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driftfleet_ooc2015-01-03 04:06 pm
spaceshipit) wrote in driftfleet_ooc2015-01-03 04:06 pm
Entry tags:
January Star System
A new year means new friends, new adventures, and new opportunities for the bizarre! This month, the "planet" and way-stations will be available all at once, so don't be shy about posting mingles. C: The Marsiva is taking a big, wide turn around this bit of space, so it will be in range for the entire month. It's almost as thought she really wants the passengers to spend time here.
The Drift Fleet will be in the range of this star system between January 4th - January 31st.
So, about those self-destructing sweaters...
True to Diamond's warning, the sweaters and other winter gear supplied for the December planet does not last past the time spent in its range. Sometime between January 3rd and 4th, at rather sporadic bursts, every bit of temporary winter clothing that is still on the ship will combust. Each article will suddenly burn up like flashpaper, though it won't set anything else on fire, and will only cause mild burns to anyone wearing it. The ashes are a total bitch to clean up.
Animals on board?
If any character decided to try and keep a little domesticated arctic fox from the December planet (or if one followed them home), it can stay on the ship long-term. Atroma fully supports adorable animal mascots and all the positive ratings they rake in. Foxes can subsist on proteins, but you should really think about giving it a varied diet (along with plenty of exercise). Also, don't be surprised if your crewmates find a few shredded belongings, and small messes on their beds now and again.
Also, for future reference: any living creatures that are no longer wanted, or are left behind by disappearing passengers, will automatically beamed to the Marsiva and kept safe in a cozy animal shelter.
The Way-Stations
These way-stations sure look a little more lively than the ones you're used to! They almost resemble the inside of an Earth mall, with tall, white walls, bright neon signs, huge LED screens, and big windows full of merchandise! Absolutely all of which is brought to you by... Floot Loops. Part of this balanced breakfast.
→ The Courtyard
All of these spaces are fairly large, filled with squishy benches and network kiosks. The floors are brightly carpeted, and the "ceilings" show a hologram of a cartoonish sun and clouds floating lazily across the sky. There are also signs, pillars, posters, screens, and speakers all around you that proudly advertise Floot Loops, the phenomenally fruity cereal the whole family will enjoy!
There's still not a whole lot of traffic through here, and the few people who are here seem pretty preoccupied. While these aliens are admittedly a little rough around the edges, they seem more like day-workers and busy shoppers than the kidnapping-and-smuggling types. You may even recognize some people from the December planet. Whatever the case, none of them should really be a bother to you.
→ Shopping and Entertainment
Some shops are still fully automated, but the rest are run by actual flesh-and-blood staff. There are so many different stores lining the courtyard that a character could find almost anything... with the downside being that every single thing for purchase is heavily branded by Floot Loops: proud sponsor of the Drift Fleet's twelfth cycle.
Even the pretty little cafes feature themed meals (the meat is still all ostrich, but now with delicious fruity glazes!) and servers dressed in Floot Loops colors.
It's up to you to decide how your official Floot Loops merchandise looks. Clothes might have big logos on them, food might only come in special, limited-edition Floot Loops flavors, games might have copyrighted Floot Loops mascots printed on them, whatever. Have fun drinking out of that bright, colorful Floot Loops (now with twelve essential vitamins and minerals!) shotglass! At least the "Floot Loops-Flavored" vodka isn't actually that bad...
Huh, that's weird.
→ Free coffee machine!
As per the contract with Floot Loops, they're loopy-licious!, each ship will be receiving a free coffee machine and some starter coffee! Sure, "Floot Loops" is plastered all over it, and the coffee comes in five fruit flavors--lime, citrus (which is different than lime), blueberry, strawberry, and sour apple--but when's the last time you had caffeine, anyway? Don't complain.
They will be delivered as a sponsor drop at the beginning of the event, beamed down in a crate, smack-dab in the middle of the cargo hold. There's a note with it that suggests you always tilt the logo towards the cameras (what cameras?), and that extra ratings will be rewarded for mentioning how good your Floot Loops brand coffee tastes.
→ What's this about a game?
Even before your ships make it there, you'll catch wind of some game called the "Enchanted Forest". The many ads you see on way-stations will occasionally switch over to advertise some sort of a treasure-hunt (sponsored by Floot Loops) on a nearby planet, along with the coordinates. It sounds like fun! Adventure, mystery! Prizes, prizes, prizes! Just get from one end of the forest to the other, and you'll be a big winner!
→ A strange transmission...
Behind the rainbow-hued, fruit flavor of commercialism, something else is going on. Transmissions aren't easy to send or receive in this section of space, and even Atroma's broadcasts are not immune to the effect. There is another signal that tries to crowd in on every frequency, and becomes stronger the closer the Fleet gets to the planet.
Whether on ship or way-station, when accessing a network computer station or your personal communicator, everyone can (and sometimes can't help) tuning into the singing.
Depending on who is listening, who is the one tuning in, a song will play. And the strange thing, is the song is usually in some old or dead language particular to the listener, often of great personal importance to them, and always enough to pull at strings of heart and memory. Even if the targetted character doesn't actually understand what the language translates to, it should be a language that they at least recognize and get an emotional response from. Examples: One character might hear a Latin choir from the churches of home. Another character might hear an old myth sung by their ancestors in a language that's almost lost by now.
If there isn't a song like that of any kind that fits this description for their character, the transmission can simply be some other song from their past that holds significance for them--such as a lullaby once sung by a parent. And if you absolutely can't think of a song or type of music that would fit, the character hears something like this. Some melancholy, haunting melody in a language that absolutely no one (even those who understand all languages) can decipher.
And though the songs always target one particular listener at a time, everyone can hear each other's songs, so characters are welcome to share the transmission with others or even put them on-blast over the whole network.
The bottom line is that characters will hear a song that evokes an emotional response, whether it be wistfulness, sorrow, nostalgia, bittersweet happiness, or even fear. And communications officers can do a quick triangulation to figure out that the signal is coming from the coordinates of that Enchanted Forest planet...
The January Planet
It looks kind of weird, even from out in distant orbit. It's very small, covered in green, and looks kind of like someone or something tried to cut it in half? A big chunk of it is missing, leaving a flat plane for you to land on--and this flat plane is also impossibly blanketed in green. Its rotation and stable orbit make no kind of scientific sense, but there it is. Something has altered the hell out of it, starting with the way that its atmosphere is absolutely covered in even more advertisement satellites-- "GO HERE!" "THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME!" "ONLY IN ORBIT FOR FOUR SHORT WEEKS!" "FREE SPA TREATMENT!" "FUN FOR THE WHOLE--" Wait, did they say free spa treatment!?
→ The Field
Being that the planet appears, for all intents and purposes, to be covered in a blanket of deep forest, the only place to land is a single grassy field, surrounded by ominous-looking trees on all sides. Despite the bright, loud advertising up above and the musical signal that it is apparently streaming, the surface of this world is incredibly quiet, with not a single billboard or kiosk in sight. It's a bit chilly, like a fall afternoon under a perpetually overcast sky, (you might want to buy a Floot Loops brand jacket beforehand to replace your incinerated sweatshirt,) and there are often soft clouds of snow falling, though everything is too wet and cool for it to stick for very long. There are some birds singing, but they all seem far away. No other animals are around.
On one end of this clearing, there's a large bathhouse amid a cluster of hot springs. It looks kind of old and unkempt, but steam still rises lazily up from chimneys and pipes. And on the other end of the field, it looks like a path starts into the forest.
→ The Bathhouse
It looks as though this area was chosen for the clearing because of the cluster of natural hot springs here. There is a bathhouse built here, large enough to cater to a busy crowd, but now stands empty. It's obvious that no one has been here to care for it in a long time, but it's so automated that it is still very much functional. The outside springs are open for use, as are the baths and spa pools indoors. Fresh water will automatically be pumped into the baths, and there are enough machines dispensing soaps, salts, and salves to make your time genuinely relaxing. Fresh towels and hair products will dispense at your convenience, and there are even robotic massage chambers. Let the steam ease away all of your troubles, passengers.
For the modest, there is even a machine that vends various sizes of swimming trunks (with additional bandeau tops for the ladies)... though this rickety machine has been known to malfunction, occasionally refusing to work.
Besides, the longer that you stay here and soak, the more you'll strangely feel like venturing into the forest...
→ The Enchanted Forest
There's a rusty, half-buried robot near the start of the path. It's weathered and stained, but still smiling! And it's only there for one purpose, and that is to chirp these lines to everyone that walks past it:
Stay true to your quest,
at any cost,
stray from the path,
and you will be lost.
Your character's goal is to get from one end of the forest to the other! There is a twisting path that will lead them all the way there. If they run the whole way and don't stop for lunch, it will take a several hours... But for most people, it will take the better part of a day. There don't seem to be any other rules posted, so characters may choose to go in as groups or individuals, and use whatever methods they want to get through! (Though, whether they fly, dash, teleport, or dig, they will still run into as many problems and distractions as anyone else might.)
The forest itself changes from place to place. Sometimes it looks spooky and terrifying, sometimes it looks charming and peaceful, but it always seems to have this feeling of otherworldly enchantment about it. Those with any sort of magic sense will know, without a doubt, that this whole planet is chock-full of a neutral, thriving magical energy. The whole place feels a lot like a fairy glen... or an MP restoring fountain.
And the forest will not let you through without a challenge. At least once during their journey, the forest will conjure up something particular to the character to try and lure them off the path. They may see something as silly as a big plate of delicious food, or something as serious as a long-gone loved one... It is up to the player to decide what to throw at their character, and whether or not that character is tempted off the path by it. It's also up to you to decide if other characters can even see those enchantments, or if it looks like your character suddenly chases or talks to something that isn't there.
Whether your character gets distracted by a butterfly, or runs off to try and help their already-enchanted friends, they lose the game if they leave the path. They will be enchanted by the forest and forget all about what they were supposed to be doing for at least an hour. At the end of this time, they'll find themselves stumbling through the trees and into the starting clearing once more, whereupon they can decide to try again... or give up for now.
If a character or group of characters make it to the end... Congratulations! They'll find themselves in a clearing undetectable and unreachable by anyone outside of it, where three large trees twist together into one monstrous sentinel keeping silent watch over the glade. Upon viewing its red and gold leaves and black branches, characters will feel something slide into their pockets or appear in their hands. It's a gift from some point in their past--one small sentimental item that means something to them. As long as it is not very big and not terribly lethal, they can have it. Examples include photographs, jewelry, books, small knives, stuffed animals, the bobble-head you once kept on your dashboard, a "the Best of Queen" cassette, etc.
Characters can return to the starting point by touching the large tree at the center of the clearing... or by wandering off into the trees and getting lost again. Winners may return to the path as many times as they wish, and the forest will give up trying to tempt them, but they will not gain any additional prizes from reaching the end again.
Good luck, passengers! Enjoy the challenge and your fantastic prizes... Sponsored by Floot Loops! Atroma recommended, doctor-approved!
Got questions? Want something clarified? Ask them in the comments below!
You may also use this post for plotting and discussion! Have an idea? Looking for a travelling group? Let us know!
The Drift Fleet will be in the range of this star system between January 4th - January 31st.
So, about those self-destructing sweaters...
True to Diamond's warning, the sweaters and other winter gear supplied for the December planet does not last past the time spent in its range. Sometime between January 3rd and 4th, at rather sporadic bursts, every bit of temporary winter clothing that is still on the ship will combust. Each article will suddenly burn up like flashpaper, though it won't set anything else on fire, and will only cause mild burns to anyone wearing it. The ashes are a total bitch to clean up.
Animals on board?
If any character decided to try and keep a little domesticated arctic fox from the December planet (or if one followed them home), it can stay on the ship long-term. Atroma fully supports adorable animal mascots and all the positive ratings they rake in. Foxes can subsist on proteins, but you should really think about giving it a varied diet (along with plenty of exercise). Also, don't be surprised if your crewmates find a few shredded belongings, and small messes on their beds now and again.
Also, for future reference: any living creatures that are no longer wanted, or are left behind by disappearing passengers, will automatically beamed to the Marsiva and kept safe in a cozy animal shelter.
The Way-Stations
These way-stations sure look a little more lively than the ones you're used to! They almost resemble the inside of an Earth mall, with tall, white walls, bright neon signs, huge LED screens, and big windows full of merchandise! Absolutely all of which is brought to you by... Floot Loops. Part of this balanced breakfast.
→ The Courtyard
All of these spaces are fairly large, filled with squishy benches and network kiosks. The floors are brightly carpeted, and the "ceilings" show a hologram of a cartoonish sun and clouds floating lazily across the sky. There are also signs, pillars, posters, screens, and speakers all around you that proudly advertise Floot Loops, the phenomenally fruity cereal the whole family will enjoy!
There's still not a whole lot of traffic through here, and the few people who are here seem pretty preoccupied. While these aliens are admittedly a little rough around the edges, they seem more like day-workers and busy shoppers than the kidnapping-and-smuggling types. You may even recognize some people from the December planet. Whatever the case, none of them should really be a bother to you.
→ Shopping and Entertainment
Some shops are still fully automated, but the rest are run by actual flesh-and-blood staff. There are so many different stores lining the courtyard that a character could find almost anything... with the downside being that every single thing for purchase is heavily branded by Floot Loops: proud sponsor of the Drift Fleet's twelfth cycle.
Even the pretty little cafes feature themed meals (the meat is still all ostrich, but now with delicious fruity glazes!) and servers dressed in Floot Loops colors.
It's up to you to decide how your official Floot Loops merchandise looks. Clothes might have big logos on them, food might only come in special, limited-edition Floot Loops flavors, games might have copyrighted Floot Loops mascots printed on them, whatever. Have fun drinking out of that bright, colorful Floot Loops (now with twelve essential vitamins and minerals!) shotglass! At least the "Floot Loops-Flavored" vodka isn't actually that bad...
Huh, that's weird.
→ Free coffee machine!
As per the contract with Floot Loops, they're loopy-licious!, each ship will be receiving a free coffee machine and some starter coffee! Sure, "Floot Loops" is plastered all over it, and the coffee comes in five fruit flavors--lime, citrus (which is different than lime), blueberry, strawberry, and sour apple--but when's the last time you had caffeine, anyway? Don't complain.
They will be delivered as a sponsor drop at the beginning of the event, beamed down in a crate, smack-dab in the middle of the cargo hold. There's a note with it that suggests you always tilt the logo towards the cameras (what cameras?), and that extra ratings will be rewarded for mentioning how good your Floot Loops brand coffee tastes.
→ What's this about a game?
Even before your ships make it there, you'll catch wind of some game called the "Enchanted Forest". The many ads you see on way-stations will occasionally switch over to advertise some sort of a treasure-hunt (sponsored by Floot Loops) on a nearby planet, along with the coordinates. It sounds like fun! Adventure, mystery! Prizes, prizes, prizes! Just get from one end of the forest to the other, and you'll be a big winner!
→ A strange transmission...
Behind the rainbow-hued, fruit flavor of commercialism, something else is going on. Transmissions aren't easy to send or receive in this section of space, and even Atroma's broadcasts are not immune to the effect. There is another signal that tries to crowd in on every frequency, and becomes stronger the closer the Fleet gets to the planet.
Whether on ship or way-station, when accessing a network computer station or your personal communicator, everyone can (and sometimes can't help) tuning into the singing.
Depending on who is listening, who is the one tuning in, a song will play. And the strange thing, is the song is usually in some old or dead language particular to the listener, often of great personal importance to them, and always enough to pull at strings of heart and memory. Even if the targetted character doesn't actually understand what the language translates to, it should be a language that they at least recognize and get an emotional response from. Examples: One character might hear a Latin choir from the churches of home. Another character might hear an old myth sung by their ancestors in a language that's almost lost by now.
If there isn't a song like that of any kind that fits this description for their character, the transmission can simply be some other song from their past that holds significance for them--such as a lullaby once sung by a parent. And if you absolutely can't think of a song or type of music that would fit, the character hears something like this. Some melancholy, haunting melody in a language that absolutely no one (even those who understand all languages) can decipher.
And though the songs always target one particular listener at a time, everyone can hear each other's songs, so characters are welcome to share the transmission with others or even put them on-blast over the whole network.
The bottom line is that characters will hear a song that evokes an emotional response, whether it be wistfulness, sorrow, nostalgia, bittersweet happiness, or even fear. And communications officers can do a quick triangulation to figure out that the signal is coming from the coordinates of that Enchanted Forest planet...
The January Planet
It looks kind of weird, even from out in distant orbit. It's very small, covered in green, and looks kind of like someone or something tried to cut it in half? A big chunk of it is missing, leaving a flat plane for you to land on--and this flat plane is also impossibly blanketed in green. Its rotation and stable orbit make no kind of scientific sense, but there it is. Something has altered the hell out of it, starting with the way that its atmosphere is absolutely covered in even more advertisement satellites-- "GO HERE!" "THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME!" "ONLY IN ORBIT FOR FOUR SHORT WEEKS!" "FREE SPA TREATMENT!" "FUN FOR THE WHOLE--" Wait, did they say free spa treatment!?
→ The Field
Being that the planet appears, for all intents and purposes, to be covered in a blanket of deep forest, the only place to land is a single grassy field, surrounded by ominous-looking trees on all sides. Despite the bright, loud advertising up above and the musical signal that it is apparently streaming, the surface of this world is incredibly quiet, with not a single billboard or kiosk in sight. It's a bit chilly, like a fall afternoon under a perpetually overcast sky, (you might want to buy a Floot Loops brand jacket beforehand to replace your incinerated sweatshirt,) and there are often soft clouds of snow falling, though everything is too wet and cool for it to stick for very long. There are some birds singing, but they all seem far away. No other animals are around.
On one end of this clearing, there's a large bathhouse amid a cluster of hot springs. It looks kind of old and unkempt, but steam still rises lazily up from chimneys and pipes. And on the other end of the field, it looks like a path starts into the forest.
→ The Bathhouse
It looks as though this area was chosen for the clearing because of the cluster of natural hot springs here. There is a bathhouse built here, large enough to cater to a busy crowd, but now stands empty. It's obvious that no one has been here to care for it in a long time, but it's so automated that it is still very much functional. The outside springs are open for use, as are the baths and spa pools indoors. Fresh water will automatically be pumped into the baths, and there are enough machines dispensing soaps, salts, and salves to make your time genuinely relaxing. Fresh towels and hair products will dispense at your convenience, and there are even robotic massage chambers. Let the steam ease away all of your troubles, passengers.
For the modest, there is even a machine that vends various sizes of swimming trunks (with additional bandeau tops for the ladies)... though this rickety machine has been known to malfunction, occasionally refusing to work.
Besides, the longer that you stay here and soak, the more you'll strangely feel like venturing into the forest...
→ The Enchanted Forest
There's a rusty, half-buried robot near the start of the path. It's weathered and stained, but still smiling! And it's only there for one purpose, and that is to chirp these lines to everyone that walks past it:
Stay true to your quest,
at any cost,
stray from the path,
and you will be lost.
Your character's goal is to get from one end of the forest to the other! There is a twisting path that will lead them all the way there. If they run the whole way and don't stop for lunch, it will take a several hours... But for most people, it will take the better part of a day. There don't seem to be any other rules posted, so characters may choose to go in as groups or individuals, and use whatever methods they want to get through! (Though, whether they fly, dash, teleport, or dig, they will still run into as many problems and distractions as anyone else might.)
The forest itself changes from place to place. Sometimes it looks spooky and terrifying, sometimes it looks charming and peaceful, but it always seems to have this feeling of otherworldly enchantment about it. Those with any sort of magic sense will know, without a doubt, that this whole planet is chock-full of a neutral, thriving magical energy. The whole place feels a lot like a fairy glen... or an MP restoring fountain.
And the forest will not let you through without a challenge. At least once during their journey, the forest will conjure up something particular to the character to try and lure them off the path. They may see something as silly as a big plate of delicious food, or something as serious as a long-gone loved one... It is up to the player to decide what to throw at their character, and whether or not that character is tempted off the path by it. It's also up to you to decide if other characters can even see those enchantments, or if it looks like your character suddenly chases or talks to something that isn't there.
Whether your character gets distracted by a butterfly, or runs off to try and help their already-enchanted friends, they lose the game if they leave the path. They will be enchanted by the forest and forget all about what they were supposed to be doing for at least an hour. At the end of this time, they'll find themselves stumbling through the trees and into the starting clearing once more, whereupon they can decide to try again... or give up for now.
If a character or group of characters make it to the end... Congratulations! They'll find themselves in a clearing undetectable and unreachable by anyone outside of it, where three large trees twist together into one monstrous sentinel keeping silent watch over the glade. Upon viewing its red and gold leaves and black branches, characters will feel something slide into their pockets or appear in their hands. It's a gift from some point in their past--one small sentimental item that means something to them. As long as it is not very big and not terribly lethal, they can have it. Examples include photographs, jewelry, books, small knives, stuffed animals, the bobble-head you once kept on your dashboard, a "the Best of Queen" cassette, etc.
Characters can return to the starting point by touching the large tree at the center of the clearing... or by wandering off into the trees and getting lost again. Winners may return to the path as many times as they wish, and the forest will give up trying to tempt them, but they will not gain any additional prizes from reaching the end again.
Good luck, passengers! Enjoy the challenge and your fantastic prizes... Sponsored by Floot Loops! Atroma recommended, doctor-approved!
Got questions? Want something clarified? Ask them in the comments below!
You may also use this post for plotting and discussion! Have an idea? Looking for a travelling group? Let us know!
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A shame Ludger isn't great with flirts. OH WELL.
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The awkward is half the fun! :'D
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I look forward to it very much!
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