tdm 14

[hohnkai]

T E S T D R I V E

Survival is the exception "living is an act of courage." THROUGH THE INGRESS The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences 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 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. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a rocky planet. Former crew of the Moira are there to greet you, and it’s a grim message they have to share. The Moira has crashed and is beyond repair, but there’s good news... the destination the crew has been heading towards for over a year? You’re standing on it. But before you get into exploration and survival, it’s best to deal with the effects of coming through a broken Ingress. ☄ slip and trip find your footing fast Coming through the Ingress has left your character with one of three changes - an age slip, a form of body horror, or an extreme weakness. The first, the age slip, will mean that the character is either older or younger and this change can’t be rectified during their first month in game. The second, body horror, comes in the form of an alteration to the character's body due to whatever they were carrying at the time they came through. If they were wearing a watch, it’s now fused to their wrist, clothes are permanent, knifes replace fingers, and many other alterations (anything goes) and it lasts the first month as well. The third, extreme weakness, can be a mental or physical decrease - weaker arms, legs, or the weaker ability to talk or do math. ooc: the choice of change is up to each player and this prompt can be game canon. ☄ introductions aren’t awkward as long as you don’t shake their hand too long A new planet. Physical and mental changes. Talk of a ship that crashed and a Hub that is home to the ‘creators’ of a technology you’ve never heard of. A lot is happening and the best way to sort through it is by getting to know the Moira’s crew. They’ll help you settle in and get you any care you might need, all the while informing you that the group is on its way to the center of the hub. Something that might seem mundane is an absolute necessity for survival. Ask a seasoned space traveling veteran for answers and guidance. ooc: this prompt can be game canon. ☄ dealer's choice just make the right one Characters have the option of coming through an Ingress that is any possible location on this planet. It can be inside a cave, at the top of a rock formation, etc. This means you can have your character have to climb or slide down, have them yelling for help, and have other characters see them and come to their aid. Your character's arrival is completely up to you, and since this is a unique situation that hasn't happened before, go nuts with it! ooc: this prompt can be game canon. OUT OF CHARACTER INFO FAQ | LOCATIONS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS | NAVIGATION For mature or graphic content, please label. For questions, please direct them to the FAQ. As always, be kind and have fun!

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[im_a_leg]

He was still grinning when he set her back down. She wasn't as into hugging as he was, but he knew her well enough to guess she was just as happy to see him.

"You know, the space taco. The pocket of folded space/time that the Blades of Marmora used to hide in." He waved his hand dismissively. Obviously that was the space taco.

But his brow furrowed as the rest of her babble finally sunk in. "Wait, just Shiro and Allura? But you were literally just standing next to me, and Allura was fine -- well okay, tired because of all the fighting and the ship blowing up and all that junk, but fine and you were standing right next to me."

[pidge_out]

And that was where Hunk lost her. Folded space/time? Blades of Marmora? Ship blowing up?! FOLDED SPACE/TIME?!?

Pidge waved her hands in front of him, shaking her head with a firm, "Wait wait, stop, hang on. I have no idea what you're talking about, so- What're you talking about??

"Start with the space taco and explain. In detail."

[im_a_leg]

He looked down at her with a mix of shock and incredulity. Pidge didn't just forget things unless it was stuff like "forgetting" it was her turn to mop the floors during a big project or something.

"The Blades of Marmora? You know, Keith's crazy cult buddies? You were right there when we found them! C'mon, Pidge, are you messing with me? You know I enjoy a good prank as much as the next guy but I'm kind of really weirded out right now and would appreciate a snack and some sanity. Maybe even in that order."

[pidge_out]

"Dude, what???"

She was straight up gaping at him at that point, trying to understand what was happening. Hunk didn't make up stories like that for no reason. It was one thing when he was trying to cheer someone up or reassure someone that things were okay or- something. But these?? This was...

Oh. Oh, quiznak.

With another shake of her head, Pidge grabbed Hunk by the arms and gave him a Very Serious Look. "Hunk, this is probably gonna sound really weird, and I swear I'm not making this up. But the last thing I remember before getting here is getting thrown off the ship in my lion when the wormhole got corrupted. Please tell me you remember that."

[im_a_leg]

He licked his lips, nodding slowly. He had a very, very bad feeling about this.

"I mean, yeah. You got shipped off to that junk planet and came to rescue me and Lance cause we got trapped on a water planet with mind controlled mermaids and none of our lions would work. Lance totally got to kiss one of the mermaids by the way. Pretty sure it made his life."

Hunk scratched at his chin. "But like, a whole lot of stuff has happened since then, man." He pulled his hand away to count off on his fingers. "You learned how to hack trees, we met Shiro's buddy Ulaz who helped him escape from the Galra back when he was being tortured and stuff, found out that the Blades of Marmora are a group of anti Zarkan Galra who've been fighting against him for like, ever, found out that Keith is actually part Galra and how cool is that, I got farted out of a Weblum, and --" He glanced down, "Whoops, I'm out of fingers. But it's a lot of stuff, Pidge. Like, a lot a lot."

[pidge_out]

And this time it happened out loud: "Ohhhh, quiznak."

It took a second for Pidge to mentally file all of this information away. But with each factoid came a million questions, sending her brimming to the edge of anxious, curious energy in less than a tick. Of course, it wasn't long before it dawned on her that knowing all of this information was probably a bad thing. The space time continuum needed to be preserved or- something. Right?

Not that the Ingress ever seemed to care about that... Hmm...

"Okay, so-- You're from the future. Our future." Wow, was this what Shiro felt like when he first spoke to Pidge and Allura? "This feels totally insane."

[im_a_leg]

"Wait, like the future future? The real future? Oh man," He brought a hand to his forehead, feeling both faint and dizzy all of a sudden. "I am so the wrong person to be gifted with this power. I mean, not as bad as if Lance had it, but still pretty bad."

He licked his lips. "Tell me that they have real food here. Cause I think I'm gonna need some real food in me before I can get all of this out. I'm pretty tired from that last battle. Not a lot of naps happening lately if you know what I mean."

[pidge_out]

The tiniest, most amused smirk in the world appeared on Pidge's face. "Yeah. There's real food here."

She then gestured for him to follow her out the room and down the hall, leading him toward the kitchen. And in the meantime...

Space time continuum be damned.

"Soooo you said I learned how to hack trees? How'd that happen? I hate the outdoors. Nature and I do not mix."

[im_a_leg]

Hunk's eyes went wide and his mouth watered. He was centimeters from actually crying. "Pidge.. you've just made me the happiest man on earth." At her motion he all but trotted down the hall after her, sniffing greedily at the air.

"Yeah, but the engineers made it all science-y. You know, nature is just chemistry and mechanics perfected so it's pretty easy to slide your tech skills right into that. You hacked a tree and turned it into a freaking meccha, Pidge. It was awesome."

[pidge_out]

Those yet unshed tears are pretty obvious, Hunk. Pidge's smirk just grows as she leads the way. "Shiro and I were probably crying when we got to eat solid food again, so... Can't say I'm surprised."

And that was about where she went quiet, because she was much, much more interested in hearing about this Tree Hacking business. Her head tilted slightly to one side as she thought it over - okay, she supposed that made sense, most forms in nature had a kind of mathematical beauty to them - brows furrowed in thought. A meccha from a tree?

"Okay, but like- How? Was there a formula or something, or-- These engineers were another alien race, right?"

[im_a_leg]

Solid food. Hunk was going to need a minute. His smile got a tad damper.

"Oh, yeah. The Olkaris. Genius engineers but their king was a dickbag and worked with the Galra to keep them all in the forest. And get this, instead of just being sad and kicking rocks around or something they figured out how to apply their engineering skills to nature. Something about everything being just cosmic dust in the end so it all connects. I understood the premise and the technical aspects of how to apply it all, but I wasn't very good at it. You took to it super quick. And you got this really awesome vine canon for your lion, by the way."

[pidge_out]

Wow. Wow. This was a thing for Pidge to seriously look forward to. Meeting an entire race of genius engineers? Engineers who applied tech to nature? She had no idea something like that was actually possible. But, as Hunk had explained, it made sense once it was broken down that way. Everything in the universe was essentially made up of molecules, so once the code for anything was broken... Huh. She then turned back to Hunk, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Vine cannon? That... sounds kind of lame, to be honest. What's it do?"

[im_a_leg]

"No, man, it's super cool and it royally saved our butts. You shoot at the bad guys and vines erupt out from inside of them. They wrap around it all like WOOOO," Hunk wiggled his arms for effect, "And just when you think they're done, BOOSH!" He let his arms explode outwards, "Another set of vines bursts out of it's chest and wraps them up the other way!"

He laughed. "There were these huge evil cube things that absorbed all of our powers, so your vine weapons seriously like saved an entire planet."

[pidge_out]

"Whoa." Her eyes were wide and bright and they might as well have been positively sparkling. "Okay, that does sound really cool." And of course she was just beaming at the way Hunk described it all. Same old Hunk, all big smiles and pure enthusiasm and positivity. Pidge hadn't even realized just how much she'd missed having him around. It had been a pretty long time, now that she thought about it. And with knowledge of the future to boot... "Okay, next time we find a tree, I'm definitely trying this out. And then maybe Green will have this vine cannon thing when we find her!"

[im_a_leg]

"Totally! I'll tell you everything I can about the engineering part of it. Like I said, the tech totally made sense. I just wasn't all cool and powerful enough to make it all work." He grinned, nudging his best friend. There wasn't an ounce of self deprecation in the statement, just pride for his buddy.

"But look, if I don't eat soon I'm probably going to die and then you won't know anything about hacking trees and that'll make you pretty sad."

[pidge_out]

That got her smirking again. "Yeah. That would make me pretty sad." Not that she sounded like it. But anyway. "And dude, we're almost there and then you can pick whatever you want. Just hang on a tick."

Now that they were out in the main area, it looks less like the inside of a spaceship and more like an underground dome. Kind of like on the Balmera. What she'd described before as a kitchen was really more like... an open-ish area in which people were using to store foodstuffs. But it did in fact have food - solid, cooked food - so that was their destination.

[im_a_leg]

His eyes all but sparkled. "Don't tease me like that. Don't tell me I can pick anything I want. Last time that happened I ended up washing dishes at a space mall."

He held up a finger. "That reminds me. If, in the future, you find yourself at a space mall -- don't blow all your money on a video game system. You'll be super sad when you find out that our space ship doesn't have a TV."

[pidge_out]

"A space mall?? Seriously?" Pidge had to laugh. Mainly because the idea of it sounded so ludicrous. She'd pegged the corner of the universe they were travelling in as having more marketplace-like set ups than anything else.

And- "Dude, we don't even have any money out there. How on Earth would I be able to buy a video game system?"