thisavrou_log | February Event Log I: Breathing Space

February Event Log I: Breathing Space

Who: Anyone and Everyone
When: February 10-19
Where: Avagi
What: Life support fails, and a team sets out. Check out this ooc post for more.
Warnings: Label your content.

Synce their arrival, Avagi's residents have been plagued by minor system failures. Faulty taskbots and infested crawlspaces, supply shortages and the floods last month. For the most part, they've coped admirably, and quality of life aboard the station is substantially improved from what it was. But even as the damage in the lived-in space is scrubbed away, more dangerous poisons have been building underneath.

On February 10, the groaning from the walls will escalate to a harsh scraping, audible station-wide. Then silence falls as the filtration systems die completely: leaving all vents to begin spewing thick, black smoke.

	System Failures
	(February 10-19)

Acrid and hazardous, the cocktail of gases emerging from the vents are the result of three centuries' toxin storage spilling over. A shallow breath can cause a coughing fit, but individuals who draw in too much of the toxic air will find themselves becoming dizzy, passing out, or worse. While effects may vary based on individual biology, all beings who require breath will find their lungs burning and their vision blurred. An hour after the initial failure, the lighting goes out too. With it, all station power: to computers, doors, and any system not hooked up to its own supply.

Investigation:

The electrical failures can be sourced to an automated safety shutoff, override-able from Life Support's main controls. But the mechanism isn't in place without a reason. Generating station power produces more of the dark fumes, and without working filters, they will pump straight into the air.

Wait in the dark (and growing cold), or suffocate more quickly? Either way, your air troubles won't be resolved quickly. Over the next couple days, groups searching Sanitation can track down the vapors to their source. A small mob of taskbots run sad circles in the filtration hub: between the air processing units and a row of shelves along one wall. The label reads Purification Crystals, and a single empty container remains.

Survival (Home Team):

Without the crystals, there is no effective way of restoring the entire living space. It may, however, be possible to section off small areas. Able bodies will be required to seal off the fumes and guide those suffering from their effects to safety. Many may need medical assistance, and technical skills will be in even more desperate need: to equip these regions with oxygen and power, and insulate them against the cold that leeches in from the outside.

Some amount of work has already been done, and a few safe rooms are prepped across the station. As days progress toward weeks, however, their air and power reserves will run thin, and some larger sectors may warrant securing regardless. The Greenery contains young plants that are susceptible to the fumes, and those invested in the library's book collection may also want to take measures. The gas has acidic qualities in higher concentrations, enough to eat through paper... for a start.

Contain it? Remove it? Or just try to protect yourselves? One way or another, you'll need to hold out for a while.

	Travel (Away Team)
	(February 12-19)

When Avagi's current population first got here, it was clear that others had inhabited the space before. Recent developments have even proven that these others—or, perhaps, their descendants—might still exist elsewhere on the station now. With the crystals that might repair your home missing, diplomacy is no longer an optional consideration. It's time to meet the neighbors, and hope they come in peace.

Navigation:

Those volunteering to undertake this mission will be provided with a patchwork set of maps. However, these contain little to no information on the current state of the station—including which parts still exist. The explosion that tore apart the former Ingress Complex left wide gaps in the structure, many of which have been invaded by the storms outside.

Scanning tech will be required to assess what lies behind the sealed walls, and physical labor to cut through them. As no contiguous paths across the station remain, this process will need to be repeated numerous times. Where no adjoining regions can be verified intact, smaller scouting tools (or group members!) may be required to traverse crawlspaces for a view of nearby rooms.

Survival:

Behind the first wall lies a pressurized room with normal gravity—and contaminated air. This will not persist as the travelers continue. Some regions have power, but no gravity. Others contain pockets of unaffected, still-clean air. Few spaces will be fully online before the travelers get there, but local generators can be found that might allow for a night or two of "comfortable" camping. At least one juncture can only be crossed by floating through an empty docking bay. The area contains no power, air, or gravity, but spacesuits can be procured... inside the sealed vacuum of the bay. Creative thinking may be required.

Enveloping the station's outside, the roiling shadows of Avagi's storms have crept invasively into all unsealed regions of the interior. While the Observation Station may have accustomed some Avagians to the view, there's something much more immediate about the shadows pressing at the other side of these windows. The faint patterns of light that ripple through the clouds prompt a sense of malice and exhaustion, one that lingers even when you've turned away. Those who attempt more intense scrutiny may suffer more severe effects.

Certainly, it feels like something is watching back.

Discoveries:

As harrowing as the journey may be, it's not entirely without its gains. A few tools can be salvaged from some of the decks visited along the way, and while food is in much shorter supply, there are a few signs that it might not have been, long ago. Wrappers and empty cans turn up in strange places. A few glyphs can be found scratched into one wall: ones that your ACE's translators roughly interpret as prayers.

One sealed room has a large "X" scrawled across the walls despite the detectable presence of power, air, and gravity. Opening it produces a strange sight: two skeletal corpses pressed up against the still-active force field that cuts this room off from the storms. Both bodies show extensive burns to hands and faces, but don't appear to have died from that effect.

[For questions, signups, or plotting, check out the ooc post. For the duration of this log, characters may travel between teams to whatever extent they are capable. The event will escalate with a second log on February 20.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wildcard: Reply here :) Feel free to hit me up at

pohutukaryl, Discord pohutukaryl#1055, or on my contact post if you want to plot. Nate is easily directable!

[Growing up in an orphanage and then on the streets, Nate is familiar with having either very little or only as much as he and his brother could carry. So naturally, he held onto everything he ever received on the Moira, especially once he received a PacDisc and was able to store it all more easily.

[That's where the tent, the cardboard boxes, and the packing tape he's using to tape them to the walls are from.]

I never really thought this stuff would come in handy like this.

[Which is not to say he didn't anticipate using it for warmth: He didn't anticipate using it at all, because the future is vague ideas of where he'd like to be with his future self as a role model, not something one's material possessions play a part in.]

I just wish I could help actually fix it.

[ Kelly Ann works alongside Nate. It's a little clumsy work, as she's wearing a few layers including her parka and her knit cap. She doesn't know where all his materials are coming from, but she's not asking questions right now. ]

Hey. Waste not, want not. Right?

[ For most of her life, growing up in foster homes, and even now on the bus. Kelly Ann could carry all of her belongings. At least now she upgraded from the trash bags to a duffel. But she didn't have anything that would be really useful for this. They aren't desperate enough yet to ask people to give up their clothes, at least. She glances sidelong at him, her lips turning down somewhat in sympathy. Doing the drudge work can be disheartening. ]

Well, I mean, like. No matter what, somebody needs to do this shit. So better us than somebody who has skills that are helpful with other stuff, right?

[Nate nods absently to "waste not, want not", not quite recognizing the idiom, but he starts paying more attention when she keeps going.]

Yeah, true. We're freeing up the useful people.

[He smooths down some packing tape at the top of a large piece of cardboard.]

I hope it'll help. My other way of keeping people warm isn't exactly great on spaceships.

[ Kelly Ann steps back and holds her hands a few inches from the walls, waving them around as she feels for drafts. She glances at him, a smile threatening. ]

What, do you light fires or some shit?

Yeah.

[Beat.]

Uh, with magic, not a lighter or anything. [Though his smoker brother's lighter might still be around...

[He gestures at their insulated wall.] How'd we do?

[ She sighs. ]

I mean, it's not as good as when shit is just working the way it's supposed to. But I'm not feeling any drafts.

[ A beat. ]

Wait. Magic?

[Nate nods with satisfaction, then smiles, a little embarrassed by the reaction - most people he's mentioned it to have taken it in stride, and it was such an ordinary thing at Garden.]

Before ending up here, I was on this other world where a school took us off-worlders in, and they taught magic for combat. Elemental stuff, putting people to sleep, healing, that kind of thing.

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aka_pistachio - 2018-03-07 20:50 (UTC) - Expand

[Nate's happy to help people through the fumes. Sure, he coughs from time to time, but he's nineteen, he's fit, and he has a Guardian Force which, in the event of his death, would keep him in a reversable coma without needing medical or cryogenic equipment. He's not announcing it, because he doesn't know when people would be able to find Phoenix Downs to wake him up, but he's willing to take one for the team.]

Here. [His mouth covered by cloth in an attempt to filter the air, he gestures down the hall towards one of the sealed areas.] We're almost there.

[He's also very concerned about helping the books through the fumes. He presses his PacDisc to a shelf, shrinking the whole thing down for storage, then looks up.]

You got one of these?

[As the days wear on, Nate starts feeling a little useless, with neither medical nor technical skills beyond some Cure spells (more for injury than sickness) and a little metalworking. And maybe, he thinks, he's not the only one feeling like this.

[So he'll try to brighten people's spirits a little.

[It starts small:]

Hey, you've got something in your - [He reaches behind someone's ear, and 'pulls' out an old coin.] Whoa, how'd that get in there?

[And later it escalates into him donning an ornate mask and setting up a leftover cardboard box as a makeshift magician's table.]

I am Nate the Great! Anyone wanna see me pull a dinosaur out of a hat?

[He waves the hat enticingly - and to show that there is currently no dinosaur inside it.]

[taking into consideration that kurt has both those skills, the blue boy's been busy, rushing all over the space they've set up as safehouses. he checks in with everyone he's familiar with, encourages them to do the same with those they know, et cetera, and the first time he spots nate entertaining is with the coin.

he pauses briefly, watches him pull it from behind an unsuspecting person's ear, amusement clear in the way he grins.

for a moment, it seems like nightcrawler might stop, except a miniature velociraptor goes skittering by that he ends up having to chase down.

next time, though, when nathan is holding out an empty hat with a box set up nearby, he can't resist:] And how will you do that? [he asks, the spade of his tail flicking.

it's been a long time since he's seen any magic; the old circus before munich had done it, and hey, maybe he is feeling a bit nostalgic (or homesick), but he has been working hard. things are stable right now, so what's the harm in taking a short break? after he scoops up the tiny triceratops that's determined to trip him up, the teleporter shuffles somewhat closer, iridescent eyes alight with enthusiasm.] I'd like to see, sir Nate the Great.

[Nate grins to hear his old childhood magician's name getting "sir" attached. He'd seen this blue guy watching him before and then go dinosaur wrangling (a very important job, to be sure), so it's nice to see him again - and to have him play along.]

With some magic, of course! A little bit of this, and a little bit of that...

["This" and "that" being a lot of flourishing gestures and some movement around his box. The funny thing is, Nate actually has magic spells, but he doesn't use them on tricks: This is all good old fashioned sleight of hand, like he did during his magic phase as a kid, which came in handy when he ended up in a life of crime, which he's now using to pull his pet kulindadromeus, Riley, from behind the box and place it in the hat.]

And a magic word: Aperio!

[He thinks he's real clever using the Latin word for "I reveal" as he pulls Riley out of the hat by the scruff of its feathery neck.]

[his fangs gleam in response to nate's magic act, arms gingerly squeezing when the dinosaur he's holding begins squirming.] Sit still, [he urges quietly, motioning with his hands toward what is going on in hopes of capturing the three-horned lizard's attention.

for a minute or two, it works, and kurt takes that time to focus on the other boy's performance. pulling a fluffy dino from the hat earns a laugh on his end, the same hand he'd used before raising to sheepishly cup around his face.]

Bravo! [he crouches long enough to free his arms, watching her take off before straightening back up and moving closer so he can examine the hat.] Are you one of those magicians that doesn't revel his secrets?

Interesting word choice, by the way. Latin, wasn't it?

[Inside the hat, Riley peers at this blue person, tilting its head in confusion. Nate, though, lights up at his reaction, and nods.]

Yeah, I'm not telling you how I did it. But Latin's the one thing I will reveal - I bet this wasn't what the nuns had in mind when they made us learn it.

[He nods towards the departed triceratops's trail.] Dunno if I can make that one reappear, though.

[kurt smiles down at the tiny feathered lizard, his tail slithering around, the heart-shaped end dangling over riley's head.

then, he directs the gesture toward nate once more and barely tilts his head.] I figured you wouldn't, but that's okay. And now, I have to ask: nuns?

[turning to look after his own escaped dinosaur, the blue boy huffs then disappears rather suddenly with a bamf, nothing left but a haze of smoke. a couple seconds later, though, he reappears in the same manner, looking somewhat exasperated with his triceratops secured beneath one arm.] Problem solved.

[About to try and evade the further inquiry about the nuns, Nate's jaw drops watching him vanish and return with the triceratops.]

Holy crap, that's way cooler than stage magic, or even para-magic. Is that part of the whole...?

[He gestures vaguely up and down, referring to the blue skin, the gold eyes, the tail, but trying not to offend.]

(no subject)

shadowblends - 2018-02-28 04:25 (UTC) - Expand

[ The guy her age trying to entertain people while everything goes to shit has Charlie relatively amused. Not so much that she’s forgotten about the systems failing around them, but it’s a nice distraction. He looks weirdly familiar, but she won't worry about that too much right now. What matters is the old coin trick and the guys almost endearing efforts to entertain.

Her two anklyosaurs hide around her feet, peering up at Nate, and she has her cat Bubble in her arms. Bubble, a dark grey kitten who is half grown already, reaches up carefully for the magicians hand and tries to sniff the coin and then looks up at Charlie's hair, shifting and wiggling until she can sniff at Charlie's hair with some confusion. ]

Nice one. You managed to confuse a cat named after a fictional spy.

[ Charlie's impressed. ]

Edited (It’s almost midnight so if the edits fail, please let me know. ) 2018-02-16 04:15 (UTC)

[Grinning, Nate allows the cat to sniff the coin, then pats her small head as she goes for her owner's hair.]

First time I've tried magic on an animal - well, with an animal watching, not part of the show. Where'd it even come from, anyway? Besides people's pets from before, I thought we only had the little dinosaurs here.

[He only recognizes the girl from her recent post on the network about being new, having arrived after her last post on the Moira's network.]

Bubble came with me from the islands I lived on before I showed up here. I should point out that those islands aren’t my home world. They’re kinda like here in that there was no warning that I was going to be there. It just happened.

[ Bubble, having finished her examination of her owners hair because someone else was giving her attention, is purring loudly and head butting the new guys hand. Anyone willing to pet her is clearly someone worthy of her attention. ]

I’m Charlie.

[Nate's eyebrows lift. She's the first person he knows of who, like him, was somewhere else before ending up here.]

Nathan. [He'd offer to shake, were his hand not occupied with the cat.] I was in another world before this one too: There was a boarding school taking off-worlders in; spent about a year there before trying to go home and ending up here instead.

[Nate is definitely not the only one feeling useless. Calla’s skill set is similarly unhelpful in a situation such as this and more often than not, all he can do is linger around and hope someone has some mundane task that’s simple enough for him to help with.

He suspects that might be the reason behind the young Creator approaching him now—that is, until the boy reaches suddenly behind his ear (provoking a slight, surprised flinch from Calla) and then displays a coin.

Calla isn’t a total stranger to stage magic. He even knows a few tricks himself. However, his knowledge ends with card tricks and so the Creator’s display is actually pretty impressive to him.]

Oh, I haven’t seen that one! How’d you do it?

A magician never reveals his secrets.

[Nate winks. While he does have actual magic, he doesn't use it for tricks, just combat.]

Do you want to keep it? I kind of collect old things like this [also he has another silly trick to put it away], but I did find it behind your ear [and it's not like money has a lot of value here]...

Right, of course, [Calla says, smiling. It was worth a try. His expression changes to one of surprise when the boy offers him the coin; by now, he’s aware the culture is different here, but he still doesn’t have much experience with Creators offering him gifts.]

Oh, thank you, but I couldn’t… [And then he pauses, considering.] Unless… that’s part of the trick?

[He’s not familiar enough with coin tricks to know whether or not the offer is in the routine. Will Nate make it disappear again if he reaches for it?]

[Nate spreads his hands.]

No trick if you want to have it.

[As someone didn't have much growing up, offering something only to make it disappear, even temporarily, strikes him as unnecessarily mean.]

[Calla was originally planning not to accept the coin, but… there’s something earnest in the boy’s face that makes him reconsider. If the Creator wants to indulge a charitable impulse, then isn’t it better to just go along with it? Plus, Calla would be lying if he said he didn’t want to try to figure out the coin trick the boy had done before.]

Well, if you’re really sure… [He holds his hand out, a sheepish smile tugging at his lips.] Though if you change your mind, I can always give it back.

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February Event Log I: Breathing Space

Nathan Drake | Uncharted + CRAU | staying

living space

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hallways + library

living spaces redux

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sorry for the wait!

that's okay!!

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