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

[ It's obviously not long after Charles's wheelchair breaks down that the responsibility for carrying him along is taken by those capable, passing him around as needed. Tex is sure that's utterly humiliating, but there's not much to be done about it. It's what's necessary, so when Charles is passed to her, she gathers him up bridal-style. The armor is biomechanical in nature, leading to increased strength, though she could never do in the armored suit what she had been capable of in her robot body. Still, it means carrying him isn't as strenuous as it might otherwise have been. So when she sets him down and he insists on her taking a break, she considers refusing. He ought to have something to eat, too. But after a pause, she assents. ]

I'll rest for a while. But I do think you've got the short end of the stick, here.

[ The snort he gives in response says more than words properly could in this context. ]

I'm not the one having to actually traverse the bloody terrain, so forgive me if I don't buy that.

[ The chair breaking down is an inconvenience. Maybe more than that, if he gives himself the time and space to consider it. Neither to now have really been a luxury to take advantage of, and while the burden of not leaving him behind certainly comes with a strain of humiliation written into near every part of its execution, it's a humiliation he'll have to bear if he wants to maintain any sort of personal preservation at all.

And all things considered, he finds that the embarrassment pales in comparison to the burden she's taken on with little prompting. This wouldn't be an easy trip on anyone under the best of circumstances. He can only imagine the additional strain it involves now. His pride is barely a piece of the equation here. ]

[ She lowers herself down next to him and settles in, stretching her legs as best she can through the armor, and leans back. ]

Well, I would be...

[ She pauses, not sure how to say what she means without being insensitive. After this she decides to try a different tack. ]

You weren't around the first time the Moira crashed. The body— My body, fell from atmosphere. It weakened in cryo, and when everything was recovered afterward I had to rebuild my strength from a very poor state.

[ She looks off into the distance for a long moment, before sighing out a breath. ]

I'm not like you, you know. I have a choice if I don't want to stay in this body. I can use my robot instead if I want to. But I stayed.

[ She raises her hand to her chin, as though contemplating what to continue with. No, there really is no way to say what she means without sounding like a jerk. ]

Anyway. I've been on both sides of the equation here. And you definitely have the short end of the stick.

[ It's a difficult thing, to read emotion through the gear that separates them, but he thinks he understands well enough. What he can understand, at least, without prying intentionally. He sighs softly, and while the touch may not mean next to anything like this, he still finds his hand settled atop hers. Charles shakes his head after a pause. ]

I had a choice.

[ Quiet, more exhausted than he's sounded yet. ]

Not much of one, not one I talk about much with my students present, but...I did. A colleague of mine discovered a treatment for... [ Well, they know what for. ] But it took this-- [ He motions to his temple. ] --away. So, do I keep my legs, or the mutation?

Like I said, it wasn't much of a choice. And I know what it's like from the other side. These-- [ and a motion back to his legs, settled out in front of him ] --don't make me who I am. It took a long time to recognize that. It's a frustration at times, yes, but I don't think I bear that alone right now, do I?

[ She watches him for a moment with a new appreciation of the choices he has made. ]

I don't think I would be able to take it. I was built to fight. Literally. But...I can understand you making that choice. It was the right one for you.

[ She looks back out into the distance again. ]

It's funny. I never would have chosen the human body if I wasn't given a specific reason to stay. I would have chosen the robot and let the human body rot. But...now, I'm not sure that would have been the best thing for me.

[ She pauses, a slight chuckle passing her lips. ]

You know, I don't believe in destiny. But the way things have worked out for me sometimes leaves me needing to keep reminding myself of that.

We have a curious tendency toward coincidence, don't we? I've always put my faith in choice--after all, what's the point in Will if it's beyond us to control? But you're right. Sometimes it looks too clean to be anything other than Providence.

[ He considers it more self-determination, than anything. Being so convinced of an outcome that the mind finds a way. But people still have the capacity to surprise him. And that is why they're so worth protecting. ]

Whether or not it was the right choice--and those leading to it were not all so aggrandizing--it was the one I made.

And who can say what's 'right' anyway?

[ She says the words in a mutter. She thinks about this more than she'd care to admit. After all, she was made to be an assassin, and by now, she has no idea how many she has killed. But they were all people, with lives of their own, which she had cut short. ]

I know it's not me.

Sometimes, I think "right" can change for all of us. You have a right to define that for yourself, at least. [ He pauses for a beat, recognizing the change in tone, even if her body language is harder to get a grasp on like this. ] And it's never too late to choose to change our path.

[ She pauses before responding, blinking dumbly behind her face mask. ]

Yeah. I need to keep that in mind, these days.

[ She brings her hands together, trailing the fingers of one hand along the other palm. ]

I want to live the best life I can. Until this happened, I thought I wanted to stay on Thisavrou indefinitely.

I think plenty of us took the situation for granted.

[ Hell, he'd been told as much upon arrival, let alone now when a peaceful resolution seems so very, very far away. ]

I have students to get back home to, but...all things considered, it could have been much worse.

[ It could have been this. ]

Yes. It could have.

[ She sits, and thinks for a bit. ]

If we get out of this, I think I'm not going to take anything for granted for a long, long time.

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

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