natha: (Default)
ɴᴀᴛʜᴀ orbiters ❰ mod collective ❱ ([personal profile] natha) wrote in [community profile] elnyan2017-06-28 04:48 pm
Entry tags:

❪ test drive: #1 - the overflow ❫

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.

agradecido: (I should probably introduce myself)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-09 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
My apologies. The Chantry does like their epic tales of good versus evil.

But this though, this sounds like quite the story itself, one I'm very curious to hear.
silverhound: ɢʟᴀᴄɪᴀɴ @ ᴘʟᴜʀᴋ (✘ jackpot!)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-09 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Wanna hear more? Okay, I guess I can tell you...

Mother isn't human. She came from the heavens, from the stars. Mother crashed into the planet and slept for a long time. During then, the humans found her and used for weird experiments. They abused Mother and she hated them.

Mother wanted revenge. She told our "Big Brother" to get revenge but he was killed. So, she returned to the Lifestream with him and they both poisoned it and made all the humans sick.

Now they die! They die for everything they did!
agradecido: (Five-thousand people with designer drugs)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-09 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
You're going to have to explain a bit. It's almost like you're speaking in metaphor.
This "Mother" you speak of, what is she exactly? If you know. And if she is not human, are you not either?
silverhound: ɢʟᴀᴄɪᴀɴ @ ᴘʟᴜʀᴋ (✘ the oppressed)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-09 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Mother is...mother!

She's not human and neither am I. She's different, very different. I only seen her once but I know what she sort of looks like.

I used to be able to sense her but now I can't.
agradecido: (I just woke up in my underwear)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-09 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Not the most helpful answer.
Still, perhaps she is merely sleeping still? [How do they put it?...] In stasis?
silverhound: ᴋᴀᴋᴀʀɪᴋᴏ @ ʟɪᴠᴇᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ (✘ for the reunion)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-09 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I...I don't think she's here. I seen my brothers but I can't find her anywhere!

My brothers are still asleep but I hope they wake up soon.
agradecido: (I was the king of this hologram)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-12 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
Well, it is a very large place, serah.
Perhaps you simply haven't found her yet.

...If I may ask, how do you feel about the humans that are here? The ones who are not from your world. There certainly are a lot of them, after all.
silverhound: ᴋᴀᴋᴀʀɪᴋᴏ @ ʟɪᴠᴇᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ (✘ mother's orders)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-12 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
I...I don't know? I mean the humans here seem just as dumb but they haven't tried anything weird.

This ship and stuff is weird but...they're trying to save everyone, so it's okay.

But I still hate humans!
agradecido: (I just woke up in my underwear)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-12 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
A not uncommon sentiment, I assure you, at least where I am from.

But it is as you say. They haven't tried anything odious yet.


[Said like he's almost waiting for the shoe to drop, eh?]
silverhound: ᴋᴀᴋᴀʀɪᴋᴏ @ ʟɪᴠᴇᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ (✘ for the reunion)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-12 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
Where are you from? Everyone on the ship come from different worlds, right?

If these losers try anything, I'll bash their heads in!
agradecido: (I was the king of this hologram)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-12 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
Antiva, originally. In Thedas. A beautiful country.

Likely you have not heard of it. The specifics of politics in Thedas are not necessary to delve into, but in a nutshell, every group is mightily offended by some other group or another. Sometimes, it's humans.

They do not bother me, taken as a whole, but often the politics provide opportunities to make a fair bit of coin.
silverhound: ᴋᴀᴋᴀʀɪᴋᴏ @ ʟɪᴠᴇᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ (Default)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-12 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Politics is boring. Just a bunch of people jabbering away. Waste of time otherwise.

What makes Antiva so beautiful? I want to know! What's it like?

Nothing is beautiful where I'm from. It's all ugly.
agradecido: (No liquor left on the shelf)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-12 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
[That earns a hearty laugh.]

Not in Antiva!

It's warm. It rains often, and thus the flowers are always in bloom. When the wind is right, you can catch the scent of the vinyards.
It's in the way the moonlight dances along the water of the cove, and the waving of fine silk weavings in the breeze, in the sheer drop of the cliffs where the buildings stand and look over the water. It's in the artistry of our architecture and in the faces of our people.


[Give him a minute Loz, he has to have a sad.]
silverhound: ɢʟᴀᴄɪᴀɴ @ ᴘʟᴜʀᴋ (✘ mark of the tratior)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-13 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Yuck, flowers? I can't say I like those much but...Antiva sounds sort of cool.

I don't think I ever seen the ocean before. Is it prettier at night than during the day? I like night time best since it's quieter at night.

What kind of artistry? Are there statues in the city?
agradecido: (I was the king of this hologram)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-15 09:02 am (UTC)(link)
Not much of a romantic, I take it. But the ocean is always lovely. In the day the waves catch the light like a great mirror, blindingly brilliant. By night softer light reigns, silver gilding the crests of black water. Always the ocean reflects the sky above. At dawn or dusk if often looks like liquid fire.

And there are statues, yes: of the prophet Andraste, of kings and queens, and sometimes simply of nature itself, horses and fish and birds. When you miss a place a great deal, even the mundane takes on a beauty that it otherwise would not possess.
silverhound: ᴋᴀᴋᴀʀɪᴋᴏ @ ʟɪᴠᴇᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ (✘ mother's orders)

[personal profile] silverhound 2017-07-15 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Liquid fire...

The ocean sounds the prettiest at dawn and dusk. Definitely...the prettiest.

Why so many statues in Antiva? Is it to give honor to this prophet and the royalty there? Are they really big statues? Like...towering?

Eh, what's a horse? Never heard of that before. No chocobos?
agradecido: (I just woke up in my underwear)

[personal profile] agradecido 2017-07-15 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
From the looks of it, you will have ample chance to see that. There seems a lot of water down there.

In the wider countryside there are fewer, but in the capital, there are more people with a good deal more money. And as there is an upper limit to how much one can spend on living expenses, and as grand fortunes tend to come with grand egos to match, there are many who wish to leave behind something that will outlive them. Life can be so fleeting, after all.

The grandest is, of course, of Andraste herself, and yes, she does tower.

Horses are the most common riding animal in Thedas. Four legs with hooves at the ends,
long heads and necks, a bit nervous of disposition. Then run in herds in the wild.

...I admit it is difficult to describe a horse to someone who has not seen one.