spherememing | December Test Drive Meme.

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A new day has come.

So unlike many other places, the Sphere doesn’t celebrate New Years on New Year’s Eve. Instead they celebrate it in s three day festival commencing on January first to the third. The festival starts on the first at dawn with people waking up early to watch the first unofficial sunrise in the Sphere. Unlike most other days, this sunrise is universal, moving into each of the domes and filling them with such a bright light that it looks like an idealized version of a bright summer’s day. Groups of people join together to watch it in the dormitory dorms as well as in several public areas. The agriculture dome and the recreational domes are popular places for such activities and there are several places where there appear to be flowers blooming and almost the sound of birdsong.

Also in the more public places, there are large tables filled up with what seems to be a standard light breakfast of fruit, cheese and various loaves of bread, including a particular loaf of bread that everyone is given either in their attendance or in the dome itself. It’s a circular loaf with nuts on it that’s perfect for sharing. Indeed people keep trying to share a piece with the characters around them.

One thing that’s missing though? None of the places seem to have any sort of caffeine in any form. If questioned about it, someone knowledgeable will respond: “you can’t have caffeine until the sun sets!” The words come with a good natured laugh and characters are then handed a glass of fruit juice.

Out with the old and in with the new.

As the sun is about to set on the first day, crowds gather in the rec dome. There in the middle of the area there’s a large bonfire set up. The smoke billows up towards the top of the dome before it disappears. People gathered around the fires are throwing old possessions into it, some of which are their own and some of them are the possessions of the people who had left. The idea is to unburden yourself of things to face the new year with a clean slate.

There are smaller fires around, and they burn different colors with the smoke being sweet smelling and light. Some people show the newcomers how to gather the smoke in their hands and release it over their heads, in order to clear out dark thoughts and whatever is troubling people. The smoke gives people a slight feeling of euphoria, and makes them feel as if whatever is happening isn’t quite as bad as they think it is.

And we’re dancing through life.

On the second day, the public domes are fairly dead. The merchant dome is closed and only a few restaurants are open, and only those are for delivery. The entire city almost seems to be holding their breath and waiting for something. When the clock turns to eight pm, it’s almost as if the entire city is lit in a combination of stars and candlelight. In the gardens in the Rec dome, a large ball has been set up. Everyone in the city has been given their ideal fancy dress outfit, including mask in order to wear to it. The idea behind it is that the characters are in the middle of their transitional state. Day one was the day they put their old life behind them, and day three will be the day that they form their new selves for the year ahead. Which is why at the ball, people wear masks and have the option to give into some of the things that they wouldn’t normally do.

Wanna eat that there whole pint of ice cream? Go nuts. Wanna drink a bottle of vodka? Hey it’s your liver and it’s not like you can die! Wanna hook up in a dark corner with a stranger. It’s your life and there’s some nice velvet couches over there; out of sight and out of mind.

Dinner is in the form of an elaborate meal, sort of along the idea of Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, no expense is spared and everything is extremely well done and extravagant. Rich food, insane desserts, open bar, everything this night is too excess. At various points in the evening, the sky which has been showing stars shifts into things like fireworks, and glowy nebuleuses, causing people to burst into spontaneous bouts of applause.

All the while, there are various and shifting dance floors with an assortment of music to dance to, including classical, swing, fiddles, big band, pop, R&B, and basically anything that you can think of. The dances that people do there are as varied as the population, the drunkenness level and of course the all important dances of people's native Caucasia.

The party goes until dawn, at which point, the drunken releveries spill onto the streets, and people return to their personal domes singing loudly and off key.

...Is that… a squirrel?

For anyone who has been in the Sphere for any sort of length of time, one thing has stood out: there are no living creatures within the Sphere other than the people themselves. All of the meat has been generated versus harvested, and there’s not even bugs involved. Of course, all of that changes when there’s suddenly a random black squirrel darting in among the trees of the park in the recreational dome. It’s not frightened of people for the most part, unless someone tries to touch it. Then you better hope to god you’re a bard or you’ve got some ranks in handle animal, but this thing does not want to be touched.

Yeah, people who make the effort are going to get bitten or scratched. Yeah, that kinda looks infected. You may wanna see someone about it. Or hope really hard. But either way, at least the clinic is there for you.

Wildcard
Choose your own adventure. Some suggestions: network posts, roommates meeting, before the party, randomly interacting with shops or restaurants, trying to find a job, etc. Go nuts.

Inspiration images

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[And this is one Canadian reporter who sounds rather amused as hell.]

You know in my experience, most paranormal investigators would never admit that the skeptics are right most of the time.

Most paranormal investigators are looking to make a buck off some unfortunately gullible person.

[Okay, the surprise is evident in her voice, she can't help it.]

Yeah, I'm aware. Sorry, you sound like my partner right now.

That requires an apology? [He chuckles.] They make the rest of us look bad.

Nah. Richard is Richard.

[And Alex just chuckles too because... Well, of course he's here arguing.]

And yeah I’ve met a lot of them who do. Make everyone else look bad I mean.

He's nothing I haven't handled before.

So have I. Too many, but people want easy answers. It's an easy buy-in.

Yeah. It is honestly. But you're claiming to be different? How are you?

Lies don't solve problems, and hiding from the truth only draws them out. I get to the root of problems, or I try to at least. I...know how difficult it is to have to live every day barely understanding something unexplainable. Sometimes, most of the time even, there's a logical explanation. When there isn't, my partner and I do what we can to make it make sense.

[Okay, Alex may like him and invite him for dinner. Sorry Richard. But for now she asks:]

How do you do it though? Like I know a huge part of it is investigating but I mean the other stuff. The living with the thing you can't explain.

Personally? I wear long sleeves and gloves. It keeps me from touching things unintentionally. It helps, anyway. I don't have to have physical contact with an object or a person's aura to read it, but...I don't know. Chuck's the parapsychologist. He says it has something to do with a mental block. I know there's a barrier there so it helps me control it.

For others, it depends on what the problem is. There are rituals to expel demons for example.

[A beat.]

I don't perform them. I'm not that sort of suicidal. I know an exorcist. If we determine that's the cause, he gets a call.

[Okay there's almost an audible record scratch.]

What kind of rituals?

[There may be a sense of urgency in those four little words.]

[Jagger wasn't just a private investigator. He was a pretty good private investigator, and among many things, he was able to glean a lot from things people didn't say. He'd basically just admitted he was psychic in some capacity and she hadn't responded to it at all.

In fact, there was one part of his reply she'd chosen to focus on. Either "sensitivity" was something common enough in her world as to be mundane, or-]

...demon problems?

[Considering Alex's boyfriend is probably a psychic and her friend slash sort of stalker can bi-locate, that bit doesn't really bother her. It's just sort of a new kind of normal considering her investigation. But that's not the point.

Instead Alex just sighs softly.]

Sort of, yeah.

[He's just accustomed to most people not believing him, okay?]

Can you tell me anything about the occurrences? Have they happened since you arrived here?

Not really. And no, they haven't occurred since I've been here. Everything has stopped now that we're not home.

So you don't have a demon problem here. That's...good. [A beat.] It'd be pretty problematic if we don't have an exorcist.

I guess it depends on what sort of exorcist. For what sort of demon we have.

There aren't really types of exorcists. Think of them as...or Orken man, but for demons. They specialize in expelling them, no matter what sort you may have.

Huh. Weird. I wouldn’t have thought that they’d be fine with things that aren’t like judeo Christian demons. The priests I’ve met back Home definitely weren’t.

Weird. It's like demons don't care which god you pray to. See, demons are absolute. Religions have different definitions for them, but...uh...a tree is a tree, yeah? In Spanish, it's 'arbol'. In Scots-Gaelic, it's 'craobh', but it's still a tree. A good exorcist knows a demon's form, regardless of what it hides behind.

Huh. We've not met exorcists who weren't actually priests. Even if...

[A beat and she just shakes her head.]

Never mind.

Even if what? You can't just dangle something like that in front of a man's face and shut him down. It's cruel.

Even if the alleged demons weren't Christian.

No demons are Christian. They all existed long before someone decided to crucify a rabbi.

Well, I mean... you know the typical judeo-christian model of fallen angels.

December Test Drive Meme.

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