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Entry tags:
❪ 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. |
oops i rechecked 16, kagari came in a couple minutes later
[Except there was nobody to rescue him at the least second, like a protagonist of such a movie might have. He just died. Or he would've--if it hadn't been for the Storm.]
There was some fucked up shit in there. All these--these brains sitting in glass boxes, with a bunch of wires connecting them to something. Sybil's mainframe, I'd guess.
[He looks like he's uncomfortable just remembering it--the sharpness that's suffused his expression up to now fading into something more subdued, almost haunted.]
That guy, Makishima's henchman, he was filming it on his phone and laughing about how all he'd have to do was publish the video and the country would be finished, how there'd be real riots this time, when I walked in.
[He...starts chuckling, after that. Just his shoulders shake, at first--like someone trying to hold back tears. But Kagari doesn't cry; all his tears dried up seventeen years ago at the isolation facility, and one look at his face makes it apparent that he's actually laughing. And it gets louder, from there, just this awful, broken, discordant sound -- unhinged, manic.]
It's fucking incredible, right? If I were in on it, my crime coefficient woulda gone through the roof, just like his. That's why Sybil was fuckin' made, right? The perfect system, for a perfect society. For the people who matter, anyway.
[There's another short bark of a laugh.]
It was a Paralyzer when she pointed the Dominator at me. But I guess once a threat, always a threat. And I wasn't useful enough to balance it out anymore.
no subject
[What the hell? What would be the point of that? Sybil's a computer sys-
"All he'd have to do was publish the video and the country would be finished."
Sybil's not what they've been told. Maybe it's constantly making predictions based on those sample brains? Still leaving room for the human error that's supposed to have been removed from life. And Kagari the victim of it.
He doesn't pat Kagari on the back, or try to come up with some hopeful platitude. Inadequate bandages, or lies.
He does offer, quietly but sincerely-] I'm sorry.
no subject
It'd make sense from Gino, maybe. It's not like they were close, what with the guy's Issues with latent criminals, but he'd always felt a kinship with his fellow Enforcers. Even though their circumstances were different from his, he felt like they understood each other. He even thought that maybe he meant something to them -- like they'd become his whole world, his only family.
He's not sure what he expected or even wanted, but somehow it hurts, hearing what feels like vague, empty sympathy. His face heats up a little, and he looks away from Masaoka.]
Yeah, well, that's why I never wanna see Japan again, anyway. But you need more time, right?
[He throws the words back in Masaoka's face viciously, each spit out like a throwing knife. It's a bad habit of Kagari's--lashing out when he's in pain, because he's never been taught how to nurse his own wounds. Later, he might come to regret this--might come to regret being unkind to the first of his friends to wake up, after he spent so long waiting and hoping and wishing, even as it went against every defense mechanism he's built up over the years to do so.
Later, maybe. Now, his heart only burns with the ache of not mattering. Of never being important enough to stick around for, to not give up.]
no subject
He stopped being worth that kind of effort a long time ago.
Any hint of irritation on his face turns quickly to resignation.]
An old man needs time to think. [And that's not going to diffuse the situation at all. He gestures to the room around them.] You deserve this.
[Unspoken is the inevitable conclusion: I don't. When he thinks about it logically, from the standpoint of the justice he grew up with and first tried to protect, he knows he's a victim of the system as well. Not to the extent Kagari is, of course, but still a casualty. But it's hard to accept, when he can see each choice he made, and how they reverberated. Even if he wasn't wrong about Sybil, that doesn't make how he handled it right.]
no subject
Makishima's thug had tried to get under his skin about it, too. You've been killing plenty of latent criminals too. How many times do you deserve to die? As if he cared. The universe could decide that for him.]
That's bullshit, pops. You and I both know we're nothing but garbage.
[But that's not really what any of this was about, was it? The moment of realization hits him like a brick, as he remembers Masaoka had given him the answer himself awhile ago. He really does start laughing again, at that. He's so fucking stupid.]
You can be honest. Hell, you practically said it already. The only reason we're having this conversation is because Kou-chan and Gino-san aren't awake. You'd stay for them, but not for me. I get it. Shit, I mean, my parents didn't even need me. Why would you?
no subject
You're not garbage. That's bullshit.
[It's probably not something he would have said, back in Japan. He would have tried to dance around it, if he'd addressed it at all, or shrugged in agreement. Implying that something (or everything) about the system is bullshit isn't a good look for an Enforcer. Self-deprecation is. But it's not right, for Kagari to have lived with that label. It's not right for him to use that here, in a place where he can happily talk about working with dragons. A place where he can be happy.
It's not right that Masaoka didn't say this, back in Japan.
His shoulders slump again, as his face settles back into a serious expression. He doesn't know the right path to take, here. What or who he should be fighting for. But Kagari's right here.
(Nobuchika had been right there.)]
We all needed you.
[Division One could function without any of them. That was the point of the structure. That didn't mean anyone who was lost hadn't been, in their own way, needed. Kagari hadn't let things stay quiet. He'd challenged everyone and forced them to come together. That was important. That was needed.]
no subject
[Funnily enough, he doesn't rise to Masaoka's anger. He almost sounds calm, though the bitterness laces through his words, his tone.]
We're not good people. We're not like Akane-chan.
[Kagari's time here has only made him more sure of that, in a way that has nothing to do with Hues or Crime Coefficients. He keeps meeting people who are kind to him even though they don't even know him. People who seem confused by the idea of selfishness, of watching out for yours before taking care of everyone else.]
Me, especially. Maybe you even still care about justice, but I never did. It was all about getting out of that hell, and if I had to take down a whole bunch of fuckers like me to do it, I didn't care. I still don't.
[He has no regrets about the two years he spent as an Enforcer, nor the people whose lives he destroyed as an agent of Sybil. Masaoka puts on a lackadaisical attitude, but it's not like they don't all know how he came to be one of them.]
So don't patronize me with these nice lies about what I deserve and how important and necessary I was. I'm not a kid. And I'm not your kid, either. I know where I stand.
no subject
Masaoka's trying to be honest, for once. But in the end, what reason does Kagari have to believe that? None of them have had reason to believe in much for years, Kagari most of all. And from Masaoka, who's always tried to smooth things over? "I'm not lying" or "I'm not trying to be patronizing" or "no one can blame you for your choices" are just going to come across as more nice lies.
(Kids. They're so stubborn.)
Still-] I wasn't trying to.
[But he gives a resigned shrug, turning towards the bar.]
no subject
[Indeed, what he thinks will smooth things over. But Kagari doesn't want to be smoothed over. He realizes now that what he does want to hear isn't the truth, anyway, so it no longer matters. It hurts, because when he'd imagined his friends waking up, he'd thought only Akane and maybe Ginoza would really have occasion to miss Japan. That the rest would value freedom above all.
But when have things ever worked out like he'd wanted them? He's lived his whole life surviving through whatever would bring the least suffering. Life is just killing time until one's death, isn't that what he always says? He supposes he might as well enjoy having Masaoka around while he can.]
I told you, I get it. You don't have to justify yourself to me. Just don't expect me to hope you ever get the choice.