||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

Stacy's voiced called the entire crew, until all of them were gathered at the Obs Deck. Then, a dossier appeared on the screens, along with the image of a rotating planet.

Planet Designation: Pelau
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Moderate flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Yes
Water: 75% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Climate varies by region.
Landscape: Landscape at the North Pole varies. Within the biodomes, significant development. Outside the domes remains mostly pristine.
Air: Normoxic concentration: 29% oxygen, 60% nitrogen, 3% xenon, 6% trace gases, such as hydrogen, krypton, and argon.

Air Pressure: 14.352 pounds per square inch.
Sky: Blue/violet with white clouds.
Sun: A class D4K, yellow star.

Warnings: Be careful of frostbite outside the biodomes.

Mission: None. Shore leave is now initiated.

[Here's a handy map of the North Biodome where the crew is being dropped]


( Read more... )

The battle had raged for three days with the occasional lull, and there was still no sign of Baron Raleigh and reinforcements. There had been heavy casualties on both sides; King Demetrius's forces had been cut in half, but that still left Nasat outnumbered two to one.

Things were about to change, though.

[OOC: The Spy's Report is now open!]

The previous night, the team had learned the details of the situation. King Demetrius Fenley had once been a fair but strict ruler. Three years ago, he had acquired a new advisor, a beautiful woman named Diana Wynnthrope, who came from a small nation on the other side of the mountains. The changes were subtle at first, with the king becoming more suspicious of others’ intentions and enacting harsher laws.

Baron Archand had noticed these changes, and had spoken up about the new laws. He had always respected his king. What had happened?

Nasat was located near a mine that produced precious gems and metals for the kingdom. King Demetrius had become convinced somehow that the town was not paying its fair share of taxes, and accused the baron of hoarding said gems and metals to fund an army and take the crown. Archand had done everything in his power to refute the false claims, but to no avail. So, with word that the king was sending an army to seize the rebellious town, he had sent for aid from his friend Baron Raleigh in Pertus. Raleigh had readily agreed, also being uncomfortable with the new laws, and was further seeking the help of the bronze dragons (bronze dragons that looked exactly like Crucible) in the nearby mountains he had his own alliance with. Unfortunately, Raleigh’s troops would not reach Nasat before King Demetrius’s.

It was impossible to find a person in Nasat that wasn't helping to prepare for battle in some way. Even the children were busy, packing food and clothing for evacuation and carrying supplies to and from for the adults.

There was an entire section of the town dedicated to the creation of weapons and armor: women making arrows, blacksmiths forging blades and breastplates, and engineers building siege engines. Oil was being gathered, along with firewood, and a fire brigade was sent out to place buckets of water in strategic locations throughout the town. Mages gathered and shared their spell components with each other.

Nasat was clearly a town where everyone was used to helping their neighbors, and happy to do so.

Baron Archand was not adverse to getting a little dirty and helping out himself, either. While making his rounds, he worked the bellows for the master blacksmith for a few minutes, chatted with a group of older ladies while fletching arrows, and dug one of the holes for a wooden spike with a shovel.

Sentries had reported that King Demetrius's forces would arrive the next day, and there was much more work to be done.

[OOC: Backtagging in the previous post is definitely okay and encouraged! The next post will be going up on November 26th.

Feel free to NPC the townspeople in the first subthread! You can be creative with how your characters help with preparations, too, so have fun with it!

All subthreads are open!]

||Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck.

( Personnel )

Initially, it had seemed like a good idea. At first. But it had been much better on paper than in practice. With Zuko and himself no longer on speaking terms (over what Hiccup considered a completely ridiculous matter), Hiccup had no one to train with. His first logical thought was, of course, to seek out a replacement by training with Astrid.

While the levels of pain and strenuous physical activity were the same, there were several problems with this arrangement that he hadn't considered, however.

1) Astrid's style of fighting was all she knew how to teach and while it suited her perfectly, it wasn't really well-suited to Hiccup. Zuko knew how to teach Hiccup to work through his weaknesses and play to his strengths.

2) Astrid seemed to think that repeatedly throwing Hiccup on his butt would teach him how not to get thrown on his butt, when he really needed to be taught how not to get thrown on his butt while getting thrown on his butt.

And 3) It was really, really much easier to become distracted by certain...things while training with Astrid. Like how her body arched right before she did a back handspring and kicked him in the chest. Things like that tended to make him forget to dodge like he was supposed to (and sometimes he even forgot to breathe). He had no idea what to do about it, either. There was no way he could stop equating Astrid flipping around and using brute force with blistering hotness in his head, given her capacity for it was one of the things he found attractive about her. It really didn't help that she'd stripped off the spiky overskirt and shoulder guards and looked a lot curvier for it, either.

After about the fiftieth time of being knocked in the dirt, upside down against a tree, Hiccup said mournfully, with a slight pout, "It's just not the same getting beaten up by you."

 After receiving the warning the Tapestry had provided them, along the order to begin preparations from Councillor Kang, the crew had been getting ready for upcoming combat with the Ohm.

Unfortunately, the rather vague nature of the warning they received meant they had no particular way of knowing exactly when this battle would occur. Understandably, this put some of the crew on edge, but at the very least they had some prior warning that they would be facing the Ohm, rather than being thrown blind into such a dangerous situation. Combat drills, vehicle maintenance and armory inspections seemed to be regular sights for the week or so following Kang's message. Not much time to prepare, but the crew worked with what was given to them.

Eventually, however, the call came.

||Alert, Alert,|| Stacy called out throughout the ship, ||Priority One message from GIA High Command. All crew members please report to the Obs Deck. Repeat, Priority One message from GIA High Command, All crew members please report to the Obs Deck...||

Stacy kept repeating the message over and over until the crew began making their way towards the Obs Deck to receive the message.

[ooc: As implied by the post, we're assuming the crew's ICly had a one-to-two week heads-up about the battle. It was supposed to be played out, but RL timing prevented this from working out. Feel free to come up with the details of your character's preparations on your own

Also, as usual, please wait for subthreads to go up before tagging in.

Edit: It's up! Feel free to start tagging in!]

Hiccup had something bundled and strapped to his back as he made his way through the hallways. He was sneaking, because that something was a present, and he didn't want its intended recipient to know it even existed before it was finished. Fortunately, she didn't tend to hang around Special Weapons that much, if at all.

"Hello?" he ventured quietly as he made his way into the room. "Thanks ahead of time, by the way. The deadlier I can make this thing the better."

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

It had come to her just a few days after returning to normal. Why not have a beach party? ...Well alright, her first thought had been 'why not have a war party' but then she wisely realized that not everyone would enjoy something like that. But everyone had enjoyed the time they had spent on the beach a year ago! ...At least until the Ohm came and ruined everything, but it still had been fun!

But her? Organizing a party? On a beach of all places? It would take research. Books. A lots and lots of books. A few days in between all her other usual routines and activities, the wunderkind was unusually quiet, her head stuck in between pages and taking down notes. After reading and thinking herself good enough (of course she was! She was the wunderkind, right?), Lash had finally gone into the Sensoriums and prepared.

The beach itself came from a mishmash of ones she had read up on along with her single experience a year and a half ago. The sand was warm, free of any debris a normal beach might have had and colored pearly white. Seashells dotted the shore, in intervals so that it wouldn't be too annoying to go into the water, some comically large but how could you argue with someone who didn't know about this? The water was clear, slowly fading from view as it got more and more blue reflecting the cloudless sky. A few schools of colorful fish could be easily seen, moving away whenever someone got too close to them.

The sun was warm, but not overly so. Humidity was at a comfortable level. Dreamlike perfect weather. If you looked really closely, you might notice that the sun itself changed from orange to yellow to red once in a while, giving the beach a subtle tint.

Parasols of all shapes and colors dotted the sandy landscape, nestled between palm trees of various sizes and large tropical flowers and a single human-sized large Venus Flytrap. A few hammocks were also strewn between two tree trunks, for those that desired a prolonged rest. There was also a volleyball court in the shade.

Lash had taken a few trips to get as much food slop as she could carry, and had turned it all into typical beach food (at least what the books had explained to her anyway). Hot dogs, hamburgers, tropical fruits, seafoods of all kinds and, curiously, large bowls of chocolate pudding were presented on...well, bare-bones picnic tables with no decoration whatsoever. She wasn't one to make things pretty. Another note stuck nearby told visitors to create more food if they didn't find anything they liked. Next to all of that, a large wheelbarrow filled to the brim with a sweets of all kinds for no real reason (watch out not to eat too many of the poprocks!)

The next few tables held all the alcohol and juice bottles. Lash, again, had been getting reference from the library's liquor books, trying to pamper to everyone's personal likes. However if you looked closely some of the bottles had unusual names on them; "I guess this is supposed to be vodka? What's vodka?" and "Green stuff! I don't know what it's supposed to be but, it looked cool, tee hee." Empty coconuts shells with rows upon rows of miniature umbrellas acted as drink holders. However if you wanted to use a cocktail shaker or other specialty tools to get all fancy, you'd need to create one yourself, Lash didn't know about them and therefore hadn't herself. Large buckets of ice stood nestled in larger blocks of frozen liquid nitrogen (hey...it was Lash, after all).

A robot band played close by to the food, each sporting a small name tag 'HI MY NAME IS ___', filled out with ones she had found in various music media (Bill, Ted, David, Nigel and Derek) sporting a fine selection of wigs that might remind people of the original musicians themselves. It was possible request a song, if you were able to think of it. Currently, they were playing something that sounded good to Lash's ears. But then when no one was asking anything, they'd play something with a little bit of more of party time.

This almost looked like a typical beach!

...until you noticed the two giant pirate ships in the middle of the ocean, and the giant sand castle farther away from the main beach area. Oh.Of course. Both had everything true pirates could ask for, even working cannons, treasures, hats and weapons. Yeap, that sounded a lot more like Lash's style. Look, she just really needed excitement in everything.

When everything was done, she put on her best swimsuit (and shades) before sending out a message to everyone (well the girls in particular) but didn't bother locking it to just them. After all, what was the fun if the boys didn't show up? Either way, it was going to be fun.

[[OOC - Feel free to jump into each other's conversations if you like or start new threads with an activity like 'so and so serves drinks', 'pirate ship battle' or 'this guy marches into the sensoriums with his speedo' etc. Have fun!]]

"Toothless! Oh, Toooothless! You hungry, bud?"

Hiccup still preferred to feed the dragon, even if Toothless could will up food anytime if he wanted. It was their way of spending time together. Hiccup would feed him, Toothless would happily regurgitate some, Hiccup would politely decline and maybe fry up his own, un-eaten fish, and they'd just spend an hour or two in each other's company.

Toothless wasn't there in his Sensorium, though, but that didn't worry Hiccup at first. The dragon was free to wander where he wanted, and he could've been anywhere.

So he took to the halls.

"Toothless! Where are you, buddy? It's dinnertime! Toooothless!"

Not in his forge. Not in Daja's Forge. Not in the Drunken Dragon. Not near the river, not on Obs, not in the halls, not in any of the other Sensoriums, not there, not there, not there, not there.

Hiccup was in something of a panic towards the end.

"Toothless! Buddy! C'mon, where are you? Toothless! This isn't funny! No hide and seek, okay? Where are you?"

He knew. In his heart of hearts, he knew.

It was in the Spacewalk that he finally stopped, late, very late, when most were sleeping, when Astrid would've been expecting him come to bed, and there, heartbroken, he asked Stacy the question he knew was going to get an answer that he didn't want to hear.

"Stacy, where's Toothless? Where is he?!"

||There is no one named Toothless on the active crew roster.||

Repodded.

Hiccup knew he was safe, he knew he was even safer than if he was outside, he knew he'd see him again, but all the things he knew didn't matter when juxtaposed with one, simple fact. His best friend was gone. His best friend, who'd been by his side near-constantly since they'd taken their first flight together, was gone. His best friend who'd comforted him through the end of his world, through horror and being bed-bound with injuries, who'd kept him sane even when trapped in another form in Fairplay, who loved him all the times he couldn't love himself--he was gone.

Gone gone gone.

If anyone were to come by the Spacewalk, they'd find a teenage boy sitting on the floor, staring out of the clear panels of the tunnel there, at the stars and twisting dimensions going by.

"I'll find you, bud. She can't hide you away forever, and if she tries, I'll find you. I swear."

His knobbly knees were drawn up, with his arms around them, and he was very pointedly, very purposefully, not crying. He wasn't crying at all.

[ooc: Can be a standalone, as he's emo-ing pretty badly, but if anyone's nice to him during it, he'll probably seek them out and try to be friends later.]

The atmosphere inside Daja's forge was calm today - she had no pressing projects of her own, she was free to fully devote her time to Hiccup's education. It was a new experience for her, teaching smithing. She had certainly been a teacher before, with students learning magic or staff fighting from her, but she had never taught her own craft.

Admittedly, despite the fact that she frequently found herself wishing that Hiccup would show more appreciation for the aesthetics of metalcraft, she found she enjoyed the experience. Even if there were the occasional frustrations, it filled her with pride to see him grow, and to know that he had the potential to grow even further.

Hiccup's current project though, was clearly an important one to him. Astrid's shield had been significantly damaged, but it was not beyond repair. It would take skill, but it was not beyond Hiccup's abilities.

"You know, if you don't mind I could add some magic into the shield," she suggested. "It would not be as strong as magic worked into something I forged myself, but I could nonetheless make it more resistant to rust and breaking."

Neither Rachel nor Marco had any real trust in the medical situation they'd both been forced into. It seemed like they had been tricked and betrayed; and it meant that there were instantly a few more people crossed off their list of who they should trust when they escaped. In fact-- it left them at each other, it seemed, when they did escape from medical, two cockroaches slipping out of sight while medical was distracted from them.

Of course, this was compounded by the fact that several communications posts went up shortly after-- one announcing a Quarantine (thankfully they'd gotten out in time for that) and one announcing their abilities to the crew to warn them. And then things got worse-- Marco's morphing began to get weird, and Rachel... literally split into two.

This wasn't going well.

((ooc: As Blue's OOC post said, we need to make sure that only the people signed up for taking the two 'groups' (Nice Rachel and Marco in one corner, just Mean Rachel in the other) to Quarantine are the ones who actually do that. Other than that, feel free to try and do it! Tag under the header for whoever you want to thread with and feel free set the scene, and ours will enter in. :) ))

After the briefing, the Orbs Deck disconnected from Stacy, making it's way down to the planet and landing on the top of what looked like...a mall.

Outside, a mismatch of buildings stretched as far as the eye could see on a backdrop of a sunny green sky, a few golden clouds lazily floating across it. Here there was a mall, there there was a endless parade of street shops, and over there was a bazaar. And everywhere you looked there was advertising, selling everything from kitchen knives to starship engines to pet cosmetic surgery.

And populating this world was a practically endless number of species's, all of them brought together by one thing: trading. Credit was being exchanged everywhere you looked, from the shiny exclusive stores to the the dark and dangerous spaces in-between.

As the crew stood around, a peculiar looking alien with a mustache approached them, his oddly-shaped legs and knees making it looks as if he was walking backwards even though he was coming forwards. And as he moved, his accordian-like midsection made moved, making a weird, wheezing noise that might remind some of the crew native to Earth of the sound of Fran Dresser's voice.

<Welcome to XaXing, strangers!> he said to them in thought-speak, eagerly rushing towards everyone. <I am Guide! Your ship has already arranged accommodation for you, and I have been employed to guide you there and answer your questions! But if you would just sell me your memories then I can also guide you to all of the best stores and markets...>

[[ooc: After this post, everyone is free to make their own posts on the planet! Just tag all logs for Shore Leave with !plot: shore leave.

Also, if you have any questions you can ask Guide! ...just be prepared for him to also try to buy your kidney.]]

Admittedly, Rachel had noticed a while ago-- it was something hard to not notice after all-- but she'd been dealing in her own way. Maybe there was a bit of denial, a bit of grief... but now, she was mostly just trying to work out her frustration. Tobias, Cassie, Jake-- all three of them had disappeared on her. She was angry at Stacy for having taken them away, and... well, she missed them, obviously.

But at that point? She was mostly just frustrated.

Fortunately the sensoriums were a good place for blowing off steam, and working off anger. Rachel was kind of growing to like them for that-- it was easy to just sort of be angry at things, and let it out. Less people to bother her too-- but she didn't really bother with locking the door either.

The African Elephant stomped around the Zoo that she had conjured up in the rooms. Normally one wouldn't be out of place-- but this one was trampling abandoned candy stalls, and occasionally prying apart cages.

You know how sometimes, for dramatic effect, a character about to drop an F-bomb will inhale -- and then the camera will cut away to a long-shot of the city. A bell rings. Birds take flight in alarm.

The City just got one of those.

That's right. In the Overlord's Fortress, staring in horror at the omnicomm, the badass freaking Overlord, the strongest being in the cosmos, just let fly one ludicrously loud profanity.

Even his mindless minions were staring at the book in horror.

A Prinny spontaneously exploded.

Mai was still angry. Still feeling resentful, even a day or two later. It was simmering underneath the surface, just underneath the calm, bored facade. Someone who knew her well might see the tenseness in her shoulders, the way she moved just a bit too quickly for her normal, sedate pace.

She still couldn't believe they'd agreed to let her live. That Zuko had been injured because of it. And that nothing was going to happen. They were just going to "try" and make sure Azula stayed locked up. They thought something like that would actually work. As far as Mai was concerned, Azula was a threat until she was dead. It was Azula, after all. Even if she was crazy.

There was also the matter of having her memories modified. The girl, Kaya - who everyone had thought was Katara. The ship had made them think it was Katara. And the ship claimed it was a mistake, that it had been an acident and it wouldn't happen again. Yeah, right.

How did she know she was really Mai? Or if Zuko was really Zuko? What if all of her memories of Zuko were of someone else?

So her anger had become something unfocused, just a seething little pot of resentment that threatened to boil over. So she'd gone to take out her anger the only way she knew how. By throwing knives. She'd started with wooden targets and worked up to simulations. At this point, she was pegging guards in nondescript clothing to walls. And perhaps she was nicking a bit more skin than she really should, but she was angry.

Samus was taking part in one of the few luxuries she had here on the ship: the amenities of the crew lounge. She leaned back in the leather armchair, taking a sip of her whiskey coffee and tapped a few times on her omnicomm with her free hand. She was busy at work. It was nice to get out of the office. She didn't have to stare at the empty side off the office that way.

Not that she missed the other Chief of Security or it bothered her at all. Nope. Not one bit.

This could not be happening. It could not be happening. They'd been called into a briefing.

"You want us to what?"

Stacy explained again.

"I heard you the first time! I just meant--are you--you want us to what?"

Stacy explained again.

"Rhetorical! That was rhetorical! And yes, I realize I'm slightly hysterical, but this--Stacy, this is crazy. You can't possibly be sending just us." He just couldn't believe it. He'd been skeptical from the moment she called him and Toothless--and just him and Toothless--in for the briefing.

||After running multiple tactical scenarios, it has been determined that the only crew members necessary to complete this mission are yourself, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, the Third, and the dragon designated Toothless. Sending you both on this mission--alone--guarantees the greatest and perhaps only possibility of success.||

The could not be happening. Not when everything was finally going so well. Not when he'd finally, you know, ahem, with Astrid, and there was the possibility of more of it happening on a regular basis. Not with a ship full of warriors and soldiers and mages and--and people that weren't him, people that could do this mission easily and not get killed horribly.

"So what you're saying--correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is what you're saying--there is this world with dragons and--I'm sorry, does this say elves? And dwarves. And something called moppits. And there is some sort of Lord of all Darkness casting his shadow over everything that is, sending out whole armies that devastate everything in their paths."

||Yes.||

"And in the face of all this, instead of sending out, oh, the small army on the ship with the lasers and guns that go pwew pwew, you're sending the single, admittedly awesome dragon, and the scrawny Viking with the limp. This seems like a good idea to you."

||Yes.||

Hiccup tilted his head a the ceiling, a difficult maneuver, but one of many skeptical gestures he was something of a master of. Then, eyes wide, he blurted out:

"Daa daa daaa--" he beat out the next few beats on a nearby chair, just because it needed percussion this time, then turned to his best friend with a snap of his fingers. "We're dead."

You're gonna die you know.

Despite not registering as a hallucination anymore Tuffnut's voice still registered in Ruff's imagination during moments of stress or self depreciation and there was no finer a situation for it then now.

Astrid had contacted her and wanted to talk. It didn't take a genius to figure what about and Ruffnut was hardly a genius.

The short to the point talk with Hiccup had been...enlightening at least. Thanks to the constant pushing of Zetta and Mindy Ruff had been forced to think far more then she ever would have back home.

As she stepped into the Sensoriums to meet with Astrid she had to take a breath and remind herself that Astrid probably wouldn't kill her. Not that Ruff would blame her for a little maiming.

Eventually, morning came. For those inside the city, it had been a quiet, pleasant night. For those outside...well. At least no one was hurt.

As the sun rose, the sky took on an amazingly beautiful violet hue. As the crew began to awaken, they'd receive a message from Stacy, stating that those intending to attend the meeting with the Moai Elders were to gather near the massive stone stairway that led to the top of the plateau the city of Orongo surrounded.

It was time for the real mission to begin.

[ooc: wait a second for subthreads to go up]

[ooc: and done! start tagging!]