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Podpop
[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.||
||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.||
no subject
""I stand ready to receive you at your earliest convenience. God bless the New California Republic."
She pushes open the doors of the Lucky 38, and steps into the overbright Mojave sun.
... except maybe it isn't the sun after all. At first, she thinks she's tripped, but something isn't right. The ground underneath her hands and knees is pulsing. Her eyes adjust and it isn't as bright as she was expecting. There is no desert air, no weathered metal under her skin, no Pre-War music crackling over radios. This is the moment where it strikes her that she's naked, and, absurdly, it's because the lack of radios brings to her attention her Pip-Boy is missing.
Elle snaps her head up.
Her heart skips a beat. This... Where am I?! She's never seen anything like this place. It's... beautiful, breathtaking, in a strange and alien way. But it isn't New Vegas. Fear trills through her veins. This isn't the first time she's woken up somewhere she doesn't know without knowing how or why she got there. But, this time, she remembers. She knows her name. She knows where she was before this.
I've been chosen... again.
She takes a deep breath as she begins to move, shifting to stand. She's covered in -- something, and whatever it is, it's thick and viscous and fleetingly she worries if she might get an infection in... places... but she shakes the thought from her head. No matter what is going on now, she needs to stay focused. Once again, she needs answers, and she's not going to find them if she stays here, ashamed of her body or embarrassed at her nakedness (she can see countless others around her and moving in the chamber's alien light, it's not like she's alone) or worrying about anything at all (where's Veronica? Rex? are they even alive?).
Some day, Elle can't help but think, I'd like to have a choice in what messes I get involved in.
no subject
She notices that there are others in the humid cavern who are having the same problems she is, so she hobbles over to the nearest person -- another female, thankfully -- still trying to keep herself covered.
"Hey, are you okay?" Cassie certainly isn't, but she figures it's best to make sure this other person isn't injured, at the very least.
no subject
"Yeah, I'm fine." Elle offers the other girl a smile -- one that isn't strained or wry, but it seems to say this isn't new to me. Why isn't this new to me? "How about you?"
no subject
no subject
"I guess I do, huh?" She sighs now. "It's more like..." How can she puts this? "I'm focused? I guess. It's hard to know what questions to ask when you're too busy freaking out."
no subject
"I'm Cassie." She doesn't bother mentioning that she's the Cassie, although if Marco were here, he'd be constantly harping on it. Which makes her wonder if any of the others are here, too.
no subject
"I'm Elle." She would offer her hand for a shake, but the other girl seems rather preoccupied with covering herself. "How about we get the hell out of here?"
no subject
"Yeah, maybe we can go find some clothes." She hates feeling vulnerable like this; she should just morph, but if she did it now Elle might freak out. Looking around, she notices most of the other people heading in one direction.
"I guess we should follow them?"
no subject
"What do you make of all this?" she asks after a while, glancing over at the other girl.