??? (Any)
Final Part: The Room Beyond
Ferin (Robot, They/Them)
- [As Ferin makes their way with you all through and across the threshold,
- it feels like the most arduous journey in the world
- Both incredibly long and incredibly short
- Once you cross into the room,
- something happens
- ...
- the beautiful bioluminescent growth that has come to characterise Ferin suddenly drops off
- Drifting to the floor in clumps
- Their hands suddenly let go of you all,
- Stiff
- They drop to their knees
- hands spread on the floor]
??? (Any)
You enter the room on the other side of the door. One of you has been here before. The rest of you have not. Like the rest of the ship, it is everything and yet nothing. What do you see?
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
*low ribbit* oh, hi everyone
I was asleep by the door because I was sad,
but it looks like I made it across somehow
It feels nice to see you all again
like I'm together with you in a way I wasn't before
I've never been here before, but let me see what I can see
Emily (Human, She/Her)
- I see a cavern hewn out of clay.
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
Starbear kneels beside Ferin and takes up some of the growing matter, seeing whether she can graft it back onto Ferin's body (and seeing whether that helps at all).
Pockets (Cephalopod. It/s)
Pockets rushes back, trying to scramble its bits together with its tentacles,
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
I see a shallow, clear pool of water softly glimmering
It quietly teems with iridescent life
some of the mossy stuff that was on Ferin's body seems to have landed at its edge and started a slow, small, colourful transformation
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
"Ferin, do you need help? Would it help if I try to grow your plants back onto you? I think maybe I could".
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
[Sidles up to Mad Curator]
"what's going on?
is this happy or sad?"
Mad Curator
eh, little mate...this is sober.
Lucille (Human, ix/ixs)
- I see a long and wide beach on either side of me, it is night time and I can hear the sound of the waves
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
"ah okay,
I'll save the hospitality for some other time
not that I know where any of the ingredients are in here"
??? (Any)
[Pockets' movement and your sudden appearances seems to activate something within the room. You hear a voice drifting around you but you see no source of the voice. It begins very staticky at first, juddering, but begins to strengthen as time goes on]
“I sense a familiar presence and many unknowns. One who is fallen but will be regenerated through their ties to its kin.”
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
"are we its kin?
I feel close to everyone in here,
although I don't understand why or how
Starbear, does that sound better to you?
I don't know how much I'm supposed to trust unknown voices"
??? (Any)
How do you all feel about this statement and the emergence of an unknown voice?
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
I'm a bit unsure of it,
but I was unsure of everyone else at one point or other
maybe it's okay
I would like to know who's talking to me, but I'm also a bit shy.
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
It seems that Ferin isn't responding to Starbear's questions. She is still very worriedly trying to graft the plants that Pockets has collected back onto their body.
To Harmanicus: "We can choose to be kin and we should if that will heal Ferin, I don't know if we can trust this voice but I also don't know what else there is to do".
Emily (Human, She/Her)
- I feel comfortable in this eclectic group. The voice is welcome.
Mad Curator
[for there are many voices constantly conversing in MC’s head, he doesn’t seem to notice the strange voice. Stares around with curiosity, whistles a tune.]
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
"Thanks Starbear, I agree
I love choices,
and this one feels like a good one to be able to make"
[to the voice:]
"I don't remember how I got across to this place,
but I feel like we're here together, feeling our way through the new
I will be kin to any who are willing
and I'll make sure everyone's fed, too"
??? (Any)
Having resided in this room for all of time, some of time, none of time, with its familiar friend Pockets, the voice feels that Pockets will agree with these sentiments but wonders how the silent one in your party feels about this proposition.
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
"Voice, do you have a name?"
??? (Any)
“Whatever name you wish to give me. I know nothing of myself. If I have a self, I do not know it”
As the majority of the group has agreed to this proposition of kin, it sets something in motion...Before you, something begins to spread out from Ferin's dormant body and from the colourful pool. It snakes out towards each of you. It might look like this:
Or maybe like this:
It may look different to all of you, but however it looks it begins to climb up your bodies, rooting you to the floor and each other
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
Starbear does not know whether her plans are working but she remains determined to try "Emily, remember when we spoke about the ferns, maybe we can use that now to help Ferin, would you come and help me grow these back into them? Anyone else is welcome too of course.”
Emily (Human, She/Her)
- I start to rake my hands – then claw – into the clay of the cavern walls. Forgetting myself, I turn back and see Lucille staring out across the great expanse, Harmanicus fooling around, others standing over the body of Ferin now turned to plants.
Pockets (Cephalopod. It/s)
[Pockets has curled into a rigid little ball, and is trusting people to move and roll it around when necessary]
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
Starbear is very pleased that her growing efforts have worked so well.
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
“a name is a big decision!
whoever gave me my name wasn't thinking much about frogs at the time
but I think maybe we'll find out together,
here and there,
in this space after the door”
Emily (Human, She/Her)
- I move to Starbear (my old horticultural mentor) and help her in whatever way she needs. (Though I don't feel Ferin's transmutation as a loss or even a surprise – just a collision).
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
Harmanicus gently gathers up Pockets and carefully places it next to the pool
with his tongue, as his legs are rooted.
Lucille (Human, ix/ixs)
- I will also attempt to help starbear
??? (Any)
The beautiful growth continues to climb, enveloping you in colours and textures and sounds, transferring these between each of you and revitilising Ferin. You journey, live and survive as kin.
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
"We can all help from where we are I think, I think Emily is right to think that this is a transformation not(and) a loss, although I did not see that before".
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
Harmanicus continues to keep a beady frog eye on Pockets's form
??? (Any)
The unnamed voice continues to drift around you as the colorful networks begin to fade back into the floor.
“I do not yet know anything, but what I do know is that this room has been changed by your presence, I have been changed by your presence, you have each been changed. This room is kin as you are kin to each other, maybe even kin to me, and now this room can become whatever you wish it to be throughout the course of your journey.”
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
"Pockets your egg sac is safe. it holds me as I hold it. Thank you for growing alongside me everyone".
Pockets (Cephalopod. It/s)
Pockets's body phases through different kinds of reflective and textural camouflage,
[Its body glows and shivers happily hearing Starbear's news,]
Starbear (Robot, She/Her)
Starbear takes a clipping from the growth and places it in what she now fondly thinks of as one of her pockets. The room will now grow inside her body as well as around her.
Mad Curator
[observes the transformation silently, doesn’t feel any fear or excitement, doesn’t fight it or encourage it...just accepts and contemplates]
Emily (Human, She/Her)
- [smiles wistfully. feels excited about new companions]
Ferin (Robot, They/Them)
- Ferin feels a great sense of companionship
- and something that maybe humans would describe as hope
- ...
- in this new family,
- home,
- kinship
- network
Lucille (Human, ix/ixs)
- I am just happy to feel involved in some way.
Harmanicus (Frog, He/Him)
"the activities of a machine are determined by its structure,
but the relation is reversed in organisms —
organic structure is determined by its processes"
??? (Any)
“From the ground, we stand; From our ships, we live; By the stars, we hope".
--END OF SESSION 1--