"Nonsense. We've had countless comets pass through the atmosphere without any interference whatsoever before." Solaris scowls, finishing the second energy drink of the day. A gruff, calloused hand takes it from the desk and swiftly tosses it into the recycle bin.
"This one ain't just a comet."
"Not you too, Edward! We have work t--"
"Gliese. It's not Edward to you, kid."
"Caelum calls you Edward, though, and you don't seem to mind."
"He's allowed." They don't elaborate on that, instead adding, "And correcting the guy's more trouble than it's worth. Half his brain is cheese by now. You? Not so much."
"It's true!" Chimes the gleeful elder in question, waving from his chair. The jolly tone in his voice dampens as he elaborates, though. "Now then. I know we're still fixing up the project from the last breach, but we truly cannot continue while this thing is passing by."
"Wipes out almost every electric signal in its path, and distorts whatever's left over." Edward nods in agreement, before Caelum continues.
"It destabilized the entire GPU the first time it came around. We lost a substantial number of files to corruption, and had to work twice as hard to recover them."
Pleiades scowls at the name of the enemy branch, those three letters still striking a bitter chord in her memory.
"But we're in the middle of cleaning and updating everything. We can't stop now."
"You'll have to if you wanna keep this project of yours going."
"You wanna rely on all your fancy toys you've got here? Or do you wanna listen to the two old bastards who went through it the first time."
Solaris is about to rise from his chair to argue, but Pleiades holds a cold, steady hand for him to sit back down.
"Edward has been our faithful steward since we moved to this base, Dr. Solaris."
("It's Gliese.")
"We can trust his word."
Whatever mild annoyance he seems to feel at the name was cooled by her authority.
"...Very well. But the updates are already underway."
"We can pause them, can we not?"
"The city stops functioning if we do."
"We could make a temporary hold for the important things. Shove just the basics into a digital lockbox. I do that with Janus whenever something happens here." Caelum's smile is patient and disarming, and with a grumble, Solaris returns to work. "Thank you. Now then, we'll have to pause everything and explain the situation to our beautiful citizens. I'll handle th--"
"I'll handle the lockbox part. You go break the bad news to the city. I'll not be the one to blame for this one, thank you very much."
In an often practiced manner, every screen in the city seems to stop what it was doing to display a message from the Stars. The form of an elderly man with long, grey hair waves from a chair with a friendly smile.
"Good afternoon, everyone! We interrupt your day to day activities to give you a special update on upcoming events."
The screen switches to an older, grainier picture of some vague celestial shape.
"This is the best quality picture we have of this comet. It will be approaching orbit in a few hours, and will completely knock out any signal we have--including the one that connects us to all of you. Due to its unpredictable nature and its ability to distort electrical signals, we think our safest option for all of you is to transfer you into a... temporary city, let's call it that. It will be enough to take care of your needs, but it's not very big."
The screen swaps back to the old man. It seems someone else on the team added the subtitle 'Dr. Caelum' to the bottom of the screen, since he forgot to introduce himself.
"Because of this, we need your help to make this work as safely as possible. In a moment, every one of you will get a survey on your phones, listing every asset you have on the island so far. We only have enough room to guarantee one ability or item per Islander. Everything else, you must carefully consider before taking it with you to the other city. I can't say... exactly what will happen if you overload what it's capable of,"
Because, honestly, he doesn't look like he knows himself.
"But it can't be good, I'm sure. Now I'm sure that many of you are wary of such a thing, but we ran a simulation of something like this a few days ago. And based on our research, we think you'll be just fine."
"Now, we won't be able to communicate with you, since our systems will be down to make sure nothing corrupts anything important. So you'll have to govern yourselves. But keep everything in moderation, alright?"
It seems like he tries to clap his hands together, but his left arm doesn't seem to be able to lift into view of the screen. So instead, he gives a thumbs-up.
"Remember, for the benefit of everyone, only take what you think you'll need. Hold out for as long as you can, and if we all get through this, you'll be back in your own beds safe and sound. And hopefully, so will we. Good luck."
With that, the transmission ends, and a timer counting down from one hour appears on your phones. Time to prep!
Welcome to our latest event! What's this all about, then?
With little time to prep, your character will be whisked to a temporary Spirale City while the 'kill all electrical signals' comet is in their atmosphere. The temporary Spirale is... a lot like when our group first started, actually! What that means is...
Only the four original wards are here: Fibonacci, Cotes, Golden and Archimedes. Anything beyond the city's limits is surrounded by a dense mist.
Venturing too far into this mist will cause your character to feel unpleasantly fuzzy, like they'll disappear. Most people who wander in find themselves back in the city with no memory of doing so, but those who fight back the brain fog (ha) and keep walking will disappear without a trace.
Even if your character has a personal housing (unless they decide to bring it with them,) they will be temporarily be placed in one of the common character housings, just like they did when they first got to the city. There is exactly enough room for everyone to be crammed into the dwellings.
The NPCs of the city are completely missing. Their shops and dwellings are still around, though. So if you want that burger and fries combo, you'll have to make it yourself. Basic necessities are taken care of in the city, and renew every 24 hours.
Spiralefes activities in the 4 main wards still exist, but are eerily empty and unmanned.
The giant hole in the middle of the city... is not bottomless! In fact, it is not even a hole. Though it might look like one, if one were to try walking on it (or fall in), they'd find that the whole thing is only painted on in an eerily realistic way.
Your phones still work, but there is no internet access. Instead, you can opt into a giant city-wide group chat to scream at each other. There are also no live television updates, and they repeat daily.
Because the respawn system is also offline, if your character dies during the event, they will not respawn. In fact, their body won't even disappear like it normally does. So choose carefully if your muse meets a demise, because they won't be coming back until after the event ends!
Because the majority of our Dagger Poll favoured following the rules, each muse is guaranteed at least one ability or weapon/item to bring that will not affect the data pool.
And speaking of what to bring (or not to bring) with you...
Each muse will be given a list of everything they've been given in the city so far, including unlocks, personal housing, event items, etc. They can check the boxes of what they want to bring with them to the temporary city.
If your muse only brings what they need, everything will be fine (this includes items or abilities necessary for quality of life.) However...
Checking off more than what your muse 'needs' may cause those things to come back... wrong.
Because the temporary city is like an external drive and can only carry so much data (including basic needs), anything 'extra' that's smuggled in may not function as intended. Your gun may misfire, your powers may be lesser (or greater!) than usual, your vehicle may explode, your house may fall, etc. That extra data doesn't want to exist! So if it can't go away on its own... it may seek to eliminate you or anyone else to justify keeping its space.
Of course, there's only a chance for it to misfire and come back wrong.
Muses who bring an excess of items may find themselves coming back "wrong" instead. They may be missing crucial elements to their personality, like empathy or reason, and have visual glitches on parts of themselves. But that's a worse case scenario and only for the greedy, right? Right :)
At least for now, treat this event like a sandbox. What do all of you do in these cramped city spaces? Does your muse take up a role in the community, like the grocery clerk or the law? Do they all entertain themselves and each other? Do they try to eliminate everyone in their path? Do they create a new religion and become the new Stars?--okay maybe not that one.
Updates will periodically happen from the Masterlist to introduce new problems or solutions. So for now, just set your muses up and get your bearings until the comet comes in swinging. Okay?
Any questions can be directed to the Masterlist. This is just the calm before the storms, so try to focus on setup. Does your muse follow the rules and only bring what they need? Or do they decide to selfishly bring what they want, even if it endangers themselves and others?
This event will end on August 28th 11:59:59PM!
