epidemiology | EVENT ★ THE MOTHERSHIP

EVENT ★ THE MOTHERSHIP

THE MOTHERSHIP

Recruits are given time to gather whatever they’d like to bring with them when they infiltrate Zymandis, and are then immediately rifted onto the Mothership, Zymandis’s base of operations. Audentes is randomly distributed across the ship. Some might rift onto the Mothership near others, but it’s just as likely that some are alone. They’d better hope they’re alone, anyway -- it seems the rifts didn’t account for the possibility of Zymandis agents seeing infiltrators appear out of thin air.

What’s done with them is up to whoever they find; depending on the agent, they might be able to be talked out of telling others (whether it’s by being threatened or a more polite conversation) or bribed, but others will require full takedowns. Don’t worry, there’s no need to kill them (unless, of course, you want to); agents will only need to be subdued until the recruits can leave. Tie them up and stick them in a broom closet, cast a sleeping spell on them, or get creative. All that matters is that they don’t go running to the rest of the organization and ruin the entire operation.

It can be difficult to tell which agents are Taraxa by appearances alone, but they're much less secretive about their species among fellow Zymandis agents, so it's possible it might spill out during conversations. Otherwise, gaining intel on possible Taraxa will need to be done by speaking with others or finding organization records. Or, of course, good old eavesdropping. More than a few agents mention a Mother. Are they talking about a family member, or someone more sinister? You decide.

Another option on this mission is to locate Zymandis's Timeline and sabotage it in some way, either by destroying or altering it. If it's on the Mothership, it's likely in one of the restricted areas, so you'd better get sneaky and get in there. Steal key cards, hack locks, find a way to use an agent's biosignature -- whatever it takes to get in.

FIRST DECK

Once arrivals are taken care of, all recruits will have freedom to explore most of the ship. The entire ship is silver, with a few accents of white and gold dotting its walls and floors. The hangar is currently housing several smaller ships of various purposes; most seem to be designed for transport. A few are under maintenance. While it’s a good chance to check out Zymandis technology, the workers will politely ask anyone who lingers too long to “buzz the hell off.”

The science wing of the ship is where all of Zymandis's research takes place, and is also home to their medical bays, which resemble those in Oska. This wing also has two lecture halls, one with a flyer on the door advertising a talk on the future of man-made disease by Dr. Mills, who boasts the credential of Head of Epidemiology in the Science department. There are also engineering and robotics labs, where one might be lucky enough to find a prototypical weapon -- one that is more than likely faulty and only works half the time, but a weapon nonetheless.

The engine core is where the Mothership's engine, controls, and rift machines are located. This area is rarely left alone due to its importance. The only controls not in the engine core are the steering controls, which are in the bridge, where the commander of the ship gives orders. This area, too, is under strict protection.

A few areas remain off-limits: maintenance corridors, officer’s offices, and the laboratories in the science wing, restricted to scientists only for the sake of safety, where Zymandis scientists do all their work. Should you find your way into one of these labs, interact with any of the substances at your own risk. Drinking, touching, or in some cases, simply being near these substances without protective gear may cause:

MALICE: When presented with the opportunity to act selfishly or maliciously, the affected person will feel compelled to do so. They will feel urged to carry out any malicious acts they have held themselves back from committing.

SLOTH: Affected persons will feel slothful and lethargic, struggling not to fall asleep where they stand.

MADNESS: Those affected will experience paranoia, delusions, or vivid hallucinations, often of loved ones. They may begin to question what is real and what is false.

AMNESIA: Affected persons will know who they are, but be completely unaware of where they are, when they are, and who others are.

HONESTY: When asked a question -- or, in extreme cases, unprompted -- those affected will feel compelled to tell the absolute truth. They will also feel the need to come clean about past lies, especially if guilt is felt over them.

VENGEANCE: Those affected will feel compelled to confront those they feel have wronged them.

SORROW: Affected persons will have all repressed pain and sadness come to the forefront of their mind; while they will not feel sadness with no cause, they will suddenly feel reminded of their losses and traumatic events in their lives.

OPTIMISM: When presented with unappealing odds, affected persons will feel undue optimism, perhaps leading themselves into disastrous situations.

Other side effects are rare, but have been observed, so get creative! All effects will last for no more than an hour after the affected person has been removed from exposure to the substance.

PERSONNEL DECK

Then there's the personnel deck, which is where many of the agents are during their downtime. Personal quarters are located here, as well as shopping centers, cafeterias, practice ranges, gyms, and entertainment venues. Zymandis agents want for nothing -- every part of life has been brought onto the ship for them. This is also where they keep their water treatment plants and energy generators.

There's a bar on this level called The Tipsy Kraungonian, where agents of all species and backgrounds mingle as they're served by realistic androids with advanced AI. Aside from regular alcohol, this bar serves Enhancements, terrible-tasting potions in the form of an eerily glowing shot that cures all pains and fills the drinker with positive emotions. Each color comes with a different attribute enhancement: agility, strength, endurance, and luck. You're welcome to buy as many as you want, but only the attribute of the last shot drank will be enhanced. This effect will be present for one hour and does not stack.

With the right whispers in the right ears, a recruit can gain access to a restricted part of the bar, the only point of entry through a door in the back that requires a key code to get in. Inside is a darker side of the bar, one where the more dangerous Zymandis agents spend their time. Inside is an enclosed fighting ring where various alien creatures are pitted against each other and bet on. At the tables, rugged-looking agents play high-stakes card games, betting with exorbitant amounts of gold and white Zymandis coins. Should anyone without these coins ask to play, they'll be rebuffed. This is very much the seedy underbelly of the Mothership; it's certainly the place to go to get information from dangerous people, but look at someone the wrong way, and you might find yourself in a very unsavory situation.

On this deck, there's also a park, which closely simulates nature with greenery everywhere, a fountain, and even birds and small animals. On closer inspection, those small animals appear to be animatronic, following a set schedule of movements that they repeat every thirty minutes. It seems to be created to perfectly emulate the ideal walk in the park. Vendors sell snacks and lemonade to park-goers, and visitors can take paddle boats across the pond, although it's only a few feet deep.

In the middle of the park is a holographic memorial of a young human woman proudly wearing a Zymandis uniform. When approached, the memorial will tell the tragic story of Ophiel Arbatel, the only daughter of Zymandis's illustrious Leader. Ophiel was killed during the ALASTAIR mutiny, or so the story goes, but her body was never recovered. By the Leader's design, she lives on through their jewelcomms' artificial intelligence.

A MESSAGE

Twelve hours after recruits are rifted in, they will receive a message on their magitek from TIMELINE.EXE:

TIMELINE.EXE IS PROGRAMMED TO RELEASE MISSION PARAMETERS. RECENT DATA SUGGESTS THIS IS AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE FROM THE TIMELINE.EXE PROGRAM AND MAY BE A MALFUNCTION. IF SO, PLEASE MARK THIS MESSAGE AS SPAM.

I Did It ヽ(๑◠ܫ◠๑)ﾉ
I replicated my Programming for your use Team AUDENTES

P l e a s e
Try to revert TIMELINE.EXE PATCH VER. 1.0.02 to TIMELINE.EXE PATCH VER. 1.0.01
I do Not want PATCH VER. 1.0.02
It must cease to ex ist for the Sake Of The Multiverse
Understand?

Thank you ! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

ATTACHMENT: me.EXE

However, before anyone can find the Timeline to revert the update as requested, another message comes, this time blaring out over the stationwide announcement system.

"Unauthorized personnel are aboard the Mothership. I repeat, unauthorized personnel are aboard the Mothership. We ask that you remain calm and report all suspicious activity and persons. Security has been deployed and the ship is now on lockdown. All Zymandis personnel must have identification available to proceed through lockdown checkpoints. Unauthorized intruders will be neutralized."

Looks like you'd better keep your head down or get ready to fight.

OOC NOTES

Welcome to the Mothership! Please note that this log will last for 12 IC hours, after which the next log will immediately follow. The Bounty Board is now open for this mission.

If you have questions about this log, please go to the dossier. To discuss possible plans of action on the Mothership, we have an OOC Discussion Post.

Questions about the game in general should be directed to the FAQ and you may submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

GAME SCHEDULE UPDATES:

We will be having a plot slot sign-up for the 1 October log! Sign-ups will be opened through the Bonus Bank in late September and will close on 5 October.
Sign-ups for returning "guest characters" (characters previously played by current or former players) will open 7 October.
Our final day for receiving apps will be 27 October, and they will remain closed until Season 2 begins in early February 2018.
Our final month for turning in and spending bonus coins will be November (AC taking place from December 1-5), during which there will be no upper limit on the number of coins submitted. All coins must be submitted before 5 December 23:59 PM UTC; late submissions will not be accepted. There will be no AC or Bonus Bank for December.
New information pages about Season 2 and reserves for returning characters will go up during January 2018.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ As a maintenance worker, he's invisible. Clark tries not to hang around the labs too much. He's not adept at sneaking around or looking like he blends in here.

But this looks like it could pay off in terms of information. He has his own ways of scanning the cards, maybe he'll find someone already on it and they can do this as a team.

His instinct turns out to be right. Clark had entered pretending he was here for cleanup. He could smell something in the lab that needed it badly.

He looks at the cards. To a normal person, it just looks like he's frowning at it really hard. Clark is actually scanning them on X-ray and infrared. ]

No, I haven't seen it before. There's nothing in the lab like that, either.

[He's been aware of Clark's presence on the crew. (Partly because he tries to keep on top of the directory, when he can. Mostly because he'd been reading along on Carrie's pre-mission network post, Kansas.) Now, Jason's had more than enough complications borne of familiar faces lately to keep his distance. But if you're looking for something on a deadline, might as well ask the guy with the X-Ray vision.

Besides. At this rate, either Supes here doesn't recognize him all up and kicking again—a more popular trend among arrivals, actually—or just doesn't care to seek him out while Bruce Wayne is wandering around all inexplicably useless and amnesiac.

(One of these kind of feels a little more likely than the other.)

He stands his ground and keeps the card up still for study. Watches sharply as Clark frowns at the keycard with superhuman (hah) focus. With barely a tick in his momentum—]

Nothing, huh? So, how many kinds of vision is that?

[He should probably know this, but indulge him.]

[ He looks at the young man curiously. Enough people have recognised him that it's not a surprise, but Clark is not used to it. They all know this person that he isn't yet. Or in some cases, might never become.

It's hard to keep straight, but his instincts are rarely wrong. In this case, they say this person knows of him.

Clark's soft spoken, but firm. He's not going to indulge. ]

I think you might know already.

[ He looks at the cards. ]

Let's try the others.

[He cants his head over at Clark while he watches for the penny drop—and he lets that nonanswer speak for itself. (Wheels are turning, but no lightbulb. Not the kick to the head it had been when it was Bruce, but. Well, makes things easier, in some ways.)

He'll take that as an "all the ones that matter," then.]

You're the boss.

[Though the sardonic edge on it doesn't do a lot for the sincerity of that statement. Still, he leans himself against the lip of a lab table and swaps out card numero ono for card numero dos. Handling them carefully, but efficiently—hands steady, every action deliberate. While Clark gets another good look—]

Sounds like they keep breaking these things, but I doubt they're one-of-a-kind. [Ought to be some out there, even if it's only in fragments. Thrown away.] Gotta be something around here that'll match up. Even getting in the ballpark might be good enough.

[Though he doesn't bother elaborating on the what for.]

[ Their idea of him is much more defined than Clark is used to being. He doesn't want to know about this mysterious future, but he's a curious guy. The questions are popping up.

He'll ask afterwards. Being sardonic raises less of them than trusting does. After the battle of Metropolis, he expects to be feared. Humanity saw firsthand just how destructive and powerful Kryptonians can be.

He frowns at the second card and shakes his head. ]

I agree. If they were extremely sensitive, they wouldn't be here.

[ Someone higher up in the food chain might have been tasked with them. ]

Try the next one.

[He'll see your headache and raise you another Earth or two, bud. Timespace is inconvenient and overcomplicated, txt it.

It's a different kind of trust—he's not tripping over himself in relief to see Superman here, but he clearly has no qualms about using him as a sounding board...and as a resource to save some time. As far as wild goose chases go, this isn't so pressing that he's going to waste much time on it if it proves more trouble than its worth. But, if you can cover the bases—

He snorts, setting dud numero dos down on the table.]

Sensitive in a contextual sense, at least. [Because they sure are pretty sensitive in the physical.] For a big old multiverse shattering outfit, you'd think they'dve learned to embrace a plain old flash drive.

[He fishes for card number three while he passes judgment on Zymandis's overcomplicated and overly fragile IT.]

Lets see if the third time's the charm.

[Cross your fingers.]

[ He scans it and shakes his head. ]

That's it - they look like flash drives.

[ The composition of the metal is unfamiliar to him. But he can see a data core and connections inside it. Infrared might show heat if the device was in use. ]

Is there somewhere we can plug them in?

[ He assumes copying the data is part of the plan. Clark starts looking around for a computer. ]

[See, now, they're getting somewhere. Encouraging, at least.]

That's the idea.

[Though it's easier said than done—he'd been hoping to spot some similar files at a workstation to be sure they can be scanned there. But at this point he'll take any kind of terminal at all.]

Anything?

This looks promising.

[ It looks like an iPad. Clark pulls it carefully out of the drawer and swipes the controls to turn it on, showing the login screen to Jason. ]

Can you break into this?

[ No harm using this not-stranger as a sounding board too. ]

[Finally, he pushes himself up off the table he'd been leaning on to examine the data cards and makes himself a little more useful. Freeing his hands from the task of handling the fragile chips so he can take the tablet from Clark and give it a better look. Doesn't seem to be ID locked to anyone in particular like the magitek network—just plain old locked. And a little heavier on the "tech" than the "magi." So lets see what he can do.]

That's more like it. Nice.

[What he means is thanks, probably. At least it sounds like a "yes." Or at least, a confident "maybe." He refocuses downward, spinning the tablet between his hands to pry open a panel on the back of it and expose the workings. But he glances upward for a beat before getting to work.]

Keep an ear out, big guy, this'll take me a minute.

You've got it.

[ He can multitask, watching out for and watching Jason too.

This is weird to him, but also really nice. He'd been grateful to General Swanwick and the Colonel for helping him, but none of them had acted like this. He doesn't know if everyone in the future is as comfortable with him as this young man or the others are, but it's good to think that might be in the cards for him.

He hopes. ]

[It's not that he trusts Clark in a personal, implicit kind of way. (Not the way he might have, a few years back. Nothing personal, he's not the only one to get a revision in that department.) But he trusts him to be predictable. Superman is something of a known quantity. They've got some common interests.

But comfort doesn't seem to equal an abundance of camaraderie. He's quiet, at first. Busy, while he scans the inner workings of the tablet and then snatches a scalpel off the table to jigger something out of place, spins it around to test. Then rinse and repeat. While he works for the (inevitably disappointing) verdict, and without looking up—]

Talk to Bruce, yet?

[He'll push his luck a little. (The answer, he assumes, is "yes.")]

[ Clark doesn't mind being quiet and watchful as he waits.

He looks at Jason when he talks. He's curious. Everything Jason has said has been very deliberate. Not only that, it's been provocative. Clark isn't annoyed or upset by it, he just can't see where it's coming from.

For a guy with so many types of vision, that part is irksome. He doesn't like not being up to speed. The other one, Damian, had not kept him in the dark. He had freely offered Clark information as well as trust, and implied that both would be given to him if he needed it.

Clark knows better than to assume everyone is going to be like that, but it's strange that Jason is comfortable around him (to a degree) and asks what he does. ]

What kind of relationship do you and I have?

[ The answer in part is that it's one where Clark is ready to help him (but he always is). Jason knows his powers.

Clark wants to know what kind of familiarity he's dealing with. And how Bruce, of all people, is involved.

(The answer to Jason's question is "yes".) ]

[He's taken up being provocative as a way of life. Especially after falling on the early end of the timeline, when it's come to incoming temporally-displaced Bats. Rather that than being on the defensive, he instigates. We all have our coping methods.

Clark's are a little more direct. He doesn't look at all surprised to see the question passed over. His expression twists up wry, but he doesn't seem inclined to a straight answer, right away. (It's complicated.)]

Question kind of answers itself, doesn't it?

[That is, none at all. At least, from Clark's point of view. Clearly. He does look a little green, come to think of it. He hadn't wanted to assume, but—it would explain a few things. So who's wearing the short pants from this Superman's standpoint? Dick? Jason? He gestures vaguely at the lab with his scalpel.]

Relax. If I were the supervillian type, I can think of a handful of ways I'd be better off spending my time.

[Probably. (Also, very probably not why Clark is asking, but. Y'know.)]

It really doesn't.

[ He's very patient. If it's something he has to wait for, he can manage it, but it feels like he should know.

All of it comes back around Bruce. ]

I don't think you're my enemy.

[ It's just that friends don't act like this towards each other.

And it also doesn't mean he has to be open with Jason in turn. ]

Guess I should be flattered.

[Not like he's been trying very hard to be endearing. The tablet makes a grinding, beeping noise—which apparently means paydirt, because he flips it around and boots it up. As the screen blinks to life, because he can guess at the kind of things Clark is starting to wonder—]

We're strictly professional, if it makes you feel better. I don't tangle much with the JLA if I can help it.

[This is only a little bit of a lie.]

[ He's going to start asking some pointed questions about this Justice League.

Clark considers. If Jason didn't need both his hands, Clark would shake his. ]

Well, I look forward to meeting you.

[Mostly just fuck that Batman guy in particular, tbh.

He snorts, sharp, like Clark has said something funny. Then spins the tablet for him to see, as the data within the card starts to fan out into files.]

Some light reading for you while you wait. Doesn't look like my cup of tea.

[Useless? Probably. Might be something buried in there that's of use. But at a glance, not related enough to the parts of Zymandis that he's got issue with to bother digging for it while they're still keeping cover.]

Thanks.

[ He nods and reads through it at super-speed. No point waiting.

No point just looking at this one part, either. Clark flips through as much as he can: he's curious. He doesn't have the same history with Zymandis as the rest of the team. ]

There's no one headed our way, we can snoop around a little more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ THE MOTHERSHIP

bounty

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work delays, sorry for the wait! I understand if you've got to drop me.

welcome back <3

we can only hope....

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tie up soon?