tdm 16

[savmods]

test drive meme

Ingress travel can be disorienting, but there’s no need to worry! All side effects are temporary and lessen with each trip. Your body may experience several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You may have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. You notice that the area you are in is filled with a soft cerulean light and feels slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you. Regardless of your current state, however, the stress of initial Ingress travel forces your body into unconsciousness.

Waking up is another story. Or maybe it isn’t.

You find yourself in a nondescript room; sometimes with others who have found themselves in the same situation, sometimes alone. A medical tech is always present to explain what’s happened before giving you some clothes, a TAB, and a guide that discusses things in further detail. This entire process also consists of a complete work-up of medical history and current health in order to obtain your signature—a specific frequency that will allow them to hone in on exactly where it is you’re from in order to get you back there.You spend your first week on the Ingress Complex while other accommodations and arrangements are made for you.

welcome to thisavrou

---

escoria

⋆ Escoria is classified as Exploration Class (EC), and travel through the Ingress is mostly smooth except for one issue: anyone with powers or abilities will find that the distortion between worlds has temporarily caused problems accessing them. Essentially, it has left all travelers depowered. Another similar issue comes in the form of the location of Escoria’s Ingress—seemingly in the middle of a vast ocean, the Ingress is balanced precariously on a set of buoys connected to a small floating dock. Once on this dock, it is clear there is no getting anywhere without some transportation. Testing the dark waters will find it unbearably cold, though not cold enough to form ice, and far off in the distance, between the mist and ever-constant gray light - where’s the sun? - some might even notice what looks like an island.

⋆ The boat that eventually comes to your rescue isn’t very big, one of a fleet used to transport visitors from the floating Ingress platform. Only a few passengers are allowed on each one--a maximum of six. The boat’s captain is quite insistent that each group remain small, handing out blankets to those who did not come prepared for the chill. It isn’t too much trouble as there are a great many boats and plenty of natives to pilot them. The weather is cool, the skies are dark with rain that might fall, but for now things seem alright. Leaning out on the rail, you might see some shark-like sea creatures breaching the surface to breathe. Of course, you might also see quicksilver figures darting underneath the water from the corner of your eye, which is then followed by a sharp rocking of the boat. Did something nudge the vessel? Maybe you ought to make sure people stay back from the sides in case they fall in...

⋆ Despite the calm appearance of the sky, the worst has happened. A storm hits at just the right time to drive your boat against one of the multitudinous reefs, roughly jarring its passengers, and then, the waves continue to batter the ship against it until it falls to pieces. You get lucky and find a piece of debris to hold onto to keep your head above the water until the storm passes, although it’s some time before even a calm comes. Once it does, you have to deal with the facts: you’re stranded with minimal supplies, all alone except for the other people who were on board with you when the ship went down in the waves. And what’s worse, the water isn’t getting any warmer. What do you do to survive until help, hopefully, arrives? Will you make an attempt to swim to shore or wait for someone to send another boat?

⋆ The few who manage to weather the storm and make it to one of the few islands of Escoria are, indeed, lucky. What lies beneath the surface of those dark waters is much more dangerous and deadly. Distant cousins of Thisavrou’s native Gorgona of Region Four, these nameless creatures are ruthless as they hunt. They slither the shallow surfaces of the reefs spread out across Escoria, waiting for even the slightest ripple of water to alert them to their prey. At first, looking into the water reveals nothing. Then, the closer these things come to the surface, the faster it begins to change and look as if something familiar, something you long for is calling to you. It can be a person, alive or dead, or it could be something intangible like a goal waiting to be fulfilled or an object waiting to be touched. This is how they lure the unsuspecting below the surface, and once they have their claws in you, it’s very difficult to escape. The urge to be with them is impossibly strong regardless of the fact that no one can hold their breath for that long or survive the deep cold of the water for longer than a few minutes.

Your only chance of escape? Someone who might have noticed that you’d suddenly slipped under without a sound. Or, if by chance, you manage to snap off a piece of the coral in the reefs. It changes with the shape of the holder, and that, if you’re lucky, might be the very weapon that saves you.

---

OUT OF CHARACTER INFO

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For mature or graphic content, please label.For questions, please direct them to the FAQ or the Feedback page. Any scenarios listed (unless otherwise indicated) can be used as game canon. As always, be kind and have fun!

Comments

[counterblows]

[It's a credit to Rinzler that he can communicate that sort of inquisitive air through body language alone, through his stance and the inclination of his head, but Wash makes the active choice to simply not dwell on it.]

No. I'm good.

[He's far from "good." But at the moment, he doubts there's anything more that Rinzler - or anyone else for that matter - can do to help him further.]

[shiro2hero]

... yeah. Yeah, you do.

[He pauses, long enough to look over at him, expression something distant and sad. Something fond also twisted up in it. There's a big part of him that wants to reach out, put a hand on his friend's shoulder again. Like he could vanish all over again.]

[But he's got the cargo. That's enough to keep his hands to himself.]

She really did.

I guess we all did. Didn't we?

i

[lavelly]

[Lavellan almost doesn't notice him at first, and isn't that appropriate.

Once he does, he can't imagine how he missed him the first time. Cole has always had a particular aura about him, beyond his strange mannerisms, and it's even more jarring to see here than it was back in Thedas.

Lavellan was never close, but he knows Cole enough to be cautious when he's like this. He circles around to approach from the front, and concentrates on his own memories of Thedas and his companions, in the hopes that Cole will pick up on them and respond to the familiarity.]

Cole.

[But he knows enough now not to hope for anything. At least this particular blow won't sting as much.

He waits until he's close enough to speak quietly before he continues.]

Do you know who I am?

[seity]

[He abruptly stops. The slap of heat across his face revives him to himself but there's no sudden outbreak of flame, no blaze in his path. It's the sweet embrace of a warmth he knows.]

Yes! You're-

[Cole pauses, gaze catching up to his thoughts.

How can the inside be home and the outside a place he's never been? The image of the Inquisitor is cast forever into his mind, the man before him nowhere near fitting the mold. Blood, always blood, but there's no trace of it now. This wasn't the power she had.]

Wasp buzzing behind the throne. Ragged feathers all plucked. Why do you remember choices you never made? Why do you wear someone else's skin?

[lavelly]

[Lavellan sighs, more out of exasperation than anything. Of course. By now he's used to it; he really hadn't expected anything else from Cole.]

It... is a lot to explain right now. And I'm not sure I'm the right one to do it. [He thinks of Solas, back at the house, and how he was always the only one who truly seemed to understand Cole. Well. His Solas was, for his Cole, but something tells him the same thing will be true for these.

After all, it seems everything is constant in all Thedases, except for him.]

I can take you to Solas. [He holds out a hand, cautiously, like he's approaching a wounded and spooked halla.] He can tell you everything. Do you want me to?

rubs hands together

[seity]

[The name alone is enough to make the trapped birds in his hands come to rest.

After that, in between every breath and every word spoken to him, his understanding expands tenfold. By the time the peace offering is made, there is nothing left for Solas to illuminate. The clarity is sharp and blinding and shining from somewhere in Lavellan's chest.]

This has happened to you before. You feel replaceable with a hundred different faces... skins... each one better than your own. Does anyone see me? Does anyone know me?

[lavelly]

I see you.

[He's so used to Cole not being able to read him, with the Anchor, that it never occurs to him that without it Cole can read him perfectly fine. It must be himself that Cole is talking about. It only makes sense. Infinite versions of Cole, and with someone as sensitive as he is?

It's difficult enough for him to grasp, flesh and blood as he is. For a spirit? (Well, he has no idea how spirits might perceive these things. But Cole has always seemed to take these things badly.)]

I know you. It's okay. Come with me and I'll take you to Solas.

[seity]

[A sound of amusement escapes, unfamiliar in his throat. The words so gently said could have been his own. Not only that, but they had been delivered to him in the same way before. Perhaps it is not the Inquisitor but the Inquisitors? Perhaps they are spirits too, all the same inside but shapes taken for different needs. He could understand that.

But the thought slips away from him before he can chase it further. The hurt before him presses in, melts everything away and leaves only compassion.

Cole steps in closer to Lavellan, voice lowered:]

It hurts you that none of us remember what you did for us. But I do, now. I see you.

[notglitching]

[Lie or no, it's the expected response. Rinzler ducks his head, acknowledging. There's a momentary lag, before he types out two last lines.]

Communicators distributed by sysadmins.

Contact if assistance is required.

[The words linger in the air, red-orange glowing against the dark grey background of the prompt, before Rinzler cancels the holographics and turns. Injuries or not, hovering is unlikely to do much more than irritate, especially when Wash has made his preference clear.

Then again, what the user doesn't know can hardly make a difference. And it's not like Wash can call if he needs help, until the import processing concludes. Without further address, Rinzler will walk away around the corner. Away, off—up, maybe. He hasn't quite mapped out these vents. But he won't go far, until the user (ally) makes it where he needs.]

[counterblows]

[Contact if assistance is required. Even if he's not really cut out for this, but because some previous version of Wash must have, apparently, left enough of an impression. Maybe an impression of someone who wasn't capable enough to handle it, though given his current state, could he blame someone for reaching that conclusion?

Not as of now, no.]

...right. Yeah.

[Not very likely, in his mind, but it means something, maybe, that Rinzler made the offer at all.

And then he's gone, leaving Wash to the unfortunate turbulence of his own thoughts.]

[gottawearshades]

Always.

[ Because yeah, he's full of shit. Only he's kind of glad that that's apparently exactly what he did. He feels a hell of a lot better about all of this seeing Jean here. Even if he wishes Jean hadn't been hijacked as well.]

How long you been here?

[gottawearshades]

Is that why I what?

[ No way is he letting that question go, whatever it was.]

And yeah, I was in the Complex thing first. Kind of a trip but the design scheme isn't too far off from the lower levels of the mansion, it seemed like.

What about you? What're you doing here?

[lavelly]

[Lavellan, finally, realizes what Cole is doing--and of course this is what he's doing, it's Cole, he's just not used to this directed at him, and the invasion of privacy is unnerving. He finally understands why the rest took so long to get used to him.

And more than anything, Cole is right. Of course he is. But this isn't something he's ready to confront just yet.]

Cole, not... not now. Please. Let's just go, all right?

[seity]

[The more real he became, the more real did others. All the times he had pushed past their discomfort, had he really been doing harm himself? He stared at Lavellan's face for a long moment, searching it for an answer to his own internal question.

There was none.]

My Inquisitor was very different than you. But you seem like you do good too.

I want to see Solas now.

[shadowblends]

Uhm, took your glasses off.

[That hadn't been his exact question, but it's better than what he'd originally been thinking.]

See, I thought the same thing when I was there! I wasn't comfortable with the arrival, but it made the trip through seem less ... ominous.

I'm here to guide people that wander too far back to the group or search for those that have gotten lost. Hopefully, none of them have stared at the water for too long.