HOUSE OF THE PERPETUAL

A well-known but relatively small House dedicated to preservation, keeping the peace, etc. Some see us as the guardian angels of the sky. Others as meddlers imposing our will.

House Values

1. We preserve
2. We will always remain human
3. The past never lies
4. We always honor our word

Others in our Galaxy

• Ally: A powerful, but more passive sister-House, The House of Pages, that collects stories, dramas, theater, etc.

• Opponent: The rival House of Seeds with the purpose of 'We nurture new life.'

• Mystery: People are dreaming during stasis sleep, which shouldn't be possible. The dreams vary but it seems there's always a red bird in it.

Episode Archivist: Lepus

Characters and Values

* Jachro (CATALOGER)

Player: Sora

A fuzzy lizard fellow with an obsession for making neat taxonomies.

• Sora says "Basically, he tries to understand what type of thing we are preserving, and by giving it a sort of category, I figure he can use knowledge of previous, similar situations to know how to continue preserving it."

Values:

• Jachro will never accept Chaos
• Jachro always trusts in his bonds with others

* Eikran (GADGETEER)

Player: Elandra

A snow-white shaggy-furred wolf of a thing with a love for tinkering and devices

• He revels in innovation and believes every single bit of new idea out there is worth preserving.

Values:

• Eikran never attacks first
• Eikran will never leave anybody behind

* Era (CYBERNETICIST)

Player: Kandra

An elven woman with golden eyes and silver lines and circles on her skin with a somewhat cynical attitude on people and civilizations

Values

• Era never trusts civilization
• Era always values works over lives

* Alectrya (DOCTOR)

Player: BunnyHugger

A doctor of neurology with a strong streak of compassion. Mostly human appearing but with some spots with feathers where her hair would be, particularly on her head which sports iridescent plumage

Values

• Alectrya always protects conscious life
• Alectrya always pays her debts

Scene List

Each scene revolves a question that advances the next thing we learn about the plot or the characters.

Each scene has a narrator who sets the scene, says which characters are in it and what they're doing and picks the question. Anyone can contribute details to the scene, ask a question and draw from the trove, and call Cut! when they think the question has been answered (or at least thoroughly explored).

At the end of each scene, players take turns reflecting on it briefly in the form of saying what they wonder about or describing what their character is feeling. This may seed questions for further scenes.

Players can also spotlight values during reflection, a way to indicate that they think a particular value has good potential for the eventual crisis.

1. WHAT STAR SYSTEM SHALL WE VISIT NEXT? AND WHY?

Narrator: Lepus

Characters: All

Scene: After a long cryo sleep and a brief thaw along with each of your personal, favorite post-fugue beverage, you gather together in the ship's map room, the biggest room in the vessel located at the very top of your hull. It's a cavernous and dark space, a 3D map of surroundng space. You stand suspended in darkness amidst lonely grains of sand sparkling with vast distances between them. Logarithmic in its rendering, you're always in the center, but each step you take zooms in impossible strides, magnifying in on new stars and planets.

Answer:

( Era silently flags another star on the chart -- a gas giant, red and old and dim.  It is a hundred and two light-years distant.  "I'd been communicating with an old colleague who studies history these days," she says with quiet lack of affect.  Her attention isn't all here; vestiges of a strange dream trouble her.  "He'd been trying to locate traces in early records of when and where some developments significant to our modern implementation of cryosleep first appeared.  He says he's found scattered references to this system that intrigue and confuse him." )
The planet flagged by Era's colleague is a gas giant orbiting a red dwarf, one that likely has existed since near the creation of the universe.

Why?

Chosen because of interest for cryo tech (Eikran) Alectrya privately always favors destinations with the possibility of adding to her knowledge of the life sciences. And she has been getting some odd reports of cryosleep disturbance Jachro is eager to help Era in her task, especially since it may help categorize cryosleep technology better.

2. WHICH VALUE CAUSES TROUBLE BEFORE WE LEAVE?

Narrator: Sora

Characters: Era and Alectrya

Scene: Era and Alectrya are in hibernation chamber 2, where their pods wait to be reset for the upcoming journey. As each pod is unique to the occupant and there is a two-person rule when working around the equipment, both must be in the room doing the prep work. As expected, there are contol panels, some valves, chemicals to be checked, fluid lines to be replaced, and fabrics to be prepped. We know we're going to a place potentially with civilization, and there's always that possibility our sensors are wrong, especially with the gas giant. There might be life there. What will these two do if they find an advanced, living civilization that needs help staying afloat? That might be on the tip of their tongues as they work....

Answer: After a polite but slightly awkward conversation between Era and Alectrya (who is still not talking about her dreams). Whether or not people in cryo sleep have experiences... or even count as human people.

Other discoveries:

• Era has spent most of her jumping only between the House's two Home stations and this trip is unusually far for her.

• Lepus asks 'Why might Era's old colleague need help?' and draws: BRILLIANT
  

  • [OOC] Lepus says, "I'm going to interpet that trove word as Era's old colleague having a brilliant mind -- but one that is degrading with each jump through Cryosleep."
    [OOC] Lepus says, "He's trying to hide it and understand it, and she's one of the only people who knows."

• The House of Seeds has been busy as of late. Reports read after coming out of sleep show they've been agressively seeking out worlds that have even the possibility of life and jumpstarting them. Even worse, they are known to find worlds that are not yet fully mature in their civilization and give them knowledge and help to acquire space travel and beyond - utterly changing what was already there in the process.

Reflections:

Sora feels we'll need to be more assertive about our values (house and personal), otherwise our mission is in jeopardy before it starts.
Kandra liked the 'what if we find people long-frozen in cryosleep?' question Sora posted, but didn't get a chance for it to come into actual play.
You say, "My reflection is: ''I wonder if Era's colleague has a reason to highlight this world in particular.'' And I'm going to spotlight the value of 'We will always remain human'."
BunnyHugger says, "My reflection is, 'I wonder if our strange cryosleep dreams have the same cause as the decline of Era's colleague.'"

Spotlighted Values:

• Lepus: The past never lies (because we're going to a very old place)
• Lepus: We will always remain human (because of what the Trove draw said about Era's colleague's condition)