raiamemes | TDM 003

Entry tags:

!test drive

TDM 003

TEST DRIVE MEME 003 ❀

CONTENT WARNINGS: potential character nudity, violence, trypophobia (images) as well as light mentions of gore.

Please note: FOR THE FIRST 24 HOURS AFTER 'HATCHING', CHARACTERS WILL FEEL WEAK AND ANY POWERS THEY HAVE WILL NOT WORK.

Test drive meme threads can be considered game canon for players who are later accepted and wish to keep their CR. The Quago prompt will be a TDM-exclusive, though existing players are welcome to use it in the game itself and players are free to use it as canon, but it will not be repeated as part of the hatching. The other prompts that you see here will also appear on our first game log. There will, of course, be more going on that week.

Please reserve questions about altering or meaningfully investigating the setting for the first log of the game, where we will have a Mod Questions thread at the top of the log. That thread will not be present on this test drive meme.

❀ HATCHING

This time, the Adamant's survivors are ready. When the Hatchlings arrive, they are no longer held at gunpoint or the tip of a spear. They are helped up, taken to the showers, given time to clean themselves.

They are still quarantined for a few days — albeit in a more comfortable setting. An area of the Theatre has been set up with emergency bunking and privacy screens. Each bunk has a small bundle of amenities on it — a change of clothing (that may be too big or too small, too fine or too plain, feel free to swap!) and what precious else can be spared, including a small tube of protein paste. Given that the theater doubles as a childcare center for the basecamp, your character may find that any toddler-aged children will stare hungrily at these tubes!

Ensign Ashley Porter flits about this emergency station at all hours, chatting amicably at people. Explaining the situation. He's reasonably certain it's his fault — the entire 'hatching' process seemed to start after he tripped one day and fell into the Central Chrysalis. This disturbance must have triggered the process of pulling in people from other universes. He's terribly sorry and will say he understands if people want to be angry at him or hate him for it. He also makes mention of the fact that some people have found personal items if they return to the Chrysalis — in eggs, like the ones they woke up in.

The Hatchlings are given a few days to acclimate, and then they are expected to contribute to the duties around camp. The day-to-day life in Basecamp Leviathan is not glamorous. Repairs are always needing to be done, food is always needing to be made, dishes always needing to be washed. Anyone with specialized skills will probably be snapped up by a division before too long!

A few notes:

☆ Your character will at some point be pulled aside and asked about where they're from, what year, any personal information they wish to share, etc. This is no longer described as an 'interrogation' as with the first set of Hatchlings. It's now more of a chat. Captain Childe has deferred this duty to her various underlings, and she will likely not make an appearance here unless a Hatchling says or does something very interesting or meaningful.

☆ The NPCs will be as forthcoming about how the Hatchlings have arrived and what they know about the Chrysalis as possible. Unfortunately to both, the answer is 'not much'. They will still try to be transparent about this.

❀ EXPLORE THE BASECAMP

The Engineering Corps is always looking for new members who can contribute to some of its long term infrastructure solutions. The head of this department, Thorkil, is a large man with a booming voice who brews moonshine on the side and is the sort of bright, cheerful soul that can light up a room when he enters it. He is friendly with all the Hatchlings unless given a reason to be otherwise, and he is also very patient, gentle and understanding. If your character has demonstrated engineering skills of any coat or color (mechanical? electrical? outdated by hundreds of years? more advanced by a millennium?) please expect that Thorkil will ask if they'd be willing to help out!

The Security Division is headed up by a rather unpleasant man named Rémi. He neither wants nor, in his opinion, needs the help of the Hatchlings, but he's perfectly willing to let them risk their lives instead of the lives of his people where leaving the basecamp is concerned. Little wonder, most of his division has been chewed up and spit out by the harsh conditions on Ethyraia — can one blame him for being a little protective? If anyone asks about helping here, he's going to respond scornfully and dismissively. However, some of the Hatchlings have earned enough of his goodwill that he will consider, consider letting people have a weapon from Security's stores if they're leaving the Basecamp. (Carrying of non-Hatchling weapons is forbidden within the basecamp itself, so please be mindful!)

The Theatre is another venue that one could help out with — there are stories to be told! The current production is a classic, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. However, after performing this for the thessyx at the talent show, the theater department is moving onto their next show — Procyonate, for which there are many props to build. As the only truly fortified building in the Basecamp, the theatre doubles as a place to care for children (most of the 'young' survivors are between 13-19 now, but babies have been born to the survivors since their crash-landing!) there is also a need for anyone who excels with toddler care. They are also looking for anyone who can sing, write music, or play instruments. Such people will be hastily recruited and put to work!

The Aid Station is being run by a very harried woman named Sunya Hyacinth, who fits the description of 'overworked and underpaid' to a T. She doesn't have time to reach out to any recruits, but if you wander into the Aid Station you might find yourself being put to work. Just be careful — if she decides you have higher accreditation than she does, she might just decide to dump her practice on your lap for a week so she can go take a vacation! Standard injuries you may see include acid burns, broken bones, and bad cuts and gashes out of the engineering department who's hard at work repairing the sink holes around the base. Some of the 'ill' being treated will also have psychological effects. PTSD is common, and there are no officially 'trained' counsellors, just people who try to listen and help.

The Sanitation Department handles a lot of the day-to-day cleaning that involves sewage, garbage, et al. After all, it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it! Not only will they take just about anyone, but if they warm up to you they'll let you in on a little secret... they've totally started an underground green house where they're growing some interesting plants...

(pot, it's pot).

The Communications Department is headed up by the AI Cartagena, and helps with disseminating useful information to the population, as well as managing the intranet and its infrastructure. Cartagena will be quick to point out (cheerfully) that they don't get days off and would love for someone else to make announcements once in a while! A small group of the communications department is also hard at work on a distress signal, persevering in the belief that someone will come looking for the wayward Adamant.

The Agriculture department could always use a few new green thumbs around their little hydroponic garden units, and of course the Mess Hall is in dire need of someone who can make ten pounds of questionable protein paste taste palpable...

Otherwise, the daily grind in Ethyraia seems to be fairly... well, grind-y. People wake early to manage their chores in the early hours, everyone breaks during the hot hours of the afternoon to nap or lounge around, sometimes they take in the daily movie at the Theatre, and then it's back to work for the afternoon shift. People generally work from 7 AM to 11 AM, and then have between 11 AM and 3 PM 'off' (with the exception of anyone on KP duty) and then work again until 11 PM. Exceptions are: each person's designated 'days off', or recovery time from injuries/etc. Ideally, the Adamant's survivors will work 4 days and has 3 off in a week, but oftentimes this is cancelled due to need.

While it's not mandatory that the Hatchlings work, those that don't 'pull their weight' so to speak will find themselves being increasingly shunned by the community, and the quality of their rations and their overall care will decrease. There isn't enough to go around on the best days, much less when someone isn't contributing at all!

What goes on at the base for me to engage with?:

You are free to invent NPCs to have (minor) antagonistic clashes with, or who can flag down your character to assist with something, or who you can have to help 'rescue' on a mission outside the Leviathan. We want to give players as much freedom as we can within the structure of the game, and we would rather people not feel limited.

What else can I do?:

There is no one keeping your character physically at the Basecamp! If they would like to leave and go exploring on their own, that is perfectly welcome. For the sake of the TDM, we would ask that anyone choosing this option refrain from asking us any in-depth questions — we will happily collaborate with people once they're in the game.

A few additional notes:

☆ If your character leaves the basecamp and wanders outside the Leviathan, they may begin to notice that what they perhaps took as a giant cave is actually an enormous dragon. Everything they see that seems 'human made' will look varying levels of worn down, patched, repaired and patched again. This is not a place of prosperity and happiness. Many people are recently injured, or have new scars or missing limbs.

☆ While mods will not be facilitating exploration beyond the basecamp at this time, characters are welcome to take on any number of missions, such as rescuing civilians, gathering supplies or travelling to the furthest 'mapped out' areas to try and chart the lands. If you would like to use any of these prompts or can think of anything else you'd like to do, feel free! If you app into the game and would like to use any of these threads as 'canon', please just let us know so we can include or incorporate any details into our overall worldbuilding! (Or work with you to tweak some details to suit!)

☆ If you think your character wouldn't be interested in helping or pitching in, that's fine! However, please be aware of the consequences that will follow — a decrease in NPC esteem, support, etc. The NPCs understand that the Hatchlings didn't ask to be here, but they simply do not have the resources or manpower to accommodate for anyone who doesn't want to work or assist in engaging with local infrastructure. Your character will not be ICly ousted from the basecamp, but they will experience a poorer quality of food and little social engagement from the NPCs. Even Captain Childe picks up a trenching tool with the best of them!

❀ THE QUAGO

One day, a patrol team brings back a small potted plant in a containment jar. It seems rather innocuous at first, and one of the more science-minded survivors sets it aside to study it. Unfortunately for the intrepid habitants of the Basecamp Leviathan, this was the equivalent of cradle robbing! This plant is the young form of a creature known as a Quago, which is a large, semi-sentient creature with myriad tendrils and no fixed roots. It's something of a flora/fauna hybrid, and it's here for its baby!

This creature releases spores into Basecamp that, for the most part, will put people to sleep. However, some people have... different reactions. It can also cause: hallucinations, itchy rashes, feelings of thirst, lightheadedness and, perhaps counter-intuitively, insomnia. The hallucinations can range from 'acid trip' to 'that dream I once had about riding Falcor'. Not everyone will be affected — some people might have natural immunity from this strange creature.

Concern around the basecamp run high: are the conditions caused by something in the food? Is this a new Ethyraia-native illness? None of those infected seem to improve on their own. The Agricultural department is particularly on high alert until, after two days, someone notices that those that are affected can be roused by... chocolate?

Vidar and Cal Kestis, in the month prior, found a box of rare rations aboard the wreck of the Adamant. They brought this box back and opted to share it among the Survivors, and one of the items happened to be hot chocolate powder. A little sprinkle of it under the tongue of anyone sleeping, hallucinating or otherwise experiencing symptoms of the spores will find themselves returned to normalcy in a handful of minutes.

(They could also drink hot chocolate, but where's the fun in that?)

The Quago will come into the basecamp, steal its plant child and flee back to nature. It will not harm or attack anyone, but the effects of its spores will linger for one week. Those sleeping will seem almost to be in a state of suspended animation, and do not need to be tended.

Can my character fight the Quaggo? How big is it? What does it look like?

Your character will likely not notice the Quaggo unless they are one of the very rare people immune to its effects. It is not hostile or violent, and killing it will not cure the symptoms of those affected. Could you kill it? Yes, but then you'd have to live with the guilt!

It is approximately the size of a VW minibus (minibus for scale!) though perhaps a little taller. It is mostly a tangled nimbus of vines and bracken around a central 'nucleus'. Imagine a giant, sci-fi tumbleweed with a disturbing amount of sentience.

Can my character experience more than one effect of it throughout these three days?

Yes! You are free to mix and match the symptoms as you desire. Feel free to be creative! Your character could be an itchy insomniac, or hallucinate Spongebob LARP while being very thirsty... or any other combo you can imagine!

FETCH QUEST

Once characters realize that it's chocolate that makes the difference, a singular prospect looms. There is nothing native to Ethyraia that produces chocolate — so the only hope is to travel back to the Adamant and search through its wreckage for another such box.

Luckily, Cal and Vidar have already done a great deal of work! They've cleared a previously blocked-off area of the wreck, and the route to an old storage area of the Adamant is now traversable. Any character cogent enough or immune to the spores will be able to make the trip. However, given the scorching heat and the intermittent acid rain, we would ask that a 'baseline' character (ie: someone without super speed or a vehicle/pet of some sort they arrived with from home) take roughly 2-3 days to make this round trip.

There's a possibility there could be more luxury items such as chocolate undisturbed in the Adamant for the past three years. For those who make the trip, feel free to find one small luxury item that your character can hold onto in addition to the other goods they bring back for the basecamp as a whole.

The wreckage of the Adamant is empty and overgrown. Most of the bodies have been moved out of the crash in the interest of burying them properly, but there are some that were caught in areas that were simply unreachable or unstable, so the ship is rank with death. Any of the plants listed in our herbiary may be found inside the wreckage, and players may engage with any of their myriad effects (or, if you're an existing player, feel free to add more!). There is no internal power to the Adamant, so even the emergency lighting on the floors will be out.

Can my character make a side-trip while at the Adamant crash site?

At this time we will not be facilitating further in-depth exploration prompts of the Adamant.

❀ NETWORK

Oh! Look! There are more of you.

YOU may refer to
(1) Hatchlings;
(2) Children of the Leviathan,
depending on your cultural and religious background.

Hello and welcome! My name is Cartagena. As you will be responsible for one another's, and the former crew and passengers of the Adamant's, survival, it is in our best interests to get to know one another.

I have prepared some questions:

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you go, what would you bring with you, and why?

Oh. Oh dear. That one isn't really ideal, is it? Just a moment. I will find a better one.

If you won the lottery*, what would you do with the money?

*LOTTERY may refer to a means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random.

A few notes:

☆ Characters may choose their own network usernames.

NAVIGATION ❀

Threaded | Flat

the quago; cw: drugs

Why’d you wake me?

[ luke grumbles, lifting his head from the desk in the agriculture lab, a sheet of paper stuck to his cheek. Gardening isn’t his chief skill, but after seeing the weed selection, luke’s devoted himself to building a more efficient hydroponics rig for the modest growers. That’d be the schematics he’s working on currently adhered to his cheek with a bit of drool. Nice nap, bud? ]

Haven’t slept that good since before the space dicks touched down. You remember Churros? [ the doughy, cinnamon-sugar sticks, you know the ones. ] That kinda good.

[ some of the few things that make luke miss society - churros vendors. Alas. blinking away the sleep and dreams of cinnamon-sugary goodness, he snatches the sheet from his face, and glances around the lab, noticing something missing - his latest conversation partner. ]

Where’s Tentacle Baby? [ the little potted thing Tentacle Mama just stealthed away with, using that lullaby Luke woke from a second ago. Missing small and seemingly defenseless things is one of the prime sources of Luke's typical alarm and anxiety. He half lifts, half falls from his desk to sleepily stumble around, searching for his little plant bro. ]

Octoplant? Audrey III?

fetch quest/adamant

[ while helping people is a great motivator, it wasn’t the chief draw that had Luke jumping to volunteer for the Adamant choco-retrieval team. He’s only heard vague mentions of this crashed spaceship, and his engineering obsessed mind is keen to get a closer look.

When they finally reach the ship after days of trekking through acid rain and heat, luke’s frozen just outside of it, eyes scanning up and up and up, a chill creeping along his spine. The monolith is a cold reminder of the last massive space-faring ship he stared up at, while the city around him crumbled to apocalyptic ruin.

It takes a nudge to his side to get him blinking back to reality, giving his travel companion a blank, distant, thousand-mile stare. ]

Sorry. Déjà vu.

[ his throat bobs, swallowing dryly, but luke trudges ahead, determined despite the deep unease carving through him. ]

We know what kind of packaging we’re looking for?Are we digging for some dude’s Snickers stash, or a sheet of magic brownies in a minifridge?

the network; un: potatocannonsLLC

> If you won the lottery*, what would you do with the money?

fill a kiddie pool with cash
roll around naked in it
use $100 bills for rolling paper
capitalism is dead, currency is meaningless
all hail our new gods, PVC and duct tape

wildcard;

[ hit me with whatever sounds fun, or shoot me a pp at

wuzzafuzzle to plot! ]

one 🔥 freshly hatched

⟪ all things considered, azula has wasted no time to make it perfectly clear that she is not exactly pleasant to bunk with. her fury seems to have reached its peak in her first post-hatching encounter with ashley porter, who had found his poor, apologetic self under heavy, if currently merely metaphorical fire. that discovery is rather what mellowed her out just a little: with her bending temporarily gone, she seems to have given herself to shock, at least until the slime was washed off.

at present, she is sifting through the meagre 'welcoming gifts'. as embittered as her expression might be as she eyes the protein tube with purest suspicion or lifts a pair of shoes far too big to fit her, and as much as she holds herself like a military general in gait and gesture, it's... hard not to notice that she must have already been worse for wear prior to her arrival. she has shadows under her eyes that speak of more than one sleepless night, and something of the way her bangs have been cut suggests a rather shoddy diy job. ⟫

What are you looking at? ⟪ it's snarled rather than spoken, her eyes narrowed in point-blank suspicion.

then, her gaze flicks to your pile of newfound possessions. could be anything – a shirt that looks to be about her size or a pair of trousers that isn't as strange a fit as her own, or, by agni, a pair of fashionably pointy-toed shoes – ⟫ Give me those. ⟪ and, as if her tone leaves any room for doubt: ⟫ That is an order.

two 🔥 exploration

⟪ the gymnasium had sounded so promising. she needs to clear her head, this much she has established, and isn't training her body the best way to do so? she is brimming with an awful, nervous, agitated energy that hasn't left her since her father left her behind –

she shakes her head as if the physical act can drive the thought from her mind. it's no use, and neither had the gymnasium been, as the place she had been somewhat condescendingly directed to turns out to be a sinkhole these days.

fine, then. best to see what else this place has to offer. there must be some makeshift training grounds somewhere.

her search is not immediately successful, but it does take her all over – back to the theatre, to the engineering corps, the aid station... and no matter where she goes, she has no regard for peasants at work. clearly, her own needs and wants are to be ranked far above those of the lowly masses, and so she doesn't hesitate to disrupt whatever you're doing. ⟫

Where do you go to train?

⟪ alternatively, you're hard at work, minding your own business, when a teenaged girl in ill-fitting clothing pretends to join you. if you are cleaning, she is taking your broom or a spare rag, if you are fixing something, she pretends to pay rapt attention - the drift's clear. occasionally, she will look over her shoulder –

someone is avoiding school, and a particularly adamant teacher is having no such behaviour from a potential hatchling student. ⟫

three 🔥 fetch quest

It can't be far now.

⟪ whether she is saying this to a companion or to assure herself is hard to tell, she almost always sounds cold and biting when she speaks. the trip to the adamant is nothing but an excuse for her to see more of this bizarre new world, even if it means that she has to endure company. something about it is almost comforting: she has a clear order, a clear goal, and the journey occupies her enough to distract her from what awaits her back home.

she bites her lip, visibly hard, and stares darkly out from the cavelike structure that shelters her and whoever is lucky enough to join her on this trip from the current burst of acid rain. her nails – some broken still from the fight that she lost – dig into the ground.

funnily enough, she isn't wrong: it's not far now, if it weren't for that pesky rain. ⟫

four 🔥 wildcard.

⟪ ooc: surprise me! i'm honestly down for most everything, but if you'd like to plot something more specific, you can hit me up on plurk at nehelenia or via pm and we can hash something out. c: ⟫

❀ HATCHING.

_{[ For being interrupted in a pretty important mission and then brought to where ever this place was, Katsura seems immensely calm, especially now that he's properly showered and not covered in slime. He was a bit hysteric when the stubborn slime wouldn't come out of his lengthy hair, but now he's relieved and just seeming to go along with.. whatever was happening. He wasn't foreign to unfortunate situations that involved space or an alien planet, though he was hardly favorable of anything having to do with the latter. He has been given some clothes to which seem a bit summer-y for his taste, but it reduces his initial distaste when he realizes how nice he looks in the apparel. Zura was one to be meticulous about his disguises attire when evading the police, after all.

It also helps what whoever is unfortunate enough to be his bunk mate has a matching set. Katsura regards his fellow Hatchling curiously. ]}

Ah. We're like the Olsen twins.

_{[ why is that such a dated reference... why does he sound serious as a heart attack... ]}

❀ FETCH QUEST.

_{[ If chocolate was the key curing people, Zura was eager to assist one way or another. He had gotten his belongings back from the egg from which he came from and dressed himself in a yukata and haori — a katana settled against his hip held by a sash — one authentic and also dated (extremely dated in this case.)

Coming across several bodies along the way piqued his interest as to what exactly killed them. Was it the initial crash or.. something else? Out of respect, however, he kept to himself. He scoffs lightly as he idly speaks to his travel partner (who, if you've dealt for him for this long, congratulations): ]}

Tch. Chocolate shouldn't be the remedy to all of this.

_{[ as if like?? anyone had a choice?? ]}

❀ NETWORK.

UN: FruitsPunchSamuraiG
(1) It's not Hatchlings, it's Katsura.
(2) It's not Children of the Leviathan, it's Katsura.

I would become the Prime Minister and revolutionize Japan, starting with dismantling the corrupt bakufu government and lifting the ban on swords. I'm not a terrorist, nor am I working in an underground faction. I'm just an ordinary plumber.
Then, I would provide Edo with a larger and more satisfying petting zoo. Maybe treat myself to a relaxing trip in Hakone. How about you, Cartagena-san?
_{[ In which anyone else is free to respond to him. ]}

[ cafeteria blues ]

[ the protein ration substitute in the cafeteria is the worst thing yelena has ever eaten. worse than starving, she thinks, as she bites into a bar of the stuff, then starts gumming it and eventually sticking out her tongue, leaning over her tray so the crumbs slough off progressively, like snow falling out of a tree it had overburdened.

yelena doesn't stop making a face like a dog who'd bitten into a bottle of mouthwash, grimacing her way through it. she reaches over and steels the canteen of the nearest person and, unscrewing it, starts chugging, trying to rid herself of the taste. ]

[ quag-oh no (cw: body horror, mutilation, child abuse) ]

[ the spores get her while she's nosing around the aid station, but they don't kick in until she's outside a church. yelena is highly trained. as soon as her body temperature spikes, she notices, staggering into the church and easing down into a pew. the feverish look on her face chases off the old man seated next to her. yelena huffs at him like a bull ready to charge, but she feels too faint to do anything about it, lowering her forehead with a groan to the back of the pew ahead of her.

she almost looked like she was in prayer. when was the last time she had kneeled like ...?

for a moment, she is in a tiny church in ohio. it hadn't panned out, but it had helped them blend in. little family trying out a new church to attend on sundays. not orthodox, because they didn't want to draw too much attention. baptist, she thinks. the preacher is talking in a soft voice and the woman in front of them has the nastiest cough. ]

Shut up. [ yelena mutters, mostly to herself. she pounds her hand on the pews. ] Shut up.

[ it is not the woman coughing. it's someone else. she spills onto the pew, lying prone, staring up at a hospital light. an operating light. the clink of metal, and there. the cough. it's the surgeon.

'Can you feel anything?' he asks. yelena shakes her head, raising her hands to press her palms into her eyes, willing the moment away. her hands had been bound that day. she hadn't been able to cry. tears slip out from her now, though. ]

[ network (un: owo) ]

who is running a lottery on ethyraia? no one is using money.

Down the Hatch

a. Theatre

[ The conversation between Tilly and Porter takes at least ten minutes longer than it really needed to be. She's grateful to be greeted upon arrival in a new reality by someone this friendly (if very nervous in a very relatable way), since her two previous brushes with dimensional travel involved the Terran universe and being possessed and kidnapped by sentient fungus. After a couple bad trips (hah) like that, and anyone might develop a bit of anxiety about the multiverse.

When the two ensigns are done babbling at each other, she's left alone with her protein paste tube. Looking unhappily at it, and towards the very hungry children, she hands it over. ]

I'm going to build a proper food synthesizer here if I have to make it out of spare parts and weird lizard bone rocks. [ The thought of calculating the molecular chemistry and energy matrix conduction keeps her from noticing that she can, in fact, be overheard. ]

b. Strange New Eggs

[ It doesn't take her long to find "her" egg piñata of goodies. Most of it, like her uniform, communicator and her PADD, she stuffs right away into a bag to take back and clean, but when her hands find her tricorder, she grasps it like a slimy security blanket and uses her borrowed clothes to wipe it off as best she can in order to see if it's in working condition.

She lets out an excited, giddy laugh when the lights and high-pitched whirring start. ] Oh, my day just got a whole lot easier.

Basecamp

c. Hand Me the Space Wrench

[ Tilly finds the Engineering Corps with an almost natural magnetism leading her there. And then promptly takes up about half an hour of Thorkill's time asking question after question about everything from the downed ship's propulsion system to the hydroelectric power generator to the way their 3D printer operates, comparing each answer in her head to what she's used to working with and how much she can help these people.

She likes Thorkill. Even if it's weird talking shop with someone as cheerful as she is. She's gone on several technological side-rants without a snarky CO telling her to stay on task. She kind of misses it a little. ]

OK, so, what needs fixing today?

The Trouble with Quagos

[ Maybe it's a side-effect of spending so much time in Discovery's cultivation bay, surrounded by cosmic mycelial spores, or maybe it's from her time in the Jah-Sepp's realm. Or hell, maybe it's her allergies acting up enough to keep the spores from finding their way through her nasal passage. Whatever the reason, she is significantly less stoned than most of the people around her.

But less is not nothing. After trying to will some of the visual side effects away to no avail, she holds her hand up to someone. ]

Gravity is still working right? Because I swear I can feel how fast this planet is moving through space and I'm pretty sure if I let go of this chair I'm going to be flung into the upper atmosphere.

[ 01 | exploring the basecamp ]

[Zuko doesn't do chores, thank you, he's the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation and is above such peasantly tasks and all that. He is also not quiet about his disdain, even just to passersby making a polite request for assistance:]

I'm not going to wash your dishes, peasant!

[...And that's apparently the end of that. This--and the stomping around that inevitably accompanies it--is not something that's winning him any favors with the locals. Not that Zuko cares about making friends, but he can still be spotted sulking along the fringes of the base camp like it's a total mystery why the inhabitants have started shooting him dirty looks.

...He also might be getting a little hungry, but he's too proud to ask for food--especially when he knows he's been rude to everybody since he got here. Long-term planning isn't his strong suit.]

[ 02 | the quago cometh ]

[Something has infected the basecamp, and when Zuko figures out whatever it is he's going to kill it. Where other people seem to be keeling over on the spot, he keeps sprouting new and terrible rashes, and the constant discomfort is doing wonderful things for his disposition.

That is to say, you guessed it, he's been doing a lot of stomping around and yelling. He knows what he likes. And when the latest and worst round of itching hits him, he finally snaps like a particularly cranky and incendiary toddler.]

Rrgh! [He opens with a flaming punch to the nearest wall. Sorry, were you standing nearby? Don't be alarmed.] I've had it with this stupid rash! What's wrong with this place?!

[As if this is someone's fault rather than a natural occurrence... listen, yelling just makes ihm feel better.]

[ 03 | fetch quest ]

[This place--they called it the Adamant?--is disgusting. It's not Zuko's first time around dead bodies, but those had been dead for a hundred years and didn't smell this bad.]

Ugh.

[He waves ineffectually in front of his face like he can waft the stench off that way before finally pulling his shirt over his nose. He looks ridiculous, but it helps a little bit, and he's glaring hard enough to hopefully warn off anybody who wants to make fun of him for it. (Eh, do it anyway.)]

Let's get this over with.

[Not that he has any idea what he's looking for, never having seen "chocolate powder" before in his life, but is he going to admit that unprompted? Nope! Forward march!]

[ 04 | wildcard ]

[Hit me up at cerebrah or via PM if you'd like a custom starter, or just throw something at me!]

▌ I. THEATRE

[After the gasping, choking, suffocating experience that is scrabbling out of a giant egg into a pool of viscous muck, one hatchling seems to have taken the wide-eyed and tongue-tied route of coping throughout the induction process. He rubbernecks at each new sight and face, flinches at the shower, and shivers the entire walk to the housing at the theatre--less on account of the droplets air-drying on his clean skin and everything to do the knots doubling up on themselves in his stomach.

The overwhelming amount of people--more people crushed together in one place than he's seen in his entire life--would be enough, but it's... the manner of the people. The way they talk. Act.

Finally left alone to catch his breath by his designated bunk, he hovers besides it, unsure, eyeing the privacy screen. Another strange thing. He doesn't immediately grasp its function. They'd never needed the like before, not when it was only him and his sister and the same shared space. Like the showers, it only serves to remind him of Jerlamarel and his prison of strange relics.

He looks over, observing how others interact with it--and unintentionally ends up catching someone's eye. Locked gazes. If anything, his wide one gets wider still and he looks away with a swift intake of breath. Only to glance back, hesitant and testing.]

▌ II. LEVIATHAN

[Were you in the middle of something? Well, not anymore. A member of the crew apologizes on approach for the interruption, leading a new hatchling who lags along a few feet behind. The newness might be obvious without it needing said: the ones just taking in the basecamp for the first time have a look about them. Hatchling to hatchling, you've got time to break a newbie in with a tour, right?

If you're a newbie, too? Oops. You know how it is. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of you all. Make it a self-guided tour for two?

The crew member departs, and in the onset of an awkward silence he clears his throat, slowly closing the distance.]

▌ III. NETWORK

[Hey, you know what's crazy? Computers. And digital messages. And talking computers sending digital messages. Guess it's a good thing he hasn't been able to sleep; he's had plenty of time to learn from others' examples.]

Home. My family. Because I don't know where they are and anything could be happening to them.

[And as for the other--]

I don't know. I don't use either.

▌ IV. WILDCARD

[Also totally cool if you want to swing a different prompt at a different time during new kid orientation/exploring/plant invasions, come at me. c:]

hatching

[It's a disorienting, unpleasant experience to awaken suddenly encased in an egg sac, covered in slime. She fights her way out, landing messily in the water, scrambling to her feet, ready to defend herself from whatever force has dragged her here.

Ashley Porter can be as apologetic and nice as he likes, but she has no understanding of alternate realities, or accidental interdimensional travel. She only knows that a man is telling her that he's responsible for her being here, and it turns her into a spitting, hissing fury, albeit a weak and confused one.

Someone might want to intervene before she tries to straight up kill a dude with her bare hands.]

mess hall

[She looks out of place, small and uncertain despite her height, drowning a little in the shirt she was given, that's since been repurposed into something of a dress (it's more coverage than she ever had, in the Citadel), poking hesitantly at the food. With her tattooed fingers, because unfortunately she has no manners.]

Is this food? [She asks someone nearby, nose wrinkled in disgust.] Where is the green?

[Unlike everyone else in the Wasteland, her captivity came with access to fresh food, and it's all she's ever known, really. Vegetables, fruit and mother's milk.]

agriculture department

[They're fragile, delicate things, the saplings that the people here are attempting to grow. The Dag is fascinated, asking questions to anyone who looks her way, wanting to understand the processes they're using, how it all works. She's only seen the hydroponics in The Citadel a few times, and Miss Giddy could only explain so much about them.

It's where she spends much of her time, helping out where she can, but it's not just curiosity that's driving her. She's trying to see if these people are like the Immortan, only growing for themselves, or if they truly want to do the right thing. Because when she went back to the strange pool and dug into the egg that called to her, she managed to pull out a worn leather bag with a precious cargo.

If she sees another of the Hatchlings lingering in the same area, she might pull them aside with a gentle hand on their arm, away from the crew of the Adamant.]

Do you believe we can trust them?

Quaggo spores

Angharad!

[The cry is a desperate one, as the Dag chases after a vision only she can see, ignoring the danger of the environment outside the Leviathan. All she wants is to see her friend again, alive and whole but walking further away from her with every passing second.]

Angharad, please, where are you going? Come back to me.

[For all that she's experienced some high octane moments in her life, the Dag hasn't truly had to fend for herself in the wild, and it probably isn't a great idea for her to go wandering alone.]

network

They told me the bracelets talk to people. Are you listening?

hatch / explore.

( the first thought she has when she pops out of that weird little egg is that the judge must have finally caught up with her. the second is that this can't be true, because it isn't half bad. laura rattles about the place with a curiosity that can't seem to be dampened, happy to hike up ill-fitting pants every three seconds as the trade off for getting to puzzle out a bit more about this place. )

I don't suppose there's someone making belts around here?

( she's quick to find the agriculture department, which is where laura's talents are best spent, but in those crucial early days laura makes a point to go everywhere. the aid station, the mess hall, even sanitation. always with a friendly smile, a cheerful disposition, helpful as can be, and not at all fussy about the work given to her. for all she looks a little scrawny — the malnourished kind — she's got a good work ethic, clearly used to manual labour and gross jobs. )

I'll have to figure out something to trade, but, y'know. Someone's going to see my ass before the week is out, guarantee it.

quago.

( a. ) — the chill option.
( for anyone who's seen her for more than a few minutes around here, it's quickly evident that something is different about laura. rather than doing anything that could be construed as productive, she's sat on the floor in the aid station staring at her hand with mild curiosity. when she realises that someone else has walked in, she giggles and wiggles her hand, flipping it to show the utterly normal palm she's been looking at for a while now. )

I can't feel my fingers. Am I moving them? I think I need a nap. Are you here to show me the way home?

( b. ) — the no chill option | cw: blood mention
( it's not all fun. she's not sure when exactly the place starts to fill her with dread, but at some point she walks down the hall with the intent of finding some water, only to break into a run without warning. she doesn't offer any explanation as she barrels through the camp, bolting like the devil itself is chasing her, and laura doesn't stop until she finds somewhere small and cramped to wedge herself into.

she's wheezing, she can't stop, with her head wedged between her knees and her hand jammed into her mouth to muffle as much sound as possible. she's bitten down hard enough to break skin, blood streaked across her palm and down her wrist, but laura stops long enough to hiss at anyone that might stumble upon her hiding spot. )

Get out, they're coming! Can't you hear?

network | user name: laura00

i think i could make a pretty good house of cards with the bills, but i might have to glue a few together so they stand up better.
or a crazy vegas trip. either or.

wildcard.

(( wildcard! feel free to pull from any part of the prompts, spin off of any of them, or just go your own way and surprise me! very barebones details on laura are here. questions etc. to sharknado ))

Edited 2021-08-13 13:35 (UTC)

A

[ Takoda may not have been held at gunpoint or stuck with a spear, but waking up in a weird slimy egg could not have given him any more reason to be immediately hostile. Or at least, needlessly aggressive. Even before he has all his faculties about him he’s shrugging off help and smacking hands away, mumbling something along the lines of “get your fuckin’ hands off of me you alien fucks”. At least until his mind and vision clear and he no longer sees the tall frames of the Judge and instead sees…well, other people aren’t any better. But the swearing is less intense until it stops.

Eventually, he finds himself sitting in a bunk with clothes that are way too tight with a tube of protein paste in his hands. He notices a couple of children staring — it’s hard not to notice because they’ve been there for a good minute with their eyes plastered onto him and either it’s because of the too-tight clothes with a foul mood or, more likely, because of the person that he chooses to be, he leans forward and says quietly: ]

Where I come from…we turn children into protein paste.

[ Needless to say, he’s left alone after that. Which is all well and good because after the explanation for why he’s here is given he is filled with a rage so potent he’s convinced he can self destruct on command.]

B

[ Naturally, the first thing Takoda wants to do when everything “settles down” is get a look at the parameter of the base camp.

What he’s not prepared for when he’s far enough out is the fact that base camp is apparently a fucking dragon? ]

You’re shitting me.

C

username: akecheta

> If you won the lottery*, what would you do with the money?

cannon

[Yup, that's it that's the answer you get.]

wildcard

[Please feel free to make something up to throw at me, I am usually bad at TLs pls go nuts. Hmu at

nicknacked if you want to plot something instead!]

[Hatching]

[This is not the afterlife. From what he was promised, the afterlife should've involved a lot fewer eggs, and a lot more people he knows. Neither is the case here.

Still, he's been stuck far worse places, and so soon after arriving he can be found sitting on one of the bunks, one leg pulled up onto it and the other swinging over the edge. The clothes he's found are much too big for him, and he's busy trying to roll the sleeves up when he notices one of the children staring at him.

So he stares back. And keeps staring. So does the child, unwavering, and it goes on long enough that even Atem eventually starts to be a little unnerved.]

Do you know what he wants?

[He finally asks the nearest Hatchling, though his eyes are still locked on the kid's. Can't lose the staring contest.]

[Engineering]

[Atem is not here because he has any particular skill in this area, but out of sheer curiosity. He's already checked out a few other areas of base camp, but this seems like the most interesting so far, and it also seems like the most likely place to find one of his friends in particular.

But he isn't here, and that much is obvious right away. Atem hadn't really expected to find him, so it isn't too much of a surprise, but he still looks a little dismayed for a moment before finding something that attracts his attention.

Hopefully what he's just plucked off a bench and is now curiously turning over in his hands isn't important or delicate.]

[Fetch Quest]

[As soon as Atem realized there was something useful he could be doing, he'd immediately volunteered for the trip to the Adamant. The trip there had been smooth enough, but navigating the ship itself is easier said than done.

He peers into the darkness, casting the small beam of his flashlight into the depths of it, before glancing back at one of the other people on this little adventure.]

Have you been here before?

Threaded | Flat

MOD QUESTIONS

luke saenz | original

azula | avatar: the last airbender

one 🔥 freshly hatched

two 🔥 exploration

three 🔥 fetch quest

four 🔥 wildcard.

Kotarou Katsura | Gintama

yelena belova | mcu (spoilers for black widow!)

Ensign Tilly ⭐ Star Trek: Discovery

zuko | avatar: the last airbender

Kofun | See