modormenace: (Default)
modormenace ([personal profile] modormenace) wrote in [community profile] f20202020-09-15 12:53 am

SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2020: THE SYNOD IS CONVENING.

All fourteen Gates simultaneously reverse polarity. For the next seven days, and only these seven days, any imPort stepping through a Gate will arrive safely in the Porter building: the only place on this fractured planet that can safely contain the energy of the imPort community in its entirety.
SO IT BEGINS
THE SYNOD
THE
DEATH
TRAIN

While the Gates are the simplest form of transportation, those making the journey to the Synod from the White Tower have the option of travelling by train, if they wish. Despite the playfully grim moniker, there haven't been any recorded fatalities on board the Death Train in many years. Or ever, really. Raw, untamed entropy doesn't do anything as simple as kill.

For that delightful reason, passengers will be reminded at frequent intervals not to attempt to leave the train once it enters the active zone of the Porter's defenses, or to do anything that could jeopardise the integrity of its shielding.

The journey is relatively comfortable and takes approximately two and a half hours. A limited menu of pastries and alcohol is available from the buffet car. The smallest tables seat two.

 

As the train passes through the entropy-saturated wasteland of the Deathdome, the view from the heavily tinted windows of each of the train's four-person cars is impossible to comprehend: every atom of the landscape is in a constant state of flux, scattered in endless possibilities across the multiverse.

WELCOME CARPET

Inside, you get the impression of three towers; no view from outside is possible. You're totally sealed inside for the week, by the same Fate-built tech that shields this place from the ravages of cosmic radiation— the train station is built into the structure, entrance tunnel hermetically sealed.

You're greeted by welcome robots, primitive little things full endless enthusiasm and covered in dents. What they lack in intelligence they make up for in persistence and durability. Each and every ImPort is assigned their own personal robutler.

Though they tend to hinder more than help.

Boop boop boop boop. They provide you with a complimentary swag bag. Inside is one (1) t-shirt, one (1) top of the line tablet (pre-loaded with this year's Agenda and a simple game app that looks suspiciously like 2048), a stress ball, personalised souvenir pen and eraser (but no pencil), and of course, a lanyard keycard for accessing the comfortably adequate accommodations provided for all attendees.

Given the week-long Synod, your room itself is a decent suite, furnished with dark colors, redolent with a smell you can't quite place. You may find yourself assigned an unexpected roommate, which may feel awkward considering you'll find arrayed on the beds, a half-dozen complimentary tickets to the spa, restaurants and the power gym, with its preternaturally durable equipment.

Robutlers constantly remind: do not attempt to leave the Porter facility or do anything to jeopardise the integrity of its shielding.

CONVENTION

Talks and panels take place in the convention area, which feels like a miniature city within the Porter's defenses, a hive with padded audience seats, wide stages, and complete with holographic audiovisual equipment that's curiously compatible with presentation software from every city.

Here, ImPorts will present and debate various topics regarded as major concerns for all. [OOCly, players are invited to suggest topics! Scroll down; they will be added below.]

This is also something of an expo, where cities practically demonstrate— or show off their good works. From the latest hovertechnology models to demonstrations of healing powers, playful duels in the forcefield-enclosed stages to magical books that temporarily transfer skills on touch, this is the place to pretend you're showing off your cards... while playing the most important ones close to your chest.

PANELS AND DEBATES

PRESENTERS
TOPIC
Joseph Kavinsky vs [N/PC]
White Tower ImPort Overpopulation and Dimensional Instability
Tony Stark and other technopaths
How Technology Will Save Us
Joshua Foley
The Mysteries and Intricacies of ImPort Physiology
Count Dooku and volunteers
ImPort Factions Must Align Against the Shared 'Resistance' Threat
Jin Bubaigawara (x3)
The Twin Cities are NOT Dimensionally Unstable No Matter What You Heard
Kang
Bridging Old and New: Maintaining Infrastructure with Limited Modern Resources
EVENING
EVENTS

Every night of the Synod, ImPorts gather to dine in a grand hall with a ballroom party. Each dinner is hosted by one ImPort city, gruntwork complete with robutlers-- which guarantees food safety, and complete with multiple cuisine options, cultural decor, and entertainment.

Given the range of cities represented, food options vary from greasy burgers to six courses of seafood and blue venison, and rarefied vegan fare.

When ImPorts aren't here eating, they're most often talking. Ergo, it's not uncommon for low-key drama to break out, but this year, the majority of Synod days seem to be passing uneventfully.

Fortunately, speeches are reserved for daytime. After dinner, it's time to dance.

 

The last song of the night is always obscure music no one can quite remember the words or melody to afterward. It's a slow dance song meant for two or more partners; the ballroom grows dark and the world seems to fade away. Or rather, it just fades back into one's hotel room.

THE BLACKOUT

On Monday, September 21st, shortly before the Gates are due to resume ordinary function and allow attendees to leave, the Porter building suffers a power cut.

Abruptly, all the lights cut out. Music stops. Your faithful robutler freezes in place, unresponsive— though its internal systems appear to be running, the centralised command hub that it relies on has fallen silent.

Though the robutlers are out of comission, technology-minded ImPorts and their tech drones hasten to reassure that systems analyses are underway. Within a few hours, repairs begin, the estimated time being two days.

In the meantime, thanks to the diversity of powers on hand, there is enough food and water. Candles start to circulate. It might even be a little romantic, if it weren't for the chaos outside. Characters might find themselves trapped in an elevator for a few hours, or compelled to seek comfort from one another.

patchricide: (186)

COME ON RIDE THE TRAIN

[personal profile] patchricide 2020-09-18 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
Allura's own gaze is directly pointed away from the windows. The world outside is far too unsettling, multiplied by her own empathic sensitivity — even without looking at the windows, she can feel energy traces of the world outside, as if it were some dark presence leering in at the passengers. But if nothing else, at least the entropic nature of it all creates a sort of consistency to the chaos, meaning it's possible to let the existential horrorscape fade in the background like white noise.

All she needs to do is find something else to focus her attentions on.

So, despite the fact that it's probably best to quietly keep to herself, Allura has instead started a walk up the length of the train, quietly investigating for something else going on. (Isn't there always?)

The sight of blue hair catches her attention first. Not for being unusual, but instead the opposite, for being a familiar and comforting color. From a distance, and only seeing the back of the head, she can't be sure it is someone familiar; but as she approaches the form becomes distinct enough to not dismiss it as a fictional hope.

"Lucina?" It's said in such a quiet voice, as if Allura were just wondering it aloud to herself instead of trying to get the other woman's attention.
fauxmarth: (BUT NOT THAT WAY!!!)

[personal profile] fauxmarth 2020-09-18 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Lucina's already well on alert thanks to the sound of the door sliding open, that Allura doesn't need to wonder long before that head of blue hair turns and searches for who has next come to pass through.

Upon seeing the unmistakable sight of the princess, Lucina's eyes light up, and she all but springs out of her seat.

"Allura!" she cries, almost about to leap at her, but her hand tightly grips the back of the seat to keep her in place. Wait-- this place...people are different. She may not even--

"Do...do you know me? Remember who I am?" Please, oh please...!
patchricide: (155)

[personal profile] patchricide 2020-09-20 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Of course I remember! We were both part of Aegis! And we both..."

Allura hesitates. She started speaking before thinking this through. It's always possible that this is a different Lucina, remembering a different Allura.

As absurd as it seems. Alternate universes seemed to run on absurdity, so that isn't truly surprising.

But she dials it back. "Right, do you remember Aegis?"
fauxmarth: (q___q)

[personal profile] fauxmarth 2020-09-20 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Allura may dial back, but Lucina does opposite. At mention of Aegis, she releases the chair and pushes forward, grabbing Allura in a tight embrace.

"Oh, thank gods!" she cries. "It's really you!" The 'you' she knows properly. "I thought I was alone in this...!"
patchricide: (Group hug!)

[personal profile] patchricide 2020-09-21 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Lucina...!" She's thrown offbalance by the hug, but she squeezes back just as tight, and even lifts Lucina at least an inch off the ground.

"You're not alone. It's all right." She pauses, but then concedes, "... well, it will be all right. I can't say I've found our way back yet..."
fauxmarth: (i mean. ok. but like. uh.)

[personal profile] fauxmarth 2020-09-28 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't even know how we'd gone at all!" Lucina declares once she's been let go. Even so, she keeps a grip on Allura's arms, as if letting go would mean her vanishing on her.

"One moment I was in my home, about to make some food, the next..." She shakes her head. "I, I don't know. I truly, truly don't know! Do you?"
patchricide: (167)

[personal profile] patchricide 2020-10-01 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm still working out the details as well, but it's almost certainly the same mechanisms that brought us all to... erm... the other alternate reality."

They should start labelling these things.

"Though that begs a lot of questions. Such as why we haven't lost memories of that world — and if we'll remember anything once we've left here. It would be a great opportunity if it didn't all seem so perilous!"
fauxmarth: (we can discuss any matter of thing)

[personal profile] fauxmarth 2020-10-03 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Mention of the other reality sobers her up a bit; Lucina's expression grows more concerned, letting Allura go at last so she can hug her own arms.

Things went...poorly in that other place. Very poorly.

She doesn't want a repeat.

"I don't mind remembering the things that happen to me, but...I'd like to understand how these things happen. What triggered it. Who triggered it..."