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pluviooc2024-07-19 05:35 pm
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-07-19 05:35 pm
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TEST DRIVE 03
TEST DRIVE
Hello, and welcome to the third Pluviosa Test Drive!
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 20-27 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 19-27, including the end of our previous event. Because some of the prompts in this test drive have differences based on whether they occur on Days 20-23 or 24 and on, you may wish to choose a firm date for your character's arrival and note it in your top level for other players.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
Something jerks hard around your stomach, like a movement adruptly stopped. Something trickles through your hair, down the back of your neck - it's warm, and you get the feeling you know what it is.
But when you lift your neck to check, all there is is water. Somehow, counterintuitively, you feel a flash of disappointment. You feel someone's eyes on you...
As characters gain awareness of their surroundings, they will feel as though their head and neck are damp, as though they had just been in a light rain without any protection (even if they are, in fact, wearing a hat or hood). Unless they're particularly unlucky in the location where they wake up, though, the rain is in fact on the outside of the ship, and they are at most subject to humid air. Although the rainstorm in fact ends on Day 23, characters who arrive after that time will still be convinced that there is rain outside, complete with a hallucination of the sound of raindrops in the background, until they go to a window or an open-to-outside place (balconies, topside decks, etc) to check for themselves.
Rain aside, the feeling of being watched is stronger in the upper decks where characters arrive, which may send them seeking to go down instead of up. This might pose a problem in terms of actually making their way to the cleared, prepared-for-use parts of the ship... Especially with all that fresh rainwater breathing new life into the plants in the lower decks.
Note that prior to the rain ending, looking out the windows, glass balcony doors, or up into the domed roof of the passenger lounge will make it appear that the ship is underwater until late afternoon on Day 22. More information on this can be found on the So Below event posts. Additionally, the rainfall hitting the deck of the ship has a tendency to flood into the lower decks of the ship, particularly via the stairways and in rivulets down the hallways. It falls freely on the top deck and down into the open space in the center of the ship, though with less intensity than it does outside the ship's protective barrier.
And while going down decreased the feeling of eyes on you, it brings about other complications. Ghosts have been present on the ship for around a week now, and their time being visible is nearing its end as the ship comes above the old sea-level line on Day 22... At least as far as the longer-term passengers are concerned.
New arrivals, however, will continue to be able to see ghosts haunting the decks for the first 24 hours of their stay onboard the ship, regardless of the exact date of their arrival. These ghosts largely take the form of vacationers and researchers (as described here under the Haunting Feeling and Growing Shadows sections, respectively), and do not respond to attempts to interact with them any more than they did during the event. Less, even - once the ship is above the sea level line (evening of Day 23 and on), the ghosts perform their loops without registering any attempts to communicate with them. No matter what a character does, their attempts to interact with the spirits are for nothing - even standing in their path just gets you walked through as though you weren't there.
However, there are also a few new ghosts who only appear to the new arrivals, and are invisible to characters who were on board the ship previously:
-> A young man in extremely worn clothing, nursing a bruised jaw wanders the upper parts of Fern deck. When he sees the newly arrived character, he says "Oh, not more of this shit," aloud before turning and booking it off in another direction. Characters who chase him will find that he is visible and audible for a decent amount of time, but that his knowledge of the twists and turns of the Ship exceeds theirs and that he is unhindered by any of the overgrown vines as though they weren't there. As such, characters will inevitably fall behind and lose track of him.
-> At night, a dark-skinned woman can be seen in the lounge, looking back and forth between a glowing tablet she's holding and the sky above. If she notices a newly arrived character in the dimmed-to-nearly-nothing, she tells them in a firm voice, "You're not night shift. Go back to bed, you need your rest," before going back to whatever she's doing with her tablet screen. She fades slowly out of sight afterwards.
-> An androgynous person with a nearly-shaved head and a small flower dangling from a green marking over their ear comes out of the communal showers near the cafeteria. They glance around and ask, "Hey, did you see where that new guy with the eyepatch went?" but head off down the hallway without waiting for an answer, scrubbing at their cropped hair with a towel wrapped around their head.
-> A young woman in an open bathrobe with bandages around her middle looks out the back of the ship from the cafeteria deck, sitting with her feet dangling over the edge over where the ship's protective bubble attaches. Her light brown hair is blowing into her face constantly by the cafeteria's slight wind tunnel effect, but she doesn't seem to care, supporting herself by leaning her arms onto the lower rung of the railing. If approached, she gives a tired smile and says, "It's alright. I'm just waiting for that nice angel to come back," and resumes her watch out the back, not responding to any further questions or interactions.
These ghosts do not seem to register the presence of those who have been on board the ship more than 24 hours, even if pointed out directly. New arrivals who attempt to interact with the ghosts will be able to see and hear them, but not touch them. Attempting to touch a ghost in a way that 'proves' that they're not physically there (eg walking through them) causes the ghost to disappear, and they will not reappear.
Of course, the upper floors of the ship are not exactly free of eyes. A rather sizeable fleet of motorized drones zips around the hallways, ranging in size from knee-height to large enough to contain a moderately sized couch. The former are often equipped with scrubbing devices along their undersides, and work hard at portions of the floor in the hallways; the largest are functionally dumpsters on wheels, and other drones with long unfolding arms prune and rip plants from the walls, floors, and even the ceilings to fill them. These top two levels of Fern - not the open deck but the two floors immediately below - are clearly undergoing renovations, and renovations start with getting the plants out of the way. A few are even doing electrical or plumbing work, once things have dried up enough after the rain that it's safe to do so.
Since these are also the primary floors on which new arrivals wake up, it's very difficult to not come across some form of cleaning bot soon after arrival. However, there seems to be something a little... off about the ship's cleaning crew if you're a new arrival. They don't seem to register new arrivals as passengers yet; as a result, new characters may find themselves sprayed down with hot soapy water or subject to a set of surprisingly strong mechanical arms trying to shove them into a dumpster. Even if you aren't actively being aggressed by cleaning bots, they don't provide the kinds of loud "warning: backing up" noises they do for other passengers, nor do they slow down to avoid running you down in the still-mostly-dark hallways. The drones either have very good night vision or have some other way of finding their way around, since the only thing that brings them to a halt is particularly bad patches of floor.
Ship drones will continue to treat new arrivals as part of the walls (at best) or particularly stubborn plants in need of pruning (at worst) until either a light is shined on them - but beware, because this will cause any plants in the area to experience a surge of growth - or another, more known passenger intervenes. Admittedly, at that point the drones will be positively apologetic, as much as robots not equipped with voices can be. Soaked characters will be given a complimentary warm-air drying (if they stick around long enough) and anyone thrown in the dumpsters will be appropriately rescued - but it's still not all that great of a first impression, is it?
Or perhaps it's not the ghost of a person or the drones of the ship that you first encounter. It could be something significantly less civilized.
Strange animals have begun to appear in the ship's jungle - but you'd be forgiven for not noticing them at first. At rest, anyone would dismiss them as strangely shaped bundles of plant matter, because that's exactly what they are. Tails formed out of plaited vines; pelts and feathers formed of interlocked leaves; legs grown out of twisted wood with roots formed into toes. And, occasionally, sharp claws made of bent nails, fangs made of shattered glass, and antlers of rusted pipe, and, always, eyes like black pits that could swallow you up if you stared into them too long.
The 'animals' occupying Fern deck, if they can be called such, are formed out of plant matter with scattered bits of debris from the ship itself. They are, by and large, animals appropriate to the environment of the temperate rainforest that consumes the deck - no elephants or giraffes here. Deer, foxes, the occasional big cat or even a bear, and any number of smaller creatures... Smaller being a relative term, because the animals aren't always to their proper scale relative to humans. A deer might be only knee-high (antlers included), while a squirrel may come up to your waist. On most decks, they're limited to the height of the ceilings above them (9 feet or so), but if you manage to encounter them either on the open upper deck (with its much less height-limited tree canopy) or at the bottom (where the gap in the ship's decks, down the center, leaves lots of space for clearance above the mud and standing water), they could easily be taller.
Most of them are quite skittish, and will bound off into the jungle from which they came and disappear as though they were never there. A handful, though, respond as though threatened - or hungry. And while it might be funny to be stalked through the underbush by a cougar the size of a house cat, it will be less funny if it manages to sink its very real rusty claws into you, and getting trampled by a wooden deer whose antlers scrape the rotten ceiling tiles won't be fun at all.
It is possible to fight the animals, though most will make an attempt to flee if they get the chance, especially if you bring light or fire to bear against them. A 'killed' animal collapses into a pile of plant matter (leaves, branches, vines, etc) with the occasional bit of metal or glass; these heaps don't maintain their form as the 'body' of an animal and don't seem to have been connected together in any way. If lit on fire or otherwise affected by supernatural abilities, the animals react to this as an animal would be expected to, but their bodies are affected in ways consistent with the plant matter they're made of. In addition, no attempts at animal communication will work on them. On the other side of the coin, if you attempt to flee from them, most won't bother to give chase.
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 20-27 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 19-27, including the end of our previous event. Because some of the prompts in this test drive have differences based on whether they occur on Days 20-23 or 24 and on, you may wish to choose a firm date for your character's arrival and note it in your top level for other players.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
ARRIVAL - GAZE FROM THE CLOUDS
Something jerks hard around your stomach, like a movement adruptly stopped. Something trickles through your hair, down the back of your neck - it's warm, and you get the feeling you know what it is.
But when you lift your neck to check, all there is is water. Somehow, counterintuitively, you feel a flash of disappointment. You feel someone's eyes on you...
As characters gain awareness of their surroundings, they will feel as though their head and neck are damp, as though they had just been in a light rain without any protection (even if they are, in fact, wearing a hat or hood). Unless they're particularly unlucky in the location where they wake up, though, the rain is in fact on the outside of the ship, and they are at most subject to humid air. Although the rainstorm in fact ends on Day 23, characters who arrive after that time will still be convinced that there is rain outside, complete with a hallucination of the sound of raindrops in the background, until they go to a window or an open-to-outside place (balconies, topside decks, etc) to check for themselves.
Rain aside, the feeling of being watched is stronger in the upper decks where characters arrive, which may send them seeking to go down instead of up. This might pose a problem in terms of actually making their way to the cleared, prepared-for-use parts of the ship... Especially with all that fresh rainwater breathing new life into the plants in the lower decks.
Note that prior to the rain ending, looking out the windows, glass balcony doors, or up into the domed roof of the passenger lounge will make it appear that the ship is underwater until late afternoon on Day 22. More information on this can be found on the So Below event posts. Additionally, the rainfall hitting the deck of the ship has a tendency to flood into the lower decks of the ship, particularly via the stairways and in rivulets down the hallways. It falls freely on the top deck and down into the open space in the center of the ship, though with less intensity than it does outside the ship's protective barrier.
SOMEBODY'S FOOTSTEPS
And while going down decreased the feeling of eyes on you, it brings about other complications. Ghosts have been present on the ship for around a week now, and their time being visible is nearing its end as the ship comes above the old sea-level line on Day 22... At least as far as the longer-term passengers are concerned.
New arrivals, however, will continue to be able to see ghosts haunting the decks for the first 24 hours of their stay onboard the ship, regardless of the exact date of their arrival. These ghosts largely take the form of vacationers and researchers (as described here under the Haunting Feeling and Growing Shadows sections, respectively), and do not respond to attempts to interact with them any more than they did during the event. Less, even - once the ship is above the sea level line (evening of Day 23 and on), the ghosts perform their loops without registering any attempts to communicate with them. No matter what a character does, their attempts to interact with the spirits are for nothing - even standing in their path just gets you walked through as though you weren't there.
However, there are also a few new ghosts who only appear to the new arrivals, and are invisible to characters who were on board the ship previously:
-> A young man in extremely worn clothing, nursing a bruised jaw wanders the upper parts of Fern deck. When he sees the newly arrived character, he says "Oh, not more of this shit," aloud before turning and booking it off in another direction. Characters who chase him will find that he is visible and audible for a decent amount of time, but that his knowledge of the twists and turns of the Ship exceeds theirs and that he is unhindered by any of the overgrown vines as though they weren't there. As such, characters will inevitably fall behind and lose track of him.
-> At night, a dark-skinned woman can be seen in the lounge, looking back and forth between a glowing tablet she's holding and the sky above. If she notices a newly arrived character in the dimmed-to-nearly-nothing, she tells them in a firm voice, "You're not night shift. Go back to bed, you need your rest," before going back to whatever she's doing with her tablet screen. She fades slowly out of sight afterwards.
-> An androgynous person with a nearly-shaved head and a small flower dangling from a green marking over their ear comes out of the communal showers near the cafeteria. They glance around and ask, "Hey, did you see where that new guy with the eyepatch went?" but head off down the hallway without waiting for an answer, scrubbing at their cropped hair with a towel wrapped around their head.
-> A young woman in an open bathrobe with bandages around her middle looks out the back of the ship from the cafeteria deck, sitting with her feet dangling over the edge over where the ship's protective bubble attaches. Her light brown hair is blowing into her face constantly by the cafeteria's slight wind tunnel effect, but she doesn't seem to care, supporting herself by leaning her arms onto the lower rung of the railing. If approached, she gives a tired smile and says, "It's alright. I'm just waiting for that nice angel to come back," and resumes her watch out the back, not responding to any further questions or interactions.
These ghosts do not seem to register the presence of those who have been on board the ship more than 24 hours, even if pointed out directly. New arrivals who attempt to interact with the ghosts will be able to see and hear them, but not touch them. Attempting to touch a ghost in a way that 'proves' that they're not physically there (eg walking through them) causes the ghost to disappear, and they will not reappear.
JUST ANOTHER WORKDAY
Of course, the upper floors of the ship are not exactly free of eyes. A rather sizeable fleet of motorized drones zips around the hallways, ranging in size from knee-height to large enough to contain a moderately sized couch. The former are often equipped with scrubbing devices along their undersides, and work hard at portions of the floor in the hallways; the largest are functionally dumpsters on wheels, and other drones with long unfolding arms prune and rip plants from the walls, floors, and even the ceilings to fill them. These top two levels of Fern - not the open deck but the two floors immediately below - are clearly undergoing renovations, and renovations start with getting the plants out of the way. A few are even doing electrical or plumbing work, once things have dried up enough after the rain that it's safe to do so.
Since these are also the primary floors on which new arrivals wake up, it's very difficult to not come across some form of cleaning bot soon after arrival. However, there seems to be something a little... off about the ship's cleaning crew if you're a new arrival. They don't seem to register new arrivals as passengers yet; as a result, new characters may find themselves sprayed down with hot soapy water or subject to a set of surprisingly strong mechanical arms trying to shove them into a dumpster. Even if you aren't actively being aggressed by cleaning bots, they don't provide the kinds of loud "warning: backing up" noises they do for other passengers, nor do they slow down to avoid running you down in the still-mostly-dark hallways. The drones either have very good night vision or have some other way of finding their way around, since the only thing that brings them to a halt is particularly bad patches of floor.
Ship drones will continue to treat new arrivals as part of the walls (at best) or particularly stubborn plants in need of pruning (at worst) until either a light is shined on them - but beware, because this will cause any plants in the area to experience a surge of growth - or another, more known passenger intervenes. Admittedly, at that point the drones will be positively apologetic, as much as robots not equipped with voices can be. Soaked characters will be given a complimentary warm-air drying (if they stick around long enough) and anyone thrown in the dumpsters will be appropriately rescued - but it's still not all that great of a first impression, is it?
IDEAL CAMOUFLAGE
Or perhaps it's not the ghost of a person or the drones of the ship that you first encounter. It could be something significantly less civilized.
Strange animals have begun to appear in the ship's jungle - but you'd be forgiven for not noticing them at first. At rest, anyone would dismiss them as strangely shaped bundles of plant matter, because that's exactly what they are. Tails formed out of plaited vines; pelts and feathers formed of interlocked leaves; legs grown out of twisted wood with roots formed into toes. And, occasionally, sharp claws made of bent nails, fangs made of shattered glass, and antlers of rusted pipe, and, always, eyes like black pits that could swallow you up if you stared into them too long.
The 'animals' occupying Fern deck, if they can be called such, are formed out of plant matter with scattered bits of debris from the ship itself. They are, by and large, animals appropriate to the environment of the temperate rainforest that consumes the deck - no elephants or giraffes here. Deer, foxes, the occasional big cat or even a bear, and any number of smaller creatures... Smaller being a relative term, because the animals aren't always to their proper scale relative to humans. A deer might be only knee-high (antlers included), while a squirrel may come up to your waist. On most decks, they're limited to the height of the ceilings above them (9 feet or so), but if you manage to encounter them either on the open upper deck (with its much less height-limited tree canopy) or at the bottom (where the gap in the ship's decks, down the center, leaves lots of space for clearance above the mud and standing water), they could easily be taller.
Most of them are quite skittish, and will bound off into the jungle from which they came and disappear as though they were never there. A handful, though, respond as though threatened - or hungry. And while it might be funny to be stalked through the underbush by a cougar the size of a house cat, it will be less funny if it manages to sink its very real rusty claws into you, and getting trampled by a wooden deer whose antlers scrape the rotten ceiling tiles won't be fun at all.
It is possible to fight the animals, though most will make an attempt to flee if they get the chance, especially if you bring light or fire to bear against them. A 'killed' animal collapses into a pile of plant matter (leaves, branches, vines, etc) with the occasional bit of metal or glass; these heaps don't maintain their form as the 'body' of an animal and don't seem to have been connected together in any way. If lit on fire or otherwise affected by supernatural abilities, the animals react to this as an animal would be expected to, but their bodies are affected in ways consistent with the plant matter they're made of. In addition, no attempts at animal communication will work on them. On the other side of the coin, if you attempt to flee from them, most won't bother to give chase.
Mission accomplished. They SKITTER ((tw brief cannibalism mention. Background detail)
Forests and lakes...the way Lalli talks about his home...it's faint but there is something there Aventurine deeply relates to. An ache in his own chest as he looks out at the sands beyond this ship...his smile sobers a bit. "Well I hope you make it back sometime," he hums, giving the young man a brief pat on the back.
And then the boy looks startled, holding hands over his ears. Aventurine shakes his head. "Sorry kid, I've never heard of Finnish or Finland or Sweden until today." The corner of his lip quirks up. "The ship we're on...shares a new language with us when we get here. Look, listen. You can't understand me now, can you? This is my own language." he says, trying to sound warm and patient still, even as he switches to Sigonian. It takes some concentration on his part since it all translates to Sigonian in his head...he shrugs, switching back to Boat. "It's weird but it's good to know."
The gambler listens, curious and fascinated. "Perhaps. I think I'd like to take you to visit sometime actually...maybe you will be able to see the "spirits" there." Aventurine never did find the actual "Death" being talked about after all.
His own expression darkens at the talk of illness, of the trolls plaguing Lalli's world. In a way it reminds Aventurine of the Katicans...it's not the same, but the terror of facing someone who should be a fellow person, one of their own...how he's still unsure if they'd eaten people he knew and loved or not...he shudders, shaking himself out of it. "That sounds terrible. I'm sorry that happened...it's not here. You'll be okay." One less thing to worry about.
He grins wryly, snorting in amusement. "A fine idea, but with some flaws. Unfortunately there are no books on this ship. To the dismay of many. There is also no real way to pay them since...money is kinda useless here." There is a note of bitterness to his words there. He's still figuring that one out, clearly. And..."Yeah kid. Apparently this ship lost its passengers 300 years ago. I'm not sure if they died or..what. But this place is haunted like crazy so there sure was death and silence before we arrived." He shakes his head, grimacing. "There...was a ghost. Spirit, you called it? That was...ah. In my head for awhile there. It would freak out at certain triggers, therefore making me freak out. Not fun, would not recommend. I think they left though as the ship gets back out of this weird water..." He hopes so. He didn't...hate running around in the rain with Argenti, and he's felt oddly lighter since, even with the ship jolting...his visitor didn't resurface. It's...tentative but good. He's still exhausted from it all, though.
"I see. Well. Consider this barrier and ship armor against what's outside. Seriously if you'd jumped...I'm afraid of what would have happened to you." Without thinking, he reaches up to ruffle Lalli's hair. He's entertaining and earnest, and Aventurine is very glad he's not toasted by the radiation outside...he draws back pretty quickly however, a bit embarrassed by the quiet affection. He'll analyze that later.
And the rush for food is invigorating. He grabs some fruits and vegetables but also easy stuff like cookies and donuts. He manages a pasta dish or two and some utensils, a sandwich- before the lights start dimming and he grins wide, his eyes glowing with a manic energy. "Yeah, after hours now. Time to go!" With that he bumps Lalli's shoulder before scrambling out of the room with his loot, the exit towards the residemtial suites. They'll sort this all out later, for now the adrenaline thrums in his veins as he works like this with another. He looks back, grinning. "Hope you got enough; we're heading to my room now, we can eat there."
Run, guys, run!
Lalli nods, looking rather distant, looking at the fiolage as if imagining he was in one of the abandoned places back in the Known World... Like trying to fool himself that travelling back home was a possibility. “It’s a lot more cooler there... less stifling and quiet. The nights were the best.” He looks a little distant, thinking about the lands he was born in. Lands overflowing with nature and wildlife, the many bodies of water... They had just arrived there before he woke up here.... Even with the dangers of the woods... it was something he missed.
His mind went to his cousins and he shakes his head. Not the time.
Lalli carefully lets go of his ears but scrunches up his face for a minute. “Weird...” he says, “It’s like being stuck in a dream then.” Yeah... that makes more sense. He takes a deep breath and steadies himself with that knowledge firmly converted to something he understands. He can live with it. He sighed when Ven changed languages and listens to the noise of vowels and consonants. He doesn’t even try to parse it out, he could barely handle Swedish. Lalli tests it out, taking a minute and mutters in Finnish, “Good to know.”
“I can hear and see them,” Lalli states. “It’s why this place is making my skin crawl.” He shivers and looks around a bit. He can feel them worming around like insects and rodents. The place feels infested with them.
He closes his eyes and doesn’t speak for a bit. He looks away when they talk about the illness. He simply states, “I’m immune to the Rash Illness. I don’t need to worry about it. I’m fine.” Is he though? He doesn’t feel the need to elaborate... even to himself.
“What a mess,” he grumbles, folding his arms. He glances a bit at the ‘kid’ part and looks away and hunches his shoulders for a minute. He’s not used to being called a kid, not for a long time. He thought he’d finally stop being called that once he got older... but here he was again. He simply listens to the information being explained and nods semi-absentmindedly. He wasn’t about all the old world information, but he lets Ven talk. His interest perks when he mentions spirits, straightening and looking back at the man with the dull glow still in his grey eyes. He searches to see if it’s still lingering in there. He nods and says, “It’s gone... I don’t feel anything lingering on you.” His eyes take a glance around and nods, “I can feel it. It’s like insect infested-water. I can even feel something watching me...”
“I’m guessing I would’ve died,” he says simply. There was a little fear in his voice, but he pushes it down. He’s been in military and dangerous missions before, he knows the cost. He knows dangerous things can do that. That’s why he has to not make mistakes. “Thanks...” he mumbles quietly. He blinks hard at the hair ruffle, grabbing the man’s arm, and leans back very confused, he doesn’t understand exactly what just occurred. He leans away a little bit. What was that?
Lalli rushes around like the sneaky little scout he is. He moves like a man on a mission, snatching up anything good. He grabs some fish, baked potatoes, and some rice. Whatever he can manage to carry. His eyes spy the desert section with big eyes. He immediately darts over to snag as many cookies as he can with the rest of his loot, even putting one in his mouth just to carry one more. He’s a little disappointed they aren’t as good as Mikkel’s cookies, but they will suffice. He nearly drops the cookie as Aventurine bumps into him, but he quickly catches up like a cat running away with a fish. He easily manages to keep pace but lets him lead the charge.
Snack loot OBTAINED
He hums thoughtfully."Like a dream, yes. But you're awake too," he adds with a wink, a friendly reminder. He looks to Lalli when he speaks his other language. Aventurine's beacon translates it just fine, but he does note the strange accent. "See and I can understand that. But it's not because of the ship, it's uh...a machine. Implanted into my system so I can understand other languages automatically." Getting it wasn't pleasant. He'll spare Lalli the details. He just grins, as if sharing a secret. "I can't speak it, but it's a good secret language should we need it."
Aventurine sighs, watching the poor kid shudder with discomfort. "I get it. It's pretty spooky. I can't...see them but I know they're getting less intense now that we're getting out of this. Ocean thing. You'll be alright."
His mouth tightens. They'd just met, so he shouldn't overstep. Still..."You are. Alright I mean. Doesn't...change how difficult the experience is. Was." He sighs, rubbing at a marking on his neck. "Some things get better, though. So there's that." Nice. Great comforting job, Aventurine.
He is rather surprised when Lalli turns his keen eyes on him, confirming to him that the ghost haunting him before is gone. He blinks, at a loss. He doesn't...he hasn't seen Lalli's powers to know how much merit his words have, but the confirmation does ease...something in his shoulders. He sighs, smiling. "Thanks. That's a relief." He does raise an eyebrow at that last part. "Something watching you? Where? Do you know anything in particular about it?" Even he's not feeling watched, but then again he's not the one with ghost powers.
"Well it's good you didn't-oh, sorry-" His arm is grabbed, and Aventurine realizes what he's doing. He gulps, feeling like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. Why? His cheeks go a little pink, embarrassed. "I uh. It's...a way to show I'm glad you're okay. I didn't think about it, sorry." He chuckles, trying to cover his embarrassment and pulling back. He'll be sure to...ask or something next time, like with Ratio.
He blinks, wondering why he's assuming there will be a next time. Huh.
The kid follows close behind him out of the cafeteria like a silent shadow. Aventurine laughs, breathy and free at the...almost childishness of it all. He looks to Lalli as he follows, arms full of food and desserts, a cookie in his mouth. He can't help laughing more. "I see you like cookies. Good thing the ship has alot." He looks over the food more carefully, grinning with approval. "Good haul, Lalli. Alright. Let's head up the elevator and we'll be to my room in no time." He leads the way, snacking on a muffin on the way as well. He never quite realizes how hungry he is until he starts eating. Makes it difficult to remember.
((Lalli, you see Aventurine push a button on the wall with his hip, his arms full. Something whirs and dings, and large metal doors slide open, revealing a little room. Aventurine seems used to this, but it might be a bit alarming to you.))
Feral energy
At least for a little bit, he pulls at his collar for a moment once in a while.
It's only as they head to the cafeteria that Lalli unclips the cloak and then unzips the jacket enough to show the insolation he's wearing underneath it all. He reclips the cloak onto his belt and properly wraps it so it's not dragging and tightens the belt over the cloak so it stays on. He doesn't comment on the fact it feels a much better.
He nods, "I know... it's strange though." Lalli looks at Ven with a raised eyebrow at the strange language, trying to mentally process that idea. He keeps himself silent until he tries to put two and two together. "So it's like having a skald inside your head? I see." He doesn't seem too freaked out, oddly enough, but that's due to his own strange history.
"I know I'll be fine," Lalli explains. "Mages who can't deal with this... don't last long. Don't worry about me." For Lalli, its like being tossed into a crowd of people. It's pushy and uncomfortable with all the little whispers and mumbles. He simply keeps walking, doesn't look at them or acknowledge them. He still feels something.... looming. He doesn't know where.
Lalli nods, he opens his mouth to say something but doesn't. He chooses to sigh and shake his head. He... doesn't want to talk about it.
Lalli pauses and smiles a little bit and nods. It's nice to get a compliment. He pauses and says, "It's like a wolf stalking me... I don't know where it is... I just know it's there." He doesn't seem overly shocked or even scared. He's wary, keeping a look out, but over than the quick glances, he doesn't seem to be too agitated.
Lalli clings to his arms for a moment, watching him and his expression. He waits to see exactly what the other man is doing, but once his cheeks go pink Lalli lets go, allow Ven to pull his arm back. He pauses but looks a lil stilted and agitated, though it takes a minute for his body to settle and calm down. It takes him a moment to realize he can talk to Ven and he says, "Ask next time." He glances back and adds, "You're turning pink."
Lalli doesn't reply, due to holding the dessert in his mouth. He does nod at least as he follows. Lalli... might've over succeeded in his assignment though, as there's plenty of items in his arms that he has to keep holding the cookie in his mouth. He watches and follows, not too bothered. It's just a room right? Nothing wrong with that.
However it's once the elevator activates that Lalli nearly jumps. He manages to hold onto the food he's collected, but he bites down hard on the cookie from the unexpected movement of the little room. He watches the cookie drop to the floor, looking at it for a moment as he properly eats the piece in his mouth. He pauses, stares at it, then looks at Aventurine. "Do you think you could hold one of these for me?" he asks.
This disappeared from my inbox somehow!!!! why
He was quoting what his sister would tell him when he'd stubbornly insist on wearing Papa's shirt on top of his own clothes...He shakes his head, just relieved that Lalli does end up removing some of his outer layers. It indeed reveals more layers, but that still looks alot less stuffy. "Smart move," he says with a crooked smile, trying to be encouraging.
Aventurine...pauses, at that. "I mean. I don't know what a Skald is, but hey, if it makes sense to you, I'm not gonna question it," he says, shrugging. He's just glad Lalli is taking the magic mystery language stuff pretty well here. If Aventurine himself thinks too hard about it his skin crawls...he didn't have a say on the injection of his synesthesia beacon or this language...are they wildly convenient tools now? Yes! But it still bothers him from time to time...
Aventurine pauses. "A wolf, huh? I guess there's not much you can do except prepare...I'll help keep an eye out too, I suppose," he hums, giving his own glance around. He doesn't feel what Lalli does of course, but teamwork builds a stronger alliance and all...
When Lalli calls Aventurine out for going pink, his face goes an even darker shade. "W-Well, yes, I suppose I am," he huffs, turning his face away from the young man, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Ask first. Definitely like with Ratio, then. He still can't believe he just did that...he's glad they could divert from this topic with raiding the cafeteria.
The elevator does make the kid jump and drop something. Aventurine blinks, looking down at the fallen cookie...tragic. He looks up from that to Lalli, lean arms overburdened with food. Aventurine gives a wry smile. "I mean I can try, but I grabbed alot too here. Let's see..." he shuffles some stuff around, then manages to take some of Lalli's hoard by tucking it under his chin. "Going to retrieve your fallen prize? Good thinking; it's not good to waste food." The elevator dings and the doors open as they get to their floor. He smirks as he disembarks. "Might wanna hurry up, though~"
These two are a time and a half
He pulls a little at the under armour haphazardly, he’s not used to this kind of warmth though. He’s never been in a place this naturally hot...
“Skalds read and study old world knowledge and translate,” Lalli explains. “We had a translator in my crew, Tuuri. My cousin.” He doesn’t say anything more than that and focuses on the path they are walking on.
Lalli nods, “Reporting is good.” He seems to approve and closes his eyes for just a moment, seemingly a little relaxed now that there is more than one person looking out for whatever is watching him. He doesn’t know why, but he feels his muscles tense a little as he watches their surroundings.
“It’s getting worse,” Lalli points out. Now Lalli is more curious how much more his face is gonna turn a different colour. It’s like when Emil spilled food on himself, Lalli’s curiosity causing him to stare as he waits to see his answer.
In the midst of such a tragedy, Lalli perks up a bit when Aventurine is willing to take some more food. Lalli goes for the cookie on the floor without hesitation and pops it into his mouth. He chews and nods and quickly reaches to recollect the food Ven had been willing to shoulder for the time being.
Once they are free to leave the contraption, Lalli darts out like a cat being let out of a crate.
Sure are! Also here's an opening I know you'll like lol
"Oh! Like a scribe! I get it; that sounds really useful!" Had. Lalli said had. "It must be nice to work with family. Did she...transfer to another crew?" he asks, knowing he's treading dangerously personal ground on this one.
"Yeah, I'll let you know. I...probably can't do all you can, but I can make some shields in a pinch." To demonstrate, he pulls on the broken power source next to his heart, and amber shields flicker around them both for a moment. There's nothing to shield against, so there's no need to keep them up (and make his headache worse) so he disperses them soon after. Surely that has some use.
"Yeah, okay, so I'm embarrassed, I'll ask next time, kid, stop staring for a sec please..." Aventurine laughs, dragging a hand over his face as he speedwalks ahead of Lalli to calm down under no scrutiny.
As for the rescued cookie...the gambler just grins. "Ah yes, the five second rule. Well done~" he chuckles. Lalli is from a world where the plague is A Thing so some floor germs probably won't kill him. Maybe. He shrugs, handing back Lalli's spoils and follows the guy bursting out of the elevator. Watching him is like one of his cat cakes with the late night zoomies.
It's endearing, he finds. Which is ridiculous. They'd just met...still, his smile is fond. He gestures down the hall. "This way, Lalli."
When they reach his room, he badges them in with his bracelet key. He spreads his food out on one of the counters, and instructs Lalli to put his on the little table. "Alright, let's see what we managed to grab...muffins and cookies are good, but some protein....did you get some eggs?" ....he should eat the meat in this sandwich or maybe from the chili...but this tired, his stomach does a flip at the thought. Absently, he pulls the ham out of the sandwich he grabbed, setting it aside. Maybe he'll try eating it on a steadier stomach...now what else would be filling enough...?
We all know I was going to take that and run with it
Lalli stiffens and wrinkles his nose with a grumpy look on his face. Lalli looks away rather pointedly at him then looks away and doesn’t say much else. "None of your business," he growls. It’s his silent way to tell someone to drop it. He doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t want to... not when the memory is so fresh...
Lalli blinks and sees the strange array of gold for a moment. He almost puffs up at the thought of a competing mage, he already had to deal with Kitty taking some of the credit beforehand. He says, “I can cast spells, combat wise and summoning.” He doesn’t go more into detail than that, but is clearly trying to keep it short and sweet.
Lalli blinks, finally breaking the long stare, before looking away. He tilts his head in confusion, he wonders why everyone finds it so weird? It’s just focusing, isn’t it?
Lalli nods approvingly, finishing off chewing the lovely treat. He quickly takes back his portion of the food and immediately continues on. He has to turn back around to allow Ven to properly guide him to his room, a little too eager to get the task finished, but does follow him and keep up the balancing act.
Lalli is quick to set out the food on the table, shaking his arms from the baggage of a haul. He was very used to grabbing food and scurrying off, but he’s not used to carrying as much as he could carry in a long time. It was only on his first time when he was just starting to scout training for the base. “I have fish,” he explains. It’s not a bad protein at the very least and he points at it.
As he looks over the collection of foods to see if there was some eggs snatched during their raid, he glances over when Ven takes out a bit of meat and sets it aside. Lalli’s pale eyes lock onto the bit of sandwich meat and he immediately (and quickly) snatches it up and eats it without so much as asking. He then continues to work through what else he’d like to eat, as if nothing were wrong. (Save for the sandwich meat vanishing.)
Have the meats little guy, grow up big and stronk
Aventurine raises his hands in a "surrender" gesture when Lalli shuts him down. Alright, yeah, touchy subject, but now he knows. "Of course, alright. I won't pry, my apologies," he responds, casual and placating.
He smiles. "That's a good array of skills indeed! My capabilities are more...limited lately. I broke my power source, so I need to be more careful while using my shields and such, you see," he hums. He'd conjure up some coins but doesn't feel like it's time for showing off right now. Lalli seems a bit grumpy about this too, so he shouldn't push.
Hey Lalli some people don't like to be stared at when they make mistakes!! Most people even, poor guy.
And in the room, in all honesty, they may have grabbed too much. Maybe Aventurine will hand out leftovers as snacks later, to not waste food. Mint did supply an ice box recently, which was nice...he brightens at the mention of fish. "Oh! I'd like some of that, please~"
That way he wouldn't have to try stomaching....um. Where did...
He looks to Lalli, contentedly chewing on something. Aventurine snorts. "Did you want some more ham there, Lalli? I think there's some kind of...pork in the bowl of chili too here...I'm not in the mood for it tonight if you want it."
Lalli's eating habits scare me in their chaos.
Lalli growls a little bit before finally calming down. It's then and there that Lalli seems more like a feral creature than a person...
Lalli pauses and raises and eyebrow, "Then fix it?" He doesn't seem to understand exactly the problem is. "Or do you need to rest? You're not really tired right now right?" They are at least headed to his room at least... If he needs to sleep that will work out anyway.
Lalli just wanted to see how red this man would get. He's very bad at staring.
Lalli looks over the spread and does grab a few things. If there are utensils available, he'll grab some but only use them some of the time, switching between the two. He grabs what he likes and does not the quantity, but he was sure the task was to get food... And they certainly got some.
Lalli nods and passes the fish dish over to Ven promptly as he requested it. It's something they have back at home, so he was much more familiar with it.
Lalli doesnt waste much time grabbing a fork and picking bits and pieces out of the bowl of chilli. Its a task, to say the least, but he seems pretty focused on it. He soon as a small pile of by the bowl that he begins to eat with his fingers. He does go for some of the mashed potatoes and other things with utensils, but its the same chaos as before.
Aven watches it bizarrley entertained LMAO
And. "You said Silent World. What makes it silent? That's an interesting name..." And Aventurine is nothing if not curious.
Except when it got Lalli growling at him. Cousin likely dead, doesn't wanna talk about it, oookay. Guy might be part cat with the way his eyes flash...
Aventurine laughs, a sudden, kind of bitter thing. "Not that simple, sadly. I dunno if we have super glue on the ship, and even then it might take...a different kind of power to fix it. It's complicated?" he sighs...oh to see the world as simply as Lalli does. "I may have been...a little tired lately," Massive understatement. Not getting into Nihility nonsense here, thanks. "but I don't think that'll fix it either, unfortunately..." Of course a yawn happens right then. He's trying not to think about nightmares and the like right now.
(He got rather red!! Guy doesn't like being perceived making mistakes, like a certain other blonde friend of Lalli's~)
With the feral display earlier, Aventurine is rather relieved that Lalli uses eating utensils at some points. He'll take it, and gratefully throws together a small fish sandwich for himself. He takes that with some fruit and some...salad thing and sits at the table, eating and watching Lalli meticulously pick the meat out of the chili....he was kinda joking, he didn't expect Lalli to actually filter it all out...
Aventurine stifles a low giggle, holding a hand over his mouth. It's a messy sight, but amusing all the same. "I hope you washed your hands before doing that~ You really like meat, huh kid?"
Re: Aven watches it bizarrley entertained LMAO
Lalli pauses and bristles a little bit, "Because there's nobody else out there, stupid. It's just wilderness and trolls. No people that we know of, five countries and that's it."
Lalli only stops growling when he's sure the topic is finished then his expression calms. Weird guy, huh?
"A what?" Lalli asks. He's... not heard of super glue. "Are you talking about sap? You stick regular sap to things. That's a stupid way to put something back together." Yes, he's serious.... He truly doesn't know much about technology.
(Lalli recognizes some of the similarities but luckily looks away enough to let Ven get some composure right.)
Lalli looks up with a bit of chilli sauce on his face. He does have the mindfullness to wipe it away and lick his thumb. "Yes," he nods. He finishes off a few more pieces and then move onto collecting some potatoes and a little fish for himself. "It's good," he adds. Riveting conversation, truly. He's a little focused on eating.
He does have the mindfulness to ask, "Are we sleeping here for the night?"