Welcome To The Village

[number_2]

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)

Comments

[decohere]

Ah, powdered was a staple for the labs. [she remembers quite a few of the scientists bickering over who last emptied the coffee pot, who left the burner on overnight and the burnt smell...] There were refrigerators, but those mostly contained samples. Wouldn't want to get any of that mixed up.

The humming at my place seems louder now, than it used to. Maybe they got the frequency wrong. [she curls her fingers around the cup, inhaling deeply.]

I'm aware of how I'm presenting myself. [softly, she doesn't want to quite outright give it away.] But... I'll check it out. [she's curious what there is that Ari wants her to see, after all.]

[astrogator]

Maybe. [She says it noncommittally.]

I didn't mean to criticise. [About her presentation. Ari is quietly critical, not because she has never been in such a state of despair that even taking a shower felt impossible; her breakdown after she accepted that the Nothing was real saw to that - but because such pain and vulnerability ought to be hidden, kept private. She doesn't know what to do with it.

So she contents herself with small talk, with pointing out objects in the room and talking about the Tradelines. Insensitive of her to ramble about home when Ava is distressed? Maybe, but it's for a purpose. Eventually the mugs are empty and Ari takes Ava to the hygiene facilities. A slim door slides open. On the left, another closed door. On the right, a small space with a showerhead above, a sloped floor, and a filtration unit on the wall.

It would save a lot of water, to be sure, but it's not exactly exciting, not worth Ari's focus. It's even stranger, perhaps, when she lets the outer door close behind them, even though it means she has to step forward, right under the inactive shower.]

When we leave this room, Agent Starr, you've got to pretend to be real interested in how spacer toilets function. [And even that will only give them limited time if they want to avoid interruption.]

No surveillance here. I deactivate it and give them a lecture on bodily privacy every time they try to repair it. I'm going to have to be... efficient with our time right now, but I can see you're not holding up well. Again, no criticism. Just tell me straight if I can do anything to help.

[decohere]

[good, it's not a simple toilet tour after all. unfortunately she doesn't have a lot of time to deliberate over whether this is actually Tayrey, of her own free will, assuring Ava that they have privacy. and not a trap to lull her into a false sense of it and divulge her plans. Ava's gaze flickers around as she measures up the consequences of either assumption, seconds ticking by loudly in her head.]

I'm not. But. It's a strategic choice, not doing well. Men like Number 2 thrive on breaking others down, so I infiltrate through his ego. The more he gloats, the more information he'll give away. And the more he thinks he already won, the less prepared he'll be to put up a fight. All I need from anyone is... [Ava sighs out.] Is discretion. [the moment that he realizes that she's playing him, it all tumbles apart.]

And. Distraction. While others are bringing more attention to themselves, it's less he's focusing on me.

[astrogator]

[Fleeting emotions flicker across Tayrey's face. Surprise. Hurt. She'd been well and truly fooled, hadn't she? She'd put sentiment before logic, reaching out to Ava, and it turned out all this was deliberate.

There is no time for hurt feelings. Not over her own mistakes. Her mouth pressed in a thin line, she looks back at Ava.]

Distraction you'll need to look elsewhere for. I'm not putting myself at risk. [She didn't volunteer for any of this and she sure isn't going to try to invite ill-treatment to draw attention away from Ava.]

Discretion, I'll give you. [Deserved or not.] I can also tell you approximate numbers of on-duty guards and their response times from various border points, along with routine patrol routes. [All her little pokes at the system had been very calculated.]

[decohere]

You're... not who I was trying to fool. [apologetic] But. I appreciate that you've... reached out to me, Lieutenant. This is difficult. Letting them treat me this way, not being able to fight back. I wouldn't put up with it if I didn't fear... I have a lot more to lose. [she wipes a bit at her eyes, even deliberate the high levels of stress are wearing her down.]

And no. No, I don't want you risking yourself for any of this, you didn't sign up. He's my husband, and I made a vow to him. So it doesn't matter what it takes, I'll endure it.

That all would be useful. I've tested out their restraining techniques, let them get comfortable in handling me. So they... underestimate my ability once it's necessary. [she leans heavily against the wall, tired.]

[astrogator]

[She listens, and then shakes her head. Ari Tayrey holds everyone to high standards, including herself.]

You've got your own strategy. If I didn't see it before, that's my own problem. I was very careful until... last night.

[So if there's a lesson here it's not to let sentiment get in the way of her plans. Well, Savitskaya could have told her that. Any half-trained Tradeline apprentice could have told her that. Ava's not responsible for Tayrey's failings.]

It must be difficult. If you actually want to take time for yourself, you can do it here, and if anyone asks the story is that I practically bullied you into getting showered and changed. Judgemental and pushy, you know? [Not that hard to believe.]

I'm finding my own way through this. In a way it's easier. Having something tangible to resist. [Easier than the ship, because there's always the chance of fighting the village wardens, or reasoning with them. Unspecified magic that fixes you in place unless you move in the direction your captor wants is much worse than plain manhandling to Tayrey.]

Anyway. There's not much time. I trust you have a good memory. [And with that, Tayrey lays out all the information she's gathered about numbers and movements of men and rovers. It's all approximation, but taken as a whole it presents a reasonably accurate picture. She's been working hard!]