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.

helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2020-09-18 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"Dancing and robotics are knowledge and muscle memory skills. But, yes. I lost the power long before coming here."

He was a mutant in name only, and he didn't like to think about it. At last, though, his attention turns to Declan.

"Good day to you, High Priest Lynch. Hopefully you and yours are healthy this year."

With that politeness he turns his attention back to the book. Oh he wants to touch it so bad. To take it for a spin.
dauntless_son: (pic#13698597)

[personal profile] dauntless_son 2020-09-28 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good day. We are as well as ever."

He isn't interested in commenting too heavily on the politics of the day: he is here to observe, he tells himself, and to be a contact for members of the Sanctum that have come.

"If you want it so much, why not try it?" he asks after another moment of watching the other man look at the book like he might start salivating. "That's what it's here for."
helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2020-09-28 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Nor does David seek to talk politics with him. No, it was Ren he wanted to find for that, and that was a matter for later. This meeting was by chance, and damn if the man wasn't furthering the temptation.

"Because for me, it would be like a drug. An echo of something I once had that I tell myself I'm better off without. But I think a demonstration might not be amiss. Would you be offended if someone wanted to tempt you to touch just so they could see what it was like?"
dauntless_son: (pic#13698598)

[personal profile] dauntless_son 2020-10-02 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Are you suggesting I try it so you can vicariously enjoy it?" he asks, lifting a brow as he considers the book again. Declan wonders exactly what kinds of skills might be transferred or how long they might linger.

He would consider it, he thinks, though he has a distinct wariness around anything that might be unpredictable.
helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2020-10-02 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"I really am," David answers, laughing lightly. It's horrible, but he knows what it had been like to have access to all of that.

He'd seen a word where he went... mad with his power. Mad with sanity actually. He could make the world better, he'd told himself. In the end, he'd been worse than the White Tower, with all the power concentrated in his hands.

"I'm a doctor, if it helps. If you get hurt, I'll see you patched up."