so if you see something that looks like mistletoe growing in the corner of your doorway
or elsewhere

DONT LET IT SEE YOU
DONT APPROACH IT especially with company
GET AWAY FROM IT or else set it on fire
carefully on fire
ill be along to take care of it later


thanks



[as part of the aftermath of space christmas, there may be some vicious mistletoe hanging around in certain doorways. some of it bites, and some of it growls, and some of it pursues you until you kiss the person you ran into on your way into the kitchen. classic wizard mistletoe prank gone slightly awry but also it's still funny. mistletoe began concentrated mostly on level 5, but it's spread itself upwards and downwards. and into the SEC offices. and elsewhere. feel free to say that you have been assaulted or do some threads of being assaulted in this post/your inboxes/useful log created for this purpose.]

[audio:]

[L’s voice is the voice he’d use for any public announcement: smooth, measured, calm, not betraying much of the intense irritation and frustration that the network crash has caused him in the previous few weeks.]

Greetings. This is Ryuuzaki, speaking for the Communications Department.

The recent problems with the network were caused by an attack on our systems by a particularly malicious virus. Its effect was to systematically overwrite existing material with random characters. The department itself had no control over this and no effective way to stop it.

When network service returned, it was because a fail-safe rebooted the network software itself, something we’ve never had the authority to do -- or, to be honest, the desire. We are now active on the ship’s original network, and have learned that the system that we’ve always used in the past was actually a subnetwork.

[As far as he’s concerned, every bit of this is a clue about why posts from prior to the arrival of the first wave of passengers are only sporadically available. Was the network previously rebooted in response to an infection with the same virus, or something even worse? That doesn’t explain how they would have ended up on a subnetwork, but it might explain much of the rest of it.]

As some of you may have noticed, nothing posted prior to the network’s return has been accessible since then. One of the functions of the Communications department is to archive network activity, and fortunately, we were able to back up the vast majority of the network as it existed before the emergency shut-down.

I’ll be posting what I can of that archive in a minute. However, please be aware that we don’t have the technical capacity to make this available to you in the format you’re used to, and that any posts from the old system that had been subject to an encryption created by one of us are completely incompatible with the new one.

[A beat of silence.]

Related to that: while we’ve been trying, no one in the department has yet been able to create new encryptions that work on this network, and the built-in privacy function seems to be much stronger and more reliable than it was before. We can’t say that the privacy function will be reliable forever -- very likely, it will be broken in the future, which will compromise the security of anything you’ve done using it -- but it appears that it’s currently dependable. This also does not rule out the possibility that someone we’re not aware of has the ability to break it already.

If you’re able to create an encryption that the network will accept, or if you simply have skills in this area that you’d be willing to put to work, please let us know, and please consider joining the department. [He is now turning on the charm, such as it is, and sounds slightly wittier and less serious than he had earlier in his announcement.] We’re not short-staffed at the moment, but we wouldn’t want to let your talents go to waste.

Those of you who don’t have talents in this area should consider joining another department. Agriculture could certainly use your help, even if it’s only for a few hours a week.

[The lightness in his tone now vanishes.]

On an associated note, if you receive any anonymous messages in your inbox, particularly from someone calling themselves Lina, or attempting to strike up a conversation and fish for information, please let us know. The same goes for any situation in which your communication device otherwise behaves in an unexpected way, and if you can visit the Comms Hub with your communicator while any of these things are still ongoing, so much the better. We’re located near the Bridge.

We’re aware that it’s common to come from a place where this kind of network communication is unusual. If you need help learning how your device works, let us know. We also have several programs which can be added to it, and some people may be able to make music or game files available to you. Those were programmed for your communicators, not the network itself, so it appears that they’re still compatible.

Finally… [a hint of regret enters his voice]... as of the jump several days ago, Clara Oswald has left the ship.

If you have any further problems involving the network, please contact me or Bail Organa.

Thank you. Comms out.

--

[Filtered to Tyke | Private]

If we learn that someone onboard has falsified an anonymous conversation similar to the one I just mentioned on the network, particularly if they do so in the future, can Security consider a suitable punishment? I had to discuss the messages here, but doing it so publicly is likely to encourage pranksters. I'd really prefer that they didn't waste my time.

Likewise, we’re still looking into the matter of the virus. If it turns out that someone is responsible for it, I’d like them to be subject to brig time.

--

[OOC: Please note that even the most talented hackers won’t be able to get into posts marked private for at least three months, and new characters will probably need about that much time to get up to speed with this system after they come in! It will not be a smooth road, either: the new system has many built-in blocks and tricks, and some hacking attempts will even flag SEC.

The link within the post is to an open Comms log. Please have your character drop in if they're interested in being tutored in the ins and outs of smartphones, or if they want to ask a question, or if they want to bug someone who's trying to work.

The batch archive of posts from the old network is here! It covers everything prior to November 1, 2014, or a week before the 37th jump by TQ Reckoning. Notes related to technical aspects are on that post.]

[ The screen flickers for the briefest moment before Gwen appears in the image. Her blonde hair is tied into a ponytail, she's got her labcoat on, and the lights are ... well, clearly on emergency mode.

She is half-worried the message won't go through the way some of the texts on the network haven't been working too well (which was part of the reason she opted for video, besides providing a face to an important message) but it seems to settle itself. And the light is strong enough that the image of her shouldn't be too dark.

In her best professional voice: ]

Hi. My name is Gwen Stacy and I'm part of the Xenobiology and Genetics Department on this ship. On behalf of the department, I just wanted to let everyone know that due to both recent events and previously disappearing laboratory floors, the Xenogen labs are closed until further notice.

If anyone still needs a member of the department for anything, we will be available.

And if anyone has any questions, let us know. Thank you for your understanding.

[ It's short and to the point. And once Gwen finishes, polite smile and all, the screen goes blank. ]



[ ooc: sooo ... just a note that this doesn't actually block anyone from going to the labs if they really want to. ]

Hi Tranquility.

[ Meet Peter Parker, who doesn't often use video, but video seems like a less weird medium in this moment. The effects of his sickness are pretty much gone, and apparently, he's shacked up in Communication despite his designation being blank, department-wise. In the background is Harry Osborn, who appears to be ignoring what's happening, despite that Peter takes a moment to adjust the sit of his video feed to include him. ]

Peter, here. Um. When I first got here, I asked around for music players and stuff, and-- that's not a great barter system, obviously, especially if you can't even reliably charge your devices, so, we -- this guy, me, other people -- would like to bring you Spunes.

As in like tunes, space tunes. Not cutlery.

[ There is a pause, as if he's considering how he could have delivered that better. Behind him, Harry briefly lowers his face into his hands. ]

Yep, um. So, it's an app you can download onto your comms device -- I'll attach a link to the download to this -- and you can listen to music through it. We have caught up to the early 2000s, technologically, so, yay, for that. The, uh, the music actually comes from you. Right now we have one person's iPod treasures uploaded, but we'll need more, probably, no offense Darcy.

[ Harry interjects, without actually looking up-- ] Lewis, I’ve seen your contributions and I’m ashamed of you.

--we are accepting all music, so don't worry about that. Um, so yeah, if you wanna share, contact this guy at zero-32, zero-21, he will be nice. Or. You know. He'll upload your music, anyway. If you need help charging your devices, I've been working with Hank McCoy to make some chargers that'll be compatible with-- this place, generally, but we may need to customise based on what models you have, so let us know.

I think that's it. I'll play us out, how about that.

[ The video feed shifts a little as he fidgets with its controls, and then 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea suddenly all but overpowers the feed. He grins immediately. ]

Oh man, Harry, it's your song.

[ Cue dancing. Not a lot of dancing. Just chair-grooving, definitely lip syncing, but it's enough to provoke reaction in the form of Harry’s slow, deliberate rise from his chair. He turns. He considers his options. Upon conclusion, he kneels on his rolling chair with one knee and uses the other foot to slowly, purposefully and very quietly close the distance, coming up behind Peter like he’s Jaws.

With great sense of solemnity, he catches Peter by the head and shoves his face into his armpit. ]

Make him stop.

[ Peter's grasping hands pause, and resume a kind of hand dance, but then the video ends. ]

[ As promised, there is an attachment that leads to the app tagged onto the post. Feel free to go nuts with it! ]

[Hermione is flushed and scowling. Either she is exceptionally embarrassed or she's sick.]

I can't keep anything down and I'm craving mint leaves. Not even the flavor of mint will do. I have to actually feel the texture and -

[Her hair - which is usually smoothed through the use of spells - is bordering on frizzy.]

I don't even mind if there is dirt on it!

[For someone who keeps her mouth clean - her parents taught her well - that fact is more than a little disturbing.]

I'm keeping myself far from the Oxygen Garden, but should I give into temptation, please don't think too poorly of me.

Anyway [She clears her throat.] I'm wondering if anyone else is having strange cravings? Is that apart of the illness that is going around?

Tranquility. [ Like everyone else, Carolyn doesn't look so great; she's leaning back on the passenger seats of some of the shuttles, looking a bit flushed. ]

If you need something to do while whatever this is goes around [ and god she hopes it's not another plague ], I have some videos.

[ Tapping at her comm takes a few seconds, and then a link pops up for those inclined to click it. ] Especially if you're new.

In general, I'd like to propose that everyone on board pick several people -- something like two to four -- who can take their belongings or look after their plants, animals, children, whatever in the event that something happens to them. It could be disappearing, could be death, could be staying in the gravity couches when everyone else is awake, whatever. Something a little more organized than what we've got, which has ended with animals wandering around the medbay looking confused and shitting on everything.

[ Yes, that part was necessary. ]

Make sure those people agree and know what to do in case something happens.

Besides that, if anyone's looking for something to do, the flight crew is always looking for help. We'll train you, no experience necessary. Just know that most of what we do is repair, so if you're looking for a joyride, you're in the wrong place.

[ Her hand lingers over the comm for a moment before she adds, in a tone of voice that makes it clear she isn't sure whether she should be doing this: ] If anyone from xenobiology is interested, I have some items from before I arrived you could look at.

[ katniss is restless with illness, crabby with it. she wants to do something to get her out of her head, but she's worked herself too much already today, knows she's reaching a point where pushing through will only make her worse, not better. so she rests in bed, and tries to find something to talk about. she's not very good at small talk, often only exchanges a couple of words and then considers the conversation over, but there's one thing she could listen to people talk about forever. ]

Would anyone like to tell me about their favourite foods?

[ voice, because she still finds texting too fiddly. after a pause, she adds an addendum: ]

Be as detailed as you'd like.

[ This missive is from an early-teen with black hair and black shades, as well as a confident bearing and an easy smirk. ]

Hey, guys and gals! Name's Robin, and I work for the Communications department.

Welcome - as per the circumstances - to Tranquility for the new arrivals! For everyone, I know this place is big, confusing, rage-inducing - because most of us would prefer to be back home - and generally not fun. Not to mention scary and sometimes pretty evil.

So, I've been thinking, and - for reasons I can explain, if anyone's curious - this goes for the crowd of sixteen and under.

Y'all interested in a movie night? I can probably temporarily turn one of the holodecks into big-big screen, and I'm sure we can find a movie or three that sound at least a little interesting, from the whole media library.

What do you say?

[ Yeah. Because the sixteen-and-under crowd is not even a little negligible. ]

Oh, and for those of you who come from places that don't have movies, yet, they're sort of moving pictures with sound which tell stories!

So, that's my offer. Robin out.

[Filtered away from Charlotte Daniau and Joseph Davis.]

[L's voice is smoother than he is in person — low, slightly English-accented, calm and articulate and completely assured. He hasn't had much call to make public announcements on the ship in the past, but Nathan has left it in his lap this time, and he's not a stranger to addressing a crowd in this kind of capacity.]


Greetings. This is Ryuuzaki, speaking on behalf of the Communications Department.

The corrupted audio message sent by Charlotte Daniau originated in the Crew Quarters, which are located several levels below the bridge. Natasi has already transmitted the fully restored version of the recording, which matches ours.

Obviously, we would advise caution in entering that area, but we can confirm that it's currently accessible. Those of you who are interested in pursuing this might also check in with Security to see how they intend to handle it.

The other voice in the transmission appears to that of Joe Davis, the only passenger from the nineteenth jump. We don't know his status, but in my opinion -- [at this point, very slight irritation creeps into his voice] -- this recording throws any information we've received from him in the past into question.


[He knew they should have interrogated Joe properly, even as he wonders now if it would have done any good. If Joe was here on an operation, he might have been very hard to break.

In any case, while things don't sound good for The (Putative) Man From Pernambuco, this is all formatted with the express intent of not tipping off either Joe or Charlotte. It's possible that Charlotte could use the reassurance, but L doesn't think it's a risk worth taking.]


[OOC notes: This is the second half of the information needed to launch CharlotteQuest on the 6th. IC-ly, it should be considered to have happened just long enough after Caprica Six/Natasi's post for characters to have started thinking about what to do about what they heard and even for them to have started conversations about it on that earlier post, if you want (even if you haven't yet started them before this post went up, in OOC time). Another idea is for other characters who were working on this and whose players want it noted that they solved it to pipe up and confirm the accuracy of what was posted.

L will talk to anyone who seems to want to talk to him in particular, if that happens, but also feel free to use this post to continue making plans, volunteer, work things out, whatever! He probably won't get involved in those other kinds of conversations past a comment or two, and other Comms people may hop into them, too.]

Does anyone know of a way to contact Smiley?

[ hello again tranquility. three guesses who's back and looking incredibly worse for wear. even in the worst of days with the lack of proper resources during her first time around, she didn't look like this. it's as if someone had slowly been draining life out of her ( and resistance ) — well, that had kind of been the point, but let's not linger on that too much. just try not to mention how dull her hair looks. ]

I knew it was possible to come back. I mean, I saw it happen but— I guess I never thought it would. It wasn't exactly what you'd call top priority.

[ but where one might expect anger or bitterness at thought of being back, she almost sounds a little bit... relieved. if you squint. ]

At least I remember everything. [ she hopes. ] Or maybe we can play a game of twenty questions and work out if there's any gaping holes.

— one last thing. [ the comm's placed down so she can jerk up the frayed bits of a torn sleeve. there's a few bruises here and these ( some old, some from a recent incident in the gardens ), but the tattooed numbers are what she wants attention directed towards. ] This changed from last time. Anyone got a clue how or maybe an answer for why would they even bother?

[ the camera turns on to show gwen holding a sword that is sheathed, the handle basic yet beautifully crafted, well made.] The events as of late have made it clear that we may need to defend ourselves from those we do not know. Enemies outside of our ship and... well, erm, perhaps the monsters that lay within. [ space rats.]

[ she pulls the blade from it's sheath to show her work, smiling softly as she lays it down and addresses the camera once more.]

I would like to offer my services to those who are in need of a sword. My father was a blacksmith and taught me his trade- [ cue a sadder sort of smile.] I can also make smaller blades. I only ask that you use them to defend yourselves and not on one another. We must work together to protect our temporary home. I share a forge with Fili and Kili, who are also master craftsmen.

[ awkward pause.]

Thank you. For your time.

[ the feed opens up on, well, nothing actually, the unfortunate consequence of being on audio. you don't get to see tony's face, but what you do get to hear is something akin to a robot moving around and the sound of machinery being fiddled with. there's a moment where there's also an exhale like tony's getting ready to say something before there's a clang. and a few muttered curses, before tony actually says something. it regrettably not the original thing he planned on starting this with. ]

I wanted you to come along and be helpful, Dum-E, not drop things on my foot. I will take you apart don't think I won't. [ ah, and yes, the feed was on, forgot about that. ]

Not actually how I wanted to start this. Disregard any of that, by the way, I'm fighting with something from home. Anyway. You know for all we have a bunch of hero types, leaders, take charge alpha males and females, you think we could have prevented that. I know, we're all displaced people and what, the pirates thought we were insane because we all shouted and threatened to kill them or hurt them and I don't like people taking my shit as much as the next guy, but did you notice that we're forty years behind, according to them. I don't think any of them were forty, I haven't looked at all the dead bodies of course, I'm not that morbid, but this is something they knew about. We're a ghost story to them. We're a ghost story that shouldn't exist. [ a pause and more noises on his end are heard. ] I don't know about you, but I feel pretty solid. No one was supposed to get down to the brig, and yet, how in the fuck do you think we got to hear dead bodies falling down. I'm not advocating law, because guess what, martial law, also known as what you heard but shouldn't have heard, is the only thing you could pull off. And can you guess who's in charge of what your punishment is, who would be your military tribunal. I'll give you a hint, it's not Kirk, it's not me, not Nathan, not Tyke, it's not any of the captains who came or insert military rank here, etc.

Yeah, for those of you listening at home, that leaves Ward. And Resnik. What I'm saying, if I'm saying anything, and I am and I am hoping you are actually listening, is that we're stuck fending for ourselves here. And unless we get our fucking shit together, we're gonna be like sitting ducks. And I'm not a big fan of being a duck. So, you know, maybe you might want to pull your heads out of your asses and stop acting like this is a vacation and, oh I don't know, maybe make sure the next time someone decides to board us or we stop at a hell port, we're not looking like insane idiots and maybe we might learn something. But, hey, what I know, maybe I'm just making this situation worse. Yeah, something tells me I'm okay.

[ there's a beat and another muffled curse before he continues. ]

Oh yeah, in case any of you are not nursing wounds, funny thing about pirates ripping things off the ship, you kind of need to fix them and/or find the parts they took. Those of you who have any sort of actual ability when it comes repairing mechanical things, could use your assistance or maybe the ship will break during a jump and that means we're dead. So, yeah, get in touch now, I don't care about your grieving at the moment, you can grieve later, trust me.

And no, I'm not bothering with a lock, our pirates, our now dead pirates, got into every lock including mine and every other tech person's. And may have pointed out that Ward and Resnik could see it all. So, I'm not bothering with a lock against those two that won't work, because there's always a backdoor they can see through. 

[ stark encryption 100% to pepper potts ]
You're not gonna kill me in my sleep if I spend way too much time trying to fix all of this right? And not exactly sorry about the PR mess this is going to be right now.

[ axvengers encryption 100% ]
I would go on an adventure to their ship, but I'm stuck doing this. Do a bit of recon and steal some loot. Not that you really need the order, but I might as well say it anyway. Stash it 100, and we'll talk when I get a chance. In person. About all of this.

[He looks unusally grave as he addresses the network.]

Remus Lupin here. I think most of you know me. Er-- if not, well, there's your introduction. I've been on the ship for a number of months, and I've been noticing a few things.

Well, it's just-- we have fantastic organization when it comes to security and the medical bay, but we don't actually have any laws. And while we've been fortunate enough to have a peaceful crew and not need any yet-- any against stealing or, thank god, killing-- well, who knows what the next Jump will bring?

[Right. He takes a deep breath and scratches his nose, thinking for a few seconds before continuing.]

It's not just that I like rules and order-- although, frankly, that's part of the reason. But listen: without any sort of law in place, we have no real authority if and when a crime is committed. If someone kills someone else, what are we going to do? We can't rely on mob rule and what people think should be done-- god, that's how things disintegrate.

[He grimaces.]

What happened to the remaining pirates-- that cannot be allowed. What sort of society are we? We can't simply murder people because they attacked us! Keep them in the brig, yes, and we can discuss what should happen next, if they ought to be brought into the crew eventually under supervision, or kept there for life-- but we can't just slaughter them because we felt vaguely threatened. And if someone does-- as just happened-- then we need to punish them.

So with that in mind-- well, here, look at what I've written up. It's attached, I think I did it right-- and tell me what you think.

[A text document is attached. There's basic laws written out: against killing, stealing, embezzling, and so on and so forth. The punishments consist of being locked in the brig for a number of weeks, with some options for a sort of community service rehabilitation for lesser crimes.]