The Sensoriums are decorated like the most well-tended and enthusiastically holiday-oriented suburb Southern California could have created. Jack-O-Lanterns grin out from driveways and porches; smoke machines belch out onto the sidewalk; orange-tinted Christmas lights twinkle from the rooftops. A loop of Halloween-themed music, from the Monster Mash to Thriller, plays over the scene.

Eva knows there aren't many children on Stacy, but that doesn't mean that the ones here shouldn't have the occasional holiday. Just because they lack a calendar doesn't mean they lack a festive spirit. Besides, almost all kids like candy and she was able to purchase plenty at the theme park and in Geartopia.

Each house has some hologram families giving out candies and chocolates, as well as small toys and little origami animals. Every hologram is dressed up in a ridiculous costume of some sort.

She flits from house to house, imagining up little details to add, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit she finds unbearably humorous. After sending out a message on the channels, she waits for guests to arrive.

[OOC: Everybody, go forth and mingle, have fun with the setting, TP some houses, whatever! Please threadjack, start your own threads, and go wild. The Halloweentown mini-plot will be in this post later tonight with those players, but the rest of the post is open for everyone.]

The day had finally arrived for her big event, and Starfire couldn't be happier---or more nervous, actually. She was certainly not an expert on the inner workings of a prom, but it couldn't be too terribly complicated, right? As long as the people could eat, dance, and talk, it should be a reasonable success.

With that in mind, her decorations sprung from her mind into the large dome all around her, transforming a grey Sensorium into a beautiful underwater world, one with clear waters and free from the possibility of a shark attack.
( Diving into a underwater wonderland... )

This time, Kate wasn't practicing her cello. With more going with the Rangers and missions lately, she needed to keep her skills sharp. She also now had additional skills to focus on with the morpher on her wrist. Though she wanted to focus on her physical fighting today. She was dressed in light pink and purple exercise wear as she worked out by the river in the city. Her bow was set down to the side by her while she went through motions and katas with the spear. She spun, twisted, turned, and thrust as she moved, letting her movements become fluid. Instinctive.

Like the very wind she was now in tune with.

Hiccup wasn't exactly sure how to go about all this, but he wanted reports. He wanted things filed. Ideally, he wanted Azula arrested but he had a feeling that wasn't going to happen. His word against hers, after all.

But he wanted a paper trail.

Which was why he and Daja made their way to the Precinct to report what had happened.

"I, uh--I have a complaint. Sort of thing?" he said, when he came in. "To make?"

The crew had retrieved the Tapestry without any real problems, but much of the information that had been revealed to them in the process weighed heavily on their minds.

The war would soon get bigger than any of them could ever imagine.

Still, there was work to be done. Namely, getting the Tapestry to where it needed to go. The whole affair with that was thankfully rather simple. Stacy guided them to bring the ancient device to Sensorium 7. Upon arrival, the room was set to resemble an endless white room. The Tapestry seemed to know exactly where it was needed, as it floated directly to (where the crew assumed was) the center of Sensorium 7.

Suddenly, Stacy spoke up across the ship.

||Attention crew: The device known as the Tapestry has been permanently set up in Sensorium 7. Volunteers are requested to come down and begin researching the device. All crew members are free to enter Sensorium 7 and interact with the Tapestry. Please remember to record all interactions with the Tapestry for research purposes. That is all.||

Have at it, meatship.

[OOC: Check here for setting descriptions and rules for interacting with the Tapestry]

As night fell in the Rom village, the bustling activity began to die down. Even the energetic Rom needed to rest, and so the village soon became quiet and still as the moon rose.

Luminescent alien fungi began to glow once the sun went down, covering the village in a soft, eerie blue glow. It was easy to see why they had to wait till nightfall, now. In the dense forest, it would have been easy to get lost searching for the Tapestry. But the glowing fungi seemed to form a path leading towards edge of the valley the settlement was situated in, likely the way towards the Tapestry.

Loq'hi stood waiting near the outskirts of the town, waiting for the crew to arrive, along with a pair of his men at his side. Cargn stood nearby, having sent out a quick message to the rest of the landing party that it was time to retrieve the Tapestry.

It was time to claim their prize.

The crew had made it to the village where the Tapestry was supposedly hidden, but for now, they had to wait. According to the Rom, the path to where the Tapestry was hidden would only open once night fell.

That left them with a fairly good chunk of time on their hands, as well as a rather large Rom settlement to explore in the meantime.

It was rather hard to believe the expansive village was completely isolated from the outside world, but somehow it still thrived. Many younger Rom could be seen flying to and from the many small buildings built right into the forest. Despite the fairly advanced look of all the technology spread throughout the village, everything appeared to be rather ancient.

Still, there was quite a bit to do to pass the time. The central marketplace of the village was rather active, and the crew could always use more supplies. There were also a number of places to get food and drinks.

Most of all, it would be a good opportunity to learn more about the Tapestry and the Rom--along with their connection with the crew's destiny--by asking around. After all, if they were going through all this trouble for the damn thing, they might as well find out more about it.

It had taken a little time for Stacy to double back, and for the Melting Clock to be brought on board. Now all of them could see just what had caused such a drastic effect - the giant, metre-wide melting clock face. But now the crew had it in their hands, and they could get to the real work - trying to find a way to destroy it.

[[ooc: Threads are up! Also, the ooc post about this can be found here, if you need to ask questions]]

He'd said a lot of things at the Council meeting, of course. A lot of talk and enough action implied that he hoped he'd accomplished something, anything. It wasn't like Overlording, nowhere near as fun or as rewarding, but it had to be done.

She would have appreciated it.

The Overlord stood in the middle of the Hub, staring upwards at the countless tubes and signs up above with an air of bitter expectation. Mana swirled around him chaotically, reflecting the irritation that boiled beneath the exterior badass surface. Even the windless billowing of his cape and hair seemed slightly off -- more frenetic, less composed. And for anyone who could sense his mana power... it had decreased. Noticeably, though not so low as to dethrone him from his status as strongest in the cosmos, of course,

"Damn it, Salome," he said to the tube that lead to the Clothing Room, and thus indirectly to the Pod Caverns. "Where the hell ARE you? You've got no damn excuse for keeping me waiting."

Despite Superman's suddenly odd penchant for sporting mullets, it was time to have a heart-to-heart chat... between the Council and the rest of the crew. If there was some sort of bond between them and the crew that needed to be made, it needed to be done without hiding behind Omnicomms and other decisions.

Thus, the Council was gathered within La Prefecture and everyone was welcome to come in and make their concerns, questions, complaints and what have you known. Care to join us?

(OoC: This is open to everybody and everyone! Also, don't wait for the Council to address you guys! If your characters have concerns, start up a subthread and we'll gladly tag it!)

Merlin was no stranger to being thrown into cells. Uther had thrown him in there on several occasions. Arthur had every now and then too. And on the plus side, this was much nicer than Camelot's cells.

Still, he felt anxious. He didn't understand how there was apparently nothing wrong with his magic, but there was with taking Iniss out of Tom. He didn't know how things worked here. He didn't know what punishments he might get. He didn't even know how long it would take.

He just hoped that Tom was okay.

[[ooc: this is for characters who need to talk to Merlin regarding yeerk stuff. Please PM/IM/email me if you have someone who wants to talk to him]]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

[[OOC: Takes place after this investigation post and the comm post calling for security and science.]]

Wanda and Kazami waited for the members of the Science and Security Department to arrive. It was an out of the way location in the City in a small building. While it's obscure location made it harder for the teams to get to, it at least made it much less likely that any passing crew would stumble upon it.

Wanda was silent as she stood outside, her arms folded over her chest. She was trying very hard not to shoot Kazami a periodic glare. Having to be woken up in the middle of the night to investigate a murder was not conducive to making friends.

Those heading to the sensorium after Commander Rahk's announcement would find themselves inside a rather technologically advanced looking base, a number of armored soldiers bustling about.

Rahk himself was there, standing in front of a command station with a large screen overlooking the waiting battlefield outside, which appeared to be the ruins of some advanced city. By the serious look on his face, he was certainly ready to get this test underway.

[ooc: tagging's open! get going!]

[ooc2: sorry for the confusion, the other sections are open for tagging too.]

It was a long, thoughtful walk to the Shrine. The odd, high-pitched whine of something Wrong had faded just as soon as she'd entered Religion Row, and Miku spent the rest of her time rubbing her ears to remove the tickle. It was hard to explain to other people the exact feelings that came with her ability.

But Cargn... understood. To a point, she supposed (considering, of course, that he didn't have eyes and hers were still very much attached). But even that point was much more than someone who had never experienced that plummet of heart and stomach, the loss of color from the world, or the shrill, lingering whine of getting closer and closer to something that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Miku sighed as she entered the Shrine of the Aquila and started looking for her sensei, and his little, strange helper.

"Viginti-san? Cargn-sensei? I'm here," Miku called, and her voice echoed oddly in the Shrine. No, she was never going to get used to how creepy that was.

||Mission complete,|| Stacy's voice rang out through the ship. ||Obs deck returning.||

The mission was a success, and so the away team returned, and the Obs Deck was back in it's proper place.

But, this time, they came back with a few more visitors.

Among the returning crew members stood three strange aliens. There was the ever-dour Revus Lod, the energetic Ippli, and the stoic Commander Rahk.

The Lensmen commander looked around at his surroundings, his expression rather inscrutable at the moment.

Anyone want to say hi to the new arrivals?

Wanda had recently been released by GLaDOS. It had taken a while to get her bearings again, especially after witnessing Punishment (GLaDOS had been considerate enough to display it on a monitor while she was running mazes). That would need to be dealt with but right now she was more concerned with the welfare of another crew member. One she had hoped would come to his senses on his own without outside interference. Her hopes had been misplaced. Not altogether unexpected, considering his predecessor's great skill in sulking.

Wanda entered the precinct, made her way to the brig, and folded her arms. She, and others, had tried being polite. It was time to take off the gloves.

"Get out."

Who knows why the ship was doing this. Maybe it was some kind of social experiment. Maybe Stacy was feeling festive and somewhere, out there, it was Halloween. Maybe the players just wanted to have Halloween fun. No one would ever know, would they.

In any case, what better place for a Halloween dance than a graveyard? In an area in the center, clear of headstones, there was a dance floor, and there were seats and tables with skeletal frames. Somehow grisly carved torches and jack-o-lanterns of varying sizes and shapes, cast enough eerie light to light up the place, despite the fact it was night. There were places to bob for apples, popcorn balls on strings strung up for people to try to eat for games involving that. The food tables will full of Halloweeny snacks and candy.

Far off, there was a haunted house, decrepit and foreboding. It seemed people could look into it if they dared sent down the dark trail to where it was. [ooc: Haunted house post link forthcoming].

Creepy--but danceable music was playing, from nowhere.

Perhaps most notable was the fact that the moment someone entered the Sensorium, they would find themselves in a costume. Sometimes these costumes would be what the character themselves would choose, but sometimes they'd be dressed as something strange, embarrassing, or just something they wouldn't even recognize. Leaving and coming back wouldn't fix the problem, in most cases. The costumes wouldn't change, and if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd change to something better.

Whatever the case, party hard, Meatship. Somebody's got to teach the Vikings, draconians, aliens, and other sundry people to Thriller dance.

After visiting Nura, Wanda needed to clear her mind. She thought about visiting the Hydroponics but ended up walking along the City. Some of it was still in shambles, but the crew had done a good job at repairing it. Proof that they could accomplish much if they worked together, just like the scientists had done by curing the recent outbreak. The crew was coming together, even during events that threatened to pull them apart.

Wanda paused for a moment and wrapped her cloak around her body before finally turning away and heading back along one of the main roads of the City.

It was one of Ben's worst fears come to life; someone getting hurt in a battle that he had started and failed to finish properly.

Shifting out of the Galvan form and making the call to the doctor, he was pacing restlessly, waiting for Dr. Henderson to arrive.

(ooc: participants of this post can tag in plus Sam's mun.)