raiamods: (Default)
raiamods ([personal profile] raiamods) wrote in [community profile] ethyraia2021-05-21 04:56 pm
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◣ OPEN ◢ HATCHING LOG 001

WHO: All PCs
WHAT: New characters arrive on Ethyraia, get interrogated, and settle in at the basecamp.
WHEN: May 21 onward
WHERE: Basecamp Leviathan
NOTES/WARNINGS: Potential character nudity, violence, trypophobia (images) as well as light mentions of gore, alcohol and drug-use, light aphrodisiac effects (optional), and references to mass death.


HATCHING LOG 001 ❀
CONTENT WARNINGS: potential character nudity, violence, trypophobia (images) as well as light mentions of gore, alcohol and drug-use, light aphrodisiac effects (optional), and references to mass death.

Players who participated in our TDM are welcome to keep their CR and the content of those threads. Please make sure to chat this out on the OOC intro & CR meme before making assumptions. Please take your time reading the hatching and basecamp bullets, as some items have been altered or expanded.

❀ HATCHING


Congrats, you've woken up in an egg. I'm sure this is exactly how you wanted to spend your Saturday, right? There's no time to get curious and check out the other egg sacs. By the time you've fought your way out of the membranous sac, spilled electric blue goop everywhere, wiped it out of your eyes and sundry other orifices to get your bearings, you have a spear (or a gun) leveled at your face, throat, or other vital organs. Even if you might be inclined to fight, you can barely lift your arms to protest being grabbed and dragged off. Before you can even get a word in edgewise, you've been thrown into a holding cell.

Characters will not have a chance to retrieve their items at the time of the first hatching, and may not even know there is anything left in the remaining eggs.

The holding cell stinks of something sour and acidic, like rotted citrus, but you are not alone. Several other detainees sit in similar squalid confusion, dressed strangely and equally gooey. Time to make nice, ask questions... figure out what the hell is going on, and maybe do something about all that slime?

Over the next few days, a few things become clear. Despite the alien greeting, your captors speak a language that you understand, and the unpleasant circumstances are revealed to be a matter of necessity, not choice. Supplies are low, but they ensure that the new arrivals' time imprisoned is as painless as can be — they offer hot communal showers of less than three minutes, some strange starchy meal-replacement, and medical treatment to those in need. You might strike up a conversation with your new best friend in the shower over a low soap dispenser or when you realize you might need to share towels.

The cost of these luxuries comes in the form of touch-and-go interrogation by the security officers keeping tabs on the cells and supervising the shower time.

A few notes:
Your character may get pulled away for interrogation at some point. No torture, no drugs; just questioning. If you would like to thread this out, please reply to CAPT CHILDE'S top level comment! A caveat: threads will not go beyond (TEN) NPC replies, and new tag-ins will not be responded to after MAY 24.

☆ Locals will be stopping by outside the freestanding holding cells to ogle or ask questions. Are you really going to be mean to that little kid staring at you with wide eyes?

☆ Characters will be let out for bio breaks. No one has to pee in a bucket, that's just inhumane!

Attempts to escape will probably get you tasered. If your character composes a genius jailbreak, you are welcome to submit it in the MOD QUESTION comment to work out how that might go with the NPCs!

❀ EXPLORE THE BASECAMP

On the heels of a little benign interrogation, a medical inspection, and a stern talking to by Captain Childe, the survivors at Basecamp Leviathan determine one thing: you don't appear to be an active threat.

Released from the detention center after three days, you are given the run-down by the locals — you're on a planet called Ethyraia, and the people around you are survivors of the catastrophic crash of the UCSS Adamant several years prior. You, in fact, showed up on the third anniversary of the crash. Weird coincidence, huh?

The first order of the day is having a proper meal at the mess hall — some of the Adamant's survivors will be friendlier than others. They've been stranded here for years, remember? Some of them will be so desperate to talk to someone who has news of other places, and some will be giving you the cold shoulder.

You'll be fed the same as the rest of them. A plastic plate of crumbled protein of unidentifiable origin and gravy over rice with a single wilted stalk of broccoli and a cup of the worst coffee you've ever had. Maybe somebody bumps into you and spills said coffee, maybe you make it all the way to one of the long tables set out for communal eating.

Time to strike up a chat with your neighbor — maybe ask them to pass the salt?

(What do you mean, there's no salt!?)

During this time, characters will be able to return to the Central Chrysalis where they hatched. While there are no clues as to how they got there, they might find items — their own, or someone else's. Everyone is strapped for supplies, but try not to snatch up anything that isn't yours. The security officers don't look kindly on people chasing one other down the hall, trying to get back their dirty magazines.

A few notes:
☆ Feel free to help out anywhere. Every little bit of assistance you offer to the locals will raise their estimation of you. You could easily help clean dishes after the meal, help fix leaky piping or repair hammocks. You could stop by the aid station and assist with the wounded. You'll be watched closely and some of the survivors will be warier than others, but most will appreciate the opportunity to have a 'break'.

☆ If your character leaves the basecamp and wanders outside the Leviathan, they may begin to notice that what they perhaps took as a giant cave is actually an enormous dragon. Everything that seems human-made will look varying levels of worn down, patched, repaired and patched again. This is not a place of prosperity and happiness. Many people are recently injured, or have new scars or missing limbs.

☆ PCs will be warned about the acid rain and inhospitable wildlife that they'll face if they venture beyond the shade of the dragon's wings.

❀ RECRUITMENT FAIR



You've been here for a week, had a chance to show your mettle. Maybe you've demonstrated a propensity for fixing gadgets (or plumbing!) or you have the command of a natural leader and the ability to wield a gun (or a tire iron!) to great effect. Either way, the Adamant's survivors are eager to put you to work so they can have their first real 'days off' in three years! Survivors have set up their various areas in the hopes of catching your attention and (possibly!) bolster their numbers! Feel free to wander around, talk to other PCs, and get the lay of the land.

ENGINEERING CORPS

Thorkil has welded a sign to a post out front, cheerfully painted by a gaggle of children to say "WELCOME!" The children are crowded around the area, and Thorkil is telling them stories about one of his many tattoos as you approach — he has a magnificent eagle tattooed on his arm, and in a hush he is explaining how it landed on him and tried to bite him like a mosquito, and how he slapped it and it just splattered right there on his arm and he's never been able to wash it off!

The children seem mesmerized by the story (maybe you are too?) and will scatter at the story's conclusion, tugging you over to the various areas, pointing things out excitedly. What is an Ehlers-Chau sublight engine? You're about to find out whether you like it or not! Or maybe you can teach them a thing or two. Those who seem to know their stuff will be eagerly invited on board by Thorkil.

The Engineering division has salvaged its tools and scrap from the Adamant’s wreckage, so it has all of the essentials from metal mills to CNC routers to circuitry tools. A holo projector throws schematics on the wall — a drill, a few potential shelter ideas for long-term settlement, and a new communications tower.

SECURITY DIVISION

Rémi has barely deigned to participate — and seems to have done so only at the request of some of his companions. He's sitting at an unadorned table and he is cleaning a variety of weapons. He will scowl if approached, and seems openly mistrustful of your intentions should you speak to him. Questions about how a conversation with Rémi might go may be posted to the MOD QUESTIONS thread. (Note: We will not be threading Rémi, so these questions will be handwaved!)

Characters who make a positive impression on him will open up the avenue to work for the Security Division later, but he will not be extending any offers now — please allow for a realistic period of development here!

Feel free to lean into another PC's space and comment on how frosty that dude seems! You can also survey the various weapons stored in racks, help out with building spears, the usual suspects.

THEATRE

The theatre doubles as a childcare center, and many of the NPCs bustling about seem very excited and eager for the chance to talk to anyone who ventures in to visit. The theatre is bright and cheerful, paintings have been done on the walls of scenes from children's stories featuring colorful characters.

The thespians will not only try to recruit you (for acting in a play, for teaching, for script writing, for drawing on the walls or caring for children) but they will actively put you to work if they see you standing idle longer than a moment! Your character may find themselves with a paintbrush in hand, or taking part in a recital for a play (you're free to invent one, or put a new spin on an old classic! Romeo and Julio, anyone?) or building a set piece for one of the many local productions.

The Theatre doubles as the protective hub in times of need, so beyond arts education and babysitting, your character may also be tasked with shoring up those defenses, helping to fortify the walls, or other such tasks. And who knows, they may be paired off with someone else rather unexpectedly!

AID STATION

Sunya Hyacinth is the local medical doctor, fueled by coffee and spite. She doesn't have the time to recruit personally — she's flitting about the aid station seeing to the injured.

If you follow her, she will put you to work. Hold this stent, articulate this dislocation, take this blood pressure reading. If anyone appears to have a proficiency for this sort of work, she may inquire after credentials — and anyone who seems to have medical experience is going to immediately be handed the medic's armband, a white band with a blue cross emblazoned on it. This armband will grant any PC an extra amount of respect and trust from the Adamant's survivors — but you'd better be able to live up to it!

Feel free to treat any injured PCs, converse with other 'recruits', help pin that white and blue arm-band on... you know, anything under the sun. Some of the patients in the medical bay seem to be suffering from the adverse effects of some of the local flora — itching hives or burning pustules. One unfortunate soul seems only able to speak in limericks, which the medical staff will admit is one of the odder things they’ve seen.

SANITATION

CONTENT WARNING: DRUG REFERENCES

It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it! There are always latrines to be dug, pipes to be repaired, general maintenance to be done on the various sanitation systems.

A nervous-looking janitor will approach your character almost shyly, and ask if you wouldn't mind giving her a hand. If you are willing to help her (fix a pipe, dig a hole, etc), she will gradually warm up to you and seem more animated and lively and very, very grateful. Won't you please consider working with the Sanitation crew? Sure, it's not as glamorous as some of the other duties, but they're the backbone of the Basecamp and they could really use the help!

She'll even let you in on a little secret if you really butter her up or show an interest — the Sanitation Crew? Totally has a little underground greenhouse where they're growing marijuana. They're totally willing to share...

Feel free to dig latrines alongside your fellow PCs, or maybe even share a joint. It's a way to pass the time, right? PCs serving in sanitation will also have an easier time overhearing the gossip that spreads around the base, since no one looks twice at them.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

CONTENT WARNING: REFERENCES TO MASS DEATH

During their first two weeks in the basecamp, any character who stops by one of the various houses of worship (in addition to a church, a synagogue, and a mosque, there is a temple with small statues to fifteen different unfamiliar deities, many of whom seem to be from different faiths), the gymnasium, or the mess hall will come across a stand that hosts a dozen or so packages.

Wrapped in the black emergency blankets that many bring with them to and from the bunks, these packages are about one cubic foot and contain folded clothes in roughly the same sizes. The styles are all different and highly individualized. Some are luxe, some are basic, and some are clearly the undershirt (but not the proper outerwear) for uniforms of the Adamant’s crew. Warm-faced folks eagerly give out a single package to each new hatchling. Along with the clothing and blanket, hatchlings will receive basic packages containing basic toiletries — bar soap, a toothbrush, a straight razor, etc.

Come by at the wrong time, and you might see a fight break out. A young person, red-faced, shouts at the volunteers working these stands, “Those were our people! Our families! We should be the one to decide what’s done with what they left behind.”

In hushed tones, clearly trying to keep this from becoming a conflict, the lead volunteer insists, “Take it up with Captain Childe.”


A few notes:
Feel free to have your character sign on to help out with any of the listed divisions, with the exception of security.

☆ Characters may collect one (1) care package from the community outreach program. If your character intends to come back for more, please let us know in the Mod Questions thread.

☆ Feel free to ask for light NPC interactions in the MOD QUESTIONS header; we can give you a general idea of how a conversation might go! Like with the Captain Childe threads, none of these threads will be lengthy, and new tag-ins will not be responded to after MAY 24.

❀ THE DREAMING

You are standing at the edge of an immense, underground lake. Water laps at the shore, echoing in the cavern. There is a sense of peace and warmth and — welcome.

A creature emerges from the lake and approaches you. Its gills flutter, its eyes are a faint bioluminescent glow in the darkness. It reaches out to touch you — one long, elegant finger presses against your chest. It feels as if it might crack your sternum open and ferret beneath your bones as if looking, looking for something. Yet, there is no malice from it, and you feel no fear.

But the creature relents. It backs up. Bows to you once, and then turns and walks back into the water.

You stay for some time at the edge of the lake. Eventually, it seems as if another person is here with you, or perhaps they simply came into focus after being here just as long as you. Should you speak with them?

A few notes:
PCs may interact with one another in the dreams. They will be in a semi-conscious state, not wholly aware they are dreaming and not wholly under the impression of its normalcy.

☆ Your character will wake up naturally from the Dreaming, they will feel peaceful and refreshed.
The lake, if they choose to swim in it while dreaming, would be perceived as the perfect ambient temperature for them — some characters may prefer it to be warmer or colder!

☆ If they duck below the water, they will see far-off glittering city lights, but no matter how they try to swim towards them they will never get any closer!

☆ If your character tries to drink the water, they might notice that for a few minutes after they wake they can hear little snippets of NPC thoughts. Weird!

☆ Every character will have a small, pale lilac mark where they were touched on the chest. It will fade over the next few days.

❀ FETCH QUEST

CONTENT WARNING: REFERENCES TO LIGHT APHRODISIAC EFFECTS

A small, perky woman corrals you somewhere near the latrines. "Hey!" she says insistently, pushing her hat back and sending a spill of inky curls askew from her forehead. "We need a hand. There's this plant we get for Sunya — the Doc? You met her yet? — it's a painkiller. Go through a shitload of that, which I'm sure is quite surprising," she says all this in a single breath, and her expression is sour despite her cheery tone.

"You any good at botany? We need another round of Starspire root. Can't harvest the ones we've got in camp, they've been a little cranky lately. You'll have to go about four kilometers due west, towards the old Adamant wreck. Just watch them — if they start to sweat, you'll need to get under cover, means the acid rain is coming. I'll upload the specs to your Comm."

Seems like you're being partnered with somebody else for the run — another person looking perhaps about as equally haggard as you, and at least as equally voluntold. Hopefully you won't run into any difficulties — how hard can retrieving one plant be?

A few notes:
☆ Feel free to have random monster encounters along the way! Don’t forget to wait for approvals on bestiary submissions before incorporating them into threads.

☆ The plants are at a high elevation, so they will exist on rocky outcroppings along a cliff-face. The landscape here is mostly high desert, which means it is full of thin, calf-high grasses, scrub plants, and non arable land polluted by dense, alkaline soil and rocks. Be creative in how you get there!

☆ Somebody gets hurt? Here, chew this root! They said it was a painkiller, right? What's the worst that could happen? (People can get a little ... flirtatious, shall we say.)

☆ Or you could go one step further and try exploring portions of the Adamant! Remember, the ship itself was built to house seventy thousand people — it's the size of a city, and it cannot be adequately explored in an afternoon! If you'd like anything specific to come of this, or if you’d like to know specifics about the Adamant’s layout, please consider submitting a plot request!.

neversmall: (015)

[personal profile] neversmall 2021-05-27 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ She is not sad as he lets his arms fall away, nor is she embarrassed as he flows back into his own space. She watches him; she waits. After a moment, her body stops leaning towards his like a half of a house of cards and she settles back into her own space as well. Lightly: ]

There's nothing to be ashamed of in that - you should take it as a compliment.

[ She moves away from him briskly. There may be some slight extra sway to her hips as she heads to the door.

Her voice is all wicked inflection as she glances over her shoulder. ]


I'm usually quite dedicated.

[ With a swish of her skirt, she moves into the hall. ]
trassel: (53.)

[personal profile] trassel 2021-05-27 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
I am not ashamed.

[ — okay, not wholly the truth. Sometimes, but that's only when the emotion bowls him over, with the force of a gale or a hail storm of ice. There are a few... shameful things, and many of them were entertained in the weeks they were lost in the snow. Some were done. Some even, he would like to happen again. ]

[ — In this moment, he's not sorry. It was good to hold her and touch her. Now, it's a step forward to more. ]

[ — but not without Suffering first. Matthias sighs as he knows where his eyes go, to the skirt, ankle (that she had once, not artfully, stumbled, and invited him to look). Then, he follows. ]
morozova: [ used with permission ] (pic#14862947)

[personal profile] morozova 2021-05-27 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
How very wrong he was.

( he gives her a small, measured smile. the warmth is genuine, fond. there was a reason that nina had been chosen for this particular mission, after all, and doubtless her resilience in the face of such horror would serve her well here. )

Tell me, what do you make of this place?
sunmon: (pic#14850606)

[personal profile] sunmon 2021-05-27 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ the question terrifies her — not because she notices what it suggests that he could not readily say 'yes.' no, it terrifies her because it draws to mind the memory of how he had looked at her the night of the king's fete, and how she had wanted that moment to stretch out forever. it was intoxicating to imagine herself as someone powerful enough to justify the reverence he'd shown. the awe.

but he asks her to consider the fact that he is eternal. that being his equal would mean that she is, as well. loneliness comes with that, unless they are together. that loneliness looms over her like a storm front, promising fresh misery. it should be an old friend at this point, but she simply cannot bring herself to that. so it would tether her to him.

and whether he realizes it or not, she must therefore also consider the rest of what she knows. what he is. what he wants to do.

it should be an easy question to answer. she should be repulsed. but alina has never felt more herself than she did in the little palace, never more confident than when she allowed herself to imagine being his peer. if anything —
]

The only way for me to save Ravka is for it to be true. If it's not, then I'm not their hope. Not their saint. I'm a fraud. [ they've had that conversation before: the fear that the people would turn on her, as they'd turned on the black — ... on him. she searches his face, more afraid because of how drawn to him she feels as she makes the admission. ] I need it to be true.
sunmon: (Default)

[personal profile] sunmon 2021-05-27 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Oh!

[ saints, she'd needed that out. she was just digging herself deeper, wasn't she? having an even dubiously friendly ear was making her too eager to talk about what she hadn't been able to talk about for too long.

she leads nina around to the back, behind the stage. a metal frame there supports the curtains, and above it, the lighting catwalks. from there, it's barely possible to see amongst the cobwebs of steel bars that some of them make up a black ladder towards the roof.

alina points to it.
]

Hope you like climbing. [ she leads the way, at least, finding the edge of the scaffold. the good news is that it looks like it's intended for climbing. ]
morozova: [ used with permission ] (pic#14852737)

[personal profile] morozova 2021-05-27 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
Then you are. ( he says it like it really is that simple. perhaps because it is, at least in his mind. because being his equal is really so much more than simply matching his strength — she is not there, not yet, but she will be.

one day. )


And in the spirit of that, perhaps you might do me a favor?
neversmall: (006)

[personal profile] neversmall 2021-05-27 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
[ ...a difficult choice now presents itself. It is not hard for Nina to fall back into the habit of simply answering to Kirigan; she has been, one way or another, for the majority of her life.

And the warmth of his approval in this isn't something that she feels the need to deflect - though she'd made the choice to desert, she'd never betray the Grisha. Arken had been wrong. ...but it also had not been very difficult to pretend not to approve of enforced conscription. Nina believed she understood the necessity of it, when all the world fought to eliminate them, you needed to learn to fight back, you needed to be able to stand with the people who were your brothers and sisters because no one else would have you and work to make a way, to make a place, so that one day Grisha wouldn't have to fight. And yet...

...and she still needed to talk to him about Matthias. (She is dreading talking to him about Matthias.)

Her honest assessment? ]


I think if they've really been here for three years the initial damage must have been far worse than I thought. Unless I'm very much mistaken, there is no reserve of supplies, no sustainably harvested food source. The people here are not incompetent. Their technology is incredibly advanced. And yet it still seems like they're barely scraping by. I have more questions than answers.

[ If it was anyone else, she'd ask what he thought too, but you didn't just... ask the general what he thought. You offered your report and waited for orders.

...that wasn't what she wanted to do, but again - habit was strong. ]
sunmon: (pic#14852192)

[personal profile] sunmon 2021-05-27 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ skepticism slips through the cracks of her very vulnerable, very honest expression before she can shutter it. ]

A favor?
neversmall: (097)

[personal profile] neversmall 2021-05-27 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ Wryly: ] At least it's not swimming.

[ She's done enough of that, thank you. But for all the face she pulls, Nina manages the scaffold more or less neatly. There is a moment when she has to tuck her tin of biscuits beneath her chin and fears she might drop them, but both the biscuits and Nina arrive safely to the top of the theatre roof. ]

Oh, this is nice! Well-spotted, Alina.
medik: (‟god i'm tired.”)

[personal profile] medik 2021-05-27 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. [ Yakov's eyes narrow for a moment as he tries to make sense of it; predictably, he comes back with no clear-cut answer. She's still a lot closer to the world he knew for his entire life (at least up until a few days ago) than the crewmen of the ex-Adamant or the other new arrivals, and the seemingly shared context of Slavic cultures is something to be grateful for.

He sits on the other end of the bunk, resting the sharp points of his elbows on equally bony knees, and turns his head in her direction to offer another piece of clarifying information— ]


I am from the year 1917. I was drafted to fight in the Great War.
morozova: (pic#14874497)

[personal profile] morozova 2021-05-27 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Yes.

( his expression gives nothing away. then, rubbing at the stubble covering his jaw. )

Someone, whose opinion I evidently value, seems to think I'm in need of a shave. Perhaps you could assist? I would hate to disappoint her.
Edited 2021-05-27 02:30 (UTC)
sunmon: (Default)

[personal profile] sunmon 2021-05-27 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ she blinks owlishly, stuffing down the feelings that rise up in the back of her throat. the girl that she'd left behind in the little palace would be laughing, giddy, charmed. she would flourish.

but he has caught her off guard by pivoting too quickly, and she is not that girl.

instead, she feels placated. not really accepted as his peer, but only told what she needs to hear in order to continue like one of those beautiful exotic birds the king keeps: trotted out for performances, and caged. he cannot mean it, especially not with how easily he glides down to something much lower stakes, much less serious.

can he?

would it make a difference?

baghra's mockery hangs heavy around her shoulders. how foolish she was, before, to believe that this could ever be true. she wants to scream with protest, wants to demand to know why he went behind her back into her journals about the stag, why he had constructed such an elaborate lie about his past. but she knows why. she knows.

it should be impossible to want to be anything to him, knowing what she knows. the fact that it is not feels like some kind of turning point, some transition, and she desperately wants to turn back from it. but when she glances away, she only notices that they have reached the showers, and she'd been too wrapped up in speaking with him to notice.

she shakes off her surprise, blinks away her stony expression for one more dryly sarcastic.
]

Well, I would hate to earn the ire the woman in charge of distributing supplies. [ she gestures into the showers, inviting him to lead the way. ] I'll be certain to tell her of your esteem later.
sunmon: (pic#14852472)

[personal profile] sunmon 2021-05-27 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
You didn't see what it took to find it. Imagine wrestling an errant child down from the catwalk.

[ she gestures back down towards the scaffolding, but she's laughing as she does. oh, it feels good to laugh again. the fresh air in her lungs helps. she stretches out her arms at her side and takes a deep breath. her hands drop back to her sides.

the air smells different, here. it's not ravka. every stone and every so-called street tells her that it's not ravka. she misses it.

the view is unremarkable. the theater is one of the taller buildings in the area, yes, but it's also quite central to the basecamp. stretches of lean-to homes and the like. at the far edge, the engineering department. all bleak and built of salvage. but overhead, there is the dragon to consider.
]
cryptoherpetology: (060)

[personal profile] cryptoherpetology 2021-05-27 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ Alex's lips twitch in a smile as Crow preens under the attention, beak open in an avian grin and his tail in the traditional feline question mark of greeting, twirling a little on the spot. ]

He's a church griffin. I actually originally was going to call him Poe, after the author, but my youngest sister said I was an idiot for naming an all-black griffin 'Crow' and had me arguing to defend the name she chose for him for so long that by the time I realized it, going back to my first choice wasn't an option. [ Antimony Price is a walking force of chaos and far too skilled of a manipulator for someone without any mind-control powers to speak of. ]
cryptoherpetology: (Default)

[personal profile] cryptoherpetology 2021-05-27 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ Outside of harassing the Canada geese at Alex's workplace, Crow rarely gets the chance to play with other animals. It takes him a few unsure moments of adjusting to the wolf-to-griffin language barrier before he starts to play in earnest, doing his best attempt to mimic the sounds Trassel makes back to him in, garbled slightly by the chuffing purr rumbling in his chest. ]

I found him as a chick and hand-reared him. He was too used to humans to survive in the wild after that, so he stayed with me. [ It had been unfortunate. The flock of adult griffins that Crow had hatched to was large and aggressive enough to be dangerous to the people whose neighborhood they decided to claim as their roost. Some had been young enough to relocate to flocks within their natural habitat, but the feral adults were too dangerous to try to rehab.
Being able to nurture Crow into the strong, grown animal he is now had made him feel less like one of the "monster hunters" his family descended from after dealing with that. It's in the Price creed to never kill the young of any species, no matter how many small neighborhood pets its parents fed to it in the nest.]


Is it common for hunters to train wolves where you're from? [ The part of him that's always been a bit fascinated with the evolutionary journey from wolves sharing their co-operative pack hunting skills with early humans to lhasa apsos in designer purses wonders if he's looking at Mattia's world's first steps towards domestication, or a one-off fluke.
Either way, it's nice to see Crow making friends. Especially if they're going to be hunting together. ]
cryptoherpetology: (067)

[personal profile] cryptoherpetology 2021-05-27 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ He accepts the mock-pity with dry amusement. That particular trap of modern self-perception hasn't ever had much of a hold on him. Grandma Alice probably warded him against it in the crib, knowing her.

He makes an almost frustrated noise when the rats are brought up. ]


And we had to leave the scene so fast, I didn't get a chance for even a quick field dissection. [ He... genuinely sounds like he regrets that. An entirely new (to him) species and he didn't even get to see what kind of circulatory system it had? Kind of a let down, but worth it for the lives saved. ]
morozova: (pic#14878584)

[personal profile] morozova 2021-05-27 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
I find that difficult to believe.

( an observation rather than flattery. it's difficult to imagine someone going to such lengths to bring her — or, indeed, any of them — here if there wasn't something remarkable about her. )

And have you satisfied your curiosity?

trassel: (Default)

[personal profile] trassel 2021-05-27 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ He glances sideways, to make sure play is play, but Trass seems delighted to roll around and keep sniffing, learning how close his New Friend will let him get. ]

Sometimes, yes. In Fjerda, the wolf is our brother.

[ As opposed to certain heathens who kill them and mount the skulls on their walls. Hmph. They can't afford to alienate such a useful animal — there's always packs near the settlements, and he has found villages where the trappers find a pup and keep it. ]

In the part of the army that I serve in, [ he catches himself using the present tense. But it's true. He is still a hunter, a man made to kill Grisha. Eight years don't amount to nothing. ] it is expected to have such a companion.

He made an impression on me, [ in the form of a scar on his right arm that Matthias still carries. He'd passed out from the blood loss, but Trass, just bigger than a pup, had bowled him over, licked him to the point of laughter, roughhoused with him and been his, and it'd been worth every drop. ] and we chose each other. So I raised him.

[ A beat, ]

So Crow is unique, amongst his kind? The only one who lives with a human?
fortyforged: (wait a minute)

[personal profile] fortyforged 2021-05-27 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Exos're robots with human minds, basically." They're a lot more complicated than that but even Exos don't fully understand how they function. Banshee however nods. If this is a dream, then that's really all there is to it, at least for one matter.

He watches Alex go to sit. There doesn't really seem like much else they can do. He's not sure that there's anywhere else they can go, not that it seems all too bad to just remain here. As strange and unusual as it is, the surroundings are peaceful, the space, inviting. He steps back from the water, easing himself to sit, to relax. When's the last time he's simply sat and just taken in his surroundings?
psychometries: (124)

[personal profile] psychometries 2021-05-27 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ah, the spear(?) has a name. She seems so very proud of it, though, so Cal doesn't have the heart to be anything less than fully supportive, even as his eyebrows climb even higher up his forehead. ]

So kind of like me and Beedee?

[ He's joking, as evidenced by the wryness in his tone, one side of his mouth quirking upwards. Now he shuts off his lightsaber, the plasma blade retracting with a hiss, and studies the spear a little more closely, his head tipping slightly to the side.

It's just... huge. But she hefts it so easily, so it must not weigh nearly as much as it appears to. ]


It looks like it might be tough to swing around. Unless Arvess has a few tricks up its sleeve?

[ This isn't a challenge or anything, by the way. He sounds genuinely curious. ]
trassel: (35.)

[personal profile] trassel 2021-05-27 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
That, and Matthias would still be hard pressed to describe what he thinks Banshee is. He knows he's talking to something, and it has a living spirit, enough for a name and for questions to sound like a normal conversation, and for the moment that has to be enough.

'I see,' he says. Home, and what is useful. It's not an ideal life, to be so stripped. 'You build as well as use them, or only use them?'
fortyforged: (huh)

[personal profile] fortyforged 2021-05-27 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
Not ideal at all. And yet Banshee seems to be taking things in stride, or at least figures that letting himself panic about the matter isn't going to get him home any faster. May as well make himself useful. Kitting people out, helping chances of survival? That's familiar territory.

He nods at Matthias. "Yep. I'm a gunsmith, own a shop back home. Not just guns. Bows. Swords. Get 'em fixed up, or make some improvements. Builds too, if I got the materials."
trassel: (30.)

[personal profile] trassel 2021-05-27 06:34 am (UTC)(link)
Panicking certainly helped no one. His own efforts to resist when people had been helping him out of the egg had lacked conviction, and eventually he'd stopped entirely, bearing the wait in the cell patiently, answering the questions the others asked without hesitation or pretence. Then, at least, he'd had Trass to keep him company, the wolf having an equally unpleasant experience with the goo.

'Improvements,' he says, echoing the word that interests him most. His rifle is currently stashed away, but it might be productive to see what can be improved with it — he knows the local guns are more effective than the one he has, even if he's reluctant to trade what's familiar to him. At any rate, he has about a hundred more questions. 'Such as the ones you are carrying, or are those freely available to all? Are there many others like you?'
fortyforged: (put 'im down quick)

[personal profile] fortyforged 2021-05-27 06:55 am (UTC)(link)
Banshee nods. He has different opinions about the guns they have here, so far as he's been able to see anyway, but they definitely have limited offerings. Mass-produced, standard issue. But Guardians are prone to carrying fancier, powerful weapons, and with the things they have to be ready for, you really can't call it overkill.

"This one..." he says as he looks to the auto rifle slung on his left, "Been working on it for some time. These're both Suros..." Not that the brand would probably mean anything to anyone not from his Earth, but both rifles sport the name in red somewhere on their frame. "Not your basic models, harder to get but not impossible."

The other question makes him pause to consider, but he nods. "Depends on how much you figure's 'many', but there's a good number of us. Maybe not as many as humans or Awoken, but still enough to be counted."
bestaround: (Default)

[personal profile] bestaround 2021-05-27 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ just a toplevel for closed starters! feel free to wildcard me with your own prompt if you want, or you can pm/private plurk if you'd like to plot and have me write a starter for you. ]