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❪ test drive #4 ❫
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YOUR STORY BEGINS  The Storm came. You only remember darkness, but you don't remember much after that. All you know, perhaps, is that it was cold. You don't know for how long you slept, but the dreams were short, at least. You remember the expanse of stars and the universe that came in view. Every world and solar system ever known was displayed in your dreams in careful, pristine detail. You have also witnessed The Storm, which has devoured a fair portion of these galaxies. It was a dark, thick smog — ominous in appearance and ever foreboding. Your Earth and similar planets were immersed in The Storm. Somehow, you knew it would be the last you'd see of it. That was when she told you what happened, and how you could help. You knew that you'd be living somewhere new, even though you never asked for it. The details here weren't clear, but you knew you'd made a deal with Darma. Not long after, you'll wake at Thesa Station — your body is still cold. It all felt like a dream, but somehow, you knew it wasn't — now, will you keep that promise you made to Darma? PROMPT: THE STORM  CW: death You were awake on Thesa Station. But at some point you, like many other new arrivals before you, wandered into the Observation Deck. Ordinarily, this is where images of The Storm are replayed to remind Refugees of the fate they have escaped. The Natha Orbiters' technology has evolved. They are aware of your gaps in memory. You may have doubts of The Storm even existing, or of your world's destruction. Though they do not wish reliving those last moments on anyone, they have created an experience that will do just that. Before entering the Observation Deck, you are warned that what follows will not be for the weak of heart. As soon as you step in, you will find that the walls around you begin to transform and expand. Welcome to the Planet Cespi, in the Circinus Galaxy. Unfortunately, we were not able to save this world from The Storm's Consumption.
These are its last memories. You are surrounded by blue, grassy hills as far as the eye can see and a pleasant breeze. The atmosphere is thick with a sickly sweet smell. Before you lays the scene of a quiet village, with its residents going about their everyday lives. You aren't alone, either, with an equally confused stranger (or perhaps you know each other?) surveying the scene. Then the world grows completely silent for a full minute. You and your partner are unable to make a sound, verbal or otherwise. Without warning, a deafening roar fills your ears and forces you to double over in pain. The villagers run out of their homes in a panic, finding themselves in just as much pain and confusion as you do. Where there was no sound before, now there is too much for a normal human body to process. Look up. An expanding mass of energy is swallowing everything you can see. It consumes the earth, the atmosphere, the depths of space — and it is getting closer. Your only hope is to outrun it, if you can. The people in the village certainly try to, racing past you. Their fear is very real. Their bodies are very real. You may be able to run from it for a time, only able to catch glimpses of this dark and sinister force swallowing everything and everyone. The earth rumbles and separates beneath you. Electricity surges through the sky, and then through your very body. You fought hard, but it is impossible to outrun the Storm forever. You too will be consumed. Your death is quick, but not painless. What were you thinking, before you took your last breath? You awaken back in the Observation Deck, next to your new friend. PROMPT: TRAINING MODULES  While it’s all nice and well to familiarize oneself with Thesa Station, it is most advised that new arrivals venture out a bit. Not physically. No one is quite prepared for that yet. However, there will be several virtual reality training programs set for those who dare to be adventurous. For those who aren’t and don’t dare, well — good luck, all the same. Once seated and appropriately strapped in, the system will automatically whir to life. 1. When you enter the Natha's newest program, at first nothing loads. You might think this is an error as you look around in apparent total darkness, only able to see your own virtual body if you look down, but soon enough a voice comes to life as if speakers have turned on somewhere. Long ago, the lands of El Nysa were dominated by the ancestors of the dragons who now live among the people, tamed. It was pretty dangerous! How about a little history lesson? And then the simulation comes to life—
2. Let us now travel forward in time, shall we?  a. The Olympian settlement around you is quiet — until the screaming starts.3. And now, the present.  After all those enlightening scenes, the simulation finally brings you to a more quiet area of Olympia. You are deposited out somewhere in The Outlook, a place the very first group of refugees had to trudge through before they found their homes. You've arrived in the early evening — but sunlight is waning, and soon you'll be under a sky full of stars. Luckily, their old campsites aren't too overgrown. The intention here is to get you familiar with some of the local flora and fauna. What sorts of plants will you encounter? Do you find yourself under a Verillum Tree, suddenly compelled to be painfully honest and truthful in conversation with a complete stranger? Find yourself behaving erratically in the presence of Whistleweed? Or perhaps you'll have to break the spell of being trapped in a Vena Amoris' vines... with a kiss. PROMPT: STASIS UNIT  You have found the massive section of Thesa known as the Stasis Unit. There’s no special access required to enter this part of Thesa Station, but refugees are warned that it may not be for the faint of heart. Here, in large pods that nearly cover every square inch of the space, are all of the people the Orbiters have managed to rescue. Your loved ones, your greatest enemy, your next door neighbor — you might find them here. These people are in a state of deep cryosleep. Due to the damaging effects of The Storm, their bodies are not yet ready to be awoken. PROMPT: OMAGE
Upon receiving your mobile phone, you will be asked to set a username. Voila, you can now access the network! You can choose to send a message to the entire network, specific usernames, or you can try out the Orbiters’ service, Omage, which connects you to a random user. They thought this might be a good way for their new guests to make friends with each other...
Connecting to server... PROMPT: WILDCARD
You are welcome to write any scenarios in Thesa Station! Characters have been granted temporary access to the Observation Room, and are encouraged to study it carefully.
FINAL OOC NOTE
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! An AC-length thread may be submitted for 2 NATHA ORBITER REPUTATION POINTS after acceptance here. Please submit by February 18th.
We will no longer be providing overflow posts. In an event where the post hits CAPTCHA, players are advised to move threads to an overflow post on their character journals or create their own catch-all post. These threads remain eligible for REP. There will be an application cap of 60, and no reserves. Please read here for more information. |
no subject
He is about to reply when he 's addressed personally, his words never coming. The recognition alight on the other' s face is clearly not because of merely another clear in the same situation. Lancelot is at a loss, so much that he momentarily fails to respond to the suggestion concerning what should be the top priority: their escape. ]
... Ah... Forgive me, but do... we... know each other...?
no subject
We're both members of the Grancypher's crew. I'm Cain, recently of Idelva. I've heard quite a bit about you from your fellow knights, and I'm reassured that I could ask for no better comrade in an escape!
[ He must be getting a bit too into it; one of the guards glances towards them and Cain hastily shuts up, waiting until the man's attention turns away again. He gives Lancelot a rueful grin. ]
no subject
Hearing Cain has contact with some of the other knights, though, is a little bit more reeling mentally for him. Taking the brief moment of the guard's attention pulling Cain's away, Lancelot lets the situation concerning them sink in. Can he assume Cain merely means from their time back home or that they—some of them, at least—are here alive and well?
By the time Cain is offering him that grin, Lancelot offers him a reassuring smile. The enthusiasm may not be to the guard's liking, but the captain of the white dragons seems to be another matter. (... although he does feel that... somehow, their relationship still isn't explained. Is he forgetting something somehow...? His memory is still feeling spotty and blank in places, so he can't shake that feeling off so easily. ) ]
I imagine you are most worthy a comrade yourself, to be in their company. I look forward to getting to know you better from here on out.
[ Instant extension of trust and friendship, something that is not so easy for him anymore as it was in his black dragons' days, somehow doesn't seem good enough here to make amends for forgetting whatever it must be that is gnawing at him.
It's a start, though. ]
An escape sounds like just the thing we need. I'm with you.
no subject
[ He quiets a moment as the guard turns back to them, contriving to look as innocent as possible. On Cain, it's not a very good look, ill-fitting. But the guard has other worries than a bit of chatter from the prisoners; there's a commotion outside the door, the distant pounding of feet.
And Cain, leaning in towards Lancelot, scuffs his own feet to muffle the soft click of his manacles coming unlocked. He starts on Lancelot's, the lockpick from his sleeve making quick work of the problem. ]
For now, we need to focus on getting out. How many of them can you take, if they're distracted?
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I cannot imagine more than seven or eight of their soldiers being charged to merely guard civilian prisoners when they could be terrorizing the city and the remainder of her citizens while seeking out more targets. [ these so-called politicians are quite obviously defenseless, nevermind a threat. if they leave too many to guard such captives, they risk looking far weaker than their current actions seem to want to demonstrate. ]
...Depending on the distraction, quite possibly all of them.
[ even without a weapon he knows enough to take down someone that leaves themselves open for distraction. so long as the distraction is good enough that taking down one doesn't lead to all the others becoming undistracted at the same time, this could even be an easy escape. ]
no subject
[ Lancelot's manacles fall open, and Cain gives him a cheeky wink as he secrets the lockpicks back into his sleeve. Letting the knight deal with all the guards is more than Cain hoped to be able to count on, and more, really than he intends, even if Lancelot is capable of it. But it's a nice reassurance, and it makes his part in their escape plan significantly easier.
He waits for the guard's attention to wander to the sounds outside the door again, and then— ]
Help! Help, fire! We're on fire!
[ From his hand, a flame springs up, bright and growing larger. And larger and larger — a bit larger than Cain intends, if the flicker of chagrin on his face is anything to go by.
Still, it's more than a good enough distraction; the guards are immediately thrown into disarray, their confusion only hindered by the way the other prisoners are screaming and trying to throw themselves away from the flame. ]
no subject
—which... oh, wow. Perhaps it's actually a little over the top considering the sudden chaos it creates even amongst the captives? (the corner of lancelot's mouth twitches slightly and he's going to absolutely simply pretend he saw nothing. this is obviously all according to plan.)
It 100% works, anyway. Or, technically, it works even better, they come to find out because while a few of the guards react accordingly (alarmed, shouting for water or running for water or anything in between...) some do other things, such as try to make sure certain prisoners trying to move away from the spectacle (and maybe out a window, if they are lucky) stay put.
That decision of theirs actually doesn't turn out well for the guards at all. Those couple guards underestimating the sheer will power of the captives to move away is farm more than they can handle particular when it's quite a few prisoners falling over themselves. They get knocked over and tangled in the captives for their efforts, while two others start panicking and running uselessly in the confusion. All their energy and effort results in... them knocking each other out before Lancelot can get to them thanks to one of them tripping over the first guard that Lancelot has already knocked out and goes flying headlong into the other and ending with a crack of skulls that Lancelot grimaces slightly at observing that upon impact.
It's around this time that Lancelot realizes these men most likely aren't exactly what he'd call trained militants, although he reserves judgment for the entire lot of them. It's not surprising—beating on unarmed citizens doesn't take much skill at all.
There is at least one guard (Cain may have had to already deal with another but Lancelot is only witness to one. ) that falls into none of the other categories and has apparently considered that the best way to deal with their fire problem is to take out Cain. Thanks to the rather sad (very sad) reactions of his fellow comrades in times of stress, though, Lancelot is able to get to the guard a lot sooner than the guard has the courage and time to charge and get close enough to Cain to potentially strike out at him.
Another contributing factor may be that Lancelot doesn't bother trying to close the distance to catch the guard from where he is once he notices him. Instead, he is able to use one of the shorter bludgeoning weapons some of the guards have been sporting, and when he feels the distance is acceptable enough he shifts to reel back and fling the weapon forward and sailing towards the back of the guard. It enters into horizontal rotation in flight rather with surprisingly good accuracy and speed to strike the peroneal nerve on one of the guard's legs just behind the knees. Said guard drops hard without the use of both legs to attempt to catch his fall (and that's in an ideal situation) and lands no more than a meter or two away from Cain's feet in a disarrayed heap.
( they aren't going anywhere fast with their leg useless for at least the next 30 seconds. judging from their conditioning for this sort type of fighting method, a good three or more minutes of uselessness and painful numbness during through the entire leg is more likely their reality if they aren't already knocked out.)