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pluviooc2024-01-23 10:00 am
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-01-23 10:00 am
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Test Drive 01
TEST DRIVE
Hello, and welcome to the first Pluviosa Test Drive!
Rather than a series of prompts that are set after arrival to the game, this Test Drive is instead more of a soft open for the game. That is to say, not only are Test Drive threads game canon, but the Test Drive should be regarded as the "start" of the game chronologically and contains arrival-related events and information.
Or lack of information, as the case in fact is, because there is no greeting party waiting to reassure characters that everything is fine back in their worlds and that they'll get to go home again. (On the flip side, there's no one telling them that their worlds have been destroyed, either.) There is only the ship, the things inside it, the raging storm outside, and what characters can figure out for themselves.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game.
(cw: minor blood, visions, storm weather)
The first thing you become aware of is the sound of dripping. Your mind is fogged, as though woken from the wrong part of your sleep cycle. In your daze, you're convinced that the sound of dripping is blood. Yours? Someone else's? You can't be sure. It's dripping from somewhere. It's your fault, whichever it is.
Good. One way or another, you'll be free of this nightmare -
And then, in response to the sound of a crack of thunder outside, clarity returns.
Characters come around as though disturbed from a deep sleep. Once they have shaken off the (vision? impression?) of blood, they will find that the dripping sound, at least, was real. Fortunately, it's only water - rainwater, more than likely, judging from the occasional booms of thunder and flashes of lightning overhead. One hell of a storm, quite possibly the worst characters have ever experienced, is raging outside.
Outside where? Well, outside the ship, of course.
As a general rule, characters wake up in a random room of the first level of the ship below the main decks. Theoretically, this should be a relatively safe, dry place - but with the age of the ship, its state of disrepair, and the number of plants above that have dug their roots into the deck above, leaks are plentiful. Thus, the sound of dripping water is a constant even in enclosed areas - and, of course, the outside of the ship is being pounded by rain in shimmering sheets, adding to the cacophony of noise accented by the thunder.
Even the protective bubble over the deck itself and the balconies of the rooms is having trouble working to keep the rain out - the rain isn't terrifying hurricane levels, but it is steady and water floods steadily down the stairs and over the edges of the gap down the center of the ship. The worst of the wind, too, has been kept out, but occasional gusts send ripples through the rain.
There is no power inside the ship right now and barely any light besides the flash of lightning - although characters may arrive while it is nominally day, the clouds stretching from horizon to horizon have blocked out the sun almost completely. The motion of the ship is also far worse than usual due to the storm winds - it's easy to believe that you are in fact at sea, unless you manage to get close enough to the exterior windows or balconies to be able to see the ship's legs in motion through the cascade of water that runs down the exterior.
(cw: hallucinations, thinking things that are real are hallucinations)
In the dark, you have to rely on your other senses - hearing, sound, smell. Smell is giving you the best information to start out with - rain, of course, but also mildew, plants, and old metal. (Is that a whiff of blood at the bottom? No, it's because of that bad dream you had messing with your head.)
No one comes to greet you. No one comes to find you. Instinctively, you know - no one is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
Characters will be fully convinced that they are alone until they actually run into another character. Even things that seem like they should be indicative of another person's presence, such as hearing voices or seeing someone shine a light down a hallway - your character will be convinced that that is just a hallucination until they can definitely lay eyes on another person, hear their voice clearly (ie: not half-drowned-out by the rain) or otherwise be certain of their presence.
That isn't to say that hallucinations aren't occurring. All characters, but especially those who are alone, will periodically hear murmuring voices, smell blood, smoke, and other scents reminiscent of destruction, and see what appear to be the flashes of flashlights, flickering lightbulbs, and the shadows of people walking around. These hallucinations fade in and out in intensity, but they always clear up for at least a little while when a character notices the sound of thunder. Given that the thunder is very frequent during the storm (every few minutes), most hallucinations won't last for long.
For most characters, the voices will be unintelligible murmurs. However, if your character has experienced an event of mass destruction at some point in their life (apocalypse or near-apocalypse, destruction of a city, volcano eruption, being the only survivor of a town that was slaughtered, etc), or has a connection to the dead, they will be able to pick out that the voices of the hallucinations are talking about either attempting to rescue people from something similar (eg: a distant voice shouting "there's someone still alive over here!") or, alternately, talking about how everything is lost, everyone is doomed now, etc. They may hear one type of voice or both at different times, at player discretion.
(cw: dead loved ones, hallucinations/delusions, violence, potential death. THIS PROMPT CONTAINS PVP OPTIONS.)
You're not supposed to be alone. There was someone with you, only a few hours or years or minutes or lifetimes ago. You weren't always alone, and you have to find them.
You'll find them. You do. But not in any kind of condition to keep you company. This lump of flesh is empty now. The plants are already growing over it, reclaiming it. There's blood in the soil, and there's the sound of someone else coming up behind you.
Someone is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
There are various heaps of organic debris that characters can stumble across when wandering around in the dark - piled up leaves, rotted plants, heaps of ferns, moss, and so on. Even solid wood, sometimes - the trunks of small, twisted trees that took root where they might and have grown out from balconies to the exterior or inwards down the jungled crevasse between the two halves of the ship. In the low light, it's easy to literally stumble across them, or mistake them for something else in the brief light of a flash of lightning.
It's the mistaking them for something else that could be a problem. Characters may find themselves absolutely convinced that these heaps of leaves are the body of a loved one - especially if they were wandering around looking for someone in particular. They may or may not accurately perceive leaf cover on the outside of the "body," but unless they dig their hands in enough to be sure of the heap's contents - but who would want to go digging their hands into the body of someone they love? - or they see the shape in clear lighting (which would have to be provided by another character), it will be near impossible to convince them that the pile is just that, and not a corpse.
But that's not the really dangerous part. The dangerous part of all this is that if someone unexpected approaches while the character is in the same room as the 'body,' they may become convinced that the new arrival is responsible for their loved one's death. It doesn't matter how illogical it is on the surface - fear, or rage, or whatever it is that might fuel them will turn on the stranger. And whatever it is that convinces them of this has also turned their fight-or-flight reflex solidly to fight, whether it's for revenge or the last chance at survival for a cornered rat.
Characters so affected will fight until one of the following occurs: If they are led out of sight of the 'body,' they return to their senses (given that they may be inclined to chase the 'perpetrator,' this may be the best non-violent way to resolve the issue). If they are convinced that the 'body' is fake (through physical contact or clear lighting as above), they also return to their senses. And finally, if they kill the 'perpetrator' or are themselves killed or knocked unconscious, the effect ends. In all of these cases, it ends with the sharpness of a rubber band snapped against the skin, and the character is fully aware of their altered mental state and what occurred as a result.
If your character dies as a result of this prompt (and you want that thread to be game canon), please give the mods a heads-up if/when you are accepted into the game. Although this will not count as an 'official' death and will not consume a character's "freebie" revival, there may still be consequences for your character's death.
(cw: worms. many worms. not parasitic. just worms.)
It's easy to take a wrong step in the dark. Of course, tripping and falling isn't the worst thing that can happen.
This isn't the worst thing that could happen, either. That doesn't make it any better in the moment - the split-second when the ground erupts and a writhing mass of something slimy doesn't so much crawl out as jump out - but maybe it will make it better later.
You know how worms come writhing up out of the ground during a rainstorm, when the soil is absolutely saturated?
Well, that's true of the soil on the ship as well, except the worms here aren't just common earthworms anymore. They've learned to climb, the slime that they use to wriggle through the soil modified such that they can cause it to turn sticky and squelch their way up walls, ceilings - and anyone they happen to come across. If you step in the wrong place, an entire cluster of them will respond, by clinging to your clothes and body, squirming upwards in a desperate bid to escape the wet soil and the continuous rivulets of water caused by the storm.
Or perhaps you sat down to rest somewhere and felt them creeping - or didn't, until there was suddenly something wet and cold on your bare skin. Or maybe you encountered the worms not through their climbing, but afterwards, when they drop off the ceiling and fall down on your head as the enzyme that renders their slime sticky wears out. However it happens... worms.
Fortunately, they're harmless - aside from being a bit larger than the earthworms a character is likely to be familiar with, and their strange ability to become sticky, these are largely indistinguishable from normal earthworms. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell that in the dark and the wet - this is their native environment, not yours, and anyone would panic at the sensation of worms trying to crawl up them or into dry places in their clothes.
There is an easy solution to this: Because the worms are fleeing the rain in the soil, they won't climb up anything that's just as wet as the dirt they left behind. All a character has to do to become worm-free is get thoroughly soaked, such as by stepping out into the reduced-but-still-pouring rain on a balcony or deck protected by the ship's bubbles. Unfortunately.... Well, then they're wet. And there doesn't seem to be anywhere to dry off any time soon...
For information on the general shape and state of the ship, please see the setting page. Please note that mods will not be running investigations during the test drive period.
Q: Do our characters still have their powers/items?
Generally speaking, yes. Characters have their powers intact (with certain exceptions, largely for potential-gamebreak reasons) and whatever items they were carrying at their canonpoints. Please see the FAQ for more details.
Q: My character is dead and/or dying at their canonpoint!
Well... Now they aren't. Specifically, dead characters come back as their most recent 'healthy' state of being (unless they're a type of character that is playable while dead, such as a vampire or a Bleach shinigami, in which case they continue as normal for them); they also arrive already soaked through by the rain, regardless of the location they wake up. Characters who are mortally injured find that their wounds have healed; in place of whatever blood was soaking through their clothes/dripping from their bodies/in their mouth from a Cough of Death, they instead find pure water.
Q: Can my character(s) explore the ship?
Your characters are welcome to explore as much as they're willing and capable of doing in the wet and the rain! However, getting between floors is a challenge in the current weather - with the power off, the elevators do not work, and the stairs are consistently flooded by a cascade of rainwater. However, mods will not be running any official, guided explorations until after game opening.
Q: Is there anywhere dry to rest?
Nowhere is completely dry, but the aft portion of the ship is significantly drier than the middle and fore. The reason for this is that there is a series of partial decks (the residential decks) over roughly the last third of the ship. The rain is fully blocked by the roof overhead, in theory, but in practice the wind and the flooding leave this space only sort of dry. It's possible to find your way here on your own and find some place to sleep that doesn't blow mold spores into your face when you sit down, but it's also darker here, since the lightning's light is also blocked out by the roof.
Q: BATHROOMS?
Unfortunately, the lack of water in the pipes means that the toilets (which can be found relatively intact in most suites, though many are full of standing water) are also not running. Characters get to deal with this issue as they see fit, whether that's using the dilapidated toilets or using a more fertilizer-like strategy.
Q: Is there anything from the game's main info pages that doesn't apply to this Test Drive?
Given that the power is currently off, the Ship (as in the entity) cannot be interacted with on the Test Drive (and characters have no reason to think it's there). Anything else that would require power, such as the elevators or water from the faucets, also does not work.
Q: How long does the storm last?
ICly, it begins to lighten up on the evening of the second day after the first characters wake up, though it is still raining steadily with occasional thunder throughout that night. (Characters will continue to trickle in throughout the duration of the storm, though most arrive before the end of the first day.) The characters will be able to see the sun starting on the third morning - which is also planned to be the game's formal opening, so we won't say more until then!
Q: Do our characters receive anything upon arrival?
Not a thing! Nor do they encounter any kind of informational NPC or anything that gives them a solid idea what's going on. The only exception to this is that all characters experience the dripping-blood related vision/dream/impression detailed in the first prompt of the Test Drive. Additionally, characters who have a unique tie to their world (such as Aerith's connection to the Lifestream in FFVII) will be aware that they're not in their own world anymore.
Q: What are our characters eating?
Since the power hasn't come on yet... Whatever they're adventurous and/or knowledgeable enough to find that doesn't kill them! This can include edible plants and limited amounts of things brought from home (please don't have your character bring 99 casseroles even if your game's inventory system allows it), but mods are not tracking this specifically. Most characters will be expected to be hungry and unhappy but not literally starving come game open. At least there's plenty of water.
Q: I have some specific question I need to ask about my specific character on the test drive!
Please post your question in response to the header comment QUESTIONS below!
Rather than a series of prompts that are set after arrival to the game, this Test Drive is instead more of a soft open for the game. That is to say, not only are Test Drive threads game canon, but the Test Drive should be regarded as the "start" of the game chronologically and contains arrival-related events and information.
Or lack of information, as the case in fact is, because there is no greeting party waiting to reassure characters that everything is fine back in their worlds and that they'll get to go home again. (On the flip side, there's no one telling them that their worlds have been destroyed, either.) There is only the ship, the things inside it, the raging storm outside, and what characters can figure out for themselves.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game.
ARRIVAL
(cw: minor blood, visions, storm weather)
The first thing you become aware of is the sound of dripping. Your mind is fogged, as though woken from the wrong part of your sleep cycle. In your daze, you're convinced that the sound of dripping is blood. Yours? Someone else's? You can't be sure. It's dripping from somewhere. It's your fault, whichever it is.
Good. One way or another, you'll be free of this nightmare -
And then, in response to the sound of a crack of thunder outside, clarity returns.
Characters come around as though disturbed from a deep sleep. Once they have shaken off the (vision? impression?) of blood, they will find that the dripping sound, at least, was real. Fortunately, it's only water - rainwater, more than likely, judging from the occasional booms of thunder and flashes of lightning overhead. One hell of a storm, quite possibly the worst characters have ever experienced, is raging outside.
Outside where? Well, outside the ship, of course.
As a general rule, characters wake up in a random room of the first level of the ship below the main decks. Theoretically, this should be a relatively safe, dry place - but with the age of the ship, its state of disrepair, and the number of plants above that have dug their roots into the deck above, leaks are plentiful. Thus, the sound of dripping water is a constant even in enclosed areas - and, of course, the outside of the ship is being pounded by rain in shimmering sheets, adding to the cacophony of noise accented by the thunder.
Even the protective bubble over the deck itself and the balconies of the rooms is having trouble working to keep the rain out - the rain isn't terrifying hurricane levels, but it is steady and water floods steadily down the stairs and over the edges of the gap down the center of the ship. The worst of the wind, too, has been kept out, but occasional gusts send ripples through the rain.
There is no power inside the ship right now and barely any light besides the flash of lightning - although characters may arrive while it is nominally day, the clouds stretching from horizon to horizon have blocked out the sun almost completely. The motion of the ship is also far worse than usual due to the storm winds - it's easy to believe that you are in fact at sea, unless you manage to get close enough to the exterior windows or balconies to be able to see the ship's legs in motion through the cascade of water that runs down the exterior.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
(cw: hallucinations, thinking things that are real are hallucinations)
In the dark, you have to rely on your other senses - hearing, sound, smell. Smell is giving you the best information to start out with - rain, of course, but also mildew, plants, and old metal. (Is that a whiff of blood at the bottom? No, it's because of that bad dream you had messing with your head.)
No one comes to greet you. No one comes to find you. Instinctively, you know - no one is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
Characters will be fully convinced that they are alone until they actually run into another character. Even things that seem like they should be indicative of another person's presence, such as hearing voices or seeing someone shine a light down a hallway - your character will be convinced that that is just a hallucination until they can definitely lay eyes on another person, hear their voice clearly (ie: not half-drowned-out by the rain) or otherwise be certain of their presence.
That isn't to say that hallucinations aren't occurring. All characters, but especially those who are alone, will periodically hear murmuring voices, smell blood, smoke, and other scents reminiscent of destruction, and see what appear to be the flashes of flashlights, flickering lightbulbs, and the shadows of people walking around. These hallucinations fade in and out in intensity, but they always clear up for at least a little while when a character notices the sound of thunder. Given that the thunder is very frequent during the storm (every few minutes), most hallucinations won't last for long.
For most characters, the voices will be unintelligible murmurs. However, if your character has experienced an event of mass destruction at some point in their life (apocalypse or near-apocalypse, destruction of a city, volcano eruption, being the only survivor of a town that was slaughtered, etc), or has a connection to the dead, they will be able to pick out that the voices of the hallucinations are talking about either attempting to rescue people from something similar (eg: a distant voice shouting "there's someone still alive over here!") or, alternately, talking about how everything is lost, everyone is doomed now, etc. They may hear one type of voice or both at different times, at player discretion.
TO RUN ITS COURSE
(cw: dead loved ones, hallucinations/delusions, violence, potential death. THIS PROMPT CONTAINS PVP OPTIONS.)
You're not supposed to be alone. There was someone with you, only a few hours or years or minutes or lifetimes ago. You weren't always alone, and you have to find them.
You'll find them. You do. But not in any kind of condition to keep you company. This lump of flesh is empty now. The plants are already growing over it, reclaiming it. There's blood in the soil, and there's the sound of someone else coming up behind you.
Someone is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
There are various heaps of organic debris that characters can stumble across when wandering around in the dark - piled up leaves, rotted plants, heaps of ferns, moss, and so on. Even solid wood, sometimes - the trunks of small, twisted trees that took root where they might and have grown out from balconies to the exterior or inwards down the jungled crevasse between the two halves of the ship. In the low light, it's easy to literally stumble across them, or mistake them for something else in the brief light of a flash of lightning.
It's the mistaking them for something else that could be a problem. Characters may find themselves absolutely convinced that these heaps of leaves are the body of a loved one - especially if they were wandering around looking for someone in particular. They may or may not accurately perceive leaf cover on the outside of the "body," but unless they dig their hands in enough to be sure of the heap's contents - but who would want to go digging their hands into the body of someone they love? - or they see the shape in clear lighting (which would have to be provided by another character), it will be near impossible to convince them that the pile is just that, and not a corpse.
But that's not the really dangerous part. The dangerous part of all this is that if someone unexpected approaches while the character is in the same room as the 'body,' they may become convinced that the new arrival is responsible for their loved one's death. It doesn't matter how illogical it is on the surface - fear, or rage, or whatever it is that might fuel them will turn on the stranger. And whatever it is that convinces them of this has also turned their fight-or-flight reflex solidly to fight, whether it's for revenge or the last chance at survival for a cornered rat.
Characters so affected will fight until one of the following occurs: If they are led out of sight of the 'body,' they return to their senses (given that they may be inclined to chase the 'perpetrator,' this may be the best non-violent way to resolve the issue). If they are convinced that the 'body' is fake (through physical contact or clear lighting as above), they also return to their senses. And finally, if they kill the 'perpetrator' or are themselves killed or knocked unconscious, the effect ends. In all of these cases, it ends with the sharpness of a rubber band snapped against the skin, and the character is fully aware of their altered mental state and what occurred as a result.
If your character dies as a result of this prompt (and you want that thread to be game canon), please give the mods a heads-up if/when you are accepted into the game. Although this will not count as an 'official' death and will not consume a character's "freebie" revival, there may still be consequences for your character's death.
CONTENTS WORMING
(cw: worms. many worms. not parasitic. just worms.)
It's easy to take a wrong step in the dark. Of course, tripping and falling isn't the worst thing that can happen.
This isn't the worst thing that could happen, either. That doesn't make it any better in the moment - the split-second when the ground erupts and a writhing mass of something slimy doesn't so much crawl out as jump out - but maybe it will make it better later.
You know how worms come writhing up out of the ground during a rainstorm, when the soil is absolutely saturated?
Well, that's true of the soil on the ship as well, except the worms here aren't just common earthworms anymore. They've learned to climb, the slime that they use to wriggle through the soil modified such that they can cause it to turn sticky and squelch their way up walls, ceilings - and anyone they happen to come across. If you step in the wrong place, an entire cluster of them will respond, by clinging to your clothes and body, squirming upwards in a desperate bid to escape the wet soil and the continuous rivulets of water caused by the storm.
Or perhaps you sat down to rest somewhere and felt them creeping - or didn't, until there was suddenly something wet and cold on your bare skin. Or maybe you encountered the worms not through their climbing, but afterwards, when they drop off the ceiling and fall down on your head as the enzyme that renders their slime sticky wears out. However it happens... worms.
Fortunately, they're harmless - aside from being a bit larger than the earthworms a character is likely to be familiar with, and their strange ability to become sticky, these are largely indistinguishable from normal earthworms. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell that in the dark and the wet - this is their native environment, not yours, and anyone would panic at the sensation of worms trying to crawl up them or into dry places in their clothes.
There is an easy solution to this: Because the worms are fleeing the rain in the soil, they won't climb up anything that's just as wet as the dirt they left behind. All a character has to do to become worm-free is get thoroughly soaked, such as by stepping out into the reduced-but-still-pouring rain on a balcony or deck protected by the ship's bubbles. Unfortunately.... Well, then they're wet. And there doesn't seem to be anywhere to dry off any time soon...
FAQ
Q: Do our characters still have their powers/items?
Generally speaking, yes. Characters have their powers intact (with certain exceptions, largely for potential-gamebreak reasons) and whatever items they were carrying at their canonpoints. Please see the FAQ for more details.
Q: My character is dead and/or dying at their canonpoint!
Well... Now they aren't. Specifically, dead characters come back as their most recent 'healthy' state of being (unless they're a type of character that is playable while dead, such as a vampire or a Bleach shinigami, in which case they continue as normal for them); they also arrive already soaked through by the rain, regardless of the location they wake up. Characters who are mortally injured find that their wounds have healed; in place of whatever blood was soaking through their clothes/dripping from their bodies/in their mouth from a Cough of Death, they instead find pure water.
Q: Can my character(s) explore the ship?
Your characters are welcome to explore as much as they're willing and capable of doing in the wet and the rain! However, getting between floors is a challenge in the current weather - with the power off, the elevators do not work, and the stairs are consistently flooded by a cascade of rainwater. However, mods will not be running any official, guided explorations until after game opening.
Q: Is there anywhere dry to rest?
Nowhere is completely dry, but the aft portion of the ship is significantly drier than the middle and fore. The reason for this is that there is a series of partial decks (the residential decks) over roughly the last third of the ship. The rain is fully blocked by the roof overhead, in theory, but in practice the wind and the flooding leave this space only sort of dry. It's possible to find your way here on your own and find some place to sleep that doesn't blow mold spores into your face when you sit down, but it's also darker here, since the lightning's light is also blocked out by the roof.
Q: BATHROOMS?
Unfortunately, the lack of water in the pipes means that the toilets (which can be found relatively intact in most suites, though many are full of standing water) are also not running. Characters get to deal with this issue as they see fit, whether that's using the dilapidated toilets or using a more fertilizer-like strategy.
Q: Is there anything from the game's main info pages that doesn't apply to this Test Drive?
Given that the power is currently off, the Ship (as in the entity) cannot be interacted with on the Test Drive (and characters have no reason to think it's there). Anything else that would require power, such as the elevators or water from the faucets, also does not work.
Q: How long does the storm last?
ICly, it begins to lighten up on the evening of the second day after the first characters wake up, though it is still raining steadily with occasional thunder throughout that night. (Characters will continue to trickle in throughout the duration of the storm, though most arrive before the end of the first day.) The characters will be able to see the sun starting on the third morning - which is also planned to be the game's formal opening, so we won't say more until then!
Q: Do our characters receive anything upon arrival?
Not a thing! Nor do they encounter any kind of informational NPC or anything that gives them a solid idea what's going on. The only exception to this is that all characters experience the dripping-blood related vision/dream/impression detailed in the first prompt of the Test Drive. Additionally, characters who have a unique tie to their world (such as Aerith's connection to the Lifestream in FFVII) will be aware that they're not in their own world anymore.
Q: What are our characters eating?
Since the power hasn't come on yet... Whatever they're adventurous and/or knowledgeable enough to find that doesn't kill them! This can include edible plants and limited amounts of things brought from home (please don't have your character bring 99 casseroles even if your game's inventory system allows it), but mods are not tracking this specifically. Most characters will be expected to be hungry and unhappy but not literally starving come game open. At least there's plenty of water.
Q: I have some specific question I need to ask about my specific character on the test drive!
Please post your question in response to the header comment QUESTIONS below!
no subject
no subject
She does choose correctly, though, and John hums lowly in his chest, rich baritone somewhat soft. Acknowledgement.
"John. And," he lifts his left shoulder in a half-shrug, "I don't have any more explanation than you." There's a soft "thmp" as one of the tendrils, shadows, from the tattered hem of his robe seems to strike the ground and curl in on itself in less than forward annoyance at the admission.
no subject
Lucia Corina looks down at the tendrils of his robe, then back up, visibly restraining herself from asking any questions. "Then I suppose we are in the same boat, terrible a joke as that is in our present location."
"You were, er, running. Was there anything you needed?"
no subject
"I wasn't running." He was hurrying—entirely different thing. "I've been trying to find where these voices are coming from. Finding a voice from a person..." Another few "thmp"s accompany the words. There's a growl that forms in his chest, resembling the thunder that rumbles overhead, but it doesn't quite leave him—it dissipates, instead, as John restrains himself. Misdirected frustration helps no one.
"Illusion isn't an unusual tactic." In his experience. Lying, misguiding, deflecting—he's done all that and more. "But not all voices are madness or illusion." He tips his head towards his left shoulder. "They may be lost." He isn't convinced, but he has no reason to assume they might not be some sort of ghost or trapped in other ways. He doesn't know enough about this place, and his own senses are different from mortal. Or, they were...
no subject
"Do you think it illusion? I admit they act nothing like the dead with which I am familiar... Unless they're something like the memories of some ghost I haven't yet found, casting fragments of time out around themself. But I would expect there to be more ghostly echoes of the past of the ship itself, if that were the case. I've seen no moments of walls shining clean and unbroken, or floors where there are only rotted holes." She really hasn't dealt with that many ghosts, but they have all followed certain patterns, and they were relatively predictable to deal with, at least when one didn't get enthralled by unearthly music and wander into a crypt and get possessed. "If they are lost, I am at a loss how to find or guide them."
no subject
"I don't know what I think it is. I know what it's not." Which is still a step in the right direction. One bite of a particularly massive elephant. Ugh. But he turns her words over, considering them piece by piece. "I've never heard of ghostly presences with that sort of influence on their surroundings." The more immediate experience he has was a wraith, granted, but...
His weight sways, shifts, and John lets his head drop thoughtfully.
"Unless..."
no subject
Lucia Corina cocks her head to the side, eyeing the odd way he moves without comment. "Unless?"
no subject
His hand curls back towards himself, the curve of his index finger resting roughly where the mouth would be were one engraved in his mask.
"...Hm."
no subject
"They do seem to be weaker when someone else living and real is around, don't they? A motivation for us to band together, among many others. I mislike being truly alone in these halls."
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"That could be." And if they're impacted by living people... Well, there's a few things life tends to bring with it. He seems to withdraw? Sink? Lose the height he's gained, then, as he pulls his hand back to his "mouth". "Light, or maybe the thunder, also seems to have an effect. I haven't been able to tell which, but if voices make a difference or any source of light..." It's less confident than his thoughts on the ghosts or impressions, whichever they are, but it's now rattling around in his head.
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"Any light, or if it's just the lightning, and if it's any noise, or just the thunder? Hm. Noise, I can produce, but I can't make light without fire, and this is not an environment inviting to flame. You heard me singing, right? Could you still hear anything else, once you started hearing me?"
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"No. Once I heard your singing, their voices seemed to vanish." Or he no longer noticed them past her voice. "I haven't heard them since." Light is a short-lived thing, the thought punctuated with a particularly long-lasting stutter of it, preceding the rumble of thunder. Hm. "Could you hear them as you sang, still alone?"
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"I could still hear them around me, until you found me. I was drowning them out, a bit--they're rather distracting, and it's frustrating that they won't interact with me, so I can't even do anything about what they say. And of course I was also singing to look for others among the living--which worked quite well, as it brought you here!"
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"So it's more than sound being a disruption..." Likely all linking together. But then, that doesn't really sound like ghosts, does it? There's a damp "thd" as one of those shadow-tentacle-tendrils hits the ground and curls again, coiling its way under the tattered hem of his robes. It has to have something to do with joining up alongside another living soul, then. "What ghost changes behaviour depending on whether or not you're alone?"
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"Sometimes a ghost wants to get someone alone? But this is more of an incentive to not be alone, and being alone doesn't invite interaction, just..." She gestures frustratedly. "You know. Presence, sort of. Nothing happens, other than hearing and seeing the same kinds of snatches of thing."
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"Maybe..." John's form sways, a shift in his weight like one might move from foot to foot, and his arms fold across his chest. "But then if they are merely impressions of memory left on the skin of the ship? What's accomplished then?"
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"Accomplished... I don't know. Maybe the memory-impressions are a truth afraid of being looked at. Or... the isolating and the ghosts are separate. And of course, there's also the storm, and its apparent rage--the lightning drives back the ghosts. Do they fear it? Does it hate them?"
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For as easy as his tone is, this is just going in circles. Fuck. John's fingers dig into the fabric of his sleeves.
"...But we learn nothing by talking." This would be easier with—
He isn't here. John's left hand tenses so hard in its grip that it almost spasms.
"We should at least find a way out of the dark."
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"There may be an overhang somewhere, outside, at least." Light is... definitely the most tempting of these things, to him. "Something to block the rain."
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"Ships aren't usually this dilapidated and still left sailing." His tone shifts, falls into something a little more thoughtful. A little more theatrical. "Freshwater could support the plant-life that seems to be everywhere, and there's no shortage of it with the cracks in the decks above and the persistent rainfall. It's difficult to tell the kind of plants, though, in the limited lighting the storm provides through those same cracks. The lightning is brief, flashes half-blinding as it cuts through the dark when the cracks are wide enough, and only barely illuminating when they aren't. What can be seen doesn't seem to be alien so much as unfamiliar.
"It's difficult to tell if the ship is old or merely battered from their growth, a—"
...Ah. Right. He makes a sound that might be clearing his throat, turning back to face Lucia Corina properly.
"We should... start looking for someway up." Don't mind how abruptly subdued that sounds, or the way he clasps his left hand, thumb pressing into the centre of his palm.
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"Up sounds good," she offers, instead of commenting on it. "I am not... I don't enjoy feeling confined." To say the least. "None of the plants have been familiar to me, either, let alone the... architecture."
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...Luck isn't exactly on his side, today, and neither is it now. He sets an open hand against a wall, less to brace and more to feel, take some solace in the solidity. It's filthy, he's sure, but it's more than the dark.
"Difficult to tell how similar with the state of disrepair."
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"It is... very decayed. Time has taken... much." Her voice echoes a little for a moment, then returns to normal. "Hopefully time hasn't taken any stairs."
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