( august intro log )

[hownkai]

Who: Everyone
When: August 1st and on
Where: The Moira
What: New “guests” join the crew on their journey and implement some changes.
Warnings: None for now. Please label your content!

I N T R O L O G

old but unfamiliar faces "We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once." 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. Shortly after, you are led out and toward the medbay. Inside this room, you are given a physical scan and offered a contract to sign that states you are now part of the crew of the Moira with a specific job. Any questions you might have would be answered in a straightforward manner as well as an explanation about how the Ingress, the thing that has pulled you onto the Moira, is broken and bringing people here unintentionally. This process also consists of a complete work-up of medical history and current health, and afterwards, you are given your MID, a device that is integrated into your hand or wrist with only the slightest pinch. From there, you are guided out of the medbay and to your living quarters. At first, this month seems no more unusual than the previous one for those who have been aboard the Moira for any amount of time. The crew who had landed on the slaver outpost were rescued, and with everyone aboard, the ship has pushed forward into the darker parts of the Runoff. Anyone arriving through the Ingress follows the same routine—moving from the Ingress room into the Medbay for their physical and contract before being assisted by seasoned crew members and helped to their assigned decks. But all familiar things must eventually come to an end: two final travelers come through the Ingress. The first, and most noticeable difference between them and all the others, is their clothing. Both are dressed in standard Moira uniforms, though they bear the insignia of one sharing the same rank as Captains Cúrre and Thán. After a moment to take in all the people on the platform ahead of them, one of the two latest arrivals approaches one of the Ingress panels and begins to manipulate the controls. The Ingress completely shuts down. Unlike before, however, there isn’t an imbalance felt across the ship; everything remains normal and stable. Utilizing the computer systems located in the Ingress room, they send out the following message to the crew via the MID: To all those aboard this vessel: I am Ira Phirun, assigned captain of the Moira. First Mate Egan and I will be commandeering all rights to the ship as soon as word is sent to those currently in charge. Expect a more detailed report as soon as all records and logs in Navigation have been reviewed by myself and the First Mate. All questions will be answered in a timely matter. For now, there will be no interruption of daily routine or reprimand if conduct among ranks is broken. Thanks for your time. Heading to Navigation, the Captain and First Mate, for seemingly unknown reasons, approach Navigator Manasseh and have her show them all records and logs of the Moira. Those working in Navigation when the Captain and First Mate arrive will see Mana greet them in a professional manner. Oddly, the Captain and First Mate act very familiar with the Navigator. They review all documents, but when they come upon news that the Ploiatos is on board, their mostly friendly demeanor shifts quickly. The Captain issues a sharp order, unintelligible to those who are close enough to overhear parts of their conversation, and without any warning at all, Mana loses consciousness and collapses right there on the bridge. Within minutes of this happening, the ship as a whole falls into a low power state with basic functions only. Mana’s MID alerts Medbay, and without hesitation, Captain Cúrre places her in cryo with strict orders to those who work there not to disturb the unit. As promised, the Captain and First Mate soon address the crew. ☄ lights down low The lighting has dimmed in all the rooms and halls, the normally crisp air that is pumped from the vents low, and all machines and tech are running at half-speed. These effects can be found throughout the ship. Water in the showers remain hot for only a few minutes before reverting to cold. Recreational equipment powers off not long after it has been turned on. The sanitation and water filtration systems require an hourly manual reboot, and all unused areas of the ship have no power allotted to them until a crew member steps inside. Even then, most functions are not optimal. It’s as if the Moira has been transformed into a dark house with only a candle flickering on the window sill. ☄ reuse & recycle The Captain and First Mate are quick to establish that this is a new regime and go about making the ship and its crew more efficient in the wake of their change in course and the low power state of the ship itself. This means they will systematically inspect each occupied barracks room and leave notes for what needs to be disposed of or stowed away. Unlike before, this is no longer a pleasure cruise, and each member of the crew is a guest on board; they will not tolerate useless clutter. Anything seen as unnecessary will be either placed into storage in the Cargo Bay or disposed of through the airlock. This new need for efficiency also extends to the need to conserve resources until they reach their destination. The showers are set to an automatic timer to minimize water waste. Those few minutes of hot water are all a crew member is now given. Meals are smaller, bordering on ration sizes, and luxuries are done away with entirely in order to preserve supplies so that the ship can go longer before needing to dock at a planet. ☄ new jobs, same faces The Captain and his First Mate, as expressed in their addressing of the Moira, explain that work efficiency is a priority. Applications for a head of the following departments will be accepted for a short period: Navigation, the Tower, Medbay, Defense, the Hold, Sanitation, Ingress work, and the Galley/Mess Hall. (Here.) After reviewing what they receive, one head of department will be chosen and tasked with helping crew find positions relevant to those departments and their own skillsets. They will be allowed to retain any positions that they held before that aren’t ship-functional jobs, but they will have to be done in leisure time. In two weeks time, they’ll be accepting department position applications which will be approved, and all those that do not apply will be assigned in accordance with their initial work application. They will also choose three individuals to act as guards of Ploiatos to ensure that there is a rotation available at all times. Will you choose to follow this new decision and promote yourself into a position of responsibility? Or will you simply wait for a reassignment?

( ooc; For questions, go here. Please comment to activity check to receive new ranks (if applicable)! )

Comments

[alterplex]

[ After experiencing several hours' worth of disarming events, not to mention his very recent reveal of who he is (what he is), Venom fancies that not a lot of things can still take him by surprise.

Well. He's been wrong before.

It takes considerable effort not to look too bemused by Kaz's collection of new limbs, to reacquaint himself with these new footsteps instead of the quiet click-shuffle of crutch-to-foot. In a way, it helps; if there'd been any doubt as to what this place is capable of, Kaz's brought himself over as irrefutable proof of the things that Venom hadn't been convinced of on paper.

Still, Venom's disorientation settles internally, imperceptible save for a slight displacement of his weight from one foot to the other. Kaz's question is an uncomfortable reminder of faulty memories, a flashback to dizzying questions in a foreign hospital room.

He pauses. Answers with a quiet mm first, appended with: ]

You first.

[ Because there's a very real possibility that Kaz doesn't know what he does, and it would be unwise to break that to him right out of the gate. ]

Jack Wynand | Bioshock

[orplasmic]

[ Fresh off the Boat; Observation Deck ]

[ At first he thinks this is some kind of trick by Sander Cohen. But after being shuffled through rooms that don't creak with the weight of the ocean bearing down on them and having some metal contraption locked onto his hand he figured his isn't the sort of thing the man would go for. Not when Cohen's favorite form of art was dead men and women frozen into unsettling shapes. From there he does what comes naturally and explores his new surroundings.

He makes his way to the observation deck and stands there for a while, silent and disbelieving. This was the sort of thing that only happened in books, totally impossible. Sort of like cities built at the bottom of the ocean. Ridiculous.

To anyone watching, Jack presents an odd sight. His clothes have seen better days, his sweater is bearing some stains that look suspiciously like blood. It's also ripped in a few places. Not that Jack himself is in a much better state. He looks tired, and has more than a few visible injuries on him. It's probably a long shot, but Jack pulls the short-wave radio from his belt where it's been since he first arrived in Rapture and turns it on. ]

Atlas, you there? [ He waits a few moments, listening to the soft buzz of static and hoping for a minute before letting his hand drop. ] ...Didn't think so.

[ First Impressions Are Important; Nomo #022]

[ It's hard to be skeptical of anything after the time Jack has had over the last 48 hours. From airplane to bathysphere to underwater hellhole to goddamn space ship. And he's not exactly running on all cylinders considering he's barely slept. So when he gets handed a pile of clothes that aren't stiff with salt water and blood, and told he's got a room to sleep in he doesn't ask too many questions. The moment he finds the room and more importantly finds it empty he drops his stuff on the foot of one of the bunks and takes advantage of the opportunity to sleep for more than five minutes straight.

Of course the moment someone else actually opens the door, Jack's fear-honed instincts make him jerk awake and immediately go into defense mode, holding up a hand crackling with lightning at whoever dared to, you know, come into their own damn room. Of course the bloodstained sweater and the bags under his eyes are a good indicator this guy hasn't been having a great time recently. ]

...Who're you?


[ Lights Down Low; ]

[ There's something to be said for the uniforms. Mostly that they're better than nothing at all. The dim lighting does nothing to ease the knot in his gut that insists a splicer might pop out at any moment and try to kill him. It also doesn't help that his pistol went missing sometime between getting into the Bathysphere to Hephaestus and stepping out of the Ingress. So for now he's got a syringe of EVE tucked away where he can grab it alongside his pipe wrench. He can almost hear Atlas's voice, giving him that advice for dealing with the Splicers."Zap them and whack them, boyo."

His hand glows a little in the poorly lit hallways as he makes his way toward where he thinks the mess hall is. Because really, if he's going to be stuck in another weird place that he can't leave he at least wants to eat something that's not A) a candy bar or B) a bag of chips. A man has needs after all. ]


[ Wildcard ]

[ Want something else! Hit me up and we can make it happen. ]

[warandpeace]

You don't remember being here, do you?

[Kaz fidgets with the fingers to his glove then, watching V's face, before tugging them loose gently.]

I've been here seven months. I was talked into a set of prosthetics during month two. I needed to be able to keep up, being in a subordinate position that required me to be mobile and useful. [He couldn't afford the luxury of his pride.] The commanding officers of the ship have expressed their intention to return to a location where the ship's Ingress might be repaired. I can give you a rundown of locations and potential threats as I'm aware of them.

[Hesitantly he pulls the glove off, revealing half-clear fingers, a hand that can be seen through, a pattern of color meant to mirror his left in shape. Then he reaches up with that hand to remove his sunglasses. Those glass-like irises, marred pupils, restored to normal.]

Last thing I remember from home... the words "new nation" mean anything to you?

[Kaz looks down, replaces the glasses, tries to suppress a wash of bile that roils through his gut. New nation. What a mess all of this is.]

[alterplex]

No. So I'll ask you about the threats later.

[ No doubt Kaz has an extensive laundry list of them, meticulously detailed and ordered by urgency. It's something they still have time to discuss without getting trigger-happy with the paranoia (bad habit, Kaz), so Venom pulls up a palm in customary military fashion to gently assuage. A silent slow down.

It's also a request for Kaz to let up until Venom gets a hold on his mental bearings, especially in light of this new information about having been here before (again, that discomforting notion of not remembering). He doesn't need the weeks that he'd had in the past to adjust, those days spent on the boat from Cyprus to Afghanistan, but some breathing room would be nice.

His gaze flits across the new details that his XO's been fitted with— the new hand, the repaired vision— and he files that into the 'More Things To Think About' territory.

One at a time. ]

As for the 'new nation'— yeah. [ A brief exhale, almost a dry laugh. ] You know, then. [ About 'the truth', he means. ]

[warandpeace]

Yeah.

I know.

[Kaz stares at V, lower lip pushing up into the top, his mouth forming a thin line.]

Big Boss was here. I punched him. Yelled at him for it.

[So V knows that he didn't get off without being called out on it some. But he doesn't know what to follow that up with. "Yes, but we made up." "And he had to tell you in front of me and it was like a nightmare." "He's dead now. He died in front of me again." There's nothing decent he can follow that with.]

[So he doesn't. This endless font of words shuts up and waits to be asked for something. Some dutiful thing to do or else this expression will be harder to fight off.]

It's okay, Boss. [He adds. Just in case. So he doesn't doubt.] I'm still with you.

Wanda Maximoff | MCU

[seeingscarlet]

i. lights down low
[Unlike most of the crew, Wanda recognizes Ira and Egan from Ploiatos's memories. She watched them seal him away with the surviving crew and something about this doesn't sit right. Where's the rest of the old crew? And "safe holding facility?" "Committee hearing?" They haven't been inside its head, but Wanda has and the entire idea is laughable.

And as Wanda herself is in no rush to get home, some of the changes irk her. They didn't ask to be here, so cracking down like this is some sort of actual military rubs her entirely the wrong way, makes her think of Strucker and the time before they let her out of the cell. Something doesn't add up, and those who know Wanda don't need to be telepaths to sense her deep unease.

She lights her way with a small ball of red energy now, as unsettling as the light it casts might be. Even her office feels wrong despite her efforts to make it welcoming. Something's coming, she can feel it, but all she can do is wait.

Wanda can be found around Mero deck, in the counseling offices, or wandering the halls with her eerie red light.]

ii. wildcard
[Want something specific? Hit me up at dontyousonicme]

[alterplex]

[ 'Big Boss'. It's strange how some part of him still responds to that denotation, how jarring it is when cognitive dissonance pulls him in two different directions. ]

He was here.

[ Which isn't so much a question as it is a repetition made in mild disbelief, one that Venom shelves because it's so obvious. Yeah, dingus, Kaz just said that he was.

He can appreciate that the situation must have been complicated, especially if Kaz is using the past tense: "was". There's no change in expression on Venom's part once he brings himself back to neutral, save for the slight downturn of his brows that speaks to his subtle, self-contained empathy. Whatever Kaz feels about Big Boss is Kaz's private business; Venom lost his rights to pry with the cassette he was given.

Regardless, that last statement of faith prompts Venom to tip his head a millimeter in acknowledgment. ]

You're stuck with me, more like. [ Not entirely self-deprecating. It's dry, but light. ]

jesse pinkman | breaking bad

[heisenbitch]

POST-MEDBAY

[ Yeah, well, Jesse was sure the ringing dizziness in his head and not being able to see jack shit before realising he was on some longass platform was some drug-induced hallucination at first. All those pain meds they've been pumping into him in the hospital - he's just jacked up on morphine, right?

It was only once he was being escorted to the medbay that a cold trickle of dawning panic started to settle in. Panic became full-blown when he was informed that he was on a fucking space ship while being poked and prodded at by medical crew. Jesse thrashed about in effort to escape, threatening, "I will mess you up, bitch!" in a shrieking, terrified voice until, eventually, the crew managed to calm Jesse down enough to scan him. And eventually, talked him into signing the contract. He wouldn't let them near him again, though. Wouldn't let them fix his face.

And so now, after all that, after being escorted out of the medbay, Jesse doesn't know where he is or where to go or what the hell to do. He's a sad and sorry sight, face all busted up, left eye an ugly purple and swollen shut, his expression all terror and alarm. He's dressed in an oversized dark purple hoodie and oversized baggy jeans - no t-shirt, so he's bare-chested, because apparently his t-shirt got lost in the Ingress, whatever the fuck that's supposed to be.

With trembling hands, he's fiddling with the zip of his hoodie, trying to zip the damn thing up but he's in too much of a state of panic to get his hands working properly. At the same time, he's wildly throwing glances to the left of him and to the right of him like he's on alert for danger.

Someone needs to help this poor boy get his bearings and show him to his room. ]

MORO DECK

Holy shit—!

[ Jesse's immediate reaction upon stop in front of a window that overlooks fucking space. He stands there, mouth agape, unbruised and unswollen eye wide with awed disbelief as he takes in the sight of endless blackness dotted with millions upon millions of stars. Holy shit. Holy shit!

Snapping his mouth shut, he swallows shakily and hard, and takes a sudden step back from the window. Panic is welling in his chest again, icy hot and choking, as it hits him properly for the first time that this is real. And the vastness of all that space out there - it's at once awe-inspiring and terrifying. ]

DARKENED CORRIDORS

[ Fuck this creepy ass place. Jesus, seriously, fuck this place. Unable to sit or stay still in his (way too girly-looking) dorm, Jesse had taken to trawling through the dimly lit corridors in search of… Christ, Jesse doesn't even know. Answers, perhaps. A way out. Maybe some place that looks normal and not like it's just stepped its giant ass foot right out of Tron.

Becoming utterly lost in the seeming labyrinth of corridors, he's wound up slumped against a wall in the darkness, frantically smoking a cigarette. The tip glows red in the dimness, the smoke an equally dim haze as he exhales. Each time he draws the cigarette back up to his lips, his hand is trembling ever so slightly, and he sucks in each drag like he's trying to find escapism in the nicotine being pulled into his lungs. Jesus, what he would do to get high now, shut his mind out from all of this. ]

WILDCARD!

[ Something specific you'd like to do with Jesse? Feel free to PM me or shoot me a message over at nanageddon! ]

Counseling Office

[ryuuzaki]

[The lighting is low here, but it's L's understanding that this is where to find Wanda Maximoff... and the contents of her conversation with Egan make her worth finding.

He doesn't walk very far into the room. Instead, he stands just inside the door: a tallish, thin man in his late twenties, dark hair almost to his shoulders, a slight stoop. Wanda herself is recognizable from the network, and nothing about the office itself unsettles him.]

Miss Maximoff, yes?

[His voice is quiet, flat, British, and for the moment, nearly polite.]

[warandpeace]

No I'm not. [Like those three words make all the difference. That this is a choice he's making. Important in even John acknowledged it. Hell of a complicated situation for this Snake to come in on.]

[As if she wants to interrupt the meaningful moment, the rust colored husky behind Kaz (the larger of two) steps around him and stares at Snake with gold-blonde eyes. And then makes a warble noise and tosses her head, a sound that couldn't even loosely be construed as a bark.]

[It's good he has the dog for moments like this, when he's torn out of an overwhelming weight and looks down at the furry nerd who just banged her head on his leg in her eagerness to get attention.]

That's Mama. She had a litter of puppies when I got her and I didn't know what else to call her. The silver one- [the 4 month old that seems like less of a laughable doof than her mother] -is one of her girls. Her name is Joy.

The hall just outside the medbay

[devilofohara]

[Robin takes a shaky breath as she walks takes her first few steps out of the medbay, and into the corridor.

It feels strange to be walking like this, with two left legs. Her sense of balance is so off - it's why she hadn't been able to leave the medbay without a cane to assist her.

Honestly, even as good as Doc Yewll had been at stopping the bleeding and closing the wound, she's not sure she should even be walking right now. But this... It feels like something her abilities should be able to carry her through - to replace one limb with another. And besides, there were a few books in her office that she wanted to retrieve.

Wanda has the good fortune to catch Robin just as she's starting down the hall. She doesn't make eye contact with the older woman as she starts to make her way down the corridor, but the way she's wobbling makes it clear that she doesn't quite have this walking thing down just yet.]

alva / original

[procedures]

( MEDBAY ) LET'S GET PHYSICAL
[ Hardly a week into his stay on the ship, and things start happening in rapid succession.

If Alva were to be say so out loud, the sudden rerouting of power supply throughout the ship had been a welcome switch-up for pace. The ship was too peaceful; coming from Louisiana with gunfire still singing the clothes on his back, the quiet had been unsettling. He fell back on old routines, for as much as a man like him could while in space - makes noiseless work in the medbay, learns and relearns what he can about the ship and its medical equipment, maps out the possible exits and explosives to use.

Just the usual things.

So when a concerned-looking woman wearing a looped shawl around her shoulders rushes another into the bay, places her in what Alva recognizes with dread as a cryochamber, a sort of relief washes over him. Orders are given, alarming in their immediacy but easy enough to comply with. The mood dips low, as do the brightness of the lights. Alva's sense of calm stabilizes, and that's probably not a good thing. Alva quickly makes the medbay a second home, more than the room he's been assigned - he's throwing himself into the work without question.

He does try to make conversation with those who come into the bay, though it might seem obvious that he's somewhat overwhelmed by the passengers of the ship. Everyone's been nice, as far as Alva has noticed. It's taking some getting used to. ]

Here for a check-up or just visiting?

---

( MORO DECK ) STARS ON 45
[ The bed swings.

The first night, Alva couldn't sleep. The damn thing made the tiniest noises that jolted him awake - they were so similar to the small noises that crept along the Gloriana halls every night, and with those noises were the awful things associated with those noises. Broken bones. Torn faces. Slight girls and boys, taken apart behind soundproofed rooms, but those rooms still had doors that creaked open.

He'd sleep better next to a roaring engine. Alva sleeps on the floor for the first few nights - which must make a weird sight to the other occupants of the room during what counts as morning on the ship. Especially since he puts the mattress and sheets back in place every morning. It's a little like a madman's routine. ]

Good morning. Or noon. [ he always greets, first thing. In the rooms, or out in the hallways, plainly dressed and combed. ] Is it evening? I can't tell.

---

( PLAYER'S CHOICE ) MONEY FOR NOTHING
[ Accost him while he's eating. Come sit with him as he's watching the stars on the deck. Do anything and everything that your heart desires (that doesn't involve anyone getting bloody). Go for gold! ]

INTO THE DARKNESS

[heroicpose]

[ As if Jesse's life wasn't currently bizarre enough, the sound of an engine rumbling slowly down the hallway is proceeded just before the long, huge hallway is flooded with the glow of headlights. A bright red car drives slowly through, careful of going too fast in the dark as there was plenty who might have lost their way.

The car almost passes Jesse by completely, driving several feet away, but then suddenly it stops and backs up to him, coming to an idle right next to him. ]

Yo. You okay?

post-medbay ;

[alterplex]

[ There's really no blaming anyone for looking like they're running barefoot from a horror movie scenario, huh. They might as well be, after being corralled into a medbay post-kidnapping, forced to sign a contract to sell away their cooperation— as if human lives are that cheap, as if choices are that easily made and given.

Venom knows the signs of panic, and he fancies that he didn't have to be military to spot them. Those hurried panoramic scans coupled with erratic breathing and shaking fingers, yeah, those are telltale signs. It's a little bit morbidly funny that he can't direct the kid back to the medbay to get all of this under control (that would be hideously counterproductive), so Venom approaches Jesse with his hands up, gloved palms visible in the universal sign for settle down.

Then again, the scars on Venom's face, the eyepatch covering one eye, and the shrapnel-horn protruding from his forehead might not be the most inviting aesthetic to a guy who doesn't seem to trust his surroundings, but. His body language is calm, his shoulders squared and steady. ]

Hey. Look at me. [ He keeps his tone quiet, gravel-baritone set to 'measured'. ] —They do something to you? [ God, this place already sucks. ]

andyr prince | original

[deconstruct]

Ａ］  ＭＥＤＢＡＹ；

[ he's still very new, it's been about a week since Andyr'd gotten in with the others from home, went through the whole annoying physical process, dealt with the creepy space jellyfish, found his room, explored, gotten all the talk about what's going on here, and with the arrival of two, too official looking dudes from who even fucking knows where, it all starts shifting. not something that sits well with him, and once they show up, Andyr makes a point to follow. through the ventilation shafts, because that's still his job for now (well, his job is to clean them, but he considers stalking part of employee benefits), and it's a great way to follow anyone on the crew around undetected.

thus, he sees it when Mana falls unconscious, and hops out of the ships hamster tunnels in one of the halls near the medbay to follow her escort of crew that slips her into cryo freeze. they'd been talking, and all of a sudden, something was said and she practically keeled over. just her, no one else. for a long, contemplative few minutes, andyr's standing outside the cryo room, squinting through the windows, and seems lost in his head, not even doing his typical freak out over being surrounded by so much lab, as he tends to when in this room. ]

What do you figure she did? [ he's speaking up to the first person who steps close to him and stalls there. ] Or knew? Had to be something.

Ｂ］  ＭＯＲＯ  ＤＥＣＫ；

[ back into the vents with this spider monkey. they'd said something about new jobs being assigned, so andyr's trying to get the most out of this position while he can, scrambling around in the ventilation shafts with the small handmade shank he'd kept from home in hand. you might here a metallic scratching somewhere overhead, at some point, as he goes about engraving notes into the sides of the vent walls - road signs, more like.

once over moro deck, you might even find him popping out the metal grate over your room, and poking his head out of your ceiling, peering around upside down with squinted eyes. ]

Shit. Wrong one. [ not 002. or val or alva's room, which he may also be looking for, to mark. directions were never his strong suit. but hey, since he's here and you're here, give him a hand, would you? ] Hey, which room number is this?

Ｃ］  ＡＲＯＵＮＤ  ＡＮＤ  ＡＢＯＵＴ；

[ over the course of the day, after the new officers show up, andyr puts a healthy amount of time into exploring around, seeing what's been changed. maybe trying to take stock of things or sneak away some materials, with anticipation that shit may be hitting the fan very soon. the first place he starts is:

C1) - the library, digging around through the shelves, he yoinks out a couple medical books, a few general universally informative ones, but seems to linger around the section that covers animal life and biology. specifically, marine life. one book is tugged out and slapped onto his pile. then another. and another. and another. until he has about five there, frowning down at the stack of books that has somehow gotten quite large now. is there a limit on how many can be borrowed at a time? let's hope not.

C2) - the training sims have become a means of stress relief for andyr, given that there's no ill moralled guards around for him to punch in the face or shove a scalpel through the throats of, and plenty in the way of frustration to have his nerves all on edge. he'd just come from a place that meant constantly fighting to defend himself, to spite the people putting him through hell, and being dropped into a big, metal box with a bunch of people so damn nice and accommodating has done nothing but raise his suspicions, constantly ready to lash out at one or another the moment the facade cracks. the training sims had been an outlet to diffuse some of that packed in aggression, but today he's just been cut off. the sim runs for all of about three minutes, before crashing. resource conservation. in a outburst of frustration, a water bottle gets punted across the room, into a wall, with a shout. ] Fucking come on!

C3) - the mess hall, where andyr's having probably his fifth meal of the day. one of the hugest perks he's found in being on the Moira rather than at home has been this - eating whatever the sweet fuck he wants. back in hapsburg, every part of what was put into his body was extremely regulated, on the kind of regimented diet even a health nut would roll their eyes at. coming to the moira, he'd immediately started stuffing his face with as much fatty, junky foods as he could find, in huge quantities (and barfing half of it back up later, due to a biological system not adjusted to tolerate this). but today, oh today. today, he gets a tiny fraction of what he's been ingesting, and his expression could not be flatter, as he stares across serving window at whoever's on mess hall duty this evening. ] Seriously? That's it?

Ｄ］  ＷＩＬＤＣＡＲＤ；

[ idk man hit me with whatever ]

[seeingscarlet]

[If Wanda looks uneasy it's not a trick of the light - she is, and deeply so. She took a risk in confronting Egan like that, one that ended up being completely fruitless. How long until someone finds out? What happens to her then?

She has tried very hard to keep certain things quiet, and she's certainly not going to willingly spill the beans completely.]

Yes? Come in.

[Her name's on the door, else she'd be a little more concerned with a stranger knowing her name.]

dutch | killjoys

[avicula]

❝ exploring❞

( dutch settles in, for a given value of settling in. she finds her bed and her new uniform, notes the missing knife and sets out to explore, to draw up a map of her own making of the moira. she's planning to compare it to the information available to her, to gauge its trustworthiness. the point being, of course, that she doesn't trust the information given to her, or the new captain and first mate that seem to have taken over.

she can be found just about anywhere on the ship, body language controlled and confident even when the lights flicker or go out. should the lights go out while there's someone else in a corridor with her, a hand might land on her weapon, but she won't draw. instead, she'll ask — ) What are you doing here? ( like she has every right to demand that answer. )

❝ sparring❞

( one of dutch's first acts aboard had been a network post — partially to gain more information, to get the lay of the land. years of khlyen's training have ingrained that people are often the best source of information and should be used indiscriminately. dutch isn't planning on doing quite that, if she can help it. the request for information is harmless.

the request for sparring partners is, too, since dutch has no inclination to really injure anyone unless they force her hand. she just needs to stay sharp and work off some frustration. so if someone bites, she'll circle them on the training mats, hands held in a loosely defensive position. )

Show me what you've got.

❝ wildcard❞

( feel like something not mentioned here? go for it! esp. drinking with dutch is highly encouraged. )

( ooc: replies will probably be woefully slow while i'm still on holidays, but i'll do my best Hearts; )

[backsassin]

[Zam is more than used to the Ingress throwing them for a loop. It’s brought through giant robots, homicidal children, and dead men walking, but it usually at least has the courtesy to bring someone on arrival days. This time, however, it spits out what seems to be a chunk of scenery. Zam quirks an eyebrow above her veil as she takes in the scattered rubble. She knows the Ingress can bring in non-living things -- like saberdarts and veils, for example -- but this still seems… excessive.

She’s about to ping another one of the Ingress staff asking what she’s even supposed to do in this situation, but before she can complete the message, a muffled groan issues from the pile of debris. Zam lowers her MID, staring at the rubble in surprise. Is someone actually alive under all of that?

She can’t reply to the question posed by whoever’s currently speaking, so instead she acts. Cautiously, she walks over to the rubble and begins moving the stones out of the way. At first, she’s wary of bringing further damage to what she assumes must be a still-living body somewhere at the bottom of the pile. But as she pushes more debris out of the way to reveal only more of the room’s floor, it quickly becomes clear that she isn’t going to find anything of the sort. She’s actually considering checking the skeletons to see if either of them are the inexplicably living type when a glint of metal beneath the stone catches her attention. She turns back to the rubble and reaches forward to push the offending pieces out of the way, wondering it she's about to uncover some kind of ancient droid when--

No. No karking way. Zam stares at the severed head, feeling, not for the first time, that this place is playing some kind of cosmic prank on her. And then, because she’s still not completely sure if it was actually the head that had spoken and she’s not going to waste time typing out a message for something that may be dead anyway, she reaches forward with both hands so they’re right in front of its face -- and then loudly brings them together, watching to see if the head has any reaction.

Yeah, enjoy having a veiled stranger clap in your face, Vengarl.]

[fibrosis]

₁ ⇛ ᴀʀʀɪᴠᴀʟ

[ it wouldn't be the first time he experienced conflicting physical responses, but it would be at least within the top five for instances where he wasn't expecting to. the hand gently pushing him forward is unusual but not entirely unwelcome - he feels as though he could use a bit of a push lately.

alvis emerges from the ingress blinking rapidly, because he's never not been able to see - even growing up in the tunnels, the wild difference between artificial and "natural" light on the surface being scorching at times, the low light in the mines and some of the more remote underground areas; he's been blessed with good eyesight, but that's all the more reason to find blindness understandably chilling. he stumbles a little bit, the first few steps out, but his composure returns just before his eyesight. Around him now, he can see others who appear to be in a similar predicament.

One nearby seems to be a bit more so than most though - and Alvis reaches out a steadying hand when it seems like such a thing might be needed. It's borderline instinctual at this point. (ooc: anything from just stumbling blindly to freaking out works for me.) ] Hey there, it's okay, you're okay. I'm guessing you're not familiar with this place either?

₂ ⇛ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴀssɪɢɴᴍᴇɴᴛ (closed to counselors and those in medbay)

[ the description sounded pretty close to what he was already attempting to do within oldtown, and what the scarbacks as a whole were meant to do in the first place - ease suffering, provide shelter in whatever physical or intangible form that meant, give guidance. they existed to take on the struggles that others couldn't, or at least to provide a conduit towards one who could take on all. they were hope.

the description of his new occupation sounded far more similar than he might have been comfortable with, in all honesty. he's not sure he's best suited for this sort of thing anymore. but even so, far be it from him to cast waves where they may not be strategically viable - he's here to meet whomever else might have been assigned the same thing, or at least who his new coworkers might be.

lucky for you he's stumbled across you working on some thing, whatever it is. ] There's not really a polite way to interrupt someone, but I figure it's better to do that than not know if someone looking for help asks me first - what really are we supposed to be doing? The description was a little vague.

₃ ⇛ ᴅɪᴍ ɢᴀʀᴅᴇɴ

[ unlike to apply to too many, but alvis really likes your garden thing with it's huge tree. in his world, the religious order he belongs to uses trees as a huge aspect of their symbolism, and plants in general sort of, so. most of the trees he knows are either small or artificial. he's seen real trees, but having one here, on a spaceship - that's still remarkable.

the garden is dimly lit, ambient light from here and there is enough to be able to see if someone is coming but not enough to like, read, or even occasionally know who it is that's coming until they're a bit closer.

that only makes the appreciation better though. somehow things always seem bigger in the dark. alvis may or may not have been staring at this tree for a long while yet, even as the lights dimmed.

i've been trying to make hooks but you're probably legitimately going to have to interrupt whatever sort of communion he's having with this tree. it's prob v passive, he's just meditating or checking the plants around it or w/e.]

arrival

[knaval]

[okay that's... not what riptide wants to hear after an intense pranking marathon.

but at the same time, he's overjoyed to hear magnus again. he never thought he'd be happy to hear that voice, but here he is. he doesn't even bother responding to the initial call, just follows the ping signal.]

Magnus!

[he looks so happy, waving from the other end of the corridor.] --Oh, you're huge now! But you came back!

wandering the halls

[hyperkinesia]

[ 'Deep unease' is a very nice and mild way to put it. Between the Ingress being shut down, Mana getting sent into the cryo bay, and the announcement of these complete strangers that they're the original captains and are taking back control of the ship, Bruce's paranoia levels have skyrocketed like never before. Add to that the network post he's been closely following and, well... suffice to say he feels far from safe right now.

Normally Wanda isn't someone he'd seek out in a situation like this. But for once, turning a corner and coming face to face with her and her red light casting strange shadows along the corridor actually brings him relief— and it shows. He exhales like he was ready to find something much worse than her, eyes closing and shoulders relaxing as he steps closer to her. ]

Wanda. Wanted to talk to you, actually. [ He just wasn't sure where to find her, and he didn't know if to trust the MIDs to keep a conversation between them private anymore. ] Do you have the time right now?

Liquid Snake | Metal Gear | ota

[saveyourserpent]

[A. WE KILL THE LIGHTS AND PUT ON A SHOW]

When the lights dim, Liquid's walking his husky puppy through the halls, and he's not too far from where the Ingress is. He's a few months old now (the dog, not Liquid), and he's been getting pretty big. And he still likes going after fingers and ears. Liquid stops for a moment, but the dog keeps going, and when he notices Liquid isn't coming along, he looks back at him with a confused-sounding whine.

Liquid holds a hand up.

"Wait."

Soon, he's read the message, and it's kind of something like a shock.

And that's when he notices the influx of people milling around. He turns to someone, new or otherwise. Or maybe his dog bounds up to them instead, barking and demanding attention. Either way, Liquid's got a question. "Alright... what the hell happened?"

He'll investigate things later, but an early assessment's always good.

[B. WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT -[moro deck, around room 26]]

"Bloody hell."

He worked his way up the ranks, went through seventeen different kinds of hell (figuratively), got himself a private room and a lot of stuff and now they're planning to take away the things he'd worked for.

Sure, he'd thought the captains were incompetent, and on one hand he kind of wanted someone who actually seemed like they know what they're doing to handle things, but on the other...

Well, Liquid's never done so well with authority. Sure, he's dealt with it, he's had to; he was created to be a soldier after all. But that doesn't mean he has to like all this. It's enough to bring some of the childish rebellion that he never quite got rid of out. What's the point of turning everything into all this when they were chugging along just a fine a moment ago?

What about a revolution?

At least they can't do shit with the paint on the walls just yet. (He had a little bit too much of it after grabbing it for potentially decorating some of the clothes he'd bought, so he'd figured the walls could use a nice touch.) Before they get a chance to take everything, he adds a fresh coat of 'fuck you'. Not that he spells it out. He doesn't have that much of a death wish. But the wall does sport a nice big "NEVER BE GAME OVER." A little throwback.

He leaves his room, completely topless with some paint splashes and his glass arm visible, looking grumpy as hell.

They'd better not take away his books.

(Of course, later he'll find out they're not taking away as much as he thought, but he's angry now, dammit!)

[C. I'M AGAINST IT]

Okay, he went back in his room and got his coat on eventually. But is he going to keep being able to wear it? Are they going to make him wear his stupid uniform all the time?

Feels like one finger of the monkey's paw just closed. Note to self: don't complain about incompetent captains ever again.

Liquid's probably going to be complaining about this to anyone who listens. Or his dog. His dog listens! And if he's not complaining, he'll just be walking around looking angry as hell. And he's already liked his job, so if they take that away from him, he doesn't know what he's going to do, and if they make him wear his uniform when he isn't even working he's just going to flip, and...

Sorry, new people, you might be more likely to get the brunt of it. Although, really, anybody can. Just pay attention to the dog. Everyone loves the dog.

[D. WILDCARD]

[as always, run into him anywhere on the ship, come up with your own thing, tweak any of these starters as you see fit, or come plot with me @ agentkaz or here or thru PM! come to me new friends]

corridors

[knaval]

[no doubt one thing that'll help jesse calm down is the heavy approaching clomping of something big.

he doesn't have a cool car alt mode, alright.

riptide's biolights and optics are no doubt visible before he is, and he notices jesse.

by now, he assumes that everyone on the ship is used to the giant robots. it hasn't occurred there's been a new wave. he stops a little way away, crouches down and switches on his headlights to softly illuminate the area.]

Sitting in the dark probably isn't the best survival tactic, pal.

[seeingscarlet]

[It's dark and difficult to see even with the eerie glow from the energy ball in Wanda's hands. Honestly, Wanda's first assumption is that Robin tripped somewhere and hurt herself. She saw the captain's 'don't use medical supplies unless they're absolutely necessary' comment and honestly was a little worried something like this was going to happen.

It's not worth all of this just to get home a little faster. You'd think Strucker was running the place at this rate, and it just makes Wanda wonder what exactly they're not telling the crew.]

Are you all right?

a.

[dislocked]

[ Bucky Barnes, it must be said, detests the medical bay. Loathes it to the core of his being even if some of its workers are decent, solid people -- but then again decent, solid people often tend to be the ones capable of the greatest cruelties, so maybe he's right to distrust everyone in it, too.

Still, he doesn't avoid it today, drawn to the events unfolding within as he spies on its occupants, curious and wary. There's something coming, he thinks; a regime change, perhaps. Nothing good lasts forever, and he just hopes it isn't another iteration of a many headed beast, that the latest arrival hadn't been an omen of things to come.

The soldier consigns that outdated thought to the back of his mind. Superstitions have no place in the light of purpose, and he's silent when he comes up beside Andyr, the latter of whom clearly has thoughts and suspicions like his own, distrust bordering on paranoia, which is as solid a survival strategy as any, if you asked him. ]

I don't know. [ He frowns, racking his brain for motive. There is so many of them, words murmured in her ear, specially engineered to switch her off, perhaps, and the thought of it is discomfiting, inviting memories that make the bile rise in the back of his throat. Deceptively simple, these syllables that form a string that manipulate synapses, sharp enough to cut strings off the puppet. Re-string it again at their leisure, when the need rises. The extinguishing of being is inconsequential when the subject is not a being at all.

In the beginning there was the word, and the word was --

He feels nothing. It should terrify him.

(It does, it's a wretched little thing that twists in the shadows of his mind; superstition's bedfellow.) ]

Maybe she's worn out her use to them.