thisavrou_log | ( march intro log )

Entry tags:

( march intro log )

Who: Everyone
When: March 1st and on
Where: The Moira + Ceta
What: The crew finds themselves on the planet of Ceta
Warnings: Potential sci-fi creature death. Please label your content!

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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)! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's about a girl. [Which is all he figures he needs to say. They stuff about his inability to actually ask her out he'll take to the grave. Unless Wanda asks.]

Oh, yeah. We were getting some new crew. I guess I should introduce myself, so you know who to complain about later. I'm Peter Maximoff.

[He holds out his hand in greeting, MID still visibly open to J's inbox.]

I see. [Well that certainly makes sense. Women tend to make men do stupid things.]

Peggy Carter. And don't worry, I'll only complain if it happens again. Maybe next time, try not to compose love letters while dashing through the halls?

[She may not look close enough to read what his MID says as she returns the handshake, but she sees text and just assumes, based on what he had already told her.]

Whoa, whoa, Miss Carter. Let's not go calling it a love letter. Let's go with like. Sounds less-[Terrifying.] It just sounds better.

[J might be making him act foolish, but he's not got it quite so bad yet.]

But I will keep the suggestion in mind for next time I go running around here. Because you're right, if I was going as fast as normal I could actually cause some damage.

"Like"? Really, that's all you'll admit to? [that was rubbish. Even if she was the queen of having feelings and never doing anything about it, at least she didn't deny she had them. And what is with using the word like as a term of affection??]

You can "like" anything.

[wait hang on a second, did she hear him correctly.] You're telling me you can run faster?

[That would put him faster than Steve.]

That's all there is! [What is happening? Is he having this conversation? He's not ready for this conversation.] Of course you can like anything, I like her. I've know her for a month. That's a "like" thing.

[Abort abort, talk about the speed thing. That's safer.]

Right! Yeah, way faster. Like faster than a speeding bullet, world moves in slow motion kind of faster.

Call it what it is: a crush. [it sounds so much better than "like"!!

but surprise, surprise, he's trying to distract her by talking his speed. Good thing for him, because it's working.]

Good heavens. And you're completely serious? [That was...mindblowing. This overwhelming thing really was a trend around here.] But how is that even possible?

That's, ugh. Shh.

[He'll just make hushing sounds under his breath until she gets off topic. Even crush seemed a little hard to admit to after such a short time. Like was good enough for now. Baby steps.]

I'm dead serious. [Even if he's grinning like a loon as he says it.] It's all genetics. Or so I've been told.

[She's going to come back to the crush thing, don't you worry.]

You were born with it, then? Is it a family trait? [She's just wondering. Maybe science isn't as advanced at her time, but she knew some things about genetics after all the time she spent with Dr. Erskine. But his serum altered Steve's genetics, it wasn't something he already possessed in his genes.]

[Worry? More like terrified.]

To know that Mom would have to cough up some actual information about who got her pregnant, so. [He shrugs, wearing a long practiced face of teenage apathy.] I'm a mutant. Far as I can tell, we're all born with it.

[GOOD. Peggy makes it a goal to strike fear in the hearts of men.]

"Mutants". [She lingers on the word, giving him a brief look of sympathy at the comment about his father. She could comment about that, but he doesn't seem to want to talk about it, so she moves on to the good stuff.]

So there are others where you're from, then? Are they all like you or do they have different...abilities?

[color her fascinated! sorry she's asking a million questions. She's just trying to take it all in.]

[She does it well.]

Yes. Mutants. [He says it firmly.] It's what we are. Please don't tell me you have some issue with the word.

[He really doesn't want to start arguing again. Defending himself and people like him gets exhausting.]

There's some of us. Enough, you know? And we're all different, as far as I know. At least I've never meet anyone else with powers like me.

No, not at all. I'm merely trying to understand. [wow, he sure got defensive there. Touchy subject much?]

There are no mutants where I'm from. At least, not that I'm aware.

[The only special human was Steve, and he wasn't born with his powers.]

Not a lot of them anywhere, from what I've heard. Just some people have ideas about it, you know?

[Sorry Peggy, but after his lady friend insulted his mutant status, he's become a little defensive over the whole thing.]

But a lot keep it hidden too. A lot of normal people don't react well to us, so I could see it being a thing where you're from but everyone's just being smart enough not to talk about it.

I suppose anything is possible. [maybe she just isn't aware, but she works for the SSR. She would have thought she would be aware of something to that extreme.]

We did have a super soldier, but he wasn't a mutant. Not in the sense that you speak of, anyway.

We've got aliens and talking skeletons here. As much as it pains me to admit, I'm not nearly the hardest thing to believe.

[It doesn't pain him at all. For once, being closer to the normal side of the scale is kind of exhilarating. Here he's not even close to being a freak.]

Super soldier? What's that?

This is very true. Most everything here has been beyond my wildest dreams. [She's met aliens, but talking skeletons?? That's new. She's just. Going to keep that in mind in case she runs into one later. At least that way it won't be as much of a shock as it would've been.

She's careful how she proceeds with answering, if just so it's not so obvious she was involved in actually creating what Steve became.]

The idea was to make a unit of soldiers better in every way. Unfortunately, the scientist that created the serum to do just that was killed. Only one was made, and he was far better than anyone could have hoped. A living legend, if you will. He saved my world on more than one occasion. [It's...nice, in a way, to gloat about Steve to someone who didn't know him. It's painful, as it always was, but having already run into him here, knowing he wasn't dead like she had believed for so long, made it just a bit easier.]

You get used to it. [He says it a little more quietly, trying to look reassuring. The entire place is weird and he knows he only acclimated so quickly because of Wanda. Once someone meets their younger twin's alternate dimension version, everything else seems pretty easy to deal with.] It'll take some time, but you'll find this all normal soon enough.

[He cocks his head to the side, taking in the answer. His expression isn't awed or entertained, not in the way she might expect a teenage boy to be. He looks troubled, verging on annoyed.] Experimenting on people just for the sake of war?

I'm not sure how I feel about all this being "normal". [If she completely accepts it, then complacency happens. If she gets complacent, then finding answers and the way home doesn't become nearly as important as it needs to be.

Honestly, his reaction is a bit of a surprise. Most people in her era were patriotic, and maybe they didn't like the war, but they were supportive of their country and troops.] They were all volunteers. And doing what they felt was right to protect their homes. The enemy had their own version already. Without it, the rest of the world would have crumbled.

It’s freaky, but like I said, you’ll get used to it. [He shrugs.] If you keep rejecting it, you’ll just drive yourself crazy.

[There were patriotic types still running around in his time, but Vietnam had changed the idea of war. The news reels showed something more than national spirit, the returning soldiers came back with more than metals. The draft, forcing teenagers away from families, made those left behind bitter instead of proud. He was nearly 18, months away from his name being on lists when he’d been brought here.]

Just because they volunteer doesn’t make it right. Did they really know what they were signing up for? [Had Wanda and Pietro when they took the plunge to protect their people?] Does war make it okay to forget people are involved?

I supposed we all must roll with the punches, as it were. [She could see how this place could easily drive her mad. So much was different, so strange. Adapting was going to be a process.

This wasn't something she expected to argue about. But given how close it was to her, and how much of an affect Project Rebirth had on her life, she can't help but get defensive.] Of course they did. As I said, they were volunteers. All men, willing to give up their lives for the cause. [She would be lying if she said there wasn't a time she had forgotten soldiers were people too, but Steve was always quick to remind her what they were really fighting for.] That's never alright. But that's why he was so important. He didn't forget, and that's why he saved all of us.

[In more ways than one, really.]

And isn't that what makes them so easy to take advantage of? [His expression is still stony, something in his voice that borders on mocking. He can't get away from what he knows about his sister and her rightful brother, what the rumors were about people like him from home. The twins volunteered because they were willing to die for their cause, and Peter saw the government who allowed it as a predator catching easy prey.] Just because someone volunteers doesn't make it right to change what someone is.

Was so important. That's past tense.

[He isn't wrong and it's frustrating. Still, even if that was true, even if all those men were technically taken advantage of, it didn't change the fact that what they did was important. The world wouldn't exist as they knew it if they hadn't done what they did.]

It didn't. Not really. It didn't change who they were, but allowed everyone else to see what they couldn't before. [Because Steve only changed physically. Everything that made him Captain America, all those amazing qualities he possessed, they were there before the serum. Everyone was just so blind to it because of his size.]

Captain Rogers-- died. Killed in action, saving the world as I told you. At least, that was what everyone assumed. I've only just learned that he did in fact survive. [Just. Frozen in ice for seventy years. She's still so distraught by that. She tries to maintain her composer but if Peter pays enough attention, he might notice the waver in her demeanor.]

I don't believe that. You put someone through something like that, it changes them. Maybe not in obvious ways, but it does.

[The powers weren't Peter's issue in what happened to the twins. His sister's powers were glorious, something he was selfishly proud that she has. It was how people had taken advantage of them, how it separated her from the world. The path they lead her down in the name of country.

Maybe both twins could be alive and happy if someone hadn't manipulated the struggles of angry war orphans.]

Rodgers? [He's heard that name before, from somewhere he can't place.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( march intro log )

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