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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
It's something others decided for us, yeah. But it's, like, a pride thing. They can try to use it like something bad all they want, but it's who we are. I'm not ashamed of it.
[It's nice how many times he's gotten to hear that in even the past month. That he and his kind, and apparently in some worlds his whole family, are just special, not freaks of nature. It's one of the reasons he likes this place so much already.]
Thanks though. I don't want to be a dick about it, but you never know how people are going to act. People kind of hate us at home.
no subject
[ She gets it, she supposes. Like he said, it's about pride. But she can see just as well how easily it can be twisted against him, against any of them. It makes her uncomfortable. At least with her people - even if it sounds weird to think of them like that - it's all myth and idiocy. People like him are obvious.
Ava shrugs one shoulder a little bit, watching him closely. ]
No, it's...it's okay. I wouldn't trust people either, if they were assholes like that. It's not right. It's not like you had a choice.
no subject
[The surname, his family history, his hair; Peter's been called plenty of things he ranks as more offensive. He's never had to directly deal with the problems that come with what he is. For now the name is a badge of honor.]
Yeah. [He sighs.] There are others, back home. I met a guy who can control metal, and another who can make these, like, bone claw things. Everyone ends up with something different.
[He won't mention their names, or Billy, just yet.]
no subject
[ She tries to imagine what it would be like to walk around with wings or snakes for arms or something. That's not exactly something someone can hide. ]
That's pretty cool, though. All of it. It sucks that people are assholes but-- I mean, I think it would be cool to do stuff like that, to run that fast or control metal or something. Know anyone who can be invisible? That kind of power would make my life a hell of a lot easier.
[ She sounds like she's joking...but she's really not. ]
Anyway, how long've you been here? What's it like being here? Everyone says it's gonna be okay but--
[ But she doesn't have proof that's true. ]
no subject
[But he gets what she means. Most people just think he's some punk with a bad dye job now that he's older.]
Honestly, even with the assholes it really is the coolest thing ever. You can do pretty much anything when you're this fast. And if they are being rude, you can totally win any fight. [He pauses, frowns.] Nope. Can't say I've met anyone like that. But it feels like there's a story there.
About a month. They're right. It's going to be mostly okay. I mean, we've had some issues but mostly things are okay around here. Free rooms, free food and the people aren't that bad.
no subject
[ He'd also fit in with the supernatural world, she suspects, but she keeps that to herself. ]
A shame you can't use it so openly. It really is a cool ability. You don't need to use a car or a bus; you can go anywhere you want and make good time, too. Seriously, it's really neat.
[ And she very gently glosses over the idea that there's a story behind why she'd want to be invisible, content to examine what he says about the ship and his time there instead. It's a more important discussion to have, anyway. ]
What sort of issues have come up?
no subject
[He leaves that out there in the interest of full disclosure.]
Hey, nobody said I didn't use it to my benefit. I just know how to not get caught. And if someone does see me, it's not like they can prove it. I just don't go around announcing it or talking about mutant rights.
Uh, murder issues?
no subject
[ That hair will probably stand way, way out. That sucks. ]
How many of you are there? Thousands? Millions?
[ How can a whole group of people go unnoticed? Vampires and werewolves, at least, hide in the dark and in the night, in the underground. But no one's even talked about it. It's so strange to her, and while she understands the need for secrecy, she also doesn't think it's right that they have to hide.
Her frown reflects as much, which only deepens as he continues. ]
Murder? What happened?
no subject
[It doesn't bother him that bad, the smile says as much. He just likes complaining.]
I don't know. You mostly just hear about others in rumors. People aren't lining up to show what they can do, you know? Everyone keeps it under wraps. We don't have any community going or anything.
[He only definitely knew of the ones he met on the prison break and that was only a handful.]
We've had a few killings in the past month. Then there were trials for the murders. Punishments doled out and then I find out that apparently death isn't always permanent around here when a murdered kid shows back up a few weeks later.
no subject
[ Which is why she doesn't outright tell him what she is. She shuffles a little bit, quietly mumbling: ]
It makes you brave, honestly.
[ To have his powers so openly shown, to not be afraid. She knows what people will think of her long before she breaks the Masquerade and the Camarilla punish her for it. She's a monster, through and through. She can only imagine what people would say, people not like him.
But she can't risk it just yet.
Ava looks horrified at what he tells her. ]
A kid was murdered? Fucking seriously? Who the hell does that?
no subject
[That's not something anyone has ever said about him and he's a little uncomfortable to hear it.]
I don't go around announcing at home. People don't care so much here, so I don't mind talking about it. We have giant robots, who care about the kid with silver hair who can run fast?
[He grimaces, not sure how much of the Sans-Chara story he should tell. He doesn't want to give the wrong impression of either party, since he thinks Sans' actions were mostly justified and Chara just really needed therapy.]
The kid attacked someone, tried to kill them. They got killed in return. A few weeks later the kid came back and killed their killer. Not a normal situation.