Quiet Year at the Bottom of the Sea

Tonight we played Quiet Year by Avery Alder where we explore the life of the community at Research Station 59 at the bottom of the sea after a nuclear apocalypse ends civilization on the surface. Early after the apocalypse, a typhoon destroys one of the station’s two water intake engines, so engineer W begins and completes repairs in a few weeks. Drs. Sanders and Xu continue, even after the apocalypse, to fight between themselves over their competing theories regarding the purpose of whale song. Research intern Varick spots the elusive sea butterflies migrating, and takes that as a good sign, but then Dr. Sparks confesses that his early sonar research was responsible for the mass death of whale populations years ago. We successfully harvest the algae nodules that grow nearby and bring them inside, but will putting them in our greenhouse contaminate the indoor plants? We discover an unexploded nuclear missile loose on the sea floor, so disarm it and dump it into the nearby sea trench to keep it from drifting too close to the station. Despite all the turmoil, we stick to our morning ritual of sharing coffee and pastries (as long as they last) to keep the group together.

Triplets are born on the station to Quinn, wife of research scientist Donatella. An audit of Dr. Sparks sonar data shows that, whatever he may have done in the past, his current work is reliable science. Whale pods are spotted south of the station and the most beautiful thing nearby is the bioluminescent valley filled with multicolored fish. The sudden encroaching of the algae fields spark panic and conspiracy as people worry that it could overtake and disable the station. Furthering the panic, Dr. Xu disappears when returning from a mission outside the dome to study the whale movements. Not long after that, three survivors from an underwater luxury condo project arrive at the station in a caviar submarine. We discover that a stone with the astrological sign for pisces on it provides people with the ability to see from another’s point-of-view, and Dr. Sparks leaves the community to live in the luxury condos alone. By rotating the station, we’re able to change the light dynamics and halt the advance of the algae, quieting the mass sense of panic.

After working many weeks, construction of a parabolic mirror to gather and redirect sunlight from the surface down to the station is completed, bringing us much needed light for growing plants and for mental and physical health. Our efforts to fish using the algae as bait are successful and a crew of full-time fishers is established. Dr. Sander’s whale study reveals that the sea trench is actually a whale graveyard, and after much discussion, the community eventually begins a project to dismantle the missile and remove it piecemeal until the whale’s sacred land is clear of contamination. Before that project gets underway, Dr. Sparks dies trying to remove the missile on his own. Just as rumors begin to swirl suspecting Sanders of causing Xu’s death, Dr. Xu reappears, having gotten lost in the algae fields while carrying out new studies on the plants.

The triplets begin to cry constantly causing serious consternation in the community until the observation deck is transformed into a nursery where the babies can get more light and see the beauties of the sea. Water temperature readings reveal a new deep sea vent opening, and after Dr. Xu’s studies reveal additional uses for algae when subjected to heat, we move algae containers near the vents. A refugee from the condo settlement arrives begging to join the community and brings a cache of paper as a bribe to be let inside. Then the sea butterflies return, we complete the dismantling of the rocket, and we organize a community event to celebrate our survival for almost a year. The arrival of the Frost Shepherds signals the end of the game.

Aliens and Science on the Selene

This week we played The Final Voyage of The Selene by James Mullen. We learn how each of our characters originally boarded the Selene: A suspicious figure hands Courier Kerenski a briefcase as he hurries towards the passenger boarding line for the Selene… where his briefcase is immediately confiscated by security. Dr. Tsien, ten years after escaping the virus-ridden Station Rona and signing up to be a ship’s doctor, is assigned to the Selene. Artiste Bahk has been here for years, attempting to improve ship-board morale with his comedy routine. Professor Ursel Carris watches the Earth stock market crash, taking her research funding with it, and moves all her lab equipment onto the Selene as a last resort to continue her work.

In Act One, our characters settle in and get to know each other. Everyone meets up at the holo-pub to enjoy a synth-ale, but Bahk’s best efforts are unable to cheer up a gloomy Professor Carris. Later, Dr. Tsien flags down Kerenski to ask what exactly it is a Courier does, and gets some euphemistic answers. Bahk joins Kerenski for a game of racquetball, where the courier grills him on the ship’s security protocols. At the swimming pool, Professor Carris and Dr. Tsien discuss the struggles of a career in science.

In Act Two, some suspicious things start happening. Dr. Tsien catches Kerenski trying to break into the secure storage area at night, looking for his briefcase, and promises to try and get it released for him. On the observation deck, while viewing an interstellar anomaly, Professor Carris is concerned with eye protection, but Dr. Tsien begins acting very strange. Professor Carris has a private conversation with Bahk, where she urges him not to waste his life as one of the last of his species, and offers him some dangerous dust to use in self defense. This feeds Bahk’s suspicion that he’s being watched, and he asks Kerenski for advice about protecting himself by non-lethal means.

In Act Three, everything comes to a head. Professor Carris confronts Dr. Tsien in medbay and accuses him of exploiting Bahk’s species for medical experiments. The doctor accuses her of raving wildly, and has her confined to a quarantine cell before paging Kerenski to report to the medbay. When Kerenski arrives, Dr. Tsien says he can have his briefcase, and in exchange the doctor wants to hand off something he’s been carrying for too long. It turns out he’s referring to the alien symbiote living in his body, which transfers into Kerenski before he can object. Bahk, passing by in the hall, sees Kerenski leaving medbay with Dr. Tsien’s lifeless corpse behind him. Panicking, Bahk steals the doctor’s keys and tries to take off from the shuttle bay, even though the Selene is still in interstitial space. Meanwhile, Kerenski tries to deliver the contents of the briefcase to Professor Carris, but opening the briefcase in the quarantine area causes some kind of explosive reaction that leads to the Selene’s destruction.

In the epilogue, we see Artiste Bahk, alone in Dr. Tsien’s shuttlecraft, emerge from interstitial space into an unexplored part of the galaxy. Courier Kerenski, walking into a meeting on Earth, tells his contact he’s got something new to deliver.

Lasers & Feelings & Smoke Brandy

This week we played Lasers & Feelings by John Harper as the erstwhile crew of the interstellar scout ship Raptor while our Captain is incapacitated in the ship’s medpod. Our crew includes Frostbyte, an android scientist who simply wants to know how things work; Ensign Chrissy Lewis, a hot-shot pilot whose mostly wants to keep flying awesome; Ambassador Sparrow, a savvy envoy out to learn about alien cultures; Sabik, an alien engineer more concerned with getting footage of xirself fixing things for xir social media channels than solving problems; and Mimosa Stardust, an intrepid explorer out to find (and punch in the face) new worlds.

Drawing of an alien with purple hair, the handwitten name Sabik and social media platforms to follow.

Our story begins with Sparrow sharing drinks with Mimosa in the ship’s lounge and discussing the upcoming treaty negotiation at their destination, Zaxtor, until Mimosa passes out on the table. Elsewhere, Sabik convinces Frostbyte to allow xir to dissect the android’s arm on a livestream. Later on the bridge, Chrissy asks Sabik about the strange behavior of Lt. Hastings when the Captain was placed in the medpod after succumbing to a strange psychic entity. Sabik decides to film Hastings to investigate. In engineering, Frostbyte asks Sabik and Sparrow about the fabled Star Dreadnought in the Lambda quadrant and learns about the sensitivity of the Quarg Empire on the subject, how travel near it is forbidden, and the wild rumors that it can affect the fabric of spacetime. Despite Sparrow’s many warnings, Frostbyte remains curious and Sabik is convinced that a trip to the Dreadnought would go viral. Mimosa, having overheard the conversation about the Star Dreadnought, convinces Chrissy to take a shortcut through Hive space to get to Zaxtor quicker in light of the happenings on the ship.

But the Raptor doesn’t make it through Hive space undetected and, in fact, is attacked by Hive ships, who, according to messages intercepted by Sabik, believe our ship is overrun by brain worms. Making the connection to the entity that incapacitated the Captain, Mimosa and Frostbite go to the medbay to investigate, and Chrissy keeps the ship and everyone safe with remarkable evasive maneuvers. In the medbay, Mimosa detects a strong, unfamiliar scent while Frostbyte sees Hastings acting strangely on the security footage but also confirms the footage has been tampered with and is missing key moments. When the ship refuses to slow and drop into orbit around Zaxtor, Chrissy realizes the ship is now controlled from the auxiliary bridge near engineering, and the group decides to rush auxiliary control. Mimosa’s attempt to shoot the door open fails and unleashes a charge of ionized smoke throughout the corridor. Sabik modifies her blaster to get us into control where we find Hastings in a trance-like state at the controls. We pull him away to discover the control interface destroyed with the ship locked into a collision course with the fabled location of the Star Dreadnought. Sabik backs up Frostbyte as best he can and hooks his systems up to the controls directly.

After wresting back control of the ship and restoring bridge functions, Frostbyte uses the Raptor’s superior sensors, once Mimosa has space-walked out to adjust the sensor array, to scan the ship’s interior for the brain worm infestation the Hive warned about. The worms, almost microscopic in size, are everywhere, including in us, but their concentration is lightest in the smoke-filled corridor where Mimosa had blasted us into auxiliary control. Surmising that smoke killed them as it would any brain cells, parasitic or otherwise, we realize we need to kill some brain cells of our own and fill the ship with smoke. Frostbyte uses his complete control of the ships ventilation systems to create a reverse pressure system to get to the holding bay before succumbing to the worms. In the cargo hold, Sparrow has secured an entire case of Arcturian smoke brandy, which we consume in great quantities until our brains are sloshed but clear of the brain worm infestation.

Follow us into Stardom

Tonight online we played Follow by Ben Robbins using the Show quest. We were a group of boarding house tenants that were putting on a show as a fundraiser to save their home. Our fellowship consists of Clarence, the washed-up former star; Imogene, a delusional wanna-be star; Victor, the insecure costumer; Leena, the amateur make-up artist; and Mark, the pretentious author of the play. While full of spirit and enthusiasm to put this play together, the odds are stacked against the fellowship as they have a very limited budget and no one has real experience putting a play together.

Our story opens with Imogene approaching Mark, as she is rehearsing her lines and has trouble following the plot of the play. Mark insists that the issue is her as she has not immersed herself into the story and that is why she fails to see the link between frogs, light, demonic comas and exorcism that the play revolves around.

Meanwhile, young Victor is sent to speak to Lady Winthrope, a renowned patron of the arts, to procure some funding for the set and for the costumes of the play. Lady Winthrope wants to know more about this production to see if she is interested in sponsoring this endeavor, however Victor, who is very shy and insecure, struggles at explaining what the play is about. Luckily, he does manage to convince her that the play is a very avant-garde performance worth looking into.

Back at the boardinghouse, which happens to be a dilapidated Victorian mansion, Mark and Mickey, the stage hand, are in the living room, trying to figure out how to create a set. Mark is obsessed with having a water element in the middle of the living room, I mean, the stage. He wants something grandiose, reminiscing of the fountains at Lady Winthrope’s garden. Mickey manages to procure a tub and places it as directed, even though he is worried about getting the living room carpet wet and moldy. Mickey also gives some good plot ideas to Mark to give more direction to the play, but Mark dismisses his ideas.

The next day, Clarence, Leena and Mark are going over the lines once more. Clarence is disappointed by the lack of action his character sees during the 4th act. Mark reminds him that that is normal as his character is dead during that whole act and does not resuscitate until the 5th and final act. During the 4th act, he is supposed to only be off screen and howl from the grave at the end of each scene. Leena, who is filling up for Monica, suggests changing Clarence’s make-up during that act so he can be on stage… and she also does a great job at reading the lines, as she understands the game of light and darkness that the script calls for.

The next week, the troupe has to put together a rehearsal for Lady Winthrope as she comes to see the play. She is surprised by the very ‘creative’ decor that has been used to create the stage using drapes, mats and curtains based on what was available at the boarding-house.

Clarence and Imogene start the play with a very fiery scene where Imogene’s character demands more and more light… and Marilla who is backstage, obliges and brings her an ever increasing amount of candles. Clarence starts a monologue centered on darkness. But this is Imogene’s time to shine and she bursts back into the scene walking on a tightrope while holding candles on each hand and on her headband. The scene ends with Imogene falling into the tub, preventing any fire from spreading further.

The play continues with Leena and Clarence doing the awakening from the demonic comma scene. Clarence’s character is using light to awaken Leena’s character. Light, sparks, embers, ILLUMINATION! She awakes! But the darkness has been too much and is no longer herself. The darkness has consumed her soul and can no longer bear the sight of the light. Darkness, shadows, obscurity befall the stage. It turns out that Leena starts improvising her lines instead of reciting Mark’s verbose ones making it more enjoyable and fluid.

In the end Lady Winthrope is not impressed by the show and leaves the mansion as soon as she can as she feels like she wasted part of her life watching this absurdist performance and got her fine silk robes ruined by the splashes from the tub. Mark feels betrayed and leaves the boarding-house, as word got out that the better part of the play was the portion improvised by Leena.

The boarding house closes soon after as its financial situation became untenable and the show without the backing of Lady Winthrope was unable to raise many funds. The fellowship disbands but the members move on. Leena finds herself drawn into proper theater and becomes an acclaimed mainstream theater actress. Victor finds a friendly soul with Marilla, the daughter of the boarding house owner. Imogene joins a traveling circus where she can further develop her acrobatic (and play with fire in a safer environment). Clarence embraces slapstick comedy and creates a public improv troupe. Mark continues working on his masterpiece and is constantly approaching local theaters and troupes to perform his piece.

Jump the Martian Shark

Tonight, we played a session of Jump the Shark by Matt Jones and created a terrible comedic sci-fi television show called The Lost Horizon about a restaurant in a mall on Mars. One main character is Xinta, a young Martian native fresh out of high school, who started the series as a naive, lost waif but who ended the first two seasons having found a purpose: making her love for Zoltan known. Zoltan is a hot young African-American human in his early twenties who just needed a summer job but came to love this restaurant and restaurant work because it brings him in contact with so many people. The fans love these two because who better to ship than star-crossed, cross-species lovers, especially when Zoltan remains so oblivious to it all. Our last main character is Sheila, a shy cashier in her late twenties, still living at home with her parents who forced her out of the house in search of work but who ends the second season as the store’s assistant manager. She is all grrrl power and the fans eat it up.

After season 2, however, the writers are all out of ideas and have turned to the roulette wheel of plot tropes to keep their renewed show going. In season 3, they throw a beach party on a planet with no water and have Zoltan crash it through virtual reality as his game leads his avatar into the party, where Xinta sits crushed that the real Zoltan never showed. The next episode has them all at work, hungover from the beach party and struggling to make it through the day, which leads to the live martian “lobsters” delivered to the restaurant running loose through the restaurant. Zoltan, in the doghouse with Xinta and Sheila, saves the day by luring the lobsters back into their box with cheetos. Later in the season, they switch from comedy to horror in a Halloween special when first customers, then Sheila, disappear. It’s up to Xinta to arm herself with a water gun to drive off the monster lobsters infesting the restaurant.

In season 4, we start with a magician entering the restaurant and wowing us with his magic that we can never figure out. Nothing appears on the security tapes to show how he does his tricks, but when we finally get him out and think we’ve got it all figured out, the lights turn out on their own. In a later episode, Xinta is waiting tables at two restaurants simultaneously, trying to impress another restaurateur, while Zoltan shops in the mall and watches her rushing back and forth. She keeps getting the orders mixed up and the new restaurant sends her packing, but Sheila has been covering for her and everything’s still great at the Lost Horizon. Near season’s end, we have a musical episode where each of us sings about our feelings. Xinta sings while opening the restaurant in the morning about her love for Zoltan. During the shift, Sheila sings about how she’s finally going to ask for the raise she deserves for running the store, but when she opens the door to the office at the end of the number, she says nothing and steps outside again. Zoltan’s song comes when he’s closing the restaurant and thinking about his day and how much he loves the restaurant.

In season 5, the crew gets locked inside the walk-in freezer so Sheila has to crawl out through the cooling system piping to engineer their escape. In another episode, they are on a road trip to Herby, the restaurant owner’s wedding, but they get lost when the car’s AI gets too sad to talk anymore and stops providing directions. Then a dust storm knocks out the car’s solar power, and when the storm clears, they learn that Herby has called off the wedding. Later in the season, Sheila goes to jail when she calls the police to remove long-time customer and major annoyance Cosmo but they get the names reversed on the paperwork and try to remove her from the story. Eventually, Zoltan and Xinta convince Cosmo to straighten it out with the police, but must promise to give him a job at the restaurant before he’ll agree to help.

In the final episode, once the show is finally cancelled, Xinta finally tells Zoltan of her love for him and he agrees to go on a date. Meanwhile, Sheila has finally been offered a chance to run her own restaurant by Horizon’s great rival and decides to take it. When the series ends, she closes The Lost Horizon one last time and turns the lights out as she leaves, saying goodbye. Will there be a Zoltan & Xinta spin-off?