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by the inquest
"Arguments on their nature are refuted by those who return to shore, wide-eyed with tales of their savagery."
All Moirans are woken to the sounds of the ship coming to a rather grating halt some time in the early morning cycle. It’s no faster or slower than any other stop, but it is unexpected as the captains didn’t mention an upcoming disembarkment. Shortly after, a message is sent to every MID:Navigation has informed us that we’re approaching bad traveling conditions: an overactive star. Instead of stopping on Liant El, we’ll be docking here on Ceta. Please exercise caution while gathering supplies and during excursions. Follow their safety guidelines. If the chance allows, we’ll also be signing new crew on the planet. Please greet them first and show them to the ship. Thank you. The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a long platform and that the room is filled with a soft cerulean light. It's slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you, and nothing is familiar.
For those few who come through Ceta's Ingress, there will be crew of the Moira there to greet you. They tell you of the Ingress, how it is broken, even on this planet, and that the ship is headed back to the origin of this technology. This planet’s Ingress is set precariously atop a floating rock formation, the only way from one area to the next is on small air-propelled boats. Crew members will guide everyone back to the Moira and take them to the Medbay; contracts will be signed posthaste.
WELCOME TO CETA
At first glance, Ceta seems mostly inhabitable, and that's because it is. The atmosphere around the planet is surprisingly thick in most places, sometimes thin in others, and without some way to filter the air, it is mostly unbreathable; it's a giant gas planet, its core made of various molten metals and the atmosphere a mix of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrous. Ceta's gravity is also uneven, meaning that some areas will have stronger focal points than others. The terrain, when it is visible, appears rather rocky—hardly the best conditions for life and stable living. What's more unusual, however, is that despite this fact, there is, indeed, a small populace "living" among the mist and clouds, but it's clear they do not live here year-round. It's hunting season, and they are there for the bounty.
These visitors have built small platforms that are hooked together by ropes and swinging bridges, which they call "temporaries". Unstable buildings are rare, dangerous, and spread out over these temporaries to prevent damage or accidents. The temporaries float along, swaying and shifting with the planet’s atmosphere, and posted at every point of entry and all open surfaces are a particular set of rules that everyone must abide by. They are written in dark ink and large block letters so that all passing by will stop and read them:
NO FIRE. Flammables, ignition sources, matches, lighters, and anything that creates a spark is prohibited. The atmosphere has higher levels of hydrogen, and the smallest spark will create a problem.
AIR BREATHABILITY. Monitor your vitals. Wear masks or re-breathers if needed.
WATCH THE EDGE. All walkways are the only thing from you and falling. Be cautious and watch your step. These signs should be given their due attention. The edge is just that: the end of where it is safe to walk. If a wooden plank gives way beneath your feet, you will plummet through hundred of miles of atmosphere before hitting the planet’s thin surface. The captains reiterate that crew should be careful and stick to the main temporaries, gather supplies, visit at their leisure, and then go back to the ship.
☄ IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE!The organisms that have evolved on this planet are unintelligent—a fact that is told to you by the other visitors. As there is no solid materials or ways for them to interact with their environments, these giants float along within the atmosphere, though it appears that they are flying when they are merely navigating through. They travel in groups of three or more and sometimes come close to the outskirts of the temporaries. Because there is an invisible filtration dome around the temporaries, this allows the creatures to pass through without harm and return again into the mist as they please. They are difficult to see at night and are rather skittish in the presence of sudden light.
☄ @ THE MUSEUM Every evening when work is done, artificial light sources illuminate the streets of the temporaries. There is one bar, if you can actually call it that, but the main attraction is a museum. The support structure appears to be made out of the skeletal system of the giants that "swim" and live on Ceta, and though the outside seems rather unassuming, the inside is not for the faint of heart. As it's considered informative, there are displays of the internal structures and functions of the very creatures that seem harmless and as unintelligent as the visitors claim. There are sections of the museum dedicated to their anatomy and what makes them so valuable: inside their air sacs, which is what gives the illusion to flying through the atmosphere, is a mineral that, when harvested, attunes and sharpens the senses so that brain capacity and function excel over one-hundred percent efficiency. Likewise, aside from these informative areas, there is also a history of how and when the visitors began to hunt them for this valuable, unnamed resource.
☄ HARVEST SEASON Are you looking for work? Or perhaps you're bored with your duties aboard the Moira and prefer to see just what it is these visitors do during the day? Hunters will often pay for menial labor to help with the killing and retrieval of the giants of Ceta. It is by day, not by hour, and once aboard one of the many ships, you will be put to work handling equipment or being on the lookout for "signs" of the creatures. Once they've been spotted, the real work isn't in capturing them or even trying to subdue them—though they give a good fight. It's in the harvest, done below deck once they have been safely brought into the ship's cargo areas by the tethers, that can get quite gruesome. As a defense mechanism, cutting into the skin creates a rather noxious emission that can cause disorientation, hallucinations, or unconsciousness. Worst case scenarios can often result in death.
☄ WORD LIMITS As things are beginning to wind up (or down), something seems to have gotten into the MID systems and caused a malfunction. On the morning of 03.13, it suddenly becomes clear that communicating with others who are not from the same universe or similar timelines seems very difficult. Understanding each other becomes rather hopeless as the day continues, and these repercussions can be felt across the entire ship. The Captains send out another MID message that appears as a jumble of unusual letters and symbols. However, there is one word that can be read by everyone and (hopefully) understood: RATCHET. Figuring out this problem shouldn't take long if everyone can leap the language barriers and work together.
( ooc; All New Arrivals: you have the choice of coming through the Moira's Ingress OR Ceta's Ingress. For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )
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hownkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-03-01 02:40 pm
no subject
Alright, if she were to be perfectly honest, she's exhausted and weak and she hates it, so she's not in the best mood when she wakes to see Han stealthily stocking up.
"What are you doing?" she asks sharply, somehow managing the scolding tone full force in spite of her slow, measured speech and currently weak voice.
no subject
"I'm not doing anything."
Once in a rare while he manages to pull that innocent look off. Time to see if it'll hold today.
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Rosethorn made a fair number of medicines, and she's been asking questions about the others. She knows the contents of the med bay better than most people besides the actual doctors and medics.
And she's from a religious order that believes in making medicine and medical treatment available to anyone in need of it, so her problem isn't that he wants medical supplies. It's that taking them without asking affects the inventory, and if no one thinks to check it before a crisis arises... She's seen what happens when a hospital runs short on essentials like bandages, or when supplies of medications aren't replenished in time. She doesn't want to see it ever again.
no subject
"Not yet," he mutters. Not everyone on this ship is friendly, though, so maybe it's just a matter of time. To his (minuscule) credit Han isn't taking much at all, just a few bandages here and there, nothing that looks like it's running low. But she's got a point, probably he should be... not doing this at all.
"I'm not big on the idea of not having a med kit handy," he says, drawing himself up a bit and trying to look like a reasonable person. "This ship is huge."
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"You could use your words, or resupply at one of our planetary stops. Stealing means that supplies our healers are expecting to be there might be missing in a crisis. I don't know how often they check inventory here, and you don't know what can or can't be replaced."
no subject
This is a weak defense, yeah, he knows. You can't blame him for trying. (No, she totally can.)
He hadn't really thought this through. That's kind of a thing with Han. It's not that he wants to hurt the other crew's chances for survival, he's just trying to tend to his own, and it's only a matter of time before he does need medical attention.
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"What were you looking for, anyway?"
Maybe they could come up with a deal.
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"I don't know. Anything that'll keep, anything useful." Bandages are easy enough to identify, but he hasn't seen bacta patches, nothing is familiar. The constant pitfalls of life in an unfamiliar galaxy.
no subject
But she eyes him shrewdly, wondering if he'll just try again when no one is looking. (And there's always times when no one is looking; having a foster son who was once a thief was more than enough to assure her of that.) "If you'll leave the med bay stores alone, I could be convinced to share some of my supply as soon as I've made the next batch. I carry treatments for infections, burns, lacerations, pain, and a number of other basic medical needs. You'll have to buy your bandages on the planet. It shouldn't be hard to find some."
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He might. If he didn't voluntarily, there's a reasonable chance someone would prod his moral standing til it fixed its posture. That is the life that he's fallen into, generally. Some days he barely feels like a criminal at all.
But what he is, always has been, is someone on the lookout for an advantage, and the deal she's offering him sounds like one. Too good to be trusted, actually, since all she claims to want him to do is nothing.
"You're a medic here?"
no subject
She shakes her head. "Gardener."
Which probably doesn't sound especially useful, so she adds, "I also work with medicines and diseases. Not patients. Usually." Unless they're short-handed, or no one else is available, or she's foolish enough to get herself stuck in quarantine rather than a research lab during an epidemic.
The thing is, Rosethorn already gives away supplies for free to the ship's med bay. If Han is going to steal things anyway, she'd rather give them to him directly rather than throw off the med bay inventory. She charges for her work occasionally at home, but only when people can afford it. The vows she took when she moved into Winding Circle require her to help anyone who needs it. She's not materialistic, and she doesn't have any particular need for something in exchange.
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He gives her a long, considering look-- here he's much better at staying guarded than before-- and after a moment, sets the handful of bandages he's got back where they came from.
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She smiles, just a little. "You can find me in the ship's gardens most of the time, or send a message to Rosethorn over the MIDs. What's your name?"
no subject
"Han Solo."