Arc III Arrival Log

[savmods]

Who: Everyone
When: October 1
Where: Avagi
What: The dust settles.
Warnings: None at present - label your headers if necessary!

Arrival

There's the sensation of falling, but in no particular direction. Anyone who opens their eyes will see very little, but it isn't blackness—it's every color at the same time, every place that's ever been, and time seems to be stretching out and snapping back together all at once. And suddenly the travelers are here. Where 'here' is has not yet been determined, but all at once there is a sense of solidness in place and time as the journey they were on comes to an abrupt stop. Those with quick reactions may be able to brace themselves enough to stay on their feet; those without it may find themselves sprawled across a solid metal deck. They are in a large room with a ceiling that is not smooth, but jagged with patchwork repairs. Standing before them is a massive metal slab, twisted and scorched but clearly once part of some unknown machine. But the piece has been cleaned, polished and place upon a pedestal, a focal point for the comfortable seating arranged in an opposing semi-circle across the room. Someone had a use for this room once, but now, the space is silent. The new arrivals may remain for however long they choose. No one, it seems, has detected their sudden arrival, much less come to investigate. When they venture out of this quiet room, they may have an inkling why. The corridors outside and the laboratories, workshops and other places they lead to are well made, but strangely dusty and show no recent signs of maintenance. No one will come to harm them or greet them because, it seems, no one is here. The layout of the halls may seem strangely familiar, though it will take some searching to discover why. Few windows can be found, and those that exist are solidly reinforced with thick transparent material, revealing little more than the swirling of familiar storms outside. There are no doors to the outside, only to more corridors or interior locations. Any traveler who accesses the systems of this facility through their own abilities or through a computer workstation or control panel will learn the reason: this is a space station, and so cannot open to the outside. The system will reveal one other truth. This is not just a space station. This was the Ingress Complex, and the date is 300 years in the future. Welcome to Thisavrou.

Avagi

The station is not as they remember it. Once a place of transit and scientific research, a place of rest but not truly home to most who lived there, it now shows clear signs of being a lived-in space for more than just a working crew. While records and outdated maps in the system make its former identity clear, more recent references to the station use a different name: Avagi. A common word to multiple old Savrii dialects, the word roughly translates to "dawn". Many locations on the complex have changed, and others put to entirely new use. But whoever made these changes are nowhere to be found; the only 'living' creatures anyone encounters are low-level AI taskbots, small robots that scuttle throughout the complex executing simple maintenance subroutines. And there is a limit to the exploration that can be done. The accessible areas of Avagi compose only a fraction of the former complex, and attempting to breach the seal on the main exit will set off an alarm, notifying anyone in the vicinity that the bordering compartment has been compromised, and if they continue, they will allow storm energy into the area they are in now. Entry to a few other corridors is simply too badly damaged to get through, although whether the damage was caused in the initial blast or later is unknown. Short of self-created hazards, no danger will present itself in the next few weeks. During the early days of their arrival, several newcomers arrive, stumbling through pockets of glowing, warped reality that seem to lead somewhere else before disappearing just as fast. With nowhere else to go for the moment, everyone is free to explore Avagi's current confines—but certain points of interest might be worth devoting attention to first: The Residential Block: Whoever lived here left little behind in the converted studios and apartments—so they won't mind if someone moves in, will they? People need to sleep somewhere. The Library: Exploring the collected knowledge here might yield more information on what has happened here, but the computer lab will need some work first. Labs & Engineering: The space and resources that can be found here offer the best opportunity to fix things up around here. Note that while a network transmitter is embedded in the region, the differing technology levels means that communication will be garbled at first. Text messages will be corrupted, and video/audio communication will cut out regularly every few seconds. Happily, there are a plethora of comm devices on hand that could adapt the TABS to Avagi's systems. Hybridizing the devices with old and new technology also allows the tech-inclined to customize their own data security. The Greenery: Nutrition blocks are all well and good, but getting this garden in order would make meals a lot more enjoyable. Who knows what you might be able to grow?

[ooc: For more information and options to explore, please check out the locations page and ooc post!]

Comments

York | OTA & closed

[infailtration]

i. bartering block;

Should you wander through the bartering block you're almost certain to encounter a man in full body armor, humming to himself as he cracks the locks open on the old storage units here, rummaging through for supplies. He's really hoping to find pants, but anything useful will do. The locks are easy for him and it's almost a form of stress relief to work through them, one after another down the row to discover what's inside. He doesn't seem to be finding much he wants, but perhaps you will if you follow him and peer in yourself.

ii. library;

It shouldn't be much of a surprise that York's good with computers -- he's got a program living inside his head. And together they're poking around the library, seeing what's still workable, what needs fixing and what's a lost cause. He wants answers.

"How's this one looking, D? Can you get in yet?"

Negative. May I ask what you are hoping to find?

"I just want to know what happened to the people who were on this station before us. And maybe more about what happened to Thisavrou. If we're still at risk here." He was against... basically everything that happened from the time they were imprisoned in Region Six. He didn't want to break out. He didn't let Mother in. None of it was exactly his fault but he still needs to know, needs to understand, exactly what he was a part of.

York.

"...don't, D. Just. Don't."

iii. residential block - closed to carolina;

York was determined to stay as close to North as he could, even if the apartment the other Freelancers were sharing was full. He and Carolina wound up in a unit with Diana and Kirk, and now he was in their room rummaging through both the supplies he'd gotten from North and the ones he'd foraged in the bartering block. There's something on his mind, though, something he promised he wouldn't bring up but that just won't stop nagging at him. Especially after he opens the wrong bag and finds a bunch of things that look like... well. Like home. A UNSC sweatshirt, a hat, a doll. He doesn't remember Carolina having any of this stuff before, but they've never lived together before so he supposes it's possible? Either way when Carolina returns she'll find him folding their shirts with a pensive expression. Time for a talk.

[startpoint]

Carolina knew the stuff Tex gave her was a time bomb, the moment they passed into her hands they started ticking down to the moment when York would find them and start asking questions. It was never an if, York would find them eventually because that's what he did. So when she comes back and he has a particular expression on his face she automatically looks to where she stashed the tote.

It looks like this is happening. She sits down on the edge of the bed, toeing her shoes off. "...penny for your thoughts?"

[infailtration]

"...might take more than a penny," York quips, putting the last garment in place and closing the drawer.

Is it worth it, to ask and piss Tex off? Probably not. Maybe start with the random UNSC gear instead. He sits down close next to Carolina, looping his arm around her waist and glancing at the bag. The bag that he knows she didn't have yesterday when they moved in.

"Where'd that come from?"

[startpoint]

And that was the time bomb going off much sooner than she expected. Sighing softly she leans into his side and doesn't look at the bag or its contents. It's hard to decide what to do with it all when all it does is claw at old wounds she's been trying to heal. Knowing why Tex have it to her does nothing for the discomfort of those reminders.

"...Tex gave it to me. Back on the Moira she got those things in the mail but they never really belonged to her." Which of course means that she thought they belonged to Carolina more.

[infailtration]

York's arm tightens around her a little, almost protectively as he senses her discomfort. The answer confuses him. Why would Tex give Carolina her gear? And that doll doesn't sit right with York for some reason. They're personal items, but he's known Carolina for years and has never seen her with any of it. Why would Tex get her stuff, anyway?

"I don't understand," he admits. "Is it actually yours?"

[startpoint]

"The doll was mine from... a long time ago. My mother gave it to me before she died. The other things in there were hers, too." It's the most she's ever said about her family to him, to anyone besides Epsilon. Whenever anyone on the team had asked she had always answered that they had code names for a reason. It was easier than admitting the truth, that her family was closer than anyone knew. That he was watching their every move and using it to rank them all.

"Barring the doll they're all things my father would have held onto."

[infailtration]

York's quiet for a moment, gears turning in his mind. 'Do you know who I am? / Carolina would have been the one to tell you. / Don't ask her.' Technically, he's asking about something else...

"Why would Tex have them? The mail on the Moira only gave you things of personal importance."

[startpoint]

And there it is. A question she doesn't know how to answer without telling him who Tex is, who she was supposed to be if not for the imperfections of memory. "Probably because she was the next best thing to being able to deliver them to my mother." How long can she avoid this? If there's one thing she knows about York it's that he doesn't give up on something and now that he's curious.

Fuck it.

"...You know Tex's name, right? Her first name. Allison. That was my mother's name, too." It was innocent on its own. It was a common name, the sort of thing thousands of women were named. "Allison Church."

[infailtration]

Her mother.

Allison.

Allison Church.

York opens his mouth, closes it again.

The implications of it spin and settle, and he feels like he's been taken a physical hit.

"You're the Director's daughter." He's not as surprised as he probably should be. An awful lot suddenly makes sense. How cold Abigail suddenly was, when they were both chosen for Freelancer. The very pointed no fraternization rule. The way the Director treated them both, Carolina's complete devotion to him and the Project. "And Tex is... but how? And when did you find out?"

That matters. The way she'd acted towards Tex in the Project, she couldn't have seen her as anything more than a rival. The Director's pet project, that he valued more than his own daughter. It all made sense now.

It's just sick. York tries not to be angry, now, with Carolina leaning against him. He breathes slow, deliberate. "No wonder she told me not to ask you who she is."

[startpoint]

"Epsilon explained it to me. Imagine... Imagine taking everything you know about me. Every memory of the two of us together, everything I've ever said, everything you noticed. Take everything and then distill it down and use it to make a person. She might walk like me and talk like me but she wouldn't be me. Because no matter how well you know someone, there will always be things you don't know." That was Tex, a memory of how her father remembered his wife. There was no way she would ever be her but she had deserved better than what she got.

"I didn't know who she was until I started hunting The Director down." She still doesn't call him her father. He lost that name a long time ago, it's easier to put distance between them. She might have gone more in depth on that but then he mentions Tex again.

"She told you not to ask me?" Oh, that sneaky bitch. The best way to get someone curious is to tell them not to do something. "Of course she did."

[infailtration]

There's another hesitation while he tries to put himself in that space, then he shakes his head. "I can't imagine that, because I wouldn't ever do it. It would just hurt worse, to lose someone and create a thing that's not really them. That can't be." He supposes the Director couldn't let go -- York can understand that, he never let go of Carolina, either. But. "You have to focus on what you still have, when you lose someone that important. Like maybe your fucking daughter--" He cuts himself off, huffing through his nose angrily. "I'm sorry. This isn't okay."

It's not okay and he's not okay. He's losing the battle against hiding his anger.

"Well I was gonna try not to -- then I found the stuff and I guess it all goes together. Maybe this is what she was so upset about."

[startpoint]

"York." She takes his hand in hers and threads their fingers together to try and ground him, unused to being the pacifying party in their relationship. York's reaction is... it hits her that she's never actually seen him angry like this before. Out of the two of them he was the calm one who didn't burn up over every little thing. Of all the things to really hammer home that he cares, the fact that his first reaction to the truth is to be upset for her is the one she least expected.

"I know it's not okay, but... he's gone. I lost my father long before he died." It had taken Carolina far too long to figure that out but she's at peace with it for the most part.

"I took them because it isn't her baggage to carry. I'll figure out something to do with it eventually."

[infailtration]

Her touch, and the fact that her voice is so calm and certain, actually goes a long way to calming him. York takes a deep breath and squeezes her hand. Turns his head to kiss and tilts his chin up to kiss her forehead.

"You're okay having it here?"

i;

[shadowblends]

The past few weeks have been some of the hardest for Kurt, but he's never failed to persevere, regardless of how pessimistic things have seemed. There have been too many friends he's lost, so encountering York gives him a renewed sense of relief.

For once, he doesn't hesitate to step into the room when he sees him, approaching his friend at a normal pace before the excitement becomes too much. "York!" exclaims the azure-skinned teen, practically launching himself forward, one arm encircling the soldier's shoulders in a secure embrace.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Well, he might have some idea, considering Kurt's show of enthusiasm and the wide grin on his face, but still.

Re: i;

[infailtration]

York turns at the sound of Kurt calling his name, and so is ready to catch the teen when he flings himself forward. His arms lock around Kurt, careful not to crush him since he's in full armor, and he smiles inside his helmet. His voice is warm and happy.

"It's good to see you too, buddy. Everything okay?"

Things are, obviously, not okay. York's certainly unpackaging a lot in his head still, but Kurt's here and doesn't seem injured, and that's enough for him. He's only asking after his friend.

[shadowblends]

Honestly, he wouldn't care if York did squish him in all that armor. For a few moments longer, Kurt keeps his head down, swallowing hard in an attempt to ease the burn in his chest. No tears, now-- everything is fine.

"Better now," admits the azure-skinned teen, finally shifting so he can stare at York's helmet. When was the last time he'd seen that? During his arrival when he was a child? No, it was surely earlier than that ...

Either way, though, he (reluctantly) loosens his hold and draws back a bit. "How are things for you?"

[infailtration]

"As good as they can be here, I guess? I'm still trying to scavenge enough to get by, I lost everything when..."

Well. They don't need to talk about that.

"How's your crew settling?"

[shadowblends]

He's not sure how to answer that, aside from a quick nod of the head to show he at least understands. They all lost quite a bit after being dumped onto this space station.

"... as best we can. Erik came back, so that's been—" Pause, his nose wrinkling. "Interesting."