MISSION ONE: THE TIME MACHINE

[causalitys]

MISSION LOGS

MISSION ONE: THE TIME MACHINE

▐ OBJECTIVES ▐ The machine has malfunctioned, resulting in the random splintering of individuals across time and across the vast expanse of possible realities. Each person pulled has subsequently been recruited temporarily until a solution to return them home has been reached. The first mission is simple: return to the last splinter point the machine reached and retrace the steps of the team to locate any temporal anomalies and record them. Record anything strange or out of the ordinary for missions. The year is 1993, and you are going native. In the 'present', the team should begin a physical document mapping out where the new recruits come from and try to determine if splintering back is possible with their current technology. ▐ OUTCOMES ▐ Characters will have experience using the time machine and players will have chance to explore the past or explore the facility in the 'present'. A brief comprehensive idea of where everyone comes from should be starting to form, with Dr. Jones conducting individual interviews. You can be as vague about your characters personal circumstances as you like, as Dr. Jones will be more interested in the world itself, the year and will make quick character judgement's based on the conversation itself. At the end of the mission, characters should be starting to form connections, however small or significant.

SETTINGS

▐ 1993 ▐ Before you leave, you will be interviewed by Dr. Jones. This can be hand waved for inconvenience. She will ask you only the most pertinent questions: your name, your age, the year you are from. She will ask for as in depth description of your world that you can provide. If you want to elaborate on your personal circumstances, you can. If not, that's fine too. Before you leave, normal protocol takes place. The machine will be explained to you, as will the injections required before hand. The machine itself is dangerous, but the danger of being catapulted across reality again is 0.000001%. Reassuring in every way, of course. You will travel to 1993, Seattle. The only relevant information about this previous mission is the places the team were and anything odd they can recall. You will, however, be free to explore the State and note anything odd. There will be vague temporal anomalies, but nothing big enough to cross the multiverse. ▐ PROJECT SPLINTER INTEL GATHERING ▐ Interviews conducted by Dr. Jones are mandatory. Until you complete it, you will be held in the brigg quarters which, compared to the rest of the facility, is hugely uncomfortable. It is the same process as above. In turn, Dr. Jones will brief you on the current state of this world. She will only share relevant and confirmed information. After you're done, you are free to also share these experiences with the new 'volunteers. ' ▐ EXPLORING YOUR SURROUNDINGS ▐ The obligatory wild card. Explore the facility. The rooms, the kitchens, the shower rooms. Head up to the roof and look upon the vast wasteland that has become of the world. Do whatever you want!

table code by optimisty

Comments

[nautonnier]

[ Having smoothed out the sheets of his bed about as much as they can be, and probably more than any normal person should bother to do so, Iain keeps the expression until the end of that and then tries out a slight smile on Jay, acknowledging the jokiness of the situation.

Totally normal things! He's doing them. They both are. Everything is absolutely normal with these two dudes, no anxiety over there or emotional numbness over here. ]

Kind of you.

[ He settles onto his bed cautiously, like it might collapse under him. ]

But which one would you hope to find.

[scientest]

'The man who sold the world' might be kind of fitting. Given the state of outside.

[He's planning to do some digging on that, later. Beyond the briefing while being grilled by Dr. Jones, there's a sense of a bigger story. A bigger puzzle to piece together.

Call him nosy, he supposes, but nothing this bizarre might ever happen to him again. ]

[nautonnier]

[ Iain appears to ruminate on that. He has a face which is good for implying that he's thinking something over, when what he's usually thinking is best visually represented by dots and questions marks. ]

... I gotta be honest with you. I think I've really only heard like, one Bowie song.

[ Because he grew up in a cult. Let's not talk about that. ]

But I committed to this conversation, and I'm still in.

[scientest]

One's better than none, I reckon.

[Possibly he is sounding very invested in Bowie, which, he supposes could be worse. He could be invested in much worse things. ] I'd give you a listen, but I came sans phone. And sans wallet.

[A beat. ] It's bad to be a bit relieved that outside is so shit, right? Because I don't have a wallet? It feels bad to be relieved.

[nautonnier]

Not gonna sing?

[ In the long run, these toneless inquiries are either going to get funnier or more frustrating, and probably no one is ever going to enjoy playing poker with Iain. ]

Nah. If the outside wasn't a mess, we'd probably be lab experiments.

[ His casual sketch of a dystopian future isn't desperate because they aren't in shit and have plenty of resources, and thus would consider them anomalies to be locked away is just, you know, Light Conversation With Iain 101. ]

[scientest]

[Outwardly, Jay seems as jovial as he has been. The vague uncomfortableness sticks strictly on the inside, until it passes. He's almost been a lab experiment himself enough times to know that what the looming possibility looks like. The only thing here keeping it at bay is really just that they don't seem to have an operating theatre. Small blessings, he supposes. ]

A cheerful thought.

[Grin et all. ] I might have to sing now, to beat that.

[nautonnier]

[ It's a commonality that will have to go undiscovered, for now. Unlike Jay, Iain is predisposed to lie down and take it. But then, what can be gotten out of him isn't as valuable as what can be gotten out of Jay.

He turns on his side to face Jay's direction, an expectant audience. ]

Might?

[ This is what passes for playful, at the moment. He'll get better as time goes on. Maybe. Probably. He's always been told that will be the case. ]

[scientest]

Trying to decide if you deserve that kind of suffering. Mostly.

[A faux-baleful grin Iain's way. ] Tone deaf, as my mother kindly puts it.

[nautonnier]

[ Iain studies the look. It's nice that Jay is nice, yes, but he's also very emotive, and it's ... a relief, obscurely, like it takes the burden off of him personally. ]

So you're not gonna be the one to start karaoke night.

[scientest]

Maybe in a room full of people I don't like very much.

[Mostly, he is joking. And this conversation particularly is a nice break from almost everything else. The displacement, the adjustment, the overall gloomy aesthetic of the hallways.

He always knew his terrible singing would come in handy one day. ]

[nautonnier]

I guess if singing is your form of aggression, we've lucked out in the roommate department.

[ Roommates, maybe people in general, get divided into three categories, maybe more of a Venn diagram: you need to worry about them getting shanked, you don't need to worry about them getting shanked, you need to worry about getting shanked by them. For now, Jay can be tentatively moved out of the third. ]

[scientest]

To be fair, I haven't found any post-it notes yet. So.

[This seems like a good point to make a move out of bed on. Making his own bed is a less precise affair than Iain making his: Jay pulls the sheets tight at the corners, folding it back once. His pillow gets a good thump, too, and then that's that. ]

I'll make the effort to do this every day, though. I s'pose. [The bed, he means. ]