( world #2 - the storm. )

[acatamods]

I ▫ main IV ▫ premise       XI ▫ applications XIV ▫ activity II ▫ logs V ▫ rules VII ▫ bestiary   IX ▫ canon updates XII ▫ taken XV ▫ drop/hiatus III ▫ ooc VI ▫ faq VIII ▫ setting   X ▫ mods XIII ▫ reserves XVI ▫ players a storm approaches.This log is for everyone who signed up for The Storm investigation. Feel free to use the here to plot further on how you plan on approaching The Storm, and the issue. The mod questions thread is also open, if you have anything you would like to run by us. the investigation. It takes a day of preparation, and a day of discussion, before you are led further down into the tunnels. It's pitch black, but one of the BGs who you have become familiar enough with turns on a low light and continues further. You walk for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, and then turn a corner into a large, open cavern. The BG explains that at one time, this had been an underground transportation system - old and unused for centuries, now, but still in working order. They file each of you onto a single car - it seems to be large enough to fit nearly a hundred, possibly more, bodies - so everyone has a space. The BG explains that they have already input the coordinates into the system, and that once they close the door, you will be transported to the last known location. The car will be programmed to wait for 72 hours, and then will return to this location. There is food and water supplied, and already packed, in the car. If you are not back in the car by that time, it will leave you behind. They then give their farewells, thank you for your help and readiness, and step away from the door - letting it close behind them. The car travels down a pitch black tunnel, and while the inside is dimly lit enough for the Circle Members to see each other and move around without hinderance, you can see nothing through the windows. It continues for a few hours at this rate - nothing to see, no idea where you are going. That is, until it seems to break through the surface, the track running through buildings and another, unknown area of the city. The streets and buildings are abandoned, the tech old and outdated, windows broken out and dust filling the street. The sky, like back in the city you knew before, is cloudy and grey. But these clouds are different - these clouds are dark in a way you haven't seen before. You travel for another half hour above ground before the cart comes to a stop, and during this time it happens twice. A low rumble, seeming to come from everywhere at once, and then a few heartbeats after, a disasterous flash of lighting - miles away, yes, but threatening and gigantic, brighter and more violent than you've ever seen lightning before. The crash shakes the ground under you, and the damage is immense. But the buildings are abandoned, the streets empty save for crates, old mechanical bits, dusty remnants of a society long forgotten by the Struxta you came from just a couple of days prior. This is The Storm you've been warned about. the storm. You have been asked to find out information that will help the BG's, and Struxta, to stop The Storm. From what you can gather, it does seem to be a naturally occurring weather phenomenon, as far as weather systems seem to work on this planet. However, rather than scattered thunder and lightning strikes, it seems to almost recharge and strike with epic proportions. It can damage, or destroy, buildings. It shorts out any and all items (and people) who depend on electricity in any form to function (Sorry Daylight and Conner, sorry to anyone who brought along technology) within a three mile radius. The 'darkness' the BGs were talking about does follow this storm, but they seem to have been referring to this electrical shortage that comes from the storm and it's strikes. If this storm does reach any of the still-occupied areas of the city, it will shut down the entire grid, as well as any of the robots, androids, or electrically based figures that exist there - essentially ending the life of every Struxta citizen that is effected. Plot, plan, theorize, and see if you can find a way to stop The Storm. If not, be back on the train car in 72 hours time, to return to the BGs and report what you have found. PROMPT IDEAS 1.) Discussions on the train - do you have any ideas for what to prepare? Any discussions you may want to have? You and your fellow Circle Members are caught here together for a few hours, driving into a situation you know very little about. What do you want to make sure you're prepared to handle? 2.) Scouting missions - the heart of The Storm is very much in the distance, and it is not moving quickly, giving Circle Members plenty of time to set out and check out the surrounding city. What you will find won't be much - this is a robotic ghost town in every turn of the phrase. Buildings have been abandoned for hundreds of years, covered in dust and left entirely undisturbed, except for the breeze that now seems to flit through this entire area. There are stores, warehouses, apartments, and buildings you can't even tell what they were used for, cleared out. Whenever, or whoever, lived in this part of Struxta had evacuated, quickly but efficiently. 3.) The Storm - The Storm is still a distance away from where the cart has dropped you off, enough that when your 72 hours are up, the heart of the storm and the lightning strikes shouldn't reach the car, or the track. This does mean that to do any closer investigation, you will need to go to The Storm itself. But be careful - the electrical output from these lightning strikes are dangerous, and can have all sorts of effects on both natural and mechanical beings. The wind, the closer you get to The Storm, will also pick up - making any kind of flying or air travel impossible. 4.) Planning - the car leaves everyone off at an old train station, which a large room attached. This room can be used as a kind of home base, as well as a meeting location. What do you plan on doing? Simply taking down information, or trying to take the storm head on? How do you plan on doing that? Will your abilities help? This room attached onto the train station is a safe location - no effects of The Storm will make it inside. Use as you would like!

Comments

[abandonware]

[city ruins - ray of light]

2.

[Pod's light is barely enough for A2 to get a clear idea of where to go, but she can see well enough to navigate, and so she begins to do so, though the more she sees the more uneasy she gets.

She doesn't like it here. Up above had been unfamiliar and overwhelming, but this is so reminiscent of the ruined Earth of her world that she's on edge for an entirely different reason. She stops in front of what looks like a half caved-in building entrance, and begins the tedious work of pushing her way through by removing the rubble in front. The thing is, she's not as strong as she used to be, and midway in, she's actually winded.]

Dammit —

[Nearby, Pod speaks.]

Approximately 120 minutes have passed since Unit A2 began exploration. Rest is recommended to return to optimal performance levels.

Shut up. I can handle it.

[The advice seems to irritate her, but then, most things irritated her, and again she begins to work out of sheer petty spite.]

3.

[With no headway gained in the abandoned city exploration, A2 takes her risks — despite Pod's continued advisement not to — to head into the Storm.

The first electrical current drops her like a stone. Her visuals are going haywire, and she only can dimly register that Pod doesn't seem to be doing well either — it wobbles unsteadily in the air, and she manages to force herself upright well enough to grab it before it falls too, cradling it to her chest. If she's noticed the immediate impulse to protect, she isn't in any state to think about it.

She can barely see — static runs over her eyes in the pulsing pattern of a heartbeat, and she's not steady on her feet...at all, but she's too stubborn to ask for help. She's mostly trying to get away before she gets hit again.]

[wildcard]

[hmu with whatever you desire!]

3

[extirpator]

[ it's a frenzy, but he's felt worse.

his eyes are trained on her — the way she reaches for pod, protective in her motions. it's somehow terribly both characteristic and uncharacteristic of her, and he realizes then that something is amiss.

she wobbles. so hastily, he approaches from behind as if to catch her, one hand gripping her by the shoulder and another gripping her by the forearm. ]

A2, [ he says, features hard. ] are you alright?

[abandonware]

[It's instinctual for her to protect humans, hardwired into her code, impossible to ignore, but it's been so long since anyone has touched her, and she's disoriented, half-blind. Her immediate reaction then, is to lash out in a panic. So she does.

Still holding Pod in one arm, she jerks her other arm away faster than should be expected, and jams her elbow into Nier's ribs, hard. She's not as strong as she's accustomed to being, but she's still nearly 300 pounds of metal and circuitry, so it's a lot of force in one hit.]

[extirpator]

[ well damn, that hurts.

he grunts like a feral animal would — nier gnashes his teeth, a deep pain blooming in his abdomen.

yeah that's. that's definitely bruised.

he tightens his fingers around her through the pain. ]

I'm not going to hurt you, [ it's strained, the way he says it. ] But I can't leave you here.

[abandonware]

[Oh, no. It's that human again, and she'd hit him. It was an accident, but...A2 looks over her shoulder, expression stricken, and tries to move away again.]

What the hell is wrong with you?! [Her voice is laced through with uneven static.] Don't sneak up on me!

[Trying to move away does her no good. Her body doesn't want to listen to her, and she knows another one of those currents will only do more harm.]

[extirpator]

Don't be an idiot, [ he pulls her back more forcefully than he should, because he has a deathwish unfortunately. ] The lightning's getting to you.

[ he takes a step back, and then another, attempting to drag her back alongside with him. ]

Can you move?

[abandonware]

[She's about to snap at him again, say she doesn't need his help, as she has before, but the way she stumbles forward ungracefully when he pulls at her, and the impending threat of another current like that gives even her pause. She doesn't want to know what it'll do to her (and Pod) if it happens again.

Defeated for the moment, she bites out a response. It has the tinny quality of a bad recording.] Hey — you don't have to tug at me, dumbass. [Then, contrite (finally).] ...Yeah. I think so.

2

[bleps]

[Light is an issue — or rather, the lack of it is. Once, he would have been able to run a generalized scan of the area, and draw up a vague mode of navigation from there. At the very least, it would allow him to avoid large piles of rubble hidden in shadow, or overturned pieces of what he can only assume were once furnishings.

But that function has been disabled for him these days, and thus Connor has been delegated to where the darkness doesn’t run too deep, where he can actually see where he’s going, dependent upon the angle that light filters in at any given location.

So it’s the light of A2’s Pod that initially catches his attention, that draws him closer. He recognizes Pod — or rather, recognizes the look of it, having seen one belonging to 9S before — and the connections that fire in his mind are almost instantaneous. Another android, maybe? She appears to be struggling to push through an entrance blocked and caved-in, and it would be remiss of him to not at least offer some form of aid.

He approaches, footsteps even, circular blue LED at his temple lighting his features oddly.]

I can assist you, if you’d like.

[abandonware]

[It's not as easy to see until one is up close, but A2 differs from 9S simply by way of being so outwardly damaged. The seams connecting her neck and joints are exposed, artificial skin long since torn away by battle and lack of upkeep. Despite this, she seems to move normally, if a little slower as exhaustion takes its inevitable toll.

She tosses bits rubble off to the side with the dogged focus only managed by the particularly stubborn, and is almost too focused on this (and proving Pod wrong) to notice Connor's approach.

She looks up at him, her gaze sharp, assessing. The blue LED is immediately noted, filed away. Was it some sort of device? Or something else?]

...No.

[Everyone was so helpful here that A2, who had been doing things alone for ages now, feels less relieved and more uneasy. She turns back to her work, prepared to ignore him, but pauses as Pod interjects.]

Proposal: Assistance to move the rubble will shorten this task considerably.

You're so goddamn annoying.... [Directed to Pod.A2 rolls her eyes, but then, eventually, she very reluctantly addresses Connor.] Fine. ...I'm moving it away from the entrance.

[bleps]

[The initial rejection of help is met with a small cinch of his brow, and the slow consideration of whether or not he should start convincing her of the advantages of working together.

But then her Pod speaks up, and he’s met with a reluctant acquiescence instead. Connor nods, stepping forward into the somewhat better lighting provided as he draws closer. It’s then that he notes her state — such a stark difference compared to how well put-together Connor always looks (always donned in his uniform with “RK800” on the front and “ANDROID” written across the back) — and his eyes briefly scan what appears to be damage done to her body. He can’t be certain without closer examination, but none of it looks recent.

More questions pile up in his mind, but they’re filed away (for now) as he bends down and picks up a decent-sized piece of rubble, and exerts the effort to move it away from the entrance.]

Your Pod is correct. It’ll take less time with two individuals working at the same task, and it appears as if you’re growing tired.

[abandonware]

Nobody asked you.

[Also unlike 9S, A2 is really, really bad at making friends. She scowls at him — just as bad as Pod — is her immediate and unkind thought, and is about to turn back to her work without further commentary before she really looks at him.]

Another android. Figures. None of the ones up there could mind their business either.

[Not YorRHa though. He doesn't have the look of a combat model even knowing that much, either.]

I'm not tired.

[bleps]

[She certainly doesn't it make it difficult to read her reactions, Connor thinks. That's a scowl, looking even more stark and sharp in the strange shadows wrought by Pod's lighting. It matches with her initial hesitance to let him help, and so he takes a moment to filter through a myriad of different responses, one that might not set her off too much.]

I'm not like the other androids here.

[...Well. After he clarifies that, at least. And then he offers something resembling a willingness to concede the point.]

Maybe "tired" was the wrong word. I don't grow tired in the normal sense, either. ["Either". See: conceding the point, even if it may not be accurate.] But I am still made of physical parts that can only handle so much strain at a time. I am still prone to injury if I overexert myself.

[He bends down to pick up another chunk of rubble, scooting it aside.]

That was my meaning, applied to you as well.

[abandonware]

You're annoying. [She mutters this under her breath.] So you've got that in common.

[What a jerk. But she's listening, for all her prickly surliness, and what she is struck with is not necessarily anger, or annoyance this time — she's honestly confused. She can't remember the last time another android had expressed even an offhand interest in her well-being. Those machines masquerading as androids in the city above them did not count, as far as she was concerned.

The androids from her world, in contrast, were hell-bent on killing her. So there was that.]

Why do you care?

[It comes out defensively, but she doesn't necessarily mean it to be, this time. Sorry, Connor.]

2

[theseuschip]

A2?

[ Simon’s light, stronger than Pod’s, lands on her from behind while she’s doggedly trying to clear the rubble. Really gives the whole scene that cryptozoological touch. The activity itself doesn’t strike him as odd, since sheer worker-ant ruin-punching is one of the only things that makes any sense to be doing right now.

He hasn’t noticed how tired she is now so much as, in the absence of the sheets of rain that were coming down when they met... he just now notices how messed up she looks all the time. Especially when he gets closer, inclining his head cautiously as he steps around her to her side.

It’s kind of bad. ]

Are you ... [ he knows how she’ll probably answer this, but he has to ask anyway. ] okay?

[abandonware]

[She looks up right away when the additional glare of light hits the both of them, turning to see...oh. It's this guy again. Simon. The one who knew 9S and 2B, despite the inexplicable nature of it. Despite the fact that 2B was gone.

She mistakes the question he's asking. The amount of damage she'd taken on had been remarked on by the androids up above, in well-meaning pushiness, but left alone she almost never thinks about it. Her body was a vehicle to be hurtled toward machines. As long as it did that much, she didn't care what it looked like.]

I've got it. [She pitches another large piece of rubble off to the side as if to prove it.]

[theseuschip]

[ Simon picks up a hunk of debris and tosses it to the opposite side, pushes one away from the collapsed doorway with a foot. Even a nerfed A2 can do it more efficiently; the suit doesn’t offer much in the way of strength endowment, and even if Imogen is probably more physically fit while dead and being piloted by a detailed simulation of a noodly geek than Simon ever was while alive, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.

But it’s better than nothing, and while he does it he gives A2 a once-over. He can’t tell what kind of damage it is, but now he’s less sure it’s recent. ]

Your, uh, joints are on the outside.

[ just

just saying... ]

[abandonware]

[Great. Her teeth grit together.] What a useless observation.

[This escapes her almost like a sigh, as if the effort to point out how stupid it is to say is too much for her right now. She breathes out, winded still, pauses, then continues to move the rubble.]

If you're going to point out the obvious, do it somewhere away from me.

[theseuschip]

[ The ‘angry at me in particular or always like this’ scale is starting to look like it’s tipping toward the latter. Simon eyes her for a moment and rolls another slab of debris to the side. Pretty weird being able to see a YoRHa android’s entire face all the time. Well, what of it isn’t partially obscured by hair.

She’s probably right, so rather than argue it, he just amends his original statement: ] Not like I have any room to talk.

[ he still gives her concerned sidelong glances, though. Is it normal for them to get... winded? ]

[abandonware]

[She is forced to rest for a second against an outcropping of rubble. Androids don't have all the physical tells of exhaustion that humans do, but she's overheated, can feel her body protesting the abuse she's put it through. It's usually something that she ignores, but she can't this time.

It was all the fault of that goddamn Astoria.

Eventually she notes Simon's glances toward her, and snaps out:]

What.

3.

[parttimes]

Hey, hey, hey--!

[Kou didn't even mean to dive into the storm--but his powers here always seem to be working against him (or is it with him in this case...?), and when he teleports, he teleports as ever to "who needs help". In this case? It's poor A2.

The lightning is a mess, and Kou doesn't even have his Soul Device to help protect him; he grits his teeth, and immediately tries to wrap an arm around her shoulders to guide her away from another lightning strike.

Who knows how that's going to go--but he has to try.]

[abandonware]

Pod. [Her voice splits into fragments when she says the words, stutters and skips like a bad record. The little robot in her arms responds after a pause, and it too seems to be feeling the ill effects of the storm.]

Alert: M—r func-funct—ions compromised. U-U—it A2 is advised to seek shelter.


[But she can't move. She tries, but her legs feel stuck, like they're weighted down beneath layers and layers of shifting sand. She is about to try again, stubbornly, when the arm on her shoulders makes her jerk in surprise.]

What-get your hands off of me!

[Where had this human come from?]

[parttimes]

Yeah, sorry, can't do that right now.

[He's got his teeth grit as he looks around them at the chaos, squinting through punishing levels of wind, before he just huffs out a breath, and:]

I'm gonna move us. Hang on tight to that little robot of yours.

[He's never tried to teleport three people (??? Does the pod count) with his teleporting, and now he's kicking himself for not practicing more, but that's a problem for later, this is a problem for now.

So unless she totally shoves him off or kicks him (he'd probably deserve it), one second they'll be standing in the midst of this mess, and the next...they'll have teleported, tumbling back into safety.

(Probably by one of the other poor player characters who was just reminiscing about missing a sandwich or something, you never know.)]

[abandonware]

[She's about to shove him off, worries about hurting a human be damned, but she holds on to Pod so tightly that it's crushed against her chest just about.

For a moment they are nowhere, and then...

Somewhere. Far away from the Storm at least. A2 topples in a sprawl with Pod rolling out from underneath her then finding its balance to float again. She rounds on the human, prepared to fight, but then...

Her hand falls. Gratefully, her sword doesn't even have time to appear in her hand. (She's still not in a state where it's possible to do so, anyway.) She looks around.]

What?

[parttimes]

[Pod's not a particularly large additional thing to teleport, but Kou's pretty out of practice (and still kicking himself for that); he lets go of both of them immediately once they're back in the abandoned city properly, staggering as well and pinching the bridge of his nose. Ouch, his head...

Ultimately, he doesn't end up sprawling quite as much, catching himself on the wall of a building instead.]

... Sorry, sorry, that was abrupt, I know. You guys okay?

[abandonware]

I-

[A crackle of static. A2 tries to stand and manages, but it's in the wobbly motions of a newborn fawn.] I c—can't-c-c-c —

[She stumbles over again, bracing herself on her hands at the last second to break her fall some. Static lights up her pupils, makes everything fuzzy and dark gray.]

Warning: Motor func — failing. Visual s-s-system compromised. NFCS malfunction. Reboot — recommended for Unit A2 to return to optimal conditions.

[Pod is at least upright, but moves in drunken arcs around A2, assessing damage, trying to help.]

No — dammit!

[That's her answer, initially.]