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pluviooc2024-01-23 10:00 am
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-01-23 10:00 am
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Test Drive 01
TEST DRIVE
Hello, and welcome to the first Pluviosa Test Drive!
Rather than a series of prompts that are set after arrival to the game, this Test Drive is instead more of a soft open for the game. That is to say, not only are Test Drive threads game canon, but the Test Drive should be regarded as the "start" of the game chronologically and contains arrival-related events and information.
Or lack of information, as the case in fact is, because there is no greeting party waiting to reassure characters that everything is fine back in their worlds and that they'll get to go home again. (On the flip side, there's no one telling them that their worlds have been destroyed, either.) There is only the ship, the things inside it, the raging storm outside, and what characters can figure out for themselves.
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.
(cw: minor blood, visions, storm weather)
The first thing you become aware of is the sound of dripping. Your mind is fogged, as though woken from the wrong part of your sleep cycle. In your daze, you're convinced that the sound of dripping is blood. Yours? Someone else's? You can't be sure. It's dripping from somewhere. It's your fault, whichever it is.
Good. One way or another, you'll be free of this nightmare -
And then, in response to the sound of a crack of thunder outside, clarity returns.
Characters come around as though disturbed from a deep sleep. Once they have shaken off the (vision? impression?) of blood, they will find that the dripping sound, at least, was real. Fortunately, it's only water - rainwater, more than likely, judging from the occasional booms of thunder and flashes of lightning overhead. One hell of a storm, quite possibly the worst characters have ever experienced, is raging outside.
Outside where? Well, outside the ship, of course.
As a general rule, characters wake up in a random room of the first level of the ship below the main decks. Theoretically, this should be a relatively safe, dry place - but with the age of the ship, its state of disrepair, and the number of plants above that have dug their roots into the deck above, leaks are plentiful. Thus, the sound of dripping water is a constant even in enclosed areas - and, of course, the outside of the ship is being pounded by rain in shimmering sheets, adding to the cacophony of noise accented by the thunder.
Even the protective bubble over the deck itself and the balconies of the rooms is having trouble working to keep the rain out - the rain isn't terrifying hurricane levels, but it is steady and water floods steadily down the stairs and over the edges of the gap down the center of the ship. The worst of the wind, too, has been kept out, but occasional gusts send ripples through the rain.
There is no power inside the ship right now and barely any light besides the flash of lightning - although characters may arrive while it is nominally day, the clouds stretching from horizon to horizon have blocked out the sun almost completely. The motion of the ship is also far worse than usual due to the storm winds - it's easy to believe that you are in fact at sea, unless you manage to get close enough to the exterior windows or balconies to be able to see the ship's legs in motion through the cascade of water that runs down the exterior.
(cw: hallucinations, thinking things that are real are hallucinations)
In the dark, you have to rely on your other senses - hearing, sound, smell. Smell is giving you the best information to start out with - rain, of course, but also mildew, plants, and old metal. (Is that a whiff of blood at the bottom? No, it's because of that bad dream you had messing with your head.)
No one comes to greet you. No one comes to find you. Instinctively, you know - no one is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
Characters will be fully convinced that they are alone until they actually run into another character. Even things that seem like they should be indicative of another person's presence, such as hearing voices or seeing someone shine a light down a hallway - your character will be convinced that that is just a hallucination until they can definitely lay eyes on another person, hear their voice clearly (ie: not half-drowned-out by the rain) or otherwise be certain of their presence.
That isn't to say that hallucinations aren't occurring. All characters, but especially those who are alone, will periodically hear murmuring voices, smell blood, smoke, and other scents reminiscent of destruction, and see what appear to be the flashes of flashlights, flickering lightbulbs, and the shadows of people walking around. These hallucinations fade in and out in intensity, but they always clear up for at least a little while when a character notices the sound of thunder. Given that the thunder is very frequent during the storm (every few minutes), most hallucinations won't last for long.
For most characters, the voices will be unintelligible murmurs. However, if your character has experienced an event of mass destruction at some point in their life (apocalypse or near-apocalypse, destruction of a city, volcano eruption, being the only survivor of a town that was slaughtered, etc), or has a connection to the dead, they will be able to pick out that the voices of the hallucinations are talking about either attempting to rescue people from something similar (eg: a distant voice shouting "there's someone still alive over here!") or, alternately, talking about how everything is lost, everyone is doomed now, etc. They may hear one type of voice or both at different times, at player discretion.
(cw: dead loved ones, hallucinations/delusions, violence, potential death. THIS PROMPT CONTAINS PVP OPTIONS.)
You're not supposed to be alone. There was someone with you, only a few hours or years or minutes or lifetimes ago. You weren't always alone, and you have to find them.
You'll find them. You do. But not in any kind of condition to keep you company. This lump of flesh is empty now. The plants are already growing over it, reclaiming it. There's blood in the soil, and there's the sound of someone else coming up behind you.
Someone is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
There are various heaps of organic debris that characters can stumble across when wandering around in the dark - piled up leaves, rotted plants, heaps of ferns, moss, and so on. Even solid wood, sometimes - the trunks of small, twisted trees that took root where they might and have grown out from balconies to the exterior or inwards down the jungled crevasse between the two halves of the ship. In the low light, it's easy to literally stumble across them, or mistake them for something else in the brief light of a flash of lightning.
It's the mistaking them for something else that could be a problem. Characters may find themselves absolutely convinced that these heaps of leaves are the body of a loved one - especially if they were wandering around looking for someone in particular. They may or may not accurately perceive leaf cover on the outside of the "body," but unless they dig their hands in enough to be sure of the heap's contents - but who would want to go digging their hands into the body of someone they love? - or they see the shape in clear lighting (which would have to be provided by another character), it will be near impossible to convince them that the pile is just that, and not a corpse.
But that's not the really dangerous part. The dangerous part of all this is that if someone unexpected approaches while the character is in the same room as the 'body,' they may become convinced that the new arrival is responsible for their loved one's death. It doesn't matter how illogical it is on the surface - fear, or rage, or whatever it is that might fuel them will turn on the stranger. And whatever it is that convinces them of this has also turned their fight-or-flight reflex solidly to fight, whether it's for revenge or the last chance at survival for a cornered rat.
Characters so affected will fight until one of the following occurs: If they are led out of sight of the 'body,' they return to their senses (given that they may be inclined to chase the 'perpetrator,' this may be the best non-violent way to resolve the issue). If they are convinced that the 'body' is fake (through physical contact or clear lighting as above), they also return to their senses. And finally, if they kill the 'perpetrator' or are themselves killed or knocked unconscious, the effect ends. In all of these cases, it ends with the sharpness of a rubber band snapped against the skin, and the character is fully aware of their altered mental state and what occurred as a result.
If your character dies as a result of this prompt (and you want that thread to be game canon), please give the mods a heads-up if/when you are accepted into the game. Although this will not count as an 'official' death and will not consume a character's "freebie" revival, there may still be consequences for your character's death.
(cw: worms. many worms. not parasitic. just worms.)
It's easy to take a wrong step in the dark. Of course, tripping and falling isn't the worst thing that can happen.
This isn't the worst thing that could happen, either. That doesn't make it any better in the moment - the split-second when the ground erupts and a writhing mass of something slimy doesn't so much crawl out as jump out - but maybe it will make it better later.
You know how worms come writhing up out of the ground during a rainstorm, when the soil is absolutely saturated?
Well, that's true of the soil on the ship as well, except the worms here aren't just common earthworms anymore. They've learned to climb, the slime that they use to wriggle through the soil modified such that they can cause it to turn sticky and squelch their way up walls, ceilings - and anyone they happen to come across. If you step in the wrong place, an entire cluster of them will respond, by clinging to your clothes and body, squirming upwards in a desperate bid to escape the wet soil and the continuous rivulets of water caused by the storm.
Or perhaps you sat down to rest somewhere and felt them creeping - or didn't, until there was suddenly something wet and cold on your bare skin. Or maybe you encountered the worms not through their climbing, but afterwards, when they drop off the ceiling and fall down on your head as the enzyme that renders their slime sticky wears out. However it happens... worms.
Fortunately, they're harmless - aside from being a bit larger than the earthworms a character is likely to be familiar with, and their strange ability to become sticky, these are largely indistinguishable from normal earthworms. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell that in the dark and the wet - this is their native environment, not yours, and anyone would panic at the sensation of worms trying to crawl up them or into dry places in their clothes.
There is an easy solution to this: Because the worms are fleeing the rain in the soil, they won't climb up anything that's just as wet as the dirt they left behind. All a character has to do to become worm-free is get thoroughly soaked, such as by stepping out into the reduced-but-still-pouring rain on a balcony or deck protected by the ship's bubbles. Unfortunately.... Well, then they're wet. And there doesn't seem to be anywhere to dry off any time soon...
For information on the general shape and state of the ship, please see the setting page. Please note that mods will not be running investigations during the test drive period.
Q: Do our characters still have their powers/items?
Generally speaking, yes. Characters have their powers intact (with certain exceptions, largely for potential-gamebreak reasons) and whatever items they were carrying at their canonpoints. Please see the FAQ for more details.
Q: My character is dead and/or dying at their canonpoint!
Well... Now they aren't. Specifically, dead characters come back as their most recent 'healthy' state of being (unless they're a type of character that is playable while dead, such as a vampire or a Bleach shinigami, in which case they continue as normal for them); they also arrive already soaked through by the rain, regardless of the location they wake up. Characters who are mortally injured find that their wounds have healed; in place of whatever blood was soaking through their clothes/dripping from their bodies/in their mouth from a Cough of Death, they instead find pure water.
Q: Can my character(s) explore the ship?
Your characters are welcome to explore as much as they're willing and capable of doing in the wet and the rain! However, getting between floors is a challenge in the current weather - with the power off, the elevators do not work, and the stairs are consistently flooded by a cascade of rainwater. However, mods will not be running any official, guided explorations until after game opening.
Q: Is there anywhere dry to rest?
Nowhere is completely dry, but the aft portion of the ship is significantly drier than the middle and fore. The reason for this is that there is a series of partial decks (the residential decks) over roughly the last third of the ship. The rain is fully blocked by the roof overhead, in theory, but in practice the wind and the flooding leave this space only sort of dry. It's possible to find your way here on your own and find some place to sleep that doesn't blow mold spores into your face when you sit down, but it's also darker here, since the lightning's light is also blocked out by the roof.
Q: BATHROOMS?
Unfortunately, the lack of water in the pipes means that the toilets (which can be found relatively intact in most suites, though many are full of standing water) are also not running. Characters get to deal with this issue as they see fit, whether that's using the dilapidated toilets or using a more fertilizer-like strategy.
Q: Is there anything from the game's main info pages that doesn't apply to this Test Drive?
Given that the power is currently off, the Ship (as in the entity) cannot be interacted with on the Test Drive (and characters have no reason to think it's there). Anything else that would require power, such as the elevators or water from the faucets, also does not work.
Q: How long does the storm last?
ICly, it begins to lighten up on the evening of the second day after the first characters wake up, though it is still raining steadily with occasional thunder throughout that night. (Characters will continue to trickle in throughout the duration of the storm, though most arrive before the end of the first day.) The characters will be able to see the sun starting on the third morning - which is also planned to be the game's formal opening, so we won't say more until then!
Q: Do our characters receive anything upon arrival?
Not a thing! Nor do they encounter any kind of informational NPC or anything that gives them a solid idea what's going on. The only exception to this is that all characters experience the dripping-blood related vision/dream/impression detailed in the first prompt of the Test Drive. Additionally, characters who have a unique tie to their world (such as Aerith's connection to the Lifestream in FFVII) will be aware that they're not in their own world anymore.
Q: What are our characters eating?
Since the power hasn't come on yet... Whatever they're adventurous and/or knowledgeable enough to find that doesn't kill them! This can include edible plants and limited amounts of things brought from home (please don't have your character bring 99 casseroles even if your game's inventory system allows it), but mods are not tracking this specifically. Most characters will be expected to be hungry and unhappy but not literally starving come game open. At least there's plenty of water.
Q: I have some specific question I need to ask about my specific character on the test drive!
Please post your question in response to the header comment QUESTIONS below!
Rather than a series of prompts that are set after arrival to the game, this Test Drive is instead more of a soft open for the game. That is to say, not only are Test Drive threads game canon, but the Test Drive should be regarded as the "start" of the game chronologically and contains arrival-related events and information.
Or lack of information, as the case in fact is, because there is no greeting party waiting to reassure characters that everything is fine back in their worlds and that they'll get to go home again. (On the flip side, there's no one telling them that their worlds have been destroyed, either.) There is only the ship, the things inside it, the raging storm outside, and what characters can figure out for themselves.
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.
ARRIVAL
(cw: minor blood, visions, storm weather)
The first thing you become aware of is the sound of dripping. Your mind is fogged, as though woken from the wrong part of your sleep cycle. In your daze, you're convinced that the sound of dripping is blood. Yours? Someone else's? You can't be sure. It's dripping from somewhere. It's your fault, whichever it is.
Good. One way or another, you'll be free of this nightmare -
And then, in response to the sound of a crack of thunder outside, clarity returns.
Characters come around as though disturbed from a deep sleep. Once they have shaken off the (vision? impression?) of blood, they will find that the dripping sound, at least, was real. Fortunately, it's only water - rainwater, more than likely, judging from the occasional booms of thunder and flashes of lightning overhead. One hell of a storm, quite possibly the worst characters have ever experienced, is raging outside.
Outside where? Well, outside the ship, of course.
As a general rule, characters wake up in a random room of the first level of the ship below the main decks. Theoretically, this should be a relatively safe, dry place - but with the age of the ship, its state of disrepair, and the number of plants above that have dug their roots into the deck above, leaks are plentiful. Thus, the sound of dripping water is a constant even in enclosed areas - and, of course, the outside of the ship is being pounded by rain in shimmering sheets, adding to the cacophony of noise accented by the thunder.
Even the protective bubble over the deck itself and the balconies of the rooms is having trouble working to keep the rain out - the rain isn't terrifying hurricane levels, but it is steady and water floods steadily down the stairs and over the edges of the gap down the center of the ship. The worst of the wind, too, has been kept out, but occasional gusts send ripples through the rain.
There is no power inside the ship right now and barely any light besides the flash of lightning - although characters may arrive while it is nominally day, the clouds stretching from horizon to horizon have blocked out the sun almost completely. The motion of the ship is also far worse than usual due to the storm winds - it's easy to believe that you are in fact at sea, unless you manage to get close enough to the exterior windows or balconies to be able to see the ship's legs in motion through the cascade of water that runs down the exterior.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
(cw: hallucinations, thinking things that are real are hallucinations)
In the dark, you have to rely on your other senses - hearing, sound, smell. Smell is giving you the best information to start out with - rain, of course, but also mildew, plants, and old metal. (Is that a whiff of blood at the bottom? No, it's because of that bad dream you had messing with your head.)
No one comes to greet you. No one comes to find you. Instinctively, you know - no one is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
Characters will be fully convinced that they are alone until they actually run into another character. Even things that seem like they should be indicative of another person's presence, such as hearing voices or seeing someone shine a light down a hallway - your character will be convinced that that is just a hallucination until they can definitely lay eyes on another person, hear their voice clearly (ie: not half-drowned-out by the rain) or otherwise be certain of their presence.
That isn't to say that hallucinations aren't occurring. All characters, but especially those who are alone, will periodically hear murmuring voices, smell blood, smoke, and other scents reminiscent of destruction, and see what appear to be the flashes of flashlights, flickering lightbulbs, and the shadows of people walking around. These hallucinations fade in and out in intensity, but they always clear up for at least a little while when a character notices the sound of thunder. Given that the thunder is very frequent during the storm (every few minutes), most hallucinations won't last for long.
For most characters, the voices will be unintelligible murmurs. However, if your character has experienced an event of mass destruction at some point in their life (apocalypse or near-apocalypse, destruction of a city, volcano eruption, being the only survivor of a town that was slaughtered, etc), or has a connection to the dead, they will be able to pick out that the voices of the hallucinations are talking about either attempting to rescue people from something similar (eg: a distant voice shouting "there's someone still alive over here!") or, alternately, talking about how everything is lost, everyone is doomed now, etc. They may hear one type of voice or both at different times, at player discretion.
TO RUN ITS COURSE
(cw: dead loved ones, hallucinations/delusions, violence, potential death. THIS PROMPT CONTAINS PVP OPTIONS.)
You're not supposed to be alone. There was someone with you, only a few hours or years or minutes or lifetimes ago. You weren't always alone, and you have to find them.
You'll find them. You do. But not in any kind of condition to keep you company. This lump of flesh is empty now. The plants are already growing over it, reclaiming it. There's blood in the soil, and there's the sound of someone else coming up behind you.
Someone is coming. You'll have to save yourself.
There are various heaps of organic debris that characters can stumble across when wandering around in the dark - piled up leaves, rotted plants, heaps of ferns, moss, and so on. Even solid wood, sometimes - the trunks of small, twisted trees that took root where they might and have grown out from balconies to the exterior or inwards down the jungled crevasse between the two halves of the ship. In the low light, it's easy to literally stumble across them, or mistake them for something else in the brief light of a flash of lightning.
It's the mistaking them for something else that could be a problem. Characters may find themselves absolutely convinced that these heaps of leaves are the body of a loved one - especially if they were wandering around looking for someone in particular. They may or may not accurately perceive leaf cover on the outside of the "body," but unless they dig their hands in enough to be sure of the heap's contents - but who would want to go digging their hands into the body of someone they love? - or they see the shape in clear lighting (which would have to be provided by another character), it will be near impossible to convince them that the pile is just that, and not a corpse.
But that's not the really dangerous part. The dangerous part of all this is that if someone unexpected approaches while the character is in the same room as the 'body,' they may become convinced that the new arrival is responsible for their loved one's death. It doesn't matter how illogical it is on the surface - fear, or rage, or whatever it is that might fuel them will turn on the stranger. And whatever it is that convinces them of this has also turned their fight-or-flight reflex solidly to fight, whether it's for revenge or the last chance at survival for a cornered rat.
Characters so affected will fight until one of the following occurs: If they are led out of sight of the 'body,' they return to their senses (given that they may be inclined to chase the 'perpetrator,' this may be the best non-violent way to resolve the issue). If they are convinced that the 'body' is fake (through physical contact or clear lighting as above), they also return to their senses. And finally, if they kill the 'perpetrator' or are themselves killed or knocked unconscious, the effect ends. In all of these cases, it ends with the sharpness of a rubber band snapped against the skin, and the character is fully aware of their altered mental state and what occurred as a result.
If your character dies as a result of this prompt (and you want that thread to be game canon), please give the mods a heads-up if/when you are accepted into the game. Although this will not count as an 'official' death and will not consume a character's "freebie" revival, there may still be consequences for your character's death.
CONTENTS WORMING
(cw: worms. many worms. not parasitic. just worms.)
It's easy to take a wrong step in the dark. Of course, tripping and falling isn't the worst thing that can happen.
This isn't the worst thing that could happen, either. That doesn't make it any better in the moment - the split-second when the ground erupts and a writhing mass of something slimy doesn't so much crawl out as jump out - but maybe it will make it better later.
You know how worms come writhing up out of the ground during a rainstorm, when the soil is absolutely saturated?
Well, that's true of the soil on the ship as well, except the worms here aren't just common earthworms anymore. They've learned to climb, the slime that they use to wriggle through the soil modified such that they can cause it to turn sticky and squelch their way up walls, ceilings - and anyone they happen to come across. If you step in the wrong place, an entire cluster of them will respond, by clinging to your clothes and body, squirming upwards in a desperate bid to escape the wet soil and the continuous rivulets of water caused by the storm.
Or perhaps you sat down to rest somewhere and felt them creeping - or didn't, until there was suddenly something wet and cold on your bare skin. Or maybe you encountered the worms not through their climbing, but afterwards, when they drop off the ceiling and fall down on your head as the enzyme that renders their slime sticky wears out. However it happens... worms.
Fortunately, they're harmless - aside from being a bit larger than the earthworms a character is likely to be familiar with, and their strange ability to become sticky, these are largely indistinguishable from normal earthworms. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell that in the dark and the wet - this is their native environment, not yours, and anyone would panic at the sensation of worms trying to crawl up them or into dry places in their clothes.
There is an easy solution to this: Because the worms are fleeing the rain in the soil, they won't climb up anything that's just as wet as the dirt they left behind. All a character has to do to become worm-free is get thoroughly soaked, such as by stepping out into the reduced-but-still-pouring rain on a balcony or deck protected by the ship's bubbles. Unfortunately.... Well, then they're wet. And there doesn't seem to be anywhere to dry off any time soon...
FAQ
Q: Do our characters still have their powers/items?
Generally speaking, yes. Characters have their powers intact (with certain exceptions, largely for potential-gamebreak reasons) and whatever items they were carrying at their canonpoints. Please see the FAQ for more details.
Q: My character is dead and/or dying at their canonpoint!
Well... Now they aren't. Specifically, dead characters come back as their most recent 'healthy' state of being (unless they're a type of character that is playable while dead, such as a vampire or a Bleach shinigami, in which case they continue as normal for them); they also arrive already soaked through by the rain, regardless of the location they wake up. Characters who are mortally injured find that their wounds have healed; in place of whatever blood was soaking through their clothes/dripping from their bodies/in their mouth from a Cough of Death, they instead find pure water.
Q: Can my character(s) explore the ship?
Your characters are welcome to explore as much as they're willing and capable of doing in the wet and the rain! However, getting between floors is a challenge in the current weather - with the power off, the elevators do not work, and the stairs are consistently flooded by a cascade of rainwater. However, mods will not be running any official, guided explorations until after game opening.
Q: Is there anywhere dry to rest?
Nowhere is completely dry, but the aft portion of the ship is significantly drier than the middle and fore. The reason for this is that there is a series of partial decks (the residential decks) over roughly the last third of the ship. The rain is fully blocked by the roof overhead, in theory, but in practice the wind and the flooding leave this space only sort of dry. It's possible to find your way here on your own and find some place to sleep that doesn't blow mold spores into your face when you sit down, but it's also darker here, since the lightning's light is also blocked out by the roof.
Q: BATHROOMS?
Unfortunately, the lack of water in the pipes means that the toilets (which can be found relatively intact in most suites, though many are full of standing water) are also not running. Characters get to deal with this issue as they see fit, whether that's using the dilapidated toilets or using a more fertilizer-like strategy.
Q: Is there anything from the game's main info pages that doesn't apply to this Test Drive?
Given that the power is currently off, the Ship (as in the entity) cannot be interacted with on the Test Drive (and characters have no reason to think it's there). Anything else that would require power, such as the elevators or water from the faucets, also does not work.
Q: How long does the storm last?
ICly, it begins to lighten up on the evening of the second day after the first characters wake up, though it is still raining steadily with occasional thunder throughout that night. (Characters will continue to trickle in throughout the duration of the storm, though most arrive before the end of the first day.) The characters will be able to see the sun starting on the third morning - which is also planned to be the game's formal opening, so we won't say more until then!
Q: Do our characters receive anything upon arrival?
Not a thing! Nor do they encounter any kind of informational NPC or anything that gives them a solid idea what's going on. The only exception to this is that all characters experience the dripping-blood related vision/dream/impression detailed in the first prompt of the Test Drive. Additionally, characters who have a unique tie to their world (such as Aerith's connection to the Lifestream in FFVII) will be aware that they're not in their own world anymore.
Q: What are our characters eating?
Since the power hasn't come on yet... Whatever they're adventurous and/or knowledgeable enough to find that doesn't kill them! This can include edible plants and limited amounts of things brought from home (please don't have your character bring 99 casseroles even if your game's inventory system allows it), but mods are not tracking this specifically. Most characters will be expected to be hungry and unhappy but not literally starving come game open. At least there's plenty of water.
Q: I have some specific question I need to ask about my specific character on the test drive!
Please post your question in response to the header comment QUESTIONS below!
Maedhros Feanorion | The Silmarillion
[ He wakes but does not stir, not at first. This is no less than he expected: fire, pain, and then at last silence and darkness. There is nothing to do until Mandos or one of his folk come to tell him the details of his fate.
[But he hurts. His hand - his left - and the place where he's never quite forgotten his right once was -]
This is wrong.
[ Maedhros thought he was just feeling echoes of his last agonizing grasp, but he has reason to know: these are the pains of the hroa, not the fea. He lifts his right arm, and the hand he still dreams himself with is not there. He lifts his left.]
How - how?!
[ In the blistered grasp of his left hand gleams a jewel, white and perfectly faceted, that gleams with its own inner light. And yet, the gleam is too dim, just like the pain. Has his touch damaged it in some manner? No, if the presence of Morgoth tainted them not, Maedhros despite all could do a Silmaril no harm. Convulsively his hand opens and the Jewel clatters to the floor, where it casts sparkling light, barely enough to bring color to the crimson of his hair.]
Not death nor life nor darkness - what is this place?!
[Seeing is Believing]
[ A tall figure moves through the dark hall. Somewhere on his person, something casts just enough light to glint off the blade of the long sword in his hand, though it is lowered - caution, not aggression. He moves in brief bursts of motion, the urge to chase the calls of found survivors warring with the habit of meticulousness.
[ He is singing, fairly softly, if you can hear his voice true. The song is not in a familiar language, unless the listener recognizes the Quenya of old Valinor. The tone is sweeter and lighter than seems appropriate for this place.]
singing is believing
'Just enough light' is plenty of light in the darkness to be visible, considering that the are few sources of it beside the lightning. One such bolt flickers Neuvillette steps into view - hands fully visible in the dim light, because he did see the gleam of that sword.
He's unarmed (not that he's ever truly unarmed, especially not as wet as this place is). He's thoroughly drenched, and aside from having pushed the free side of his bangs clear of his vision, doesn't seem to care much.]
Pardon me - I heard you from some distance, and you have the brightest light source I've yet seen in this place.
no subject
...A light source. Aye, it serves well enough as such yet, I suppose. [For a moment, he nearly smiles, a twisted thing though it would be.]
I find I know not your livery. Whence came you here? ...How came I? [When Maedhros moves cautiously closer, he cannot see any livery at all, nor even armor. The blues and flash of white evoke the vassals of Ulmo, but none of them would speak to him in neutrality, and Maedhros is wearing his colors - red, with the eight-pointed star of his father's House. For all that he has done, he has never marched under false colors.
[He is unusually tall, tall even to Neuvillette's eyes, with dark red hair tied back so firmly that only a few locks have escaped. The glow is coming from a pouch on his belt, on the left side. He has, notably, no right hand; by the way that arm is geared, this is not new. As for his face, his eyes are grey and seem almost to have a light behind them, and while his features are smooth as if with youth, he is no more young than Neuvillette is.]
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In the relative blaze of light, it takes Neuvillette's eyes a moment to adjust, a moment of blinking that makes the shape of his pupils all too clear to someone who aims to notice. The way his face twists on the word 'livery' is even more obvious, even understated as his expressions to tend to be.
He is no one's servant, and the expression of distaste shows it.]
Iudex Neuvillette, Chief Justice of Fontaine - for all that it means in this place. [His voice carries the dignity appropriate to his position, but it's perhaps a touch sharp there before he relaxes.]
As for how we came to be in this place, that is increasingly the million-mora question, as they say.
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[No titles, no land, no patronymic. He has lost the right to them.]
What manner of place is this? Someone has so much steel as to make their walls therefrom, yet it has not been maintained in many and many a year. And these plants, I know them not.
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It appears to be some sort of ship, albeit one that has been outfitted to walk on land. None of the plants are familiar to me, either, but metal construction is not that uncommon in Fontaine. A great deal of the other materials have rotted away, though, I believe.
[Steampunk nation gonna steampunk.]
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Rotted entirely? Abandoned for a great span of time, then. And then...for how long have you dwelt here?
[If anything can distract a Feanorian from angst, it's a puzzle.]
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It does have legs, yes. As for the matter of ore... Well, it's less dear in Fontaine than you're used to, it seems. Metalwork is one of its primary industries, mostly iron, steel and brass.
[He is qualified to talk about it, but it's not his passion.]
And there are a number of purposes for which metal ships are better suited - such as longevity. I doubt this vessel, whatever its original purpose, would have lasted so long if it were wood - it's been abandoned for several centuries, by my estimation. There doesn't seem to be anyone around who has been here for longer than a few hours.
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Aye, that much no doubt is true. Centuries, you say? And utterly uninhabited? Yet it moves; I can feel that it moves. And I am here, and you also, so suddenly and without sign.
I mislike this. [Understatement.]
me trying to roll back to intros for this -
There are a number of mechanisms and relics in Teyvat that require no human input in their operation, but most of the ones I'm familiar with use the natural energy of the world instead - the motion of the tides and so forth. I cannot say I have ever encountered something like this, either.
[He doesn't seem to especially like it, either.]
arrival
The fatuus walks noisily enough that the other has time to react, before he reaches him. He didn't want to frighten him, after all.]
Hey, it's okay. Er. Well. It's not okay, but. You're fine.
[Great start, Mr. Hero. This guy doesn't look like he needs a powerful warrior from another world to come rescue him from worms or ghosts or rain. He looks like he's fought his own fair share of battles himself--- a fellow warrior, then. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.]
I don't know what's going on here either, but we can find out together.
[He leaves that jewel alone, as tempting as it is to pick it up for the other. He'd been clutching it pretty tightly, and Childe wasn't looking to start a fight here.]
Childe? not looking to start a fight? will wonders never cease
One of the Secondborn? Then perhaps this is a sort of life after all. Unless, I have heard it said - are you Turin, who was called Mormegil?
[You're not. Don't worry about it.]
i mean he COULD. he absolutely could.
The words he speaks may as well have been gibberish. Childe understood very little of it, but they way the redheaded stranger is dressed makes the Harbinger think of Mond's knights, if vaguely.]
Oh, uh. No. None of those things. I don't know him or you. My name's Childe. I don't think either of us belong here.
[Especially him. The way the stranger spoke seemed a bit... Dated, but he'd hold his tongue on that observation for now.]
Are you alright?
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Nay. Not for a very long time.
But no worse than I was ere awakening here. [Kind of hard to get worse than that.] ...Greetings, Childe. I am Maedhros.
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Everyone he'd come across was too... Normal. Hinged.
Childe offers him a smile.]
Hey, fair enough. I know uh. Finding yourself here is a bit disorienting.
[The fatuus holds out a hand, both to shake it, and also to help the other to his feet. At least the light of the jewel the other man dropped seemed to be almost bright enough to keep their wits about them. The last time Childe was alone like this, he'd lashed out at someone.]
Maedhros. It's good to meet you.
[As much as he liked to fight, too many people here seemed a bit fragile for his tastes, but he finds he's almost glad that the same hallucination hadn't taken over Maedhros, too. Mostly in that it was more than a little upsetting, in the moment.
Given that the other man seemed to be in armor, and he wasn't.... He'd just have to level the playing field a bit. A good spar never killed anyone, surely.]
So what's with the big jewel? That's the most light I've seen since I got here.
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[Maedhros is not too proud to take the offered hand - with his left, options being limited - and accept the offer of assistance. Standing, he is extremely tall - perhaps not quite as tall as some Childe has known, but in that range - and thin as a rail. Even so, he doesn't feel quite as heavy as he should.]
Do not touch it!
[With a convulsive movement, he lunges for it and grabs it up in his hand. Oddly, for something he so values, he flinches at its touch and does not look directly at it.]
Were I to tell you the full tale of this "big jewel", we might be here another age of the world. Touch it not, at your peril. ...Yet how came it so diminished? Those last words are said softly, almost to himself.]
Truly, the most? No sun nor moon, not even the stars?
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No touching. Got it.
[The taller man lunges for it even so, clutching the glowing... thing in his remaining hand, warning Childe not to touch it, that its own story was long, and not something feasibly told. And then mumbling to himself--- It had been even brighter, once before?
But for something that seemed so dear to him.... the redheaded stranger seemed to be wary of it. Afraid? The fatuus can't quite place the vibe. He files the thought away for later.]
Big jewel, very important to you. I won't lay a hand on it, promise.
[He even steps back a little, to show how dedicated he was to Not Fucking With That Thing. Mostly because he's still mentally trying to piece together Maedrhos' whole deal, and also because he does want to respect his wish-- It wouldn't do him much good to run around making enemies when he didn't know what exactly was going on here.
And... that look in Maedrhos' eyes, how he seemed a little... Not quite all there. Childe is more than happy to have someone around that might understand.]
Yes, for now. I haven't seen any kind of light outside at all. It's pitch black out there, been storming the whole time since I got here.
[Childe shrugs. Maybe if the cloud cover went away, but at this point.... He's wondering if the storm ever would clear up.]
We're not the only ones here, thankfully. There are a few others I've seen around. They seem pretty nice. Mostly harmless.
[Ignore the head wound.]
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'Mostly harmless', yet you are not harmless at all, are you? Childe. No more than I. [It's in the way he moves as much as the shadow in his eyes. Light does not catch in the eyes of Men in the same way, even were there Men who had seen the light of the Trees in an age gone forever, but it does catch.
[It is...interesting. This Childe sees what Maedhros is, he thinks, yet he is not afraid. It has been a very long time since a stranger did not fear him. ...All things considered, it gives him a dim view of Childe's wisdom. And yet - it has been a long time.]
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[Childe grins, as Maedhros immediately snuffs him out. He'd done the same, of course, known that the man before him was likely dangerous before even speaking to him. The fact that Maedhros was very likely a danger was what had truly drawn him in the first place.
Yes, he was personable. Yes, he could be kind and cordial. But beneath all of that was a finely honed warrior, a steel trap primed to snap shut.]
Yeah, you've got me pegged. I'm a weapon, through and through.
[Childe had no secret agenda up his sleeves, all his cards were on the table, for now. It wouldn't be that way forever, but his primary concern was to get a headcount on who all was here, and find out what the hell this place even was.]
I'm just trying to get through this, same as everyone else here.
seeing is believing
Eventually, she comes upon the source: A very tall man with red hair and and sword, and... is that an elf? She stills, like a rabbit seen in the grass, going abruptly silent.
per elf-touched: she DOES want to touch the source of the light
Oh. That's not him. That's not even an elf. (Though if she were not, she could well be one of his kin. ...She could well be, even so.) His shoulders slump; his whole body speaks of disappointment.
"I greet you, Lady." Oh. She's afraid of him. Very sensible, in truth. He sheathes his sword. "I mean you no harm."
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Unconsciously, she takes half a step forward, though her hands stay tangled in her skirts, training not to bother guests still winning out.