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Entry tags:
- !location: pod caverns,
- !plot: pod release,
- aibghalien marsai,
- alistair,
- arhu,
- chris redfield,
- cinque nakajima,
- duo maxwell,
- dustin brooks,
- elisa maza,
- eva,
- gaignun kukai jr./rubedo,
- hal "otacon" emmerich,
- hit girl,
- james,
- john-117,
- jomy marquis shin,
- lacus clyne,
- namira amell,
- nunnally vi britannia,
- phillip,
- ren akiyama,
- setsuna f. seiei,
- spider-man (older),
- tavros nitram,
- tieria erde,
- vislor turlough,
- volstagg,
- wash,
- wheeljack,
- yve cousland,
- zhiai'kahn ahl
Podpop
[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.
||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:
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 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.
no subject
"Chief!"
Had she been human, she'd have rushed to meet him. As it was, she simply stood up on the holo-projector to wait. He was all right, from first glance. She would have to be back in his systems to check his vitals and run diagnostics on the armor, but from just a visual check? He was fine.
The feeling of relief was something she knew well. This was no different.
no subject
He hadn't seen her in months before that broken transmission, and the sudden cut off worried him further.
He was also just glad to see her. Cortana was his friend. He had very few of those left.
no subject
no subject
"The transmission. What were you trying to tell us before it cut off?"
He went right to the most urgent thing, what with the state of the ship. It was surreal, standing here in the middle of an apparently all normal pod release while he knew down below all hell had broken loose in the City.
He should've been down there pulling survivors out and subduing the infected, but somebody had to be up here. Somebody had to stay back and cover the rear.
no subject
"Transmission? What are you talking about?" The last transmission she'd ever sent out was a beacon from the wreckage of the Dawn. After that, nothing at all before this conversation. Something was very wrong. And she had to find out what.
"Chief, what happened?"
no subject
Something must have happened, if she didn't remember. How bad it was, he couldn't say without knowing the content of that message. Still, he had a bad feeling about it.
no subject
"Do you still have my data chip?"
no subject
It had been returned to him with his armor, and he was glad for that.
"I'm going to guess you need it."
He unslotted it from the back of his neck.
no subject
And she knew the second she made the jump that the systems were intact. There was nothing missing, or any coding damaged. Just...the feeling that something from her memory banks was gone. Still, it wasn't a major failure. She would be fine. All it meant was...well, it meant that someone had the ability to get past her firewalls. That was a worrisome thought...
no subject
He waited. She'd talk when she had herself sorted out, and questions wouldn't hurry the process.
no subject
"Good news and bad news. The bad news is someone tampered with my memory banks and erased something. The good news is there's nothing wrong with my systems. I'm fine." She was better than fine, actually.
no subject
"Probably Stacy," he said. "She can screw with our memories, so why not yours?"
It was so predictable. The ship just cut them off at every turn, why would this be any different?
"What do you know?"
He could help her figure out at least part of what she'd lost, at least.
no subject
"You had just gone into cryo. The Forward Unto Dawn had been sheered in half, and we were trapped away from Earth. After that, I put myself into hibernation. Then I came back online here, just a few minutes ago." Those were the most recent memories she had. Everything else, he already knew.
no subject
"We're stuck on a transdimensional alien ship. We were apparently recovered from collapsing dimensions. This is sort of a refugee boat. There's an alien species called the Ohm that are tearing apart universes, and our job is to stop them."
It's the shortest form he can give on short notice.
"Our odds are about as good as they usually are."
Yep, that was a joke. He still made those. Sometimes.
no subject
"Then we'll be just fine. I seem to remember you getting us out of worse scrapes before." Something told her that would never change, either.
no subject
He knew what he was good at.
"Right now, the ship's leaked an anti-Ohm pathogen. Some of the crew are infected and attacking others. That part of the ship's quarantined and we've got captured infected restrained down in medical until they can be cured. Most of ship security's downstairs in the quarantine zone dealing with the rest, including my boss."
"I'm up here on pod release duty to make sure we don't get any new problems."
no subject
But why would a pathogen designed to take out a creature affect a mostly human crew that way? It didn't make any sense at all...not yet, anyway. She didn't have enough data to work with. Still...it sounded almost like the Flood all over again.
"So this kind of release happens often, then. If they have someone making sure no problems come through without someone to take care of them."
no subject
And in this case, it was him. There were at least a few other security agents around but before Samus had come back, he was acting head of the department. With Kennedy down in the City, it was good to have somebody with some clout up top.
no subject
"Then how did the pathogen get out in the first place? It just...slipped past her?" Sounded like there was an AI in need of some serious repairs. And for once, it wasn't her.
no subject
Cortana was definitely right about that. The Chief trusted Stacy not to have the crew's worse interests at heart, but not to be reliable. She was better than nothing, but her attention was too divided and she herself was in bad shape.
no subject
She was also willing to venture a guess that no one had run a diagnostic on Stacy in quite some time. Hence why all these problems were happening at the same time. But...as troubling as that was, something suddenly got her attention. They'd been recovered from their world, possibly as it's last survivors.
"Is there anyone else here we know?"
no subject
He understood the reasons for Stacy's instability, but it was still just that.
"As for people we know: Kelly-087, Captain Keyes, and an Elite shipmaster named Rtas 'Vadum. Don't ask me how Keyes is alive, I don't know. He seems to be from another time period."
no subject
"I'll take it you were happy to see Kelly after all this time." There was a note of humor in her tone, but on the inside? She was struggling to make sense of what she'd just been told.
Keyes was...alive? There was no way. No way in hell...she'd seen the Flood he'd become. She'd watched as Chief had pried out his nueral implants so they could destroy the Pillar of Autumn. As much as she trusted John, she wouldn't believe it until she saw him. A collapsing dimension could mean time would change, but it was still something she needed to see first.
no subject
He remembered the last he'd heard from Kelly before this, badly injured and spirited away by Dr. Halsey on some secretive business or another without explanation. Much as he did respect the doctor, he resented how easily she meddled and how little she appeared to care about the ramifications of what she did. The Spartan-II's listened to her, and she knew it and seemed to take it almost for granted.
no subject
But if Kelly and Keyes were alive, what were the odds that others were as well? Perhaps sleeping in the pods, but alive. Something to ponder in any freetime she would have.
"Is there anyway I can help you in this place, Chief?"
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