arkproject: (Default)
Catherine Chun ([personal profile] arkproject) wrote in [community profile] maskormenacelogs2016-11-11 05:02 pm

November Swear-In -- Virtual Reality Edition!

WHO: November Swear-In!
WHERE: An auditorium in Heropa... technically.
WHEN: November 11
WHAT: A whole lot of virtual reality.
WARNINGS: Completely optional insanity effects possible (see the OOC post and links below for details). Otherwise totally peewee-friendly.


The physical location of the swear-in is an auditorium in Heropa, where guests are greeted by ushers, shown to a seat, and then told to take out their phones and plug them into an outlet set into their chair. It's a bit like being in a movie theatre with nothing on screen-- the seats are comfortable, the lighting ambient, and once the phone is plugged in, a message pops up.


Hi! Welcome to the Vivarium!

This is a virtual reality [link] experience unlike any you've experienced before. The Vivarium is fully immersive in every way and almost indistinguishable from your living embodied self. By hitting yes below, you agree to that experience and any potential existential questioning that may arise as a consequence.

Inside you'll find a variety of settings and activities. At any time you can bring up the control scheme and opt to fast-warp to a different setting, or to leave. You can also alter your own appearance or locate others, contact them, and fast-warp to their location.

The Vivarium is not dangerous. Things that occur inside the VR environment will not impact your physical body. At the end, you will come back to yourself in your chair either at the end of these three hours, or when you choose to, whichever comes first.

If you have any prevailing concerns, please use your control scheme to contact the administrator and programmer, Catherine Chun [link], or for emergency responses, contact security [link].

Thank you, and enjoy!

YES, TAKE ME IN!
NOT INTERESTED


    > APPLE PICKING.
Everyone spawns in in a classic apple orchard, long austere rows of grown apple trees broken by messy sweeps of leaves and fallen apples on the ground. There's mysteriously no employees around, just empty old-style wooden buckets and a long expanse of clear blue sky. The air is shockingly crisp, the scent of leaves on the wind is pungent, and overall the whole experience is as real as one could ask. Even eating one of the apples (encouraged!) tastes like an apple. You aren't sure how, but you remain convinced it tasted like an apple, despite the taste itself not really coming through…

Have fun wandering around socializing, catching people as they try to reach the higher-up apples on the trees, or go exploring-- because there's a lot more out there. If you don't use the control scheme, you can reach two of the other three environments just by legging it. At some point as you walk through the surrounding forest, it turns from deciduous to tropical, and the rushing roar of water comes to your ears as you approach a waterfall with a long, impossible drop off. A prompt comes up in front of your eyes as you stand near the edge:


    > UNDERWATER.
J U M P


If you follow the instructions, you go soaring down the hundred meter fall, simulated air whipping past you. You hit the water and cut through it as smoothly as butter, with no impact at all, and somewhere in the transition find you have diving gear on, or can mysteriously breathe without difficulty. Whichever one your character would default to.

The surface disappears as the momentum carries you down and down, and soon the only source of light is the ambient blue glow of an installation on the ocean floor. You can explore the echoing, empty halls and industrialized structures and find clues of the former habitants, who seem to have been deep sea miners and scientists. If you fast-warp in, that's where you'll arrive, and you'll have to go out the airlock to reach the water.

Or you can explore the ocean surroundings, which are all fantastical and not remotely Earth-like: gentle giants, elaborate coral reefs in the shallows, kelp forests, corpses of terrifying megafauna, or get into trouble exploring with some of the more predatory creatures.
    > HAUNTED MANSION.
If, instead, you keep venturing through the woods, time starts to pass more rapidly, almost without you noticing. The canopy of leaves obscures the light increasingly as you go on, until the bright mid-morning of the orchard is overtaken by dim twilight. Inexorably, you will eventually find the requisite spooky mansion in the woods, yard overgrown if it ever existed at all. The eerie encroaching darkness of the surroundings makes the single flickering candle in an upper story window all the more stark.

Upon entering the house into the grand foyer, characters will be prompted again:

ARE YOU A GHOST?


If they say yes, congratulations, they are now playing the part of the ghost haunting the mansion! They can lure other characters, play tricks on them, and plant clues about their creepy backstory. They will find themselves now invisible on command, able to pass through walls, and fly, as long as they stay within the confines of the house. Feel free to write this whichever way you wish-- this can be as genuinely scary or as silly as you like. Just make sure you don't scare someone so much they call security!

    > ISOLATED ROOFTOPS.
Need some peace and quiet? You can go to some isolated urban rooftops overlooking a bustling futuristic city at the hush of dawn, accessible only by control scheme command. The only noises are the faint trickles of people getting up to start their day, walking around below like smears of ink on the ground, so far away on your elevated rooftop as to be indistinct. Standard video game invisible barriers prevent you from jumping off this one, and there's no rooftop access door to explain how you got up here.

It's just tranquil, and very little else: the quintessential space to think. If you run into someone else on the same rooftop, you can fast-warp out and respawn on a different one to get some privacy, or you can share it. Although… being too alone might be a bad idea, as thinking too much, being too introspective, is one of the fastest ways to start going insane.



 

aboveand: (Terry413)

[personal profile] aboveand 2016-12-06 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[There's a brief pause as Terry tries to figure out exactly which pieces he needs to gloss over to avoid implicating Bruce as the first Batman.]

Where should I start? If you know more about the other Batman, I'm guessing you know about the Joker? His main bad guy? Well, the Joker.... he died before I was born, but there's a bunch of dregs in my time who more or less think he had the right idea. They call themselves the Jokerz. They aren't nearly as horrible as the original, but they give a lot of people a lot of grief in the name of a "joke." Anyway, one night I was out with my girlfriend when a gang of Jokerz showed up, and their leader tried to take her. Needless to say I didn't take that very well, and we got into a fight, me and the Jokerz. The fight turned into a motorcycle chase, and in my effort to get away from them I stumbled across this old hidden cave up in the outskirts of town. I mean, this place hadn't been touched in years. I rode in a little deeper to make sure they wouldn't see me, and that's when I accidentally stumbled upon the... well I call it "the Batcave." It had like most of the original Batman's stuff in it, and well, it was in a cave. [He shrugs.] I'm not exactly creative, sue me.

[That... that totally sounds plausible, right?]

Anyway, that would have been the end of it except... When I went home... [There's a long pause as Terry's expression darkens. The day is still fresh in his mind.] The cops were there. When I got to the stairs, I saw my mom talking to more cops... My parents had divorced years ago. There was no reason for her to be there. [Another pause, though not as long.] They said it was a robbery gone bad. By accident I found out that wasn't the case, that my dad's boss had something to do with it because my dad had learned about something Derek Powers didn't want the rest of the world to know.

I wish I could say I originally became Batman to help people, but the truth is I wanted revenge, and I knew where the suit was. So I took it. [A beat.] Don't worry, I learned revenge isn't the answer almost as soon as I put the suit on. Where I'm from, Batman had been just a memory from a time before I was even born. I grew up knowing the name, but I didn't understand the weight that came with that name until I became the bat myself.

For me, Batman's about doing something when no one else can... or will.
hypnotherapy: (ready!)

[personal profile] hypnotherapy 2016-12-06 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
Magicman: Hmmmmmmm. Good question.

[ He does a few lazy circles in the water, inspecting it from various angles. ]

Magicman: It'd probably have like five healthbars or something. Really big ones.

Magicman: Lightning would definitely have to be a weakness. I guess if it's this far down a holy element might affect it too...I wonder what kind of signature attacks it would have.
amadaman: ((p3) 095)

[personal profile] amadaman 2016-12-06 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
Amada: Really?

[There's a look of confidence and glee on his face now.]

Amada: Sounds like the sort of boss battle you want to take me too.
hypnotherapy: (glasses aesthetic)

[personal profile] hypnotherapy 2016-12-06 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
Magicman: You're saying that like I wouldn't take you along anyway. You're an essential member of the team, Ken.

[ Magicman plays RPGs on the sentimentality clause, aka: taking your favourites. What team? Any team. ]

Magicman: But those must be your kind of elements, if you're saying that. What other kind of elements do you have? [ there's like...an inconsistent number of them where he comes from... ]
granularity: (wry facescrub)

[personal profile] granularity 2016-12-06 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Justice Society of America," he supplies, "first organized mystery men in my world. Er." He hates the modern term. "Superhero? Only not fictional."
amadaman: ((p3) 059)

[personal profile] amadaman 2016-12-06 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[He definitely does. Sometimes you don't need to see any eyes to know you're being looked at, but at least this guy isn't Hisoka hiding behind a corner. Yeah, this is better. Khaji gets a bright-eyed smile in return as Ken looks up at him.]

Of course not. You're someone important to Jaime-san, and I can't ignore how happy he looks right now.

Besides, we don't talk a lot but I consider you a friend too. It's good to see you in person when things aren't blowing up around us.
amadaman: ((p3) 080)

[personal profile] amadaman 2016-12-07 01:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ken doesn't need any warning and reacts easily to Wendy's abrupt action. His grip is tight -- but not painful! -- as he kicks off the cliff at almost the same time as her, a sparkle in his eyes and a laugh in his voice as he yells back at her over the sound of wind rushing past. And isn't it nice that they coded in that wind rushing past? It feels great.]

Whoever makes the biggest splash!

[Ken nobody is watching]
mostlysunny: ([KD] Concentration)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-07 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
...so not hearing the microwave and then coming into hot coffee was a pretty obvious tipoff.

[Look, how was she supposed to know her boss could hear machines? He hadn't exactly mentioned that in the info packet when she'd taken the job. But, no, it's fine, she knows now, and they'll just. Get used to each other in a new way now.]

Neither am I. [At least, not other people's.

She glances around the undersea scene, uncomfortably aware now how artificial it is, and how borderline eerie it is that it seems so real.]
Do you want to stay?
mostlysunny: ([KD] Not great)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-07 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh wow. Wow. That's a lot to take in. Clearly not a job interview process, but then, hers hadn't been either. She'd just...needed to be Supergirl one day.

She has absolutely no reason to believe he isn't telling the full truth, or tweaking any of the details. They're heroes, they tell each other the truth, right?]


Wow. Terry, I'm sorry. That's awful. I'm, I'm glad you found your way to it though, when you needed to. Even if it's still really hard sometimes. Do you have help? A team, or your family, or...or your dog who walks on ceilings sometimes?

[It's a weak joke, but she'd been realizing as she asked the question that the answer might be no, he doesn't have any help. Kara can't imagine doing what she does without the support she has. It's hard to imagine anyone doing it.]
mostlysunny: ([KD] Lightbulb moment)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-07 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"You're a superhero? I'm a superhero!"

...oh. Right, she's. Not in costume. She looks like Supergirl, no glasses and her hair is down, but then she's wearing Kara Danvers' clothes.

"...sort of. Wow, they used to be called mystery men? That's cool! ...a little sexist. But cool."
granularity: (wry facescrub)

[personal profile] granularity 2016-12-07 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, there were mystery women," he points out with a spread of his hands. "Mystery 'people' never really caught on."
aboveand: (Terry483)

[personal profile] aboveand 2016-12-07 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[He scratches the back of his neck.]

Sorry, I probably should have warned you it was a little heavy.

[His expression softens, and he smiles.]

I... well, fine's not the right word, but I'm not letting it consume me. [Unlike a certain Batman he knows.] I had my mom and Matt--my little brother--and Dana and my friends at school. Heck, even old man Wayne shows emotion every now and then.

[His smile widens.]

And yeah, even the mutt. He's actually helped me out a few times, you know. Before he could walk on the ceiling.
mostlysunny: ([KD] Serenity now)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-08 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, yeah, I guess that doesn't really. It's not very catchy, is it? Ms. Grant would never let anyone get away with 'mystery people' as a title."

She looks up again, spotting a perfect-looking apple high up in the tree next to Sandy, and grins. "I'm going in," she informs him, and takes a running start to catch a branch and start climbing.
granularity: (smooth operator)

[personal profile] granularity 2016-12-08 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
And he doesn't follow but he does spot her, glancing up to start looking for likely apple spots.

"Mind grabbing one for me?"
mostlysunny: ([KD] Concentration)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-09 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it's. It's okay. I'm starting to think it's pretty heavy for everyone who ends up putting on a costume to fight crime, you know?

[Because who else would do it?]

How is Ace doing by the way? Is he okay? Is he getting used to ending up on the ceiling sometimes? What else can he do?
mostlysunny: ([KD] Ha yes these glasses)

[personal profile] mostlysunny 2016-12-09 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"You got it!" Now that she's gotten used to climbing without being able to fly, she's a little better at it. And because she's feeling so generous, when she reaches the apple, she plucks it off the branch and holds it out.

"Incoming!" she calls down and drops it down to him, and then sits on a branch and picks one for herself. "This orchard is huge from up here. That part is a little weird. Like it's too big."
khajidont: (Scarab - faceless)

[personal profile] khajidont 2016-12-10 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
Observation: I never claimed that you < wouldn't understand >.

You think of me as connected to < Jaime Reyes >. I am connected to < Jaime Reyes >. I am also my own being.


[He fought for his own sentience, and so he clings to it tightly. But he can have some semblance of pity for Kaidan, if not only for Jaime's sake... and for the fact that Khaji does think that he's really rather pathetic, unable to comprehend that that is different from him, unable to grasp an alternative view of a life he has taken for granted.]

When < Jaime Reyes > is asleep or distant, I learn. I use his video game consoles. That is all.
khajidont: (Jaime - smirk)

[personal profile] khajidont 2016-12-10 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[...that seems like all he's going to say. Jaime laughs and thumps Khaji on the shoulder.] Sorry, Ken, he's not chatty. But I am happy. I never actually get to see him like this unless something bad's happening. It's nice not having to talk to nothing for once.

And, for the record, he likes you too. Don'tcha, Khaj?

Yes, [Khaji says without the slightest trace of self-consciousness or doubt. He doens't feel embarrassed, not like Jaime. If he likes or dislikes someone, he can simply say so.] < Ken Amada > has appropriate reactions to situations. < Ken Amada > has reasonable priorities.

...that's one way of putting it.
khajidont: (Scarab - faceless)

[personal profile] khajidont 2016-12-10 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Khaji, predictably, does not respond to the plea for politeness, nor does he respond to the idea that the world would be less strained. Then again, he fundamentally disagrees; the Reach are perfectly polite, but that only makes their wrath all the more deadly.

But Fuu probably isn't thinking about a race of highly advanced genocidal aliens.]


He refers to me as The Scarab. I form his exoskeleton but I primarily reside inside his spine.
kanadian: (Ugh whatever)

[personal profile] kanadian 2016-12-10 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's a pause, then. ]

Sorry, Khaji. I guess I just... it's hard to get out of that war sometimes. We have other AI back home, but... they actually took fragments of the Reaper's code to improve themselves... sometimes it's hard to think about... how much they touch my world. Everything we have, you know? Hell, even our spaceflight seems to have come from them.

[ He's trying, at least. For Jaime's sake. Even if he's mostly stumbling. ]

I can't imagine you're getting much of the good from us humans, if you're playing a lot of video games. Do you... do it a lot? [ Are you the one kicking my ass all the time. ]
Edited 2016-12-10 03:36 (UTC)
sasaeru: (10)

[personal profile] sasaeru 2016-12-10 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[As Wendy moves, she turns her head slightly to watch out of the corner of her eye. Every motion from someone nearby causes her to tense up for a moment, but she's quick to settle back into a relaxed state, closing her eyes against the misty wind that rises from the waterfall below, soaking in the tropical warmth. She wonders if this is what a place like this would really feel like; she's never been to the tropics.]

At the store, you always seemed to be relaxed. [Or maybe she's just that good at acting, more than she would've guessed her to be.]
sasaeru: (1)

[personal profile] sasaeru 2016-12-10 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[She recognizes the smile, but it doesn't hurt to see it today. In Aliea, the cold light of the building made him seem like a different person, sharper eyes and steel heart -- an act, she knew, but a convincing act all the same. There were nights that it would show up in her dreams but she wouldn't recognize him as her Hiroto, instead identifying him as the boy whose face she did not know but knew about. As Kira's son, the one who would take Hiroto away from her.

Right now, it's strange. Hiroto has that boy's hair and eyes now, but she still sees that he's the boy she knows. She bites her lower lip briefly before she nods, squeezing his hand.]


I--

For me, even if nobody was watching, I'd be okay in the world as long as you were nearby.
sasaeru: (24)

[personal profile] sasaeru 2016-12-10 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
That's impressive.

[She's monotonous, as usual, but there's no insincerity there.]

Is that something you can always do? Or is this because of the area?
sasaeru: (18)

[personal profile] sasaeru 2016-12-10 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm. That is an English problem, though.

In Japan where we were on our Earth, there were many different words to refer to the idea. What is Thedas like?
amadaman: ((p3) 222)

[personal profile] amadaman 2016-12-10 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a team for you. I'm glad we both have good leaders.

Do you want to sit here a little longer? I can be quiet, but I want to keep you company if you are.

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