tdm 19

[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. The techs and others in the facility seem strangely frazzled and tired, but if asked, they reassure you that nothing is wrong, the danger has passed and everyone is all right now.

welcome to thisavrou

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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

[sightsset]

More than I think you know.

Have you met any of those exceptions, then?

[inconsequence]

No.

[Yes.]

I doubt they exist, truly.

[sightsset]

What if I told you I've known plenty of them?

[inconsequence]

I doubt your standards align with mine.

[sightsset]

For somebody talking about humans being mistakes like it's an arbitrary fact, I didn't think standards were a part of the deal.

[inconsequence]

That's two glaring assumptions in one conversation alone! Keep it up; I think we can hit three, and that's a magic number!

[sightsset]

All I'm saying is that the debate seems to be pretty centered in opinions here, and I like to think that there are plenty of people I've met in my life who'd never see harm come to me if it were up to them.

[inconsequence]

Then you haven't known them for long enough.

[sightsset]

I know I would't let the people I love be hurt.

[inconsequence]

And how well have you succeeded at such a task?

[sightsset]

When it's within my power, as often as possible. When it's not... you pick up the pieces and try again.

[inconsequence]

It sounds to me as if you're already aware that such ambitions are doomed to fail.

[sightsset]

Not doomed, just challenged. Like you said, we're all aware of how finite our time is. Some of us do want to make a mark on the worlds that no one can erase. But most of us just want to live to see the people we love happy. Sometimes that's selfish, and sometimes we do things we aren't proud of to see it happen. But it's not always out of malice.

And besides, there's not an intelligent thing alive that's "perfect." I prefer to judge on a case-by-case basis.

[inconsequence]

You would be in the minority, I'm sure.

For example, have you any thoughts on those of the non-human persuasion?

[sightsset]

I think that as long as they're capable of conversation, they're capable of coming to an understanding with humans. One of my best friends isn't human.

[north, theta doesn't count]

[inconsequence]

How typically saccharine.

And so very wrong.

[sightsset]

Now there's a wild assumption for the books.

[inconsequence]

Your assumption in that I am making any assumptions at all is rather unfounded, don't you think?

You really don't know anything about me. Or what sort of creatures I've encountered.

[sightsset]

That doesn't mean that there aren't inhuman species capable and willing to be peaceful.

[inconsequence]

Perhaps they are.

But coexisting in the vicinity of humankind has an awful tendency to make that rather difficult, does it not? You did say it yourself.

Anything to prevent extinction. Or the perceived threat of it.

Anything at all.

[sightsset]

It was meant in a sense of war.

[Also meant to catch the attention of his comrades if they saw him.]

But I can concede your point, on the stipulation that many other species view survival just the same way. We're all individuals with our own morals, but as races, we're more or less all in the same boat there, don't you think?

[inconsequence]

If you mean we're all just as liable to wage war on another sentient species simply because we can, then certainly.

[sightsset]

Is there a kind of sentient life you don't seem to hate?

[inconsequence]

"Seem" to?

Excuse you, sir. I don't "seem" to hate anyone.

It is 100% genuine, I assure you.

[sightsset]

Hey, just trying to avoid assumptions.

[north u shit]