welcome to
the collected nations of struxta.It will happen at random- you could be asleep, or wandering the Temple, or a variety of other options. It will feel a little strange, like a sudden warmth spreading across your skin, and then your bracelet will light up. When you blink again, everything has shifted - changed, developed, like in that blink of an eye you have advanced thousands of years into the future. Around you is a city, a technological marvel. Buildings rise up from the dirt and through the clouds, figures of all shapes and sizes buzz around you. They seem to pay you little mind - a quick glance, maybe a pause, and then they will continue on their away. Ahead, there is a low rumble of thunder, a dim flash of light. It doesn't seem to be raining, but there is an electric hum in the air. A NOTE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH
But before anything too weird can happen . . . your watch flashes again, beeps once, and on it has a new message, a hologram-sparkly image with a young woman who (to some individuals!) looks a fair bit brighter than she did a few weeks ago. To those who are new, you will recognize the voice -- Astoria, the guardian of the Temple (or, if you're a bit more pessimistic, your effervescent kidnapper).
 "Hello, my beloved travelers ♥ and new ones, too! My name is Lady Astoria the Witchess-san." The way she says it, though, it is very clearly something of a joke. "I'm so glad you are settling in, adjusting to your new powers . . . I apologize for not coming forward and greeting you all like last time. But I am feeling much more like myself, and ready to send you to a new world ♥
This one is named Struxta . . . Struxa? No, I think it's Struxta. It's very metal. I'm not sure what's wrong in this world . . . but I can feel something building. Pulsing, it's very chaotic. I'm afraid I can't be more detailed than that, I did have a headache earlier . . . Akira told me I was fine ♥" And, again, you can likely guess that Akira definitely did no such thing. Astoria clasps her hands, her bright blue eyes shining, with a bright smile. "Now! Please be safe, and please mind your manners, and tell me all about it when you return! I'll see you soon. ♥"
And, just like that? The humming in the air grows louder, you feel an odd tug in your stomach, and before you can properly adjust yourself to the sensation of being cast across the universe . . . you find yourself in Struxta. (Astoria, it seems, did have it right the first time.)
 THE HOSTELJust as it was in El Minha, it appears that upon arrival, each character is outfitted with a room at one of the largest, arguably most impressive skyscrapers in the city. Nearly two hundred stories tall, and with each floor containing nearly sixty rooms. Every floor, every room, every door is of the highest tech and the more advanced security. The watches that Astoria has given each of the Circle Members act, in many ways, like a key, a credit card, an ID, and any other form of identification the players will need during their stay.
The rooms themselves are simple - one bed, roughly full sized, with a light, a desk, a chair, and a variety of plugs and buttons. Characters are welcome, if they are able to find the appropriate plug, to charge any and all devices they may have. There is a TV of sorts in the room as well, with access to all manner of shows and news stations.
The bottom floor of the building is almost as large as a city block. It is open, sleek, and clean-cut. A kind of open meeting room, which has - upon inspection - been modified to include what appears to be a restaurant. Which, given the fact the group of Circle members who have arrived in the city are the only natural bodies around? Includes the fact you are the only members of the city who have to consume food and nutrients. Upon even closer inspection, the technology used to make the food seems a few decades behind that of the rest of the city, but it still works, and the food can still be produced. It might taste a little weird and turn out to be some sort of glorified goop, but it has some nutritional value.
The rest of the floor has a variety of seating arrangements and places to sit and chat with your other Circle members, but beyond the Welcome Committee, who is set up on the far northern corner, there doesn't seem to be many of the natives walking through.  THE SUPER CENTERHave you ever wanted to go shopping in the most technologically advanced superstore possible? Here is your chance! It appears that if you use your watch, you have been given a moderate amount of credit to buy clothing, toys, electronics, items, and anything else that might suit your fancy. You will not have enough to buy anything significant, such as limbs, organs, advanced computer technology, etc. But you are more than welcome to find a job to help collected more credits! Many of the stores within the Supercenter are hiring - greeters, cashiers, manual labor, errand runners, and everything in between!
The Supercenter is attached, as most of the buildings seem to be in this city, by a roadway of interlocking bridges and stairways- to a point that you could, if you wanted to, move about the entire city without stepping foot outside. There are bridges on every level of the Supercenter, as well as a network of pathways and semi-roadways within the center itself.
There are no restaurants or bars, but there are plenty of areas to relax and people robot watch if you so desire. Otherwise, shop, explore, find weird mechanical devices of the likes you could never imagine back home. There are all manner of stores, some art galleries, music centers, arcades, and more here. There is no limit to what you can find and what you can experience.
Everything is automated, but there are still helpful employees of various appearances at each of the stories to help you decide and browse- small, flying blocks that speak in primarily beeping noises that (thanks to Astoria's wonderful watches) you can somehow understand, completely human-appearing androids of the utmost style and elegance, and everything in between. Take your time, do a little shopping or go to work, and enjoy the pique of futuristic capitalism.  THE RACESIn the south-eastern district of the city, a large section of the city has been modified into a multi-level, vast, complicated race track of sorts. Think Tron, meets Speed Racer, meets a type of racing that is something all their own. It's fun as hell, fast as hell, and dangerous as hell. Sounds great, right?
What is simply known as ‘Racing’ here in Struxta is complicated, but at its heart is exactly what it says: it is a race. A race of cars, bikes, and everything in between through an obstacle course of everything you can imagine. It seems to all be linked, electronically, to a motherboard that decides - each race - what the drivers will find. Each race was drastically different, with dangers galore. One day you might find that the road is full of spikes, the next it might be slick as oil, there could be loops that defy gravity and breaks in the road that seem to be impossible to cross, but that's what the modifications and specialists in the garages are for, right?
The rules are simple: if you have a vehicle, and you have a driver, you are allowed to race. First one to complete the track, wins.
Surrounding the main track is an entire industry of shops, stores, garages, meeting places, lounge areas, and viewing rooms. There are robots who make entire livings on the industry surrounding the Races, without ever having to step food onto the course. Some of the areas will be cleaner, like the rest of the city, while others may air on the side of back-house garages. While there won't be any dirt or natural life forms, for the first time you might catch sight of rusted metal, oil slicks, broken down previous versions of what's out on the road. There are some practice tracks, some experimental safety sections to test out new additions, etc.
The one thing that holds everyone together, here, is the excitement around watching. The excitement around the competition. There are Races every five days, so that gives you just enough to get settled. And maybe find a car.  THE LIBRARYAs many have already come to hear, there are plenty of libraries and museums all across Struxta. However, there is one that is known as The Library, which archives anything and everything in the history of all of Struxta, spanning back its entire history, over thousands and thousands of years. The building itself is as large and impressive as The Hostel, nearly two hundred stories tall, possibly more, and as wide and long as a city block. But where in the Hostel each floor had been made up of rooms, each of these floors are large, open areas, with dark, imposing servers held behind tight, clean cabinets.
No one else seems to be here, which gives the impression that The Library is not open to just any native of Struxta, and that in fact - as members of the Circle you are being given special access to what would normally be off-limits.
In the middle of each floor, there is a small collection of tables, with large screens. These touch-screens will be your access into the Library archives. And that is the thing - you will have access to everything, but as it turns out, everything really means everything, and with backups spanning the course of thousands of years in the past, it will take a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of research determination to find anything of use. Not because it is difficult, just because it is so massive and so overwhelming.
The only natives you will find will be on the first floor, as a kind of secretarial position for the building. They are more than happy to try and help guide you through the search process, but they will not follow you up to any of the other floors, and there is a distinct feeling of being entirely alone when you do go up to begin your search. Alone, but watched, somehow.
Remember- if there is something that you wish to look up specifically, please ask over on the world interactions post so we can be sure that the correct information is shared! The best way to go about finding something in the Library will be going at search terms in teams, as there is so much information there is no way one person will be able to wade through it all. Additionally, please feel free to write up and work with your own prompts! These are presented as jumping off points for your characters, not limitations. The idea of this world- as with all the others- is to explore. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them back on the mod questions thread back in the OOC post from before! And if you have any ideas regarding how your character will interact with the world, also feel free to check back into the world interactions comment from the OOC post from before, as well! From this point forward, the Circle has become involved with the Collected Nations of Struxta. What your character finds out, decides, and does from here on out will affect the future of this city- one way or another! But what you do is completely up to you. What you discover, explore, and uncover will be yours to discover, explore, and uncover. Who knows what you might find? :) |
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acatamods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
acatalepsy_logs2018-07-11 12:02 am
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It’s okay, [ which is surely super convincing in such a nakedly panicked voice that sounds like he’s talking to himself as much as he is her, ] you’re okay, just one leg at a time- [ He pats a folded foreleg coaxingly, trying to redirect her awareness. Leg???? Move leg???? ]
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It takes her a few more minutes, eyes squeezed shut, but she finally moves, human half lurching forward slightly and putting her weight on her hands to lever her body up enough to straighten out her forelegs, knees bleeding slightly from light scratches and still trembling.
But she does have to get up, she knows she does. Gonta can't just sling her over his back like he had after their run in with the wolves-
Was that... weeks ago now?]
Okay-
[She scrabbles, tries to actually get some strength into her body, lock her knees- but then the next wave of traffic rushes by, and her knees give out and she's back on the damned street again, biting her lip.]
I'll get it next time, I promise-
[Just don't leave-]
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He keeps his head down like he’s ducking away from gunfire, avoiding looking at the cars. He will irreparably lose his shit. ]
Come on, come on, get up— Your parents— you gotta make it home to your parents. [ Please work, please move centaur legs. ]
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With a shaky surge, she manages to get back to her feet. Locks her knees, tries to move... and is seized by the urge again to run. Run far away from this, from all of this, and-]
We have to go... We have to get out of here-
[But where was... out...]
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The hostel— come on— [ he can get to it from here, he thinks, they just need to get out of the fucking road first, one foot in front of the other, come on, come on ]
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I can carry you-
[She blurts it out finally, trying to tamp down the desire to run selfishly away by herself. Simon had helped her in the mud, (and... right now), she couldn't leave him-]
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[ If it’ll get them out of here faster, it’s a great idea. Konoha just got her legs to work, and he’s got about five seconds left on his and is pretty sure he’s about to lose his mind, so yeah good they should definitely do that. ]
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This way?
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Okay, Simon does dedicate a neuron, or circuit or whatever, to feeling weird about this, because that’s not really how he expected her to do it, but fuck it. They’re finally getting out of the potential traffic accident zone, even if he is like... awkwardly not hanging onto her or anything like that the way one might expect of someone who’s already resigned themselves to being carried like a big sad cyborg toddler.
It’s actually a semi-effective distraction from freaking out, as is the surreality of being carried by human arms but moving like a horse. ]
Yeah. We’re not far... and it’s a skyscraper, you can’t miss it.
[ he probably doesn’t need to tell her this, she’s been there... because that’s where they’re living but oh well ]
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What's a skyscraper?
[She... basically remembers the way. Still.]
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[ Simon clutches his wrist with his fingers when he finds his hands shaking uncontrollably. He always felt ridiculous, in those last weeks, for the cold icepick of panic that would hit him in perfectly benign places and knock the wind from his chest, but now he actually did just nearly get into another car accident, and the reaction still just frustrates him. It’s not even all that vindicating that it actually makes logical sense.
But he keeps talking anyway, making an effort to keep his voice steady. Maybe it’ll distract him. ] I’m guessing you don’t have any of those.
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Her grip on him tightens. Holding him closer, as if that might be a comfort. A promise that she won't drop him.]
Of course not. What if an earthquake came? How do you even get them that high-
[Just another thing she didn't know.]
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And yet gradually he eases up, by degrees. He can’t stop Konoha now, not when she’s finally found her legs, and... maybe it is nice...... that she’s not making anything out of it. She’s just acting like this is normal, and they can have a conversation without focusing on it. ]
With a lot of safety equipment. When the population gets big enough, there’s nowhere to go but up.
[ there’s a fondness in his voice when he goes on, despite the tremor, ] My city didn’t have any buildings this massive, but we were working on it. It was like an obsession. You would’ve liked it more than this place, though, especially the parks. Really green in the summer, with thousands of cherry trees that bloom in the spring. You could walk the trails the out-of-towners don’t notice and almost feel like you’d left civilization.
[ It’s painful to think about, but. Toronto sort of feels alive again when Simon’s introducing it to someone. ]
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Even if it's hard for her to understand a city so populated that they cannot spread outward and must instead go up. It's easier to focus on the green, the cherry blossoms...]
I miss the green.
[Her grip on him tightens just slightly, and though she'd try and pass it off as just a consequence of how she's carrying him, Konoha presses her cheek against his shoulder, frowning.]
And the dirt. These streets hurt my feet.
[They're so smooth and hard...]
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Somehow that’s the only thing that even begins to resemble a personality trait she shares with Hayame, although in Hayame’s case it was because she seemed to hate all human-shaped things equally. Which is... something, in its own right, but doesn’t feel as good. ]
We should see if there’s anybody here who can make you some shoes or something.
[ Speaking of the streets... well, speaking of the streets is kind of belated, so now that he’s gotten to it, it’s with less vehemence than it had initially, though he does his best to work some zeal back up for it just to stress how serious it is. ] Hey- listen, you can’t walk into the street when the light is green, okay? It signals the cars to go. You can only cross when it’s red. That’s why we almost got hit.
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Like sandals? They're good for snow but I don't know about this...
[She also might be... imagining something very much not the metal horseshoes Simon is thinking of, but.]
Why are there colored lights in the first place?