TEST DRIVE MEME 001

[ataraxites]

T E S T   D R I V E   M E M E A R R I V A L 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!

Comments

carolyn fry | the chronicles of riddick: pitch black | reapp from months ago hi

[suddenlycaptain]

ARRIVAL;
[ At first, this is familiar. Not safe, never safe, but familiar. Cyrofluid, breathing tube, alarms, shapes beyond the glass -- it's another jump, or rather just after.

Then the gravity couch opens and Carolyn falls, slowly registers different -- wreckage, the ship on its side.

Not so familiar, that.

Something's gone wrong, they've crashed, had to have. She stands, glances at her nanites; jumbled, nothing clear on them. She can understand the people around her, though; they still work for that. The place where the bioraptor impaled her aches as if it's fresh, and when she reaches up to brush hair out of her face, she realizes: the scars she gained on the Tranquility are gone. ]

Wha-...?

[ How long has she been out? How long...?

It's possible, she realizes as she picks herself up off the ground, that it's not how long she's been out. It's how long she's been gone. There are no new memories of her universe, but there wouldn't be; she's dead there. Still, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened. It makes her feel faintly nauseated (also not unusual, with jumps), but she swallows it down.

If the ship crashed, then she has to move, figure out how stable it is or isn't. She can see the way out. She just has to climb up. Hand over hand, foot over foot, try not to think too hard about the hundreds of possibilities as to what happened, try not to think about the people (Nathan? Tyke? Wash? Riddick?). Focus. Breathe in, breathe out. Survive, then you can help others. ]

If this happened because someone was an idiot... [ she murmurs; a waste of breath, but this planet has more oxygen than the last one she was stranded on. More gravity, too. If there's anyone friendly outside, she'll just have to hope they're on the more intelligent end of the spectrum.

God, she hopes no one made the Tranquility crash because of something avoidable. ]

BASE CAMP;
[ She's seen worse than this ramshackle setup of tents and almost-shelters. She's seen people living in sewers and beneath pieces of fabric, people hoping to stowaway on a ship because even months or longer while everyone else is in cryosleep was preferable to where they were. That they're so close to the crash site makes sense as much as she wants to move away from it, as much as she knows they can't because they all feel the pull when they move too far away.

It has her scowl even as she stomps on a branch, bending it with her weight to try and help loosen the roots, pull it up. Just cutting it off won't stop the growth of brush, and Carolyn doesn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to a bush instead of a pillow.

Not that they really have a lot of pillows.

Dirt smears her face where once it was engine grease when she goes to find the non-acidic water, when she pokes through what's been salvaged and hasn't been claimed. She feels unsteady, off her feet; she knew the shuttle bay like the back of her hand and now it's gone, hasn't been hers in months anyway. Now they're on a strange planet and it's both exactly like and completely different from the world she can't ever go back to.

You may just hear a sigh and Carolyn muttering. ] Shit.

James Potter | Harry Potter Series | OTA

[sicklesforsass]

Arrival:

[ James isn't sure what he's waking up to. There's goop. And something down his throat... and bleeding hell, what has Sirius done to him now?

He thrashes weakly, which is clearly cue for the prank to take it down a notch. Whatever is in his throat retracts while the goo drains away. It's enough to make a bloke think that the worst is almost over. Right up until the door opens and he has time for a loud curse before he drops in a pile of flailing limbs straight to the floor. Stars prick his vision after the impact. His head swims while his stomach turns.

This is not something his mate has done to him.

Can't be. Sirius would be out and laughing at this point. Or Remus would have come to his rescue with concern knitting his eyebrows together. Peter should already be throwing himself on James's mercy. ]

Hullo?

[ His voice is weak and peters out as he realizes, belatedly, that he has no clothes.

Hell.

Uncooperative limbs are forced into movement and James finally staggers to his feet to the sound of alarms and other noises that are nothing close to familiar. His stomach tightens as unpleasant scenarios from the darker parts of the wizarding world worm their way into his brain, but he puts one foot ahead of the next all the same.

Everything is blurry without his glasses, but he stumbles upon some poor bloke's clothes eventually. He assumes that the unknown man won't fault him for avoiding being absolutely starkers, and takes the jumpsuit for himself. Then, he finally spots daylight.

Way. Waywayway. Way up above him.

...It's much later when James Potter pulls himself shakily onto the hull. He hears a startled sound and turns to blink owlishly toward the voice. Merlin, what he wouldn't give for someone to accio his wand and glasses from wherever they've fallen right about now. ]

Base Camp:

[ Ramshackle though it may be, there's certainly a novelty and charm to the collection of tents. His earlier fears are more or less soothed, leaving James with just his curiosity and time to burn.

From the sound of it, he's not getting back home for a minute. ]

All right? [ he asks of the first person he encounters, shoving his rescued glasses up his nose. ] You look a touch busy, and normally I'd respect that--

[ He wouldn't. ]

--only I just woke up in [ a vague wave in the general direction of the crashed ship ] that over there and I'm a bit lost. Where exactly am I meant to be going now?

elena gilbert ( the vampire diaries )

[whinings]

[ ARRIVAL ]

[ arriving in a state of panic makes the whole situation that much more stressful. elena is no stranger to kidnappings, you see, it's actually feeling somewhat normal to wake up in a strange place with no memory of how she got here - but this time it feels less like a kidnapping and more of a science experiment. she chokes out the breathing tube, starts slamming her hands on the inside of the pods door as the fluid drains, and she's all ready to start shouting for help when the doors open, and she falls.

all things considered it could be far worse. she's naked as the day she was born, sure, but in amongst the debris there's the remnants of ratty towels scattered around and a couple of those do the job - and later she stumbles on a stock standard jumpsuit with only a few tears and quickly trades it in. the drop isn't so significant that it does a lot of damage either, but as she stands up elena quickly realises that she's landed badly on a wrist, and that doesn't exactly bode well for the current situation. she hauls herself up though, her legs shake like she's been bedridden for weeks and while she wants to freak out about that too, she can't. it's really not the time to be panicking about the how-where-why, because something has clearly gone wrong if the flashing red lights are anything to indicate, and all she can think about is getting out.

it's hard though. her wrist isn't exactly life threatening but it is sprained, and shifting debris to make a clear path is slow and tiring. she's barely made a dent when she drops to a sitting position, already out of breath, and swears under her breath that she'll start lifting weights again as soon as she makes it home. the thought is interrupted by the sound of someone else moving around, and for a moment elena is so relieved that she doesn't even consider that it might not be a smart move, just jumps up and calls as loud as she can through cupped hands. ]

Hey! Is there someone up there? I'm- [ lost? kidnapped? panicking? hurt? ] stuck!

[ nailed it ]

[ BASE CAMP ]

[ unfortunately, elena has very little in the way of marketable skills. hell she doesn't even cook, and in a situation like this it's becoming abundantly obvious that survival skills are what everyone needs. she's trying though, there's no doubt about that. she tried helping with the shelters but it ended with a tangle of ropes and elena rather shamefully making herself scarce before anyone could get too irritated, and now she's shifted her efforts. gathering water is pretty safe, right? right. she can't hunt to save her life, but water doesn't go anywhere. this much she can handle.

whether you run into her on her way back or on her way out is a matter of preference. she'd hardly say no to company on the trip, it's not exactly safe out there. ]

[ WILD CARD ]

[ exploring in the jungle? poking around the tq? something entirely different? hmu with whatever / pm/pp sharknado for any questions!! canon point is roughly mid-season 3 if anyone's curious ]

Algidus | Killer Instinct/Box CRAU | will match formatting

[thecoldshoulder]

[BASE CAMP]

Waking up and realizing that he was stranded on a strange planet without access to his ship and technology and thus no way to get back to his own homeworld was bad enough. Hoisting himself up out of the wreckage and making his way down off the hull of the Tranquility just to realize the only sort of civilization was a shabby mess of tents and makeshift shelters inhabited largely by humans qualified as a damn nightmare to the latest alien arrival. Algidus, the otherworldly being that looked like a monolith made of dark ice, thought initially that his previous captors had whipped up some bizarre hallucination in his mind... but as he moved through the base camp he became convinced of the reality of this latest predicament.

He wasn't planning on sticking around. He had no love for humans and didn't want to give them the chance to plot new ways to try and exploit or harass him; just because this particular group seemed to have access to space travel didn't mean they would be any more diplomatic or considerate of other species. But he was still feeling disoriented from waking up in the grav couches and having to scrabble out of the wreckage of the massive ship on uncooperative limbs, and the heat and humidity of this new planet was doing him little favors. The last thing he felt up to doing was trying to push his way through the unfamiliar jungle that stood just beyond the clearing--not until he'd gotten his feet back underneath himself, at least.

So Algidus searched for what looked to be a currently unoccupied tent and crept into the shady spot it provided, curling up to try and snatch some brief rest before he moved on. The second his keen senses detect someone entering, he raises his head and emits a warning hiss. "Keep your distance and don't try anything. I have had it up to my horns with human games and while you've stumbled upon me on one of the rare times that I don't feel like making an example of my might, I have no qualms when it comes to retaliation!"

[JUNGLE EXPLORATION]

Eventually Algidus has managed to rest somewhat and has decided that he's had his fill of putting up with the sounds of hustle and bustle about the base camp, of being engaged by the other people that have been marooned on this wretched planet. It's good to know that there is a concentrated source of supplies that he could double back to claim for his own should situations become dire, but the alien has always been reclusive; he needs a more secluded area to call his own. Maybe somewhere cooler, too; a body of water or a system of caves... anything better than those crowded tents.

He stalks away from the ramshackle arrangement of tents and shelters, his mind still uneasy. He doesn't want to remain on this planet with these humans any longer than strictly necessary, but he has no idea how he's going to get off of it, either. He didn't crash on this planet and he doesn't remember his people ever making record of it; thus, he has no idea how he's going to reach them. He'd had plans before he'd been taken here--and how did he arrive, was he shipped away by his previous captors to suffer anew, or was he kidnapped again?-- and now they were all crumbling to pieces, getting tossed up with all of the questions he had and resulting in a very confused and troubled mind. He gets a moment of respite from his terrible mood when he pushes through the foliage and sees the glimmering waters of the nearest river, but when he eagerly kneels down next to it to test it and feel its coolness only to discover that it is acidic and not drinkable, the alien of ice feels yet another spike in the frustration that he'd been suffering since the very first second he became aware that he was trapped on this damn planet. The heat and humidity has been hard enough of a creature that thrives in freezing temperatures; failing to find a way to slake his thirst and cool himself off only compounds his previous vexation, which is why he reacts in what could only be described as, well... a massive hissy fit.

"Lousy stupid damned... planet!" Algidus shrieks, springing to his feet and tossing a jagged ball of ice at the nearest piece of foliage--which explodes when it is struck, showering glimmering fragments and pulpy plant matter everywhere. He's so caught up trying to vent that he's not paying attention to any attention he might have garnered or to anyone else that might have similarly been investigating the river. He just carries on his angry ranting, as if pure vitriol could somehow convince the Makers to hear him and take him back to his beloved ice and snow. "If I had my ship and my cell you'd be nothing but a smoking crater!!"

Wave Kieadon | original

[shouldbe]

arrival;

[ It takes a moment for Wave to fully awaken. Her body's still adjusting to a newfound decisiveness that had been adapted days before, and at first the groggily thinks she might just return to sleep. But all at once she remembers her purpose, and at the same time wakefulness hits her like a spell by a mage. She realizes that she is not, in fact, lying in her own bed, but seems to be somehow suspended in some sort of liquid and there is something in her throat and Wave gags hard, her hands sweeping upwards only to find solid walls surrounding her.

Panic, pure and hot, rushes through her entire body, but already the tube in her throat is retracting, doors in front of her splitting apart and spilling her out. It's with a shriek that she falls from the tube, curling into a ball and landing hard on knees and elbows and forearms.

But there's no time to pause, no time to try and figure out where she is or what's going on; things are decidedly wrongand rising to her feet Wave realizes how very naked she is and feels the blood in her body rushing to her cheeks as she tries to see if anyone else is there to see her. But nobody is, and Wave realizes that the ambient light she sees by comes from what looks to be a giant hole above her, reachable by broken beams and cables that look dangerous at best.

It's been a long time since Wave's had to rely on her own strength. As she stares at the climb ahead of her it's daunting. ]

Well...

[ She bites her lip, her brow furrowing slightly with worry, but a moment more and she presses her lips together tightly, hands curling into fists at her sides. ]

I wanted this, after all.

[ Though perhaps not in the way things are here.

Climbing up once she's found something to clothe herself with takes time, and by the time Wave reaches the hole at the top her arms are shaking with the effort. She's lost a lot of the strength she once had... however, she can't stop the pleased smile that spreads across her face as she pulls herself out into sunlight, warm on her skin. For a moment she sits, flushed with the exertion of the climb and enjoying just being. But that moment doesn't last long.

Wave takes a deep breath, her uncertainty getting the better of her as she looks around her new surroundings. Now that she's out of the immediate danger, it's beginning to sink in--she's woken up somewhere very obviously far away from home, in the wreckage of something wholly unfamiliar to her, trapped in some sort of tube with another one forced down her throat, with no idea of how she got there. Had she been kidnapped? But then, why had she been left on her own...?

She licks her lips, turning her gaze up to her surroundings again. No better way than to ask, right? ]

Hello? Is anyone out there?

base camp;

[ This is a far cry from the castle she left behind. Wave eyes the spread of tents with some uneasiness, but she's doing her best to approach everything with an open mind. Just as long as she doesn't get stuck playing nursemaid, she'll be all right.

It takes her a little while before she's comfortable enough with her new situation to approach somebody, and even then it takes a deep breath and a set expression before she strides forward. ]

Hello, I'm Wave. I was hoping you could tell me a little more about... this place.

[ Like what its name is, for instance. ]

AJ HArris | CRAU OC from Box | I'M A NEWBIE HELLO HI

[hairrands]

A R R I V A L

It's probably the same old song and dance for those survivors coming her way now, but to AJ, this is a fresh, traumatizing new chapter in a string of hellish mishaps. Minutes ago she had been dying. She'd been manipulated into giving herself over to a sentient virus and it had been eating her from the inside out.

Now she's here. Weak as a kitten and about as ready to leap off the side of this twisted metal looking heap of shit, but she's breathing freely, and her head's as empty of whispers and suggestions and smug, conniving commands as the day she was born... It feels good. If she were alone, she'd be feeling really good.

The only thing that keeps her from reaching out to those hollering assholes coming her way is the fact that she thinks they're about to chase her down for food. She doesn't mean the kind she'd carry around in a backpack.

AJ bolts for it, mincing over the sun-scorched hull of the ship until she finds a jag in its side that she thinks will lead to something, anything, anywhere to hide. Her only saving grace is the shard of glass she'd found in medical when she'd fallen out of her little horrible goo-clone pod. At least she's not ass-naked out here; thank fuck for the few lockers that weren't empty.

She's not coming out until someone physically tries to roust her, and then if they do they might just find a shiv to their neck. Weakness around here, wherever this is, is about as likely to go over well for her as it would in the Box... or under it.

B A S E

Oh, AJ will get to know her neighbours, alright.

It's been three days since she skimped down from the side of the ship on her own, climbing the face like a drunken mountain goat and nearly paying the price for it. Her wrist had been sprained when she made that very last jump down to the loamy earth... or whatever this soil's planet was named after, and when she'd finally found water to dunk it in to cool it down, she'd recoiled almost immediately from the way it bit into her.

Fucking death trap, this jungle shit heap hell hole.

Since when was that ever different?

Just as in her previous experience, picking away at what this shanty town has put together is the best that she's come to finding a way to survive, and she's done so mostly by darting out in the gloaming of morning and during strategic points in the day when most of the scary looking fucks have either gone back to the ship or out into the wild green yonder. So far it's been working, but maybe this time she's gotten a little too cocky.

AJ is not the kind to grin and simper and make fake pleasantries when caught red-handed, but barring outright being chased down, she's going to keep ahold of what she's grabbed. "Finders keepers," she spits, those being the first words to make it from her head out of her mouth.

...Alright, so it's probably not the most airtight defence she could have come up with, but her brains have been addled by the heat and the fact that she's in some alien jungle far from home, and is waiting for the hammer to fall. She's got bigger problems... and she's also about to dart off again to coin a new phrase: sprinters minters, though she'll be damned if she yells that out.

Base Camp

[tadashiwashere]

[Tadashi looks up, surprise coloring his features for a moment before his expression softens into a sympathetic smile.

Huh. He... hadn't expected more people to show up. It makes him wonder just how safe it is to keep their camp here. And how damaged the jump drive must be at this point. Even with that thought lurking at the edge of his mind, he's not going to suggest a move to everyone until Hiro is found.

He shoves those thoughts aside and sets down the generator he was tinkering with before getting to his feet and offering his hand.]

Tadashi Hamada. And sure. I can do my best. What do you want to know first?

[shouldbe]

[ Tadashi. It makes her think of her cousins, the same style of name and all.

She looks at his hand, uncertain as to what it is he's initiating. Most of the men she's met would simply take a woman's hand to bow over, if she didn't offer it first... finally, Wave offers her own hand, palm down.

What does she ask first? ]

I suppose... everything, really. How did I get here? Where is here? When I woke up, I was in a... a tube, I think.

[ She shudders, remembering. ]

[tadashiwashere]

[Tadashi lifts an eyebrow slightly at how Wave offers her hand, but he gives it a brief shake nonetheless before reaching back to rub uneasily at the back of his neck.

Despite being part of this mess for a few months now, this planet is entirely new to him. The waking up thing, though -- that he can offer some insight on.

It's a lot to take in. The tubes are gravity couches. They're supposed to be for space travel, but...

[He lets his gaze drift to the wreck of a space ship before glancing back towards Wave.]

I don't know what level of tech you have where you're from. This... might take some explaining. Do you need some water first? Something to eat?

[shouldbe]

[ And Wave, for her part, is similarly flummoxed by how Tadashi grasps her hand and shakes it up and down. It's strange at best.

But oh well. She's more interested in getting the answers to her questions, which seem like they're only going to lead to more questions. Tadashi can probably see it on her face, the way her brow furrows at first and then her eyebrow raises when he mentions "gravity couches" and "space travel." He's got to be making a fool of her. ]

Water would be nice.

What do you mean, gravity couches? Unless the "gravity" part refers to how you fall several meters out of it when it opens up...

[ See that eyebrow lifting again, Tadashi? This is the face of a woman who has absolutely no tech and is going to need a lot of explanation. Hope you're up for the challenge! ]

[tadashiwashere]

[ Tadashi does notice her expression and inwardly sighs. Wave isn't the only one who's not exactly tech savvy around here. He's slowly becoming more accustomed to providing layman's terms... even if he's still not great at it.

While he searches for the best place to start, Tadashi steps over and crouches down to retrieve the cup-shaped piece of metal he keeps on hand lately. He pours some water into it from a container that he carefully stores back into his tattered bag on the ground, then offers the cup to Wave. ]

Be careful about standing water here. The ground water is acidic, but we just had a lot of rain. We have enough stored back to keep everyone hydrated.

[He hopes.]

I'm going to guess there's not a lot of tech where you're from? But you're on the right track. The tubes actually protect you from gravity. Before whatever happened, [He's still a little fuzzy on the specifics.] that ship would suddenly move really... uh... quickly. That's not exactly accurate, but picture it that way, okay? The gel in the tubes cushioned us from the gravity.

[Is that making sense? He watches Wave carefully, hoping to take cues from her expression to see whether he needs to slow down or not.

[shouldbe]

[ Wave accepts the cup from him, taking note of the process he goes through to give it. She doesn't understand how ground water can be acidic, but nods regardless. She doesn't have to understand to take it seriously. ]

So don't drink the water. Got it.

[ Tadashi's question about Coriolis's tech gets another nod, her lips turning up in a wry smile. ]

Is it that obvious? No, we don't have anything like this where I come from.

[ She tries to picture things as Tadashi explains, a ship going so fast that you would need some sort of cushioning. It's difficult, but not impossible--a carriage when the horses spook, for instance, or a sudden stop might produce a jerking motion. If it were like that, but sped up considerably...

It's too incredible to imagine, but then, so is everything else around her. Wave shakes her head in disbelief, but there's understanding on her face. ]

And how did we end up... [ "in those tubes," she wants to say, but the words get stuck in her throat as for a moment she feels the glass around her, closing in ] ...here, then?

Base Camp

[sicklesforsass]

Come on. Can't be all that bad, can it?

[ Who's surprised that James Potter is offhandedly eavesdropping and offering a remark while someone else is trying to make themselves useful?

James isn't as casually messy as he would normally prefer. Even with his magic, he's finding it hard to completely adjust to suddenly living in the wilderness. He isn't the roughing it sort, and it shows. His hair sticks more on end than usual and he's sporting a bruise on his cheek lately from a run-in with a tree branch that he'd prefer not to talk about anymore, thanks.]

!!! base camp!

[fullmoon]

[ James can be forgiven for addressing Remus as a stranger, for several reasons. First, he's two years older now than James ever will be, and (probably) several more years older than he was when James last saw him. Second, his hair is getting too long and currently is very wet, hanging drippy over his face, which in turn (third) is turned downturned and mostly hidden under a person-sized piece of scrap metal he's crouched down beside and lifted up to look beneath in search of nonmetal things. Wands, for example.

Fourth, they're, you know, on an alien planet, middle of nowhere, very disorienting.

But Remus couldn't be forgiven for not knowing his voice—two years is nothing, really—and so he goes very still, when the unseen someone starts talking to him, and he needs until the end of the question to steel himself against the possibility that it isn't James and lower the metal enough to look.

He looks. He's been around long enough and thought about this possibility long enough that he doesn't quite look like he's seeing a ghost. He does, however, forget to smile. ]

[ He says, ] Oh. [ It's very profound. Equally profound: he drops the metal on his toes. They're saved from crunching by his boots and the give of the mud beneath his feet, but it does startle him, if it doesn't actually hurt. So the second thing he says is, ] Ouch.

[ He'll make it out of monosyllables eventually. ]

[sicklesforsass]

[ Once he sees the face of one of his best mates, James does boggle a bit. It's Remus and not Remus at the same time -- like he's gotten sucked into some weird warp in time (time turners are a thing, aren't they?) and the Remus he saw yesterday at breakfast has turned into a completely different version.

This isn't sixth year Remus and this isn't anywhere close to home -- the bloke he spoke with earlier has assured him of that, even if he's still skeptical on some of the specifics when it comes to what he's been told. It all sounds like Muggle mumbojumbo to him, honestly.

He has his own moment of not quite knowing what to say. Then the metal drops and he winces. ]

Watch your foot there, [ he warns. Belatedly. Then, half-questioning only because he's fairly damned sure he knows his mate when he sees him: ] Remus?

Roy Mustang | Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[weaponsgrade]

base camp

[Ramshackle is one word for it. For a long moment, Roy stands in the sun -- off the side of the main thoroughfare because why get in anyone's way -- and looks upward. He hasn't even been here long enough to figure this place out and he's already decided he hates it. Who wouldn't, honestly?

(It's the Gate messing with him. Truth being an absolutely asshole because that's what Truth is. He knows it.)

For all the he had only intended to saunter through the encampment, hands deep in pockets and trying to look unaffected by it all, he soon found himself pulled aside and told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't make himself useful watching over this pot of stew, he would regret it come mealtime.

And then his stomach gurgled when he'd tried to refuse, so there he is: standing over a pot of stew, carefully tending the fire (in a completely non-alchemical way, thanks very much) and staring at the pot like it's the reason for all the confusion.]

All right, you bastard. [He's still looking at the pot. It might be construed as talking to the stew.] Game's over. Show yourself and let's get this over with.

[Giant hallucination cooked up by Truth? More believable than actually being here.

Now if only the stew would answer... ]

[ontheline]

[In the distance, there is hustle and bustle of others who have found themselves dropped into the horrible world of 'Random Alien Planet', and surely there are those around them that are comforting and informing them of how utterly crappy their situation is. There — ah, can you hear it? It's distant but growing more audible by the minute. If one focuses their hearing just right:

"—and I managed to salvage one of my favorite pictures of all! This was a special family picture day with me and the girls; my wife's wearing her favorite dress, and papa got Elicia a stuffed bear she couldn't put down for even a moment! I swear she carried that little guy with her even to bed, for weeks and weeks; isn't that precious?! Ah, it was completely awful when she misplaced it; but good ol' daddy was on the case! I'm an investigator after all, so how could I not put all my resources into tracking the missing Mr. Bear—?!"

Yep, ghost on the wind. Giant hallucination. Carry on with your stew.]

[fullmoon]

Yes. [ A beat. ] Hello.

[ Duosyllable. It's progress. He straightens up and pulls his feet out from under the scrap without too much effort, only some leg-wriggling and muddy squelching sounds, and without looking away from James at all until they're loose and James is still there and—

He looks over his shoulder, toward the main camp. Sirius is around here somewhere. Sirius has done this before, this James-in-space thing. And he hasn't done the James-in-a-grave thing. And having him here to tackle James exuberantly to the ground or something would give Remus some time to ground himself. (Harry is around here somewhere, too. Remus wonders if he'd like a warning first, the way Remus would have liked one, or if he'll be able to jump directly into happy without pausing at overwhelmed.)

Finding no one useful in sight, he gives James his attention again. This time he remembers to smile, but it's an unsteady thing that collapses a second later, when he lets out a soundless single huff of laughter. James. Merlin. ]

Where have you been?

the dag. mad max.

[justthewind]

ARRIVAL;

[ There's a woman -- a girl, really -- and she's running.

Her bare feet slap damp on the wide expanse of the ship's exposed shell, wearing drapery that was once white and is now stained blue, slapping at her legs. Her hair is much the same, flying in rat tails tinged cyan, swinging wild as she sprints. Her red mouth grimaces, exposing her teeth, and she seems motivated by both fright and instinct. She runs like someone not very accustomed to running, all wild angles and heavy foot falls.

And then she stops, bare feet sliding on metal, arms flung out to keep her own balance, and her eyes snap wider at what she sees upon approaching the sloping edge. What she sees is the impossibly wide path cleaved into the landscape, mud and exposed rock veined through all the impossible green. ]

Did we choose the road, [ comes out at a rush, a breathless whisper. ] Did the road choose us.

EXPLORATION;

[ Trees are for climbing.

Not like the trees the Dag has seen before -- they weren't like this, and she thinks maybe this is what they could have been like. But they used those trees, sucked them dry, made them grow skinny like the Wives themselves. Knobbly and pliant. These are wild, with strong indifferent arms, but she hugs them anyway as she climbs, her boots rubbing bark off beneath her weight, leaves quivering. Her legs wrap around a thick branch, and she hooks the handmade basket into place. Her hair is braided back, and she's comfortable in close-fitted jumpsuit.

The vines are growing thick, here, hard to find as they are, and she begins the task of ruthlessly picking them of their seed pods, only eating when one looks specifically like it wants to be eaten. She lists forward, reaching for another sturdy vine, her weight tilted, and then abruptly--

She catches herself before she slips, a rough cry leaving her mouth, the muscles in her stomach all tensing at once, and she barely notices that the basket has slipped free until she hears it crash on the forest floor below. Her dismayed hiss; ] Pignut.

[ But she senses someone else nearby, and she remains clinging to the branch like a defensive feline, squeezing it between her thighs, her hands splayed wide, fingers clawed. The Dag listens hard for several seconds, the jungle's life chirping and clicking and rustling all around her, before impatience takes over; ]

Oi!

arrival!

[whinings]

[ so it seems elena isn't the only one in this wreck of a ship. she hears the echo of another voice, and immediately starts moving back towards it. she's found a jumpsuit by this point, thank god, because greeting strangers in the towel she'd fashioned for herself would have been embarrassing regardless of the situation. ]

Hello? Hi, over here! [ she's a little further ahead of james on her way out of the ship, but given that she's nursing a sprained wrist and struggling to make any progress elena doesn't exactly mind taking a step back, if it means taking two forward. ] Can you hear me?

[ she's shouting, so it'd kind of be hard for him to miss, but she says it all the same as she starts clambering backwards, and half stumbles as she drops over a ledge and down into the open space james is currently occupying. not the smartest move, she nearly ends up damaging her wrist all over again, but catches herself at the last minute and actually laughs.

...she's a little high on the adrenaline and stress, okay. ]

I almost thought it was just me here.

slides in here

[theroadwarrior]

[Did you know fate brings people together, just like it had brought Max to the wives in the first place? No? Actually Max doesn't believe in fate at all; that's probably more something vuvalini or even Dag would believe far more than himself. He thinks things just happen simply because they happen, and the world is smaller than people think. Or in this case, the universe.

Case in point: the basket falls, it hits someone on the head, and a litany of incoherent curses drift up into the tree tops. Some parts include gems like fuck and shit, but mostly it is a nonsensical ramble that is a unique little song and dance from feral men with a penchant for growling, mumbling, and driving fast cars.

Max's head snaps up to glower at the tree tops, a small little trail of blood on his hairline to his chin.

HOW DARE, his expression says.

Where are you, random basketcase?

So he can probably point and complain about keeping your shit to yourself--!]

[justthewind]

[ She twists urgently to see the dunderhead that's stepped so fatefully beneath her falling fruits, feline not in grace but in the sharpness of her stare -- a creature that is prey and predator both and hasn't figured out which one she ought to be in this moment, before finally chancing a journey down. Leaves and insects and twigs shower down in her careful navigation down the twisting branches, before she slips ever so, throwing out an arm to catch herself some ten feet off the ground.

Her staring face appears through the branches, white showing around burned blue. Her mouth twists, some kind of display of teeth that is equal parts grin as well as-- something else. Strong emotion that is confusing and so can only translate into anger.

Accusatory; ]

You're always bleeding. And mumbling a susurrus.

arrival

[whinings]

[ elena has exactly zero grace as she drags her way out of the wreck into fresh air, and even though she immediately has to grab onto a protruding piece of metal to stop herself from slipping over the hull she still gulps in breaths like she's been drowning. it's felt like that, from the rough breathing tube tugged forcefully out of her throat to the claustrophobic climb out of the wreck, and for a moment she just closes her eyes and breathes.

it's just a moment though because there are more pressing matters, like the fact that they've been kidnapped, the fact that clearly something isn't right with this whole scenario, and - more immediately - the fact that there is a person not too far from her. ]

It's not a road I would have chosen. [ she responds, though she's sure the question wasn't being posed to her. talking feels rough, like moving her limbs had been earlier, and not for the first time she wonders how long they've been in those damn pods.

hauling herself into a better position, still cradling her injured wrist from the fall out of the pods, she takes a moment to get a better look at the stranger near her. ] Did you just wake up in that too?

[ with a nod to the ship below them. ]

ellie | the last of us | reapp from a thousand years ago

[endureandsurvive]

ARRIVAL

[There's nothing new about waking up to a tube jammed down her throat, to the shift of movement, even the insulated sound of the alarm - something's fucked up, what else is new? - and then the pod opens. The part where she doesn't so much slough out of the blue jello and instead drops like a stone the distance to the far side of the corridor, all pretense of suspension out of the picture, is pretty goddamn novel. You know, like a crappy downer book that haunts you for a little bit. (Get it?)

Ellie lands with a wet cr-SMACK, half crunch and half just wet - on her side and shoulder instead of on her head or straight down onto a locked leg. Give her like three seconds and she'll be pretty okay with that. Right now--:]

Motherfucker!

EXPLORATION

[She's pretty sure it's her imagination, but it's like she can feel every breath of wind coming up from the canyon through the groaning deck of the ship - like a subtle shift in the wall-turned-floor under foot every couple of steps that she can feel in her bones even if she can't hear it over the wail of medical bay's alarm. Sticking around the precariously suspended ship goes against some very basic instincts (mostly the one that doesn't want to go careening over a cliff's edge to her pasty death), but like hell she's going to get too far into the friggin' jungle or hang around that sad sack basecamp without trying to get her hands on as much equipment as she can.

Somewhere out there she has a stockpile of crap. She just has to find the right floor. The right door. Has to hope the scrambled nanites on her arm are still working--

She hadn't exactly made it that far though. For a time she'd stood at the elevator shaft where the lifts had once been, shining her flashlight from one side to the other: scanning the dark, hollow sounding shaft turned corridor. Standing there, a slow prickle of fear had risen in her chest - had swollen - had rooted her to the spot. How many monsters were still left out there? How many people that shouldn't be alive could still be lurking around? The last time she'd gone out into some dark corridor, she'd--]

Man, screw this.

[And had clicked off her flashlight.

Which is why now, thanks to being a chickenshit or maybe just better judgement, she can still be found in the medical bay instead of trying to explore the bowels of the precariously balanced ship. Not for nothing though: she's got a length of metal in hand, clearly snapped off from one of the ruined pieces of equipment in one of the exam rooms, and is at present trying to use it to lever into some of the fucked over lockers.]

WILDCARD

[Throw something at me! I'll roll with anything but if you care to hash out details first just shoot me a PM.]

wanda maximoff » mcu

[consequencing]

arrival.

[ she's sluggish as she lands bodily on the wall opposite.

not just because of her limbs - though that comes with it's own disadvantage as she slowly picks herself up off of the floor- wall. it's more than that, an absence felt as keenly as a pressure against her temples, the moments before a headache where something is wrong but you can't quite place your finger on what it is yet. she isn't powerless, it's nothing so dramatic enough, but the difference is enough that she can feel it keenly in every movement.

still there is enough going on that she can focus on something else - for the moment at least. figuring out exactly what works and what doesn't, how far she can test things, it's not a priority. what is a priority is the loud groans of a precariously balanced wreck, finding clothes, and finding an exit. with a deep breath, shaking knees and a soft mutter under her breath she starts to move, not out of the dangerous ship just yet but further in. there may lie answers there yet. ]

-

[ later as she does emerge, fully clothed in a simple and pretty damaged dress that someone abandoned in what used to be the locker room. she's still dripping with the blue fluid, hair hanging in matted locks, and once she emerges into the sun she pauses for a moment and stares at the sky. ]

This is not where I started.

[ she makes the comment, clearly unnecessary, to no one in particular, and then raises a hand to crumple enough of the hull that she has a clear path to the ground. it takes a lot more out of her than it used to, and already out of breath she drops to a seated position as she stares at her hands. so that explains the feeling then. god only knows what is going wrong with her right now, but one thing it definitely is is wrong. staring at her hands - or more accurately, the little red sparks and waves drifting away from her fingertips - doesn't change the fact that she already feels completely sapped of her energy though, and after a minute she lets her hands fall back to her sides and stands instead. ]

Something is wrong. [ again this is obvious, but this time she speaks with more purpose, looking around for someone to demand answers from. for people who know of it her accent is strong, eastern european, and as she spots a humanoid shaped body she rounds on them as quickly as she can manage in her currently drained state. ] What did they do to me?