thisavrou_log | ( august intro log )

Entry tags:

( august intro log )

Who: Everyone
When: August 1st and on
Where: The Moira
What: New “guests” join the crew on their journey and implement some changes.
Warnings: None for now. Please label your content!

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old but unfamiliar faces
"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once."

The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a long platform and that the room is filled with a soft cerulean light. It's slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you, and nothing is familiar. Shortly after, you are led out and toward the medbay.

Inside this room, you are given a physical scan and offered a contract to sign that states you are now part of the crew of the Moira with a specific job. Any questions you might have would be answered in a straightforward manner as well as an explanation about how the Ingress, the thing that has pulled you onto the Moira, is broken and bringing people here unintentionally. This process also consists of a complete work-up of medical history and current health, and afterwards, you are given your MID, a device that is integrated into your hand or wrist with only the slightest pinch. From there, you are guided out of the medbay and to your living quarters.

At first, this month seems no more unusual than the previous one for those who have been aboard the Moira for any amount of time. The crew who had landed on the slaver outpost were rescued, and with everyone aboard, the ship has pushed forward into the darker parts of the Runoff. Anyone arriving through the Ingress follows the same routine—moving from the Ingress room into the Medbay for their physical and contract before being assisted by seasoned crew members and helped to their assigned decks. But all familiar things must eventually come to an end: two final travelers come through the Ingress. The first, and most noticeable difference between them and all the others, is their clothing. Both are dressed in standard Moira uniforms, though they bear the insignia of one sharing the same rank as Captains Cúrre and Thán. After a moment to take in all the people on the platform ahead of them, one of the two latest arrivals approaches one of the Ingress panels and begins to manipulate the controls. The Ingress completely shuts down. Unlike before, however, there isn’t an imbalance felt across the ship; everything remains normal and stable.

Utilizing the computer systems located in the Ingress room, they send out the following message to the crew via the MID:
To all those aboard this vessel: I am Ira Phirun, assigned captain of the Moira. First Mate Egan and I will be commandeering all rights to the ship as soon as word is sent to those currently in charge. Expect a more detailed report as soon as all records and logs in Navigation have been reviewed by myself and the First Mate. All questions will be answered in a timely matter. For now, there will be no interruption of daily routine or reprimand if conduct among ranks is broken. Thanks for your time.

Heading to Navigation, the Captain and First Mate, for seemingly unknown reasons, approach Navigator Manasseh and have her show them all records and logs of the Moira. Those working in Navigation when the Captain and First Mate arrive will see Mana greet them in a professional manner. Oddly, the Captain and First Mate act very familiar with the Navigator. They review all documents, but when they come upon news that the Ploiatos is on board, their mostly friendly demeanor shifts quickly. The Captain issues a sharp order, unintelligible to those who are close enough to overhear parts of their conversation, and without any warning at all, Mana loses consciousness and collapses right there on the bridge. Within minutes of this happening, the ship as a whole falls into a low power state with basic functions only. Mana’s MID alerts Medbay, and without hesitation, Captain Cúrre places her in cryo with strict orders to those who work there not to disturb the unit.

As promised, the Captain and First Mate soon address the crew.

☄ lights down low

The lighting has dimmed in all the rooms and halls, the normally crisp air that is pumped from the vents low, and all machines and tech are running at half-speed. These effects can be found throughout the ship. Water in the showers remain hot for only a few minutes before reverting to cold. Recreational equipment powers off not long after it has been turned on. The sanitation and water filtration systems require an hourly manual reboot, and all unused areas of the ship have no power allotted to them until a crew member steps inside. Even then, most functions are not optimal. It’s as if the Moira has been transformed into a dark house with only a candle flickering on the window sill.

☄ reuse & recycle

The Captain and First Mate are quick to establish that this is a new regime and go about making the ship and its crew more efficient in the wake of their change in course and the low power state of the ship itself. This means they will systematically inspect each occupied barracks room and leave notes for what needs to be disposed of or stowed away. Unlike before, this is no longer a pleasure cruise, and each member of the crew is a guest on board; they will not tolerate useless clutter. Anything seen as unnecessary will be either placed into storage in the Cargo Bay or disposed of through the airlock. This new need for efficiency also extends to the need to conserve resources until they reach their destination. The showers are set to an automatic timer to minimize water waste. Those few minutes of hot water are all a crew member is now given. Meals are smaller, bordering on ration sizes, and luxuries are done away with entirely in order to preserve supplies so that the ship can go longer before needing to dock at a planet.

☄ new jobs, same faces

The Captain and his First Mate, as expressed in their addressing of the Moira, explain that work efficiency is a priority. Applications for a head of the following departments will be accepted for a short period: Navigation, the Tower, Medbay, Defense, the Hold, Sanitation, Ingress work, and the Galley/Mess Hall. (Here.) After reviewing what they receive, one head of department will be chosen and tasked with helping crew find positions relevant to those departments and their own skillsets. They will be allowed to retain any positions that they held before that aren’t ship-functional jobs, but they will have to be done in leisure time. In two weeks time, they’ll be accepting department position applications which will be approved, and all those that do not apply will be assigned in accordance with their initial work application. They will also choose three individuals to act as guards of Ploiatos to ensure that there is a rotation available at all times. Will you choose to follow this new decision and promote yourself into a position of responsibility? Or will you simply wait for a reassignment?

( ooc; For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ohoho, on the contrary. You can tug away at a chain even if a person doesn't seem to realize they're being dragged on the floor. That's just their fault, isn't it?]

No, I suppose I can't. It was more of a joke. Though; I suppose I should be more frank with you, as you don't appear to have much of a sense of humor.

[Wow. His mood is picking up a little for a guy with as many hangups as he has right now.]

Oh, it was a joke?

[Kaworu would take offense, but...

He's not even mad. Well, maybe a little ruffled. But that's not the same as being mad. Really, he's just glad this is going even a little well. Frisk was right.]

...maybe warn me next time.

[He does have a sense of humour. It's just that no one else shares it. Probably because no one else is an unspeakable alien abomination with no social skills.]

[...Mettaton's smile is a little more genuine this time. Really, he has worse things to worry about than some socially inept kid.

Again. Kaworu is not fully forgiven. But MTT is willing to give him a bit of slack and see what he does with it.]

I'll be sure to bear that in mind for later. There's no point in trying to be humorous if no one knows what the joke is!!

At any rate, I would love to believe that you were only looking for me in these halls, but is that really it? Or were you wandering out of boredom?

[Maybe Kaworu has night vision to make this easier, for all Mettaton knows about him.]

...

[Kaworu's expression changes. He doesn't stop making eye contact with Mettaton, but his look flattens a little. Just briefly.]

Is it that odd for me to be here?

[He has a right to walk around. It's about the only right he has.

Then he smiles. Weirdly. Almost ominously.]

I was just watching.

[Ah...yikes. Mettaton is a master of reading the atmosphere, and uh. Subtle expression changes didn't mean dick when you could tell you had said something wrong just by how the room felt after you opened your big, dumb mouth.

Unlike Kaworu, he's not going to be tactless about it, if he can help it. Some context might assist in that, but...asking about it is even more a faux pas to consider.]

Not at all! You're free to do as you like, except that I believed the state of the lighting would be off-putting.

I enjoy people-watching often myself!! It's a good way to get a feel for the morale, and what others might require in the way of entertainment! I suppose...that last part is of more interest to me, but all the same.

The lights?

[...ah.]

They're not a bother to me.

[Mmm. But NERV's lighting was quite bright. Much like the Moira's used to be.

While probably no less off-putting, Kaworu's smile is a touch less eerie now. Or at least less overtly so.]

And what does the morale feel like to you?

[Why is it that this kid can unsettle Mettaton so much. He prided himself on his ability to deal with pretty much anything, and usually he could!

...Not this month though.]

The morale? It feels... [Pause.] It isn't good. It's been suffering, understandably. I'd think even you could tell everyone's in varying degrees of upset from...past events? And also the new captaincy.

[Mettaton takes another short pause, but this one is different. It's less that he's unsure of himself, and more along the lines of his own body telling him he needs to sit down and recharge. That always messes with his functions.

It shows in the way he puts a hand to his head and moreso in his exasperated sigh because he knows he's starting to sound hazy.]

Darling, would you mind if we took a seat? Not here, of course. I need to find somewhere I can charge.

[Kaworu blinks. For a moment, he just stands there, giving Mettaton a hard look.

Mettaton... a robot with a soul.

(A monster soul?)

... needs to charge...

Like an Evangelion.

Or at least... an Evangelion whose soul is accepting the bonds of its servitude.]

I'll follow.

Good.

[Do you see this face? The face of not caring whether you have to quantify everything to your own beliefs and experiences? Cool.

Mettaton's just walking now, leading to the nearest vacant room that isn't locked. Once he finds one, he takes a seat by the closest outlet, reaches behind him to tug his charge cord out, and plugs himself in. It's a little embarrassing.

After a few seconds, he lets out a sigh that's half relieved, half aggravated. Not at Kaworu, though.]

I apologize, what were we talking about?

[It's not a value judgement, honestly. It's just a parallel. The difficulty in understanding the difference between correlation and causation is really a facet of the Fruit of Knowledge--it's how superstitions develop, as well as logical fallacies.

Kaworu may be severely limited in his ability to predict or imagine an outcome, but he's also incapable of making the kinds of creative mistakes humans are.

Anyway, he obviously doesn't think Mettaton is an Evangelion.]

The mood.

[He's smiling at Mettaton again, in that common, eerie way--and he's still standing, because the transition from talking while standing to talking while sitting just... didn't happen, logically. Mettaton is sitting on the floor because he's plugged into the wall. Kaworu, not being plugged into the wall, is standing.

The social implication of standing over someone while they're sitting? That's totally lost on him.

But he pauses, then glances aside.]

... if it's that obvious, I wonder if something will change.

[For his part, Mettaton doesn't seem to care about Kaworu standing over him. He's still not so down on himself as to feel condescended to just because he's lower than someone by height. Especially not since he's seven foot standing.]

Something will have to change, because we outnumber the captains.

[He's not just saying that because he's low charge either. It's honest. They may have been under contract, but if things got uncomfortable, he knew a lot of choice people on the crew that would not handle the oppression well.]

I certainly won't let anyone make my time even more uncomfortable than it already is. But then again, maybe the new path these captains are charting will be safer. That would be nice, don't you think?

.....

Outnumber them?

[Mettaton's comment about numbers--

The robot may as well have just revealed he had the Lance of Longinus stashed somewhere on the ship.

But it doesn't show on his face. Not in such an obvious manner; he looks a little perturbed, maybe, but nothing so blatant as objection or alarm.]

What about the Ingress?

[Mettaton ignores the look on Kaworu's face. It looks...uncomfortable? But then half the things he says are misconstrued by this guy to mean something different, deeper, or whatever. It's aggravating.

But for Frisk..he'll endure it a while longer.

Well that, and he's currently plugged into a wall for 4 to 8 hours.]

...What about it? All it seems to do is bring people back, and the last time we used an Ingress to go back home...

[Now he looks uncomfortable. Just remembering the void where Sans had been, the empty town of Snowdin...and even going back to where he came from just to be pulled back onto Amissis-Re.]

There was just no point. The only hope we have is attempting to find a different, more stable Ingress. And the captains don't even seem to understand what that is. So it's not worth counting on.

[Mettaton could hardly have chosen a less welcome response.

To Kaworu, the last time they used an Ingress to get back was the closest he'd come to having the only thing his heart wanted. It was the last time he'd been back in SEELE's halls, the closest he'd yet gotten to his fated meeting, his chance to speak with Shinji Ikari on his terms. It was the closest he'd been to seeing Shinji Ikari's face again, the last time he had been within the same part of space and time as Shinji Ikari.]

......I was under the impression that's where this ship was headed.

To a point in space where it can be fixed once and for all.

That is what they say. I'd prefer to wait until we get there and confirm it, all things considered.

I have absolutely no reason as of late to trust anything these captains say, and I am honestly surprised at your faith.

[Seriously. After their last conversation, he's extremely taken aback that Kaworu really thinks this is going to turn out so easy. He has about as much faith in anyone but himself as a mouse might have faith in a cat.]

It's not 'faith.'

[Kaworu doesn't even blink--nor, for once, mince his words. He simply drops three short words into the conversation, calm as can be. He doesn't leave much room for observation, though, as he closes his eyes and continues in a somewhat indifferent tone.]

...I'd think the salvaging of souls would be value enough for you, given the frailty of human life.

[Mettaton's brow raises. Maybe he's misunderstanding Kaworu. He prefers to think that, in fact.]

What do you mean by that?

Exactly what I said. The Ingress should be valuable to you even as it is, because it's being used to control the cycle of death and rebirth. Your lives are very fragile, so you should appreciate it more.

How many fewer do you think this ship would be carrying without it, do you think? The Caducans' numbers were at least equal to yours.

That I can understand. But it sounded as if you were referring to me as a human. And I'm not.

[Now...now he's starting to sound a tad bit testy. Kaworu's blurring the lines with his beliefs again, and Mettaton's not interested in being told he's anything like a human right now.

Even if it's true, he does not want to hear it, because some of the slavers...were human.]

...I was, yes.

[Kaworu regards Mettaton a bit sideways. His mouth has a slight skew to it. Annoyance.]

[The annoyance is matched, maybe even raised a little by Mettaton's expression. Don't start. He will get up off this floor with his 21% battery.]

I know that I'm pretty convincing, sweetie. But I am not human, I'm a monster. I'd thank you not to make the mistake again.

[Kaworu blinks. Locks eyes with Mettaton.]

I'm not mistaken.

Just because you call yourselves 'monsters' or 'cybertronians'... well, I don't really care, to be honest. It doesn't really matter what you call it. 'Human' is the definition of the soul.

[He means that sentence in a very different form: to possess a soul is to be human. More to the point, everyone on the Moira--his own presence excluded--is a specific form of humanity. The form taken by Lilim--and apparently others. The bearers of the human mind.]

[Mettaton can tell this is going to be a long, long charge. He presses his fingers together before his face, taking a breath to stave off the aggravation that would lead to regrets later.]

I'm aware you don't care about the classifications we all give ourselves. That is actually why I hit you, and threatened you during our last meeting. Make no mistake, dear. The fact that I am not doing so now says less about myself as a person, and more about how good of a friend Frisk is.

That being said, your word is not the only one to be heard on this ship. We are from many different walks, and where I come from, many creatures can have the gift of a soul and be different from one another. A human being is different from a monster.

Our biologies are considered during classification. I don't know which way you categorize humans, but this ship. Is. Diverse.

And it is incredibly insulting to be called a human when, by my definitions, I am not.

[Mettaton pauses, his eye focusing intently on Kaworu. He's very serious.]

Now. If you respect nothing else, respect the fact that not everything goes by the rules you are beholden to. I'm not imposing my ideals on you. I'm asking you to respect the way things are for everyone else.

[There's a real edge to those words. Mettaton is trying extremely hard to keep his temper.]

[On the one hand... this is the first time anyone has been so frank--or so clear on this subject with him. It's almost--no, it is a shock. It takes him some moments to digest it.

But on the other:]

...so you understand, but it still bothers you?

[He stares at Mettaton for another two or three seconds, the look on his face gradually turning into something that could only be called sour. He has the air of someone who has just been publicly dragged--but instead of rolling over and giving up, he's taking it really personally.]

....

I don't think you understand at all.

[Everything does adhere to those rules. And he is taking into account biology. But the biology? Doesn't matter.

Everyone on the ship--every single being on the Moira--has some minor permutation of the basic human form. Every single person on the Moira--every single being--is from a 'species,' or 'race,' or whatever that's plural. That develops art. Language. Science.

'Monsters' are a little strange. He doesn't understand them entirely. But he knows what they aren't. He knows enough.

Of course they're different from each other. That's individuality.

He didn't call Monsters human beings. He called them humans.

No one on the Moira wants to explain what exactly they define a 'human' to be, but everyone wants to claim they aren't one.

And the only reason Mettaton even believes his relationship with Frisk is worth enough to attempt 'respecting' Kaworu with his lecture is the same mistake he was made to perpetuate.]

We can agree to disagree then. I'm not interested in talking about this anymore. So how about you keep your opinion to yourself and do not call me human ever again?

If you cannot do as much, then we have nothing further to discuss, and I'm not in the least bit interested to hear how you feel about it.

[If Kaworu thinks that his pouting is going to get anywhere with Mettaton, he's quite mistaken. Maybe at another time--a time three months ago--he would have taken the human thing as a compliment. He might have been open to Kaworu's perspectives too.

But not now. Maybe not ever again.]

( august intro log )

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Today in "I'm going to hit Hideaki Anno with my car"

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