come_sailaway | Welcome To The Village

Who: Everyone who was signed-up for the excursion
What: The Village December Excursion
When: Dec 1st - Dec 23rd
Where: The Village
Warnings: Involuntary capture and confinement including immobilization and restraints, violence, injury, maiming, possibility of death, torture, coercion, gaslighting, mind control, drugging, scientific experiments, and extremely inaccurate depictions of mental health facilities/hospitals, among other potentially triggering themes. Please mark all threads appropriately.

"Good morning, good morning, good morning!" A voice that sounds very similar to Friday's chirps over a loudspeaker outside your character's home. Yes, their home.

Overnight, all the passengers who signed up for this excursion have been transported to their very own personal cottages. They will awake in a bed that is familiar to them. While this home of theirs does not necessarily have to resemble the place they were born or raised, it will be a perfect replica of a place they truly thought of as their home, down to the most minute details.

The cottages are self-contained, the size of a large studio apartment so, in some cases, they may only resemble the bedroom and living room of a person's home with a shrunken-down kitchenette and bathroom adjoined. But the heirlooms of their past are here. A favorite doll? A treasured family portrait? Trinkets you have long forgotten about? All of them will be here, somehow. (All except for weapons, that is.) They are indistinguishable from the real item, down to the molecule.

After that wake-up call, the voice continues on to express that the weather will be warm and sunny, with no rain forecasted. A brass band concert is announced, to start at noon on the lawn next to the living chess set. And once that bit of news is wrapped up, lively marching band music will begin to play. And it will continue to play. All day. From every speaker...including the ones hidden in their home.

Welcome to Your Village

It only gets stranger from here. Characters may be dismayed to find that they are without any of their original clothes or belongings. They awake in conservative button-up pajamas. The closet in their home is full of the latest Village Fashion to choose from. Everything is The Village label brand, including the tin cans of food that stock the kitchen and any of the groceries you could get at the General Store.

Your ship phone rings. When you answer it, you will be greeted, once again, by the voice of Friday. "Your number, please? Of course, you have a number. Look at your badge." If they look down at their chest, they will discover a small round number badge has been pinned to their pajamas. Was that there before? It bears the symbol of a Penny-farthing Bicycle, with a number in the spokes. This is their number.

"No names here," the voice of Friday chides, "Only numbers. Number 2 would like a word with you at the Green Dome. He requests you come for breakfast. Thank you!" Before they can protest further, the line goes dead.

Some Notes:

No matter how many times your character tries to take off and disregard their number badge, they will always find it re-attached to their clothes again the moment they look away and look back.

Your characters still have their phones but now they can only make calls instead of sending texts. They also do not take or store photographs anymore.

If your character destroys or damages anything in their home, or in The Village it will instantly repair the way things used to on the Serena Eterna.

The noise from the speakers can be muffled by covering it with pillows or other creative items, but cannot be stopped entirely. (Sorry Phil)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

César's cheeks warm; he gives a little laugh. "God, I wish I got half the attention back home that I get here after being married. You're nice for the eyes, too." His eyes warm at the mention of Johnny. "He is. He saw me for who I was immediately. There wasn't anything I could hide from him."

"That's the way it seems to work. Take yourself off the market and all of a sudden you're a hot commodity." Ash doesn't know Johnny well but that tracks. He smiles softly at the way Cesar looks just talking about his husband. "I can see that. He's easy to talk to."

Looking around he sighs and looks back to Cesar. "You holding up okay?"

A little laugh. "Johnny had me off the market the first week we were here. And it holds true."

César blinks; even after all this time here, he's surprised that strangers ask, and he looks at Ash gratefully. "... this is honestly more pleasant than a vaguely similar situation back home. I know who I am. I know where I came from. They'll do their best to unsettle me eventually, but for now? I'm holding up fine."

A pause to let that answer digest before he returns the question. "... and you?"

Ash does the same and laughs softly. "Max and Valdis did that to me too." He didn't stand a chance of not falling for them both almost immediately.

He nods in agreement. "Could be worse. I'm with you. I know who I am and where I'm from. A room that looks like home? Just trying to get in my head. That only works if I'm actually haunted by my past." Ash pauses and comes back to something Cesar said. "Vaguely similar situation?"

"Max seems the type of guy who has enough love for many partners." César states warmly, believing it completely. "Would've thought Valdis was a single partner woman, but I would've assumed the same about myself. Congratulations."

"Exactly." César's smile fades a little, then. "I had to work under people that were trying to take over the world, amongst other things, in order to prevent it from happening. By myself until nearly the end. I had to completely hide who I was in order to do so, and the only way I knew how to do that was to bury myself in my work."

"Thanks. It's new. Just hoping I don't fuck it up." Because he is does that. Says the wrong thing. Does the wrong thing. Ends up alone.

"Tough way to live. Did it work out in the end? Were you able to stop them?"

"Let your partners know you're worried about that and ask them to help you get better. I've, ah, fucked up. And I got forgiven because I worked to get better." César really, really messed up.

He nods. "It worked out. We saved the world. And I had a couple of people beside me just before the end, but now I have more since everyone knows the truth about what I was doing now. I'm not alone anymore."

He chuckles. "Johnny basically said the same thing. Which, I'm a fan of. Change is important. I hate that saying 'can't change a tigers stripes' or 'teach an old dog new tricks'. Learned behavior, the way we think, how we react, all of that can change if you want it to. So, yeah, I can always get better."

He's really messed up before too. Several times. In ways that he was not able to fix. That makes him all the more determined to do better now. The stakes feel higher. He has so much more to lose.

"And you gained the kind of knowledge that lets you cope with this bullshit without losing your mind. Sounds like a win. Or have you always been this level headed and calm?"

"Yes, it does. People grow. Otherwise, we'd all still be toddlers. Learning is paramount in all parts of our lives. Adaptability is why humans and other species like them have thrived."

César gives a sharp laugh. "Oh, no. I'm just thinking too hard to panic. Or I'm good at shoving it down when I do feel the panic that I can keep my cool. But it's mostly the thinking. If I have to do 4D chess then I can't spend a moment freaking out."

Welcome To The Village

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