thisavrou_log | ( december event log )

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( december event log )

Who: Everyone
When: December 17th and on
Where: Throughout the Moira
What: The reasons for power failure become a little clearer...
Warnings: Possible character death. Please label anything you do that needs a warning.

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transmission theory
"A thousand fibers connect us, and our actions run as causes, comimg back to us as effects."

As of now, it's common knowledge to the crew that Tipota is dead. The manner of her death, however, is still being determined, and the other captains have sent another reminder through the MIDs to continue traveling in groups and not to wander around. The power issue has yet to be resolved, though it seems nothing is apparently wrong with the engines or the wings, but slowly, the chill begins to recede into something a little more tolerable—still cold but not freezing. The malfunctions that manifest aboard the Moira start to resemble a more systematic pattern, lights flickering in certain sections of the ship before shutting down in intervals of 30 to 60 seconds and coming to life again. It moves on through several areas, though it doesn't affect places with larger groups of people.

A day or two after the power begins to stabilize itself, everything comes to a standstill. There's a moment that seems as if time slows and stops. Things are eerily quiet... Anyone in the hallways will hear the lock of one of the I.L.R. release, security measures suspended to preserve life support functions. What had been a peaceful moment roars into chaos.

☄ Ploiatos
It's been here as long as anyone can remember. It lurks in the shadows, a human-shaped figure dressed in the tatters of a Moira uniform. In the dark, it feels the most comfortable, and its movements are impossible to pinpoint without the light. From a distance, it might appear to be someone you know, another crew member who's become lost in the corridors, but up close — well, no one actually knows what it looks like. At close proximity, it sinks itself into you, and the cold that has plagued the ship seems warm in comparison as the dark rises. Perhaps there had been something to the warning the captains had given before; maybe you should R U N.
• Together: There is always safety in numbers. Ploiatos is severely confused by the presence of more than one body, and though it's attracted to the particular emissions of the crew, it prefers the choice of one to two or more. Trying to hunt or capture it is impossible; it's gone as quickly as you can blink.
• Alone: There is no hope. You don't realize that it's there until you're waking up, the marks of its touch spreading across part of your body. These are permanent, a beacon to Ploiatos that it's had you once and only needs to get you once more to end it. Once will not kill you, but a second time will. Any attempt at contact via MID isn't likely as they momentarily short out within proximity to the creature.

☄ Bait & Lure
For those brave enough to try, a plan has been implemented by several of the crew to attempt luring Ploiatos back into its room in the I.L.R. Life support systems are drastically depleted now, oxygen levels low and the lights barely working, but it's up to the crew and those who SIGNED UP to help protect their friends and fellow crew members.

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[When she wakes up, it doesn't feel like she's slept at all. For a long moment, she thinks she's in her own bed - whether her bed on the Moira or way back on the Neema or in some rover on Macha, her mind isn't quite clear on - and she doesn't move. It's enough to get used to how breathing works, to how air flows into her lungs, expands them...flows out, deflates them.

Only when she's used to that does she manage to groan, groggily lifting her hands to her eyes to rub the sleep out of them. She's entirely unaware in that moment of the thin, trailing scars snaking along from her shoulder across her collar bones towards her throat, slicing through the lines already there.

Medbay. It's medbay's ceiling.]

Hello?

Over here. [She says from where she's finished analyzing one sample, and pushes away from her table.] I'm comin'.

[She gets up and heads over to Tali's side. She's already relatively got on Meh's good side, so she's not as abrasive as usual.] Looks like you got a love bite of the worst sort.

[She turns her head towards the reply - it feels like it weighs several times more than it's supposed to - and a grin kicks up the side of her mouth at the sight of Meh Yewll - which quickly turns into a confused grimace.]

A... what? [Lifting herself to sit up, the sheet over her falls down to her waist - she's in a gown. How long as she been here for someone to have put her in a hospital gown - that question isn't quite as important as--] I got bitten?

[She pushes the sheet off the rest of the way - the chill of the room hits her bare legs - and quickly looks over the skin she can see. Nothing.] I don't feel anything.

Uh oh. I accidentally tripped over a cultural divide there. [She's smiling a little weakly at that, making sure the readings are right.] It means when your bed partner decides to suck your neck hard enough to leave their mark on you. Whatever this thing's sucked out, it's left its mark on a lot of people.

Hold on, I need to finish and then you can get up and have a look in a mirror. I'll need to take a sample, too.

...Ah. Right. [She grins sheepishly, sort of a 'sorry I ruined your joke there' apology.

She's more than used to being in a medbay - properly getting up hasn't occurred to her, and she nods - check ups, samples, nothing new there.] No problem. Err... Did it even injure me? I just feel tired.

The scar tissue shows the damage. It's as if it shocks you at the same time it draws out energy. It reminds me of the Gulanee, but that's the closest comparison that I can find.

Nothing like your standard energy vampire wandering around.

[Sarcasm is go.] Okay, you can get dressed.

Keelah. [She mutters the word, letting Meh do her work and still looking down at herself like trying to find the marks through the gown.] Next time I decide it'll be fine if I go alone - I'll run and carry a shotgun - maybe I'll think twice.

[Slight pause, and then she gives a jerk of the head, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed on Meh's say-so.] Maybe. Thanks.

[She's gathering her uniform when she asks:] There's no lasting damage, is there, do you think? Just scarring? [It almost seems too good to be true, all things considered.]

To be honest I'm suspicious of the scarring. If you notice the slightest change, I need you to tell me. The cells are acting like normal cells, except they're damaged.

[And this perplexes her a lot.]

Running still isn't good enough. You can't take another hit. Call for one of the wandering parties to come get you.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving here on my own. I've learned my lesson. [She smiles suddenly as she pulls off her gown without the slightest hint of modesty.] I'm never going to live this down - not after I've been nagging other people not to go anywhere alone.

[She's laying the hospital gown on the bed when she catches sight of her shoulder - of the thin, winding lines tapering along the skin. They don't look like scars - not like the one along her ribs - and they don't feel like them either as her hand claps to her opposite shoulder, smoothing the skin under her fingers.]

I'll keep an eye on them. [She pulls on her uniform shirt, and there's a second's pause.] I'll probably be here for a little while - do you need any more samples?

You know, you're very attractive and I don't mind the show but you might want to be careful walking around without any clothes in front of the humans. They're easy to scandalize.

[She doesn't guess Tali has any cultural aversion to nudity. It's not as if humans ever understood the Castithan family bath.]

I have a small one, it'll do.

[And she sounds a little grumpy, not being able to make as much headway as she'd like. Story of her life.]

[There's a silence, and then--] Oh! I thought that was just-- [--Niko being weird. She's trying not to laugh as she hurriedly tugs the rest of her uniform on.] Thanks for the warning. I didn't know. I grew up wearing an environmental suit all the time - I told you about that, right? - so I didn't have to think about that.

[She's still adjusting her shirt as she turns back to the doctor, and she's still keenly aware of the weight of exhaustion pressing down on her. It occurs to her that if she's had her energy drained, it could be something to do with that, scientifically improbable back home though it may be.] Do you need help with anything while I'm here? That is - if any of the equipment needs looking at, I can take care of it. I can't help with anything medical, I don't even know first aid.

[She's babbling, just a little - embarrassment, trying to remember the number of times she's casually not been dressed in front of somebody and they might have been too polite to tell her she's been...well, scandalising people. Luckily, she thinks it's probably only Niko and her roommate. Probably.]

Yes, you did. There's nothing wrong with it, really. Just some humans are very shy about it and I can tell that you're cold.

[And not all people were very moral about naked women, but she guessed Tali had it in her to hurt someone with worse ideas.]

You should probably just rest. Any dizziness or nausea?

[She doesn't want to saddle her with work while she's still recovering, though she could use some help.]

Not quite, just... [Uniform adjusted - it's still not quite comfortable over her lower legs - she leans against the cot, one hand idly rubbing where the scarring is.] A little out of sorts. And tired. I feel like I didn't even sleep.

I don't want to keep lying around, though. I've done enough of that.

[She smiles, amused at herself.] I really thought it was just my boyfriend being weird. I didn't think it was a human thing.

It's draining energy somehow. I don't know yet, but I know people can't stand up to more than one hit. Even the strongest of us.

[Which is creepy as hell.]

Humans religions tend to not like women to show off their bodies. Unless they live in incredibly hot places and then sometimes they make exceptions.

[Her exasperation with mankind is still evident in her voice.] Casti's aren't entirely different. For a species that enjoys sex so much they're not very mature about the happy bits.

So don't get hit again. [She grimaces.] Understood.

[Tali spends a lot of time fiddling and fidgeting, and now that she doesn't wear an environmental suit, there's a lot more to fidget with. As soon as her uniform's straight and she can't tug and straighten and mess with it anymore, she moves on to her hair, which has come half undone from its comb and is starting to hang around her shoulders.]

I've never heard of the Castis. Or most human religions, come to think of it. To be honest, I don't even know what quarians thought about people's bodies before we started wearing suits.

If you're okay with your bodies now? Then that's what's more important. Enough people feel bad about them and in feeling bad about them make them worse and give me twice as much work to do.

You're going to come across a lot of people like that. Me? I just like to keep it to myself.

[And considering anything Meh wears isn't particularly form fitting- just something comfortable she can get around in, that seems to be the truth.] Some of my people end up integrated with machinery anyway. Not much to worry about when your lower half ends up merged with a ship's integral systems.

Considering we all wear the same outfit our whole lives, I don't think we have much opinion on our bodies. I'd forgotten what parts of mine looked like the first time I took it off.

[The lines on her back, some of the rest of her body; simple things like the way the muscles moved under her skin. The texture and exact colour of her skin. The smallest things, and - ] I spent most of my life wishing I could see my body. It's weird that there are people who don't like them. [She's looking down at herself, but looks up at Meh then.] Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you - just thinking out loud, I guess.

[She's known for a long time she's incredibly lucky to have been able to take off her suit - though that luck came with a hefty price. But maybe she's lucky in another way as well - that she knows the value of what she has now, because she spent her whole life just longing for it.]

How does that work, though - merging with mechanical systems - cybernetics?

Sort of. Indogene bodies can adapt to them. [She hesitates, and then feeling the odd need to show off (not really odd, Indogenes loved to show off their intelligence) she goes over and picks up a mechanical orb.]

[She puts it on the table in front of her, settles it, and then takes a piece of an organic material from a petri dish. Luckily Tali can't see what she does to the back of her neck, she keeps her front towards her, but the wince and the fact she has to use the laser scalpel says enough.]

[Doc Yewll straightens her collar when she's done and the orb rises from the table in front of her.]

I can adapt to almost any computerized system so long as it's advanced enough. My physiology lets me adjust to it. A little more thoroughly than any hardware would.

[Tali watches intently, and her expression goes from open curiosity to a hiss of breath and a sympathetic wince as Meh apparently slices into the back of her neck. Before she can say anything, though, the spherical device lifts from the table without being touched - and her mouth drops in open astonishment.]

You just-- [She pushes off the bed, all exhaustion temporarily forgotten, and rushes to the table, gaze flickering between Meh and the sphere.] You just... biologically interfaced with it - just like that?

[Well, it still seems to have involved performing surgery on herself, but that's not important. She's grinning now, giddy, excited as a little kid.] That's amazing! What's it like? How do you control it - is it sort of a biological process, like...like moving a limb, or do you really feel the data transfer when you're sending commands to it?

[Beat, and she stares at the orb.] What is that, anyway?

[She's barely realised she's just asked all these questions without giving Meh a chance to answer. But she's never seen anything like it - and frankly, there's been a dearth lately of things she's never seen that have actually pleased her this much. Usually when she's finding out new things, it's about monsters and planetary destruction and inter-universal kidnap and none of it's been much to get excited about.]

It's like having a new part of you. Moving a limb, or sometimes just thinking.

[She's glad that Tali is interested, and that something good is coming of it. Tali was despondent while they built the cage for Banner. This is a distant cry from that, or the previous embarrassment.]

It's a surgery and repair module. [It rises in the air and flies over to hover by Tali.] I would use it to escort people out myself, but I don't want to risk that kind of loophole.

[She's been trying to...to what? To not dwell as much? To be someone actually bearable to be around without sinking into a depression? Well, how much any of that works, she doesn't know. But it's genuinely nice to get to enjoy things again, and as the surgery-repair module drifts up near her, she peers at it, fascinated by everything from the device itself to the way it moves - not just the hovering, but the speed, smoothness of the movement.]

I don't think I'd want to risk it, either. Especially not now. [She rubs her shoulder to make the point.] But it's worth thinking about - seeing if there's some way to test if drones or some other kind of machinery count enough as company for the creature to leave the person they're with alone.

When it's something lethal, I'm not ready to risk it. I would have it accompany someone who hasn't been attacked yet, but even that seems like a bit much.

[She snaps her fingers as if she's calling it back, and it comes to hover over her hand. Then drops into it and she sets it back down. She has to remove whatever she'd put into her neck again, braving the discomfort.]

At least it gives me an extra perspective when I'm performing surgeries. It's useful for electronic repairs, too. You might want to try to design an automated version. They're a big help.

Definitely. I don't know if I'd want to ask somebody to do that - even if it's not going to be lethal the first time. Maybe there's another way to test it... [But frankly, she's still too drained to put much real thought into the idea beyond wondering if the creature would bother to attack a non-humanoid VI on its own. Maybe it's only attracted to the biological.

She's still looking over the device as Meh reaches around to the back of her neck again - some part of her feels like staring wouldn't be polite.] An automated version could definitely help for some of the awkward repairs I have to do. I wouldn't have to climb around as much. Either I could program a VI or...something I could control with my omni-tool.

Can I take a look at it? [She gestures towards the sphere, but doesn't touch it. Yet.]

Here, toots.

[She tosses it over like a softball, seeming to be not to worried about the sturdiness of the device.] Maybe we can end up building some more.

['Toots' gets the very slightest of bemused looks - that's a new one - but she catches the device and starts turning it over in her hands, taking in as much detail as she can without actively dismantling the thing.]

If I can get the right materials together, I could definitely try reverse-engineering something. Nobody would be able to use them like you can, but they'd still be helpful.

[She gives Meh a slightly sheepish look.] I don't want to ask you if I can take it apart and figure it out unless I know I wouldn't break it, though.

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( december event log )

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