GRAVEYARD...3!

[dropoffs]

GR͏∀VE̴Y͞A̵ЯD     18 DECOMMISSIONED

t̀h̡e u͝nḑerbe̸l͞l̵y ̸o͜f th̴è ̡şh̷i͠p.

 

Crushing pressure is the initial sensation you can recall upon awakening. The stench of fetid, hot steam fills your nose, motes of dust and dirt floating upwards to cling to your skin. Down you are pulled to the cold ground, and all at once you realize you have forgotten to breathe. As you gasp back to life, you are flung onto a pile of scraps and trash, as the enormous machine that spat you out grumbles a little, and then goes silent. You are whole somehow, alive... but at what cost?

Popping out of the grinder, you look yourself over and find that any injuries you may have incurred during your death will be healed. While the scars that remain from the process will serve as a stark reminder, you will be able to get up on your own two feet without issue.

Thin, tapering metal (?) claws unhook from overhead and lower themselves, proceeding to guide you around. Your clothing starts sticking uncomfortably to your skin in the humidity of this strange, new place. Overhead you can hear the tinny humming of flickering lights overhead, arranged in a singular, thin strip and snaking around the serpentine halls. Along exposed pipes, wires, and the walls, a rust-colored substance creeps in web-like patterns, climbing towards the ceiling lights.

The deep grinding and groaning of the ship begin to meld into one low, deep moan from all around. It dips and rises in pitch, and becomes sickening to listen to if you focus on it for too long. Maybe, it's the ship's way of saying Welcome, to the underbelly of the CSS Eudora, home of the decommissioned.

Some things to keep in mind, while amongst the dead:

💀 Mini-events will be posted on WEDNESDAY at 3 PM EST / 12 PM PST, and are due at the same time they are for the living. Any changes to the schedule will be announced in the graveyard channels.

💀 Weekly effects will still hit you here, in the belly of the ship. Mods will make sure to announce any special changes based on being the graveyard; otherwise, please assume everything is 1:1!

💀 While not perfect, there is a healing factor in place. It is extremely sluggish, uncomfortable, and does not negate the fact that you're injured and likely in pain. If the injury is too severe, you might wind up dying from it if left untreated. Again. If you have a pre-existing condition like an illness that has been exacerbated by factors beyond your control, you will find that for the time being these symptoms are at their most minor.

💀 That said, while double death is possible, you'll find yourself reviving after 4 hours fully healed, but feeling like complete garbage for the rest of the day. Message your mods if you find yourself getting killed while dead, though! There might be a special surprise involved.

💀 Your possessions, minus clothing besides what you're wearing now, can be found in the bunk pods and their storage. Yes, while it might not include clothes, it does include any Omegamart Promotional Items, Scrap purchases, home items, etc that you were in possession of. if you had a lot of things, the cubby might jam or have difficulty closing. Better organize. If you arrive on Saturday during trial, belongings will return at the end of trial.

💀 Communications, while you cannot text via I.R.I.S., you can still send messages through HER-MES. All other functions for I.R.I.S. are available along with direct data transfers. Dead can send private letters to the living! An inbox can be accessed from the family computer at the canteen. If you find it locked, it is because we are updating it.

💀 Living livestream is broadcasted on the TV screen in the canteen!
✔️ Upgraded Quality ✔️ Audio ✔️ Translit Captions that sometimes fuck up ✔️ Dramatic panning ✔️ Color

💀 Planet locations are free to use! Upon the Eudora landing planetside, you will find that as you meander through the various parts of the Belly you may run into one of locations of the current planet instead of where you were meaning to go. These locations are indeed still populated, but the people are more like wisps and will not react much to any conversation. Though you can interact with stuff there you cannot take anything with you out of the location "rooms".

N͡AɅIGA̸T͘E
CHANGES GRAVEYARD LOCATIONS LIVING SIDE STATUSES PROFILES AUDIENCES REPORTING PRIVATE CONVOS COMMS DOSSIER

Comments

[satisficing]

...I may be able to explain the healing. I spoke to his brother again. They can regenerate. They're... Plants. They're what's called Independent Plants.

[...]

Also, I may be able to explain the tears. He said the officers had the tesseract and it was active. They were testing it. The tesseract... I got him to show me how it works, in theory, the one he was familiar with.

...It's very dangerous. Like the Hex Core. Powerful and dangerous.

[egodist]

And a psycho has it. That's good. That bodes well.

[stop that]

They might be Plants, but we should still perform a test. After all, if First Callisto still has his nanites active, they should suppress his powers and not allow for the regenerative abilities to manifest.

[satisficing]

[No, Scien is right.]

True. I don't... particularly like the idea of testing on others, of course, but I'm not against it if he wants to try. I can talk to him later about what I learned with his brother to see if it triggers anything with him.

He talked about the video. The one of the person who is in the hallway and suddenly vanishes with a flower left behind. He said the person was Vash, and that the area did look like the garbage disposal.

[egodist]

The test of regeneration needs to be done on the space and non-memory creatures [like rats, supposedly], not any individual. I want to look into the Heart, but it seems like it's very against us doing so.

To disappear and leave a flower behind... Fine, but why? Flowers have been left behind after people's deaths. Does that have to do with their composition as Weeds or whatever? [plants, scien]

[satisficing]

[Gently:]

Plants.

[This is why Knives tries to kill you.]

They were... the only two males, I think. That's the impression I got. He showed me their... "sisters" being used for survival by humans. It was horrible. He said Plants had the ability to do different things. Energy, water, food, depending on their individual makeup.

[egodist]

[succeeded in killing him actually]

Humanity is rather wretched, yes.

[but he seems thoughtful]

... it is not impossible we are inside the First Callisto, if it possible for him to also be inside himself. But some of these locations don't make sense to be inside someone's anatomy, and I can't imagine why he would absorb our memory.

Hmm.

[bossbabygirl]

Yeah. I don't know why he would have a bank run by rats and an Applebees inside him. It doesn't add up.

[egodist]

A taste for mediocre appetizers and an affinity for rodents.

[but also, thinking of non-player submitted locations,]

The Grinder, Holodeck, and Recycling Plant are also odd to have inside someone. Also why would ghosts of the Eudora mission past manifest inside the Canteen...?

It's possibly related, since the Heart is the most organic-seeming place here. Something about this place is probably alive, even if we're not necessarily inside the First Callisto.

[barriermaddened]

It seems likelier to me the ship itself is becoming organic instead.

[Whatever infected it is making the Eudora become alive and kicking and probably lotus-based at first, and we're just in the areas where such flesh corrosion has progressed the most]

[satisficing]

[He just kind of shrugs helplessly.]

Not saying it's true. That is just what I learned about them. We're... somewhere Vash can also apparently be without having died. Wherever that is.

[egodist]

We know he was transported to this space somehow without dying. We also know that items from the living side can be brought here through a garbage chute intact. Finally, we know that we ourselves are not corporeal.

What we ought to do is take an item from the living and see if it can be transformed into something else, or if it will retain its shape no matter our efforts. That will determine whether or not it is made of memory.

That can help indicate if there is a direct path between us and them.

[satisficing]

[He runs his hand back through his hair which unfortunately makes it poofy.]

It's worth a test, I guess.

The divide, at first, almost seems... like we're just in another part of the ship, like something got out of control here, but... it's strange that we're all here. As memories. That the ghosts are here, too.

[piteous]

[ bro he's usually present on saturdays what's happening ]

[bossbabygirl]

[sorry for giving you ibs]

[piteous]

[ YOU ARE ALL MAKING HIM BELIEVE SO MANY THINGS ABOUT HIMSELF ]

[egodist]

Your cooperation thus far has been appreciated.

[scien can acknowledge this much]

[piteous]

It's no problem.

[polliwog]

I doubt Callisto will have our interests at heart, but! It's promising that these rifts seem close to us, somehow. Vash did say last Sunday that he was in one as well—and the one in "Applebee's" let us observe the living from an unclear distance.

[ also idk where else to put this so ]

A question for you also, Viktor. [ designated smart friend ] What do you make of this line?

[ he will pull up the review doc for acquada: WHILE LOW POPULATION, THEIR INTELLIGENCE MAY BECOME A THREAT TO THE NETWORK. PRIORITY SET HIGH TO QUICKLY INTEGRATE THEM INTO THE NETWORK. ] What is a "network?"

[satisficing]

His concern is mostly Vash, but, like I said before, he isn't entirely unreasonable if you speak to him respectfully.

I think he would begrudgingly assist us only if it meant he could get to Vash.

[KNIVES IS STILL INSANE, BUT HE HAS DEALT WITH A LOT OF INSANITY HERE.]

Um... It's... like... our IRIS, I think, if what I understand from Luke's work is correct. It's a digital communication route. Like... [Thinks about Sidon.] Ocean currents. A collection of ocean currents going to and fro, but it's digital. It works with technology.

[polliwog]

People like that aren't easy to speak to respectfully. But we could at least find some... common goals, yes.

[ insanity is okay but unfortunately he draws the line at fantasy racism. knives is a good shot at freedom, though. ]

And—oh, I see! That makes sense. [ his water metaphors ] What sort of network can you integrate an entire planet into?

[satisficing]

[He pulls Sidon's arm back to himself again so he can look at the report he has already looked at a bunch of times.

He stands there thoughtfully. His brows furrow. He lifts his purple hand slowly off Sidon and looks it over...]

There is an "integration rate"... What if the network isn't digital, but... [He looks up.] Is it a... hivemind?

[polliwog]

[ they can stare at this rat egg document for the 100th time. ]

There's also a "digestion rate."

[ so that's funky! ]

Isn't that strange? People on these planets recognized Nut & Bolt, Co. But these documents imply that the ship wants to... absorb these populations? Into this "hivemind?"

[satisficing]

...

[He doesn't like the sound of this. Well, he never liked the sound of THIS particular document to begin with actually. But he doesn't like making sense of it either.]

We're... literally transporting some kind of growing plant-like mass from planet to planet, and it is trying to consume them. No wonder it's spreading to the rest of the ship on their side. It's... growing?

[polliwog]

[ yes the vore implications were always very bad but it's worse to really double down and think about what it means. grimly: ]

The living were drawn back to the ship with those tentacles as well. If we consider the ship as... infected somehow, after visiting Lotophagos, then maybe all that's happened is sign that the blight has grown stronger.

I only hope the planets that we've visited aren't in too much danger.

[barriermaddened]

...we did perform work and leave in those planets objects that were in this ship for long periods of time -- plenty of time to make everything potentially dangerous.

I think the planets being infected in some manner is likely.

[Nut & Bolt is going to have a lot of clean-up to do if we accidentally infected planets, because yeah, planetary problem solving is probably a little too much to ask of hires who have no idea about things. The company can deal with it]