WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1


[So, once Zero has said his peace, everything is quiet as the week dawns. A new Game. Nonary, Decision, Murder. All three. It doesn't matter. Everyone is here to kill or die. The coin has been tossed, the die is cast. The rules are set; the watches are active.

The question now is, why? Why is this happening? Why you? Surely no one is so desperate to kill on this ship, right? Not when the people onboard are so interesting and varied. Perhaps everyone can get along; perhaps there's a way off the ship without bloodshed. Of course, if there is, it might be be best to be prepared for a long stay-there's no doubt Zero won't make it that easy to escape. Then there's the matter that-apparently-people have new powers they did not possess before, while those the strangers once had are gone. Perhaps it's time to test those out and see what they can do if you're not Kira.

So, let's see what happens this week. Hopefully it will be a peaceful one.

There are currently 19 strangers on this ship.]

Comments

[somuchshipping]

I mean keeping its skeleton would be cool and give me a few funny pranks, but I'm not interested in anything dead. Dying, maybe, but not dead.

[asmanytimes]

[ Keith looks at him.

Looks at the shark.

Looks at him.







There he goes, fleeing! ]

[somuchshipping]

OKAY, BYE!

[With that, Hermes continues on his merry way, leaving the shark behind.]

[superstylishsquid]

[And now there's someone else incoming and noticing those tiles!]

Hey, those pictures...where did they come from?

[somuchshipping]

Oh, the small tile things? I got them from the smelly eye person!

[superstylishsquid]

I thought so. I got some, too.

[Reaching into a bag tied out of a T-shirt to dig out a set of tiles depicting The Thriller, The High Ruler, The Eye, The Striker, The Earthworm, and The Familiar.]

Seems kinda significant that they're of us.

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes saw the pictures. He saw a picture of himself on one that Keith had. What Hermes didn't do is put 2 and two together.]

Hey, yeah! You're right. The dead shark's owner had one of me. I thought they were collectibles or something you humans had.

[superstylishsquid]

I'm not human, but I do keep up with human culture. I don't know of any collectable tile sets...and even if there was something like this, I can't imagine why we'd be part of the same one.

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes looks contemplative about this.]

You know what, yeah, you're right. If anything, if there were collectibles, they'd probably all come from the computer game I'm from. All the v1 AIs including me.

[superstylishsquid]

Or the movie I'm in. If we've ever had a crossover with a video game, I missed it...and considering I don't see any of the actual heroes...

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes blinks once.]

So you're a movie star, or...?

[superstylishsquid]

It's, uh....complicated. I live inside of a movie setting, in a separate dimension from the real, human world.

[somuchshipping]

So you're also not real...? I guess if I ask you just how many copies of Fortuna were sold, you wouldn't be able to tell me.

I'm literally usually the first person you see when you boot it up for the first time. I give the tutorial.

[superstylishsquid]

Nah, I'm real, I'm just...something of a canon immigrant, you could say. Came to the setting from outside, but ended up with a role there.

I'm the hero's main rival in the sequel to the Captain Blue movies.

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes frowns and fidgets in place a little.]

I don't know anything outside of my game. I talk to whoever's playing the game sometimes, but that's about it. I didn't see Fortuna in the rec room, but I doubt a console would be able to work with how Fortuna is. It's a roguelite space sim with player-generated planets, species, and even individual people. AIs like me and other generations come standard, as do Aftik, Notails, Geckrechaun, and Drakons.

[superstylishsquid]

Oh, yeah...none of the other fictional characters I've met knew anything about outside, either, even the ones that do know about the fourth wall.

So does that mean this is some sort of fictional world? I don't think natives of that sort of place can normally leave.

[somuchshipping]

I dunno... Zero said it was the real world. And a lotta things happened which don't make sense if I was in Fortuna. I don't have my powers, the humans aren't wearing their spacesuits, me sliding when I want to come to a complete stop when running fast, my powers and inventory being gone, the fact that security cameras bleed...

If Zero says this is the real world, then I have no reason not to believe him until some proof is given. I just...

[Hermes sighs.]

Sorry, nevermind. Tell me more about this movie? Is it an action flick? How cheesy is it?

[superstylishsquid]

It's a superhero movie, so fairly cheesy...even without Joe's fondue.

And I can't use movie logic, so we're not in Movieland either.

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes rubs the back of his screenhead with one of his feet, managing to stand on two of them.]

This place is my introduction to the real world, the world humans come from. Got time to give me a tutorial?

[superstylishsquid]

Sure, I guess. Can't say I'd know where to start without knowing your setting, though. Some are closer to reflecting reality than others.

CW: Infodump of basic lore and mechanics

[somuchshipping]

Mostly taking place on many different planets, though semi-simplistic space combat can happen. Not full-on dogfights, it's all turn-based. And there's an "Underworld" reality most of us v1 AIs live in, sort-of separate from the main game area.

I never really had access to the archived lore, I'm not a knowledge god, but us v1s were first conceptualized as free-roaming AIs. Then Prometheus taught the Notails about space and the Notails built shells for us. First the Greek company, then a Roman company formed and built the shells of what many people consider bootlegs of us. And there's only ONE v1 of each Roman and Greek. I'm the only first-gen Hermes.

Sometime later, a space travelling group with the first-gen Fortuna. They eventually found a box which granted wishes. They took it with them on their spaceship. Things went badly after they took off and they crash landed on a mysterious planet. They sent out a signal for help, but were never heard from again.

That's all I can really tell you about the lore. As for the mechanics? The first-gen Fortuna's in charge of dice rolls. Dice rolls determine the majority of things, like combat and skill checks, but don't dictate things like Morale and Sanity. People are generally controlled by traits and there are different types of traits.

Blue traits are neutral, green ones are positive, red ones are negative, yellow ones are abilities, and purple ones are special traits, which are the rarest to get. I usually have two purple ones: [Space Ripper], which allows me to rip holes in space to anywhere, including the Underworld, and [Psychopomp], which allows me to see when people are supposed to die.

In addition to taking care of your crew, you also have to take care of your ship. You have to manage how many loads you have, you have to get enough fuel for humps to other planets, and sometimes you even have to have the necessary amount of wires and scrap to be able to fix it if it gets damaged.

Us first-gens can also have a special job while you have adventures with your crew. We can become consorts to offer assistance in various ways, but most of the time, you have to buy the ability to use the consort during the run. Oh! Speaking of runs, you can only have a limited amount of runs before the universe dies and you have to start a new one with entirely fresh everything, but I usually just space-rip into the new universe and have Thanatos kill the other Hermes copy.

[A lot of info there, but Hermes hopes it's enough. Apologies if he slipped into tutorial mode himself.]

[superstylishsquid]

[He gets it, he's been the exposition fairy himself at times.]

Well, the most important thing is, out here? Nothing's gonna wait its turn. Time is consistent and linear, unless someone uses magic to mess with it. Also, the actual Underworld is the home of demons and the souls of humans who leaned more toward darkness before dying.

As far as I know, humans in reality haven't gotten past the closest planet to Earth even with robotic rovers, but I'm not completely sure my history is up to date. I think we've been pulled through time, since I thought it was still the first decade of the 21st century.

[somuchshipping]

Magic, huh? Everything's sci fi in my game. The closest to magic are the Drakon, who can use telekinesis and our consort and god powers.

Does the real world have gods like us? And I don't mean others forgot that they were gods, I mean just gods in general.

[superstylishsquid]

A few, yeah. The human world, the underworld, and heaven each have a deity, and two of those are said to have been born from the God that created the trinity in the first place.

That's not common knowledge among humans, though. Most of the 'gods' worshipped by mortals were demons or angels.

[somuchshipping]

Can you tell me more about these deities?