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pluviooc2024-07-19 05:35 pm
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-07-19 05:35 pm
Entry tags:
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.
I used google translate LOL
He's smart as well. It'd be stupid to run, especially when so injured...and running excites prowling predators. The infected wolves come to mind, and she shivers. She hopes there aren't monsters like that here.
The fire man finds a safe retreat, a temporary base. He even puts a chair in front of the door, which is good. It's something Sigrun would do, so he's very smart!
But then he's...they're going down. Ooooh no...smells of pain and blood and metal overwhelm her senses for a moment, and she mewls softly for him, sitting up to make it easier to scoop her up from her perch. Her ears twitch, then flatten with sympathy at his pained hiss.
He asks if she's hurt? The person who just got his shoulder chomped? "Mwo," she 'says' in a lower registry, that she hopes will understand as no. She raises her paws, showing no cuts, only some dirt and a streak of blood on her cheek. She presses her nose against his fingers, then nuzzles him again. She's worried...there's alot of blood. He smells of much pain...but no rot. It's only a matter of time, but there's no rot yet.
He opens his mouth and closes it a few times...like a fish. Why? "Prrr?" she trills, tilting her head.
But then he speaks again and...oh. She knows he's infected!! But...She'd hoped not but...but. She's immune to the sickness, everyone knows cats can't get the Rash Illness. But...wait. Oripathy? Is that what they call it in this strange language she can suddenly understand? "Mrrrreh." She wiggles her paws around, as if trying to get back to the floor.
If she gets set down, she nudges at a pocket on her vest, tugging her certification out with her teeth. She can prove she's a good working cat!! She can help him!!
Unfortunately she doesn't realize that the ID is also in Icelandic, so it's probably not that legible to Flamebringer...still, it at least looks like an ID someone would have at Rhodes Island? Like...military, in a way.
((It has her picture on it, and some words.
Nafn: Kisa
Bekk: B
Prófár: 2104
Ættbók: villtur, fæddur ári.2103))
NO KITTY [TW Discussion of Terminal Illness]
It moves and pushes its nose against his fingers and he flinches- almost drops it, barely stopping his fingers from loosening on instinct. "Nonono- No! No! Don't do that." He hisses at it. Thankfully it'd gone for his left hand which was not leaking a gratuitous amount of blood all the way from his shoulder down to his fingers- "Do you want to explode?" He tries to level his tone out, "Don't. Lick. The blood." He says sternly, ignoring the way his voice almost, almost, shakes.
He was a cold blooded mercenary for crying out loud, this stupid- this beast's safety shouldn't be getting to him like this-
Its squirms in his hands, it wanted down, he thinks. He hesitates, staring it in the eyes, "Okay. Okay. But don't- Don't touch the blood. Don't lick it. Okay?"
He was probably fighting a losing battle trying to reason with it. But, crap. He had to deal with his own injuries. And he couldn't just sit here awkwardly holding it until it understood. He didn't even know if it could.
He would- he would try to keep an eye on it. If he had to find something to tie it up to something until he could make sure he wouldn't smear itself in oripathy tainted blood, so help him, he would. He wouldn't be surprised if he got bit for his troubles. But what was one more at this point. From a much smaller jaw.
Maybe it was stupid to get so worked up over a fuzz beast but screw it. He- he didn't want to deal with it exploding on him.
He slowly, slowly, puts it down. Keeping an eye on it, tensed and prepared for it to bolt. With his reflexes he might be able to snag it with his hands or tail before it slipped away, but it was so small, and he wasn't exactly in the best of shape. He gave it a look, pleading for it to just, stay. He didn't have the energy to deal with it.
Thankfully it doesn't bolt. Instead it grabs something out of its vest. Huh. Smart fuzz beast.
It brandishes whatever it grabbed at him, he squints, his dark vision isn't bad, but its nothing to a feline or vulpo's. It looks like an ID. The kind he would see on Rhodes. But the way the text is formatted is slightly different, same with the symbols...
And the language.
He knew a few different languages, came with his life and his job. But he didn't recognize this one. The only thing he could make an educated guess at was that the top item on the list looked like it might be a name?
"...Kisa?" He asks, "Is that your name?" he leans back against the wall, "Or so I'm guessing. Sorry fuzzy." he sighs, not annoyed at it, just at the whole mess he'd found himself in, although he doesn't think being able to read the fuzz beast's name tag would probably change much, "I can't read that. But I appreciate the thought."
When it doesn't make any move to try to touch him again immediately, he lets his eyes close and he rests the back of his head against the wall. He could feel the touches of light-headedness coming on, even sitting on the ground like this, and he was starting to develop a headache. That probably wasn't related to anything.
Crap... he was really in it now.
This wasn't even the worst set of circumstances he'd gotten himself into. Hah. He'd seen some real nasty business in his lifetime. But... it sure could be better.
He needed to get up in a second to do something about his injury. He was wasting time. Time he might not have. But he just. Needed a moment.
He cracked an eye to keep it trained on his strange friend.
He lifts his fingers to tap at the rock-like patches on his cheekbone, "Trust me... you don't want oripathy." he sighs, he doesn't know why he felt compelled to talk about this, maybe it was the bloodloss making him loopy. "First you start growing rocks like me, and then well. You eventually explode." He snorts, not that there was anything funny about it. "'Eventually' being pretty vague. I'm not even sure how long I've been an infected now..." he trails off, it'd been a long time ago now... that was for sure. "... Or how long i have left."
((interesting thing kitty might notice is that Flamebringer's own ears have lowered, it is not a perfect mirror of cat behavior, but she might clock it all the same as a sign of pain/distress.))
KITTY YES (Time to make up an environment real quick)
Her attempts at comfort get reprimanded. She mewls in protest, but stops when the man's fear rolls over her. Explode? No she would very much not like to explode, thank you. He's very stern, and she meets his eyes steadily. Orders to not lick the blood.
Which is...frustrating!! Licking can help people heal better and faster!! But it sounds like it's important for safety...she's never heard of Turning making someone immediately explode? But...but...
He says it again. He's so afraid and serious. Fine. "Mau." She will not lick the blood. She paps his good hand with her paw, in hopes that maybe that will indicate understanding.
Upon putting her down, he might see another light smear of blood on her back...good luck, Flamebringer.
She holds still when set down, since fire guy looks ready to pounce, muscles tense about...something. She blinks slowly at him, showing him that she does not intend to pounce on him. She will not lick the blood.
She watches him read her certification, her chest puffed up with pride. Ohhh if she could tell him how well she did in training! She was born in the wild, and yet she learned everything in a month where housecats had to take several! She is a VERY good working cat. If any working cat can help this man, it will be her!!
"Mjya!" She brightens at being called. Kisa! That is what Reynir calls her! Yes! But then fuzzy...no no, her name is Kisa. Or Kitty. Honestly every crew member said it a little differently...Fuzzy was nowhere close.
...Oh. He can't read it. It's Reynir's language. She deflates, giving a little huff, then turning her body to have the ID replaced. She tried. And he said he appreciated it, so...oh well.
Fire person closes his eyes and leans back for a bit. The pain smells grow strong again...she mrrrrs softly in concern, her tail lashing. What to do...she doesn't know anyone in this strange place. Mikkel with all his strange sprays and healing cloths and cleaning things isn't here, and she really wishes he was. He would help this good person not hurt anymore. She wants that very much.
A moment later and he looks at her again. He points to the black on his face and...oh. What? Not Rash Illness? It did look weird for Rash Illness. Oripathy. Growing rocks then explosion...oh....
So he is turning. But just...very very slowly, with something else. Did more illnesses develop in other places outside of the Silent World...? She sniffs the air, still not finding rot or troll or death. Just blood, metal...a strange smoke? It's hard to tell. Perhaps that's the smell of the rocks he speaks of, rocks in his skin, that must hurt...! And now he's bleeding...
"Prrrrrh..." she vocalizes, standing to rub her head and side against his leg, then the other, rumbling comfort and assurance. She looks to him now, hoping he will know to stay. She will be right back. (She's marked him. This is her charge now.)
With that she trots to the side of the room, eyeing a ratty tablecloth. Dirty. Will make it worse. It might crumble like unprotected books...there's a threadbare bed too, and it smells very bad. No. "Mrrrr..."
There's a wooden container (it's a small dresser). She paws at it again and again until the wood comes out, revealing...yes! She mrrps in triumph, grabbing what seems to be a spare blanket in her teeth and bringing it over to the fire guy. It drags a little on the floor due to her being kind of short but she manages alright. She sets it down next to him, sitting and jabbing a paw at his wound. "Mrah!"
Mans is not okay!! Physically or mentally!! (xD yay you saved me the trouble!)
He wanted to shake some sense into it. But that would be inhumane and he'd feel like a fool. It probably just- Couldn't even understand and single word out of his mouth. he was probably wasting his time and this was a lost cause anyways-
It makes one of its small noises again and this time instead of using its face to touch his hand it pats it with its paw. Was. Was that supposed to be reassurance?
He paused, it. Well. He didn't know what to make of that. He wasn't sure if that was a genuine attempt at communication, or if he was just desperate.
Whatever, his mind was made up, he'd suffer the consequences.
He sees the smear of blood on her back and has to resist the urge to run his hand down his face. Great. Great! Just- great. Today was a fantastic day on which he definitely didn't feel like burning a forest down.
... crap and he was also going to need to wash up somehow. Sooner rather than later.
The fuzz beast lights up at being referred too as Kisa. He finds himself grinning, then laughing when her face almost seems to pout upon being called 'Fuzzy'. Ouch- that hurt his shoulder. He coughed slightly on the spit he choked on before gathering himself, shaking his head slightly, "What? Don't like Fuzzy? I think its cute. The girls would like it." Sometimes the range of supposedly 'cutesy' nicknames those kids could come up with stumped him. "Come to think of it, the girls would just like you in general..." If fuzz beast didn't have a home to return too, maybe he'd see about taking it back to Rhodes with him... There were plenty of people there who'd be more than willing to take care of a homeless beast. Probably.
It- or, Kisa, he supposes, looks dejected putting the badge away. He feels a bit bad, it'd looked pretty proud of itself before, obviously whatever was written on there mattered to it.
As he explains oripathy to Kisa, like a truly crazy person, talking to a beast like it somehow understood him... and yet. Its face shifts, and it seems to be listening, sitting down and looking at him intently, taking in every word. H-huh. This whole time it seems to have responded to his every word, his every action, with some level of understanding. It made no sense. In his experience, beasts had their own forms of communication and understanding, and of course they were living beings. But this was a different level of understanding.
As he finishes his explanation something feels... not better. His shoulder still hurts like all heck. But... lighter... Was that the first time he'd really talked to anybody about his oripathy? He didn't talk to the girls about it... Most of them had it as well, seemed like a poor choice of conversation for people who were all facing the probably inevitable end, sooner or later. And with the exception of Lena... they were all kids. It didn't feel right to just- talk about his own mortality out of nowhere. Some of them would get it... others thought... And Lena had seen enough in her time to understand. They both had. No words needed to be said there.
... Guess it really had been the first time in a long, long while. Mystified he slightly deflates under the weight of that realization, gaze zoning off a million miles away.
He jumps slightly when Kisa makes a noise, coming closer. Immediately he tenses up again, drawing in his legs closer, but- It'd been understanding so far... He doesn't move, waiting to see what it does.
It moves to his leg and pushes its head against his shin, and he flinches on instinct. His pants were actually clean of blood, so, it was fine. It turns its whole body to be flush with his leg, rubbing its face and side up to his knee, before turning its body around and repeating the action in the opposite direction with its other side. He can feel it. Its... vibrating? Making a noise. Its not very loud, even to his sarkaz ears.
Everything about it is. So, impossibly small. He is so large in comparison, and yet as Kisa looks up to stare him in the eyes he feels like, and maybe he's just losing it at this point, but- it felt like it was trying to reassure him. Say it was going to be okay. ((imma sob her charge ueueueue))
Then she darts off.
"H-hey!" He chokes out, moving to lung out for her. Only to choke on a cry of pain- His bloody, VERY blood shoulder reminding him that hey its still a problem, the moment he starts trying to move again.
Panting heavily he collapses back against the wall, clenching his jaw as hard as he can to try to regain a point of focus. Dang it. What was the fuzz beast thinking?! It was too small to- well. Okay. Maybe- not too small just- He didn't know how dangerous this place was and he didn't like the idea of it wandering off!
He cracks an eye open when he hears something creaking- oh. Oh it'd just- it was exploring the room. Oh, okay, alright that was. Fine. Fine. Ignoring the fact that even if he wanted to chase it down he probably couldn't now that he was being viscerally reminded as well that he was starting to experience symptoms of bloodloss.
Kisa comes back, he watches it drag a bundle of fabric behind itself, it looked like a blanket? Did it think he was cold?
It gets it close to the knee it'd just be rubbing against, before sitting expectantly in front of it, and pointing a paw at his injured shoulder, letting out another one of its noises.
Oh- it- Oh. H-huh.
So it did understand him? Or had some level of intelligent thought at least.
Or! He was delirious. That was also entirely a possibility.
He felt the blanket though and well, that was very real. And well, Kisa had the right idea. He was bleeding out. There was no arguing that. If he kept putting off doing something about it he was going to die.
And his corpse would probably poison Kisa. He grimaces.
He picks up the blanket and uses his right arm along with his fangs to start tearing strips.
Ideally, he would clean out the wound first. The metal that had gouged into his shoulder, as briefly as he'd looked at it, did not look good. Infection was a high possibility (an infected infected, hah...). But he wouldn't be alive to get infected, again, if he bled out first. He could do a patch job, keep the rest of the sheet, and see if he could find anything else to patch himself up with.
... he didn't have the normal supplies he would normally have on himself if he went on a solo op. Another thing upon the stack of crappy things that didn't make sense about waking up in this place. And he still hadn't seen any sign of any other Rhodes personnel. Something was very wrong, no matter how you looked at it.
He shook his head, focus. Immediate problems first. As much as this whole situation pissed him off, he could live to be pissed off about it later.
He had to consider whether or not to fish out his dagger and cut off the ruined, bloodied arm of his jacket, but ultimately decided it'd be simpler to just take it off like normal. He was quick about it, clenching his jaw against every pull and every muscle movement. Keeping his mind focused on the sensation of his tight jaw and the precision of his movements, if he focused on the pain he'd risk faltering and he couldn't risk that right now, he was the only thing he could rely on.
Well. He could reasonably guess Kisa would try to find help, but he wasn't going to send that fuzz beast into the depths of this unknown and now proven dangerous place to get him help for something he could reasonably handle himself.
Jacket off, he was done with the worst part. Until he had to clean it later at least. He picked up the first strip of unevenly torn cloth and began deftly using his right arm in combination with his mouth to wrap the white strips around his shoulder and arm. Anybody watching would note that he knew exactly what he was doing, as if he'd done this several times before, not being tripped up in the slightest by being down an arm or in pain. He made it look easy.
It was almost soothing, how methodical the work was, if not for the sharp pain in his arm it would've been enjoyable. Within minutes of starting he was done, eyes refocusing as best they could, blinking sweat out of his eyes.
...Not bad. Pretty good. He turned his arm over, making sure there were no gaps and that everything was well covered. He could see red already starting to show through closest to where the fang holes from the plant-beast were, but there wasn't much he could do about that. He mentally put 'find a thread and needle' on his priority list.
If he ran into any friendlies he'd have to warn them about the possible contagion issue.
He stared at his arm a bit longer... then slumped back against the wall. A wave of light-headedness deciding to hit him right that moment. He- he would get up in a second. He needed to steady himself...
Well then have a fresh loaf of emotional support cat!!
He seems more annoyed when he sets her down though. Flamebringer gets a quiet 'mrp?' for his grief. ((LMAOOOOOO he's so done with his blood everywhere))
"Mrrreh." No she does not like Fuzzy. It is not her name! Her crew named her 'Kitty' and each call her that in their own silly little languages...which is odd she can understand this one. Hm. Ah well...She tilts her head when he mentions 'the girls', however, curious.
The heavy scents of fear and pain abate a little when he talks about his own sickness. The strange Oripathy from beyond the Silent World...the smells do not go away but they become a little less sharp, a little less pungent in her nose. It's an improvement! When the illness took...Kisa never got the chance to help the victims feel better, to say goodbye...
Fire guy meets her eyes when she marks him, and that's good. Maybe he'll understand! Except he lunges after her when she runs-- "Mraaah!! Mrrr!!" She stops partly across the room, narrowing her eyes at him. He's making his pain worse!! Silly boy!! So much blood smell...he does lean back again and doesn't try to get up, so she carries on her task.
Silly as he's being, he does seem to figure out why she brought the blanket pretty quickly. Good! He tears it up with his own teeth and claws and ties it on well. The pain is pungent, but...he's doing well. He's shed his fur (coat) too, which looked difficult. ((It's good he didn't cut it, it's all he has for clothing here!!)) But he does a good job of covering up the wounds, slowing the blood. Mikkel would be proud, even if they didn't get a chance to clean it. Not yet. If his infection is slow, then cleaning it should help...was there a place with alot of clean water around here? Hm...
Her ears perk up and turn forward when he seems to run out of energy, falling back against the wall like a freshly killed troll. And yet pain rolls off him, continually, he looks so tired...
Kisa huffs. Silly boy, silly boy...she climbs up in his lap and settles down where she can, tucking her feet under her body. SHe's not licking! She remembers! From here, she starts purring in earnest, rumbling out her want to help, to heal, to comfort. It's not much. Perhaps mama did this before she passed. She saw Emil do something similar when Lalli was too tired and hurt to wake up, setting his head in his lap to help him know somehow his friend wasn't alone...
Soon, she will help find this person a way out, to a place with water. She thinks there is a place she smelled much water from, there they could try. But for now she sits with him, purring continually.
Somebody needs to desperately teach Flamebringer what a cat is and what cats do help
Flamebringer growls against the pain, hearing Kisa screams their little noises at him from across the room while he practically lies prone for a few minutes while he catches his breath. His blood-low imagination could only conjure up that they were scolding him for moving, like they hadn't darted off without warning.
So screw him if he was worried it was going to try to single-handedly navigate this hostile environment all by itself!
He didn't move to sit back up for a few more seconds, not until he'd pulled himself together, then he leaned back and sat waiting for Kisa to return.
He closes his eyes tightly against the waves of pain. Its nothing. This was nothing. He would figure this out. He could feel his own elevated heartbeat in his head as his breathing sharpened with the ebb and flow of his own suffering.
That is until he feels something infinitely small put its weight on his leg and he blinks his eyes open blearily.
Oh, its just- its just Kisa.
Kisa who is climbing into his lap.
He's abruptly aware that he'd A) started to slip out of consciousness, which was a very bad sign, and B) Kisa was climbing over his legs and into his lap.
Belatedly, he hisses and starts to shift to remove them, only to stop immediately, freezing when his body protests. Crap he was in rough shape. He settles for cracking a tired eye open and making sure it doesn't do anything stupid. But... his message from earlier seemed to have gotten through it's hairy skull, because it doesn't make any moves to touch him with it's face, and he hadn't gotten much blood on his lower half so... it was probably fine.
Awkwardly, he settles back against the wall, feeling like somehow, annoyingly, he'd lost a fight against the fuzz-beast.
....
Its.... very small. And warm. Probably nothing compared to himself, the almost literal fire in his veins made him a deeply impractical space heater... but it was the warmth of a life. He startles when they start shaking. A noise accompanies it, like the quietest engine he's ever heard, gentle but rumbling. He squints at it, trying to see if Kisa was in any kind of pain, but they seemed content, happy even. Was this a fuzz-beast thing?
When there continues to be no negative reaction he just, relaxes and accepts it. What else can he do? He's in no shape to fix anything wrong with it, that's for sure.
... He watches it silently for a few minutes, gaze contemplative.
....
His hands are too bloodied from his wound, and he doesn't want to have more to clean up later- So he raises his tail, draping it over his left leg and gently wrapping it in a circle around the Kisa's tiny form, completely relaxed and loose if they wished to move. He can feel the small vibration's its making travel up his nerves, its a strange sensation... but not bad.
Its a sort of promise... to protect it, as it had tried its best to do for him.... and a thank you. Maybe it would be more practical to say it, since it seemed to understand him anyways, but he was tired. Kisa seemed smart... they would understand... he hoped.
It was a strange companionship. He let the nearly-silent and strange peace the little thing brought with it wash over him, paying no head to anything except the way he could feel Kisa's breathing against his thighs and tail, slowing his own breathing to match. He still hurt, and he did need to move. Soon. But for now, there was quiet.