❪ test drive: #1 - the overflow ❫

[natha]

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

IV

[unfearing]

[ It's like a graveyard. More hopeful, but not by much. Euphemia has too many visits to make, too many familiar faces, too much loss and longing. She can't help but stop at the pods with unfamiliar faces as well, to light her hand upon the glass and wonder who sleeps within, if they have anyone to miss them, to visit, to desperately await their return. Perhaps that is the royal upbringing in her, that her heart is ever with the people, the many and the unseen. She could easily lose an entire day in here and still not find all the people weighing on her heart.

Still, she should like to try.

To find her sister, at the very least, and take what strength she can from the sight of her. Strange that she should be the one awake while all her better, stronger, wiser siblings are trapped in this purgatory.

Then someone speaks, startling her from her thoughts. A voice, low but young, someone living amidst all those trapped in dreamless slumber. There's nothing she can do for those in the stasis pods, but here is something, someone she can help. She steps up beside him slowly, respectfully, bending at the waist so she no longer looms quite so much. ]

Someone important to you...?

[sparsity]

[ When he'd been hoping for a voice to reach up over the vast, endless sound of shifting metal and emptiness, it wasn't for the one he actually hears. Yet he doesn't appear bothered by it when his chin lowers to offer a gaze for a gaze, the color of his eyes sharp but the set of them softened by the matter at hand. She's pretty, in the way that Kudelia is pretty. Outside of him. ]

Yeah. The most important.

[ Someone he killed for, and would have died for just to find him again. Yet here he is, whole and alive and robbed of that purpose, only to have a new one placed neatly in his palms. This was simply the condition. ]

Were you looking for someone?

[unfearing]

May I...?

[ It's a cursory politeness before Euphie smooths out the bottom of her skirt to kneel on it, settling herself next to the boy. His answer sends a pang through her, knowing--she thinks--well enough of such separation. While she can't pare any one person in her life down to the most important, finding each of them equally invaluable to her in their own ways, in this moment she knows the loss of all of them. Cut adrift, nothing but her own two feet to stand on. ]

My siblings are here, as well as-- [ Her knight. ...but most people don't have their own knights, now do they? She worries at her lip, amending. ] --a dear friend of mine. I have quite a large family. In the past, it proved difficult to get even a moment to myself.

[ She sighs, gazing up curiously at this 'most important' person to her present companion. ]

...I've found silence does not suit me after all.

[sparsity]

[ Mikazuki doesn't adjust himself to her taking a seat beside him, opting to just accept it and listen instead. His expression remains neutral, body muted. But there's something focused about him that manifests in the attention he gives her, even if it's not directly. Whatever he's thinking, his mind isn't anywhere else but right here.

After a moment, he shifts his heels on the floor, a motion that seems to ring up through him, loosening up his corners, shaking him free of dust. ]

Yeah. I don't like the silence either.

[ Strange, when he'd said nothing at all. ]

You have a big family?

[ He then asks the simplest question, not really a stellar conversationalist, but knowing when to give someone an in to keep speaking. ]

[unfearing]

Yes, mostly half siblings and not all of us are close, but-- [ She pauses, knowing she's getting ahead of herself. Leaning forward, edging into the young man's space, she offers her hand with a quiet smile, warm and inviting but still respectful of the solemn air surrounding them, that tangible loss of connection. ]

Just listen to me prattle on without so much as introducing myself. I'm Euphie.

[sparsity]

[ It's not so much apprehension or being gunshy that makes him pause when she offers out her hand. Betrayal is fresh in his mind, stemming from gestures like this. It's the most tiring thing he's ever felt, more tiring than fighting for days at a time. He knows what to do with it, but.

He wonders just how different it'll be this time around, and reaches to accept her hand. ]

Mikazuki.

[unfearing]

A pleasure to meet you!

[ Sensing the quiet exhaustion in the boy on some level, Euphie's reflexive response is to brim over with energy so that some might be borrowed, clasping her other hand over Mikazuki's as well to give it a firm and steady shake. ]

Do you have anyone else here? Not here, here... [ Euphie gestures at the stasis pods with a shake of her head, because that sort of depressing question won't get them anywhere. ] On the station. Friends or family.

[sparsity]

[ With his hand fitted in hers, it's almost too easy to draw from the simple gesture, its movement brimming with energy. Yet his own is clipped, extending nothing but the motion in return. A brief pulse of something is in his palms, but it's not easily identified, not even to him. ]

A few people.

[ Two who outlived him, one who didn't. ]

What about you?

[unfearing]

No one so far, but... [ Euphie sighs out her breath, still holding fast to that smile as she glances around at all the stasis pods around them, determinedly hopeful for the future. ]

That's just fine. Everyone deserves a good rest, and meanwhile I can work towards getting this world ready to greet them...!

[ It's not just blind optimism, though Euphie will allow that she's not being as strictly practical as others might. It's just exciting, being here on this space station on the cusp of a brand new world. The greater implications of this... Storm trouble her, of course, but that must be dealt with on different terms, on a larger scale. In the here and now, she can't help but hope for things to be simpler. For her family to get away from being royals locked in politics and intrigue and a perpetual power struggle.

Perhaps here they can simply be her family, if just for a while. She'll do whatever she has to for that. ]

I'm glad you have people to rely on, though! [ Because frankly, she's already concerned about Mikazuki's ability to make friends. He's miles away from her, but that's okay. She's the one who intruded on him. ]

Do you have any plans for when we arrive...?

[sparsity]

[ So she's alone. His mouth presses down. Mikazuki is miles away, wary of drawing closer. She's radiant, not like the sunlight that feebly rolled its way onto Mars like an afterthought, but like the rays that shined on Earth as if they existed solely for that reason. He doesn't belong on either planet, or out among the vast in-between. Radiant things were capable of burning, or simply just being too far to reach for. There's too much to do to bask in whatever warmth comes to him, either way.

It's really no more or less than that. People are relying on him to rebuild what he failed at protecting.

Someone in here is relying on him, too. ]

Not really. [ Tipping his head aside, he considers the pods too. ] I'll wait for orders, once we're on the surface.

[unfearing]

Orders, hmm...? [ The wording is curious to her, and though she's released his hands she doesn't move away. If anything, she invades his space further, studying his face. Then, appearing thoughtful, she gives his upper arm an experimental poke, then looks the slightest bit playful as she puts both hands on his bicep and squeezes. ]

Hmmm! [ More solid than Suzaku, even! Euphie stop, your canon is full of noodle people. That's something. ] Are you military, by chance...?

[ He looks so young, but then these things do happen... ]

[sparsity]

[ Somehow, her trilling and humming comes across as a lot more predatory than it should. When she only proves him right by barreling in to grab onto his arm, he gives a long look between it and her. Really, his gaze could stand to be more curious or offended, or something, to really drive home the piercing blue color, but as it is, it's mostly just flat.

What is this. ]

No. Is that strange?