[open] Let me play among the stars

[theearth]

Who: OPEN
When: The 18th
Where: The Orbital Tower
What: Explorations!
Warnings: If something comes up, please warn for it in your subject lines!



There has been word to the numbered that at 9:00am on the 18th (CET), a bus will pick up any numbered willing to have a look at the strange tower-building at the border. It will stop at Hotel Reutte as well as the parking lot at the lower end of the Pöllatschlucht Gorge and then drive any that have boarded out to the Orbital Tower.

The bus will be let through the fences that military and police put up and stop just outside the white walls. There, the driver will tell everyone to get out, and they will be met by Monika Hallbach and David Graibiger and one military officer of each of the involved countries. After a short introduction round, they will then lead the numbered into the structure. It is a large storage room housing a farm complete with two fields, a small pond and a number of cows grazing placently. The farmer will invite them into his kitchen and around the table, and with water or juice or milk in front of them, a few things will be taken care of.

> The numbered are supplied with passes that allow them to roam freely inside the structure.
> The farmer tells them how she woke up one morning and found herself, her farm and some of her fields inside a large white room. She seems pretty calm about the whole thing, with a mentality that shit happens and you gotta deal with it. She just wants the numbered to make sure that the whole thing is safe so they'll let non-residents into the structure - she wants to rent out her bed and breakfast rooms again.
> The four officials impress on the numbered, with a main emphasis on Eugen, that this is German and Austrian territory, and it is those countries' laws that are relevant in the whole structure, because it belongs to them. It is also explained that
> Everyone is given a walkie-talkie so they can connect to each other and all people stationed within the structure.

They are then let to their own devices.


[ooc: Below, threads with descriptions of what can be found will go up, one for each level. The thread for the second level will go up in a few days or once the elevator has been figured out ICly. Please direct all questions to the "ooc things" top level.

A note for the purpose of making the playing of stuff taking place after this log easier: There will be no violence in this log that is not initiated by numbered, and the only way for them to get themselves hurt will be echoes/their own stupidity/both.]

☑ An OOC thread for all your questions regarding what your character might know through their job, find when doing a certain thing, be able to figure out with their powers, etc.
☑ Everything that happens on the 18th before they are left to roam the structure on their own.
☑ Level 1
☑ Level 2

Comments

OOC

[theearth]

Please comment here with all questions that show up in the context of this log, for example:

>My character will do this/did this. What will they find?
>My character has these powers/abilities/this job/etc, what will they know/find?

Before we explore...

[theearth]

Level 1

[theearth]

The bottom level of the Orbital Tower is huge. It contains hangars, storage rooms, shopping and residental areas, waiting halls, streets, tanks, electricity storage electronics, and much more. At the center, there are the entrances to the elevators, but nobody has yet figured out what they are and how to work them.

In all larger empty areas - streets, hangars, storage rooms, parking lots, and more - the original landscape has survived: Grass is on the ground, trees and farms and barns, cows and fields... even a llama farm. The people that used to live there stil live there. They can be interacted with! Please NPC them yourself - some are angry at the structure because it means that no sun can reach their crops anymore and want the structure to be taken away, some are okay with it, they can just rent out rooms or similar things..., some want to sell the place and move away if it stays. None are aggressive towards the numbered, some are friendly and invite them in for some coffee, others are neutral or unsure.

Military and to a lesser degree police is present throughout the structure, though not overly so - depending on where you are, they'll be Austrian or German, with two or three NATO soldiers among them.

Please refer to this for more information on the tower.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Once they're left to their own devices, Lily doesn't want to waste time. This whole thing? This is quite a bit different from the monsters and the mayhem. This utterly fascinates her, and like many things of late, is a welcome change of pace as she walks about, observing and taking mental note of everything she sees. Mental note there is key, as unlike elsewhere in the city she isn't snapping a million pictures. The military presence makes her think that would be unwise.

This isn't a sightseeing tour, and she knows that. There's work to be done, even if for all intents and purposes not many people among them actually know what they're doing. Basically just the one person, in that regard.

Still, she wants to do her best - if they can do some good, some noticeable good to discover what's going on here, then that could be a major boon to the lot of them as a whole.

[peacefulwinter]

Winter is unsure if not taking pictures is the best policy, but she's also blatantly subverting it anyway, wearing a small mirror pinned to her fleece jacket, with her number written on in wet-erase marker. It's highly likely that the rank-and-file military haven't been told about the ways they can broadcast, so livestreaming the tower seems wise. There's probably someone that can see something she can't in the things she's looking at, at least. (She'd fiddled with the mirror until she'd confirmed that she was broadcasting video, but no audio - she wanted to be able to chat with Lily freely in the meantime without comments on her personal life from the peanut gallery.)

"It's strange to think about, isn't it? Something like this, stretching all the way to space?" A pause as she looks at a storefront, fully stocked but deserted. "And with what may as well be a shopping mall inside? That shop has some cute clothing for a spaceport."

[espigeonage]

Julien is aware of how non-dangerous he is and doesn't want to explore much of the tower, but the lower regions, where people are apparently just fine... It should be okay. He's reconnected with a friend - read as "someone he's talked to before" - who happens to work here, so he'll get to meet with them later.

When left to his own devices he splits away while keeping people in view, feeling a weird sorrow. For now the farms and life around them is still here, still fine. But most of it can't last in here, he thinks. The surreal beauty of the place as it is now is temporary.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Winter's plan is definitely better than Lily going all European tourist on the place, too. She nods at the comment, eyes still wandering.

"After all the things we've seen though, I guess it fits, in a way. Still... I wonder if we can really go up that high." She follows her gaze, and gives a slight smirk. Winter didn't usually interject 'business' moments with that sort of talk, so it brings her more than a little bit of amusement. "Well, it's obvious people lived here, or... will live here. Wherever 'here' came from." A beat, and: "But yes, and you'd probably look cute in them, but I suspect we're not exactly going to be getting to take anything out of here."

OOC

[buildyourworld]

Eugen has echoed back Tieria's computer skill, will he be able to unlock the security gate heading to Level 2?

[theearth]

Yes, he can!

[buildyourworld]

Is it safe to assume that Level 2 is closed to everyone not police/military? If he ends up opening it when other Numbered are around, they might enter since he wouldn't remember the MS hangar is there specifically, which mean others could catch a glimpse of the MS platoons in there before being shooed out.

EDIT: Just in case I misunderstood it, Level 1 is the Low Orbital Station right?

[theearth]

Level 2 is currently not accessible; when it is, it will be open to only numbered at first, and then as a second step to police/military (once it's clear that there is no immediate danger there).

Level 1 is the part of the tower that is on ground level.

[buildyourworld]

Exploring this elevator is a bigger endeavor than he expected. Even with the memory of what it is, he doesn't actually know the smaller details of the Orbital Elevator so there's still a lot of things he has no recollection of. But the more he walks around, the more he remembers about the areas he explored. In some cases, he would even recalls blueprints of the area, which he would promptly informs the officers so they could immediately record them before he forgets.

The more he looks around, the more amazed he is with the level of technology the Orbital Elevator is build with. Even so, the light but continuous flow of echo into his mind makes it a little difficult to focus at times. Instead of pushing himself and risk tiring himself out too soon, he takes rest when necessary, like right now, even if he's only leaning against the glass wall of a boutique.

[abhero]

This place is incredible. Though some parts are underwhelming mundane, like the shopping mall, they are mundane SPACE STATION things which automatically makes it cooler. Emil wastes no time exploring – if there's an open door and no soldiers to stop him, he goes through it. There might be a few souvenirs in his backpack, but generally he tries to be on his best behavior and avoid pushing curious looking buttons.

After a while he starts wondering if he doesn't miss anything. The most interesting things are probably well hidden, you can't just find them walking down an aisle. Maybe if he finds a service door…

Emil manages to find a curious looking corridor. However, his way to the door is blocked by a cow. It must have escaped from one of the farms and lost its way. The corridor is too narrow to go around it, but that's what super strength is for!

…or not, because it ends with Emil being rammed out of the corridor and chased by the cow. Crap. And he promised not to make trouble.

"Look out," he calls through the walkie-talkie as he runs. "There's a crazy cow out here!"

[scarlet_devil]

At the very least, Emilia is staying within sight of Eugen. He seemed to know his way around, obviously due to an echo, so she didn't think everyone would end up getting lost or something. At least she hoped they didn't.

Here we have a seventeen year old girl looking around in a sense of, well, wonder, basically. She couldn't imagine the level of technology that must have been used to build this place, much less be able to even guess at what everything does in here... "So how far does this thing go up...?"

[arrowpoint]

Liam is unsurprisingly shocked and amazed at the size of everything. Actually, it was a little difficult for him to navigate. When he spots Eugen finally, he lets out a breath in relief.

"Dude, this is so much bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it was more like... you know, an elevator."

He takes off his new glasses to take a look up at the tower.

"So what do you want me to look at?"

[buildyourworld]

Eugen is talking to one of the family about their future in regards to their now fully covered farm when he notices Julien going around alone. Politely excusing himself, he heads toward the birdman and waves when he's close enough to get his attention.

"Hey." He smiles and looks around, trying to see what caught Julien's attention. "You should stay with the entourage, this place is too big to wonder around alone."

[buildyourworld]

What the heck?! He told you not to cause any trouble, Emil. With an annoyed huffs, he answered the walkie talkie, "Where are you?" He doubts Emil can do what he instructs even if it would help, so it's best for him to head over instead. The officers with him rolls their eyes before getting their guns ready.

[buildyourworld]

Eugen honestly feels rather insecure with her presence because of what she is but since she hasn't show any sign of wanting to sink her teeth into someone's neck, he gradually relax around her. It helps that she also behaves really well and hasn't been bothering him or anyone else for that matter, so his opinion of her improves with time.

He opens his eyes when she speaks to him and looks up at her question before turning his attention back at her. "All the way up into space. I don't remember precise distance but it should be in the exosphere. That's about 10,000 km above ground level."

[scarlet_devil]

Keeping her newly regained instincts wasn't as hard as she thought it'd be, perhaps something to do with not needing much blood. Basically, if she were to bite someone, they would most likely survive the experience. Thankfully, she has no intention of biting anyone.

"...Definitely not a thing that can be made with modern technology." Anyway, she figures she's a guest, so she'll try not to poke at anything too much.

[espigeonage]

"Eugen, galu." Julien smiles back, a little sadly. "I'm staying in sight! Besides, grass that was walked on recently's a different color, I could find your trail."

He'd found an old apple tree with small, hard fruit in its branches or scattered on the ground, worn initials carved into its gnarled trunk. "I think an owl roosts here. Or did."

[abhero]

Emil's resents those malicious baseless accusations about causing trouble. His version is that the he has no idea what made the cow run off like this and he will stick to it until the he dies.

Which might be soon if the cow has its way.

"The mall!" Okay, that's not helpful at all. "I dunno, there's a fountain and a computer store – "

There's a loud crashing sound, followed by an angry "mooooo".

"…well, there was a computer store."

[dominateartimus]

Xander kept out of the way for the most part and as tempting as it was to use his shadow mimicry to investigate more of the station, he refrained. There was no need to startle the civilians or have the military up at arms with his ability. So, he wandered about the station and took in the sights.

Until he saw Eugen taking a break from being tour guide and came over with a bottle of water, offering it to him.

"Here, you look like you could use this."

[buildyourworld]

He raises a curious brow at the strange word, "Excuse me?" He shakes his head lightly at Julien's protest, "We're not the only one capable of leaving trails on the grass here." The residents of those swallowed farms for example, are likely to leave more trail than them.

His gaze follows Julien's to the old tree, "Perhaps." When he notices the initials, he smiles, "Looks like it's holding someone's precious memory."

[buildyourworld]

Eugen only smirks at Liam. Truthfully, he's also feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and magnitude of the facility. Suppose this Orbital Elevator comes from Tieria's world, he wonders how the rest of his world was.

"Hey, I did said Orbital Elevator and that it goes into space. If it's normal elevator size, you can bet your life I'm staying rooted on the ground."

He shrugs, looking a little tired, "It'll have to wait until we go up. I haven't found the way yet. It seem like I've greatly underestimated the size of this facility."

[buildyourworld]

He takes the bottle with a smile, nodding a thanks to his savior. Among those he became acquainted with through echoes, Xander is one of those few that Eugen is glad he'd befriended.

"Thanks. I didn't think it would this huge." Uncapping the bottle, he takes a few small gulps, "It looks like my other self knows quite a bit about this place. Those knowledge won't stop flowing into my mind."