[closed]

[badfeyth]

WHO: Ghost (badfeyth), Reno (astraphilia) , Johanna (keepgodwaiting) , Lestat (perfectdevil) , Alhaitham (justscribing) , and Kaveh (fussiest) .
WHAT: The "Monologue With The Moon" player plot!
WHERE: [emphatic shrug]
WHEN: 1/6/24
WARNINGS: Possible references to murder, violence, related dark themes, medical equipment, Omelas Kid™ Scenarios, shady institutions and their operations, etc.

You are standing in a nondescript, space-age sort of room; the walls are a silver metal so polished that you can almost see shadows of a reflection in it, and the floor is likewise sturdy and reinforced. There are two Star Trek-style sliding doors leading out of the room, one on the left wall and one on the right. Both are currently in open position, enabling you to see out into the corridor beyond; it looks pretty much the same out there as your surroundings in here. Maybe there are doors; you'd have to look closer to check.

Currently in the room with you is a pretty normal-looking wooden podium that's clearly seen some use (though in what ways, you'd have to look more closely at it to determine), and a very abnormal-looking escape portal that's just kind of floating in midair, definitely big enough for even a very tall human to walk through, but for the fact that it's behind an impenetrable forcefield. You're welcome to hurl yourself at this, hit it, whatever, all that you want, but unfortunately it ain't budging under any method currently available to you or your party.

Really, your circumstances look something like this:

The other thing you might notice is that your clothes have received a slight glam-up, in the sense that clipped to a pocket, lapel, belt loop, or other convenient area of your attire is some sort of ID card. That might be worth having a look at.

Speaking of having a look at things, maybe you ought to look around?

Comments

[perfectdevil]

[ Lestat is going to watch Reno searching for a moment, and then go stand in front of Mystery Door #5.

After looking for but ultimately finding no obvious sensor, he's just going to start slapping at the perimeter of the door with his card in various ways — up to and including swiping it like a credit card in the join of the doors. ]

[justscribing]

[While Lestat and Reno try to figure out where to slap their key cards, Alhaitham stands center and generates a kopis-like blade of dendro energy just in case there really is a monster behind that door when it opens. Look at them, taking precautions this time.]

[astraphilia]

[ well, since all the cool kids are doing it, Reno will also come over and also ID CARD GO SLAP his keycard against the mystery door. Alhaitham can be in charge of saving them from the tentacle monster. ]

[badfeyth]

[ID CARDS GO SLAP and, registering that both the keycard from the medbay and from the commander's office have been brought together simultaneously, the mysterious fifth door hisses and gradually begins to open —

A relatively small, extremely sterile and climate-controlled room that is totally devoid of monsters. From the vantage point outside the door looking in, three of the four walls are visible:

- The side walls are lined with sealed glass cases that appear to contain an array of small jars. The jars do appear to be labeled (though you'd have to get closer to determine what they may or may not say), but what is definitely visible from the door is that most of them are empty, with only a small handful having any liquid in them.

- The back wall is covered in a series of small framed photographs that gives the same kind of commemorative vibe as a tribute, a memorial, or like, a series of mugshots on a Most Wanted wall, that kind of thing. Even from the door it can be seen that every person depicted is a redhead.

- A small island counter in the middle of the room. There's a square hole cut into the surface of the countertop, the way that particularly fancy counters sometimes come with a thing built right in for the disposal of garbage, and scattered about the countertop are a veritable mess of items including what appears to be soot, sap, scattered droplets of water, oil, and a whole lot of discarded colorful band-aids.

- Amidst the chaos of the island counter is a small round jar containing a very modest amount of liquid. There are smudges on this one, and it is the only jar not locked behind glass.

Anyone familiar with the smell of blood will immediately be able to tell that, yeah, this room smells like blood; Johanna will vibe that the prevailing sentiment in here is something like reverence or an accordance of great value.]

[perfectdevil]

[ At the scent that wafts from the room with the opening of the door, a nerve in Lestat's jaw twitches rather violently. He brings up a hand, to cover the lower half of his face and hide the fact that his lip is curling. ]

Perhaps no need for the sword after all, hm? Let's not let our guards down too soon, though.

[ He surveys his surroundings, his eyes lingering particularly on the side walls with the jars, before moving toward the one that isn't sealed behind glass; the one that sits on the island counter amidst familiar band-aids. He wants to know what the smudges are. ]

[badfeyth]

[Upon closer inspection, the smudges on the small round jar appear to be fingerprints! They're placed about where you might expect a person with messy fingers to have picked up, held, or moved the thing — glass holds those kinds of marks well, after all.]

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham doesn't disintegrate his blade even though there are no monsters, just in case, as he wanders into the room. He goes to the side wall and checks over the labels of both the full and empty jars.]

[badfeyth]

[A rudimentary inspection of the cabinets of jars will reveal that the vast majority of the jars are empty, yet they're still housed in a neat and methodical order within the cabinets rather than being disposed of, for...some reason. The jar labels are largely blurred, but each one appears to have been given a unique identification number, a date, and so on — someone was keeping very careful inventory of the contents of these jars.

Of the very few jars that do have liquid left in them, Alhaitham's background as a scribe will make it fairly easy for him to identify them as having the consistency of ink; here, the labels are clear enough to make out more than just the ID numbers.

There is one jar that's been used down to the dregs that reads Keeper, and the remaining handful of jars are all marked Nym.]

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham reviews the wall further to check for empty spaces among the rows for any bottle of ink that may have been removed.]

[keepgodwaiting]

[ You know, somehow, a vibe of reverence for blood still doesn't make her feel amazing?

She wants to go examine the items on the counter. The jar obviously is important: she's curious about whether there seems to be any rhyme or reason to what's there. ]

[badfeyth]

[There is definitely a rhyme or reason to what's there! I'm going to assume that since Johanna has some general familiarity with the occult and what have you, she's probably at least surface familiar with the supplies for making ink.]

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Very surface level; in addition to her occult experience, she dated an artist, as well, but Kit wasn't exactly that kind of crafty. Still, with a few minutes of looking and a decent Intelligence check, it does click.

At which point her eyes widen. ]

Hang on. Hang on, let me see that jar?

[ What does the liquid inside look like? ]

[fussiest]

[ oh, dear, kaveh thinks. he isn't certainly if the dear ought to be heartbreak. he has yet to determine that. but kaveh is drawn to it - the back wall, where the framed photographs are.

he begins to examine them one by one. ]

[badfeyth]

[Since Kaveh's doing a more thorough examination rather than looking for familiar faces, he'll find that most of the photographs are blurry in much the same way that a lot of the things written around the facility are blurry — like trying to read or recollect something in a dream without really being able to access specifics. However, as he draws near the end of the arrangement of photographs, he'll find that he can make out the last four.

The first of the four is too blurry to make out a face, but the subject does seem to be a redheaded female and the engraving on the frame reads Keeper. Next to that is recognizably the same man Kaveh saw from the picture on Room #3's desk, albeit much younger — his hair is still red in this photograph, rather than the white of the other. The engraving on his frame reads Nym.

The last two photographs are also crystal-clear, and are predictably Ghost and Meta.]

[fussiest]

[ nym, ghost, and meta. kaveh's fingers skim their frames, lingering on ghost's. ]

Arche, I was wondering- is there anything you can tell us about Keeper?

[astraphilia]

[ Reno does two things:

1) he goes to the back wall to look at the photographs, first to determine if there's any notable chronology and if yes, to see if he can find Ghost, Meta, or Nym among them;

and

2) he regards the wall of redheads, then pretty much does an (❗) emote before looking down at his own ID card again. when it hits him, it makes him laugh out loud, despite the otherwise fairly somber circumstances. ]

Fucking hell, I'm a COUNTER-FEIT.

[fussiest]

[ holy shit.

from reno's right, kaveh begins to laugh. sorry, that's the tag. it's just kaveh laughing helplessly. this place. ]

[astraphilia]

[ YOU AND HIM BOTH KAVEH ]

[badfeyth]

[Great news! He can in fact find Ghost and Meta among them; they're the last two pictures hung on the wall, so located at approximately the lower-right of the arrangement. Immediately preceding them is a redheaded man, and before him is a redheaded woman. All of the pictures appear to have been taken in the subject's relative youth.]

[keepgodwaiting]

--You've got to be kidding me.

[astraphilia]

I'm a fake redhead. That's gotta be why mine doesn't have a border, either—I'd have the white one if it was real, but since it ain't, I'm just nobody.

[ he cannot stop laughing at this help. Ghost PLEASE. ]

[badfeyth]

CORRECT. YOUR ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE.

[THANKS, ARCHE???]

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham smiles to himself from where he's reviewing the side wall.]

[keepgodwaiting]

Oh! Bloody hell, that's a good trick.

[fussiest]

[ kaveh looks on - because that's the only thing he can do. his own vision stays stubbornly inert. of course it does. ]