neocephalos (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
neocephamods) wrote2026-04-16 01:21 pm
neocephamods) wrote2026-04-16 01:21 pm
ARRIVAL
ARRIVAL
It's a hard cut in your memory. Mid sentence, mid breath, mid action, and then a sliced edit without flicker, blur, or blip.
A discontinuity: your eyes were closed, and now they open, and you are not where you were.
Cool light greets you, reflected off surfaces of metal, concrete, soft white. You find yourself laying on some soft furnishing on which you are comfortably posed. If you were injured before this moment, you no longer are. If you were dirty, you are now clean. If you were exhausted, you feel well rested. If you were clothed, you are now naked, but at least the temperature of the air is comfortable against your bare skin.
How you respond is up to you, but sooner or later, you will explore your prison, a series of plain rooms of ascetic greys and whites, hard surfaces broken up by soft furnishings. Light sources are soft and flattering, substitutions for the lack of windows and, indeed doors. Here, you may find others like you too, who have awoken, confused and unsure, but after a few long minutes, you will hear a voice from everywhere and nowhere:
Welcome to Neocephalos. I am sure you have questions.
When your character arrives in Neocephalos, they first wake not in physical space, but in a specialised and contained virtual reality Show Room. Here, they will spend anywhere between three days or two weeks, depending on their own actions and decisions. As implied, they will find themselves in an extremely spartan environment that is nevertheless quite comfortable, and devoid of all belongings (save for medically necessary devices) and clothing.
Besides each other, they will be first greeted by a disembodied and genderless voice which belongs to a simple AI, which introduces itself as Qareen, capable of answering any question they have. This AI will not lie to them, and although it will allow the character to guide the conversation as much as possible, it will be sure to convey the following information: that this character has been brought from another world into this one, that they are currently in a virtual environment and will be released in due course to join the city of Neocephalos, and that they are in no danger.
Characters, through further questioning, are also free to learn that they will be released after a period of behavioural assessment and once one of three corporations lays claim to them. They will learn that they will be given the opportunity to experience and contribute to the pleasures of the city by way of their skills and desires. They will learn that they are unable to go home.
While in the Show Room, characters are free to interact with characters outside of the Show Room via their CORD, aka, the network. The AI will be happy to instruct them in how to access this ability.
BEHAVIOURAL TESTING
What is called 'behavioural testing' would be more accurately described as an introduction of your character to the Neocephalos population. Because, indeed, the Show Room is more like a Big Brother house, open to 24 hour surveillance for anyone who wishes to tune in. Qareen will be happy to tell characters this if it somehow comes up in conversation, but characters from outside the Show Room are permitted to inform them too. Otherwise, this does not at first seem obvious due to an absence of physical cameras or other monitoring devices.
But for the next three days at least, the characters will be given commands, and told that compliance will lead them to more control over their situation. These commands might be something like answering a series of personal questions out loud, posing in provocative ways, or performing sexual acts. More elaborate requests will show off the malleable nature of their environment, manifesting a small fitness space to use, a hot tub to enjoy, or a predicament self-bondage set up to put themselves in. All of these things are informed by audience feedback, so for your reference as a player, imagine what the ravenously curious and indomitably horny audience of Neocephalos would collectively like to see.
In return, the characters will find they have some minimal control over their environment. For instance, they can now manifest simple clothes! They can change the shape of the enrivonment to some degree, such as creating their own separate room, or summoning items like a plate of food. Or a knife! Whatever you like.
After three days, compliance will translate into freedom. For those that stubbornly resist, they will be kept in the Show Room for upwards of two weeks before being forcibly ejected.
Either way, before they leave, they will be informed that a corporation has agreed to take them on as an asset. Congratulations!
JOINING THE CITY
Once free of the Show Room, assets will wake up in small capsule rooms in Cephalon Heights, dressed in simple garments, something like soft sweatpants and a T-shirt and slip-on shoes. They will find they have an implant port installed in the base of their neck, just to the left of their spine, which at the time of waking has a cord jacked into it extending from a port in the wall nearby. They are free to remove plug from jack as easy as any electrical device.
From here, no more handholding, no more Qareen. It's sink or swim. Ask around, learn the ropes, and figure out how to make use of the preliminary fame you've been granted.
Besides the first opening event of the game, there will not be regular arrival logs. Players should feel free to review the above information and RP out what they would like to do, coordinating with other characters on your current arrival cycle or networking with characters outside of the Show Room. Alternatively, you are free to handwave this process entirely and dive right in!
From here, no more handholding, no more Qareen. It's sink or swim. Ask around, learn the ropes, and figure out how to make use of the preliminary fame you've been granted.
Besides the first opening event of the game, there will not be regular arrival logs. Players should feel free to review the above information and RP out what they would like to do, coordinating with other characters on your current arrival cycle or networking with characters outside of the Show Room. Alternatively, you are free to handwave this process entirely and dive right in!