onemind: (Default)
THE N E S T ([personal profile] onemind) wrote in [community profile] station722016-03-27 01:37 pm

[MISSION LOG] GET IN THE CAR

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Avera 9
WHEN: Day :156 - 160
SUMMARY: Welcome to the jungle muddy junk pile in space. Avera 9, pt.1
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.






THERE IS AN EXPECTATION that all hosts meet on the flight deck; that much is obvious on waking - something that, strangely, all new hosts seem to have done at the same time. Pack your things, says a gut sensation. It's time to go somewhere different.

ONCE ASSEMBLED, it isn't long before Prince and Cathaway make their own appearances. They have a set of kits with them - one for each young host - and a square that unfolds into a data pad with mission details. Each kit contains some of the materials hosts will find helpful for their assignment, and the equipment is not to be traded away or sold, Prince explains. The rest, Cathaway adds, will be provided once travel is complete. And then it's time to get underway. Today that means piling into a sleek, arrow shaped ship with plenty of space to carry personnel and equipment. There are a number of bikes lashed in the cargo area, places for hosts to stow their things, and enough seating at each side of the carrier's interior for hosts to be comfortable. It's a short trip, Cathaway assures and then makes her way with Prince to the cockpit. Today, they're coming with.

Initial checks. Engines go. The landing circular landing pad under the ship turns, lowering down into the flight deck floor as it goes. The ship comes with it, descending into the cool dark depths of the Station. There's a shudder as it locks into the launch tube, as the channel overhead is sealed; there is no countdown, just a pulsing moment of anticipation-- and then rocketing, teeth rattling momentum and a bright, hot flash of joy as the ship is projected from the Station - as it sears through time and space and a hundred versions of the same universe until it comes to rest here: smacked out into real space hung above a murky brown planet, clearly visible through the massive viewscreen at the front of the ship.

It's a good thing there's not much to look at; Cathaway doesn't waste time before deftly setting a course, slicing down through upper atmosphere with hardly a shudder from the knife point shaped ship. The planet comes up rapidly and a hum passes through the carrier as it lowers - cresting down through dark clouds to be battered by rainfall and the cross cutting of wind. But it flies steady, sure, and in time they streak at ground level across muddy flatlands and massive stone slabs - skim across inert bodies of water in the slow process of expanding from the constant sluggish rainfall.

The ship eventually comes to rest in the middle of what must be a massive valley; it sets down with hardly a shiver, then something clangs loud and the ramp at the rear descends. Cathaway unhooks her harness and rises from the pilot's seat.

"Here we are. Be well and do well; try not to kill anyone." Yourselves included, being the unspoken addendum. "Make sure to return here at the specified time. We can't extend our time table to account for stragglers."

There is a pause before Prince adds, with an edge of silent reluctance, “If you find yourselves in a situation you cannot handle, call and we will come.”

And then you're free to go wherever you like. Welcome to Avera 9.


(click to zoom; blue is water; yellow is lowlands/flood plains/etc; green is higher, drier terrain; brown is for ridges/high ground)





((OOC Notes: You'll notice that this log only covers the first few days of the mission; this is to allow for player character decision making to effect the back half of the mission. That said, feel free to make your own logs and posts on the IC community as you see fit - just be aware that dating past day :160 may get a little wonky depending on how events proceed!

If you have any mission specific questions, direct them to the OOC post here. For exploration and salvage discovery, we've decided to give players a largely free rein for what items can be found. However, if you want specific mod-generated items for your characters to stumble across during their salvaging, feel free to use THIS thread to request that!))




circumspector: (network » you can't wake up)

[personal profile] circumspector 2016-04-23 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ It'd already been there, she'd let some of her connection go when she came in, whatever was at the very furthest of her mind. It's strange, a town this size used to be nothing. Not compared to a whole planet, a whole moon, a whole space station. Her awareness had been limitless, but she'd also been a dead shell.

Still, her eyes shut, murmurs quietly -
] Executing phaseshift.

[ It comes with a shudder, the sphere of light building up in her hand to encompass the datachip, and in reaction, every other bit of accessible technology around her begins to flash. As she floods with the bright light of her abilities, the tv flickers on and then off again in a flash of static noise, the datapad too, like she's hard reset it over again. The alarm clock flashes the time and there begins a clamour. Technology was an alive thing -- or at least it was to her and it responds in kind to the brush of her subconscious. Here there is no shyness, no fumbling, not terrified of her own legs and her own hands, here she strides like she is beginning, middle and end. Lilith's eridium filled laughter, Steele's arrogant commands, Maya's sharp smile. She is all of it and everyone that comes before and after her.

But time splits for her -- aware of both at once. A whole world that opened up around them in a vastness. Of here, sitting across from Aoba matching her breaths to his, but the rest -- is a bombardment that is processed at a hyper speed, roils and rolls like a river in flood. Every program with it's hundred small parts that clamber towards her, giving up its information as a collective that she moves through. Pulls it apart down to its base numbers to find what she was looking for, before she starts to build it again. A devouring awareness that she turns back out, shapes it as she wants and needs it to be.

One thing comes up after another after another after another. And it's an infinity of letting it course through her like a conduit, latching around what she wants and letting the rest flow through. Feels -- like it moves up her arm and down the other, feels like her heart beating something old her chest, feels like having light for blood, as in one triumphant second she finds what she wants and directs it all into the datapad. Crashing into it like waves. Head tilts, frowning slightly with the information.
] No - not that one, but like it and -

[ -- Then one whole external second later she opens her eyes. A kick of a smile in the corner of her mouth, and a lightness to her words, shimmer, ebbing, moving. The sphere in her hand bursts like a light being shot out and with one last crackle of electrified air, all raw and chemical tasting and warm she lets it go. Subsiding to where it rests back inside her own skin. ]

There, all done. It should be translated for you now.
vocalis: by verifalsa on tumblr (026 derp)

[personal profile] vocalis 2016-04-24 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ Aoba stares, hazel eyes wide, as the lights of the small room begin to dim and flicker at her words. Every object with a screen or a wire comes to life. Lights move in time with her breath, pulsing as if they'd been given a heartbeat of their own. There's an electric current in the air, he can feel it tingling in the nerve endings of his hair. It hurts, but not enough to distract him from what he's witnessing.

Whatever it is Angel is doing, it looks like magic.

When it fades again, slowly like the hot metals cooling inside a lightbulb, Aoba's expression is no less shocked. And his hair... his hair is more of a hot mess than usual, standing almost straight up on it's ends. Tiny bits of electric current run sparkle through it. ]


Angel... that was...

[ He reaches for the datapad, freshly freed from the sphere she'd trapped it in. Sure enough, he can read what's there. ]

That was amazing! I still don't understand what it was you did, with the glowing and the lights and... but it's translated, it's all in Japanese now! How did you...?
circumspector: (( laugh ) » and all the people say)

[personal profile] circumspector 2016-04-24 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She's been doing it most of the day, is the real problem she realises when it ends, and she's no longer as she once was -- and it becomes shockingly clear why Lilith consumes eridium like it's candy. The crash is sudden and sharp. There's a thin sheen of sweat on her brow, and too quick breath in like something aches and she becomes quickly aware that she's exhausted as she lets her powers go piece by piece.

And she means to answer his question, because this is so comfortable, settling across from him, as he doesn't shy away from her, he says she's amazing, and it's so earnest, she can feel it wash over her like coming home, it was everything Cathaway said it would be --

but his hair is everywhere and as soon as she sees it, all the words and patient explanation goes out of her and she begins to laugh instead, just a giggle, at first, and then it builds up and up until she's given up on trying to pretend and has just fallen into a fit of laughter. It shakes her all the way through her trembling fingers and sharp little breaths. Sure, this might just be because she's over tired, or well and truly past it but manages finally, as sober as she can:
] Aoba, your hair--, I'm so sorry.

[ -- and then she lost into peels of giggles again, pressing a hand desperately over her mouth like she just can't stop it by herself. She's happy, she's so deliriously happy right now sitting across with him when he looks like one of the mad scientists from the R&D department. ]
vocalis: (030 laugh)

[personal profile] vocalis 2016-04-25 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Wh... what is it?

[ She's laughing. It's warm and giddy over the connection, but Aoba doesn't like being laughed at. At first he scrunches his face up in confusion, reaching up to carefully run his hands through his hair and... oh, that feels weird. More weird than usual. There's a crackle to it as he brushes it back down with his fingers, and an ouch muttered a couple of times as the static crackles lightly through the nerves. Angel may feel it shared through them, an odd sensation of feeling in her own hair, similar to how Aoba can feel his.

He pulls the datapad closer and flips it to power-saving mode so the screen goes black and glossy. That's when he finally gets a look at what she's giggling about, and... he cracks a smile of his own. He doesn't like being laughed at, but... yeah, his hair standing up like that is pretty funny. He'd be mortified if another guy saw him like this, but it's just Angel, and her enjoyment over how silly he looks is contagious. It doesn't take him long to laugh too, rolling back on his half of the couch as he joins her in a fit of it. Their connection makes it that much more infectious, and it's at least a minute before he comes back up, still chuckling as he smooths the staticky strands of blue back down. ]


Hahaha, oh man... o-okay, warn me to put a hat or something on before you do that again.

[ Shaking his head, (still messy, better but fluffier than usual) he picks the datapad back up and flicks the screen back on. Clears his throat to clear away the last of the giggles and starts skimming over the now translated contents of the datacache. ]
circumspector: (xxiii » singing when you're told)

[personal profile] circumspector 2016-04-25 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She eventually quiets herself, the back of her hand pressing against her mouth to hide her smile. Tucked in small against the cradle of the arm of the chair. Tucked in small, not hard, given her size. Not helping, just letting him tame his hair, and somehow, she hasn't felt so light in years.

This is living, this is actually living, this is actually happening. She's eaten a hundred things that are a mess in her mouth, she can smell the sweet of the drink, and her body is aching in a way that isn't the burning she's used to. She feels weak as a price of it, and her head is swimming from laughing so hard and she feels good.
]

Sorry, I don't think I've laughed that hard in years now.

[ She shuffles closer after she calms though, when he begins to read, she hadn't read it exactly as a whole story, she had just processed the words as a matter of translation, rather than what they meant all strung together. ] What does it say?
vocalis: (002 worry)

[personal profile] vocalis 2016-04-26 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Aoba looks up from the pad when she says that. Not in... years? The memories she showed him of her home world threaten to flood back and ruin the moment, memories that aren't his but were shared so clearly they might be. The sense of observing things he shouldn't have to, of watching carnage and listening to screams. No, she probably hasn't laughed very much in years.

He doesn't respond to it, not out loud. But there's a cautious happiness there, that he could make her laugh like that. Even if it was accidental and over something so silly, even if he found it embarrassing. Going back to the task at hand, he holds the datapad balanced on one knee and skims the first few lines. ]


It looks like... e-mails.

[ After clearing his throat one more time, he begins to read outloud. Other than the occasional struggle with names, his voice is calm, even, easy to listen to. Something about it makes the letters he reads out that much more compelling, though it's difficult to say what it is. It might be safe to say it's just something that makes Aoba... Aoba.

About halfway through he stops, and briefly scrolls downwards to see how much is left. This Acgk guy wrote a lot to their partner. While it's not what he was really hoping for, like information on where to salvage good materials, he's becoming strangely invested in Acgk's voyage. ]


Wow... I hope they make it back to Mern. Or made it...
circumspector: (x » maddened by the stars)

[personal profile] circumspector 2016-04-27 02:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ At first she's just content listening, and she does -- it's certainly a life skill she's mastered, at this point. But it feels more like that, as he keeps speaking. Like she couldn't stop listening even if she wanted it, it's unsettling, even as she finds it soothing. Her lips pressing together. Not that what he's saying isn't -- if there was anything she ever stopped to listen to on Pandora, it was moments like these.

It just wasn't the only thing she was paying attention to. There's something, something to how he speaks that paints it all vivid like she couldn't help but want to hear more.

Has to blink, rubbing between her brows quickly to distract herself by the rough texture of her fingers against skin with a sharp inhale. Right, okay, definitely, definitely been stretched herself too far. Even with his misspoken words. Not that she could blame him, what kind of name was Acgk anyway?

Granted she couldn't judge. She came from a planet where people had names like Nine-Toes and Face McShooty.
]

Hrm? [ Focus, Angel, focus. Her eyes soften and she curls her legs up into her. Her arms draping over them in a settled comfortable way. ] I hope they did... I'd hate to think they got stuck out here with no way home... I am sure she misses him.