WEEKEND 0: ORIENTATION

[dropoffs]

WEEKEND 0     47 CREW ACTIVE

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS. WE MIGHT HAVE ANSWERS.

 

TO THE JUNIOR CREW OF THE EUDORA: WELCOME.
YOUR ORIENTATION WEEKEND BEGINS TODAY
YOU'LL MEET WITH SENIOR CREW MEMBERS
TO LEARN THE BASICS OF YOUR TOUR.
PLEASE ENJOY YOUR COMPLIMENTARY PACKAGE.

ATTENTION SENIOR CREW DESIGNATES:
PLEASE PREPARE YOURSELVES TO DEPLOY
STANDARD NEW EMPLOYEE MEASURES ASAP.

With a creaking groan on Saturday morning, the stasis bay door finally opens up, revealing a broad, clean hallway and a lit sign overhead that says WELCOME TO THE CSS EUDORA. Lining the walls, you'll find that there are square lockers to grab your non-sentient belongings that weren't inside of your cold sleep pod (your home item and two changes of clothes from your canon). Along with those, you will find that your belongings have been carefully set inside of a sleek, black courier bag, nestled in among a few welcome gifts waiting for you! Upon opening it up, you'll find the following items to use as you see fit:

🪐 A luxurious eyemask, to block out the haters (and any solar flares)
🪐 A handkerchief, with hand-stitched embroidery.
🪐 A mini radio that plays some old tunes from the 90s and back, it also works as a bluetooth speaker for I.R.I.S.
🪐 A moon lamp, to provide some comforting light
🪐 A simple, but useful, multi-tool, closed when you find it
🪐 A small, refillable medical kit, pre-packed for your potential bumps and bruises (1 minor heal)
🪐 A few packets of freeze-dried fruit, to chase away the immediate munchies
🪐 A mini craft cocktail kit, to drink away your troubles (made into a mocktail kit if you are below 21)

Take your time to familiarize yourself with your new surroundings and freshen up in the communal bathroom that's been made available. You will also find that your living quarters have been neatly arranged along a hallway, just waiting for you to find your name on the door—meet your roommate!

Why, you can even enjoy an informative slideshow presentation that plays in the mess hall on all of the screens! It might not be a very big one, but the world of the CSS Eudora is your oyster for a few hours. There's plenty of time between the auspicious announcement and 1500 hours for you to get to know your fellow junior crewmates.

Welcome to the second part of our introductory weekend, this time featuring some of your new home and a few special surprises. Have a look around your brand new home, and if you have any questions, we will field them in the server.

🚀 Your I.R.I.S. and you! Characters will find that their I.R.I.S. communications device is now up and fully functioning. There are quite a few features for you to explore, including crew member profiles. Why not have a look and see just what kind of information has been compiled about you? And who exactly you're working with. The I.R.I.S. itself also comes witih a handy dandy guide explaining all of its fun features.

🚀 Some things to look out for include two events that will occur today and tomorrow. The first event will begin on (2/24) - 12PM PST | 3PM EST, and the second event will follow on (2/25) - 12PM PST | 3PM EST, so stay tuned for a ping in the server. Even if you are busy today, please feel free to tag in at a later time.

NAVIGATE
LOCATION CHANGES LOCATIONS STATUSES PROFILES REPORTING PRIVATE CONVOS COMMS DOSSIER

Comments

[solesuccess]

[ scien what did you do. it's the fact that he's staticy that has shoma actually looking at him, lifting an eyebrow curiously. also dana what is the state of his arm, is the sleeve still floppy.

but it's fine. he may be horizontal. good night my dude. ]

Roboji. [ he has mentioned it to a few people, and the profiles are public now so he doesn't mind sharing it. ] The first one I made was called Robota.

[egodist]

[what didn't he do! but yea the sleeve is still floppy. uno arm for the science man]

How long ago did you make Robota? Was it meant to serve the same function?

[solesuccess]

[ fair. where the hell is his arm. my god. ]

Um...a few years ago? [ he was babier, it's never explicitly said but he probably started around 10 or so. ] But yeah. I wanted to try and build a robot of my own, and the one-wheeled design seemed like a challenge. Robota needed a control to move and could only lift about 45 pounds, but Roboji's gone beyond that.

[egodist]

[where the fuck did it go weird!!

scien will turn briefly to examine roboji in thought, but then he'll close his eyes after. sneepy. it might seem for a second like the convo's over abruptly but eventually - ]

Did you always like robots?

[solesuccess]

[ horrifying thank you. honestly he would have been completely fine if this man chose to nap while he worked in silence. but he also doesn't seem to mind answering. ]

Maybe not always, but for a while now. I think I got really interested in first grade. My-- [ well. hm. okay no maybe not that much. ] I wanted to learn how things worked, so I started teaching myself.

[egodist]

[nooooo my lore bring it back]

You cut yourself off.

[scien won't like. pry further. but he is going to note it because it was obvious]

Do you have a goal for what you want your creations to accomplish?

[solesuccess]

[ it was a grievous error on his part because usually he just doesn't say anything at all rather than cutting himself off. so. hm. he does not acknowledge this, but he'll probably at least mention what he was starting to say later. ]

I have a few ideas in mind, but I'll need to learn more about engineering to accomplish it. Maybe medical advancements someday, for people who are born with defects or people with seemingly incurable diseases.

[egodist]

[my lore........ but scien will just nod, slightly. sort of. as best as he can without lifting his head.]

You're right in your word choice. There is no such thing as an incurable disease.

[but he'll sigh]

When you've completed your course on engineering and robotics, you can turn your focus to the human anatomy. Specifically looking into the genetic makeup of individuals.

[solesuccess]

[ the lore will come back...but meanwhile, actually, he hears that and considering this man is partially asleep (or trying to be) he may miss the complicated expression that crosses shoma's face with that. of course it makes sense. human anatomy is far more delicate and needs way more study than robotic engineering. genetics are such a fickle thing sometimes, and obviously he'd need to know about them to make a machine that would be able to deal with a human body.

...genetic engineering is something he's heard of, sure, but not something he knows too much about. it doesn't surprise him that this is the leap scien makes, and shoma pauses for a moment to think. ]

Have you studied genetics a lot? [ he remembers what was said about how people die before age 23, but he is curious how much research and in what fields scien's dipped. ]

[egodist]

Yes.

[which is pretty funny in how things align, but]

I was looking through genetic disorders before I arrived. It's not bad, as far as fields of study go. There's plenty of them to go through, seeing what solutions might be... maybe when I finish my current goal, I'll research them next.

[a beat] Or time travel.

[ok random]

[solesuccess]

[ .....hm. ]

I've heard time travel's popular. [ it's a joke, kind of, because he's stuck thinking about the other part for a bit. ]

What sort of solution would you consider viable for something like a genetic disorder?

[egodist]

It's someone else's project that they will inevitably ask me to be a collaborator on.

[there's the fucking arrogance alright fine. but scien will just look to the ceiling at that, contemplative]

You could go in to the microscopic level to alter someone's genetic sequence, though that's obviously risky. I normally tell amateurs to give up since I've already found it fruitless, but that's in relation to our research goals.

[specifically for what scien and his institute are working on, altering genetics isn't the path, he means. but in shoma's case...]

Just know if you embark on that road, you ought to harden your heart.

[solesuccess]

[ there's a curious look about the first part, but...the man's very obviously a genius. so it's unsurprising people would ask for his help.

but the rest...altering a genetic sequence does sound really risky, actually. there's definitely the technology for that, likely, and it's something that could occur at a cellular level but it's not something he's really comfortable putting that much thought into right now. it's a lot to consider. especially because if you alter the sequence, there's no changing it back...right?

how does a person handle that sort of responsibility? hardening your heart and embracing your research, he supposes. ]

I don't know if I'll go that far. [ but this has given him a lot to consider nevertheless, and the way he says it seems to imply he's already thinking things through. ] But with your goals I can see how it might not work. [ if the goal is to, you know, prevent people from dying in mysterious ways. ]

[egodist]

[scien watches shoma for a long moment, pondering that. there's clearly a lot that's running through his head, in terms of observations and assessments, but what he settles on is - ]

No meaningful development can be accomplished without risk. Decide early who and what you're willing to risk.

[since any type of medical advancement will typically require sacrifice on someone's part, somewhere]

[solesuccess]

... [ it's not unsound advice. he's not even sure if it's advice, because it feels more like a fact and that's the way he's treating it. high risk for high reward, right? if you aren't willing to risk things...then do you really want the results that bad?

it's a mindset he thinks about a lot, truthfully, thinking about how it affects people and how it applies in different situations. but he's not really sure he wants to say that either. ]

Understood. [ he wants to ask "what do you think is enough", but he feels like the answer might be "whatever it takes." ] That's still a while from now.

[egodist]

It is. And you have more time than the usual person I interact with. In the end, no one can tell you what conclusions to come to. The only person who lives with all your decisions is yourself.

[but scien has seen so many young scientists walk into the institute full of dreams, but also riddled with limitations. he isn't the type to push people past that, too busy with his own concerns, but he does consider it a bit of a waste sometimes.

still, those are his ideals - and no one else's.]

[solesuccess]

[ he sure does have a lot more time than the people scien usually knows, considering. but this is also true. he can't even refute it with a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed kind of mindset because that's not who shoma is in the first place. for being someone fairly smart and with enough bright ideas he is blatantly aware of consequences for actions and how certain paths can create certain outcomes that might be irreversible.

decisions are never meant to be made lightly, and it's why he often takes time to consider his own pursuits more carefully than other people. ]

That, and the people who have to deal with the results of those decisions. But I get it. Decisions shouldn't be made if they aren't decisions a person can stick with and won't run away from later.

[egodist]

If they choose to trust you with their procedure, that is their agency, not yours. But you're right in the sense that once you take people's lives into your hands, you have a stronger ripple effect.

Though you can't always save everyone, even if it's not a bad thing for your ideals to try.

[what a wonderful thing to say right before a surely non-violent 8-week excursion with this lil crew amirite. but scien speaks from his place of being a savior, first and foremost, but even then he's well-aware of his mad scientist vibes which are not unrelated]

[solesuccess]

Would you say that's also true if they don't know everything that might be involved with the procedure? Like...if you find an answer or a solution that changes everything but it wasn't what was originally agreed to.

[ but this is also correct. ]

...I think it's better to view it that way. Less disappointment if you can't, right? [ you can try your best but if you don't succeed...at least you'll know it was always a possibility. ]

[egodist]

Who they place their trust in is their choice, even if it's a bad judge of character. What the physician would do with the scalpel or other tool in your hand is their choice, if the patient or their advocate cannot give consent to a change in procedure. Not taking into concern legal matters or societal expectations... What do you respect more? Life or someone having a choice in how they live it?

[scien explains it as a thought experiment, as someone who doesn't particularly have a stake in it one way or another. all he can do is prompt shoma to think unless his opinion is actually asked for]

As for less disappointment - yes, it's better to accept the reality that everyone dies. Even if getting yourself involved means you want to take on the responsibility.

[solesuccess]

[ wowee there's a lot to unpack there. it's why he doesn't reply for a very long time, tinkering with roboji in silence and mulling that over. what do you respect more...

...but does it count if...

he's going to shelve that for now and take time to think that over. it's for another time, maybe. ]

Some people prefer to have responsibility so they can at least say they did their best rather than letting someone die and not being able to do anything. I don't know if I can fault them either. [ alas. ] But it also feels like a situation that'll always change depending on circumstance.

[egodist]

Context is relevant for most situations.

In your example, it's different for the type of operation you're performing. Is it open heart surgery or removing a cavity?

[to make it just a little trivial. while it's good to have guiding ideals, who knows about any individual day? scien yawns again]

Is someone asking you to find your answers to these questions? Or is it something you're expecting of yourself?

[solesuccess]

[ yeah that does seem to make a huge difference. but, well. ]

No. [ that wasn't even really a yes or no question, he's just deciding the answer is no in general. it's debatable if it's no to either option, or if it's no he doesn't want to answer. but for now, no. ] I sort of figured you'd have thought about it a little yourself given your research. That's all.

[egodist]

I have.

[he's come to his own answers and conclusions, and also has been rethinking them lately. but he feels like he should clarify now:]

But I'm no role model. I don't mind batting ideas with you, but make sure you come to your own conclusions.

[he figures that shoma knows better to ask the guy whose profile admits he's just a lil evil. but just in case.]

[solesuccess]

[ shoma does in fact know better to ask the guy whose profile admits he's a lil evil, but simultaneously shoma is a researcher and inventor himself so it means gathering all kinds of data as he can.

so. scien says this, and he nods. ]

I've never had a need for a role model anyway. But I appreciate the thought exercise. [ because he's also aware that scien never has to answer in general, so. it still counts. ]