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

Red's finally regained most of her sight and hearing from the storms and for the blessed moment they aren't flaring up again in the sky like God's very own hemorrhoids. Now she has other worries: namely hunger and exhaustion. She had brought a bottle of water with her for the trip and that was her saving grace really, but it won't be enough. It wasn't as if critters roamed around Cloudbank which were edible and not computer processes. What she wouldn't give for a big greasy slice of pizza.

She is literally and figuratively dragging her feet by now. At least she has decent boots and jeans thanks to Ahab. Red thinks to herself she might start chewing on one of those boots soon—

When she screams at a voice suddenly close by. Red claps her hands over her mouth and stands there as still as she can although it feels as if she's trembling all over. Her eyes are wide as she looks around and sees nothing but dust kicked up from the winds, so she assumes. "That's it," she whispers to herself. "I've gone crazy."

"Haven't we all, at this point?" The disembodied voice seems about as amused as a disembodied voice can get, and while it's definitely There, somewhere, it's not so apparent where it's coming from.

Liquid's almost tempted to stay dissolved for now, letting her just figure out the source of his voice, but that's a little harsh. Especially with the environment the way it is. Maybe it'd be more fun if they'd actually gone to the magical land of fruits and vegetables. But they hadn't.

So he decides to rematerialize right next to her, arms crossed, like he's been there the whole time. Technically, he kind of has. "I'm certain the people in charge have, at the very least."

It's probably not as reassuring as he'd intended.

It was a good thing she had taken care of personal business an hour ago otherwise her bladder probably would have failed her in that moment of scared surprise. Red felt like she jumped three feet as she let out an unfortunate scream. Having a man materialize next to her wasn't the scariest thing that had ever happened to her but in her already highly frightened state, it was close enough.

Red clapped her hands over her mouth and stared at the man for a good long few seconds, waiting for him to turn back into smoke or disappear otherwise like a mirage. Instead he spoke again and she recognized it as the same voice which she had heard just a moment ago. Her heart was pounding and Red's cognitive ability was slow to coming back online.

When it did, she covered her face completely with both hands rather than just her mouth, and she laughed against her palms. Red's shoulders slumped as she dropped her arms to her sides and took a step backward as relief washed over her. "Mister, you got some nerve!"

Okay, there was always something entertaining about rematerializing around people, especially ones who hadn't seen him dissolve in the first place. He was, unfortunately, probably never going to get tired of that.

"Do I?" That amused smirk was probably annoying enough in itself. But, really, he did have a practical reason for all of this!

It just, you know, could have used a heads-up.

"I'm sure you'll recover. It's a lot easier to deal with all of this when you haven't got much of a body, don't you think?" he says, spreading his arms out in a wide shrug. "I was merely being practical."

"Practical! Sure. I've never not had a body so I can't speak to that." Red laughs again, mostly because it feels good and she also feels better that someone else is here with her. She's always liked people and being in a total crap situation was always better with someone to share the experience with.

Red rests one hand over her chest, feeling her heart slowly calm down from her fright, and she shakes her head at the man. "I thought I was going to die of starvation out here, instead you almost killed me with fright. That's practical in a way too, isn't it?" She laughs again.

"It's probably a more exciting way to go out than starvation, anyway. Although now I'm wondering if I really should have changed back..." He could totally go for all those promised fruits and vegetables right now!

"Perhaps that's how they wanted people to go, anyway." It could absolutely be some sort of weird conspiracy. "Hopefully we'll find something more... substantial than all of this, and soon. Never thought we'd end up going back to this place."

"And you're an expert on 'substantial.' Right." Red's obviously teasing him now, as her harmless smirk will show. She puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Would you believe that's not the first disembodied voice I've been around? But maybe that's a story for another time."

She steps forward and offers her right hand extended, intending for a handshake. "I'm Red. What's your name? And do you have any spare food?" Both were equally important questions she needed answered!

"It's only recently I started being unsubstantial, so maybe I am an expert," Liquid says with a shrug, trying to be serious about it but not doing the best job. "I'm not surprised, though. I'm sure everyone's had their share of disembodied voices."

It's just one of those things that happens.

He glances down at her offered hand, then takes it firmly before pulling back and crossing his arms. "Liquid Snake, good to meet you. I haven't got anything on me, no. I was planning to try hunting something soon."

August Event Log: Part I

hitting the road

storm front

wild life

old familiar places

a. on the road. i thought these two should meet for reals :D

cool cool cool

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