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The streets and buildings are abandoned, the tech old and outdated, windows broken out and dust filling the street.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! |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-07-29 11:52 pm
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In her entire life, (and so maybe that's only just about two decades), it's the most dramatic thing she's ever heard anyone say. And she's seen a play or two. Her movements falter slightly as she continues clearing ground for the tarp but she gets to moving again, even if her expression remains somewhat troubled.
She didn't know enough about him or his world to say anything to that, did she? Or to even know how to feel.]
... well, I'll be afraid for the both of us, then.
[She wasn't too proud to admit she was. That she was confused, and sad, and lonely since being take from her home. So-
With a snap, she unfurls the tarp and with a few well executed movements has it laying flat on the floor. Now to weight it down on the corners-]
no subject
even if this was all an extensive, elaborate dream, the people in it had feelings no less. he notes the fervor in her moments, and reaches out to gently place a hand on her shoulder. ]
You said that fear makes humans strong. A jinba's fear must make for a steely resolve then as well, doesn't it? Even if you're afraid, you have the courage to be here right now.
That's amazing, Konoha.
[ and then he offers a smile, as soft and subdued as usual. nier takes a step back before approaching the end of the tarp opposite to her. his hands move to start weighting it down. ]
You remind me of my little sister.
[ it's said with a hum. ]
She worries the way you do, too. Haha. It's cute.
no subject
Thanks.
[Her attempts at encouragement hadn't seemed to help... and in the end only left her more confused than she'd been before. She doesn't feel amazing. She wishes she could- but instead she listens and begins weighing down her corners of the tarp.]
... what's her name?
no subject
he stops what he's doing, blankly holding the tarp. thinking, processing, closing his eyes and swallowing hard.
it hurts, but he smiles no less. it's small and sorrowful, but warm in its own, strange little way as well. ]
Yonah. She's 12 now.
[ his hands begin to move again. ]
I've been taking care of her since she was a baby...but we haven't spoken in a long time. I think she'd like you.
[ a beat. ]
Your family...I'd like to know what they're like, if that's alright with you.
no subject
[It even sounds close enough to her own language that she can guess the meaning! ... though probably she shouldn't, since no one looked like Nier in Echigo, so it probably... wasn't actually the sort of name she was used to. Still. It's nice.]
Is she mad at you? Kids get like that around that age.
[Her best guess for why someone wouldn't speak to him... besides the fact that he says weird things. A bit self consciously, (learned, since she'd come here), Konoha scratches the back of her head while flattening the tarp edge with her hooves.]
I can't really tell you much about my birth parents- is that okay? I have other parents.
no subject
[ his jaw tightens. yonah, mad at him...he wishes it were that simple.
he's wished so hard for so long now. ]
It's...it's a bit complicated. She was—...
She was taken from me a few years ago. She's alright now...that's all that matters to me.
[ that next line warrants a shake of the head — it's accompanied by a smile, warm and brotherly. ]
Of course it's alright. My parents died when I was young, so I can understand you a bit.
It would be my honor to hear about your other parents.
no subject
That's what mattered, and she doesn't want to dredge up bad memories, so...]
Ah, they took me in after my parents died... they lost their children in the war, and... they raised me since then.
[As she talks she keeps her hands busy setting up the tarp, trying to prevent herself from getting emotional. From remembering that she feared she'd never see them again.]
They're farmers! I help with the harvests and the planting but my parents are still healthy so they handle the day to day while I'm at work...
[If he doesn't stop her though, she slips into rambling, unsure of what to say or what order to say it in.]
My father is a good craftsman, too- he made my harness, and he made a table for me at home so I could eat with them... and my mother's cooking is so good, and-
no subject
It sounds like you take after them, in a way.
[ it's said earnestly; the smile on his face is genuine, and he lets her speak for as long as she can. ]
My parents were farmers as well...after my mother passed away, I tended to her crops in her stead.
[ sheepishly, nier brings a hand to the back of his head. ]
It was hard at first...I can't begin to count how many of my harvests didn't yield. But it got easier throughout the years.
I like growing flowers more than anything, though. Tulips in spring, poppies in the summer, roses in the fall, lilies in the winter...when this is all over, and we go back to our homebase...
[ his hands stop with one last motion. ]
I'd like to start a garden. It would be nice to grow things again, don't you think?
no subject
It's a bit hard for Konoha to envision him as a farm lad, what with the sorts of things he's said... like a knight or something like that, from the stories. But he doesn't seem like he's lying, and she's hardly looking for deception. What would be the point?]
I'm sorry about your mother.
[It's a story she's heard a lot. It's been years since the wars, she doesn't remember the last of it, only remembered a vague shape and sound, birth parents that hadn't survived. But all the village elders remembered, her new parents did. Everyone lost someone- a spouse, a child, a sibling, whether to being forcibly recruited into the armies, to injury, to illness, or to lack of food. ... it was sad, but... in a way she has been sheltered from the true horrors of that time.]
Flowers?
[That was surprising a bit too, somehow, and she can't help but smile a little.]
Throw some vegetables in there and it will be even better. I like flowers well enough too, though-
[She pauses in her work to curl awkwardly down and inspect a hoof (too dry, hmm), before carrying on, smoothing the tarp edges. It reminds her of-]
My father always plants these lilies all around our fields... the bulbs are poison so no little creatures bury past to steal the crops... some people say they're bad omens, but they're really beautiful. All red and delicate like.
no subject
... ]
But thank you anyways. I appreciate it.
[ he manages a smile. just like the one he managed for yonah that day. ]
Haha, [ that next gets a light chuckle from him. something warm swims in his eyes. ] a garden isn't complete without vegetables, you're right. I like pumpkins in particular. You can take the top off and make a delicious stew out of them in no time.
[ he cants his head, stepping to the side to meet her gaze. ]
Red spider lilies...are those what you're referring to? They really are beautiful. I used to plant them around the rice paddy...I'd like to grow some for you once we're back. Maybe you can even help me.
no subject
[Okay, no, stop, Konoha-]
That's right. Spider lilies.
[She smiles a little despite herself, despite their circumstance, despite... being pretty sure she hadn't seen any similar flowers in her stay in the Circle headquarters, so...]
I don't know if we can find any bulbs, but. If we do, sure.
[She doesn't know if she'll ever see those fields again. See her father, wiping sweat from his brow and leaning on his tools to wave as she trotted home. Maybe spider lilies would make it a little better.]