Pluviosa Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pluviosamods) wrote2023-10-05 03:33 pm
pluviosamods) wrote2023-10-05 03:33 pm
POWERS THAT BE
THE POWERS
There are three overall powers at work within the ship. To say that any of these powers has a particular agenda might be a reach - they exist, and permeate the environment. Characters can attract the attention of particular powers through their actions, and certain events may have different effects on characters under the influence of a particular influence. Although all three are present within day-to-day interactions with the setting, characters becoming influenced by a power is something that takes OOC agreement from players (and in one case, an IC contract).
Being under the influence of a power is not exclusive - characters can come under the influence of one, two, or even all three powers (if they're overachievers). Players can also choose to not have their characters influenced by any particular power - while these characters will still experience events at a baseline, they won't experience any influence-based side effects or sub-events.
As one might well expect, the first of the important powers and influences on board is the Ship itself. Nominally, the Ship is here to keep its 'passengers' alive and safe, and to its credit, it does perform these services to the best of its abilities. It is just that the Ship is also belligerent and uncooperative; it cares more about maintaining order on board than it does character happiness on an individual level. Although ever-present, the Ship only responds to limited amounts of communcation from characters, and it does not like to answer questions it views as unnecessary.
Although the Ship appears to be a single consciousness, there does not seem to be a specific central point to it, at least not one that characters can access. It interacts with "passengers" exclusively through the intercom announcement system and a set of terminals on the residential decks (for more priavte inquiries and reporting issues with accomodations). Exactly how much privacy characters have from the Ship is unclear. Aside from the announcements system, the Ship also has a number of bots that operate as an extension of its will that it can use to influence the environment on board. Most of them are cleaning bots and automated carts that move things from place to place, though more advanced mechanics to appear on occasion, and all of them have seen much better days.
The Ship, moreso than the other influences, is ever-present - perhaps too ever-present. Its intentions are inscrutable; it keeps characters from starving and provides them a clean and dry place to sleep, but it generally won't step in if they're getting themselves killed in some fantastical way or even trying to murder each other. It does attempt to protect characters from the Growth and certain other limited hazards, but this is not reliable.
Although the Ship is everpresent as the setting of the game, events that focus on the Ship itself as a primary influence are rare. These events usually involve actual physical events on the Ship (rather than being events that influence characters to act in a particular way or change them somehow). That said, the Ship's primary themes are loss of emotion/personality, supervision and the "someone is always watching" feeling, rigid rules and authority, and the effects of the passage of time.
SPECIAL: EMPLOYMENT: There do not appear to be any crew members on board the Ship, but it is open to the possibility of changing this if a character specifically seeks out employment. Any such employment is purely at the Ship's discretion; atlhough characters can quit any time they like, the Ship is unlikely to have them back against just because they ask. Given that its cleaning drones are limited, though, it is ultimately to the Ship's advantage to have a few Crew on staff. Characters who are part of the Crew have certain benefits - namely, that the Ship is actively looking out for them, including a reduced respawn time - but it is also a job, not a hobby. If you're not prepared to be on-call, don't bother applying.
Ship employment is a plot role that is open to characters and grants unique opportunities - at a price. Characters who join the Crew may find themselves missing large chunks of time during their shifts, being asked to perform dangerous tasks with little to no warning, or otherwise experiencing effects best summarized by the old Pirates of the Caribbean quote: Part of the Crew, part of the Ship. If this is of interest to you as a player, please contact the mods.
The influence of the Growth can be felt through many parts of the ship, as the plants and other things have control over the majority of the lower decks. It is the danger to explorers, the out-of-control, fundamentally uncontrollable energy of an entire planet's living energy compressed into a ship that can't even be meaningfully seen from space. It wants to grow. Life wants to live. That's all it wants.
There is no single entity which controls the Growth, and the biggest risk factor for its influence growing on a character (ha) is simply exposure. The lower decks of the ship are almost completely under its sway, and there are many other outgrowths and patches of it. Like mold scattered through a damp basement, it has concentrated areas and less concentrated areas, and even the 'safe' parts of the ship are not necessarily completely free of it. Strange sprouts appear when someone bothers to pull back the couch cushions in their room, or a streak of what seemed to be dirt on the wall of a hallway suddenly blooms into a deep purple fern that reaches out to brush its fronds across the hands of passerby. That is the Growth.
In theory, the ship is fighting against the Growth. In practice, the Ship understands that it is losing a war of attrition, and that eventually the entire ship will be home to plants, fungal clusters, and whatever else might live within the Growth. But until then, it will continue to do its best to keep characters safe from its influence, as well as giving them clean, dry, plant-free places to sleep.
In spite of the danger, there are many reasons to enter the corrupted areas of the ship. The most obvious is food; the ship generally provides basic cafeteria food that will keep you alive but is only a slight upgrade from American public school quality, and those in search of additional food or other resources will have better luck braving the depths than they will searching out supplies in the 'clean' areas of the ship. And while there are food providing decks that have lower risks than some of the others, anything beyond food that you might want or need is based purely on luck and how far you're willing to go.
Some people can walk through the jungle decks and come out the other side, but those are a blessed few. For most people, it starts with a strangely discolored patch of skin, speckled with purple, green, or dark brown. As its name implies, the influence of the Growth on a character usually grows gradually over time, though occasionally - much like the hallway fern - it occurs in a sudden explosion of leaves, one that is usually sickeningly painful for the character who falls under its influence.
The Growth rarely takes two people in the exact same way, and so any number of traits might be indicative of its influence. One person might retain their original shape entirely, but their skin turns a combination of almost-black purple and lighter accents of green that allow them to almost disappear into the corrupted environment, their eyes practically glowing. Another may start to grow herbs from their shoulders that can be picked and eaten safely.
As a general rule, the Growth only affects the physicality of one's person; it does not have any particular impact upon the mind. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is still your body - trying to remove the growing parts is as damaging as trying to remove chunks of flesh. If you catch it quickly enough, you might be able to delay it, for a time, but you might just be saving up for a sudden, more painful change later on. It's not something that can be undone easily, falling under the influence of the Growth. If you were to die, perhaps you would get lucky and come back around with a cleansed body - or perhaps not.
Event-specific effects focused on the Growth tend to be more severe transformational effects; while characters under the influence of 'normal' degrees of Growth tend to still be recognizable as themselves, they may not be so during events. Events may also cause them to spread the Growth around themselves, or cause other effects, which are opt-in and generally only for the duration of the event.
There were other people on board the ship, once.
And many of them left behind echoes - memories, emotions, physical artifacts, and occasionally even outright spirits. Those who become sensitive to such things, which are a disorganized junk drawer of lesser influences, are subject to what is collectively referred to as the Whispering. While those with existing extrasensory abilities are more prone to falling under the influence of the Whispering, it is by no means exclusive to them.
The Whispering is the echoes of the passengers and others who have lived on the ship prior to the arrival of the characters - which was a very long time ago. Its influence may cause visions and other hallucinations of times long past. Sometimes it's hard to reliably know if those events happened at all; sometimes it's hard to reliably know that you aren't a part of them, but instead exist now in the present. But to those seeking to solve the mysteries of the ship, it can be a powerful boon.
The Whispering is strongest in abandoned areas of the ship, in places that have gone largely undisturbed by either the characters or the jungles and creatures of the Growth. In these places, one can hear old footsteps and sometimes the voices of the departed. Sometimes all you'll get is a strong emotion, urging you to keep going - or to turn back. The Whispering serves as a guide in unexplored regions, because once upon a time, someone did walk here before.
And sometimes, they walk here still - the ghosts of the ship regard those in touch with the Whispering differently from other characters. Dangers may ignore them; conversely, spectral entities may take a particular interest in a character and do them favors. But by the same token, there are some dangers of walking among ghosts that can't affect you if you don't know about them, don't believe in them, and don't interact with them.
Although there are no overt physical changes related to the Whispering, characters affiliated with it can sometimes show signs of being slightly out of sync with the rest of the world. However, when seen out of the corner of the eye, or through tired and blurry vision, there's often something off about them. Misty grey fog surrounds them, or perhaps they leave an afterimage. Perhaps when they speak from behind you, it sounds like it's coming from directly over your shoulder, even when they're completely across the room. Subtle effects such as these are available for player option.
Those who pursue the Whispering have easier access to information about the history of the ship and the metaplot as a whole. During events, characters with ties to the Whispering may find themselves under the influence of sensory hallucinations or even delusions. They also have a stronger reaction to events that are linked to visions and memories, such as memory share events.
Additionally, those who listen to the Whispering may find that their own deaths affect them differently than other characters - or perhaps if they encounter too much death, it begins to stick to them, leaving them sensitive to the Whispering.
Being under the influence of a power is not exclusive - characters can come under the influence of one, two, or even all three powers (if they're overachievers). Players can also choose to not have their characters influenced by any particular power - while these characters will still experience events at a baseline, they won't experience any influence-based side effects or sub-events.
THE SHIP
As one might well expect, the first of the important powers and influences on board is the Ship itself. Nominally, the Ship is here to keep its 'passengers' alive and safe, and to its credit, it does perform these services to the best of its abilities. It is just that the Ship is also belligerent and uncooperative; it cares more about maintaining order on board than it does character happiness on an individual level. Although ever-present, the Ship only responds to limited amounts of communcation from characters, and it does not like to answer questions it views as unnecessary.
Although the Ship appears to be a single consciousness, there does not seem to be a specific central point to it, at least not one that characters can access. It interacts with "passengers" exclusively through the intercom announcement system and a set of terminals on the residential decks (for more priavte inquiries and reporting issues with accomodations). Exactly how much privacy characters have from the Ship is unclear. Aside from the announcements system, the Ship also has a number of bots that operate as an extension of its will that it can use to influence the environment on board. Most of them are cleaning bots and automated carts that move things from place to place, though more advanced mechanics to appear on occasion, and all of them have seen much better days.
The Ship, moreso than the other influences, is ever-present - perhaps too ever-present. Its intentions are inscrutable; it keeps characters from starving and provides them a clean and dry place to sleep, but it generally won't step in if they're getting themselves killed in some fantastical way or even trying to murder each other. It does attempt to protect characters from the Growth and certain other limited hazards, but this is not reliable.
Although the Ship is everpresent as the setting of the game, events that focus on the Ship itself as a primary influence are rare. These events usually involve actual physical events on the Ship (rather than being events that influence characters to act in a particular way or change them somehow). That said, the Ship's primary themes are loss of emotion/personality, supervision and the "someone is always watching" feeling, rigid rules and authority, and the effects of the passage of time.
SPECIAL: EMPLOYMENT: There do not appear to be any crew members on board the Ship, but it is open to the possibility of changing this if a character specifically seeks out employment. Any such employment is purely at the Ship's discretion; atlhough characters can quit any time they like, the Ship is unlikely to have them back against just because they ask. Given that its cleaning drones are limited, though, it is ultimately to the Ship's advantage to have a few Crew on staff. Characters who are part of the Crew have certain benefits - namely, that the Ship is actively looking out for them, including a reduced respawn time - but it is also a job, not a hobby. If you're not prepared to be on-call, don't bother applying.
Ship employment is a plot role that is open to characters and grants unique opportunities - at a price. Characters who join the Crew may find themselves missing large chunks of time during their shifts, being asked to perform dangerous tasks with little to no warning, or otherwise experiencing effects best summarized by the old Pirates of the Caribbean quote: Part of the Crew, part of the Ship. If this is of interest to you as a player, please contact the mods.
THE GROWTH
The influence of the Growth can be felt through many parts of the ship, as the plants and other things have control over the majority of the lower decks. It is the danger to explorers, the out-of-control, fundamentally uncontrollable energy of an entire planet's living energy compressed into a ship that can't even be meaningfully seen from space. It wants to grow. Life wants to live. That's all it wants.
There is no single entity which controls the Growth, and the biggest risk factor for its influence growing on a character (ha) is simply exposure. The lower decks of the ship are almost completely under its sway, and there are many other outgrowths and patches of it. Like mold scattered through a damp basement, it has concentrated areas and less concentrated areas, and even the 'safe' parts of the ship are not necessarily completely free of it. Strange sprouts appear when someone bothers to pull back the couch cushions in their room, or a streak of what seemed to be dirt on the wall of a hallway suddenly blooms into a deep purple fern that reaches out to brush its fronds across the hands of passerby. That is the Growth.
In theory, the ship is fighting against the Growth. In practice, the Ship understands that it is losing a war of attrition, and that eventually the entire ship will be home to plants, fungal clusters, and whatever else might live within the Growth. But until then, it will continue to do its best to keep characters safe from its influence, as well as giving them clean, dry, plant-free places to sleep.
In spite of the danger, there are many reasons to enter the corrupted areas of the ship. The most obvious is food; the ship generally provides basic cafeteria food that will keep you alive but is only a slight upgrade from American public school quality, and those in search of additional food or other resources will have better luck braving the depths than they will searching out supplies in the 'clean' areas of the ship. And while there are food providing decks that have lower risks than some of the others, anything beyond food that you might want or need is based purely on luck and how far you're willing to go.
Some people can walk through the jungle decks and come out the other side, but those are a blessed few. For most people, it starts with a strangely discolored patch of skin, speckled with purple, green, or dark brown. As its name implies, the influence of the Growth on a character usually grows gradually over time, though occasionally - much like the hallway fern - it occurs in a sudden explosion of leaves, one that is usually sickeningly painful for the character who falls under its influence.
The Growth rarely takes two people in the exact same way, and so any number of traits might be indicative of its influence. One person might retain their original shape entirely, but their skin turns a combination of almost-black purple and lighter accents of green that allow them to almost disappear into the corrupted environment, their eyes practically glowing. Another may start to grow herbs from their shoulders that can be picked and eaten safely.
As a general rule, the Growth only affects the physicality of one's person; it does not have any particular impact upon the mind. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is still your body - trying to remove the growing parts is as damaging as trying to remove chunks of flesh. If you catch it quickly enough, you might be able to delay it, for a time, but you might just be saving up for a sudden, more painful change later on. It's not something that can be undone easily, falling under the influence of the Growth. If you were to die, perhaps you would get lucky and come back around with a cleansed body - or perhaps not.
Event-specific effects focused on the Growth tend to be more severe transformational effects; while characters under the influence of 'normal' degrees of Growth tend to still be recognizable as themselves, they may not be so during events. Events may also cause them to spread the Growth around themselves, or cause other effects, which are opt-in and generally only for the duration of the event.
THE WHISPERING
There were other people on board the ship, once.
And many of them left behind echoes - memories, emotions, physical artifacts, and occasionally even outright spirits. Those who become sensitive to such things, which are a disorganized junk drawer of lesser influences, are subject to what is collectively referred to as the Whispering. While those with existing extrasensory abilities are more prone to falling under the influence of the Whispering, it is by no means exclusive to them.
The Whispering is the echoes of the passengers and others who have lived on the ship prior to the arrival of the characters - which was a very long time ago. Its influence may cause visions and other hallucinations of times long past. Sometimes it's hard to reliably know if those events happened at all; sometimes it's hard to reliably know that you aren't a part of them, but instead exist now in the present. But to those seeking to solve the mysteries of the ship, it can be a powerful boon.
The Whispering is strongest in abandoned areas of the ship, in places that have gone largely undisturbed by either the characters or the jungles and creatures of the Growth. In these places, one can hear old footsteps and sometimes the voices of the departed. Sometimes all you'll get is a strong emotion, urging you to keep going - or to turn back. The Whispering serves as a guide in unexplored regions, because once upon a time, someone did walk here before.
And sometimes, they walk here still - the ghosts of the ship regard those in touch with the Whispering differently from other characters. Dangers may ignore them; conversely, spectral entities may take a particular interest in a character and do them favors. But by the same token, there are some dangers of walking among ghosts that can't affect you if you don't know about them, don't believe in them, and don't interact with them.
Although there are no overt physical changes related to the Whispering, characters affiliated with it can sometimes show signs of being slightly out of sync with the rest of the world. However, when seen out of the corner of the eye, or through tired and blurry vision, there's often something off about them. Misty grey fog surrounds them, or perhaps they leave an afterimage. Perhaps when they speak from behind you, it sounds like it's coming from directly over your shoulder, even when they're completely across the room. Subtle effects such as these are available for player option.
Those who pursue the Whispering have easier access to information about the history of the ship and the metaplot as a whole. During events, characters with ties to the Whispering may find themselves under the influence of sensory hallucinations or even delusions. They also have a stronger reaction to events that are linked to visions and memories, such as memory share events.
Additionally, those who listen to the Whispering may find that their own deaths affect them differently than other characters - or perhaps if they encounter too much death, it begins to stick to them, leaving them sensitive to the Whispering.