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

The person kneeling at the water's edge glances over her shoulder, and gives Aloy a friendly smile.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on ingesting this. Just running a few scans."

She cocks her head in a 'come on over' sort of way, and turns her attention back to the freaky water's surface. An orange, holographic device activates on her wrist, which she fiddles around with for a moment.

"Good call, though. We don't know if this substance is safe for consumption yet."

She'd realised the person at the water wasn't human, but not what or who they were - and her face brightens in recognition at the sight of Raeka. Or rather, at the combination of the sight of her, and her voice. If there are other salarians here, Aloy can only hope she'll be able to tell who's who.

"It might be fine, but I'd rather not..." Aloy trails off as a bright orange light flickers into life as a hologram around Raeka's arm - as if Aloy's own Focus had taken form as a bracer. She stares at it for a moment, watching Raeka work with it, before jolting back to attention.

"My Focus doesn't know what it is - just that it's definitely not pure water," she offers, reaching up to touch the little device at her ear - the hologram that appears only looks, to anyone watching, like a small blue ring of light at the side of her head. "I don't think it can...run more scans than that."

She says the last words in the manner of someone who's never said them before, but is trying them out in context, like learning a new language.

Raeka glances up at the device while Aloy talks about it. It doesn't look too different from the types of technology that she's used to, some type of neural interfacing computer if she had to guess. Something to ask about later.

"That's about all I'm able to pick up with my onmi-tool as well. I'm getting a foreign energy signature..."

She pauses, taking a moment to look over the readout from her scans.

"As far as I can tell, though, there don't appear to be any toxic substances in it."

She mouths the word omni-tool to herself while Raeka concentrates on the device. Unfortunately, wishing she could understand everything being said doesn't make it happen, so she has to stand there dumbly listening to it instead.

At least she knows what toxic substances are.

"Nothing that'll make us sick at all, or just nothing lethal?" She considers it for a second. "We might have to drink it anyway if we get desperate enough. I haven't seen any other water since we've been here, not even rain."

One of the many, many strange things about the storms raging outside.

That's okay, she's picking up on all the important bits. Maybe when all this is said and done, Raeka can tutor her on nerdy science and technology bullshit. Assuming they all manage to survive being stranded on this Hellhole of a planet.

"It won't kill us, I can tell you that much. I'm not picking up anything that I know will make us sick, which I'm going to say is a pretty good sign."

She stands up (to her full height of an absurd sevenish feet whats up shorty) and gives Aloy a little shrug.

"It'll do in a pinch to keep us hydrated, at the very least."

If Raeka ever gave any sign of being willing to tutor her, Aloy might never leave her alone. ...She's still not totally sure Raeka is a she, but Aloy's just going to default to that.

Then she stands up, and for a moment Aloy forgets all about water and just...stares a little. She's...huge. Taller than the tallest human she's ever seen. She manages to not grin stupidly at the sight of her... but only just.

"I'd rather not have to." She grimaces, then looks from the water to Raeka - or, more precisely, to her arm where the hologram is. "Can your omni-tool do that with everything? Tell you what it's made of?"

"As long as it's something that's already registered. It's rare to come across an unknown mineral or substance these days."

Whatever was in this water wasn't something Raeka was familiar with, though, and her omni-tool's readings were inconclusive.

"I wish I had something to keep a sample in. I won't be able to run any real tests on this without a proper laboratory, and I have a feeling it might be a while before I have access to one."

"A laboratory - is that like a workshop?" She feels like a child during...many conversations she has here, and particularly with Raeka, but she somehow likes that feeling. She's learned more in a matter of days than a lifetime trawling through ruins could have gotten her, and here there are people who seem to really want to help her learn.

"Here, though - would this work?" It's a tiny earthenware vial with a cork, drawn out of one of the pouches on her belt. She holds it out. "It had a health potion in it, but I won't be able to refill it, not here."

"Something like a workshop. They're largely used to conduct scientific experiments and tests on... well, things like this, for example. Unknown substances, other chemicals."

Raeka is more than happy to help Aloy learn, and in all honesty having someone to chat with is helping her stay focused.

She perks up a bit when Aloy pulls out the vial. It's not quite lab appropriate, but it's better than nothing by a long shot.

"I think that would work just fine. Do you happen to know what was in that potion?"

Studying and identifying chemicals isn't something her world has gotten to yet - the machines that roam the land do use chemicals, and the tribes use those chemicals in turn, but things like the chillwater Aloy has on her right at that moment is a total unknown. It freezes anything it touches, but how and why? She doesn't understand.

It may not be quite as interesting to her as the more technological side of things - like the omni-tool doing the scanning - but she has a hunger for that knowledge all the same.

"Yeah, I made it myself." She quickly describes the ingredients and process, which are basically various animal extracts boiled from the fat and meat and condensed.

"Is that a problem? Will it corrupt the water?"

"Possibly, but if I know what to look out for, I'll be able to tell it apart from what's in the water. A contaminated sample is better than no sample at all."

She takes a moment to scan the vial with her omni-tool for any residual animal proteins. After looking over her readings, she nods slightly and deactivates it before kneeling down next to the water again.

"That should do it. May I?"

She holds a hand out for the vial, not wanting to be a rude asshole and just grab it or something.

She wishes she could see what's showing up on the omni-tool, but it's probably rude to stare at it and she probably wouldn't understand what it said anyway. The chemical make-up of animal fat?

"No, go ahead." She puts the vial in Raeka's hand - three fingers! - and then blurts out, "When you take it to the lab, can I watch?" A pause, and she goes on hurriedly, "I won't get in the way, I just want to see how it's done. And I want to know what's in that water."

It's a request she feels a little awkward making - she's never felt more like an ignorant savage than in this place - but it was out before she could think too deeply about it.

Three entire fingers. Raeka takes the vial, grinning at Aloy's barely contained enthusiasm. How could she say no to a request like that?

"Of course, I'd be happy to show you. I wouldn't be able to keep a sample if it weren't for you, after all."

She turns back to the water and fills the vial, then pops the cork back in.

"In fact, I'm going to need your assistance again, it seems. I'm... afraid I don't have any pockets."

Hey Aloy wanna carry the weird space water around?

If she'd ever seen anything like this back home, she would have had to just avoid it - or, in a situation like this, simply drunk it before becoming dehydrated, never knowing what it was and probably being content in the not knowing. There's no point in dwelling too much on things that are completely, permanently out of reach.

But here she is, in a world where if someone doesn't understand something, they can study it, examine it, work it out with the help of machines no one thinks are taboo or a corruptive influence. And Raeka, for whom this seems as natural as breathing, is here offering to show her how to do it too.

They're in a pretty dire situation, but somehow happiness is welling up in her anyway. It's bursting out through the smile on her face.

"Yeah, I'll take it. As long as I don't mix it up with the real potions and drink it, it should be fine."

She'll keep it separated.

"Hopefully we can get out of here before we have to drink this." She nods at the water, making a face at it. Somehow even the look of it makes her uneasy - like a duller version of the Blaze she uses in incendiary weapons.

Aloy's smile alone is uplifting, but it's the face she makes at the water that has Raeka chuckling after she hands the water off. Humans make the best faces okay.

"Thank you. I don't think we have too much further to go, at least until we reach this signature we've been following. We won't know if it can get us out until we reach it, just have to take it one step at a time."

She glances quickly at Raeka at that chuckle, but... She finds herself laughing a little, albeit hesitantly. Maybe that was a really dumb face she made, okay.

"Yeah, that's what I've been trying to do. Take it one step at a time. I'm still trying to understand everything that's going on here, but it's hard to think or...ask too many questions...when you're too busy worrying about food and water and storms that melt rock."

This stuff is not just dangerous, but inconvenient.

Super inconvenient. The lack of food and water would be bad enough on it's own, but the storms were a little overkill.

"There's a lot of new information for all of us to take in, you're certainly not alone there. I know that it's frustrating, not being able to find all the answers we want right when we want them, but we'll get them."

Eventually.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

CAVE TIME

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aaaaa sorry this has been A Week

It's all good friendo we all have those weeks

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