station72 | WAYPOINT SHRIL, PT.2

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WAYPOINT SHRIL, PT.2

CHARACTERS: All (New Hosts may tag anything from their arrival date on Waypoint Shril forward.)
WHERE: WAYPOINT SHRIL
WHEN: Day :033 - :038
SUMMARY: Come one, come all, to the most amazing show you will ever see! Catch-all for the all ABA! Events, excluding the Demolition Man Derby and Awards Ceremony on day :039.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

I hope you’re all absolutely zazzled and ready to kick things off with a bang! As always, I’m Jaymez St. Jaymez St. Jaymez and I’ll be laying it all down for you as we head into this exciting and definitely deadly five day extravaganza! I’m positively passionate about bringing you all the hottest goss straight from the barrangar’s mouth, breaking down all the most important events that happen on Waypoint Shril for this entire Aurora Blue Arena!! I hope you’re ready, but we all know you’re not! Let’s get it going then!

     ABA! DAY I. THE OPENING CEREMONIES
You’ll forgive me if I scream, won’t you? Have you ever seen anything so zane in your entire life? I know you haven’t, but don’t worry, I’m here to help you process.

So we all know what happened at the big opening, right? Talk about flashy, and did our judges look great or what? I heard from a reliable source that Talius spent the whole night about neck deep in Surellian Smoke Brandy, but you almost couldn’t tell, they managed to keep all their feet on the platform at all times. Anyway, everyone in the stands had a chance to enjoy the show - and the announcements, of course! I have to say, for as long as I’ve been doing this, these sound like some of the best challenges we’ve ever seen. And last time around we had the Great Galactic Cookoff!

Of course, we all enjoyed the show. How could we not? It’s the afterparty that everyone was looking forward to though. Did you catch sight of all the competitors up in the front? The camera loves them, but close up or no you couldn’t get half as close as the people here taking part in the action. After the show wrapped up there was an exclusive meet-and-greet. Sorry, did I say exclusive? Just about anyone with a piece of paper that said ‘press’ on it got into the party. They say it’s business, but you know, it’s funny? I saw a lot more drinks in hand than holo-pads and cam-wires. In my own hand, too, if you know what I’m saying.

Of course, not all the competitors stuck around. Plenty of others ended up drifting off to the more- lets say colorful sectors of Waypoint Shril. Police reported a small brawl down by the SOMEWHERE SOMEWHERE SOMEWHERE, no less than five people had to be taken to the nearby medic station and an entire pop-up artisanal sugar glass stand was destroyed. TUH-RAGIC.

     ABA! DAY II. LIP SYNC FOR YOUR LIFE
I know we all saw it, but hold on to your glitter gloss and pull up your grav-control shorts, because just talking about it is enough to give me the vapors. I can hardly believe what I just witnessed. Did anyone expect that raggedy bunch of Team 010 to turn around such a hot performance? I didn't know Calridians knew left from right, much less up from down but the next time I meet one in a bar I might just have to ask for a demonstration. But of course that wasn't all (PLEASE). If you're anyone who knows anyone, I'm sure you'll be hearing all about the big backstage blowup between those two teams - wow I sure do hope everyone recovers in time for tomorrow events - and who could forget when the stage tilted over and that poor sweet doll from Team Sparkle Ribbon went sliding off that terrible drop and got sliced to, well, ribbons by the laser light show (RIP. YOU WERE FABULOUS AND WAY TO SCORE SOME MAJOR POINTS FOR YOUR TEAM ON THE WAY OUT). Of course, nothing stands up to the entire stagebeing lit on fire - unless, of course, we're talking Miss Mystery's absolutely stunning display of, uhhhh… Well, that dress sure was something, wasn't it? ( *∵* )

OMS [tn: oh my sequins]! So, basically it was completely off the runway. What else can you say? I can barely wait to see what the ones who lived through that bring to the stage tomorrow. Still, I mean I know what you’re saying. You’re all 'Jaymez St. Jaymez St. Jaymez we didn’t come to you to hear what we all saw, even if we do love your dazzling and completely fresh take on the whole sitch.' No no, I know, you want to know what you couldn’t see on your holos. Ok so, you know Baranay Bartrold and his partner Aarara Ang? The pair who were disqualified in round three at the last ABA!!? Well, they’re back again, only this time they weren’t here for the competition. Rumor has it they’ve been taking cash and cred in exchange for SarSarSeven. You know, that completely wrong, oh-so-right concoction that’s said to give absolutely anyone an edge like no other? Of course everything’s got a price, and SarSar goes beyond the hefty price tag. They say that if you take too much of it, you’ll go completely off the rack (gag) and end end up, like, totally changed. Which may explain the attacks we’ve seen. Several groups of people have been found in various states of like, not so good, and people have reported seeing hairy, misshapen shapes in the shadows clinging to the buildings and lurking in the ventilation. It’s totally creep-central……. unless that’s your thing. I’m not about to yuck your yums sweet things.

Oh, and there was that tramp Garzield. I’ve been told I have to tell you that he held some tacky little off the books game show in some sketchy back lot just after the competition ended and gave away, like, some paltry thousands of Shen to any old rando that drifted in off the streets. Oh sure, he had like a wheel, some doors, and some bright lights but I think we can all agree that they just washed him out. Ugh. No one should wear that shade of chartreuse.

     ABA! DAY III. WAYPOINT WROBO WRESTLING FEDERATION
Get me a sparkling sizza water, because I’m burning up! You think things can’t get any bigger, any better, any bloodier, and then the competition begins! I’m still trying to process and I’m sure all you at home are too. But don’t you worry your sweet little heads, because I’m here to help you get your heads back on straight or sideways or any which way they’re supposed to go. I think we all knew this event was going to be big. I mean, 400 feet is nothing to sneeze at, but did we know it was going to be this big? I mean, first off, you had the fourth place finishers from last year who got in a hee-yooge blowout over whether their wrestler GARBAN THE FEARSOME was, like, an ex-con or an ex-cop? Everyone knows that’s not what it was really about - ahem- Still, you’d think that the way they were trying to fight themselves would make them an easy team to beat, but the team they were up against had a shrevil of a time figuring out how to fight someone who can’t be predicted at all. Then you had PARADA and GUCICI. Sure, they started out normal enough with a fairly rote ‘you stole the love of my life’ storyline, but the twist ending, where they were re-incarnated lovers? Gorgeous! I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage when their half-nelson turned into a full on full grope-sesh. I’ve never been more glad to be posted under the Aircon. And then there were the two teams that kept trying to out-heel each other. I mean, how many orphanages (yes, actual orphanges) did they each burn down? You’ll have to start making more orphans at this rate! Still, it made for a good show, and they really did know how to work the ropes, which you all know Jaymez appreciates.

Of course that's not all. During the day's matches, I hear there was QUITE the upset on Platform Alfa. Apparently some giant ship decided they didn't want to follow the rules and opted to jump the line to park and crashed straight into the platform (R-U-D-E). I won't bore you with the details (fire, explosions, the tragic death of the occasional bystander probably), but I can happily report that that particular ship won't be crashing into anyone else any time soon. The crew's been arrested, expecting of course the captain. Apparently the dastardly drog managed to escape into the crowd and confusion and make his way onto Waypoint Shril. So keep your eyes peeled for any shady looking Roanotian with a cut temple and a scorched jacket. He's probably trouble. >:(

In more RIDICULOUSLY EXCITING news (I know, I know - 'Jaymez St. Jaymez St. Jaymez, what could be more exciting than everything I've witnessed today?' but hold on and regulate your breathing, because this is going to give you an absolute fit), a little lilran told me today that if you hurry right along you might just catch the Late Night Hour with none other than THE Scrilliax Shann, the winner of the ABA! four years ago. Oh my glord, if she isn't just the definition of glamorous and everyone knows her parties are the pinnacle of stellarnomenal. GUH, I'm breaking a sweat just thinking about what it's going to be like. Of course, now this party is going to be exclusive, so I sure hope you have an invite. Apparently only the wildly spectacular (cough), the radically famous, or the stunningly gorgeous are going to have any hope of getting through the doors. But I promise, it'll be worth it. Sure, the last time I saw a holo of Scrilliax she had about five different beings following on their hands and tentacles after her but honestly - not a bad way to live.

     ABA! DAY IV-V. CATCH YOUR BREATH
[Just a clearly heavily staged (and digitally '~*~enhanced~*~') video of Jaymez St. Jaymez St. Jaymez fanning themselves. It's on loop. There is quite a lot of product placement for a five second clip.]

     ABA! DAY VI. LEGENDS OF THE BEAST NINJA GLADIATOR WARRIOR MASTER
I’m- I’m sorry. I just need a second. Flob, my mascara is running, I must look like a total mess. But can you blame me? I am just - floored. Overwhelmed. Like, completely blasted. It feels like I’ve been blasted by the solar winds on Plezas Twelve. This. Was. Incredible. Like, these are the times you think like, wow, I’m so like lucky to be here. To be as fabulous as I am so that I had a chance to stand here and witness some of the most impressive feats of strength and skill and - let's be honest - pure friendship we saw here today. I don’t know if I’ve ever cried harder than I did when Shivarana was hanging from that cage by her one slender clawed feeding arm while Garavan, who had already fallen into the slip-mud earlier in the round finally admitted that she loved her. An incredible upset. And then there was the temple fun-run, where one of the trailing teams managed to successfully guess the correct door seven times in a row before being grabbed by one of the guardians. My head is absolutely spinning. And then there was the team challenge, where one team ended up stuck halfway through their passage and had to make the tough call to cut half of their team off - literally. I’m still not sure how they broke the chain, but it was fully legal. Still, going into the finale at half-strength… Well, I don’t envy them. We lost so many great teams in this challenge. Fargarvaragarvarava will never be able to afford her surgery now. It’s just so heartbreaking. But that pain only makes the victories sweeter, right? And let me tell you, we’ll be popping bottles of sugar water tonight.

Now, if you're like me then you might need some time to recover before you face tomorrow (I am. NOT. READY.). Luckily, that should be totally doable thanks to the ABA!s brave security force. What's that? You don't know what happened? Oh my darlings, I hate to break the news but during the competition there was an unprecedented threat against the Judges lives and all our happiness. Apparently in the middle of today's event, an assassin attempted to get a line on our beloved trendsetters. If you thought for a moment that Saldo Saldo's amazingly mysterious shape looked momentarily unnerved, why it wasn't your imagination. Luckily, the assassin was foiled before anything terrible could occur. Which, like, thank the stars. I don't know what I'd do without them.

But I DO know I certainly wouldn't be caught dead room sharing with a bunch of defunct competitors. Did you know that when you get ejected from the competition, you lose your room and board? Which means that a bunch of shambles of teams are looking for places to crash for the rest of the week. Eughk. Get a job, losers.

KISS KISS, MY LITTLE SAINTS. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us. We’ll be heading into the last and final event - and we’ll get to meet this year’s victors. Stay with me! I’ve been, am, and will be Jaymez St. Jaymez St. Jaymez, reporting from Waypoint Shril, for this Aurora Blue Arena!!

((OOC NOTES: This log is the catch-all for all ABA! Events, excluding the Demolition Man Derby and Awards Ceremony on Day :039. You'll notice the structure of this is… atypical. Feel free to glom on to absolutely any of the above hooks and prompts and go absolutely wild with them. No drama is too minor, no explosion too large. However feel free to also create your own logs concurrent to these happenings if nothing catches your eye. That said, please don't log or thread anything beyond Day :039 - you never know when things might wrap up with an unexpected bang. For full details of the events, please see the WAYPOINT SHRIL, PT.2 post. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to drop us a note on the Mod Contact page.

'Wait, can I NPC this character?' When it doubt, the answer is probably yes. Use your best judgement, but we encourage you to go wild. Should you desire mod input or for us to bounce into a thread, feel free to reach out to us and we'll be happy to accommodate. We may also be threadjacking some of these threads, however don't feel compelled to wait for us to do so. Have fun and don't get killed!))

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Nasu put a hand over her cheek, covering the crack. The effect was something like trying to stop up a bleeding wound underwater; some of the emission continued to sluggishly rise around the sides of her fingers.

"Oh! That's right, I..." Forgot about that, she almost said, although how silly would that sound? She'd been around other agents for so long that she'd lose sight of what was normal.

"Trigger off." The crack disappeared, and so did the leaking green energy; now she simply appeared to be an ordinary human girl in civilian clothing. Okay, sure.

"I guess that was my fault, running out into the street like that. If I'd been in a fight, it would have been real trouble."

Pidge cautiously reaches out a hand to try and poke at the floating green energy, just as it vanishes. She blinks and tugs her hand back. There's a surprised, intrigued feeling that slides off of her and bleeds into the Nest link. With it comes a fleeting memory of a temple covered in jungle vines, with something emanating a strange green light from inside of it. THen it's gone.

"Well, yeah, getting hit by a car doesn't exactly sound like fun..." Pidge frowns and offers her a hand up.

"What was that? I mean the whole... glowing thing," Pidge points at her own cheek to illustrate, "It's the first time I've seen something like that."

Well, that was odd. Nasu was left blinking at Pidge, one hand still over her cheek. "This must be what having a Side Effect feels like."

There was a brief look at the back of a young man with a bird's nest of black hair; he turned suddenly, expression twisting into an aggressive snarl, as he stared down a gaggle of uniformed teenagers clear across the room.

She took Pidge's hand and stood. "I don't mind explaining things, since it seems like we're in the same situation... but I'd rather not do it here."

In fact, it looked like there were some rubberneckers who had actually recorded the accident (and were still doing so), no doubt to upload somewhere so they could rack up some reputation points.

"A side effect? You mean like from medicine or something...?"

That's the only thing she can think of. Or maybe a side effect from using a power? That seems more likely, although she's never run into that. At least not recently, anyway. She steps back to give Nasu a bit of space and glances over at the gawking rubberneckers. She rolls her eyes and snags Nasu's shoulder, steering her down the street.

"Probably a good idea. I don't feel like ending up all over space YouTube or whatever."

"No, more like a special sense or ability..." Nasu glanced backward over her shoulder at the onlookers, but only briefly as she continued along. "I know someone who can tell when people are thinking about him, but I've never experienced something like that myself."

Now that they were getting a little further from the scene, maybe there was a cafe or somewhere where they could talk. "That park up there might be a good place," she said, pointing.

Well, 'park' was a bit of a stretch. It was a sad-looking little corner with a plaque and a little statue that hadn't yet been razed to make way for the festivities. There was... some moss growing on it, though?

"Oh. Well, get used to it... we're all kinda hooked up now," Katie grumbles. She doesn't sound particularly happy about the idea, but there's not much she can really do about it. Not yet, anyway.

"It's weird, but... Quiznak! I don't want to say you get used to it, but yeah, you do. Ugh..."

She spots the 'park' and arches an eyebrow. Well, it's definitely isolated. No one really wants to stop and pay attention to it. Pidge settles down on the base of the statue and folds her legs up against her chest.

"When did you get here? Are you new to the Station?"

At the interjection, Nasu put a hand into her pocket and took out a pink handkerchief. It had a girly, lacy design on it. "You can use this if you like," she offered.

"I woke up in one of those little rooms yesterday. My name is Nasu, and I'm from Earth." It felt a little strange, identifying herself as being from an entire planet, but considering they were probably from different worlds, it felt appropriate.

"They did give me a guide to this place, but it's still a bit overwhelming." She frowned a little, looking at Katie. "'The Station'... I never thought a ship could be that big. I wonder how they power it?"

"Huh...? What, no, I didn't sneeze. It's - uh, you know what? Never mind. I can't really explain it," Pidge held out a hand to forestall the handkerchief and shook her head. It's an alien interjection and she really didn't feel like getting into it. Her fingers settled back onto her knees and she drummed them against her legs as she frowned in thought.

"That's how we all get here. Uh, I'm Katie. Also from Earth," her face slipped into a wry smile. Hey, they have something in common!

"No idea. I don't really know how any of the systems on that thing work, but I want to find out. I just haven't had enough time to really go digging into it. I know that it's partially controlled by brainwaves or thoughts, based on the things they have in our heads. Past that it's a complete mystery, but I think that if we figure out how they transmit and receive, we might be able to build a completely manual interface without having to get all brain-huggy with... uh, whatever it is that runs the palce."

She might have babbled a bit.

"Really? So we might be able to steer the ship..." That was a bit of information right there, but it was useful.

"How long have you been here? It seems like they treat you well enough." Considering the circumstances, that was. "Do they make you go on missions often? I heard that's why we're here. For the prizes from that contest." She said the last word with a bit of distaste, and though she tried not to, Nasu couldn't help but recall the last moments of that poor girl's life.

She didn't really understand why they were bothering with those prizes, either. They were apparently valuable, but valuable enough to risk that?

"In theory, anyway-" Katie paused and blinked, "Well, yeah. They don't... mistreat us, if that's what you mean. Three's no whips or beatings or torture or whatever, but they want us to fight for them against... uh. Something. I'm still not entirely clear on who or what they are, but we're supposed to help. Apparently if we go home we'll just end up followed by whatever they are and they'll end up hurting and killing people."

Pidge's expression was not very happy.

"And yeah, we're here for the prizes. Whatever they are. I'm working on a way to get them without competing, but it's going to take me some more time."

Edited 2017-04-13 22:48 (UTC)

"Do you believe them?" asked Nasu. As far as she was concerned, that was more important than what their captors(?) had to say. "It all seems hard to believe. There are so many capable people back home..."

She paused, hands held loosely at the level of her hips. "Whatever your plan is, I'm sure it's a better idea than what those contestants are going through. Do you need help?"

"I... guess I believe them," Katie rests her chin on her knees, gaze a bit distant, "I remember being attacked before I came here and being offered help. I don't know if I believe that my going home would endanger everyone I know, but..."

She scrubs at her face with a groan.

"Do I want to risk that? And the longer I stay here, the easier it is to just not think about it that much. But, you know what? Let's not.. talk about that right now, OK?" She manages a shake of her head, "But yeah, we're working on some plans. We think we know where they're keeping the prizes and we're considering going after them somehow. But it's still kinda in the planning stages."

Hmm. Well, it seemed like it was in her best interests to cooperate for the moment. "Oh, an operation. I can't turn invisible or anything, but I can hold my own in a shootout -- if things go that way."

Her expression brightened slightly. "I've never snuck into somewhere before. I wonder if it'll be anything like in The Great Locomotive Heist."

"Hopefully there won't be any shooting, but we're kinda..." Katie pauses and lowers her voice a little, "...we're kinda planning on breaking into a prison ship, so shooting might come in handy. And your... weird resilience power. What is that, anyway? And, uh, what's the Great Locomotive Heist? I've never heard of it."

"Back at the accident site? I didn't have time to get out of the way, so I switched my body with a replacement made out of Trion energy." Hopefully this explanation would make sense to Katie, but... you know, maybe not.

"I guess you could think of it as an armored combat form. Trion bodies are very durable, so it's hard for normal weapons to cause real damage to them."

She put the tips of her fingers together. "And I was talking about an old film -- it's about a group of criminals who manage to steal a fortune from the train transporting it."

"A replacement? You switched your whole body with raw energy?" Katie's mouth hangs open and she stares like Nasu just grew a second head, "Where'd your physical body go? How do you even convert that much mass without blowing something up? How does that even work? You've got to tell me everything about that!"

She is sadly ignoring the comment on the film. She's much more interested in this Trion thing.

"Oh? Are you an engineer?" Nasu was slightly surprised -- most people just sort of glazed over and wanted to get back to the parts with the explosions.

"I'm not, so I can't tell you all the details. But when my Trion body is in use, my real body is stored inside a device called a Trigger. That's why it was unharmed once I switched back. Only my replacement experienced the impact."

Oh well, maybe she'd get to talk about movies some other time.

"An engineer? Uh, sort of. I'm really interested in all kinds of technology. I love tinkering with it and figuring out how it works and building my own-"

This girl built a backpack portable radio telescope. "Engineer" is kind of understating what she does. In fact, she looks practically starry-eyed at the prospect of getting her hands on something that actually does matter-to-energy conversion.

"A Trigger? How big is it? What's it like? Do you have it on you right now? Can I see it? This is incredible! I mean, we've come a long way in energy storage and miniaturization since the late 20th century, but still, we've never even attempted energy-to-matter conversion. I don't think even the Castle can really do that!"

Nasu hesitated. Katie didn't seem like a bad person, but...

"I'm afraid I can't just hand it over. My organization went through great pains to develop our Triggers from what we could learn from the Neighbors -- we're not permitted to distribute them to non-agents."

And besides that, it was her only real means of defending herself in this new world of deadly lip sync contests and being hooked up to a Hive. Nasu wouldn't part with it without an excellent reason.

Katie wilts just a little. She's still enthusiastic, though. Or trying to be.

"You don't have to give it to me. I just want a chance to look at it!" Katie tries from a slightly different angle. She doesn't want to take it. Just, you know, examine it for a bit so she can see how it works. It just sounds so cool and a lot of her enthusiasm is probably bleeding over through the hive-mind.

"But... I mean, I get it. It's important. So, you don't have to."

Nasu wasn't overly thrilled about having access to the hive mind, but the enthusiasm did indeed bleed through. More important than that, however, was that the request seemed more about personal curiosity and less about immediate practical application. Which didn't seem like a great reason to risk expulsion from Border.

"I can show it to you," she said, "But that's all. Supplying a civilian with a Trigger is one of the highest-level infractions for a Border agent."

Katie had skirted around the topic of believing the people on the ship, too... was she really all right simply avoiding thoughts of Earth? Was that what happened when you were removed from your home and brought here? Would the same happen to Nasu?

Doubt began to creep in, though she'd been trying to focus on her immediate objectives since waking up on the ship.

"Alright. I won't take it or anything. I just want to see it, to see how small you've managed to get it. I mean... it sounds amazing. I just - it's been something that's been theoretical but no one's ever been able to do it," Katie shrugs, smiling sheepishly, "So getting a chance to see it... it's pretty amazing. I won't ask you to break your laws or... uh, regulations, I guess."

Relief flooded Nasu -- which was odd, because she'd only met Katie today. Perhaps the secondhand enthusiasm was affecting her.

"Thanks for understanding. We've had problems before with agents not following the rules. I wouldn't want to get my unit in trouble." She swept quickly on, though, not wanting to dwell for too long on Nasu unit and what might become of it now.

"You said you were from Earth... where from, exactly?"

"Uh, North America, actually," Katie replies with a shrug, "We moved around a bit because my dad is with the space program, so sometimes he got shifted around to new assignments. It's been... interesting. But I guess that helps me not be too freaked out by all the moving around we do out here," She wrinkles her nose thoughtfully.

"Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?"

"The space program? That sounds exciting." Also kind of relevant to what they were doing on the ship, dohohoho.

"I'm from Mikado City, in Japan. Is your father an astronaut, then? I know one or two people who wanted to work for JAXA when they were little." Even if Nasu had never particularly wanted to be an astronaut herself, it was a pretty romantic profession -- to a layman, anyway. And besides, Katie had shown so much interest in her that it only felt right to do the same.

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