❪ test drive: #1 ❫

[natha]

OVERFLOW POST

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 as you slept. 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 can help. You knew that you'll 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 was all a dream, but somehow, you knew it wasn't — now, will you keep that promise you made to Darma? PROMPT: THE MESS HALL     It's fascinating to the Orbiters how such a dull room can be turned around so completely with people in it. All meals are served by Roman, and while all the food is delicious, some of it is a bit odd. Is that neon green soup? That’s hideous. If you happen to be in the mess hall at a particularly unlucky time, you and the food will suddenly begin to drift. Someone’s got jokes, and they’ve turned off the gravity control. Now it’s just you, your fellow refugees, and the floating sea of food. Wait, did that person just chuck a pie in your direction? 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. Be advised, however, that participating in one of the training modules will start you off favorably with the Natha Orbiters’ in terms of REPUTATION. Once seated and appropriately strapped in, the system will automatically whir to life and the dense foliage and forestry of a section of El Nysa will open up. According to one’s map registry, it clear to see that it’s miles from the outer gates of Olympia, but not as far enough to venture into any other territories. So, in that sense, you’re safe. 1. Or you could have been, but unfortunately the wilderness is home to various types of beasts and monsters hailing from different universes and galaxies. On the bright side, perhaps one of them will be oddly familiar to you. Or maybe someone else who is currently synced is willing to give you that extra helping hand. Fortunately, if you’re powerless, there are options. From telekinesis to flight, there are strange abilities one can adopt and “test” out in the virtual reality. Granted, you’re only limited to one at a time. They say in the near future, some of you may be granted these abilities under certain conditions. But, please practice some caution. You aren’t alone in the system, after all. 2.. Who do you fight for, the VR system will ask you individually before you enter the module. The righteous Olympians, or the free-spirited Wyvers? Whatever your choice, when you enter El Nysa, you will wholly and truly believe your allegiance. A. Working together: You now have to suffer the consequences of your choice, as you and your partner have been captured by guards of the opposite faction. Now jailed and soon-to-be tortured, you must find some way to negotiate your release. Perhaps you’ll find some means to escape without detection. Maybe you’re the “fight your way out” sort of people. B. Facing your enemy: That person you stepped into the VR with? They’re out to capture you. Or maybe you seek to capture them. 3. When you enter the virtual reality, things aren’t exactly how they’re supposed to be. Maybe that’s natural, especially if this is your first time, but the problems here seem a bit more fundamental. Maybe you find yourself under a parental safety lock, and you’re suddenly censored. Exposed back? Censored. Body suit? Censored. Or replaced with a mascot costume. Worst of all? You can’t sign out. Not right now, at least. Regardless, whatever it is— ridiculous filters, body alterations, or even body swaps with other users... you are assured it’ll all be fixed with due time. Zasere sends his humblest apologies and promises no more wire chewing, or so the announcement states. PROMPT: STASIS UNIT     You have found the massive section of Thesa known as the Stasis Unit. There’s no special access required to access 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: HANGAR STATION     You find your way to the hangar station. Here rests are a factory worth of docked mobile suits. You recall how the Orbiters had previously spoken of a "space frontier," but only after seeing this you realize how real their words are. Most machinery have marks of wear and tear, assurance that they have indeed been used before, and an assembly of others are going through repairs and maintenance. No one seems to care that you've just strolled in. In fact, there seems to be a couple of the aircraft that beckon you to take a closer look. Maybe you’ll only look on the outside, maybe you'll be greeted by the hand of a mobile suit extending toward you and welcoming you to its cockpit. You go out and explore SPACE!!! Unfortunately, that mobile suit should have warned you it only had 20 minutes of flight time left in its system. Or, perhaps, you’re a particularly ambitious pilot and you’ve strayed past the designated perimeter. Either way, the HUD display is now blinking with errors, cropping up with a single message: DISTRESS SIGNAL. 1. You’re the poor sap who happened to chill around the Observation Deck. Unfortunately, everyone seems busy with the influx of mobile suits out and about, and the only one who can answer this distress signal is on the Navigation System, well, you. Hope you can figure out the controls fast enough. Guide the pilot back to the safety of the hangar using the most efficient route possible. Keen Navigators will find an instruction manual that provides a shortcut to automatically return a suit back to base. 2. You’re actually sitting in a two-seater mobile suit. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Maybe you were unwittingly dropped down a hatch, or dragged along for a joyride by your ambitious co-pilot. Either way, it looks like help is going to take some time... 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... Looking for someone you can chat with... You’re now chatting with [username]... Say hi! 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! A Training Module thread of AC length on the TDM may be submitted for 1 NATHA ORBITER REPUTATION POINT after acceptance. QUICK NAV premise ● faq ● world ● map ● reputation ● npcs taken ● reserves ● application calendar ● hiatus/drops ● modbox [ FULL NAVIGATION ] elnysa nysalogs nysaisles nysaooc elnyan

Comments

[steelettos]

[ his reply comes as no surprise to her. only confirms her own unspoken questions if he had seen them or not. after all, would he have started asking others if he had? everyone she's met seems to have build their own opinions and thoughts and feelings after, not before.

lenalee pauses once more in her tracks, her gaze flickering at his expression. the lines on his face, the tug at the corner of his mouth. all very telling. ]

Then I'm afraid I can't answer your question. [ for him. on his behalf. ] That would be presumptuous of me.

[ there's a small lilt to her lips, the strained start to an attempt at a smile. more helplessly wry than openly friendly to her words.

there are more words waiting on the tip of her tongue, words she would have happily lashed out if he had been someone else. someone familiar. but he's not, so they stay there out of civility. instead she turns her gaze back to the units inside, glowing under the cold light.

are you afraid of seeing them? ]

They're waiting. They won't be going anywhere else.

[ofobedience]

[I'm afraid I can't answer your question, she says, and almost he wants to push her for it, to reiterate that it's her answer he wants, the meaning she's found among all this. An outside perspective, as it were. But it wouldn't mean anything, would it? That's what she's saying, he thinks. She may have already found her peace or her torment inside these cold and eerie corridors, but it wouldn't be the same for him.

He still can't decide which is worse-- finding them in here, any of them, that soon they may wake and things will return to the way they had always been, only in a different setting, a different shape. Or finding out that they're nowhere at all.

Both possibilities crush and compel him. Without them, what purpose would he have? Would he need one? And with them-- well. There's only the long bleak slide into oblivion that he both fears and longs for.

And so he answers with a sardonic drawl, voice slipperysmooth but bitter.]

Waiting. That's if they're here at all, hahah.

[And in his tone there are traces of his ambivalence, making it that much clearer that he doesn't know, really, what he wants to find in here.]

[steelettos]

[ his tone — or is it bravado? it sure sounds like it — doesn't faze her at all, her expression as composed as when they've begun this conversation.

the bitterness registers to her like a familiar friend's call. a reminder of what she once was and, perhaps, still is. but as always, she makes no note of it. simply acknowledges it and his words a slight tilt of her head, a mild lift of her brow. ]

Then what is holding you back from finding out? Surely, someone brimming with self-confidence as you ...

[ lingering, asking questions with carefully-crafted nonchalance, waiting for others' answers despite the empty satisfaction it brings.

surely.

a sound leaves her, an ironic huff. it's probably bravado, after all. ]

Wouldn't feel so uncertain about seeing it for yourself.

[ofobedience]

[Someone brimming with self-confidence. Ha ha. Hahah. Again, he wants to laugh, but it's a different kind of feeling from before, something that starts in his chest like the bubble and fizz of acid, claws up his throat and tangles behind his teeth, scrabbling to get out. He has to bite down on it, almost chokes, but the only thing that reaches his outer appearance in the end is a continuation of that same crooked smile. Self-confidence isn't something he has ever been able to claim for himself.

(worthless mutt, useless dog, stand up and fight)

But it's good to know, he supposes, that the mask still holds. That he still has a false exterior to hide behind, practiced and cold.

Although it still leaves him the problem of how to respond in the wake of such a statement. Because he remains uncertain down to the core of himself, whether it's better to be torn apart by the not knowing, or broken by the reality that waits inside these ominous halls.

His shoulders slice at the air in a knifey shrug. Settles, finally, on a non-answer--]

Perhaps, in the end, it doesn't matter one way or the other.

[steelettos]

Perhaps. [ she too shrugs, her nonchalance mirrored. ] That's up to you to decide, after all.

[ and then she says nothing more and resumes her pace towards the exit, the heels of her red shoes the only sound she makes.

had she been a different person entirely, she might have asked more. might have tagged along to see what he'll do next, if he'll finally step into the unit's sterile lights. might have prodded him more until he's given his own answer to his question.

but whether it matters to him or not, whether it makes any difference, isn't her business. she's a stranger he just stopped to ask, that's it. ]

[ofobedience]

[And, likewise, he'll let her go. There's a question burning the tip of his tongue, hovering there like a ghost, and he almost asks it, almost turns as she begins walking away from him, almost calls out the words that stutter and start in his throat.

Whether she found them in there, the people from her world. The ones that matter, one way or another, for better or worse.

But he doesn't. It's not in him, to prolong a conversation already cut short, and it would make little difference besides. Her answer is not his answer. And so he'll remain where he is for some time longer, listening to the sound of her retreating footsteps whilst he remains poised between one difficult position and another. Undecided.]