Entry tags:

August Event Log: Part I

Who: Everyone
When: August 9 and onward
Where: An unexpected destination
What: The newcomers go on a trip and end up far from where they expected
Warnings: Potential violence. Please label your content!

NOTE: PLEASE READ THIS OOC POST FIRST.

When the time comes for the travelers to go on the off-world trip that will help restore Thisavrou, they are not alone. Others who have settled on the planets longer and come to call them home are also prepared to travel; through the Ingress and do their part. Yet when the newcomers step through, whether they stepped through the Ingress seconds or hours apart, they will find that they have arrived at the same time, and only newcomers are in sight.

What awaits them is not a land of plenty. The land is barren, and dark storms in the sky resemble those held at bay by the Ingress complex—but much, much closer. Those who traveled on the Moira may recognize the landscape; though they have come through at a different point from the crash, they are on the Midway Hub. And there is no portal back. They are trapped.

hitting the road

Though some have been here before, the Midway Hub is not as they remember it. The storms fill the sky, leaving it dark and ominous even when they are not sweeping across the landscape—but they have clearly done so in recent times, and often. While never a lush land, large patches of ground an acre or more wide looking nothing more than utterly dead; the thistle that naturally grows is brittle, black and unable to be consumed even with the usual preparations to make it edible, and here and there animal corpses are found twisted into unnatural poses, but seemingly uninjured. These places are particularly concentrated near the broken Ingresses litter the landscape. While Midway Hub as a whole may seem naturally arid, these dead spots leave no hope that anything can possibly live there again.

The travelers have two options: stay where they are, or move on. While it might seem that they've been tricked into coming here and been left abandoned, those with the technological ability to do so may detect a sign of hope: a familiar energy source, far in the distance. Although none of the Ingresses they pass will ever work again, the faint energy shows that one still-functioning Ingress lies far in the distance, days away.

Although technological scanning or impressive memory of the landscape indicates that they are not separated from their destination by one of the gates that divide the land, they are also far from the shelter of the facility at the center of the Hub. Any attempt to travel in a direction other than that of the energy signal will result in a strange disorientation after several hours, bringing individuals back to their original path as though they've gone in circles. Meanwhile, though travelers will feel the need to slake their hunger and thirst through any natural water sources they discover, wildlife they can hunt for food and any supplies they have on them, if they don't find sustenance, they'll find that they will never pass out or reach the point of starvation. Instead, they'll be left alive and awake but feeling utterly hollow.

storm front

At regular intervals, the energy storms above descend onto the land, bringing not rain but violent clashes of negative energy and thunder so loud that nothing can be heard above it. The passing of the storms leaves some strange effects. The ground is warped and rotted by their touch, even solid stone degrading to a spongy surface. The air is tepid and oddly charged. Prolonged contact with air or ground will not supply energy, however — it drains it from organic and synthetic life alike.

Those who remember their last trip to the Hub, or simply explore in the right direction, may come across the cave complexes with their glowing surfaces and streams. The light is dimmer now, a sickly green, but drinking from the streams will still restore the energy lost, for a time. This time, however, the lethargy that inevitably follows is much more severe, and the drinkers are left with a raw, empty feeling leeching in from the wasteland around.

Those who are exposed to the storms, either by finding themselves in very close proximity or even closely observing them for too long as they approach, may lose their sight, or hearing, even much of the ability to feel touch — whatever sense they used in observation. What lingers in its place is a numbness. A hunger. And as time passes, the time between storms decreases; what seemed like hours between the storms becomes scarcely one, and their intensity grows.

wild life

Sentient beings are not the only ones affected by the storms; these creatures, attracted to sound and able to track by scent, and these panthers, which once looked normal but have been twisted by the storms into more monstrous forms, are numerous enough that travelers must be constantly alert for their presence. Though natural predators, the threat the creatures represent is not itself natural. They are also more aggressive. Some strange instinct drives them, not a need for food. While the panthers themselves can be caught and their meat cooked, it has little taste, offering nutrition but not satisfaction.

old familiar places

Although it's difficult to track the passage of time without day-night cycles, after what seems like more than a week of the travelers' unexpected trip, the storms abruptly come rushing in at the group of travelers, as if they're herding the group to move faster toward their destination and the Ingress energy that awaits them. The true nature of that destination becomes clear when debris appears on the horizon; the energy comes from the wreckage of the Moira, the interstellar ship that crashed here months ago.

Despite the trauma of impact, large sections of the ship remain surprisingly intact, though few of them are properly vertically oriented. If travelers are able to make their way inside the damaged sections of the ship, they'll find familiar territory, if they are one of those who traveled on the Moira, as well as shelter—something that's increasingly necessary as the storms seem to center over the ship, leaving little hope for survival outside. Useful items may be scavenged from the ship if they are willing to explore, but no personal items of any kind remain.

Strangely, the deeper travelers go into the crashed ship, the less familiar their surroundings will seem, regardless of their orientation. The inward-leading paths into the ship become generic metal, and as with the travel on the surface of the planet, they may find themselves back where they started. And no matter how far they go or how hard they try, they will find themselves unable to make it to the Ingress chamber itself...for now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[right, so north is going to approach here and settle in next to him. by now, it's gotten out to the team that he's using theta to navigate, and that he's gone blind. he knows maine's been having a rough time lately in general, and that the blindness isn't helping him; so he figures he may as well commiserate. if neither of them can see, this is the best option to him.

[so here he is, sitting in the hole with him, adjusted just so that he's not pushing him out, thanks to theta. there's plenty he could say to announce himself, or to start a conversation. he could ask about the traveling, how he's holding up, or whether he thinks they'll be out soon.]

... I spy... with my little eye--

[or he could be an ass.]

[ Maine just. Looks at him. Or rather, he aims his helmet in the direction of North's voice. Which would look like he's staring, if North weren't fucking blind, too.

[ This shit? Two of the UNSC's most elite soldiers sitting in a hole in another universe joking about how they've gone blind? This is fucked up beyond words. ]

Smartass.

[ His voice sounds even rougher than normal. Maine won't admit it, and he sure as fuck won't let it get in the way, but fuck, he's tired. ]

[north hears it, but doesn't draw attention. instead, he just gives a little chuckle, always glad to get a response out of the bigger man.]

Yeah, yeah.

[he nudges him with his foot, gives him something to anchor him for proximity.]

You holdin' up okay?

[ The nudge helps. It's body language that Maine can understand without having to see it. It helps him figure out exactly where North is in relation to himself. Maine twitches his foot in turn, giving the purple armor a gentle tap. "Right there. Got it."

[ To North's question, Maine grunts noncommittally. He's not dead. He's also blind and feels more helpless than he has since he was a child. It doesn't sit well. Vulnerability never has. ]

You?

[could be worse, he hears in the grunt. of course he has complaints, but they're both here still.]

Theta makes it easier to navigate, so I've been alright for the most part. Tired, but who isn't right now?

[north doesn't care to force theta into hiding right now; maine can't see the hologram anyway. he hovers a bit from north's shoulder, rolling left and right on a skateboard.]

[ Theta.

[ Maine stiffens as the things he's avoided thinking about prick at his mind.

[ "The A.I.s were just fragments. Parts that had been broken off the Alpha. Through torture." "He used you to do it. Took over bit by bit until I don't think you were in there, or you'd been buried." "It killed itself in my head and tore me apart and then the Project locked me up and fucked with my head some more." "You haven't been you for a long time." "I'm fine. I'm not crazy."

[ The big man shakes his head, as though that will somehow wipe Wash's war-weary eyes from his mind. ]

A.I.

[ There's the anger. Maine latches on like it's a fucking lifeline. ]

Sigma.

[ How is Theta any different from his A.I.? From Wash's? Wash said that they were all crazy.

[ "He used you to do terrible things."

[ No. No. He won't think about that. He won't.

[ (What did he do...?) ]

[sigma.

[shit.]

Uhh, North..?

[maybe he should have theta put up for now.]

It's okay, Theta. [his voice remains gentle in spite of the damn near growl from his teammate.]

... Maine, who told you about Sigma? Was it Carolina? [he knows she would have felt guilty, and he has no idea about wash's continued involvement with maine's life further down the road.]

Edited 2017-08-24 19:47 (UTC)

[ "He was meant to be Carolina's but your throat..."

[ Maine growls. No, it wasn't Carolina. And as far as Maine's concerned, ]

Doesn't fuckin' matter.

[ Carolina knew. North knew. He's guessing York knew, too. Who cares if it was Wash who told him?

[ Why didn't the others tell him? They sure as fuck didn't hold back about the Project. About his fucking purpose in life.

[ Whatever. It's irrelevant. ]

Edited 2017-08-24 19:59 (UTC)

It does. I need to know what you know.

[there's a slight insistence in his tone, but his de-escalation keeps in place.]

... I need to know what you still need to know. [because if their team is good at once thing, it's certainly not PR.]

[ For a long moment, there's no response but the low rumbling in Maine's chest, like a caged animal that knows it can't get out but it has to keep trying. Then there's a ping directly to North's HUD.

[ The file is text. With that fucking A.I. around, Maine doesn't think it'll be a problem. Unfortunately, with no A.I. of his own and no way to read the text, Maine can't pick and choose the relevant sections. So, North gets the log entry in its entirety: ]

user_signin: Maine

new_log_entry:

Status uncertain.
Body's fine. Equipment's good. Should be golden.
Restless. Blank. Can't sleep. Uneasy.
No long-term solution.

Carolina's older. Unarmored. Uncomfortable.
Washington's fucked up. Imprisoned. Abandoned? Needs help.
North has Theta. Feared me.
York's half-blind.
Texas is an A.I.
It's shitty.

The Future:
- Can't talk.
- Throat injury? Face changes?
- Taken over by Sigma. Do "terrible things." Hostile toward team.
- Freelancer falls.
- Humanity wins the war.
Should celebrate the win. Can't.

"Ingenuity and adaptability are admirable traits."
Objective: ADAPT.

user_signout: Maine

[ There's no context for how he got the information. North can bitch about that all he wants. Maine doesn't care. ]

[north hears the ping for the file being sent to him. with theta's help, he gets the information read to him inside his own head.

[he can take a stab at who told maine all the most painful bits and none of the body of the story. "imprisoned. abandoned?" wash has the most information in the log; of course he wouldn't give a damn about coordinating with the team, not that anyone else did.

[north takes a deep breath, and when he speaks, his tone is a lot calmer.]

Alright. Here's what we're gonna do, okay? I'm gonna tell you everything I know. I know some people are further along in the future than me, so it won't be everything, I'm sure, but... it'll be a lot of it.

[ There's a large part of Maine that wants to spit, "Fuck the future." As far as he knows, the only good thing about it is that humanity finally, finally wins the war. But he doesn't. If he has to learn more about all that shit to figure out why Theta is fine but Sigma wasn't —

[ (why did he become something ... else? why did he turn on them? what did he do?)

[ — then Maine will deal with it. He always does. ]

Fine.

Edited 2017-08-24 20:50 (UTC)

[north knows he's not excited about it, but hey. north can't see him or judge him, he can't see north or feel like he's not performing up to standard for him. theta can chime in if he gets violent over the information, and they'll be fine.]

... The mission with the sarcophagus is where things started. You... almost died. You took so much damage in so many different ways, but it's the only reason we got out of it all. You saved Carolina's life, but at the cost of your voice. You were shot in the throat--nine times. You were in medical care for months, and PT for longer, but you couldn't talk after it all.

[north knows now he should have been there for him a little better than he had been. wash really stood out for that period of time.]

By that time, the A.I. had started to be given out so that we could run our equipment in the field. Delta went to York, Theta to me. Eventually, Wyoming got Gamma, we found out later that Texas had Omega. Everybody was given their A.I. based on their personality profiles; certain agents were better suited for certain A.I. because of their personalities. Theta's a little shy, so he needs somebody easy to get along with. Delta's logic incarnate, so he's got York to keep him loose.

[explaining like this is why he wanted to talk to everybody about telling maine the right way. no details skipped. the puzzle can come together and be as clear and ugly as it is.]

... Carolina was matched for Sigma. She turned him down so that you could have someone to help you speak.

[ Nine times? Maine involuntarily jerks in surprise. Nine times? Nine fucking times?

[ No one should have survived that. It should've been impossible.

[ Maine suspects that he knows why he did.

[ He ignores the cold feeling in his chest — he was on that mission before appearing here — and instead allows the information to click into place like a piece of a puzzle. It explains his teammates' insistence on hearing him speak. It explains why they were relieved to hear his voice.

[ The A.I. being matched with Freelancers based on personality profiles comes as little surprise. What's stranger is the idea that the fragments themselves had different personalities. And that Texas had one at all. She's an A.I. herself; why would she need another?

[ He doesn't ask about Texas. This isn't about her. Instead, he asks, ]

Sigma?

[ What was he like? What made him so different? Were they incompatible?

[ (Medical care for months. PT for longer. How broken was he? Sigma helped him speak.)

[ He doesn't get it. He waits for more. ]

Sigma was... louder than the rest, I think. He was a leader, he was ambitious, adaptive. He would have made a good match for Carolina, for sure.

[not that north wants to think about what he'd have done with her.]

He was very polite when he spoke to people, but... in a way that kinda made you uneasy. I think it's part of why we didn't notice what he was doing; he seemed harmless. But looking back on it, there were signs we missed. He got focused on rampancy in A.I.s, specifically the metastability stage, where an A.I. can be considered human. He knew he was only a fragment, so... that wasn't really possible alone.

[he rubs the back of his neck, knowing maine can't see it, but he can feel the tension rising in his own body. theta doesn't help that.]

... Carolina was starting to have problems, too. Texas took her place on the leaderboard after the sarcophagus, and she could never get it back. It got worse later, when CT defected to the insurrection. She got away, or... at least her armor did. We were all wrapped up in what was happening, and the investigations they did on her ties, and... at that point, I think Sigma had really started digging into you.

He stopped speaking for you, y'know? No more "Maine wants to express this," it was always "we". "We're grateful," "we were thinking," "we." [north's voice is growing frustrated. he's thought about this a lot in the last year.

[this brings him to a tangent. north feels like he needs to get this out now. maine already knows he got hostile; he doesn't know how, but he's going to learn it all today anyway.]

... Maine, we failed you. We didn't... notice anything was wrong. And that's why I'm telling you all of this, alright? Because if there's a chance it can change, I want that chance for you. If we messed up that bad before because none of us knew how to talk to each other, I don't want that to happen to us here.

[ Sigma was ambitious. Sigma was adaptive. Adaptability is an admirable trait. Maine is trying to adapt. He's trying. He doesn't know how.

[ And now he's fucking blind and useless and he doesn't know how the fuck he's going to—

[ He grits his teeth. Listens closely.

[ Metastability. That's what Wash was talking about. "Sigma thought he could become more than that if he got hold of the other fragments." Sigma was a fragment. He was broken. He wanted to be human.

[ Behind his visor, Maine closes sightless eyes. Keeps listening.

[ Texas became number one. CT defected. CT betrayed them. CT's armor got away. They must've gone after her. One of their own.

[ "We." We, we, we.

[ "Took over bit by bit until I don't think you were in there, or you'd been buried."

[ And no one noticed.

[ ... He doesn't want to hear this. He wants to grab North's head and tear Theta out of him and be done with it. Eliminate the threat. Protect his squad. Keep them alive. ]

Hostile.

[ No one fucking failed him. That's bullshit. He became hostile. Why? What did he do? ]

... Yeah. You got hostile.

[he quiets down, noting the brushed-off admission of guilt. he didn't expect an "it's okay."]

Eventually, Carolina found out about Omega. She pitched a fit, made the Director kick Wash and South off the implantation list and took both their A.I. for herself, and tried to challenge Tex. She ended up in the hospital when they overloaded her, and then Wash went in for implantation with Epsilon and... they didn't tell us what happened to him. He passed out, they took Epsilon out, and they said they were gonna pull 'em all.

... Then they said Wyoming was attacked, and that it was Tex, and that she went rogue. I didn't buy it. Tex showed up to... I don't even know for sure. She was trying to end the A.I. experiments, I think. I think knowing the Director was going to pull all the fragments made Sigma panic, though. That's when he made you go after Carolina.

[it's.. hard, to think about this. to think about leaving wash behind, about leaving york to deal with losing carolina--he feels guilt over it every day.]

... You took Eta and Iota from her. Ripped them out, shoved them in your own head, and threw Carolina off a damn cliff on Sidewinder. I had no idea she was alive until I got here. I took South and ran, Tex vanished--we scattered. The Project started to fall apart... and you were hunting the A.I.s down. That's the last thing I remember. Being on the run.

[ Maine is very. Very. Very still.

[ He's very still until his hands start shaking. Then he clasps them together tightly. Tight enough that something snaps — a finger on his left hand — and he. Doesn't let up.

[ His heart rate spikes. His breath quickens. He can't hear it. Has he gone deaf as well?

[ His readings scream fight-or-flight response. Imminent and serious danger.

[ He doesn't move. Doesn't speak. Doesn't make a fucking sound.

[ He is just. Still. ]

[yeah, he notes the scanner's sound, has theta read out for him. then he speaks, firmly, regaining his own composure.]

Maine. It wasn't you, and none of us think it was. We know what happened. We know who's at fault. It's not on you, and there's not a single person here who blames you. I know you spent time with Wash, he missed you. We all did.

[ They shouldn't.

[ Another snap. Maine hears his breath again; it's shaking, hitched, pulled between his teeth like he's choking.

[ "You were hunting the A.I.s down."

[ No. He was hunting his teammates.

[ He tore Carolina's A.I. out of her head. Wasn't he just thinking of doing the same fucking thing to North? ]

Leave.

[ Blame Sigma. Blame him. Blame whoever. Just leave, and stay the fuck away. ]

No.

[his answer is immediate, voice even more commanding now.]

I'm not abandoning my team. Not twice. We're in this together here, and we're prepared this time. We're not falling apart, and we're not letting you slip through the cracks. You always have our backs, and we're gonna have yours. I'm not leaving, and neither are you.

[ He doesn't know how to deal with this. He feels like he's suffocating. Without thinking, Maine's fingers fly to the seal on his helmet. He tears the golden dome off and throws it, full force, at North. ]

LEAVE!

[ It rips out of him in a roar. He can't see North's reaction. Can't see because he's still fucking blind and—

[ And he just. Drops his head. Digs his fingers into his scalp — there's stubble there, though he doesn't feel it; stubble on his head and his face and he looks like shit — and he goes back to being very.

[ Very.

[ Still. ]

[there's a metal clang as metal connects to metal, and north feels the force of the helmet jerk his shoulder back. theta starts to panic. north ignores him.

[he shifts, reaches to touch maine's leg, then up to his find his arms because he knows--he knows the sound of agony. theta finally complies with requests, and helps him find his wrists. he knows he's at risk of being thrown. he doesn't care.]

Maine. [his voice is gentler now, though not pleading. it asks for attention, faces the roar of a goliath with the softness of a welcome home, and greets him with an open door.]

I'm not going anywhere. You aren't dealing with it alone. Breathe, big guy. Breathe.

[ Maine doesn't flinch. He doesn't retreat. If knowing how to flee was ever a part of him, it sure as fuck isn't anymore.

[ He growls — "get off, get away, what the fuck is wrong with you!?" — and North just. Fucking. Tells him to breathe.

[ God dammit.

[ He pulls in air. Chokes like it's water. Like he's drowning. Lets it out in a savage sound that's barely human.

[ Inhales water. Exhales snarling fury.

[ Inhales. Exhales. ]

[north will quietly urge his wrists down from where he can hear that sound coming out, trying to get him to relax his pose a bit, let some of the tension out. he doesn't have to be jelly, but bringing him down from "about to break in half" is good enough for now.]

Listen to me, alright? [there's encouragement and that same ease of comfort in his tone, and it's no wonder why they gave the A.I. representing "trust" to him.]

You are you. You are our teammate. You are the reason we know our six is covered, and you are the reason we've come back alive from impossible odds again and again. What you know of yourself right now, not the future, you right now, that's who you are, and that's who we know you are. You're Maine. And you're our friend.

[he doesn't expect a verbal response, doesn't look for one, just stays with him and listens to that breathing.]

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bloodbathing - 2017-08-25 00:58 (UTC) - Expand

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sightsset - 2017-08-25 01:03 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

D

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cw for accidental self harm

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