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Entry tags:
❪ test drive #9 ❫
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YOUR STORY BEGINS  The Storm came. You remember darkness, but you don't remember much after that. You don't know how long you slept, but the dreams were short. You remember the expanse of stars and galaxies in your direct view. Every world and solar system ever known to man was present in your dreams in careful, pristine detail. You also witnessed the Storm, which has devoured a fair portion of these galaxies. Your Earth and similar planets were assimilated by the Storm. Somehow, you knew it would be the last you'd see of your world. That was when she told you what happened. You knew that you'd be living somewhere new. The details weren't clear, but you knew it was a part of a deal with the entity known as Darma - once, you might have been able to speak to her, but now you are only met with silence. When you awake, you will find yourself in Thesa Station. Your body is still cold, you're hungry, and the halls seem frighteningly bare somehow. Exploring the halls brings you to the transporter room, which will give you easy access to and from Nadril... Getting there is a quick process that leaves you feeling vaguely nauseous and out of your own body, and you can’t travel to the rest of the planet just yet, but the space station and the icy colony are yours to explore. A FORCED AWAKENING (THESA STATION)  ... But that is, of course, assuming that your awakening was a smooth one. In the best case scenario, nausea might be the worst you'd feel. For many others, the newly awakened won't be a pleasant one. In the past, the refugees will only wake when they are mentally and physically prepared for it. After all, they are in a whole new galaxy, and dimensions and time were trampled with to make the Intervention possible. Those who witnessed the storm before it devoured their own world would know as well that the Intervention hadn't been a graceful one, and it's exemplified by the way you wake. Alarms on the station will be blaring when you finally come to, siren calls and flashing light invade your already disoriented senses. You'll find yourself face-planted on the cool metallic floor among many others with you. Some, just as confused and unstable as you; others, still sleeping — they're alive, but no matter how much you try to wake them, they will not gain consciousness. Or maybe some will. It seems the best way to approach those in stasis is to put them back into their chambers in hopes that the glitch hadn't disrupted their recovery. Thesa Station has changed though, seemingly overnight. The space that surrounds the station is now in near-total darkness. Where there were once stars across billions of lightyears, it appears as though they're fading — some would flash right before your eyes. This is especially true for those with access to the Observation Room. Alarms will continue to ring as you find your way there. Once inside, you will see visible glitches in the hologram of the multiverses as a ghostly, dark fabric begins to blanket over the shining dots that represents the many stars across many galaxies. As it gathers the stars, it moves even faster. Somehow, you may feel that it's getting closer now. The impending doom of the Storm is now upon the little corner of the universes where Darma found her planet. It's only a matter of time now before the Storm finally, finally, finds El Nysa. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Nadril will remain accessible once you've established footing — it may seem like a welcome change to the steel, alarms, and artificial gravity. Once you've teleported down, your devices will pick up the message from the one and only Nurray, the leader of Nadril.
True to her words, the city square where you've teleported will have been furnished with a new piece of technology. Those who are familiar with Thesa's ins and outs would recognize it as a version of the Virtual Reality machines that can be found up there, but it is made for far more people. This foreboding machine has a shining gate that allows users to simply step through it and disappear into space. However, what you're really doing, is stepping right into the past.  I. Burning Dawn — You can hear the piercing screams even before your surroundings finish rendering. Once they do, searing heat, choking smoke, and flickering flames greet you — you find yourself in the midst of a burning village, at the center of the town square. The streets are swarming with people, both peasants who seem to live here fleeing for their lives and the heavily armored troops who have fanned out throughout the village, armed with torches and spears. Those who are running speak of safety in the forest — a place of refuge, somewhere they can be protected even from these outsiders with their blades and their fire. But reaching the forest means getting past the invaders who are stationed throughout the village and at all the exits. Fight your way out, sneak your way out, or find some other solution — but to escape this simulation you must find a way out. Should you find yourself killed by the invaders, you will respawn back in the village square again, right where you started. There does not seem to be any other way to end the VR session. II. The Escape — It is bitterly cold. You find yourself as part of a caravan — and though no one explicitly says so, you know instinctively that you are traveling north. Snow crunches underneath your feet and soaks through the material of whatever it is you are wearing. There are cliff walls and caverns visible further up ahead, and the path you need to take is a long, winding road that leads to the top of those cliffs. On the horizon are dark clouds, and murmuring around you makes it clear that you all expect a storm. You have perhaps half an hour before it is expected to hit. What you do with that time is up to you, but should you fail to prepare properly and succumb to exposure, the next thing you know you find yourself within the caravan once more, a chill in your soul as you stare out at the approaching storm. Thirty minutes... III. Crime — "Catch!" Someone calls that word out to you, and a moment later, a small wrapped package is dropped into your arms. There is a flurry of movement from somewhere behind you, and suddenly, men garbed in Olympian insignias — older than the versions worn in Olympia these days, but still recognizable — appear, brandishing swords at you. "Stop! Thief!" If the guards catch you, the scenery around you will distort, and you will find yourself back at the start of the simulation, with a package thrown into your arms. But if you flee, if you evade the guards for long enough through the twists and turns of the Olympian markets of hundreds of years ago, and manage to lose them... When you come out of the VR session, you find yourself gripping a small trinket of some kind — an antique bracelet, or perhaps a goblet, or some other bauble of Olympian make. It is very old, and it is yours to keep. IV. ...And Punishment — The rattling of chains fills your ears as the walls of some kind of cell form themselves around you. There are shackles around your wrists, connected to chains which are bolted to the stones hemming you in. There are others chained here with you, and as you begin to process what you're seeing, someone enters the cell. It's a large, imposing man with scale-like skin, and he takes one of the others in your cell and hauls them away. Minutes later, from outside, you hear screaming — and then utter silence. The man will return in thirty-minute intervals, dragging the inhabitants of the cell away for execution until he gets to you. If you do nothing, you will meet your end in a variety of ways — beheaded by an axe, perhaps, or drawn and quartered, or boiled alive. Should that happen, you will awake in the cell again, until you find a way to free yourself and escape. V. Castaways — The tang of sea salt fills the air as the image of the ocean builds itself around you. You find yourself on the deck of a ship, sailing away from the isles of El Nysa, toward the thick, thick fog that has kept everyone fenced in for so long. "It's never been done before, crew," shouts a man with a thick beard, wearing the clothes of a captain. "But today, we'll be the first! Full speed ahead!" The ship sails directly into the fog, and it seeps in around you, obscures your vision and becomes so thick that it's almost hard to breathe. But you can hear the waves breaking on the ship's hull, and everything is fine. Until it's not. Until the sound of the waves breaking is the sound of waves crashing, until the wind whips around you and howls but does not clear away the fog. There's a sickening crunch as the mast cracks and twists and falls, shattering the deck and sending you and everyone around you into the icy cold depths of the sea. The isles are back the way you came, but can you make it? Try — because should you sink to the depths of the sea, you'll only find yourself on the ship's deck again once you open your eyes. INVISIBLE WIRES
While there are no apparent seasons in the everwinter of Nadril, the diverse flora is not all year round. Now, with the coming of the most distant moon of the year, there grows a beautiful red vine. It snakes upwards from the ice, bright red against the glowing scenery. Growing along houses, coiled up tree trunks, and spidering over the ground, the plant is resilient and quickly adapts to any terrain.
It's quite the sight to behold, but get close and the veinlike roots fade, becoming entirely invisible. Like this, the vine ensnares its prey. A small tendril wraps around your finger, your neck, or burrows into your chest to entwine your heart. Each plant chooses two hosts in this way, binding them together with a sharp ache that becomes more severe the greater the distance between them grows. You may be alone when afflicted, left to suffer the night wandering to find your other half to soothe the pain. The vine withers after about 24 hours, leaving behind no trace, however, resisting its pull has been known to draw blood from the most stubborn obstinate victims. FINAL OOC NOTES
As always, feel free to wildcard prompts within Thesa Station and Nadril!
These threads may be carried over as game canon if players choose. Players are encouraged to submit TDM threads as application samples, but they are not required. Please direct any OOC questions to the questions thread below. Players may submit an AC-length thread HERE from this TDM for two (2) Natha REP. The due date for submission is January 20th, 11:59 PM EST. Due to the plot-relevancy of this TDM, current players are able to play these prompts in-game in their own logs. However, only threads involving a perspective player may be used for Natha REP. For this application cycle, there will be a cap of 60 and no reserves. Applications will be open on January 2nd at 12:01 AM EST and close on January 4th, 11:59 PM EST. Thank you! |
no subject
( she keeps pace easily despite her heel, walking as if she's in control of the situation. quill absolutely isn't but power and control are how she always walks )
How do you know someone is missing?
( she could figure the alarms out for herself )
no subject
[ this is so not the part she wants to focus on. b'elanna sighs heavily, frustration coming to a head, and she turns around abruptly-- ]
Because I counted the rest of my crew, and she wasn't among them.
[ it's misplaced anger, but once b'elanna starts cruising down that path, it takes a bit for her to realize, and so she doesn't budge again right away, just squares a look at quill, eyebrows raised as if to ask: anything else? ]
no subject
There are a lot of pods. I'd estimate more than you could feasibly check unless you had some sort of scanning device. Not that I'm doubting that you did look.
( but now she's just being slightly an ass. b'elanna has done far more so far than quill has but in her own defence she's only just woken up )
Now if you had scanned something it would be interesting to know just what else that scanner could find out.
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You must've hit your head on your way out, huh? I told you-- I counted.
[ to illustrate, b'elanna holds up a hand with one, then two, then three fingers, etc. ]
no subject
she stops, hands pressing to her head, quill letting out a scream in agony, doubling over from the pain.
shit indeed )
no subject
Whoa, easy!
[ she doesn't have a lot of options, except a whole year of nursing training to work with. once she's up close, b'elanna at least tries to get a rudimentary idea of quill's vitals (or at least what she expects a humanoid to require). ]
Can you hear me? Quill? C'mon, I need something to work with, here.
no subject
Oh, if I could kill--
( her words break off into another scream, though this time with far less intensity. thinking about killing the person you're bound to protect doesn't go over well.
there's a few more seconds, a smaller groan as the pain subsides, remaining only as a lingering headache that she knows isn't going to disappear until she fulfils her duty )
I need to find someone.
( the words are rough, head lifting just enough to catch b'elanna's gaze. she both looks and sounds incredibly pleased about that task )
no subject
Uhh, we need to find a med bay first. You wanted a scanner, we're gonna go find a medical one.
[ so b'elanna does have a heart and does care. honestly, it's quill's murderous curse that endears b'elanna to her. you can take the girl out of the empire, but if there were any doubt about taking the klingon out of the girl... ]
no subject
( she cuts herself off. curses are not going to send the arn into hurtful territory but after that last jolt she's not risking it.
and, as much as she'd recently warmed up to the ideo of surgery, she doubts this woman can do a thing to help )
Unless you somehow have a way of removing an arn without killing me there's no point. Now, are we going--
( she means on a hunt but-- )
no subject
[ her heels dig in-- they are not going anywhere. the woman's talking about surgery, and that sets off more than a few bells in b'elanna's own head. ]
What's an arn, anyway?
no subject
( so have fun with that one. even without the full explanation of what it did that small piece of information at least told her why quill was in pain )
If we try to remove it it'll kill me. ( which she'd fully been prepared to do before waking here but that had been when there'd been something of a plan )
Which is also what it'll do if we don't start moving.
( her tone said how much she loved this existence )
no subject
[ and they start moving again. she's torn-- something about all this seems fishy, but she's also not here to put someone else through agony. but b'elanna does sigh heavily (again) before agreeing to move. even when she feels like she should dig in her heels, based on what she's interpreting quill's meaning to be, she knows she needs more information. ]
Are we checking up on someone, or is this more of a hunt?
[ it's accusatory, but carries little righteous weight with it. in fact, if anything, quill might feel like b'elanna is weighing her options. help quill directly with her request to possibly hurt someone or like, maybe knock her out. this parasite didn't seem to have a problem when quill was in stasis, right? ]
no subject
( keep up, b'elanna. she was almost starting to possibly tolerate you. but it is a safe question and she can't really blame her, especially when she'd already attempted to threaten murder )
As long as he's alive I'm alive.
( and if he happened to be in a pod then that would make her day. she wouldn't have to listen to him )
no subject
[ but the volleying is just how b'elanna communicates. it's something the rest of voyager had to learn, but it seems like it's something quill also uses. because if b'elanna was actually angry, things would escalate. ]
If you want my help, you might want to actually offer me some parameters, here. I'm an engineer, not a psychic.
[ bickering, but still keeping close and helping. ]
no subject
His royal pain in my arse.
( very helpful. as his sworn protector she's very thrilled at it, tone dripping with even more sarcasm. and bitterness )
Charles Smith. Looks human, isn't. ( which she only adds considering she's definitely in the presence of another alien ) Teenager.
( what a great description but there's some parameters to go on )
no subject
So-- this thing has some kind of... psychic link with you. Compels you to find Charles?
[ the pieces are barely there to be put together, but she's willing to keep poking and prodding. especially if it means keeping the screaming to a minimum. ]
A cargo this big, there's got to be a directory around here somewhere...
[ and so they don't head to the hallway, but follow the paths to what b'elanna assumes should be an access panel or some kind of control circuitry. ]
no subject
still, considering how accurate her guess was quill doesn't bother giving it a response. her lack of comment is her response of yes, exactly )
I think that scanner idea from before would do something.
( especially a medical scanner. considering he was the last rhodian it would be very easy to locate his bio signs amongst everything here )
It wouldn't be hard to find a specific alien.
( but that can be the backup. she'll let b'elanna fiddle with what she's doing. a directory might do just the same. if it was good enough )
no subject
[ at least arguing back and forth is keeping b'elanna's mind off of, well. everything else. they round a widened hallway and come upon a panel of what look like drawers and an input panel on the wall. ]
Here, this looks like some kind of hub. What species should I be looking for?
no subject
Rhodian.
( though part of her doesn't expect this woman to know what that is. quill doesn't know what species she is and the universe was a big place )
I'll look. ( she was pretty sure she could figure out a directory sort of thing and this woman could probably be more useful doing something else ) You-- figure out what the hell this place is.
( to anyone else that would probably sound rude. with their volleying-- hopefully a plan )
no subject
she maybe should be more suspicious, and she won't deny a part of her is uncertain of quill's motivations. but there are more urgent tasks at hand. b'elanna sets to exploring, but stays within indoor-voice distance. ]
How's your head?
no subject
I'm alive.
( instead, her tone is expressing everything that her face would have been. and then she sighs -- this woman is trying to help her )
I've had worse headaches. While I'm doing something--
( she fades off, frowning at her monitor )
no subject
Found him?
no subject
and then, still saying nothing, quill angrily stalks off down the rows towards the pod )
no subject
[ she'd hoped to have a little more warning (or at least another moment to look around) before having to deal with this weird gut feeling quill was giving her. b'elanna takes off after her, yelling at quill with murderous intonation: ]
qaStaH nuq jay'? What the hell are you doing?
[ if she gets close enough to grab quill by the arm, b'elanna won't lessen her strength as she digs her fingers in. ]
no subject
Finding him.
( she doesn't try to pull her arm free or ask for the woman to let go. they're both fighters, she can sense the spirit even if she doesn't understand the murderous curse )
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