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ataraxioff2015-08-22 11:34 pm
ataraxites) wrote in ataraxioff2015-08-22 11:34 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE MEME 001
T E S T D R I V E M E M E You wake up, alone in the dark. There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Through the fog you can see shadows of movement, the muted sound of alarms crying. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're suddenly dropped several feet onto the opposite wall. It takes you several minutes to catch your breath and gather strength in uncooperative limbs; more time still to climb up through the debris to the hole in the outer wall high above. You emerge in bright sunlight, surrounded by an immense jungle. As your vision clears, you realize you stand on the hull of a colossal spaceship, crashed on an alien planet. There's a shout behind you, and as you turn, figures climb over the curve of the ship towards you: your rescue party, weathered and scarred by the efforts necessary for survival. B A S E C A M P A ramshackle spread of tents and shelters built out of resources salvaged from the ship and gathered from the jungle. Not sleek, not clean, but alive: people coming and going from tent to tent, heading out into the jungle or returning with freshly foraged food. Some are working to build more shelters or improvize working tech out of parts salvaged from the ship; some are cooking; some are just taking shelter from the sun for a while. Whether you find somewhere to help or apply your skills, it's probably a good idea to get to know your neighbors. E X P L O R A T I O N The jungle is dense and green, teeming with life, high calls and cries of strange animals and birds, the low buzz and murmur of insects. There are no paths or notable markings; go too far into the trees and you may not be able to find your way back. Dangers hide in the shadows but there's also food, water - or perhaps you're looking for more, pushing further in a search for answers about this planet you're now living on. Or you can turn your attention to the crashed ship, the huge bulk of it balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff. It creaks and groans in its delicate position, audible from a distant but all the louder should you venture inside. Dark corridors made even more dangerous by the damage to the internal structure, debris and obstacles blocking progress, and any wrong step could cause it to collapse in on you, or send the ship over the cliff. But finding any tech, resources or supplies might just be worth the risk. C H O O S E Y O U R O W N . . . Hunt or flee from strange creatures in the jungle, take a try at rock-climbing down the cliff-face, or practise in-game gained abilities. Ataraxion is currently without a network until one is built, but test-driving on a prospective one is also totally fine! |
esca mac cunoval | the eagle
[He doesn't know that most of these people are used to better living conditions. Their tents and huts pieced together from fabric and sticks and mud, they're more familiar to him than the metal shell that Esca crawled from. This could almost be his village. Almost.
He doesn't know these people, but that hardly matters when he's lost his own. Esca watches for a short while before approaching the nearest campfire, crouching to take over the cleaning of whatever they've managed to hunt. If he ends up with blood and gore on his hands, it doesn't seem to bother him.
It's the price you pay for eating.]
Exploration
[The jungle smells only a little like the woods he knows. It's damp, but there's a heat to it that he's unfamiliar with. He pushes some of the greenery aside, eyes often wary and uplifted at the sound of some unfamiliar bird or animal. The path behind him isn't clear, but he's good enough at tracking that he'll find his way back.
He stops when he reaches a stream, crouches at the very edge and waits for the fish to come. He doesn't have a spear or even a net, but he doesn't need one. He's been catching fish with his bare hands since he was a boy.]
Come on, then. Just a little tickle.
[Here's hoping he isn't rewarded with a missing finger or two.]
exploration
[She's planted on the other side of the water, and she wasn't following him. Deadset. Capable only just glimpsed him now, crouching over the water, looking pretty good and deadset himself in the way he's got his eyes clapped on those waters. Talking to himself. Just a tickle.
She stays on her feet and doesn't match him, wary curious in the way she watches. There is little she is afraid of, here. Everything seems sweet. Shell probably learn, she knows; there are always things you gotta be afraid of, or for, but she's good at running and getting better.]
What's in there?
no subject
Fishing. Hopefully there's trout, or smaller fish, if there's enough of them to fill a stomach. [He looks back down at the water, at the dark shadows that come to the surface and then dart back down again with a little splash.] If not, there might still be frogs or river rats along the bank.
no subject
Still not grateful for what she was given, because it wasn't given, but that don't do a thing to fill her belly now. She leans forward when he does, craning her neck a little to try and see what he sees. Shadows. Little shadows, flitting around.]
Look. [Enchanted, she sinks into a crouch on her side of the bank. One shadow flicks up close to the surface before it goes darting off, and she leans forward to track it, following with her eyes till she sees it no more.] These're beasts to eat? Yaaa, but they're holding their breaths for a true long time. Staying hidden down there.
no subject
[And it's not judging. He knows what it's like to be made to feel stupid. The Romans did their share of that. What Esca feels is closer to concern, because what godless country is she from where there aren't any fish? Or maybe she's jut been enslaved and not allowed to see them. Seems just as likely.]
What're you called? What's your name?
no subject
Nah. There was water, but nothin' living in it. Maybe there used to be. Weren't many that had water, full stop. Wasn't like this, ya know? All jungle green.
[He's looking at her, she realizes then. A curious kind of looking. That's a kind that is okay. She lifts her head and looks back, across the stream, finds his eyes with hers.]
Capable. [Name.] I'm Capable. This green place isn't yours either, is it? But you still know fish. What's it you're called, where you're from?
exploration
she's sitting cross legged on a large rock when the young man appears by the stream, quite still and entirely silent, her eyes closed. her staff is strapped to her back with a makeshift collection of rope and fabric she salvaged. she's thinking of a tangle of things; of home, of her companions, of all the trouble she has left behind, that she's supposed to be in charge of, as such. it's troubling to be so far from it, and not at all of her own accord. still, it's not as though she hasn't already been slightly prepared for dealing with unexpected directions before, so she has that, at least. ]
I'd take care if I were you, [ she warns, softly, though her mouth is caught somewhat in a smile. ] The wildlife here doesn't seem terribly friendly.
no subject
Most isn't, when you come at it with arrows and spears.
[Esca doesn't have either one, which is why he's crouched and hoping to catch some other source of food.]
Have you seen any out here?
no subject
[ closing her eyes again, she returns to her somewhat meditative state, but continues speaking; she likes to talk, incidentally, and as of being here, there's lots of things to tell. her mouth remains curved in a light smile, content that she would be capable to assist the young man from this distance if he required it. ]
Only a very disagreeable creature that reminded me somewhat of a griffon, except pale pink in colour. The fault was mine, though, I think, as I was attempting to practice a spell and seemed to disturb its hunting. It seemed very angry with me, but ran off rather than attacked me. [ as a vague afterthought, as if she's only just realised this, ] Thankfully.
[ opening her eyes once more, trevelyan tips her head towards him. ]
And you?
EXPLORATION OH MY GOSH IM SORRY IM LATE I DIDNT SEE YOU HERE FOR THE LONGEST TIME <3
[Marcus comes barreling through the underbrush, his big shape nonetheless deceptively fast on foot. You wouldn't know him for a cripple, unless you knew him-- and even though the Briton does, well. It's that very relationship that makes Marcus swifter than he otherwise would have been, his boots tearing through grass, vaulting over a snarl of roots.] Esca, get back, [his voice carries through the trees further and faster than even his bounding stride.
There's a bow in his hand, a quiver over his shoulder. He'd been hunting, until he'd seen Esca's lithe shape crouched over the river's edge.]
Don't touch the water. [He skids to a stop on the muddy bank a dozen yards out. Lands a little heavily on his bad leg, Esca can see, but it's not enough to stop him wading determinedly over toward his friend. His face is dark as thunder.]
STILL UP FOR TAGGING!
[He does know about his leg, and it's instant concern that has him moving to meet the larger man halfway, to offer his support. But it's his face that Esca focuses on.]
What's happened? What's wrong with the water?
no subject
It's burnt through fishing net and those great slippery sheets that they are using to build camp. [Tarp, he means, but the word fails him for a moment.] It is strange. They do not yet know why it is the rain that falls is does not do the same. [His words are slightly choppy from exertion. Fear, though, more than than the physical rush and speed in and of itself. It takes him a long moment to move his fingers off Esca's arm, and he's doing a piecemeal job of putting his face back into its characteristic reserve.
Everything is fine don't worry about it.]
no subject
[But he's not doubting Marcus' word either. He's always been true to it, and is in the only person that he truly believes here. Esca looks down at where his hand had been resting, and then back to the stream itself.]
It's cursed. The gods have cursed this entire world.
[And possibly all of them on it. He looks back again and nods at the larger man's bow.]
Have you any luck with hunting?