Event: In Pursuit of Knowledge

[voidtreckermods]

The day after the Voidtrecker speaks to the voidtreckers they arrive at the voidhub.

"Approaching Voidbase now. Prepare for docking."

There is no shaking, not leaving the void: instead those who risk looking out of the windows will see a large structure ahead of them. The void turns to metal around them as they enter the structure, and for a moment, there is nothing outside the train but darkness.

"Welcome Voidtreckers." A voice speaks over the ICPs. Not the voice of the train, this is a male voice, sentient. "The filtration process takes a few moments, so please be patient. Meanwhile, I am sending some information about our void base over to your SCA's."

They will receive a small pamphlet on their SCA's explaining about the void base, that it was set up as a research base and has been expanded to provide living quarters for some of those rescued from system #78961112094711. It explains that they had made the decision to invite the voidtreckers there to further unravel the mystery surrounding them. They would be quartered in ministry sleeping areas, and have free access to the ministry part of the base. Anyone who wished to visit the citizens of system #78961112094711 could do with good reason.

It's not too long before the filtration process is completed, and the doors of the Voidtrecker Express open. They are greeted by a group of ministry workers. Among which are Lia Nine, Ten Nank, and Anan- who isn't strictly a void ministry worker, but is there to greet them nonetheless.

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IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE

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22-29 RABBIT ~ VOIDBASE INFO ~ OOC INFO ~ NETWORK
SCA EXPERIMENTS ~ COMBAT TRAINING ~ REACHING OUT ~ ARCHIVE RESEARCH

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SETTLING IN

They are shown to their sleeping quarters first. They are in small suites, which match their room assignments on the train. They will be given time to unpack and rest, and told that their SCA's have been programmed to allow them access to the general ministry parts of the base.

Their time here is their own, And though the ministry hopes that they will help out with the various experiments and research programs they have going on, they do not need to. If they wish to take the time to rest and enjoy the amenities, they can.

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1. MULTIMEDIA. There are a few types of lounging rooms, chairs and cushions, tables for sitting at. Slim televisions sitting on walls, a few tables - that can be lowered or raised - joined with screens that can be more privately watched. Shows and movies are available in some rooms, gaming equipment in others. There is also a more quiet room for lounging in, with access to e-books and screen readers for them, audio options also available.

Relax, or get into a multiplayer game -- games that break friendships are available in the void.

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2. FITNESS AND SWIM. For those looking for more activity in their 'rest', there's the fitness gym and swimming pool. In separate rooms but nearby, the fitness gym is larger than the train's gym, and more well-equipped. Muscle training, speed; there will be a Ministry worker to show how to use the variety of equipment, so that nobody has an accident.

The same will be for the swimming pool, with a shallow and deep end. Balls, floating pads and more can be grabbed. It's a swimming pool - what's not to love?

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3. TRAINING. Beside the pool and fitness gym is the combat gym, where they will find small groups already exercising in a variety of fighting styles. Voidtreckers will be left alone to train if they wish, but any who take interest in partners will be allowed to join in with the ministry training. Magic, energy, weaponry; some of them use special batons, Ministry-issued, and the Ministry workers will show how to use them. If a Voidtrecker becomes well-trained in how to use one by the end of their stay, they can be given one to use on void missions.

The Ministry fighters will also introduce them to a special training tool, the hard- and holographic courses and 'dummies'. Quite a few fighting styles can be set to a holographic opponent, or even one made to mimic a voidtrecker after fighting them - they're surprisingly quick to adapt. The hard-light partner can listen and read sign-language, and will change on command. Want them to move faster, focus on attack, dodging? Now they will.

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4. GREEN THUMBS, OPEN AIR. The last room in the relaxation area is a curious one, reading simply 'GARDENS AND SIMULATION' on its front. Opening it will lead to a simple and long corridor, five more doors on each side. Four devoted to gardening, labelled Hydroponics, Hot Houses, Ice Houses, and Land. Entering, each space will be larger than should be possible. But it is, with each an indoor type growing space except for land, which mimics a farming field. There's a sky above, a wind in the air; sometimes, it might be raining when you enter.

It might be a shocking experience for some, the first time round.

The last six rooms simulation rooms are less specific, but with plenty more options. Rooms of prayers, beaches, cities, open valleys; with some time spent learning the menu, people can recreate a realistic area. The rooms can be set to private, but some people may leave the spaces they've created - on purpose, at random, or on accident - free for others to wander into. Sharing is caring, and there's only six of these rooms, you know.

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TESTING AND EXPERIMENTING

Anyone who wishes to take part in the experiments will be given their options, and led to the appropriate rooms. Health checks, tether scans, combat training; each one is voluntarily, and Voidtreckers will be be granted their results.

There is much to discover, as well to ensure the health and safety of the Voidtreckers. And what can they learn about the Voidtrecker Express, the lost tethers, and the anomaly known as the World Eaters? Time may finally tell...

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1. SCA EXPERIMENTS. For those who wish to help out with the SCA and health experiments- be that through taking part in experiments or helping conduct them- they will be shown to the labs. There are a few different labs, doing different things.

The scientists are generally friendly, if very no nonsense. They will answer questions and explain their research, and are open to listening to new ideas and theories. All ideas are on the table. This situation is unprecedented, there are no easy answers.

They will put any voidtreckers to work who wish to help- be it washing beakers or recording data. They will teach as they go- as long as someone is willing to listen and learn, it won't matter if they have no experience in science.

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2. REACHING OUT TO THE VOID. At the top of the void base is an area with a clear domed roof, allowing in the light of the void. Here voidtreckers can attempt to reach out, to strengthen their connection with the train and through it try and find those that have left the train.

It's a slow learning curve. Their first few hours of attempts will be meditation that goes no where. but eventually most should be able to tap into their connection with the train and the other passengers.

Reaching out further is harder, often feeling as if they are falling through the void. It's exhausting, not quite so much as anchoring, but similar. It's easy to get lost in the void, though the room has ministry workers who are highly trained and will be able to help anyone who needs it.

They do say it might be easier to go in pairs, to meditate together and help guide each other, using each others tethers as a touch point. Anything is worth a try.

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3. ARCHIVES. For those who prefer old-fashioned research, there is plenty to sink their teeth into here. Books, articles, message boards. Everything needs cross-referenced and checked and verified. What is a rumour? What is true?

It's a buzz of activity at all hours, though there are quieter areas for those who need silence to concentrate. For those less skilled at research, there are always notes to copy up neat.

OOC NOTES

~ Questions.
~ This event runs until the 26th June (Day 29)
~ There will be a concluding post on the 25th to wrap up the memory restoration.

Comments

Lab Work

[asheaveniswide]

Zenos has been in and out of the labs as often as the combat areas, helping where he can - the Garlean prince is no scientist, but he's a terrifyingly fast learner and is surprisingly handy to have around, if not for his strength and size then for his unnatural perceptiveness and Resonant vision. As someone who had left the train and then returned at a later date, he's also a subject of some poking and prodding.. but that was some hours ago.

Now, he's watching magic being conjured up inside glass isolation chambers, hands folded behind his back, unobtrusive. That his eyes are glowing red on black instead of their usual human blue simply means he's paying extra attention to what Rezo and the void scientists are doing.

Magic is something no Garlean can handle without the help of technology, after all. Such things are painfully beyond him, but it doesn't mean he isn't interested.

[redprayer]

Rezo hasn’t noticed Zenos joining in with the void scientists, and being blind there’s no chance of him noticing the oddity of Zenos’s eyes unless a third party comments on it. But perhaps that’s to Zenos’s benefit, as it means Rezo is unaware of being observed by anyone other than the scientists he spoke to before he started this demonstration. He thus blithely goes ahead with his fire shamanism.

“Spirits burning in flames…”

Sparks and flames, balls and streams of fire in various shapes and colors, all dance around the chamber and lick at the walls and against the hardlight targets. The targets shatter, one after another, as Rezo steadily incants and incants, turning the heat up to degrees that the void scientists are monitoring very intently, alongside the chemical makeup of the air.

Some of the spells that Rezo casts do burn up the oxygen as fire is supposed to, but a surprising amount is simply fueled by… itself.

This goes on for a while until eventually one of the scientists calls a halt. Rezo exits the chamber, slightly disheveled and with a forehead that’s visibly sweaty, but otherwise in reasonable condition. Although…

“If we’re taking a break,” he says absently, “I would like some water.”

[asheaveniswide]

The Garlean prince has seen quite a bit of the magic used in his world. How it works, how it draws power, what it does to its targets on a fundamental level - fire that burns using only the aether it's made with isn't unusual, that's how fire magic works as far as he knows, but that occasionally it's using the environment as fuel instead strikes him as odd instead. He would have questions .. but has no intention of interrupting.

After all, this could be important beyond idle curiosity and experimentation, and he, lacking the relevant information, simply wouldn't know.

But as there seems to be a break, Zenos shifts his attention from the magic to the practitioner. Was the signs of exertion from the temperatures in the chamber, or was Rezo truly tired? A bottle is plucked up off a table to one side and offered; it's labeled a drink, but isn't water. Some sort of .. fizzy ... citrusy thing, apparently. Not bad if someone likes citrus.

"What school of sorcery are you utilizing?" The question is innocent enough. Black magic, red, blue..

[redprayer]

Rezo accepts the bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a drink. The fizz is more of a concern than the taste, but aside from his nose scrunching up when he hears the carbonation, Rezo doesn’t show any signs of displeasure.

He swallows, lowering the bottle when Zenos speaks. Rezo doesn’t quite recognize the man’s voice, and he vaguely assumes he’s speaking to one of the void scientists at the moment. Either way…

“Fire shamanism,” Rezo says easily. “...Does the term ‘shamanism’ sound at all familiar?” Because while he’s gathered that the whole elemental thing is pretty common, that specific term isn’t as well-used across the worlds.

[asheaveniswide]

"Only vaguely," Zenos admits easily. "I may have read something, or heard something, of a similar name once upon a book. But nothing I would consider greater knowledge."

It frankly sounded like something the beast tribes might employ, but they surely simply dabbled in ordinary magics alongside their obscenities of Summoning. "It has the look of black magic, but I imagine the voidsent is in the details when it comes to particulars."

He can't demonstrate in turn, magic is something that eludes him entirely. "Is it an innate skill, or must one be taught it?"

[redprayer]

Rezo explains the definition from his world briefly. “Shamanism refers to spells that draw their power from the natural forces of the world. Fire, water, earth, air, and the astral plane. Black magic is something different in my world.”

He takes another drink- it’s as if they took lemonade and made it spicy- before answering Zenos’s next query.

“It’s something you learn. In theory, anyone can learn a few spells, although few have the aptitude to truly pursue it.” Whether it’s a matter of personal inclination or simply having low magic capacity, although at least the latter can be improved somewhat.

[asheaveniswide]

"What is magic that draws power from the caster alone?" If he has the opportunity, he's going to indulge his curiosity a while. Why not? It wasn't as if he could bring that knowledge home and make use of it somehow, but sometimes just knowing was enough.

Like right now. "I assume magic is common upon your star, then, but few truly powerful practitioners? Is it put to use in daily life, or reserved for greater purposes?" Zenos knew some cultures on his own world saw magic as nearly sacred and not to be squanderedso.. and then there's the mages of Ul'dah, who he's pretty sure would use a spell in their bathrooms if they could come up with one.

[redprayer]

“Mostly non-existent,” Rezo says bluntly. “Outside of a few situations such as using a Recovery spell on yourself, since you’re essentially using your magic to stimulate your body’s own properties.”

He idly fiddles with the bottle cap in one of his hands before answering the next question. “I suppose you could consider it the latter. Most people don’t need to use magic every day, but it’s still useful enough that you can make a living off of it. All but the smallest villages have at least a healer or two, and a professional sorcerer can always find somebody who could use their talents, whether it’s for combat, rapid transportation, construction work… Or someone who just wants a show.”

And since this person seems to have a lot of questions about this, Rezo is getting a little curious himself. Casually, he asks, “Do they have magic on your world?”

[asheaveniswide]

That draws a raise of one pale eyebrow; one difference! And a note is made of it, though he's unlikely to ever see Rezo's world, or see Eorzean magic practiced there. "Is it considered unwise, or rare, or outright impossible?"

If nothing else, Zenos is very attentive to the answers he gets - as is one or two of the scientists who'd been studying the magic more directly not long ago. Broadly, the use of sorcery seems about the same at least. He could imagine societies that lived and breathed magic, everything done with a little spell, but he'd never actually seen one.

Questions deserve questions in return, it seems. "Yes. It's quite common, though applied in the same ways your star seems to. In some locations, it is more frequently used than others, but oft is of the elemental stripe as aether is strongest where the elements gather. Things I have seen more recently from other worlds, such as ... mind magic, are rare however."

[redprayer]

“Rare,” Rezo says. He has a suspicion that they’re approaching magic with very different base assumptions, rather like the conversations he’s had with Esteban. “Think of it like this- magic is what is used to accomplish what a human being cannot normally do on their own. Isn’t it natural, then, that it would call upon forces outside of the caster?”

Whether Zenos agrees or not, Rezo is still interested in the other man’s own magical background. He makes a mental note of the term aether- it’s another one that he’s heard before, though not in his world. Along with mana it seems to be a common term for types of magical energy. As for the last part of Zenos’s statement…

“Would you be referring to the memory caves of Jema’Grethy?” he asks.

In that case, this man must be another voidtrecker, Rezo realizes.

[asheaveniswide]

"What one can 'normally' do becomes ambiguous if one must have an innate aptitude for sorcery. If there is a skill with magic, is that not too, natural, and thus part of what a mage may do on their own?" By his tone it's not exactly criticism, though it might simply be a very different way of looking at the world. "Drawing on external aether merely widens the pool upon which one may feed a spell."

Zenos does not cast spells. Not a one. But he can see what mages do, and what beasts with knack for spells are capable of as well. It's not quite the same as acually DOING but it serves him well enough.

While Rezo comes to the right conclusion, his method of getting there is wrong by the puzzled look he's given. "No. I've not encountered such a location, I assume by context it employs mind altering magics?" He hadn't been back on the train yet for that visit!