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theatlas_ooc2016-10-05 02:17 pm
atlasmods) wrote in theatlas_ooc2016-10-05 02:17 pm
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Test Drive Meme #01: The First
WELCOME TO KHARAS It's gonna be a real scorcher. Welcome to The Atlas's first Test Drive Meme! If you're considering joining or want to dabble in the setting a little then you've come to the right place. This post should ideally give you a feel for what it's like to play in the game...especially since this is how we're kicking things off! What does that mean? Basically that this post is considered game-canon and any inter/actions here will lapse over into the game once it begins provided both parties agree to keep CR when they are accepted. TDM threads can be used for sample requirements on apps! Still interested? Reserves open on the 10th at 00:00 EST, and Applications open on the 12th at 00:00 EST. Both close on the 14th at 23:59 EST. Make sure you're familiar with both the setting and arrival conditions before posting...and have at it! THE DESERT PLANET.  WAKINGYou wake in a valley, gasping for air to fill your aching lungs. There are spots in your eyes. The midday sun hangs in the sky and temperatures have peaked at 100°F | 38°C. Every inhale brings with it the sensations of heat and thirst. Luckily? The strange pod you've arrived in contains some food and water. Rations. Two, three days' worth if you can manage to stretch them. But aside from that there isn't much, in the pod or your immediate surroundings. The only signs of life are the weathered and rusted-looking stasis pods around you from which others emerge, gasping or choking for breath once their lids open. Beyond that there isn't a soul in sight, and since each pod only opens once interfaced with... Who opened yours? SCAVENGEAfter the heat and disorientation wear off things start to become more clear. You notice the bizarre mark both your suit and the pods bear, as well as the rusted paneling and long scratches that run along some of them. It looks as though something once tried to claw its way into the protective capsules. And somehow yours held out. Others, well... Not so much. Among the pods of those who've survived and continue to wake, are the remains of those whose occupants couldn't possibly have made it. The fronts have been crushed in, hulls torn apart, sporting what looks like critical damage to the wiring or pods' integrity. This damage wasn't caused by weathering or the passage of time. Something deliberately tore them apart in search of whatever...or whoever was inside. Whether or not it's reassuring that no bodies remain inside is up to you. Careful inspection will reveal these pods look almost the exact same age as the one your character woke from. How long ago were they broken? How long have you been asleep? The only thing you can do is keep searching for clues... Maybe you'll get lucky enough to uncover the remains of the occupant's own rations? Although whether they're still good or even edible for your species is something you'll have to find out for yourself. They look...well. Ancient. SIGNS OF LIFEWhen you venture further into the valley and away from your pod, there's finally something other than sand and devastation to be found. Although not numerous, scattered here and there are clusters of a coral-like structure. Most of its stems are hard and rock-like, but closer inspection shows tiny tendrils of plant-matter which poke their way out of its tubes and vents whenever shadows are cast. But the moment you approach it? All signs of activity vanish and it goes deathly still. If you happen to travel further out from the protection offered by the valley's walls you may just be lucky enough to spot possibly the only actually But just in case, maybe you shouldn't disturb it.  ECLIPSEEspecially when it gets dark. As the merciless the heat of the day gives way to the solar eclipse, the planet begins to transform: the tendrils of the coral emerge fully and appear almost life-like in the way they sway and grab slowly at the air. But be careful! If threatened or grabbed these tendrils will sting their attacker and cause itchy red blotches to form. And when we say itchy, we mean really itchy. And remember those shriveled leaves? Turns out they're more active at this time of the day too. As soon as the surface temperature of the planet drops to tolerable levels the leaves of this plant unfold and knit themselves back together until they form a full stalk & bulb-like head, from which an oddly sweet smell emanates. If left alone long enough, eventually what looks like water will begin to drip from the bulb. If it senses touch, the head of this plant will rapidly unwind and snap around whatever's closest...before it attempts to suffocate you with its moist secretions. MIST OPPORTUNITYThe other strange phenomenon which occurs as the eclipse hits full-swing is the gradual formation of saturated clouds of smoke. They appear in pockets which come and go without pattern or design. One moment the desert is bare, and the next it's begun to fill with enough smoke to make visibility so poor it's easy to get turned around and lost. Luckily it's non-toxic and doesn't carry any kind of scent, so breathing it isn't a problem but something very odd happens when characters try to activate or meddle with their communicators in it: White noise. Although the suits can't broadcast any sort of message aside from their beacons, for some reason as soon as characters enter the smoke white noise begins and can only be heard while they're surrounded by it. Is it a signal? Some sort of message? Or something darker altogether... WILDCARDAnd of course, characters are always free to come up with adventures of their own. Feel like scaling the valley walls? Digging through sand? Meddling with alien technology the likes you've never seen before? | |
the nopening part deux: a new nope
Except the crestfallenness is precious; he manages not to laugh, because he would like to keep all his squishy places ...unsquished. As he can imagine Sera herself perhaps saying. ]
You know - [ after a year together he really somehow still cannot leave well enough alone ]
A bit of well placed flame could sharpen those right up, surely. Absolutely no magic on your person, I promise! Just the sticks.
[Please don't call them tools. Please. ]
im writing this at 6 am
And a well placed foot to your arse could probably make you stop saying such shit ideas but you don't see me doing that.
[ one by one, she gathers her sticks, inspecting each to make sure the potential pointy bits hadn't been un-pointed in the fall. ]
Do you know where we are? No? Well me neither! We could be in the actual butt of a demon right now and never know. You know where's a bad place for magic? Demon butt. I don't want to be the one to have to clob you over the head when you go ... [ she struggles to find the proper word, finally deciding to borrow one from dorian's expansive vocabulary: ] poof.
[ she rises, despite not having gathered all those sticks yet, and jabs a particularly potentially pointy one (what) towards his face. ]
But I will.
no subject
[ Remember the time Sera suggested her arrows came from Dorian's arse, which was apparently so prolific it should open up an arrows shop? Well, Dorian does, because how does a person forget conversation like that. Ever. No matter how much he might want to.
Anyway, he flings a hand up at face level to shield himself from potentially losing an eye, if only because then he'd have match Bull aesthetically and couples who do that on purpose are atrocious. ]
Whether or not we are lodged in the dank depths of a demonic derrière - and thank you so much for that imagery, by the by - I've been using magic since I arrived, and so far, no poof!
[ Also, concerning number fluctuation on his suit. That's creepier than anything else, having its use governed by something other than his own mana stores. Ugh. He refrains from going into this, if only because he imagines Sera would rather be snatched bald than endure that conversation. ]
For the sake of argument how else do you plan to sharpen whatever else you might find?
no subject
Rocks. Obviously.
[ sera sounds as though she's been sharpening sticks with rocks her entire life. you can't find anyone who can sharpen sticks with rocks better than she can! if you want a sharp stick, go to sera.
the truth is, however, that she's never sharpened a stick with a rock in her life. she doesn't really even know how to do it, except to make a sort of scrape-y motion in the direction you want the point to, uh, point. ]
Anyway if I was a demon and I had people up my de-rear, and one of them was enough of a twat to be doing magic, I'd save it all up. Let it build, yeah? Let the fireballs get bigger until FWOOM. Let it rip.
[ ... she had a point. she definitely had one, but now the mental image of a big, fiery fart has her laughing. ]
...Wait. What was I saying? Oh right. Poof. Bottle it up, let it go. Just like that. You want to be known as that one idiot who became an abomination because he put fireballs in a butt? Fine. Just wait until I'm gone.
no subject
Foom. Truly.
[A tiny, despairing echo. How, he inquires in silent appeal to the Maker, did they arrive here so quickly? ]
Sweeping aside how terribly likely I can only thank Andraste that is not to happen, what sorts of rocks does this miracle working require?
[That's right, they're gonna look for them. WHAT NOW, EH? ]
no subject
[ it sounds awfully like she's describing a knife but. ]
They're usually with other flat rocks. By rivers, I think. Or... wait, no, those are the crumbly ones. They might be around cliffs?
[ huff ]
Doesn't matter, let's just find rocks. Any rocks.
[ she's finally gathered up all her sticks, too, so she sets right off in search of these mysterious not-crumbly, apparently-not-knives-either rocks. ]
no subject
[ What with neither rivers nor cliffs being particularly plentiful in the desert, it's a good thing "any" rocks will do. Dorian eventually spots a pile of what might be shale (not Shale, which is really too bad), and hunkers down to pick through it. He might be discreetly using magic to sharpen the edges of a few likely looking suspects via extreme focused heat, but it's really subtle, honest! Meanwhile. ]
I do know a few things about where we are, you know. Though as far as I've been able to make out it does involve quite a bit of magic, so you must first promise you won't embed any of these in my face if I tell you.
no subject
Go on, then. You're safe so long as you don't, you know.
[ poof. ]
no subject
[ He also sighs theatrically, and passes Sera a few now-sharpened rocks. Without saying how they got that way, because he is no fool. Or at least not quite that much of one. With all the theatrical sighing around here they're going to inadvertently cause a wind tunnel or something. ]
Very well, then. It would appear that wherever we are, they've had some dealings with time-altering magic as well. I say this so you don't accidentally step into a pocket of it and meet yourself from an hour ago. Can you imagine?
[ Two Seras!! Imagine! ]
no subject
she drops both and stares at dorian as if his shoulders had just sprouted a second head. ]
What?
[ two seras is definitely not what she's imagining. she's well past that, right into imagining whatever it was dorian and the inquisitor had gone on about that last time. horrible future, everyone sad, demon army, everyone dead, etc. ]
So, what? What's that mean? Is old Alexi-puss back at it? Knew the Inquisitor should've offed him. Sorry, I know you and him got on, but he's a tosser and sometimes tossers shouldn't be trusted to keep doing magic.
no subject
No, as far as I know Old Alexi-puss is right where the inquisitor left him. Whatever's going on isn't....harmful, I don't believe. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take care.
[Not that he has to worry about Sera accidentally being careless with magic, he is aware. Unless she carelessly fills it with pointy sticks. ]
no subject
[ wow dorian u just played yourself!!!!
she goes back to her sad attempts to sharpen her stick sans fireball, in the meantime. ]
So is that it, time magic? That's all you know?
no subject
[ sigh !!!!! A tiny, tiny sigh so high only dogs and fereldens can hear it, which means it's almost of the frustration caliber Dorian uses exclusively for Bull. ]
Never mind. The point is, no, I don't know much more than that at the moment; it's not as if the facilities for study are large at hand. Pockets of space seem to exist where time doesn't operate as it ought. Ergo, as I said, you might come face to face with your slightly younger self. That can't be healthy.
[ Especially if you're Dorian and are depressed by how your younger self had fewer wrinkles. His hours younger self, yes. ]
no subject
And then what happens?
no subject
[ He's so, so pained. ]
no subject
[ she says this with absolute resolution. ]
It's not happening anyway. I'd remember seeing another me, right? And I don't. So that means I can't ever find me from the past, or else I'd know about it.
no subject
I must confess to some surprise you're not more interested in seeing if you couldn't cause twice the trouble somehow, with two of you.
[ They probably have enough sharp rocks now, right? That they found that way totally independent of magic. Right?? right. ]
no subject
[ she passes him a stick -- apparently they do have enough rocks. ]
How would you know you're you if you can't remember it anyway? Could be something worse.
[ look she's not gonna say it but. demons. ]
But you can't do anything about it, even if you do expect worse, because you could still be poking yourself in the eye with a stick.
So.
Not interested.
no subject
Oh, no no. You'll not fool me into manual labor. [ His hands are far too pretty! Never mind that he's done plenty of it since joining the Inquisition and arriving here, it is the principle of the thing!!
....
......... ]
Fine, but at the first sign of tedium I'm using magic.