OSKA: LOCATIONS

[futurologists]

OSKA INTRODUCTION | LIBRARY | MEDICAL CENTER | TRAINING CENTER | COURTYARD DINING HALL | LIVING QUARTERS | MECHANICAL ROOM | DUNGEONS | VIEWING HALL ALASTAIR has built their headquarters in a little snag of reality between worlds: Oska, the last remaining scrap of a universe that crumbled. ALASTAIR headquarters is a grand castle, enormous, which would look perfectly at home on the scraggy side of a dramatic mountain. Grand suits of empty armor are posted at various points around and within the castle, which occasionally move entirely under their own power in silent patrols. They can be asked for directions, and although they never say a word, will obligingly lead recruits to the requested area. In addition to the empty armor is a giant metal dragon which protects the outside of the castle, sometimes perched on the roof, its magitek body housing the soul of a helpful dragon named Hector. (Dragon purchased by strictdiscipline.) Inside the castle are floating spheres of plasmic energy, which can be used to charge any electronics within close proximity. All around outside the castle walls sits a village which, in stark contrast the castle, is in terrible disrepair. No one lives here, and all the homes are rotted and rundown, like they haven’t been touched in years: the remains of the native population of this world. A little further on is a thinly wooded birch forest, and a wide, still lake. There are animals about in both of these, but not many. Just a few frogs croak at night, and a handful of birds flit between the trees. It’s peaceful, if you don’t mind the deep quiet. Near the lake is a hotsprings, nestled between trees accessible by wooden decks and stairs. In the darkest areas around the hotsprings are small clusters of echo flowers that quietly whisper back anything said to them. There's also an Almoca tree with medicinal bark about a quarter mile from the castle walls, veiled by a thick mist. (The echo flowers were planted by aspearation while the Almoca tree was planted by perma_banned.) However, this fragment of reality only stretches so far. About half a mile in any direction from the castle, the world fades out into thick, white mist. You’re welcome to explore the mist all you like, but no matter how long you wander, you will eventually find yourself stumbling out of it and into sight of the castle again. LIBRARY If you’ve seen the castle from the outside, you might find yourself slightly suspicious that this room exists within it at all. The library is huge. Books on shelves stretch from floor to high, vaulted ceiling, and while there are ladders that lean against the shelves here and there, scaling one to grab a book from a topmost shelf would not be a task for the faint of heart. Candles and lanterns are strictly forbidden in the library, which is strongly enforced by the librarians that stalk the otherwise silent halls, and you really don’t want to get on the wrong side of a librarian. They’re tall and very muscular. Being found with any sort of flame in here will have the offender immediately thrown out and barred from reentry. Instead, visitors are provided small, glowing crystals at the front desk, if they have no light of their own to bring along. Larger versions of those crystals, glowing a soft yellow, grow straight out of the walls and ceilings in aesthetically pleasing designs at steady intervals. But the shelves are very high and the ceilings are even higher, so you’re better off bringing along a portable crystal if you actually want to see any of the books, down in the shadows of the ground level. And speaking of books, ALASTAIR has a multitude of worlds to have gathered them from, and it shows. You can find a book on literally any topic here. Detailed biographies of each of the elected presidents of the Okran Oclusia? That’ll be room 32-D, row 88, shelf G, about halfway down. A field guide to the common Firewinged Ancarian? You’ll find mating rituals on row 12, feeding habits on 13, and taming methods on 32. The librarians have an encyclopedic knowledge of books and their topics and locations, but you can also whisper your query into any of the set up crystal orbs along the walls and watch your answer float to the surface in faint, spindly letters. MEDICAL CENTER The center is located on the ground floor for easy access. It is equipped with beds and various medical equipment, though there are no drugs available. The magitek-based equipment is intuitive and easy to use, similar to the thought-run jewelcomms; a recruit need only touch one of the displays in order to receive a full diagnostic of their current injuries, viruses, or infections. Another touch bathes the recruit in an ethereal light as magitek nanobots work to mend their wounds. If a recruit is too injured to "think" the commands themselves, they will need to be tended to physically until they can do so; to avoid abuse, the medical center magitek does not allow one recruit to medically affect another. The medical center magitek learns by repetition, which means its first encounter with a particular species or virus will take longer than one with which it is familiar. In order to receive the quickest and best care, it is recommended that recruits allow the center's magitek to scan them as often as possible so it may gain intimate knowledge of not only that recruit's species, but their individual medical needs. At the moment, the medical center is only able to diagnose and heal recruits who are made of biological tissue. Recruits who are made of mechanical or artificial materials are unfortunately on their own! TRAINING CENTER The training center is very smooth, sleek, and technological. This might be the most advanced corner of the HQ that’s readily accessible by recruits, and it's not very self-explanatory. There are small pads here and there on the otherwise dark and featureless walls, and a slightly lifted platform at the very center of the wide room, big enough for about five people to comfortably stand on. You could search the room all day and find no instructions on what to do in this room -- until you tried the pads. Just a brush of a finger is enough to activate one of them, and you’ll immediately be greeted by purple, glowing words: “Welcome, recruit. Train?” The pads take verbal commands, and will provide a variety of training options once they’re activated. You can set the terrain and enemy parameters: numbers, what species they are, how they’re armed, and how skilled they will be, or even ask the system to evaluate and match (or exceed, if you're feeling lucky) your skill level. As soon as you’ve made your selections, you’ll be asked to step one of the central pads, and your opponents manifest, created by until-now hidden, lighted obelisks. Opponents are purple-glowing holograms, featureless and blank despite their variety of size and armament. They’re not quite harmless, though. The system uses hard light at any point of contact, which means blows dealt against them feel solid -- and blows dealt by them definitely have the capacity to hurt. The environment will still include the default pads so users can use them as necessary, but will otherwise look and feel perfectly real. The simulation can be ended as soon as the verbal command is given for it -- or the long way, by activating and selecting the end option via pad, if for some reason the user isn’t able to speak the command. COURTYARD The courtyard is wide and spacious, and open to whatever elements might happen to be about for the day. With flagstones underfoot and the rising ALASTAIR castle visible behind and around you, it has a very medieval feel to it. It’s kept generally very fit and trim, with greenhouses kept along the southern wall, and stables along the northern. In the greenhouses can be found a wide assortment of nature. There are plants grown for food, plants for their uses in potions, plants for their medicinal uses, plants meant for poisons. Some of the plants are carnivorous, some of them hover strangely above the soil on a lattice of roots, some of them aren’t even stationary. That rustling a few rows back, behind you? Oh, just the Leafy Sunspotters. They like to roam around the last few rows of blueberry bushes. Herbology lessons are given here by a small number of ALASTAIR support staff, and they’ll be happy to teach you anything you’d like to know about their charges. Just off the greenhouses is the squidge park, an enclosure containing many artificial habitats from prairie to jungle to tundra. The enclosure is small to a recruit, but big enough for its inhabitants: larval squidges from the planet Zeta-12. In their larval state, squidges are 60cm-tall creatures made of a gelatinous substance that require nurturing and learning in order to grow to adulthood. They communicate in pantomime and gurgling noises, and tend to form strong bonds. Recruits may visit the squidges on their down time in Oska to play with the alien children and better enrich their lives. Once it is time for the squidges to reach maturation, they will be returned to Zeta-12 and another clutch of eggs will be sent to Oska for fostering. The stables are where all the assorted mounts are brought up and housed, and shelter to any animals that the recruits might happen to pick up. If it can be ridden, and if it fits into the general area of the stables (stalls can be altered for larger sizes within reason, but please store your dragon elsewhere), it will be cared for in the stables. There are even a few padlocks dedicated to animals that aren’t designated for any one person, but instead free for any ALASTAIR recruit to train with. They’re generally horses, but here and there can be found something a little stranger. There’s a pegasus down in stall 34, and last week someone swore they saw a winged manticore. Just behind the stables is a sizable ring for training, covered from rain and open to any recruit that wants to try out running in circles with their mount of choice (or circumstance; ALASTAIR appreciates, as always, your willingness to put up with any strange mounts sent your way). Adjacent to the stables is Oska's forge, normally in disuse but available to recruits intending to get hands-on with their weapons and armor. Materials for forging can be collected during mission events (or purchased through the bonus bank). (Forge purchased by respired.) DINING HALL There always seems to be food ready and waiting in the large dining hall, and the flame in the central fire pit never goes out. Savory smells pour out of this room constantly, and just trying to walk past the large double doors while hungry is a serious hazard. Any hour of the day, one can find whole roast pigs, simmering stews, and freshly baked bread -- but none of it is ever taken from the kitchen portion of the hall and served. In fact, no one even works in the kitchen; everything is unmanned. That roast pig is sitting on top of the oven with carving utensils placed to either side of it, the bread is set on a rack next to the oven, and the stews are still on the stove in enormous pots. The message is pretty clear: this is a self-serve affair. Dirty dishes can be brought back to the kitchen or left as they are: it doesn’t matter. As soon as you take your eyes off of them they’re clean, and look away for long enough and they’ll be back in their spots in the cupboards. No one is really clear on how any of this maintains itself. Maybe it’s best not to think too hard about it. Right next to the dining hall is a nondescript-looking vending machine; its contents rotate daily through a wide assortment of prepackaged food and drink, all easily purchased with any sort of currency in any denomination. (Vending machine purchased by longtempered.) Ready to relax after a fine meal? The rec room, right off the dining hall, provides anything a full belly might require, including plush couches and reading chairs, tables for billiards and cards, a small bar (note: all alcohol will mysteriously turn to fruit juice in the hands of anyone 17 and under), and several gramophones with conspicuously hi-tech headphones attached for listening. No cigars are readily available -- however, a balcony provides a discreet 'designated smoking area'. (Rec room purchased by strictdiscipline.) LIVING QUARTERS The living quarters come with just about everything you could want. The rooms are small and windowless, usually only big enough for a bed, armoire, bedside table, and small bathroom alcove, but they’re fully furnished and ready to be inhabited. The armoire always has a replacement for your uniform, no matter what you’ve managed to do to it. Just hang the old one up, close the doors, and open them again to discover a pristine new one hanging in its place. Hopefully you weren’t counting on this trick for the rest of your clothes, though. They’ll be hanging as tattered and dirty as they were when you left them, if you try it. The bedrooms aren’t assigned and have no placards to indicate ownership, but you’ll find a large brass key on the bedside table the first time entering one. You just get one, so if you’ve decided to double up and share bedrooms, you should either get used to sharing the key or work on your key duplication skills. Doors remain faithfully locked while their owners are away, even if you haven’t locked it yourself, which makes for a great reason not to forget your keys at home. Characters who have been assigned to another team (idled or dropped) will have their doors suddenly unlocked and belongings left behind for a week. After that, the room reverts to being empty and open for a new inhabitant. MECHANICAL ROOM This is a room with a heavy iron door, impassable except to unlatch its enormous metal lock, which no key in the castle fits. It can't be teleported or phased into, and it’s unclear what magic or technology is keeping things out. But something is definitely working very, very hard to keep this room protected. A low humming can be heard from the hallway outside, unobtrusive and audible only if you listen for it. Any ALASTAIR NPCs asked about this room will be able to tell you it houses the Timeline, but will admit they don’t have access to it. TIMELINE.exe is a supercomputer from which all ALASTAIR teams receive their mission assignments; it scans the multiverse for anomalies and instability, to which ALASTAIR is then sent to investigate. This is the heart of ALASTAIR, so it’s clear why no one is allowed to meddle. DUNGEONS This is where the ALASTAIR Personnel Resources staff operates, but most of the dungeons are locked and apparently off limits, and those that aren’t are just empty, barren rooms. It’s a cold, dark, occasionally drafty place without much of interest, unless you’re looking to add to your cobweb collection. There is just one room that proves the exception, away in the eastern corner of the dungeon: The Viewing Hall. THE VIEWING HALL This room is just as dark and dank as the other, but it isn’t empty. Large, ornate mirrors line every wall, looking like they’ve come from every period in Earth history and more, and lit dimly with the occasional wall-mounted candelabra. They don’t reflect anything in the room, though. Each mirror shows a glimpse into a different world. There are thousands of these worlds, maybe even millions. The view changes every five minutes, and there is no way to control which world a mirror currently gazes into, or where in the world it captures. Characters that spend long enough gazing into these worlds might catch a glimpse of their own world if they’re patient and very, very lucky. If they do manage it, it will be somewhere very familiar to them, pulled straight from a memory. It won’t be any sort of tense or emotionally fraught moment; it’s far more likely to be an idle moment of downtime, if it even involves any living figures at all. The mirror will shimmer into a different scene from a different world before anything of consequence happens within it.