Podpop

[cityship]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

There was nothing. You were going about your normal life, then there was a bright light, and then? Nothing.

Then the world lurches.

The chamber here is humid.

Actually, "chamber" isn't quite accurate. You're in a cavern, half-lit by an eerie greenish light, going on and on as far as the eye can see. The light is coming from what can only be described as pods, glistening, round greenish-yellow things, glowing with a pale inner light, outlining human -- and not quite human -- forms. Each is rooted to the floor, to the walls, with something black, twisted, and unidentifiable.

They line the walls of the cavern, go up in maddeningly high columns, curling and corkscrewing up into the darkness, until the light from them is like that of the stars, glowing pale and mournful in clusters in the darkness above. Twisted walkways and stairs crisscross, traverse the platforms in front of the pods, wending their way back and forth, up and down through the chamber.

You just came from one of those pods, broke free like a butterfly from a (slimy, nasty) chrysalis.

Now you stand alone but not quite alone, naked, not knowing how you got there, who took you, or why you were taken.

As your body heats up again, you realize the air is warm -- just a few degrees too warm to be comfortable -- and muggy; it smells acrid and organic, like freshly spilt blood and sweat. Your mouth tastes of salt.

The floors are pulsing under your feet, throbbing...

Wherever you are, this entire place...is alive.

Oh, and also you're naked and covered in alien snot.

When you call out, ask where you are, a voice speaks to you, in your head. She tells you:

||You are here.||

When you ask who she is, she tells you that her name is STA'C K'LTRRB'TXFT, but that you may call her Stacy. When she tells you who she is, there is a gush of emotion, love, maternal warmth. You are on a ship. She is that ship. Her name is Stacy and she loves you. Her voice is warm and motherly, even if these messages sound almost automated.

Glowing phosphorescent lights appear in pustules along the floor. They lead you up a massive spiraling walkway that gives you a view of what are possibly millions in stasis. At the top is a room with moving vines that clean you and clothe you in a plant-like body-suit--soft, but durable. After that, the lights lead you to a great cavernous room with a clear floor that lets you see all the holes and tunnels in the walls of it. When you reach the center, the last thing she tells you before whisking you away to gather your belongings and meet the rest of the crew is this reassuring thought:

||You have been Chosen to accomplish a Great Purpose. You have been Chosen to help fight the Ohm, a race of insectoid beings that are the destroyers of worlds.||

||You have been Chosen as champions of life, as protectors of the worlds and peoples that are left. The others are waiting for you. They will explain everything.||

She will tell you nothing more. Your answers lie with these "others" she speaks of.

Comments

[deusrexmachina.livejournal.com]

Hal Emmerich came into the world disoriented, everything swimming before his eyes as he was ungracefully ejected from the capsule and onto the floor, feeling not so different from a fish out of water. It took him some time to rise to his knees, and even longer to stand as he took in his new environment. A foreign environment, like nowhere he could yet recall. And from the moment that thought penetrated his mind, Hal had to do everything within his power to quell his rising fear and panic, though his heart was already hammering in his chest.

His next thought was that he had to be dreaming.

No other explanation made sense to him, though his senses seemed to be screaming at him that things were most definitely otherwise. He could feel the slime on his body, and the faint heat of a blush rising to his cheeks when he became so very, very aware that he was naked, with whatever cover the slime provided him hardly adequate for someone as awkwardly self-conscious as he was. He could hear that voice in his head. Not through his ears, but in his mind, like something out of a science-fiction novel.

It wouldn’t be the first time he had dreamt of something like this, but Otacon couldn’t recall any dream of his feeling as tactile and real as this one did.

And he was blind. Not truly blind, of course, but his vision was blurry, a curse of his nearsightedness made worse from years upon years of continuous computer use. Objects were indistinct, nothing more than vague shapes that had color. He had never not been able to see well in his dreams before.

Just what was going o—

Then he heard a deep, almost canine whine, followed by a shout made by a female voice far different than the one he had heard within his mind. He nearly jumped in response—was she yelling at him?—his feet pivoting around to where the sound had come from while his eyes tried feebly to locate the voice's owner. Then, his eyes locked on to a human body not far from him, as fuzzy and undefined as everything else, but…

“I—I’m sorry!” he shouted, averting his eyes immediately after, hoping to hide the blush that was probably making itself embarrassingly manifest. His voice sounded like an odd, faraway echo to his ears, and he was suddenly glad he couldn’t see well. Thank God he couldn't. “If you were talking to me, I’m sorry, I—I don’t mean any harm. I honestly—I don’t even know where I am.” His shoulders tensed. He probably sounded like a complete idiot. He sighed, breathed in. “…I apologize. That wasn't my intention at all.”

[nodamsel.livejournal.com]

It was lucky that she'd been warned off by Stacy, because while that hardly eased her, she was a little more slow to call her hound in to attack.

"Calm down," she sighed, whistling for Boulder to return to her side and starting towards the man avoiding eye contact. "I do not harm innocents, and so long as you're not going to attack me, the dog will behave." She would probably actually find his behavior more amusing, had she not just stumbled upon him in the middle of a fleshy hallway without any of her gear.

"I'm guessing you've got about as much of a clue as to what's going on here as I, hm?"

[deusrexmachina.livejournal.com]

"Attack you? I, no. Why would I? I couldn't possibly..." he said, almost more to himself than to woman. He might've laughed, had the circumstances been different. Him attack something? He couldn't even fight to save his own skin.

At her next question, however, Hal shook his head, shrugging his shoulders, and trying very hard to keep his mind off the fact that the both of them were naked. He felt awkward just thinking about it. "...You're right on both counts, unfortunately, though I wish I did."

[nodamsel.livejournal.com]

She frowned slightly, watching him for a moment, before nodding her head.

"Right, well. No use standing here, then. If there's danger ahead, may as well walk right into it as opposed to waiting for it to find us, I always say." Or she thought it a hell of a lot. Saying it out loud would probably just end in a lecture from Wynne.

"I am Yve Cousland, of the Grey Wardens, by the way. I typically like to learn a man's name before getting his clothes off, but things seem to have gone a bit backwards, here." She smirked at that, before inclining her head slightly and starting in the direction the little fleshy lights seemed to want them going in.

[deusrexmachina.livejournal.com]

Yve's last comment was met with several spluttering false starts that died in Otacon's throat before he even had the chance to verbalize them, his skin flushing to an even deeper shade of red. Not that he wasn't glad that the woman didn't mind being naked with him in the same--No, no, that wasn't it at all. It was good that she wasn't uncomfortable. That was it, because all Hal wanted to do was to crawl into a locker and hide until Snake came and found him.

"It's Hal—Hal Emmerich," he finally managed to say, as he started to follow her, keeping his eyes completely and utterly trained on her dog, which was something far easier to stare at. "It's nice to meet you. I mean, I know the circumstances could be better, but... You know." Breathe in, Hal. Breathe. If only he was better at starting conversations.

He inhaled, exhaled, continued to walk. "You're... awfully calm about this."

[nodamsel.livejournal.com]

She couldn't help the grin on her face as she got exactly the sputtering reaction she'd hoped for, though she was past him so quickly he may have missed it. She kept a steady pace down the hall, keeping her eyes open and her senses alert, though it was hard to tell just what was going on, with all this... goo everywhere.

At his observation she shrugged a shoulder, glancing back at him and arching an eyebrow.

"This isn't exactly the first time I've woken up captive in a strange place with no clothes." Do with that what you will, Hal. She turned her gaze back to the corridor ahead, reaching out to pat Boulder's broad head. "There's no use in panicking, anyway. At least not until I know what's going on and where my friends are."

[deusrexmachina.livejournal.com]

Otacon didn't immediately fall into place beside her, instead, staying just behind and to the right of the formidable-looking canine padding alongside the woman. He felt awkward enough, being any closer in proximity would only make the feeling worse. Nevertheless, he tried to keep his mind off their current predicament, trying instead to hone his attention on something else. Something more concrete. The ship itself was doing an ample job at doing so, combined with his growing worries sparked off at the mention of "friends."

If he was here, then where was Snake? Meryl? Raiden?

...But Yve was right, of course. Panicking never did anyone any good. He had learned that a long time ago, even if he had difficulty putting it into practice at times. "Um, I know this is going to sound strange, but..." and here he hesitated, turning his head to better examine the walls, running a hand along it. It felt almost, well, alive. Organic. Distinctly so. "...you didn't hear a voice earlier, did you? Inside your head?" He paused again, voice lowering in volume. "...Or am I going already going crazy?"

[ooc: sorry for the late tag!]