3, 2, 1...

[amokus]

FULL NAV ✶ INFO/FAQ ✶ LOCATIONS ✶ PROFILES ✶ IC RULES
PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS ✶ TASKS ✶ CHECK-INS ✶ ???

WAKE UP

The soft, rhythmic whoosh, whoosh of air is what you hear first, perhaps it's a breeze? The cyclical beep beep in the distance doesn't really jive with a lot of nature scenes, though. A moment or two later your vision comes back to you, blurry in the beginning but becoming clearer with each breath you take. All around you is an opaque blue dome, and when you can wrest your limbs to move, the blue retracts and you're met with a staid metal room.

What happened? Where are you? Your memory is fuzzier still, there being no easy way to jog it like your vision. What you can remember is that there was an accident: one minute you were in your home world, and the next you were in this foreign place surrounded by people you've never seen in your life. Not just any people—scientists, who were trying desperately to create matter, to break the laws of physics and chemistry, in order to save their world. Because their world was dying, and they had tried everything else and then some. Their experiment was a failure, but not all is lost—translocation is a valid solution, after all. They could just send all their people to a non-doomed world, and start anew. And they would have, if the machine they used to bring you here hadn't short circuited. Your combined luck isn't terrible, though, somehow, because there exists one more copy of the machine squirreled away in the space colony floating in a distant solar system somewhere, the Plan B of this dying civilization.

That's why you're here, waking up in this pod in a cloud of cold air and colder remembrances to the murmuring of other strangers around you. You don't recognize any of them (vaguely you remember something about keeping the other travelers separate for quarantine purposes), but a soothing, sonorous electronic voice interrupts your thoughts.

GOOD MORNING. WELCOME TO THE WILD DELIVERANCE. THE ONBOARD TEMPERATURE IS 25 DEGREES CENTIGRADE AND THE DAY IS SATURDAY. WE WILL BE ARRIVING AT OUR DESTINATION SHORTLY, SO PLEASE SIT BACK AND RELAX. THE CAPTAIN WELCOMES-

No I fucking don't. Wakey, wakey, you formerly comatose cryptids. We've got a bit of a problem, and no I'm not talkin' about the end of this world, or how you miss your bed and just wanna go home. It's a bit more immediate and simpler than that, ain't that grand?

There's fucking parasitic aliens on this ship and they're not friendly. Just ask our two engineers, Kelvin and Calli—wait you can't, because they're DEAD thanks to our local alien assholes.

Don't worry though, I've got a plan. But hey, if you can solve this on your own go for it—might wanna start with the basic profiles on your new fancy PDA. Maybe you can just ask someone if they're an alien? Hahahahaha.

Talk to ya later!

OOC: Welcome to Convive! All characters wake up in the pod room, completely naked, though their color coded space suit and personal effects are in a storage compartment attached to their pod. Additionally, all characters will naturally understand each other due to a totally innocuous implant!

Also, stand by to meet your friendly neighborhood NPC on Sunday at 1 PM EST. Be there or be square!

Comments

[onemillion]

Magic exists where you're from, then? Interesting...

[He figured as much from the profile but you just throw it out there so casually...]

It certainly sounds quite a bit different from what I'm familiar with.

[redfoliage]

Of course it exists, I... Do you not have such a thing at all?

[onemillion]

No. We don't have anything quite like that; our advancements are entirely technological, with no real magic to speak of.

[redfoliage]

How do you protect yourselves, then? I suppose barriers are more of a technological achievement than magical, but again, such things are intertwined.

[onemillion]

Currently we use grapearls; they're essentially machines designed for combat, based on data we retrieved during our fight with Lordgenome seven years ago.

[Mmmm, this requires a bit more explanation than that.]

Lordgenome's forces wielded gunmen to subdue humanity - they were likewise machines he had created for combat, capable of operating with a skilled pilot. We rose up, stole their gunmen, and fought back. We stand united now, with little threat of war, but we have created the grapearls for protection in case we need it.

[...Though surprisingly, the knockoff gunmen aren't actually as effective as the originals!! Wow, who saw that one coming!!!]

[redfoliage]

Interesting... We don't have machines that we've created specifically for war, but we don't precisely have anyone that we would be at war with. The Empire controls the world, you see; there are a few cities that are independent and run by the guilds, but they know better by now than to try to enforce any solid opposition.

The barriers we have are to prevent monsters from invading the city; they can be quite powerful and they're a strong threat, but hardly sentient enough to declare war with.

[like, something something entelexeia but that was a decade ago and it's not like they're people.]

[onemillion]

Monsters... I see. I imagine they're somewhat like particularly aggressive animals, then? Do they often attack cities, or have they stopped that because of the barriers?

[redfoliage]

They like to try it whenever the barriers fail. The one in Zaphias - our capital - never does, however.

[onemillion]

I can imagine how much chaos it would cause if that were to go down.

You said that you do not have machines for fighting - do you all use magic to fight these monsters?

[redfoliage]

Magic and physical combat both; we do have weapons and all. I'm not much of a combatant, so I use magic almost exclusively.

[onemillion]

I see.

[...]

Is it elemental magic? Creating fireballs and the like?

[...he's not entirely sure what he's supposed to be imagining here, okay leave him alone.]

[redfoliage]

It often is, for most people. Mine is usually based around the creation of shields and barriers, as well as the manipulation of nearby objects. More defensive than offensive, though I've certainly created magically-based devices that can destroy most things that fall within their range.

[So, you know, if we need to make a fucking forest full of wolves explode, you know who to call.]

Of course, I find myself incapable of using my powers here. Which was decidedly more acceptable before this entire business with parasitic aliens was brought up.

[onemillion]

[Ah, okay, so yours is defensive except for the times it really isn't. He's just going to assume that you make magical guns, that sounds good enough.]

That does sound concerning. I haven't spoken to anyone else about magic like this, but if others are capable of it I wonder if they're dealing with the same thing.

[Something that can seal a person's ability to use magic... It sounds like something that could feasibly happen, and this guy still seems super chill about it, so maybe that's a normal thing?? Who knows, he's out of his element here.]

[redfoliage]

[No, he's pretty sure the magical guns come out of the guilds...]

Another thing we ought to discuss with the group, then. Although I understand if people don't want to discuss it, either...

[It's concerning, really.]

[onemillion]

[the less said about yeager the better tbh]

Yes, I can see why some may be hesitant to bring it up. It would be ideal for us to share as much information as we have, but I doubt everyone will be willing to cooperate like that.

[redfoliage]

[He doesn't even know Yeager, just that the guilds sometimes shill some weird things.]

Perhaps they will. It's a matter of how it's posed, I assume. I may not be the best to do it.

[onemillion]

We'll have to see what the Captain has to say first. I believe we'll be able to better see where we stand once we've heard more about our situation and we can begin to decide on how to handle it.

[redfoliage]

Of course.

Even so... I'll do what I can to insist that things work out as favorably as possible. Hopefully it will be enough.

[onemillion]

Yes. I hope so as well. As long as we can work together, we'll be able to figure something out.