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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. |
welcome back
He can die. He can, knowing that his last act was to shield one last person. He can die. It's enough. It's finally enough. His fight is finally over. His last breath comes with such pain, but he doesn't falter.
Everying is black and he can only hope Balderich and the others would recognize him. It had taken him a long time to join them. Then it's over and his single eye opens again. The man is still behind him. He still stands, his body turned, his back to where the storm had been. He'd used his body like this once before, to shield men. It had been his last conscious effort to save one last person.
His knees shake from how he's braced himself and he looks down at the man that he had tried so hard to protect. His throat feels dry and he can feel sorrow, tears for those souls that had perished, unable to be saved by the storm.
For a moment, there is silence as he tries to work though those tears. They fall anyway and he reaches his hand down towards the kneeling man. He can at least help him get to his feet. He doesn't know if one of those prayers had indeed been for him, but he still murmurs, breaking the silence with that heavy Germanic accent of his. ] Thank you. For praying.
no subject
Thank you... Prayer was all I could think to do at such a time.
[He had prayed for Cosette, and for his own wretched soul, but also he had prayed for all the townspeople who did not stop to call upon God in their final diminishing moments. He now casts his gaze about, seeking the townspeople but finding no one else in the room.]
Was it all a dream, then? How real it felt! I was sure that I had been transported, to where I know not, and how I know not either... But it appeared as Judgment Day.
[It stirs loose in his memory fragments of his last day in Paris, before all turned cold and dark and his memory ceases. Before he awakened in the dimness of the Stasis Unit, which seemed to him a sort of graveyard. He remembers the descending darkness, the panic in the streets clamoring throughout the city, and Cosette's hand tight in his grip as he led her through the passage that evacuated the house on Rue Plumet. A shiver seizes him as the memory strikes.]
no subject
He still stands close, as if prepared to catch this man. But also because he needs to be near someone. After experiencing that, he's not sure he can be alone. Apart from anyone.]
Yes. It was an illusion. It was an illusion of what happened before. To my world. To yours. The people here, the ones like us, they managed to save us from that. But that was The Storm. It took our worlds, like it took that one. I don't know why they wanted us to see, but I'm sure we needed to see it. Needed to know. [ He only wishes he could have done more. But now he knows what the end looked like and it hurts to know he really couldn't do anything to stop it. ] But since you are here, surely it means that others in your world are also here.
[ He wants to at least give comfort where he can. Give hope when there is none. ]
sorry for the delay
[So he muses to himself, ending in confounded silence. He has a dim idea that he is aboard a vessel that floats through the cosmos, and that the earth has been swallowed by this storm. Such truths are unwieldy, slippery in the mind. It seems impossible and yet at his core he accepts that it must be so.
Perhaps it was men who had salvaged the survivors from the wreckage of the world, but surely it is by divine intervention that they were granted the power and wisdom to do so.]
Thanks be to God.
[Then Jean Valjean darts his gaze toward the exit. He has seen enough of darkness: now he seeks his light.]
Then are all refugees in that chamber where I first awoke?
[If he feared upon waking, then it was only for not knowing the whereabouts of Cosette. He remembers her slim arm in his as they fled, and there his recollections of her end, all narrowing to a dark haze. He had stalked the rows of caskets like some frantic creature of the night before he was directed here to the Observation Deck, and now that he is no longer occupied by the simulation his worry tangles him once more. His heart cannot settle until he can be certain that she is safe.]
no subject
But he's learned that he can get past that guilt. There are people below that need a knight, need a shield, need good men like this man before him who prayed. Who is still thanking God instead of being upset or angry or guilt ridden.
He notes how the man's eyes avert towards the door out and he nods, heading towards it to help and open it. ]
Yes. Those that are still sleeping rest there. There are so many sleeping faces. Those who are awake, they eventually travel below. There, we live our lives, trying to make our way in this new world we've been given.
Would you like to go there? I have...someone special there... and after seeing that, I need to see her. And I can help you seek whoever you wish to find. It's the least I can do.
no subject
Even now, he only thanks the Lord that Cosette too was salvaged from the world when the darkness laid waste. The sharp sorrow of her absence while she sleeps will come later: for now he holds tight to that scrap of hope as if it is a rope.
He bows his head in gratitude as they pass through the door.]
I would much appreciate it, monsieur. It is my daughter whom I seek...she cannot be far from the place where I first awoke, the direction of which I still remember well.
no subject
And perhaps it might raise your spirits to tell me about her. I'm sure you have many stories. I never had children myself but I have known many a father who couldn't stop telling me all about their children. I like hearing about it.
[ It makes him feel like maybe even for a moment he was a part of something like a family. He could be happy for a man who could have such a warm thing in his life. ]
no subject
Very well. She is fourteen years of age, but still quite small and skinny. Her hair is blonde.
[It feels an inadequate description, but how to impress upon a stranger all that he sees in that sweet countenance? Furthermore, he indeed has a treasury of stories to tell, but these are terribly personal and he hesitates to share. Still, his voice grows tender and wistful, and a smile softly touches the corners of his lips as he divulges one such detail:]
The happiest part of my day is when we go on our walks.
no subject
[ Reinhardt listens and as he does, he feels a sort of quiet sorrow for this man. If the girl is indeed 14, he might have to wait a while for her to awaken. He doesn't really know how the Natha work, but he would hope that her daughter wouldn't be sent to the world below when war seems on the horizon. He doesn't wish to lie to this man though. He can't give false hope. ]
I hope you find her so that you can see her up here many times. It might not be safe down below for such a young girl, even with her father and others to look out for her. There is war brewing. I feel it will only be a matter of time before someone lights the match that starts the fire. She is safer up here and sleeping.
[ After all, she does sound like a sweet girl, even if there's only a description to go by. At least now he knows what to look for while searching.]
sorry for the delay
Then I cannot be selfish.
[Wherever Cosette sleeps in that silent catacomb, it has been promised to him that she shall be kept safe. In all the haziness of his first hour awake, this promise is the one tangible thing he has, and he grasps it tightly in his heart. It is for his own sake that he wishes for her to be by his side, where he has grown accustomed to seeing her in six short but full years.
They have reached the Stasis unit by now, that chamber inside of which all sound seems to be swallowed and the air is heavy with unspoken hopes. Jean Valjean turns to the right and with a nod of his head indicates that Reinhardt ought to follow: this is the way he remembers.]
no subject
After a careful squeeze, he follows once more. His gentle understanding smile going a little strained when they step along the sleeping again. Though he has the promise that the Natha will protect every last one of them, there's a part of Reinhardt that wants to add his shield as well. But he is one man and he knows the ones below need it more.
He takes a steadying breath and follows, not knowing where the man will lead, preparing for anyone he might pass by that he might know. He's not looking for his own. He's looking for the girl. ]
no subject
There remains an urgency to his steps as further into the chamber they go. Their search is draped in silence, which suits a man like Jean Valjean, who keeps company with few besides his own thoughts. When ten or so minutes have gone by, he remarks,]
It was here. She must be nearby.
no subject
But now, he cannot reach to touch the other again. Because it looks like they arrived. ]
If she is, then we will find her.
[ Reinhardt will indeed go from pod to pod, looking for the little girl that this man needs to find. He won't rest, won't stop until one of them finds her. ]