I
N
T
R
O
L
O
G
|
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)! )
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hownkai) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-03-01 02:40 pm
no subject
[He knows. He's known since David told him. But he's sitting here like it's a fate he can't escape. He's talked to Ocelot as though they were two people.]
I wouldn't think space would be so different.
no subject
[So he knows. Should have expected that; word's got to travel quickly. Sup, Miller, at least Liquid's not impersonating you at the moment.]
If it helps, I've been dead three, four years now. Been terrorizing Ocelot, pretty much. Not the one here, the one there. My time.
no subject
[But he chose his side. He supposes he's paying for it. Miller? Miller's just dead. He guesses he got off easy, in the long run.]
What state is he in, now? He's the last one of us, the motherbase staff, isn't he?
no subject
[That's one way to describe possession, right?]
But now? Ah... I'm not sure. He's down an arm, at least, that much I can tell you. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the eject button, and I came out here.
no subject
[How the hell did someone get possessed by a grafted arm, anyway? Well, Kaz would still keep quiet about his own hidden prosthetics.]
no subject
Still going without, then? I always found it strange that my fa-- er. He had one and you didn't.
no subject
I hear that I changed the situation later. I guess after I realized I lost everything, that stopped mattering.
Guess I'm pretty good at being bitter too. [He says as if he doesn't know that.]
no subject
That's what I heard too. I didn't exactly pay you a visit or anything. [Ocelot had insisted on doing the job, and he wasn't invested enough to tell him no.]
Bitter's something I know very well. It's reasonable.
no subject
You know... the strangest thing about Big Boss is that his legend is what keeps him alive. It's not that he's the greatest soldier... no. He would be dead many times over if he didn't have people that looked at him, saw something great, and dragged him from the wreckage.
I guess that catches up to him, too. When he loses too many people.
no subject
The legend... I've had that hanging over my head since I was a child. Basically 'good luck living up to your father's legend when you're meant to be the leftovers in the first place.' Wouldn't recommend living a life like that.
I'm guessing he has better luck even when it does catch up to him.
no subject
My father was a high ranking officer under General McArthur. No living legend. But when he became a drill sergeant, the other officers remembered him.
It's the only reason I found out my last name. He had an affair with a teenage prostitute while he was living in Yokosuka. She had a child that looked like a foreigner. Ainoko, that's what people used to look at me as. Impurity. It wasn't until one of the soldiers recognized a picture I had of him that I learned how to contact him.
no subject
[Liquid really didn't know Kaz all that much in his lifetime. A brief stint on Mother Base and a little bit of help from Ocelot had been his main resources for his impersonation. He'd just been good enough with improvisation that he'd managed to fool his brother.]
I never thought I'd even be able to meet my father until much later. Imagine my surprise when he's walking his way through my village. Of course, knowing what I know now, it was all a farce, but... Well, when your plan is to kill him someday and then it turns out he's apparently there today, you take what chances you can get.
no subject
After I left America?
[He holds his fingers in a gun shape to his temple, and simulates the suicide that took his father with a "pow" sound and tipping his head. Then straightens back up.]
I decided to be Kazuhira again.
[He listens to how "Big Boss" had walked into that village. Remembers his order to not kill a single child, not even their leader.]
How did you feel about what ended up happening to him?
no subject
Names. Always comes down to them, doesn't it? You took yours back. I threw mine out in the rubbish where it belonged.
[He finishes up his drink and goes for another one, just to have something. He's not getting drunk anytime soon, not with what he's still having, but he's not really interested in doing so anyway.]
How did I feel? Livid. I... I wanted to kill him. My biggest goal in life, and there it was, stolen from me by my brother. I was supposed to destroy my father, and his legacy. It was to be my revenge.
I suppose it's what spurred me on to do more with myself. I'd been... well, not completely useless, but the early nineties weren't all that great for me and I sort of just coasted through the rest of the decade, simmering quietly. And then I got that news. So, I made a decision. If I couldn't destroy my father, I could still go on to surpass him. There was still a legacy to destroy. And then? Tretij and I joined FOXHOUND.
no subject
[Literally, and reprehensibly.]
[But as he listens to Liquid talk, he realizes through his ramblings that he is too drunk to really understand that much crazy.]
[He ends up asking something that stands out for him.] Tretij kept his name? Or was his name just for you?
no subject
[He can't exactly relate.]
[But all the things he says make perfect sense to him. Not crazy at all, nope. He looks into his drink.]
He went by Psycho Mantis, when we were in FOXHOUND, but I figured you'd be more familiar with his old one. That wasn't his real name either. Now that... that was just for me. [Mostly just because he'd found it out through their connection, at first anyway, but like hell he was going to give it up to anyone.]
no subject
[They shouldn't have had to live like that. Even if this man kills him, he's still the boy that hid from the world in Africa.]
...I really don't understand this possession through an arm thing, but I guess it makes as much sense as anything else that's happened. [From sad drunken pondering to bewildered drunken pondering in a heartbeat.]
no subject
I don't really understand it all that much either. My best guess is it gave me something to keep me grounded. It was familiar, it was mine, and when I was able to get control of that, it allowed me to work on the rest of Ocelot too. When he cut it off, there I went.
[Seems like a good guess to him, anyway, but he'll probably never really know.]