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.

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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

[reexamined]

A 'Program'? That's not possible. Programs are just instructions for tasks to be performed.

[Droids scan each other all the time, so that's no bother, although again, this isn't a droid. But, it's not like this "program" could get any of his more important informal beyond just the surface level scan. He's made of durasteel, seven feet tall, some vague chipped paint around the joints. Perfectly functioning, nothing out of the ordinary, physically.]

A simple 'Program' would not be able to run a scan on its own. Elaborate.

[Maybe this is a droid, somehow. A confused one. Without any language.]

[notglitching]

[The black mask tilts a little, sound harshening. Rinzler grants a little more patience to non-users as a rule, but this one is straining his tolerances fast.]

Assumptions: false.

Provide: ID, function.

[reexamined]

[Not exactly an uncommon reaction to those who don't find his brand of... everything at least amusing. He can tell that the 'Program' is getting annoyed.

At least aesthetically, there's one thing that comes to mind upon seeing this unit in front of him. Deathtrooper. Not something he should really be messing with. ]

K-2SO.

[It's his job to analyze potential threats. He should be careful. Less might be more, especially without... Cassian as backup.]

Security.

[notglitching]

[Security? That's... well, it gives the program pause, at least. The sharp angle to his mask persists, but there's a fraction more curiosity than annoyance to the gesture.

Not that it's necessarily easy to tell. Communication? Definitely not what he was made for.]

Locally assigned?

[reexamined]

The only location I've been assigned is that room.

[To which he glances up and left, at the bedroom he had been "given" to stay in.]

I am under the impression they wouldn't care if I was a protocol droid, or an astromech either.

[notglitching]

[Noise skips, just a fraction... but not with any strain. It sounds about as amused as a constant stream of code errors can.

The black helmet inclines. Impression: accurate.]

Extent of functions?

[reexamined]

Bodyguard and escort. Co-pilot.

[ Kay's photoreceptors shift a little to the right just for a quick moment, a pause in his speech- ]

...That's all.

[notglitching]

[...]

Lying.

[reexamined]

You don't know that.

[Except, it makes it even more obvious someone is lying if they challenge it like this.]

[notglitching]

[Rinzler doesn't bother typing back a reply to that one. He doesn't need to. He's spent a thousand cycles disallowed from using words at all, and even now, some expressions come more easily that way. A stare. A shift. A soft build to the low rattle of corruption as the flat reflections of his mask slant marginally to the side.

Doesn't he?]

[reexamined]

[It isn't that he's intimidated. But it certainly is very hard to suppress his hard-coded obedience instinct, especially when he's under such a critical eye. Without another topic to distract to, he winds up just blurting out:]

I'm also a spy. I'm not very good at it.

[Well, that's that. Technically, Cassian is the spy, and he's his assistant to... spying. He was never really officially given the title of spy, but that's even MORE information he doesn't want to give, especially not Cassian's name or title. So this will have to be enough.]

[notglitching]

[Intimidation does come naturally to Rinzler... but even he has trouble crediting himself for that confession. (Not least of all because he'd hardly tried.) The content he takes with no visible reaction; professional traitors are unfortunately common in the enforcer's experience. He'd flag it a potential hazard, if he felt threatened in the least by the possibility of an attack.

As things stand...]

Recommendation: upgrade.

[And with that, the program turns away. He's learned all he needed to.]