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tdm 16

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

London.

[And his mother had preferred the house in upstate New York to the busyness of London, and sometimes he can't even blame her for it. Even his stepfather's more outlandish paranoias, resulting in bomb shelters under the house, had served as a groundwork for something much larger years down the line. But that's too complicated. Estranged parents? That's rarely anything too surprising.]

Though I'm more...acquainted with Oxford. Or its pubs, at any rate.

[ He nods again, ]

But you had fun getting a degree there.

[ He felt it was an easy leap to make. He kinda misses London himself but he's more familiar with Paris. Just remembering that makes him feel frustrated all over again. He suppresses a sigh and looks around, ]

Don't suppose you're 'acquainted' with any pubs around here?

[He nods a confirmation. He doesn't have anything by way of complaint on that front: it's true enough.]

Unfortunately, I can't say I am. [The shrug he offers is sympathetic, but not quite hopeless.] Though this is as good a time as any to start.

[ He raises a brow at that. ]

You don't have anywhere else to be? Or...?

[ Because he wasn't expecting Charles to show him around or stick with him. Not after just meeting. ]

[Well, he hasn't been told to fuck off yet. The refusals he gets are usually far more blatant.]

I'm not about to leave a fellow-- [don't say mutant, Charles, don't say it] --Earthian to wander about alone, that's just rude.

[Insert half a beat...] And you're right, that sounds bloody ridiculous.

[ Arthur has to press his lips together to stop him from smiling at that, nodding. He licks them instead. ]

"Earthling" sounds pretty weird, too. But it's all we got for now.

[ He pushes himself up from the bench and looks around from his new vantage point. He looks around again, turning to look behind him for the first time and sees some shops. Or what look to be shops. He gestures over to them, ]

Want to try over there?

I don't see why not. The only way out is forward, after all.

[They could go in any direction and likely find something more productive than standing still; unless this universe has largely missed a memo on the time-space continuum (more so than it seems to have already, anyway), that is generally how it works.

He follows, albeit at a somewhat reduced pace, still learning to navigate unfamiliar terrain. (Or at least it makes for a good excuse when blaming it on the chair itself tends to get old). It isn't remarked upon, and he has a more pressing focus.]

So I suppose, being freelance, if I asked where you were from, I'd get something like "all over"?

[ Arthur, being as tall as he is, takes his normal strides. Until he realizes he's going a bit too fast. He falls back some and gives a nod. ]

Pretty much.

[ And then he figures he might as well relent a little bit. ]

Last place I was in was Paris.

[It's a scant detail, guarded enough that Charles doesn't need telepathy to figure out as much. But it's something, and if his experience says anything, it's that the best way to approach this all is by degrees. He has less of a reason to hide than most people he knows, and it's always been like this: finding those in hiding is something he's all too familiar with.]

Paris? [He looks, honestly, a little wistful.] I haven't been in some time. How did you like it?

[ Arthur spends a good portion of his time being guarded. He has to with the kind of life he lives. Or did live. He can already tell that this place - provided it is as real as everything is indicating it to be - that he will need to come up with some other means of making money.

He keeps his own wistfulness closed up for the most part. Though it leaks out in his voice, his words. ]

The closest thing I have to a home. Or it was.

[ When Mal was alive. ]

[They continue like this for a moment, down the street in this awkward, trepediaious nostalgia. Charles notes the sliver of emotion that slips from "Joshua" as he speaks, wondering idly what could have happened to cause whatever unspoken pain that lies behind it. Another conversation, perhaps.]

Does it get lonely? Not staying in any one place too long?

[It's forward, perhaps. But the question speaks to more experience than this. Other people too. He's learned to retreat from the world, and how much he dislikes doing so. But letting anything go has never been a particular talent. It might be "Joshua's" only gift--though he doesn't know enough to make a conclusive guess--but it transfixes him in the same way other powers always seem to.]

[ Arthur tries to keep his eye out for a bar of some sort, not liking staying in his own head with such memories. He's revealing way too much to this man he just met. He shakes his head -- both to put him back in the present and to the question posed. ]

Usually too busy to think about it.

[ And for the past two years, he'd had Cobb there so. ]

[Charles nods. It's a far enough answer, and he isn't quite sure what he expected. (He's far too trusting in every conversation, in a way that would infuriate certain housemates, which is sometimes half the appeal).

Up ahead is an alcove door with low outdoor lighting, and a few tables out front. It's the first thing that looks half promising, and thankfully, it's an easy enough way to break from his failing line of questioning.]

What about that? [He nods off in the general direction.]

[ If Arthur ever was lonely, it's not likely something he'd admit out loud and certainly not to a stranger. As it stands, he's just relieved to have found what looks to be a bar. Or someplace that serves alcohol. Whichever comes first, he'll take it.

He gives a nod and heads over to it, opening the doors for Charles and letting him go through first. He follows afterward and spots the familiar sight of glasses and multicolored bottles behind the bar. He breathes out a sigh of relief, 'thank god'. Something he can take some solace in. Well, that and his companion that was, luckily, from Earth like him.

He gestures to the tables, ]

You pick.

[In a discreet move, Charles lifts his two right forefingers to his forehead while resting his chin in the rest of his hand. What he's looking for is something relatively withdrawn, but not so far out of the way that he (or the both of them, depending) can't get out should the situation--god only knows how--go south. Reading the general temperature of the room only takes a few seconds, the pause only unnatural if one knows what to look for.

With a satisfied hum, he leads them a few tables back. The accessibility is awkward--something he's well used to--but it keeps them out of the way of the door or major walkways. It'll do.]

So, assuming the bar has something you've heard of, what are you drinking?

[Much less invasive. ~~And just as telling, in some cases.~~]

[ He doesn't pay much attention to Charles; too busy looking himself and scoping the place out for any possible threats. It's reflex by now. So while the spot Charles picks out might not be the most accessible, it works well enough for Arthur. He nods and heads over there with the other man, moving a few chairs when needed. ]

Vodka, straight.

[ Nothing fancy but definitely wanting something heavy and hard out the gate. ]

A man after my own heart.

[In one sense, anyway. Beer, after all, has been reserved for an Oxford frame of mind: easily accessible, a great equalizer, and he could actually hold it down without complication. Hard liquor, however, is where his talents and weaknesses both lie. He's acquainted enough to be annoyingly discerning and abused it enough to know that it hits harder than the swill in England ever had. That is what he keeps exclusively around the house...or he had, at least. Whether that's the case here or not remains to be seen.

Not wanting that comment to hang in the air too long, Charles wastes little time in "waving" someone over. (Which is to say that the gesture is more performative than it is useful when he's gotten their attention through more covert means.)]

[ The corner of Arthur's mouth quirks at that but once they are finally seated at the table and someone comes over, all he wants is to take off the edge. He asks they leave the bottle -- especially if the other man will be joining him in drinking it.

Once they have the glasses and bottle, he pours Charles some before giving just enough to make a shot for himself. He knows it back quick and makes a face as it burns down the back of his throat. He breathes out slow and pours himself a little more. And to think, he had actually been relieved to get off in L.A. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

tdm 16

test drive meme

welcome to thisavrou

escoria

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