001. Test Drive Meme.

[sphererpmod]

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Welcome, welcome, welcome.

The Council is well aware of how hard it is to get used to that whole kidnapping being brought to a new place you don’t understand is, and because of that, each month they host an open welcome party for all residents both old and new. The party and its theme and location vary by month, and November’s theme is funnily enough Thanksgiving. The location is in the market dome, and all of the stalls have been closed in favor of long, large and communal tables for sitting around and eating and talking. The Market dome is large, roughly three city blocks would fit comfortably inside of it. The stalls themselves are lined with bright lights, giving the activity within more of a carnival atmosphere than that of a normal shopping experience. Around you, the air hums almost, teaming with life and vibrancy among all sides. The way that the tables are seated encourages some intimacy despite the space, offering a large family sort of feeling versus something like a restaurant.

The people there are happy to see new people, that much is evident. People who one doesn’t know are greeted with smiles for the large part, and questions are eagerly answered, even if there is a slight ‘no one really knows’ vagueness to them. For the most part, of course. No city is ever a Utopia, and there are those who give newly arrived people flat looks, and answer questions with short and curt monotoned responses.

There are conversations happening at some parts of the table that aren’t meant for you to hear; they’re just whispered snippets of something about ‘Cruz doesn’t know what she wants.’ Or ‘Tearing is keeping it all under wraps of course, because that’s what she does.’ More common are grumbled complaints about ‘that bastard Tinder won’t stop just because…’ When they notice someone listening, they definitely glare at the listener. But whatever else, and however many secrets they may be keeping from the newcomers, the people complaining seem honest about it.

There’s a huge food table on one side that’s completely loaded with everything one could want. Turkey, and all of the fixings, including vegetarian and vegan options for those who would require them. (Though, someone leans over to mention, “the meat’s not really an animal anyway.”) The food is definitely sort of a potluck, given the variety of types of food in various sorts of serving dishes and states of presentation. Some of the foods include some weird stuff that looks terrible but is delicious. Probably. There are foods thee colors the likes of which only would be found on Earth if someone added an insane amount of food color to them.

Do try the grey stuff though. It’s delicious, ask the dishes. The blue milk? Less so.

However, food isn’t the only thing at the meeting. On the opposite side from the food, there are smaller tables set up with people sitting behind them. In front of the tables are homemade brightly colored signs that advertise things like jobs and clubs. The people and interests here in The Sphere are hugely varied and people are just so earnest to tell newcomers about them. They’re earnest to the point where they may just actually reach out and grab a person in order to force them to stop and to listen to whatever spiel they happen to be working on. Booths that are in attendance for jobs include: Agriculture: “help grow the food that feeds us all! Farming is life!”, The library: “No skill needed! We’ll teach you what you need to know!” The school system: “Teachers wanted! Education is the right of everyone!” Maintenance: “Help keep the domes clean!” As well as various restaurant booths looking for help for both servers and chefs.

For the hobbies involved they are even more varied. Book club: “we live in a multiverse, let’s read the books from it! With wine!” Garden club: “we want to grow stuff on our terms!” Sprinkled among are various skill learning clubs, among them: woodworking club, smithing, robotics, technology, first aid. It seems that despite the fact that no one is required to work in the City, people are still offering skills as needed.

As the night progresses, music starts, and there’s dancing and more adult fare. Liquor is broken out, of various sources from various worlds, including some that offer the Sphere’s own label on them. If discrete enough inquiries are made, a passcode to the Black Market hidden behind some of the stalls is offered. The entrance is hidden enough that someone needs to be looking for it, and there is a rather large bouncer guarding the door and asking for the proper passcode. The passcode of the day happens to be turnips.

Inside the black market is large, but much more dimly lit than the regular market dome that the welcome party was held inside of. There are various pockets of people clustered under bright neon lights. The lights, someone confides to you, are code for what they’re offering. And nearly everything is on offer if a person has the ability to make a trade. Things from home, character skills and even favors tend to be the currency here, but watch out: the hawkers within are shrewd and sharp. If they make a deal with someone, it’s nearly always going to favor them. Eventually.

There’s also a large and loud party happening inside. Think of a rave with a large amount of people who happened to be a bit out of their minds. Drugs aren’t given freely here, they’re too valuable, but should someone want to figure out what they’re rolling on, eventually someone will ask or offer. The drug that they are currently using is called ‘self’ and it’s something that affects your character in an intensely personal way. For some, it’s an experience like your favorite cocktail mixed with a vicodin, and for others it’s just like being drunk. For still more people, it’s like ecstasy without the side effects.

The drug has no physically addicting properties.

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.

Harvest time

The Council hopes that you enjoyed the party the other night, because now it’s time to put out the call for volunteers to come in and help with replenishing the city’s stores from the fields and orchards in the agricultural domes. Your friend neighborhood councillor in charge, Annie Cruz has sent out a message that volunteers who come in to help out will be given payment in the form of lunch and beer and wine.

The jobs involved are varied, and involve harvesting crops such as corn, picking apples or grapes and handing out water or the boxed lunches provided. People will be assigned an area and given a bucket or basket in order to put the fruits of their labor inside of. Either way, there’s a festive atmosphere, and most people who have been there longer than your character seem to be old hat at this.

There’s even a large tub of grapes for people to smash with their feet (“but for fuck’s sake make sure they’re clean first!”). If asked about it, someone will explain that the city makes its own wine and brews its own beer every season! A good chunk of the things picked, you are told slyly, will probably end up drunk rather than eaten, “once the off the top happens.” If asked to explain it, a character will just touch their nose slyly and not say any more. It’s also explained that the grapes crushed with people’s feet don’t actually end up in the general bottles of wine: they’re not savages here!

So, jump in and help with something, or sit down and have lunch and just get to know the people around you with a glass of wine or beer. You’re all here for the foreseeable future, might as well!

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.

Wildcard!
This can be meeting a possible roommate or dorm mate (if one is choosing to go that route), the use of a communal kitchen, waking up and dealing with the things that you were just told about the City, yelling at the sphere, or anything else that your little heart desires. Go nuts.

OOC note: if you feel that something requires an NPC interaction, please go to here and reply with a link and a brief summary of why you need it and the mod will try and be accomodating.

Comments

[11calls]

He removed apples, so she liberated a few more from his basket again. After all, if it was right there in it's defensive position between them, then of course Alex was going to do it. If nothing else to remind him exactly why she was doing it, because she knew him after all. Just like he knew her. "Yes." A beat before she added, "occasionally."

Even if it wasn't something that she could do for very long at all.

[nobasisinfact]

He knew exactly why she was doing it and he didn't plan on giving her the satisfaction of getting her way by his moving it. Apples weren't a big deal, and if he so desired, he could always just take her basket and leave her his empty one. It wasn't that hard after all. Instead, he added a few more to his basket.

"Eventually you'll tell me." He could wait, or he could just get the same information that she had gotten. It wasn't as if these people were tight-lipped or anything. They were overly chatty and far more friendly than anyone had any right to be. It was annoying and suspicious. Then again, this was most likely a combination of their delusion, so it made sense that Alex had made the natives like that.

[11calls]

Alex could practically see him thinking that he'd get people to tell him too on his face, and it made her laugh. The two of them and their approaches to people couldn't have been more different, honestly, and where as Richard's style did have some uses, for the most part, Alex was much better at getting people to talk, and to be honest and open about it than he was.

In the end, she just gave in with a little shrug and dropped to the ground, sitting cross legged on the grass there. At the same time, Alex grubbed one of the apples over her shirt to clean it before taking a bite and chewing. Once she swallowed, she just planted her elbow against her knee and her chin in her hand and began. "It's definitely weird that there's not been any interest in running a sort of newspaper or show here. I even went over the back posts of the network and couldn't find anyone mentioning it even."

[nobasisinfact]

Richard sat on the provided ladder that he hadn't been using, listening intently as he kept his peripheral alert for anything out of what could be considered the ordinary for this place.

"It's also questionable that they're so, friendly." It wasn't even Richard's normal wariness of people in general that caused his statement. The people here were too willing to tell people how great this place was and to try and integrate others. It was, "It's almost cultish."

[11calls]

"Hey!" She peered at him, looking mock-offended. "I'm friendly and I'm definitely not almost cultish! I'm just nice!" But even she had to admit that this level of niceness wasn't something that felt right. There was something under it that bothered her a little bit. So, she just took a bite out of the apple before she nodded.

"But it definitely is giving me an everything is too good vibe. Like Pleasantville. Or The Lego Movie." Neither one of which Alex expects him to have seen of course, because he's Richard and Richard Strand and pop culture went as well together as Richard Strand and demons did.

[nobasisinfact]

"Stepford Wives." He offered casually. While he didn't know the references that she was mentioning, he thought he had a good idea what she was trying to refer to. So he offered one of his own.

He set the basket down, away from Alex. If he left it by her than she'd probably eat them all. Which would have been far more annoying than he would like.

[11calls]

"Yeah," Alex agreed quickly. "Very Stepford Wives. Hopefully they're not like robots. I don't know how well I'd handle being around entirely robots." Demons was enough, but people not being people was a different thing entirely. Also, she's remembering the Nicole Kidman movie and not the original. Sorry, Richard. Besides, she's only eating the one that he threw to her, so that's not the whole thing.

But she's just going to dig her toes into the dirt. "It's so weird how this feels real."

[nobasisinfact]

"Animatronics." He corrected. He wasn't thinking of the new version; in fact, he'd pointedly not watched it. There was no way that it could compare to the book's original intent, nor the dystopian literature that followed or was of the era.

He watched as she dug her feet into the ground, watching as the dirt moved over them. "The mind can be fooled into a lot of beliefs."

[11calls]

"Robots." Alex corrected his correction with a little smirk. "Matthew Broderick pointedly says that Nicole Kidman is 'not a robot.'" Alex knows her movie trivia, Richard, so she's going to go to bat on that. Because honestly, it doesn't matter in the slightest and is nothing but simple banter. For now, however, she's going to focus on the other thing.

"You seriously can't think that we've created the same world and experiences from apophenia, Richard." Alex couldn't help but keep the sigh from her voice at apophenia, because of course she has to. How can she break so long of a habit now?

[nobasisinfact]

"The book, doesn't." Clearly, he would have to fix her apparent lack of reading. "And no. But I'm not ruling out the idea that none of this is real." It would take far more scientific exploration to decide exactly what was going on here. Exploration that they hadn't had the chance to do yet.

[11calls]

Alex rolled her eyes at him again, she read plenty actually. The difference was that she'd no interest in reading about how women were mind controlled or whatever else into being perfect creatures for their husband. Honestly, it was more than a little bit like Alex Reagan's idea of hell. "Of course you're not ruling it out. You wouldn't be you if you did, honestly. I'm just slightly concerned you may be thinking that we're both having some sort of psychotic break or whatever. Especially with Simon here."

[nobasisinfact]

"It's not something I'm ruling out." The truth was that he wasn't ruling anything out. Not yet. At least not anything so long as it wasn't supernatural. If this whole lunacy was going to take on some sort of supernatural bend to it there was going to have to be so clear work to show him that.

[11calls]

Alex frowned quickly at the mention of him not ruling out a psychotic break, because honestly that thought was something that she didn't even want to consider. Even if she didn't comment on it--people already gave her too much guff over the lack of sleep and her taking ambien. The last thing she needed was for people to think that she was actually seriously mentally ill. The frown deepened, and she just stretched her toes out again, feeling the dirt beneath them. 

"Well," she started quickly, "there is one thing that you can rule out." The decisiveness was there in her voice even if there was a spark of amusement in her eyes when she said it. "Because if I was a delusion of yours, I definitely wouldn't have made comments about a movie when you were talking about a book. Or stole your apples. And," she added as her smirk just grew. "I would have already told you everything that I found out in clear and direct terms and all of that."

[nobasisinfact]

He lets out a soft laugh that he wasn't expecting. The idea of Alex Reagan being anything but herself was a delusion he could never have. Obedient and docile and well read wasn't exactly what he would ever expect from her, so he tossed one of his apples into her lap with a thick thud.

"Is that how you think I want you?" It wasn't the case and never would be. Alex's complete Alex-like behavior was what caused him to change, to demand answers to everything strange and horrible in his life. To actually want to confront Thomas Warren. If she weren't herself than nothing would have ever changed.

[11calls]

Alex just beams at him with that laugh, the soft and pleased look that she always did when she managed to make him laugh almost against his will. It was honestly one of Alex Reagan's favorite sounds, other than the way he tended to sigh 'my Alex'. Not that she was going to tell him that of course. But she expected that he already knew anyway--it wasn't like Alex was particularly subtle about it.

...Okay, fair or anything at all.

Still, she laughs softly. "No, of course not. You wouldn't even have called me back if I was any of those things. But still, I think you'd think it might be nice if I was a little less me at some points." You know, when she did the stuff that made him sigh and want to strangle her. Like Simon and Istanbul and all of that. "I mean, I know I drive you insane sometimes."

[nobasisinfact]

"I'd prefer you had more common sense, but I've gotten used to your recklessness." Still, she was Alex, and aside from his worry over finding Coralee and general worry over Charlie, he'd long since abandoned the idea of worrying about people. They would handle themselves and besides, he couldn't trust anyone after someone had kidnapped his wife. He could only rely on himself.

Now, things were different. There was Alex, and he knew without a doubt that he could rely on her to be by his side - especially after the last time they'd talked in his father's house. After all, no one had ever offered to run away with him before.

[11calls]

“You’ve gotten used to my recklessness?” There was a laugh in her voice when she looked to him as if she didn’t quite believe it. Probably because she didn’t honestly. Alex knew he really wasn't, and that if he could, he'd rather she didn't do things like jump into a vat of grapes to help smoosh them with her feet, or go off and interview everyone who wasn't wiley enough to escape her clutches.

Which was honestly most people who she set her sights on. After all, she'd been earnest enough to get him to call her back.

She wasn't really thinking when she moved closer and wrapped her arms around him, now that he had set the basket of apples aside. "You do realize I'm probably going to test that theory at some point, right?"

[nobasisinfact]

Her apparent disbelief was received with an eye roll. Of course, she didn't believe him. Alex wasn't one to believe him even when he was completely candid. Not without proof. It was other people that she blindly accepted. One of those traits that he would change about her. It would be nice if she were more skeptical of those around her (those that weren't him, that is).

As she wrapped her arms around him, he moved his to rest against her lower back, comfortably, brows raising at her comment. Of course, she would test him. She'd get into more trouble than anything else could find, and probably bring back who knows what or who when she returned. "Used to doesn't mean I want you to." He reminded her, forehead resting against hers.

[11calls]

Well, considering everything that had happened in the three years that they'd known one another, Alex would argue that she was actually more skeptical of people than she had been before. If she needed to, she'd point to evidence of it in the show. Of course, that was difficult when she didn't actually have the show to play him and point it out. But for now, she just leaned her forehead against his with a little smile.

"Yeah, I know," the words were admitted quickly, and Alex just closed her eyes. "It doesn't mean I'm going to go out looking for it, you know. I mean, things just kinda find me." Like Simon, or himself, or any other bit of trouble that Alex had found herself in over the past while. Of course, that didn't mean that she didn't do stupid things, but sometimes she didn't really have a choice in them.