synflux | TRAVEL LOG #1

TRAVEL LOG #1

TRAVEL LOG #1

CONTENT WARNINGS: potential mentions of drugs, suspected mind-control, alcohol, and gambling, gore.

▶ 001. A RUDE AWAKENING.

On the morning of the 15th, the Outsiders will hear an alarm sound in the early hours. No matter what you’re doing, the alarm will not stop sounding, and it’s because they’re playing directly into your oculars. If one is sleeping, they may even be roused by the spark of colors on their oculars dictating an emergency. After a few minutes of this, the following message will appear:

PLEASE REPORT TO THE DATAPORTAL AT THE TOKYO BRANCH AND BE PREPARED FOR DEPARTURE.

"Captain Yamakawa speaking. You’ve done a great job in testing the data portals. Now that we are able to travel, we were sent a call for help in another city due to lack of personnel and resources abroad. You will be looking for evidence of a new kaiju around the rendezvous point. It may be a difficult journey, so prepare yourself. SYNTHIA will still be online to help you make it to the city. Report to the POD CHAMBER where we have installed an international dataportal and prepare for transportation."

Following the success of the dataportal testing, the engineering department was able to fine tune its abilities and widen the reach of the portals. The portals can connect even abroad now!

Despite their best efforts, however, they cannot guarantee that the same symptoms won’t appear, and ask all Outsiders who are utilizing them to practice caution. Additionally, through all their testing, they found that people who hold hands or make contact with others as they pass through will be hit with less issues.

▶ 002. WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS.

When one passes through the data portal, they will see the refuge city of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Similar to Neo Tokyo, it is also rich in life and known as the city that never sleeps. Incidentally, it is also famously noted as a place of endless vice. The city is built up around a strip of land of roughly 4.2 miles. A vast majority of the city was built up over the wreckage of the old, and some fixtures were simply made new with whatever was left preexisting. The Mojave Desert has expanded towards surrounding cities, though it will take a vehicle to get there in a timely manner.

The city has no shortage of hotels and with each hotel, a casino. While Outsiders here are on a mission, there’s no stating they couldn’t participate in the fun of Vegas while LILITH crew begin their investigation. While some hotels will be clearly abandoned or less traversed, there is no end to all card tables and slot machines, all asking for your KRYPTOS.

The hotel the Outsiders are slotted to stay over the course of the next few days is one where they built directly over the hotels of the old. While it offers a decent place to sleep, it’s not without a refurbished pirate themed bed, or the columns of what appears to have been from Caesars Palace. Is that a giant clown face staring at you in the room? Don’t worry about it. The hotel offers that this is the best place to depart into the desert from. For this mission, Outsiders may bunk up with whoever they would like, and each hotel provides two queen sized beds.

Excited to venture out into the city? Even under the threat of kaiju, the city doesn’t sleep. Outsiders may venture through the Las Vegas Strip and treat themselves to a fun night of drinking, gambling, shopping, partying and circle-style performances. The Grand Canal Shoppes, a Venetian-inspired high end mall, boasts a man-made canal with gondola rides for a fee, along with many retail outlets and restaurants. There are also numerous spas and carnival-style rides to enjoy. Las Vegas was once known as the ‘Marriage Capital of the World’, and in a world besieged by kaiju, the people don’t seem to think they have anything to lose. Outsiders may spot a few bride and grooms-to-be partying in the street.

(LILITH does not have a stance on whether or not Outsiders are permitted to get hitched as long as it does not affect their performance. )

▶ 003. TROUBLE BREWING.

It’s normal for fights to break out with so much alcohol being passed around, but something … isn’t quite right with some of the locals here. Outsiders who keep an eye open might notice people acting erratically, and not just from being intoxicated. There are people ready to pick a fight from just being looked at, people falling into despondent sadness and lethargy, people wandering mindlessly and people becoming distressed from seeing things that aren’t there. Ask the locals and they will tell you these cases seem to be popping up more often the past week.

The most concerning of all are the stories of people disappearing completely. One little girl will tell you she cried as she saw her mother mindlessly walk into the desert, as if called by a voice no one else can hear. There are many other accounts of this happening. In fact, all the people acting erratically seem to disappear within a few days …

Outsiders may interact with civilians who are acting erratic and aggressive, but asking questions they may receive answers that do not make sense, are perverse and inappropriate or may trigger aggression. Any Outsider to gets into a fight and is severely injured may report to a local hospital here and will find they are pretty packed with other civilians acting strange, hurting each other and themselves. Certainly, this was the main cause for concern that got LILITH's attention anyway.

▶ 004. FOUR FOR THE ROAD.

Within a day or two, the Outsiders will once again be called to action by a blaring notice in their implant.

YOUR VEHICLES ARE PREPARED. ASSEMBLE OUTSIDE THE CITY IMMEDIATELY.

When they gather at the location provided to them, they will find a fleet of armored campervans waiting for them. Each campervan comes equipped with beds, a kitchenette, and bathroom facilities, and will fit about 4 people. Within the campervans, they will find desert-appropriate attire designed to protect them from the scorching sun. These campervans also come with some basic artillery such as a mounted machine gun. There are also supplies in the form of water bottles and MRE ration packs.

Those who have driven large vehicles in the past are encouraged to take the driver’s seat. If the group does not have any driving experience, they will be given a crash course on driving recorded by the man himself, Seok Dang. (He probably shouldn’t be doing this with the stunts he’s pulled, but the Commander does not have any time to be teaching anyone driving, and Seok Dang volunteered so eagerly…)

"Listen. If you’ve ever handled a ▄▄ before, the joystick is exactly like that. You gotta tug it, but not too hard. Gently, yeah, like that, that’s the path to ecstasy … "

If it eases anyone’s worries, the campervans are armored and highly shock resistant, so they should withstand a crash or two.

(Those who finish his course and successfully drive 100km while supervised will receive an international driving license.)

▶ 005. THE HUNT IS ON.

With everyone settled into their campervan, the large scale road trip begins. LILITH has a general idea of where the biggest energy signal is located for the rift and they will feed the coordinates to the Outsiders. The journey will take about a few days into (and around as LILITH is searching for both people & the source of the rift energy) the Mojave Desert, and Outsiders will be permitted occasional rest stops to give drivers a break and to investigate the terrain. The terrain itself is a harsh desert, with cacti and small local fauna abundant. (Those not wanting to eat ration packs can take this time to hunt the local fauna such as birds, lizards and desert foxes.) While there is nothing else around, observant Outsiders may notice signs of human life - footprints in the sand, a shoe or torn piece of clothing being left behind, and even the odd human carcass being torn apart by vultures.

The logical conclusion would be that those missing humans have been here, and the only thing left to do is find them … but Outsiders and civilians aren't all that lurk here, and time will tell what lies beneath the desert surface ...

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

Welcome to our very first travel log! Each campervan will accommodate anywhere between 3-5 people, with 4 being the ideal and 5 being a squeeze. Players are encouraged to connect with each other to fill up a van but the mods will not be enforcing it. If you need help finding roommates, there is a FIND A ROOMMATE header below that you can make use of.

If you'd like to test your gambling luck, we also have an IC SLOTS HEADER for you to comment to for you to see how well your character does at the slot machines. This is entirely for fun, and of course you are always welcome to have your characters winning or losing at the slot machines as much as you want in your prompts so long as they aren't winning jackpots.

Following this log, all characters who have purchased style upgrades will receive an update to their chip enabling them access to desert attire and popular styles within Las Vegas.

All tags on this log are worth 2 points.

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[ She's just peering down into that packet of "veggie omelet." She's had her fair share of less-than-ideal rations while adventuring, but at least the subpar rations aren't pretending to be real meals...? ]

That... looks disgusting. Was there some kind of mistake? This doesn't look like an omelet in the least.

[ Like... it's yellow, but ??? ]

It looks like puke, actually.

[MIGHT AS WELL JUST SAY IT.]

The other ones don't look much better.

[It feels Too Soon to examine alternative options, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Ren begins to rummage through his bag, conveniently nearby.]

You wouldn't happen to have anything more edible, would you?

Well... I do, actually.

[ ngl she was going to try to make this supply last longer, but she's not ready to surrender to "veggie omelet" ...

so she'll rummage through her own bag and pull out a bag full of bread buns! just plain bread buns. the kind they give you for free at restaurants. ]

Were there not meat patties in these rations, as well? Perhaps they would go well with these buns.

[Ren, for his part, has pulled out a paper bag that contains: instant ramen he got talked into buying by Hana (also perhaps only arguably food) and a few of the more stereotypical vending machine snacks you would expect from a teenager. And somehow, inexplicably, a huge onion.

...Which may be more useful than anticipated with Fern's bread buns, omg. His hero???]

I saw a few packets, yeah. They're on the middle shelf.

[He nods towards them as he checks his bag once more. And this time produces...a tomato, which he places with the onion. Ren! What the fuck.]

We can use these, too.

[ Not his backpack produce!? Where did he find those... Did she somehow miss out on the only grocery store on the Las Vegas strip!? ]

Those would work perfectly, Mister Ren...!

[ mister ren... ]

I'm glad. It looks like we'll be able to have a proper meal while traveling, after all.

[It's a byproduct of Ren being in the shady business of Persona protag persuasion (thank the hotel kitchen staff).]

Just Ren is fine...

[She's older than him, isn't she? Fern is the real senpai among us. But fr being able to eat something besides a vomelet is incredibly exciting.

He opens up a drawer to find a knife. Only to discover—]

...They forgot to include cutlery.

[ She's definitely older than him, but since he's given her explicit permission to drop the "Mister"... ]

Very well then, Ren.

[ She leans over to look into the same drawer he's pulled open, though, and.. yeah. That sure is just one (1) whole knife. ]

They can open our skulls up to tamper with our body parts, but they can't even be bothered to provide proper utensils? [ she frowns. her sharp tongue is starting to reveal itself... ] This is unbelievable. Do they expect us to eat out of these strange packets?

[Mister Ren just hits different from, say, Ren-kun. But, more importantly, this eating utensils debacle.]

Maybe they just forgot.

[It really doesn't sound like a defense with his tone.

He dumps the bagged contents of his MRE onto the counter. Ah. There it is. A real sad-looking spoon that would only look sadder if it were a spork. He picks it up and holds it out to Fern.]

Or maybe they really do expect that. [ 🤦 ] This knife looks kind of dull, too.

[ She never thought a spoon could look sad, and yet here they are... ]

This is...

[ She carefully picks up the spoon and tears the packet open. ]

...Why is it like this? [ inspecting it and bending it... ] A spoon should not bend like this. It doesn't even look sturdy enough to handle some of the... "food" they've given us.

[ Fern discovers plastic utensils... ]

You've never seen one before?

[Damn, he didn't expect that, though watching her put the spoon through its bendy paces is a big mood. Sure it might snap, but Ren has zero interest in stopping her because sometimes you just want to watch the spoon burn.]

Well, you're not wrong. This is... [Where to even begin trying to explain why a plastic spoon is a plastic spoon.] Capitalism?

[Nailed it.]

Of course I've seen a spoon before. Just not one this... flimsy. Mister Stark would simply break this without thinking, since he seems so determined to break everything else in here.

[ she is definitely saying that loud enough for god and everyone and especially Stark to hear, wherever he is... or maybe he's doing his running outside after the van punishment, ]

They certainly do seem inconsistent with how they treat us. It's like they're skimping on the simplest things...

[He was gonna crack a joke about eating in the base cafeteria without any silverware, but omg.]

The way you're just putting him on blast.

[Is he judging? No, but it is illuminating and a little scary. RIP Stark, Ren will keep you in his thoughts.]

Are you really going to leave him out there for three hours?

[ As far as she knows, no one is getting blasted... (She does not know what putting someone on blast means.) So Ren just gets a flat look for all of that. He's right to be scared... ]

That boy is capable of splitting mountains. He can stand being out there for three hours.

[ Setting the spoon back down onto the counter. ]

But he can take a break and have a meal with us when we finish preparing these sandwiches.

[ She will allow it. ]

[Why is this giving him Haru-two-steps-away-from-axing-a-man vibes.]

Oh, ok.

[Is he, though?]

I'll start slicing up the tomato and onion, if you want to heat up the meat patties.

[Never mind he looks like he's about to shank someone with the way he holds the knife.]

[ Yeah it's definitely giving that... ]

Very well, then.

[ Heating the patties will require a pan and also a fire or stove... Fern starts carefully rifling through the cabinets to find a pan, and thankfully finds one, though it, too, feels tragically flimsy. No cast iron, huh!!

And then... the stove. Where does the firewood go... ]

...Ren, I need your assistance with this... stove.

[For a second, he looks over at her like he's been caught doing something wrong, because he's struggling to get clean cuts with the knife's dull edge and has...pulled out a dagger as an alternative.

He sets the dagger down.]

What's up?

[He looks down at what she has to work with. Looks (cyberpunk) normal to him.]

[ Hold on, where the heck did that dagger come from? He was holding a kitchen knife a second ago, wasn't he...? Dangerous... But she will come back to that in a second. ]

I don't see how this stove is capable of burning wood, so I must assume there's another mechanism to it that's advanced for what I'm used to.

[ A beat. ]

What was wrong with the knife?

[He has the decency to look a little sheepish.]

The blade's pretty dull.

[Sorry to the ragged end of the tomato where he tried. But he reaches past her to point out the knobs.]

You use these. [Case in point, he turns on one of the burners so she can see it heat up.] The farther you turn the knob, the hotter they get.

[ Not sheepish enough... if Miss Hana was still driving around like she has been, he could have very well ended up with that knife and/or dagger in somewhere - or someone - it shouldn't be.

In any case, her judgmental gaze soon shifts from his hand and the ragged tomato and towards the cooktop, which shortly starts glowing red. Fern stares down and blinks at it. ]

And that's... "electricity," and not magic, right...?

[ She must sound so dumb whenever she asks questions about this modern stuff, which she hates for herself personally. But all the more reason to get up to speed... ]

I see. Thank you, Ren. We mostly cook directly over fires, where we're from...

Edited 2024-05-24 21:17 (UTC)

[Yeah... He deserves that look. But he isn't above taking a distraction when one presents itself and nods in response to her question. Electricity is so much more interesting than what he was doing with that dagger, fr.]

Don't worry about it. To be honest, I think you might have an advantage over some of us.

[Aka firsthand experience with resourcefulness out in the middle of nowhere.]

Would you be able to do something like this with magic?

["This" being the coil radiating a steady amount of heat.]

[ Truly, her experience with adventuring with very little resources has prepared her better for this, especially compared to some of the others in their van (Akechi). She's been able to keep mostly a level head, except for when Stark does something stupid.

With the proverbial "fire" lit, Fern carefully places the pan onto the range to let it heat up. And to his question, she shakes her head. ]

No. I'm sure that there must be a grimoire for a spell that creates fires for cooking out there, however. It's probably on a legendary level...

[ just like her spell for cleaning clothes. ]

[Oh, good, her attention is on the pan and off him. Time to sneakily cut the tomato with his dagger......(this is not that sneaky, because of the dull thunk of the blade against the cutting board. how did they end up with a cutting board but no cutlery? don't worry about it).]

I guess that means a fireball wouldn't cut it.

[Obviously not???]

Is there a specific type of magic you specialize in, or is it more of a situation where [a pause as he thinks of how to word his question] so long as you have a grimoire, you can cast the spell?

[He neatly sets aside the tomato to start working on the onion. At least he's quick and efficient with a properly sharpened blade, even if not meant for this purpose.]

[ A fireball... or perhaps even a spell to instantly cook food, though that too would likely be legendary magic. ]

I learn whatever spells my teacher and I find on our travels. Though other mages certainly do have a specialty, like in ice magic or magic that uses earth. I don't know if I would be considered a mage with a specialty.

[ Strictly speaking, by the reckoning of other mages in her world... probably not.

She glances at him curiously as she manages to find some cooking oil to pour into the pan. ]

And what about you...? Is your specialty something with... slashing weapons, perhaps?

[ still wondering where that dagger came from!!! ]

[Busted. Well, not really busted, but he feels like he has been, kinda.]

I'm more of...a jack of all trades, I guess you could say?

[There's something about his smile that has an inside-joke feel to it. Fern 🤝 Ren and having pretty broad ability pools.]

I can summon something called a Persona, so I can work with the skills of whichever ones I have with me. Though [and since she's watching...he flicks the blade into a neat spin, catching it with a completely unnecessary flourish] in melee combat, I do prefer knives.

[ Knives, huh… She’s being reminded of some of her fellow First Class Mages, which may or may not be a flattering comparison, but at least it’s a bit of a relief to know he can handle himself, and unlike Miss Übel, Ren seems less… feral? (Photo taken weeks before memshare.)

His talk of summons, however, does pique her interest. Summoning magic is not something she uses, herself, but she has to wonder what the nature of this ‘Persona’ he speaks of is. (Again, photo taken weeks before memshare—) ]

I see. You have a command over a range of these ‘Persona’ entities, then? Are you able to summon multiples of them at once…?

(no subject)

1797 - 2024-06-12 14:52 (UTC) - Expand

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