complicated and extra as you want. It is a fair, after all. Go nuts. Drinks are also along the same line: hot cider, mulled wine, hot buttered rum, hot chocolate both with booze and without, as well as all the normal things: water, coffee, tea, milk, soda, and a variety of fruit juices that you’ve both heard of and not.

But food isn’t the only free thing that people are giving away! They’re also offering characters hats and gloves and scarves, small toys, books, delicate ornaments, perfumes, wine… it’s a giant welcome party after all, and these people are cheerful and happy. Even offering to pay just gets met with laughter and being told not to worry about it.

Fun and frivolity.

There are even carnival rides set up! A medium sized ferris wheel, a carousel, a giant slide and ice skating ring are all along the outside of the stalls.

At the far end of the dome, the snow has fallen deeper and held to several inches. Wouldn’t you know it just happens to be perfect snowball snow! So, there of course needs to be a snowball fight! What did you think those free mittens and gloves and scarves are for after all? The snowball fight can be organized into teams, or one on one depending on the player’s choice. This is a friendly fight, of course, so no rocks or slush balls or anything. Well, probably not. No one in the Sphere is your mother.

So you want some summer?.

While the welcome party rages on in the merchant dome, people have made a smaller party in one of the recreation domes. Around the pools, as a matter of fact. There’s almost like a small barbecue clustered around the largest of the three pools, and the light is constant and sunny here. The large pool is olympic sized, and is a sparkling blue. It’s fresh water, and probably clean enough to drink. I still wouldn’t drink it. The second pool is slightly smaller and more kidney shaped with a gradual sand mound at one end of it. This pool is salt water and looks a bit more like a beach than a pool. The third pool is a kiddie pool, complete with a splash pad, that’s running. Buckets drop, it’s got one of those mushroom things, and sprinkler jets. There aren’t any kids though, so people are welcome to go nuts.

Bathing suits and towels are provided in the changing rooms. There’s frozen and fruity drinks flowing freely, along with finger food and snacks. Loud music is playing from a local band that’s just generally of a pop sort. There’s people dancing rather in a rather haphazard fashion, but the dance floor is there and present!

Oh yeah, and there's definitely the baths and everything too!

Network.

In the Sphere, the network is neural, and accessed via touching the glowing golden circle behind your character’s ear. They can identify themselves with a screen name if you so desire, but messages should be one of three ways or a combination of them. 1. Audio. Your character thinks audible words onto the network. 2. Writing: Your character thinks text into the network. 3. Video. Your character projects a broadcast of a video of themselves onto the network. Replies are determined by the player.

The network needs to be accessed by choice, so character broadcasts are not automatically beamed directly into people’s heads. The Sphere isn’t that rude.

Private messages are allowed by pressing and holding and pressing and holding again as you picture the person in your mind. This can be an image or a name, err more on the side of things being more accessible than less.

Welcome to my nightmare.

For anyone within the architecture dome, the library dome, the sunlight rec dome and any personal dome that people chose, around midnight people will have a curiously tired sensation. They just need to rest their eyes for a moment, or some may fall asleep for longer. No matter the length of time that the character is out, the nightmare infects them, and when they wake they will be filled with a curious but urgent sensation.

They have lost something. The loss can be a physical object, an emotion, a memory, a person or perhaps a sense of self. If the lost person is currently present in the game, they will be unable to be seen by the character who is experiencing the waking nightmare. Urgency will grip the character, because the longer the sensation goes on for, the worse it becomes. Characters can search and scrounge for their loss everywhere, but until the nightmare is over, they will not find whatever it is. Even if it is themselves. Instead, they may be frantic, angry, or just play old scared to death. They need to find this at whatever cost. Where they may find it is something that their own brains will settle on, but of course until the nightmare is over, they will not be able to.

The nightmare ends with either the character falling into a normal, restful sleep naturally or through some other means (someone might mention the infirmary has sedation medication just for the is purpose, or that there’s always a brick) or when they are woken with the intervention of someone else. The intervention of someone else is entirely up to you, and can come from a player character or a NPC, depending on how the player is feeling with the thread. By intervention we mean someone who is able to talk the person out of the nightmare, or to slap or shake them out, or to use some sort of trick that shows them that they are indeed inside of a nightmare. The knowledge that someone is affected by a nightmare must come from an external source, and should come from a character that your character would trust. After all, would you believe someone who told you that you were in a nightmare if you didn’t know that? That said, the best way to deal with waking someone is to remove them from the affected domes. Too bad you don’t know which domes are affected.

Comments

eddie kaspbrak | it

[wheezed]

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR.

Eddie doesn't mean to get excited. Everything that's happened, ending up here, it's all kind of horrible, gives him far too much to fret over, and Eddie's been in a state of near panic for far too many consecutive hours now. But...it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement. People are having fun all around him, and trying to pull him into the festivities too, and there's only so much some kid from Maine can resist.

In the end it's the hot chocolate that gets him.

So Eddie's walking around with a mug absolutely loaded, grin plastered on his face as he tries to figure out how the hell he's supposed to actually drink the thing. He's so pleased that he doesn't even think twice about talking to the nearest person -- perish the thought -- and he cheerfully chirps away to no one in particular.

"God, is it always like this here? Maybe this isn't so bad after all!"

FUN AND FRIVOLITY.

Unfortunately, the positivity doesn't last. He's consumed just about his entire weight in candy and other treats, drank more hot chocolate than is heathy for any living human, and Eddie is generally not hating the idea of ending up in some weird and whacky universe if it means free treats, and then--

A snowball smacks Eddie square in the face, and for a good long moment he just freezes.

When he finally moves it's only to wipe the snow out of his eyes, and scrape some hair back away from his face. He takes a deep breath, then turns sharply on his heel to face the person unfortunate enough to have accidentally made Eddie their victim. He might a short, scrawny barely-teen with a hot chocolate moustache and a visible propensity for anxiety, but you wouldn't think it from the voice that comes bellowing out of him.

"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding me?!" Eddie punctuates the words with sharp little hand gestures, not even trying to cover up how annoyed he is, "Does it look like I'm playing your stupid game? I'm probably going to end up with the flu, not to mention how disgusting snow actually is and you just threw it in my face? What are you, a monster?"

This could take a while.

NETWORK.

AUDIO; username: e.kaspbrak

( he's not having an asthma attack, and even if he was he definitely wouldn't just go and project that over the network...but there's still a bit of an air of breathlessness about him that he can't quite seem to work around. we love a neural connection! )

So this is like, really weird right? Like we're all in agreement that this is just some really weird shit. It's not just me. Right?

WILDCARD.

( throw me something random! a different prompt, a text, anything goes my dudes. pm / plurk @ sharknado for queries!! )

duh duh duh fun & frivolity

[badimpression]

[The novelty of this is starting to wear off for Richie, too.

At first, it was super fun to be inundated with free food and toys like some kind of dream- once the 'this is too good to be true' siren in his head calmed down, that is- but now, reality is setting in, and Richie isn't waking up. He's really stuck here. And that sucks. Things aren't right back home. He can't leave them like that.

There's a slowburn kind of panic in his gut as he munches on a cookie, another four stashed in the pocket of his shorts, but Richie is practiced at ignoring things like that, so he does.

He's just sort of wandering aimlessly when he spots a familiar silhouette in the distance, and he lights up with a grin too wide for his face to contain it. Without a seconds hesitation, Richie shovels the rest of his cookie into his mouth, stoops to form a snowball, and lobs it in Eddie's direction--

and shrieks with delighted laughter when it hits it's mark. The tension and worry that had balled itself in a knot in his stomach is evaporated, and all he can think about is how fucking glad he is that Eddie is here too.

So of course, what he says is:]

You kiss your mother with that mouth, Eds? Fucking filthy! Good thing I washed it out with ice!

[wheezed]

( Later he will probably be very ashamed about not recognising Richie's laughter instantly, but in Eddie's defence there's a lot going on. Even before the snowball went smashing abruptly into his face he was preoccupied, and now the rage is pulsing too loudly with the sound of blood rushing in his ears for anything to cut through.

Except for the part where he's about to keep ranting away, only stopping briefly enough to suck in a breath, but somewhere in that two second pause he actually hears the response being thrown back at him and Eddie freezes up all over again. He's probably just having a meltdown or something, because that voice sounds suspiciously like-- )

Richie?!

( Eddie blinks a few times, as if that will help at all, and then suddenly laughs so hysterically it almost sounds like a scream. That's about all the warning Richie has before Eddie's rushing up to him, cutting the distance and...punching him in the chest, with one fist and then again with two, because that's how you greet a dearest best friend when you run into them in a weird alternative universe kidnapping situation. )

What the hell are you doing here, you asshole?

( Eddie is really happy to see him, honest. )

[badimpression]

[Richie just keeps grinning through Eddie's realization, then throws his hands up reflexively in defense when Eddie shrieks and runs at him, already trying to protect himself from the onslaught he's sure is coming.

He cackles even as he tries to bat the hands away-] Ow, fuck, quit it- [unable to hide how happy he is. But that's okay- it's okay to be happy to see a friend in an unfamiliar and weird place you were previously alone in. That's normal.

He carefully takes his hands away from Eddie's and kicks at the snow underfoot, aiming to pile some on top of Eddie's shoes.]

Not one gosh darn tootin' clue. I know we've seen weird shit, but this is like, next level elevated weird shit. Maybe someone drugged and kidnapped us.

[wheezed]

( Once he calms down enough to stop actively trying to hit Richie, Eddie gives him one final shove. It's a good solid push right in the centre of his chest that doesn't even come close to getting his feelings out, but it's just about the only thing he can think of that will come close. It's a problem you see, because Eddie is thrilled to see a familiar face -- one of his people no less -- someone that understands him better than almost anyone in the world–

–but that's the problem. Because Richie's here, and that means he's stuck in whatever nightmare they've found themselves in this time. It feels selfish to be too happy to see him stuck in the same situation. That doesn't stop him, though, he just...feels bad about it. )

It's a real weird kidnapping if that's what's happening, they're feeding us better than we get at home.

( Admittedly that isn't saying much, given everything that they've left behind in Derry, but that's hardly the point. )

Do you think they're poisoning us? They did give the food out for free.

( He probably could tailspin into a panic about that, can feel the slight tightness in his chest already, but Eddie's determined to focus on Richie rather than the anxiety of their current predicament. It really isn't the time to be having a meltdown, so he'll keep going as long as it's working. If he's buying himself some time without his asthma screaming in his lungs, Eddie's hardly about to complain. )

[badimpression]

[He might not know exactly what's going on in Eddie's brain, but he does know Eddie well enough to see that he needs to vent something here. Richie doesn't mind being a punching bag for a second, if Eddie winds up feeling better.]

Do you hear yourself? That's not hard! Derry wasn't exactly culinary genius central. [if Eddie won't say it, Richie will] Maybe! Or maybe they're aliens, and they're experimenting on us, but they have to feed us to keep us alive for all their tests! [then, in a reedy, thin voice that is probably meant to be an imitation of an alien:] Ed-die, phone home!

[In a similar vein, Richie is barely paying attention to the words tumbling out of his own mouth. He doesn't believe any of what he's saying, but he'd rather be bullshitting with Eddie than thinking about the reality of their situation. This is familiar and safe and a lot easier.]

[wheezed]

If they're aliens then why aren't we in space? Shit-- are we in space? We could be, right?

( That's a terrifying thought that he doesn't want to continue thinking about at all, so instead he just reaches his hand out again. This time, instead of hitting Richie he just grabs ahold of the other boy's shoulder and grips hard. He even shakes it a little, but he doesn't let go once he's done.

Naturally, the impression makes him frown, even if his mouth quirks into something closer to amused than annoyed, and he rolls his eyes dramatically. It's helping, a lot. Being around Richie is so natural, it's easier to slip into their rhythm than it is to think about everything going on here. And far more fun, too. )

You're honestly useless at that. It's more like-- ( Eddie attempts his own impersonation of the classic movie line: ) Rich-IE, phone home.

( And he ties it off by waving a pointed finger from his free hand in Richie's face. )

[badimpression]

[Richie tilts his head up and stares at the sky overhead, into the top of the dome they're in.]

Hard to say. Could be. They wouldn't be very fucking good kidnappers if they just made it obvious, though! Hello, 911? Yes, I'm in space! Come pick me up!

[Richie keeps chattering as Eddie grabs at him, but doesn't really know what to do when he doesn't let go. Is he just meant to ignore it? He definitely can't hold Eddie's fucking hand.

He could touch it, right?

Richie gives Eddie's hand a couple of affirming little pats.]

Oh, piss off! It doesn't even sound like that! You got the timing all wrong!

[He's laughing now though, alternating between ducking his head away from Eddie's finger, and jabbing his own in Eddie's face.]

audio; un: s.uris

[stantheman]

[ Now...that's a voice he hasn't heard in over 2 years. He almost doesn't believe it but the username that pops up sort of confirms it. ]

Eddie...? Is that really?

[ Hearing Eddie is almost weirder than the whole other world thing. ]

audio.

[wheezed]

( Eddie is either very, very upset at the sound of Stan's voice or very, very relieved. honestly he's not really sure which it is yet, but whichever it is, it's a lot, and frankly not helping with this near-public asthma attack situation at all.

it's just that it's really good to know he's not the only one here. but it's also just that he desperately doesn't want his friends stuck here too. that's all. )

Stan? Are you kidding me? ( if there was a manager Eddie would absolutely be demanding to see them right about now. instead he just settles for angrily blurting: ) Does this place just have a real hard on for the Losers or what?

[stantheman]

[ Stan can definitely hear that the other is more agitated which makes him say first: ]

Take some deep breaths, Eddie.

[ Still... he is still processing hearing his voice and he really actually just wants to find wherever he is now. ]

It's indiscriminate in who it takes. We're lucky it didn't pick up It or Henry Bowers or something... [ At least it hasn't yet. ]

[wheezed]

I know what I'm doing! ( he doesn't mean to snap, not really. especially not at Stan, which is why he grimaces almost immediately and tacks on a softer, mumbled "Sorry" right after.

and then he actually listens to the advice - because it's good advice, after all - and sucks in a few slow, deep breaths. just enough to get a handle on things. he really doesn't want to start puffing away on his inhaler the moment his feet touch the ground, or he'll probably never stop. )

Oh christ, I didn't even think of that. Even a creepy sci-fi kidnapper's got to have some taste, right?

[stantheman]

[ Stan is definitely rolling his eyes but he doesn't argue with Eddie especially since he heard the quiet sorry and could tell the other was actually following his suggestion. That's all that he needed and he thinks Eddie is calming down a bit at least. ]

You'd think. It's questionable but I'm not sure I'd classify this place as kidnapping. It's sort of an accident, I think.

[wheezed]

Uh, it doesn't really look like not-kidnapping to me.

( Eddie has a lot of strong opinions all the time, so it shouldn't exactly come as a surprise that he's decided to latch onto the word kidnapping and stick with it. It sure seems about as accurate as they can get to a description for what happened, to him anyway.

Sure it's all "time and space"y and sure it doesn't seem totally intentional, but still. )

I mean even if it's an accident, we're still stolen. We're not waking up in our beds ready to take on another awful summer's day, so...

lol stan looks like such a creeper in that icon

[stantheman]

[ Stan can understand where Eddie's coming from on that. If he hadn't been in Riverview before coming here he might have been more suspicious. He'd been really suspicious of Riverview in the beginning but he'd started to accept everything too.

So, with all the stuff that makes him uneasy here he is of the tendency to believe that it was an accident and not an intentional kidnapping of sorts. ]

We might as well make the best of it, right?

audio: marshes

[gristle]

[Oh shit.]

Yeah, it's full of weird shit. But it's totally real. Where are you, Eddie?

[wheezed]

Bev?!

( Eddie, unsurprisingly, is handling the apparent presence of half his core (and only) friend group in just about the best way he knows — absolute righteous fury. )

This is such horseshit! We're kids, where do they get off taking a bunch of us for what- a purpose?! Like we aren't already busy enough?

[gristle]

I don't think it actually like means to grab us, it just kind of does. But it didn't get me from home. I was someplace else. But shit, I'm glad to see you. You won't believe some of the cool stuff here, though.

most wonderful time of the year

[guerin]

That is one insane cup of hot chocolate. Michael's not always the most approachable sort so it's a surprise when he gets the casual question from the kid. Even if he's not approachable or warm he doesn't exactly default mean either. So he shrugs at the question and he tips back his bottle of whiskey before answering.

The delay is mostly because he can't even be sure if he thinks the place is all that bad or not. It's a complicated thing.

"There's stuff like this a lot but there's some bad stuff that goes on too," he shrugs. "You here alone, kid?"

He's picked up this place has a tendency to bring in kids without their guardians and just what the hell is up with that?

[wheezed]

"Sure, but it's fine."

It does briefly occur to Eddie that it's not exactly a great idea to advertise to strangers that you're a thirteen year old wandering alone in a strange world but well -- it can't exactly get worse, right? He gives a shrug of his own, echoes the swig of the bottle with a sip of his own hot chocolate. It does somewhat ruin the cool grown up vibe he's going for when he has to wipe the foam off of his lip quickly, but whatever.

"What do you mean, bad stuff? Like monsters?" He raises an eyebrow at that. Considering his first thought had been to assume this was all some weird Pennywise related creepiness, the thought makes his stomach twist a little, but he's pretty sure even the most complicated hallucinations haven't been this extensive. Or this nice, for that matter.

Surely monsters can't make cocoa this good.

[guerin]

Michael rolls his eyes at that answer. He doesn't think any kid is really fine being alone but he'd also been that kid so he knows. Hopefully the guy has some friends around. It'd really suck if he didn't. In any case, he's already making a note to keep an eye out to make sure the kid stays out of trouble. Michael might have a soft spot for kids but don't tell anyone.

"Not monsters, exactly," though, he supposes that isn't completely out of the question. He shrugs after that almost brushing the thought off physically. "There's nightmares and sometimes the Sphere thinks it's fun to blast one of your personal memories to everyone."

Yeah, Michael is pretty sore about the memory shares that the Sphere has done since he'd been there.

[wheezed]

( Eddie's happily living his best life, a mile away from the issues of space-and-time kidnapping and whatever the hell else might be going on here. he's got his mug of cocoa and he's clearly more than happy to think about only that, slugging away at the cup so consistently that it barely leaves his mouth.

so he's understandably distracted, which is why he breezes past without noticing his friend. at least until he hears Bill's voice.

it takes maybe three seconds for things to sink in, and then he abruptly wheels around on his heel without stopping. cocoa slops over the rim of his mug, but Eddie doesn't even notice -- yet, he'll be very upset about that later -- because all he's thinking is Bill, Bill, Bill. )

You too?!

( he doesn't mean to pitch his voice so loudly, really, but it happens without him even realising. he doesn't mean to sort of shout at Bill, but he's feeling a lot right now and it seems to all be coming out in the form of sheer volume. )

Are you okay? Do you think it's It? Is anyone else here? What happened? Are you okay?

[wheezed]

( that's...

that's not the answer he was looking for, Bill.

in all of Eddie's wildest theories -- mostly revolving around the movies he'd most recently seen, honestly -- it never occurred to him that they could be dead. because that's what missing means. that's what the Losers deliberately aren't saying, when they talk about missing kids.

it kind of feels like the air's been punched out of Eddie's lungs. )

You think we're missing?

( it's actually less dramatic than it could have been when Eddie drops his hot chocolate. it's a good minute after his response, after the weight of Bill's theory starts to really sink in. honestly it's a wonder that Eddie isn't already scrabbling for his inhaler, but somehow his chest is remarkably calm through all of this. his hands could use some of that, though -- the mug handle goes skittering out from between his shaking fingers, and Eddie's eyes just widen in response as the mug shatters between them.

and then he steps over it and rather abruptly approaches Bill: first to shove him hard in the chest, as if it's somehow Bill's fault that all of this is happening, and then to wrap his arms very tightly around the other boy. it's far too crushing to be a comfortable hug. )

Shut the fuck up, Bill, we're not missing.

( if his retort is weak, clearly not confident and lacking in any conviction, well they don't need to talk about it. )