InsaneJournal

The Awakening Event
Welcome to THE AWAKENING, a meta game event featuring the door on the floating island. It is also the event where everyone learns or confirms once and for all that MarinaNova is not what it seems. It's the Matrix.

Well, not exactly the Matrix — don't expect Neo to make an appearance — but everything your character does, touches, tastes, smells, and says is happening in a highly sophisticated virtual reality environment while their bodies are being maintained and monitored in the real MarinaNova facility. This has been strongly hinted at in the coup event in the original Marina setting and the Squall prison event here. Those who've talked to the Engineers during their visits may have gotten subtle implications as well.

When
Day 296. Monday, November 3. The event will start when the mingles go up.

The key and the doors
In a previous event, Haruka found an egg with a key inside, placed there by a rival engineer who was visiting the prison. The various engineering groups have a tendency to be very competitive. This key opens the locked door on the floating island — in fact, it opens all of the locked doors within the prison. Most are less noticeable than the freestanding one, just a simple closet door here or the door on the side of a building there. There's nothing all that suspicious about them and you've passed by them dozens of times.

However, when Haruka uses that key all of them will open (without your assistance) to reveal a flickering blue-tinted glow. You won't be able to see beyond the glow to what's within it.

If someone steps inside it will seem to anyone else around that they have vanished. The doors will only be open for a couple of minutes.

The other side of the door
If your character goes through one of the doors they will find themselves waking up wearing a bodysuit and a collar around the neck which restrains powers and normalizes abilities the same way it is for the first day with new arrivals. They will also be lying down inside a pod which is sustaining and monitoring their body. The pods are not locked and there are no primitive wires or tubes to fuss with, so your characters can free themselves.

See full details here.

There will be at least three mingles for those who go through the door, posted throughout the week. The first will be the awakening, then exploring, and then meeting the engineers in their true forms.

Those who stay behind
Maybe you weren't near a door. Maybe you saw it and didn't think walking into the light was the smartest move. Whatever the case is, you were left behind and several people are missing, but that isn't your only concern. A few minutes after the doors open, they will slam shut and lock again and the prison goes into emergency mode.

Everything will go dark and this far under the sea there is no ambient light. Sirens will blare from the overhead speakers for about 30 minutes and there will be no response at the kiosk throughout the rest of the day. Maintenance bots will stay frozen in place. They won't be tidying up or making lunch for you. Sentinels will still roam, enforcing rules where necessary and will possibly be more aggressive than usual. You really don't want to litter today!

There will be one mingle for this option and you're welcome to use the network, though you won't be able to communicate with anyone who went through the doors. Remember that your video posts will be completely black unless you are illuminating yourself with a flashlight or other light-producing source.

Endgame
Everyone who woke up in their actual bodies will be back in their pods by the end of the day. Whether they choose to return or are compelled to go is up for how it gets played out! Day 297 will find everyone back in their normal, virtual environment. Everyone will keep their memories of the day.


Why doesn't this work exactly like the Coup event?
The original asylum worked on the same premise, but there were differences. It was one of the first attempts at using virtual reality for prisoners, so they weren't sure how successful it would be, and wanted a complete backup setting in case it failed. For this reason it was equipped as a fully functioning prison nearly identical to the one they saw in their minds. That's why people could still wake up in their own rooms, wearing their own clothes. There was actually a secondary, underground space for all the nuts and bolts of how things ran. MarinaNova is much more streamlined because the technology was proven in original Marina. Our alternative facilities are only a fail safe measure — they are not meant to be used except in cases of emergency.

Wondering what the Coup event was? Have a summery of all our past meta plot hints.

Death
Remember that poll you took recently? We are going to transition to a new policy on death so it isn't so permanent. While there won't be any deaths in this event it's likely that the characters will (probably) understand the true nature of the prison and as such, there's no real reason for the wardens to not return people who've died. If you already know that nothing is real, it won't be so shocking to see a friend come back to life... right?

Even in the virtual world death isn't without consequence — being "unplugged" so abruptly messes with the system. More information on non-permanent deaths will be revealed as it becomes relevant. This policy change won't go into effect until an inmate approaches the Wardens with their discoveries. Until then, the rules on death have not changed.

Questions/Potting
Ask them here. Plotting goes on this post!