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

[ Seeing Elena is a relief. If this journey is going to be anything like it was the first time, he's going to want to keep his people close enough to know they haven't reached some terrible end somewhere.

All the same, it would've been better if she'd magically escaped this little adventure. ]

I guess it beats jail or execution. Think we'll get a fair trial? Not that I even know what the justice system is around here, beyond "toss people through spacetime with impunity."

[ If they all could've escaped this little adventure, if they all could've escaped the hell they've had to endure these last few months, life would've been great. But such thoughts, such wishes, they're hopeless now that they're faced with this wasteland.

Seeing Tony now and having come through with Nate, Hawke and Pepper shouldn't be too far, same for Varric. They just need to find them and keep close. ]

I don't think there is such a thing. Trials don't seem to exist in this world.

[ While she is relieved and happy to see him, she looks away and finds herself drawn to the wide shoulders of her husband in the crowd, watching him in silence before turning her gaze back up to her shrapnel buddy. ]

Tony... I need to tell you something. I only ask that it stays between us for now.

[ If trials did exist in this world, they're apparently on reserved for the Savrii. Not that it matters now.

He glances over at her, unable to hide the slight frown. ]

Sounds ominous, but my lips are sealed.

[ She sighs, though it isn't in relief.

Not sure who could be within hearing she shifts closer, hands half out of sight by the shawl but still there for him to see how she worries the skin between thumb and forefinger, wringing them. ]

Nate would have kept this to himself— [ For good reason. ] —but there was an incident about a month ago, some time around when things began to shift between all of us and the Savrii.

[ Here was where she began to pause; did she mention Ahab by name? She wouldn't throw him under the bus, only two others knew, Kaz Miller aside. ]

I and...another. We ran into some trouble with some natives—three of them. I was trying to help them but they didn't appreciate the interruption, which was in no way violent. It was civil. I can only assume they didn't like the looks of the other person and they immediately turned hostile. [ Feeling the need to take a breath here, she does so, chest feeling tight as she remembers back to that night, the blood painted brightly over the fresh fallen snow. ] Long story short—I killed one of them.

[ It was over a month ago, the incident was long over, but that didn't stop the random nightmares from creeping in to remind her. Like her subconscious refused to allow her to forget. The need to confide in someone else she could trust, it had to be done, though she'd been hesitant and withdrawn for so long to the idea of laying out her burdens for someone else to know. Her burdens were her own, this was one she was having difficulty coming to terms with.

Elena lifts her eyes and expects to see a deeper frown. Hopes that it's there, even. She expects judgment at the very least. ]

[ This is pretty far from anything Tony guessed he'd be told, that's for sure, and the surprise is plainly evident on his face. "Elena" and "killed someone" don't slot together in his head, like being told a fish can fly or a bird can breathe underwater. While the concept itself doesn't make sense, other things do - like why Elena felt the need to get out of dodge so abruptly, now that he thinks about it.

He has to wonder if their sudden daytrip back to the Midway Hub is somehow related, but he's hardly cruel enough to speculate about that out loud. Instead: ]

Self-defense?

[ He can't imagine it being anything else, but he still wants to hear it. ]

[ Surprise she'd also expected, and had openly received. Surprise was something she could handle.

Another slow inhale that leads to an unsteady exhale is quiet between the two of them. That is technically what the incident on her end would've fallen under, if there were a category. Ahab on the other hand... No, Elena can't and she will not allow him to take the full fall. It didn't matter that he'd pulled out a gun to pop a bullet into one of the three resident's skulls.

She nods once as she finds herself holding the eye contact, steady in that regard. ]

He was— he was choking me. On Aioros, that's how I... [ Pressing her lips flat together cuts her off from continuing: that's how it had happened, that's how I had died. But he knows, anyone she's been comfortable talking to about it since her return from the dead knows, including most of her people. ] I just panicked, Tony. I had a shiv. I stabbed him in the neck— I didn't stop.

I couldn't.

[ Looking down at her hands, it's a nice surprise to find them only faintly shaking. If this had been a month ago, it would look like she was in need of a hit. A long overdue one. Her fists close; it's crossed her mind more than she can count since they were dumped here, that this had to have some correlation to the incident. It's there between them, unspoken. ]

[ Well. It's not as if Tony Stark is in any position to lecture someone else about the blood on their hands. Far from it.

He's silent, watching the faint tremors in her hands, wondering how much this has been devouring her. There's really nothing to be said for that - "it's okay" is a lie, because it's not. "It's not your fault" certainly seems platitudinous. "Things will work out" is dubious at best. He can't help feeling like anyone else would be better at this than he is, but he cares about Elena too much to just let it be. ]

They would have done this eventually, you know. No matter what we did.

[ The Savrii, and this little plan of theirs - whether it was the murder of a native, or breaking the Ingress, or some crime committed weeks or months from now. Anyone carrying the full weight of the current predicament on their shoulders is unacceptable. ]

We don't know anything, here. There's so much more they could do and we're not going to be prepared in the slightest.

[ Hands rubbing at the sides of her hips, they then get shoved into her pockets. ]

...thank you, by the way.

Maybe. But it wouldn't be the first time, either.

[ Despite the odds, after everything they've dealt with until now - they're all still alive. That's gotta be worth something, in Tony's book.

He gives her a sideways glance at the thank you, before lifting an exaggerated eyebrow. ]

For?

If they were going to play games with us, the least they could've done was give us a cribbage board and some cards.

[ She'd sit and play all day everyday over this shit. ]

For not coddling me. For just...being there for me to lean against if ever I need it. You don't say much, Tony. Some people might get offended by that but I... I appreciate it. I also appreciate that you didn't tell me it's "going to be okay"— because it won't be. Not immediately.

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

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