WEEK 0 MINGLE

[probe]

POPULATION: 37

Good morning, starshines. It is another beautiful day here on the base and it’s the start of a new week!

After the events of the day before and the meet and greet provided by four new Avatars, you may find yourself wondering how you can get in touch with them again. Fear not. One look at your handy dandy cell phone will reveal eight new contacts added to your directory. Feel free to shoot them a message. You may be surprised.

But before you get too far, perhaps it’s worth checking out the base once more. Those locked rooms from the days before have been unlocked, free for exploration. In addition, should occupants visit the central elevator they will find the elevator in working order (and flame-free) and that a new floor has opened. Take a look, familiarize yourself, and make yourself comfortable. Life on the base is a happy place.

And speaking of happiness…it’s funny. For the rest of the week, all who reside on the base will be inflicted with little feelings of hope and happiness, a belief that they can manifest almost anything. This week, all will discover that any mundane thing they hope for will be at their disposal...though do be careful. Those small wishes may come to fruition in ways you don't expect. For example, wishing for a year's supply of sushi may net you one astronomically large sushi roll. An eyeshadow palette may provide you with samples of actual colored eyelids. And a punching bag could be mistaken for a bag full of confetti instead.

May all your hopes and dreams come true, everyone.

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Comments

[gamerbrain]

[ she doesn't know that ]

When there are too many streetlights and stuff. It makes the stars seem dim.

[aubins]

... I don't think lanterns and firelight are strong enough to block out the stars.

[gamerbrain]

Nope. It takes a whole city full of electric lights.

[aubins]

[ ... ]

That's... an alternative light source to just lighting something on fire, I take it?

[gamerbrain]

Yep. Like the lights here. Everyone's house has them. Every building and shop and school.

[aubins]

...

[ he just squints directly at the electric lights in this room. ] Are they always this bright?

[gamerbrain]

Nope. Some lights can be dimmed.

[aubins]

I was going to say "yeah, that might do it", but now I'm just confused.

[gamerbrain]

Not that many lights dim, though. It's kind of fancy. Most of them are bright.

[aubins]

...

So, lights block out the stars so you have to fake them to see them, which people think is romantic. Except some lights dim, so it's not such an issue, but it is and issue because not all of them do and they're very bright.

[gamerbrain]

Not enough lights dim to prevent how many bright lights there are in modern society. They make the stars dimmer, but don't block them out completely. But with a planetarium, you can see all the stars, no matter what time it is.

[ so informative. ]

[aubins]

And going somewhere with less people and less light is... impossible?

[gamerbrain]

[ ... ]

It's not impossible. It depends on the setting. In a big city, you'd have to travel farther. Can the characters travel that far without breaking the reader's suspension of disbelief? It could be hard for high schoolers since they probably don't drive yet, or if they have a family expecting them to be home early.

[aubins]

[ drive.... ]

... So, annoying and inconvenient, not impossible. [ so instead of driving out to see the stars they.... made a whole building with intense tech to replicate the night sky?

...

hm. ]

[gamerbrain]

Yep.

So it's much more romantic to just go somewhere in town where you can stand in a room of stars.

[aubins]

If you say so?

[gamerbrain]

A planetarium can also symbolize the lost potential of humanity. That's a kind of romance in itself, in a dystopic setting.

[ ........... ]

[aubins]

[ .............. wowie! ]

Alright, I’ll bite. How so?

[gamerbrain]

A lone survivor wanders the wastelands, looking for scraps just to keep living.

For a world so bleak, ravaged by war and the collapse of society, now drowning in an acid rain - a girl in a planetarium would be both an icon of hope and an emphasis on the tragedy. Showing that people used to enjoy frivolous things, like looking at the stars. A reminder that humans used to look beyond their own world, used to learn, and used to share that knowledge with each other.

[ ... ]

That game was well received, especially for having such a linear story.

[aubins]

...

[ what he's taking from all this is: ]

Your society had collapsed? Or-- wait, it's just a story. Man, I'd wonder about the topics you seem to enjoy but I don't think our books are any better.

[gamerbrain]

Aoi can't speak to the society outside of games. It must be going well enough for people to create and play games. That's as much as Aoi knows.

But Aoi is from a story with an ordinary town. No acid rain, there.

[aubins]

If they're used for leisure, then there must be plenty of leisure time then. Right?

[gamerbrain]

Probably!

[aubins]

We don't have games like the ones you're describing, so... it seems like a good guess.

[gamerbrain]

Are you busy all the time?