August Event Log: Part I

[savmods]

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.

Comments

[alterplex]

Her assertion that they should keep Kaz out of trouble garners a vague half-smile, one that says that Venom agrees with the sentiment. The people around him have a tendency to embroil themselves in sticky situations; ideally, he'd want to be around to bail them out.

It's the question of 'telling Mei about himself' that makes him stall a beat, though. Times like these remind him how little he has to offer in terms of honesty when people ask him for details about himself— he doesn't know what to say, and his uncertainty flicks across his single eye for a brief second as he considers his options.

"...I'm a soldier. Not that great at smalltalk." So. Here he is, a little self-deprecating in his dry humor. "Start us off."

[frostedplum]

That seems to be a thing soldiers have in common. In Mei's experience, at least.

"Well, I'm from China, and I worked for an organization called Overwatch for several years until it shut down. Now I've been collecting the data leftover from Overwatch's old Ecopoints to study the world's climate shift." There's a pause and then she sighs. "I mean, I was collecting all that before I came here. But I suppose I'll get back eventually and then I can get back to work."

dw please give me notifs??? what the heck

[alterplex]

'Overwatch'. Now there's a familiar term— it seems like Venom's meeting more and more of the organization's alumni.

He quirks a brow in recognition, but he addresses what Mei's just told him, first.

"Climate research, huh." That's a first. He says as much. "—I've met a few people from your world. Didn't know Overwatch had its fingers in so many pies."

oh no! :(

[frostedplum]

"Oh, it did! It was all about saving the world in lots of different ways. Promoting peace, research and development, exploration. But more than that, we were like a family. No matter what division we were in, we all had the same goals and it drew us together." And then it all collapsed while she was asleep. Her shoulders slump a little, but for once, it's not from her exhaustion, but from her sadness over Overwatch's collapse.

"Anyway, I went first. Your turn."

[alterplex]

Every time he meets someone from 'Overwatch', Venom can't help but think about Soldier 76— or, well. 'Jack', as Venom half-knows him by now. He understands that the circumstances that befell their organization warped all of them irreversibly in some way, and that 76 feels the blame for a majority of the rift; still, there's something bittersweet about the fact that Mei protects her good memories of it with melancholy instead of anger.

With that said, and with his empathy culminating in a slow, careful pat of palm to Mei's shoulder, Venom finally comes up with a response.

"Something about myself." He clarifies, and he hums his contemplation under his breath. "...Probably heard from Kaz by now that I work in the mercenary business."

Which is literally the only interesting thing he can think of to say about himself, but. That seems insufficient.

"I ran solo missions in the Middle East and Africa. Didn't spend much of that time with other people— just my dog."

[frostedplum]

Mei has never blamed Jack, not really. Her shadow certainly did, but Mei knew Jack had his own problems to deal with in running for his life and trying to uncover this conspiracy that ended Overwatch single handed. The people that are to blame for this do make her angry, but there's nothing she can do with that anger here, so she can only be sad instead.

"Oh, a dog? Tell me about it! Male or female? What breed?"

[alterplex]

Well. She noticeably perks up at the topic of his dog (who is absent right now, much to Venom's chagrin), so Venom runs with it. Pausing for just a moment to reach with his free hand into his pocket, he pulls out his TAB and fidgets with it for a few beats.

Once he's opened up his photo gallery, he scrolls to a photo of his doggo son. Yes, his dog has a matching eyepatch. Incredible.

"...His name's DD. Not entirely sure about the breed— probably a mix of a dog and a wolf."

[frostedplum]

"Oh, how cute!" she says, looking absolutely charmed. "He does look like a wolf. Is he friendly?" When they get back can she give it pets and treats and cuddles? Can she spoil him rotten because she can't feed her little weather drone?

[alterplex]

DD, always popular with the ladies. Venom can't help but chuckle softly under his breath as he pockets his TAB again, single blue eye fixed on Mei with a measure of amusement.

"Yeah. He's friendly. Smart, too." She is free to spoil him as much as she wants!!!!!! But there's a limit on feeding because he is, in fact, a field dog. Sorry Mei. "Looks like we're gonna have to get out of here as quickly as possible, so you get to meet him."

[frostedplum]

"It's only fair. You got to meet Snowball." Though it's more a friend than a pet, even if she does pat it on the head. "I'm guessing if we can reach this signal, we can get back. Hopefully it's close now. The environment isn't doing us any favors."