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doubled down
"I used to live in a room of mirrors, and all I could see was me..."
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.
Those that arrive will find they have a very short amount of time to actually adjust to time on the Moira before the ship is preparing to enter the orbit of a nearby planet. Shifts in gravity are normal, but for the most part, things carry on as usual.
WELCOME TO EMIRI
Despite recent events, it seems things are slowly coming to a standstill. As the Moira comes closer to this new planet, the Captains relay a message to the crew informing them that they are required to dock and stay on Emiri for an indeterminate amount of time due to the nature of its most prized resource: matchmaking. Although it is universally known by many other names, Emiri is a central hub for pairing others with their true intended—or second self. Each crew member will be asked to participate in a series of MANDATORY tests - both physical and mental - so that their profile may be uploaded into an efficient database before being allowed to explore what Emiri has to offer. Curious about the process? Don't be! Side effects to these simple tests are rare, and while some of them may be lengthy, the majority of them are timely, efficient, and short.
However, the company responsible for this modern miracle is well-known, especially throughout Emiri, and each Morian should verse themselves as to exactly who they are and what they do.LINK'D INC.
The Art of Once
Link’d Inc. knows that finding your second self isn’t easy, so we take the guesswork out of it for you. If you’re looking for love, a perfect genetic match, a person to help you build an empire, or something more, you’ve come to the right place. Link’d Inc. runs mental and physical screenings and performs a background analysis--all at your discretion. Immediate customization of a detailed profile is ready for you in seconds.
This profile is then calibrated into our system and cross-examined with over 99.9 billion others. We’ll find you your second self, the perfect counterpart, the very first try. It’s the chance of a lifetime. It’s the life you deserve. It’s... The Art of Once.These are some of the many different sorts of advertisements found throughout Emiri describing the corporation responsible for this advanced science. Its founder, Frederick Link, is not easily contacted, but there is some information available about him. Anyone that asks will be told bits and pieces of the following: Frederick Link searched the universes for his perfect match, only to be met with disappointment and loneliness. A businessman at heart, but a romantic to his very core, Link decided to take that perceived failure and channel it into a company that could provide others with the very thing he longed for: the perfect second self. Two years into development, during a trial run, Link was matched with a woman from a neighboring galaxy, and they’ve been together ever since. A prosperous thirty year relationship shows that the methods of Link’d Inc. can provide a person with love, romance, a business and life partner, or anything else that one might need. Whether they hear all of it is determined by how much the crew explores the vast cities of Emiri, which are connected to one another by a railway system that makes travel quick and simple. There are also numerous other modes of transportation that range from cars and trucks to boats and bicycles.HARASHANCommercial & Professional
Map of HarashanPopulation: ~ 7.28 million
Major Landmark: The Aerospace
Literacy Rate: 95%
Harashan is the main district for education and learning. There are countless programs and schools offered to those of varying races and ethnicities throughout the galaxy. Want to learn another language? Perhaps brush up on some of the arts that were never quite mastered? This is the place to perfect things that need a bit of fine tuning. It is also the main business capital and transportation hub of Emiri—the aerospace is located centrally, a busy place that monitors the comings and goings of every ship. The Link'd Inc. corporate office can be found here, as well as its chains and subsidiaries (i.e., screening facilities and health services). Their motto is: Finding your second is a business strategy. Get it right the first time.☄ DATING 101: Someone thinks you need a little more education before meeting your one and only because you're now being forced to attend reform school. Ettiquette, dining, dancing, and more, there are countless lessons you'll be taught and tested over through the course of your stay on Emiri. Perhaps you won't be so unlucky and have someone to share in the experience. ( 01.01 - 01.17 ) ☄ BOARDED UP: Crew members located in this city will be passed a flier by an unrecognizable stranger who is immediately swallowed up in the crowd of Harashan; being able to follow them will be impossible. Yet, the thin paper has nothing on it but a specific address. Asking some of the locals eventually leads to an abandoned station on the outskirts of the city in the opposite direction of the Aerospace. It's dirty and falling apart, like the residents of Emiri have completely ignored its existence. There are also signs of a struggle in random areas throughout—black scorch marks, bullet holes, and dried blood stains. Yet, the most noticeable feature is the single flag tacked onto a wall just down a flight of steps that leads to a closed subway system bearing an unfamiliar symbol. What happened here? Why won't anyone know what you're talking about if you question them? Something seems to be brewing beneath the business-driven energy of Harashan. ( 01.18 )
AvelleRomance & Love
Map of AvellePopulation: ~ 2.1 million
Major Landmark: Wem-Run River
Crime Rate: 15%
Avelle is Emiri's second largest city and is centered around those individuals looking for their second based on love compatibility versus the "entire package". However, it differs from Harashan due to its increase in families rather than individuals and is more suburban in its layout. While it does have schools and general places as Harashan does, its most noted feature is the Wem-Run River, which courses through the center of the city. Much of Avelle's energy and livelihood is generated by this natural formation, but the water is not drinkable. Their motto is: Finding your second is finding your soulmate. The first time is the only time.☄ FAMILY MATTERS: Congratulations! You've been given the keys to a new place of your very own, completely furnished and with no strings attached. But there's always a catch, right? Well. It's the starting foundation of your new life with your second—regardless of whether or not you've met. So, get settled and get comfortable. You have a while to figure out what you're going to do. ( 01.01 - 01.17 )
☄ BOMBS AWAY: Crew members located in this city will suddenly feel the slightest tremor shake the ground. Depending on how close you are to the Wem-Run River, it might be possible to see the remains of a burning ship. You might even notice the few figures in the water who are immediately swept up by - what appear to be - the authorities of Avelle. If you're further from the water, there will be thick black smoke pouring into the air, and as the crowd begins to grow larger, it's almost impossible to see what happens across the river. Yet, some of the debris will wash ashore eventually, and pieces of the boat will bear an unfamiliar symbol. What happened here? Why won't anyone know what you're talking about if you question them? Why do they whisper Komai? Something seems to be brewing beneath the light-hearted energy of Avelle. ( 01.18 )
St. MurtelGenetic & Biological
Map of St. MurtelPopulation: ~ 867,000
Major Landmark: Link'd Inc. Gen-Lab
Success Rate: ERROR
Unlike other cities across Emiri, St. Murtel's access is extremely limited and monitored closely. It is the center of medicial-related queries as well as laboratories and other screening facilities. Physical and mental conditioning and other educations are held in the pristine buildings of St. Murtel due to its heavy focus on pairing people from a genetic level to "create a better future". The streets are clean despite the vast highways that runs either side of the center of the city. Settled between these busy roads is the Link'd Inc. Gen-Lab. Their motto is: Finding your second is for the future. A perfect legacy is only born once.
☄ INFANT POSSIBILITIES: The future is closer than you think! With help from several Link'd Inc. sources, you can now know what your offspring will look like. Accessing the system is easy, and all candidates who have been logged through Link'd Inc.'s matching process will be available to view by anyone. Not the most precious thing you've ever seen? Don't worry! There are even programs that assist with altering what those genes may produce so that you can have exactly what you've always wanted. ( 01.01 - 01.17 )
☄ CUFFED: Crew members located in this city will notice an unrest arising within the people slowly gathering outside the Link'd Inc. Gen-Lab. Upon closer inspection, it seems the authorities have been contacted due to some sort of threat, and if you look even closer, that "threat" is a person being arrested and detained for questioning. What might strike you as odd is the an unfamiliar symbol inked into the back of their jacket and the shout the stranger gets out before being shoved into a locked vehicle. "The Komai won't stop until it's over!" What's happened here? Why won't anyone know what you're talking about if you question them? Who was that person and what did they mean? Something seems to be brewing beneath the strict energy of St. Murtel. ( 01.18 )
( ooc; For questions or more planet information, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )
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hownkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-01-01 12:09 am
no subject
"Consider my self-esteem bolstered," he grins as the guy kicks out a chair for him, and Varric very happily throws himself into it, leaning forward with his forearms on the table...although he lifts one up to wave a demurring hand as he's offered a drink. "Trying to cut back.
"So you're minding your own business, shopping for the best bedlinen money can buy, or imbibing some kind of illicit substance in a dark alley, or doing an honest day's work - I won't judge - when before you know it you're sitting in the middle of the void with no idea what in the sodding hell you did in your life that brought you up to this moment. What do you do?"
A glance at the bottles. "After getting into the sauce."
Literally.
no subject
"Nice story. Good n' vague, those are my favorite." He winks, as if sharing a conspiratory secret. One he's not quite ready to spill the beans on, not completely. The ketchup helped certain things along their way, sure, but Sans didn't technically have lips to loosen.
"You'll have to be the one buying the drinks if you want my story, pal." A beat. "Though I guess the drinks are free here, huh? Heh, guess you're out of luck."
no subject
"Oooh." He makes a motion like a wince, eyes narrowing minutely for a second as he grins. "You know if you don't tell me anything, I'll have no choice but to make it all up. Thrilling escapades fighting the legendary skeleton war. An epic quest to throw your best jewellery into a fiery mountain. Causing a foreign national incident by mixing up the words for 'goat' and 'insurgence'."
...Quick pause. "Although you might be able to distract me with free drinks."
no subject
"Not gonna lie, pal, I like your version way better." Unable to quiet his rolling chuckle, Sans takes a few moments to compose himself. It isn't often someone gets him quite this good. It's enough to make him think back to his friend behind the door.
Not that he dwells there long. There's a wise-cracking tiny human across from him, he doesn't have time to be chasing ghosts.
"How 'bout we play a game. S'my favorite game. You don't gotta say anything about anything." A percussive tap rings out as Sans smacks his hand down, signalling for more drinks. "You say something you've never done, and if the other person has done it, they've gotta drink. Interested?"
no subject
"Never Have I Ever?" He loves that one - it's worth getting ass over tits drunk just for the entertainment from the rest of the table. "You've got yourself a game."
He's getting up to get himself a drink as he goes on, "Usually I play this with people I already know, tell really specific stories they've all done and watch everyone get too drunk to even remember what they did this morning, so this'll be something."
When he comes back a minute later, it's with more ketchup for Sans...and something he opened, tasted, decided it would do and took it. It's actually cooking sake.
And a cup. He has some class.
"Right." He fills a cup and gestures to Sans. "Your game."
no subject
Well, that's what games were for, right? Sans took the bottle, showing a distinct lack of class as he upended the bottle towards his mouth. He doesn't drink, though. Not yet.
"Alright," pausing, for effect, "never have I ever been a human."
no subject
He leans forward just a little, playing his part as the guy - maybe he should ask for a name at some point? Nah - pauses dramatically...then his face crinkles in a wide grin as he leans back and, though he raises his cup to the attempt, pointedly doesn't drink. In fact, he's already thinking of his own question.
"Never have I ever..." The pause is partly for effect, partly to consider how to word it, "been killed and then reanimated."
Hey, start simple. Simple and nonsensical. But he's been working on a vague 'human who was killed then reanimated as a skeleton with blood magic and possible spirit involvement' theory for at least two minutes.
no subject
But there was neither enough time nor skull-capacity to dwell on that particular mystery. The non-human was putting out his own feelers, it seemed, and Sans was drunk enough to look momentarily baffled by the question.
Did it count as reanimation if the circumstances of your death were erased...?
Nah.
Sans drummed his bony fingers on the side of his glass, letting a rolling tink-tink-tink fill the silence. He did not drink.
"Never have I ever wished I could get back home."
no subject
(How the hell do you become a walking skeleton without some sort of reanimation at work?)
"Do I wish I could go back home..."
His first reaction is that right now? He wants to stay here and see how it pans out. He wants to experience every damn thing this ship has to offer, get to know everyone on board, poke into everything. It's been in his mind for a while already that his ability to help the Inquisition is limited, and his desire to go back to that is limited to that of a housewife who doesn't want to leave her burning house.
But then he thinks of Kirkwall, a city he may not specifically want to go to now but did the whole time he was in Haven, then later Skyhold - of getting back to his home and rebuilding it, making it into something he recognises as his home again, that all of the people in it can recognise as their home - scars and warts and all. In that moment, from his expression of thoughtfulness comes something inadvertently more wistful, raw. All he can think to do to deflect from it...is drink, and he does.
"Kirkwall isn't exactly the kind of city anybody travels to on purpose, but it's home." He peers at his cup of alcohol. "And this isn't half bad."
Anyway, Varric's momentary emotional lapse aside, he considers Sans, tapping the side of his cup with a decidedly quieter thunk on the ceramic.
"Never have I ever used magic in any way."
no subject
Kirkwall, though. Aside from the fact that it probably contained at least one wall and a dude named Kirk, Sans was at a loss. He filed it away. Later.
Right now, he has a drink to take.
"Heh, that's an easy one." Sans grinned, looking almost bored while he lifts one bony finger skyward. In an instant, his glass rises from the table ensconced in a blue glow. Once finished, the glass drops back down again, sloshing ketchup onto the table in the process.
"Never have I ever gotten so drunk a new pal is probably gonna have to drag me to my room later."
Sans hesitates a moment, and then drinks at his own question.
no subject
But putting that aside, Varric's gaze flickers to the glowing glass, follows its progress up from the table, then he nonchalantly wipes a spatter of ketchup off his own cup with a finger before sucking it off his fingertip.
So, a mage. He knows people who would instantly be profoundly uncomfortable - but Varric's never been one of those people. People are people, and demons aren't always magical. But it's something to make note of.
And then he's taking a drink of his own, emptying the cup and chuckling as he immediately pours himself a new one. It's not entirely true - he's never had to be carried anywhere by someone he hasn't known for years, but it's not a point he's going to begrudge. Besides, he's got a fair of drinking to do to catch up.
"Never have I ever not been called Varric Tethras."
no subject
"I don't buy that for a second, but alright. Never have I ever been called anything but Sans." He stopped a beat, snickering before taking another drink of his own. "Shit. Well that's not true, either. Guys like us, pal, we get called all sorts of things."
no subject
Varric laughs in a way that's very close to a cackle and drinks deeply. "OK, maybe I lied a little. That's not the only name I've been called since I've been here."
Shoutout to
Tailgate Tiffany, wherever he may be right now.
"Never have I ever been directly responsible for blowing anything up. Yet."
no subject
"Alright," he broke his ponderous silence, finally. "Define blowing up. Does there have to be collateral damage for it to count?"
no subject
...Yeah, OK, as if that matters when you're drunk. Varric is not drunk, he's not there yet, but there's a pleasant kind of heat in his blood that means it's coming soon enough. He just has to keep helping it along.
"Have you ever caused an explosion without doing collateral damage? I'm impressed. I thought that was half the fun of blowing shit up."
Still grinning, he swirls his drink in his cup and then says, "How about non-magical explosions. The magic kind is cheating."
no subject
"You'd be amazed what sort of stuff goes down in a lab, my friend." He took the drink, and then a second. After all, the non-magical caveat was a latent addition to the rules. It was only fair he drink for both.
"Never have I ever fallen madly in love."
no subject
"One of these days I'm going to ask you what does go down in a lab where you're from."
But he has a drink to take, so he does - another glass gone, and he's pouring the next.
"She's back in my room, I'll have to introduce the two of you."
no subject
It's rude to talk about people who might be (are...?) listening, after all.
"Oh yeah? That's lucky, getting kidnapped with your girlfriend." He paused a beat. "Wife?"
no subject
"Very lucky, if you ask me. I don't know how I'd manage without her." He raises his cup as if toasting her, then gestures with it to Sans. "I'll introduce the two of you sooner or later." ...Then he realises that if Sans only knew what Bianca was, that could have been taken very badly, and he snorts to himself.
"Right... Never have I ever...seen an alien. Before I ended up on this ship, that is." Apparently everybody and their mothers around here just takes this whole extraterrestrial 'we come from outer space' shit entirely in their stride.
no subject
Sans was already pounding back another swig in response to Varric's question. He could have stopped short at merely another sip, but with the bottle so close to empty...
Dropping it back on the table triumphantly, Sans looked caught in a giggling daze.
"I'm won't alien to ya. Most of the stuff aboard this tub is pretty new to me." The pun was weak, but in all honesty Sans was getting a little fargone. This was about the point where his brother would storm in and princess carry him to bed. He was late this evening. "But hey, never have I ever complained about my lot in life."
no subject
And he's still laughing as he drinks. "If I could make coin out of complaining about my lot in life, I'd never have to do business again. I could retire to Rivain and write books from the comfort of my villa or...some shit."
He stares at his empty cup, eyes the bottle. "Andraste's ass, I'm drunk."
Didn't quite see that coming.
no subject
"N' you're a writer. Damn. I got a million more questions now." He leaned forward abruptly across the table, gesturing with an empty ketchup bottle. "You gotta write me something for my kid brother's bedtime stories, alright? He'd flip for something personalized."
no subject
"Andraste is the spiritual wife of the Maker," he says, trying to affect a pious voice and doing very badly at it. "The founder of the Chantry and the source of its teachings..." He snorts into his drink. He's not good at piety, despite ostensibly being Andrastian.
"You might have to ask me when I'm sober, otherwise I'm not sure he'd be able to read it." He drinks, but now it's just for the sake of it. "Unless deciphering it's half the fun."
no subject
"Nah, nah, I'll help you start. Okay. Here y'go." Steadying himself in a vain attempt to quell his laughter, Sans began. "Once upon a time, there was a super great skeleton who was awesome at everything he tried."
Another drink, another gesture in Varric's direction.
"Now you."