I
N
T
R
O
L
O
G
|
by the inquest
"Arguments on their nature are refuted by those who return to shore, wide-eyed with tales of their savagery."
All Moirans are woken to the sounds of the ship coming to a rather grating halt some time in the early morning cycle. It’s no faster or slower than any other stop, but it is unexpected as the captains didn’t mention an upcoming disembarkment. Shortly after, a message is sent to every MID:Navigation has informed us that we’re approaching bad traveling conditions: an overactive star. Instead of stopping on Liant El, we’ll be docking here on Ceta. Please exercise caution while gathering supplies and during excursions. Follow their safety guidelines. If the chance allows, we’ll also be signing new crew on the planet. Please greet them first and show them to the ship. Thank you. The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a long platform and that the room is filled with a soft cerulean light. It's slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you, and nothing is familiar.
For those few who come through Ceta's Ingress, there will be crew of the Moira there to greet you. They tell you of the Ingress, how it is broken, even on this planet, and that the ship is headed back to the origin of this technology. This planet’s Ingress is set precariously atop a floating rock formation, the only way from one area to the next is on small air-propelled boats. Crew members will guide everyone back to the Moira and take them to the Medbay; contracts will be signed posthaste.
WELCOME TO CETA
At first glance, Ceta seems mostly inhabitable, and that's because it is. The atmosphere around the planet is surprisingly thick in most places, sometimes thin in others, and without some way to filter the air, it is mostly unbreathable; it's a giant gas planet, its core made of various molten metals and the atmosphere a mix of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrous. Ceta's gravity is also uneven, meaning that some areas will have stronger focal points than others. The terrain, when it is visible, appears rather rocky—hardly the best conditions for life and stable living. What's more unusual, however, is that despite this fact, there is, indeed, a small populace "living" among the mist and clouds, but it's clear they do not live here year-round. It's hunting season, and they are there for the bounty.
These visitors have built small platforms that are hooked together by ropes and swinging bridges, which they call "temporaries". Unstable buildings are rare, dangerous, and spread out over these temporaries to prevent damage or accidents. The temporaries float along, swaying and shifting with the planet’s atmosphere, and posted at every point of entry and all open surfaces are a particular set of rules that everyone must abide by. They are written in dark ink and large block letters so that all passing by will stop and read them:
NO FIRE. Flammables, ignition sources, matches, lighters, and anything that creates a spark is prohibited. The atmosphere has higher levels of hydrogen, and the smallest spark will create a problem.
AIR BREATHABILITY. Monitor your vitals. Wear masks or re-breathers if needed.
WATCH THE EDGE. All walkways are the only thing from you and falling. Be cautious and watch your step. These signs should be given their due attention. The edge is just that: the end of where it is safe to walk. If a wooden plank gives way beneath your feet, you will plummet through hundred of miles of atmosphere before hitting the planet’s thin surface. The captains reiterate that crew should be careful and stick to the main temporaries, gather supplies, visit at their leisure, and then go back to the ship.
☄ IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE!The organisms that have evolved on this planet are unintelligent—a fact that is told to you by the other visitors. As there is no solid materials or ways for them to interact with their environments, these giants float along within the atmosphere, though it appears that they are flying when they are merely navigating through. They travel in groups of three or more and sometimes come close to the outskirts of the temporaries. Because there is an invisible filtration dome around the temporaries, this allows the creatures to pass through without harm and return again into the mist as they please. They are difficult to see at night and are rather skittish in the presence of sudden light.
☄ @ THE MUSEUM Every evening when work is done, artificial light sources illuminate the streets of the temporaries. There is one bar, if you can actually call it that, but the main attraction is a museum. The support structure appears to be made out of the skeletal system of the giants that "swim" and live on Ceta, and though the outside seems rather unassuming, the inside is not for the faint of heart. As it's considered informative, there are displays of the internal structures and functions of the very creatures that seem harmless and as unintelligent as the visitors claim. There are sections of the museum dedicated to their anatomy and what makes them so valuable: inside their air sacs, which is what gives the illusion to flying through the atmosphere, is a mineral that, when harvested, attunes and sharpens the senses so that brain capacity and function excel over one-hundred percent efficiency. Likewise, aside from these informative areas, there is also a history of how and when the visitors began to hunt them for this valuable, unnamed resource.
☄ HARVEST SEASON Are you looking for work? Or perhaps you're bored with your duties aboard the Moira and prefer to see just what it is these visitors do during the day? Hunters will often pay for menial labor to help with the killing and retrieval of the giants of Ceta. It is by day, not by hour, and once aboard one of the many ships, you will be put to work handling equipment or being on the lookout for "signs" of the creatures. Once they've been spotted, the real work isn't in capturing them or even trying to subdue them—though they give a good fight. It's in the harvest, done below deck once they have been safely brought into the ship's cargo areas by the tethers, that can get quite gruesome. As a defense mechanism, cutting into the skin creates a rather noxious emission that can cause disorientation, hallucinations, or unconsciousness. Worst case scenarios can often result in death.
☄ WORD LIMITS As things are beginning to wind up (or down), something seems to have gotten into the MID systems and caused a malfunction. On the morning of 03.13, it suddenly becomes clear that communicating with others who are not from the same universe or similar timelines seems very difficult. Understanding each other becomes rather hopeless as the day continues, and these repercussions can be felt across the entire ship. The Captains send out another MID message that appears as a jumble of unusual letters and symbols. However, there is one word that can be read by everyone and (hopefully) understood: RATCHET. Figuring out this problem shouldn't take long if everyone can leap the language barriers and work together.
( ooc; All New Arrivals: you have the choice of coming through the Moira's Ingress OR Ceta's Ingress. For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hownkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-03-01 02:40 pm
Temporaries?
Are you alright? [He's quietly concerned and cautious, but keeping an eye on the edges closest to her just in case she isn't herself - the wings aren't for show, after all.]
no subject
no subject
Watch out -
[It's almost reflex to not depend on other people paying attention; he does move, airborne fast to get over the edge behind her, just in case she lost track of it in her panic. It might not be entirely calming, but he'd rather prioritize making sure she doesn't fall to her death.]
no subject
No, no! What do you want?
[She puts her arms out in front of her like she can ward him away.]
no subject
[His clawed hands, at least, are back in front of him, open and empty, his taloned feet tucked folded as much as he can.]
For you to not end up over the edge, right now.
no subject
Why not? Wanna get me yourself?
no subject
Because I'd rather not need to catch you so you don't fall to your death.
[He'd be more upset if it hadn't become an old song and dance over the last year of his life; even without word spreading around about man-eating monsters, he knows what he looks like.]
no subject
What? Why? Why do you care?
[She's still cringing away from him, tone still acidic.]
no subject
I'm going to guess 'basic decency' isn't a reason you'd trust. [After all, a kid being that skittish to begin with even before she'd seen him probably had reasons, and he knew he wasn't exactly a comforting figure.] I just signed a contract that involves being responsible for the safety of others, and before that, I swore an oath as a knight to protect others. I'm not about to go back on my word any time soon.
no subject
[Honestly, who cares about decency these days?
But a person's word is something she can put trust in. It was all people had to abide by at home. She calms a little.]
I ain't no other you got to look after. You ain't responsible for me.
no subject
Well, you're nearby, you looked like you were having a bad time, and it's not like I've sorted out a Hell of a lot of what I'm doing with myself right now anyway.
["I was bored and restless" is totally a defense for meddling, right?] And if I ended up startling you enough to go over the edge, I would be responsible for that.
no subject
Then don't go around all [She makes a vague hand gesture over herself.] wings and claws. Who's not gonna scream outta their skin spyin' that?
[She's settling down, more or less just pouting at this stage.]
This the kind of people they got on this rock?
no subject
[He isn't good at this.] I just got pulled here; I haven't seen anyone else like this.
[Which...was a little bit of a relief, really, since his form was the result of something of a curse.]
no subject
From the funny ship? Another one of the kidnapped?
no subject
I was spit through the Ingress earlier. Still getting my bearings, really, even if there's no way in Hell I could stay on this world. [He sighs, but it's mostly an excuse for a few sparks on the inside of the mask in demonstration; he's at least hoping she's seen the signs warning about fire hazards.]
no subject
Another stolen person then. [Which, geez, how many of them were there? Just how much crew does the ship need?] I dunno. Seems a lot better than stickin' with the kidnappers. Even if this place is kinda all dangerous and borin' and stuff.
no subject
[He waves a claw at the clouds stretching out around them with a bit of a thousand-yard long-suffering stare. He'd consider being stubborn if it weren't a planet where a stray nightmare might end in very real explosions.]
no subject
[She sounds both unimpressed and disbelieving. Despite something inhuman standing in front of her, magic was still a stretch beyond her imagination. The only magic she knew of belonged to the Witch and her power was more a fact of the universe than anything extraordinary.]
no subject
[Sure, the whales seem peaceable enough, but where there's large harmless things, there's always equally large predators, in his experience, and that's not getting into trusting the natives.] There's one of those portals here that grabbed us, too, but I'd be the last person to figure out how to get it to send us home, anyway. [His dark glance towards Cetus's ingress gets broken up with an uncertain pause.]
Do you have anything to go back to?
no subject
[He looks capable enough to throw a wicked punch, at any rate.]
I know. I came through it.
[And had to be forced on the ship. She would have rather stayed out here.
She looks away, refusing to meet his gaze at the question. She doesn't have a home anymore, not without the boys. But the desert is as much part of her as they were and the familiar sands are better than here.]
I gotta go back. Ain't nothin' for me here.