"Recordings are only when things are very bad. No sign of Kalath - she's off the network and I can't ring her. My suspicion is that she's through Racallan's gate somehow." She transmits a request for the Scutters to guide the new guests to places they can rest, eat and freshen up.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:06, Wed 12 Dec 2018.

Smoke Alarm didn't want to loiter around in show-and-tell. 'Let's track back to the talkiphone box afore we get gone too.' she urged Traveller and Vinsen, footing off and playing follow-the-leader back to where they'd parked Sweet Boy and where it seemed Stanley and the others now were.

"I don't know anything!" Vinsen blurts out.  He's looking around in bewilderment at the walls and trappings of the station, plainly miserable.  "I'm a farmer!  One day I'm plowing for the spring planting and, all of a sudden, I'm in a place with trees that aren't trees, a sky that's not a sky, and a lot of people making a lot of talk about being in the same situation -- and not too long after that happens, I try to get back home, I end up here, where the rain isn't even rain, and it's worse.  Please -- if you can just get me home I'll do anything you ask, give you anything that's in my power to give.  I just want all this to be over."

He hugs himself, starting to shiver from the water cooling on him, and hunches up against the corridor wall.

Smoke Alarm couldn't believe it: Vinsen was sitting down like a lazybones when they needed to be footing at all-speed. He was unbrave and unbold, she eyespied sadly, a cowardly cutlet. But that wasn't going to get him anywhere. 'Come on!' she urged him. 'Traveller's talkiphone box can take you any place and any time, all thru space and ticktocks. We can take you home-sweet-home. You just need to get up and foot there and help us find these others, afore you outgo some place else again.' she show-and-telled him, but mayhaps she needed to go a different way with him.

She crouched beside him. 'Outlook, I knowhow what it's like. I got mousetrapped in a Cyberman factory and fire-escaped by jumping into a big blue bubble. When I came out, I was lost-and-found in a big towery city in the far-far-far-far future, and I had no knowhow of you-are-here or where to go. Then caretakers came and I had to fire-escape to another world. But there I met Traveller and others and in a roundabout way she's taking me home-sweet-home.' she show-and-telled him, a wistful remembering in her words. 'I knowhow that, wherever you are, you can't go anywhere by sitting still.'


OOC: Trying to bolster Vinsen's spirits, spending a SP: 19. I wasn't sure of the best attribute; I went with Ingenuity, but if you like Awareness (Smoke recognising a similar situation) then make it 20.
16:02, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 19 using 4d6+4 with rolls of 4,3,3,5. ingenuity(3) + convince(1) + SP.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:38, Fri 14 Dec 2018.

"We could all disappear again. Please, come with us, somewhere safe and warm. I promise I will do everything I can in my power to get you home. Now, come on, up, up!" She gets to one side of him and helps him up, and urges Smoke Alarm to help.

Vinsen draws deep breaths, trying to calm himself, as Smoke and Trav help him up.

He looks at Smoke Alarm.  "I know.  I'm sorry.  Thank you," he says.  "I'll help you with whatever I know.  The trouble is I don't know what out of the things I saw is going to be able to help you."

The pair of them are able to guide Vinsen back to the TARDIS and on inside without further incident.

'You just show-and-tell us everything you eyespied,' Smoke reassured Vinsen, 'Like where you comeout from for a start. Traveller will knowhow what's importent.'

She led them to the talkiphone box and footed inside, loitering around the walls and carrydoors and furniture and outlooking around 'waringly. Sweet Boy was full of visitors now, and Smoke knew the Us would be worrywarted by all the extra feet.

Trav, wet, strides into the TARDIS with their new guest. "Hello my friends. My apologies if this is a little unusual. But I can mostly guarantee that you should be safe in here from random teleportation effects. Please, avail yourselves of coffee, donuts, sandwiches, towels. The scutters will lead you to showers if you want to clean up. I will do everything I can to rescue your comrades from wherever they may be." Immediately she's at the panel, using what data they've gathered so far on the teleportation phenomenon to make sure that Sweet Boy and everyone on board remains safe. "Smoke, Stanley, thank you both for great work so far." She's also starting up the scanning sequence orders to the Orrery, continuing to take and process readings on the anomaly. She suspects that is where Kalath and everyone else went.

"Oh, and this is the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. This is my ship and home. Please, make yourselves at home and relax - you've all been through a lot."

She then sits down Vinsen. After making sure he is comfortable, warm and fed, she softly asks, "Mr Vinsen, it's very important that you try to remember everything that happened to you, from the beginning. Describe it verbally, as best as you can. In the meantime, I'm going to... take a look, so to speak. If you don't mind."

If Vinsen assents, she attempts to telepathically view his memories as he describes what happened to him, touching his temple. She is working to be as gentle as possible with her psychic reading.

OOC: What is the roll for Psychic again? Doing what 10 did with Madame Du Pompadour

After playing outlook for the Us and show-and-telling them to their hide-ins, Smoke Alarm footed back to the console and beamed brightly at Traveller's compliment. She played you-are-here for the visitors. 'This is our brainquarters. That is the demateriali-thingy control, and that over yonder is the horizontal hold, up there is the picture-spout, those are the doors, and that is a chair with a Puddy on it. Sheer poetry!'

Stinking of cleaning fluid, stinging her nose and eyes, the Kang began peeling off wet and sticky clothes and wringing them out on the floor.

Vinsen starts to recapitulate his story as previously related to Kalath and Smoke Alarm.

As he describes his life before his initial abduction, it becomes clear to Trav that he must have been through some sort of temporal displacement.  His prior life was that of a farmer in what seems like a Level Three or Level Four civilization, but one that retained a history of Earth as a semi-historical, semi-legendary place, and as far as Trav or Stanley can determine, he's completely human.  While this doesn't give Trav enough information to conclusively determine his origin, she suspects he might have come from a regressed colony world from sometime between the collapse and subsequent re-establishment of one of the great interstellar Earth Empires.  Even the First Empire is centuries in the future from the current time frame, part of the initial burst of interstellar exploration.

"Welcome to the Moon of Storms, Mr. Vinsen." Stanley says with a friendly smile. "I am sure this whole situation is very confusing, but we're trying to get to the bottom of this and hopefully we'll be able to help you and the people who disappeared from here. You arriving here safely is at least a good sign."

Trav carefully examines Vinsen with her sonic as she works with him. "Mr Vinsen, I'm called the Traveller. This is Smoke Alarm, Dr Stanley Newton, and Kalath. I'll do everything I can to get you home. It seems like you've traveled through time. I'm sure this is all very confusing but you have my promise on that. May I?"

Trav suspects that Raccalan's phenomenon may have something to do with Vinsen being here.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:54, Thu 03 Jan 2019.

Vinsen's skittishness seems to reassert itself at the close proximity of the sonic screwdriver.  "May you what?"  But he suffers Trav's examination.

OOC: Awareness + Science for the scan.

(And Kalath is currently residing in an entirely different thread. :D)

'Trav will scan you with her sonicky screwdriver. Don't worrywart, it only beeps.' Smoke Alarm tried to reassure Vinsen, who seemed a scaredy-cat about everything. She tried to distract him from the screwdriver with another story. 'Show-and-tell about the other place with the other people, the ones from Earth. These ones are their friends.' she said, waving a hand at the three explorers.

She scans him up and down. "There, that wasn't so bad. Let's see."

OOC:
18:52, Today: The Traveller rolled 22 using 2d6+11 ((5,6))

"Well.  The place itself is... hard to explain.  The grass, wasn't like grass.  The trees, weren't like trees.  You could tell what they were supposed to be, but it was as if all the pieces were poor drawings of the real thing, drawn by someone who'd only had them described."  Vinsen shakes his head.  "Except for the people, of course."

At his mention of them, Dr. Makoro's interest is perked up and she closes in Vinsen, asking him for descriptions of the individuals, who seemed to be in charge, and so forth.  As she draws those explanations out of Vinsen, she and the other Hecate Station staff start to be able to confirm their identities, and Murcheson grows more excited.  "We have to figure out how we can get there, and get everyone back!"  He seems almost pathetically eager to retrieve anyone of higher rank and authority.

Trav's examination shows that Vinsen's body has absorbed an unusual count of delta particles, indicating that he's been subjected to highly advanced projection technology.  What's more, she's finding the unmistakable genetic scarring characteristic of translation across a transversal interface.

'Drawings?' Smoke Alarm echoed with amazement. 'Like on a picture-spout? Or in a wallscrawl?' she asked Vinsen, fascinated by the idea. It could be a whole wallscrawl world, filled with all the things you made. What could be more icehot?

"And that is what we shall do. Except you do understand that if I take my vessel in, we may not get out again. Before we make a rescue attempt, you may want me to drop all of you off somewhere safe. I have a good idea idea of where this man was, but I have to confirm it.  I suspect that he was in an artificial world - one perhaps created as a fancy by the Warpsmiths of Phaidon, who had never a real tree or blade of grass. Stanley, please look after this gentleman, and see to it he's examined and fed? I found some evidence of genetic scarring. Thank you, Mister Vinsen."

And off Trav runs to the Transversal Power console. Popping it open, she links its systems directly up to the Orrery sensors. A few whirrs of the sonic later, she's running up to the Orerry. Having gotten readings from Vinsen, she knows where to aim, and what to look for - delta particles, and a transversal interface similar to an osmic projector or a time corridor.

She hops into that seat, and shouts down the stairs - "Mister Vinsen gave me something to aim it. But it will be a wild ride. It's been centuries since I've slide down a dimensional slalom - I've always liked roller coasters, but some of you may not appreciate such a bumpy ride! Dr. Makoro, do you and your group want me to drop you somewhere off safe before we go?"

OOC: Ingenuity+Science to find the interface and plot a course through it?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Fri 04 Jan 2019.

"Will do." Stanley says. "Mister Vinsen, if you would follow me to the infirmary we'll do some tests and then we'll see what we can do about food."

Murcheson, Makoro and Sokolov all look thoughtful at Trav's summation and her offer to drop them off elsewhere.

At last, it's Murcheson who takes a deep breath and speak up.  "I think we had better go with you," he says.  "i'm not understanding half of what you're describing, but if there's anything we can do to help to get Director Alston and everyone else back -- it's my job, I'm responsible for doing whatever I can."  He doesn't look very happy at the prospect, but game nevertheless.

OOC: Trav, go ahead with Science + Ingenuity

Vinsen nods and rises to follow Stanley.

He holds up a hand and turns it over to study it, front and back.  "...Genetic... scarring?"  He stumbles over the word genetic, in a way that makes Stanley think it's one he isn't familiar with.

Worrywarted, Smoke Alarm footed up to Traveller at her puter. She seemed to be unrememorising something. 'What about Kalath?' she protested, 'Can't you lost-and-found her? Mayhaps with the talkiphones?'

"Ah..." Stanley tries to think of a simple way of explaining. "Your cells are little factories that make stuff according to blueprints. You appear to have some damage to these blueprints. This could be relatively harmless, like using a different colour of paint or something more serious like forgetting to put a wheel on a car. The full extent of the damage is something only the tests will show , but don't forget that our bodies have repair mechanisms for the blueprints. You'd be amazed at how complex and efficient they can be. Of course, this is a simplified version, nature is a lot more complex than what I just told you."

Vinsen nods, like he's at least trying to sincerely follow Stanley's explanation, as Stanley leads him off into the TARDIS interior toward the infirmary.

When Stanley has taken a few samples and run them through the specialized analysis equipment, he doesn't find anything to be particularly alarmed about.  There are definite traces of cell damage to be found, but they probably add up to a few percentage points' worth of increased cancer risk, all told.

Vinsen still seems to be dealing with a fair amount of culture shock at this point, but he seems to be getting used to things and at least is growing calmer in a place of relative safety.