The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicomms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicomm. New crewmates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that), a large afro attached to a smaller girl, and talking ponies 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. But thankfully this time, there's a system that was set up to aid the new crew members with a few more experienced ones.

[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. Big brother/sister, there will be a thread for you as well!]

It's shaping up to be another average day on the Transmigration 9. Crew members are going about their business as usual and all is (to most appearances, at least) about as "well" as things ever are on the ship.

Some crew members are going to be stopped out of the blue by impact with a force field.

"Attention Crewmen: You have been chosen to participate in an experiment!" GLaDOS's voice informs. They're not alone, someone else that was nearby is also caught within the same narrow radius. "Participation is mandatory. Please try to relax and enjoy the experience, as this will improve the quality of the test results."

Clearly this is going to be a wonderful day for science.

"You and your new scientific partner are now on a date," GLaDOS goes on. "As it would be detrimental to our study of the date experience if you were to be separated, you must remain close to your partner for the duration of the experiment. This will be enforced with the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field. Prolonged exposure to the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field may have unexpected side-effects. While any side-effects encountered will be documented and your desire to offer yourself to science is commendable, it is not a necessary part of this experiment."

"You will be informed when the test has been completed. We would like to thank you in advance for your full cooperation in the experiment and failure to attempt to foil it in any way."

"The experiment has begun, so you may begin dating."

( OOC Notes Below Cut! )

One of the Sensoriums is active. Inside it's been made to look like a spacious office. A whole wall of windows opens up on a bright but indistinct cityscape. The decor is sleek and modern, though the predominant black and white with no color is perhaps a bit too stark. Some absolutely untouched-looking books sit on a shelf and a plant that is far too green to be real sits in the window collecting dust. There are barely audible stirrings of bad office muzak that are not entirely blocked out by the walls. It's all very sterile and feels off, like it's been put together by someone with a precise list of things that an office is but no understanding of what it's like to be in one.

Suspended over the desk is a gigantic robot.

It glares balefully at anyone who looks in. Or at least it seems to, thanks to that yellow "eye" in its "face".

"Oh. Hello. Come in. Make yourself at home," GLaDOS says. Under her attempt at a flat tone is the faintest hint of resentment.

She does not want to be here. At all.

||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... )

Gods could be too arrogant. Such was the case of SHODAN, who had turned the Pods into a nightmarish zone where she could freely amuse herself and torture those that had come here.

But arrogance breeds pride which breeds mistakes. Instead of killing everyone off, she had decided to do this more slowly – watch them suffer in a slow agony, and, therefore had not expected them to fight back.

It had been a lucky shot, really, one in a million, But one of the people present that day had accidentally shot a tiny, insignificant object. A tiny little drone, that, once it had been the source of the power damper, had fallen. The tables were turned, and the goddess had been forced to retreat from the pods.

Now she was on a panicked mode, not only because some of the other people on the ship had managed to work their way into her system files, using another AI to send pointless images and sounds to her, distracting her from her task, but they knew how they could defeat her and gain their powers back.

It didn't take long for the message to be sent out, as the word quickly spread. Find the tiny little creatures, and shoot them down. SHODAN couldn't work their shields properly and once they were found, it was only a short matter of time before the powers returned to an area.

It would take time, but, finally, the tide of the battle was turning on the side of the crewmen and women. In vain, she was throwing her all; even more strange robot creatures, attacking in packs, but with hope on their side, they could win this...

[OOC - OKay go for it! NPC players, feel free to NPC as many robots as you like. Players, once your powers return, feel free to make as much scrap metal as you like, no need to have people NPC for you if you just want to write tags of them kicking ass.]

This Princess Frou Frou Sparklepants Peace Love and Harmony Ne-Whatsherface had messed with the wrong girl.

Obviously this lady had no idea what Chell was capable of--which was fine by her, because it gave her the element of surprise--and as a result, Princess Frou Frou Sparklepants Peace Love and Harmony Ne-Whatsherface was going down in the worst possible way.

Her ace-in-the-hole was simple. What the self-proclaimed body-meddling deity did not know was that the woman she'd invited to her palace was at her most determined, most ruthless, most unstoppable, most lethal under duress. This was duress. It was the same feeling as facing off with GLaDOS, or hunting down the AI that currently resided in her head, driving her slowly insane--she didn't know how she'd do it, but she knew with all certainty that goddess or no goddess, her opponent would be completely and utterly wrecked by the time she was finished. That was just what Chell did.

Despite the nagging feeling that her sanity was slipping as a result of Wheatley's constant babbling, she at least had enough sense to call for assistance and agree to an organizational meeting before she led a crusade on the ridiculousness that plagued them all.

In accordance with her message, she'd staked out with this strange palace in sight, waiting for backup.

[OOC: Feel free to tag in! We'll start with a little IC organizing, but then they are off to confront Nezaitben. After that, WHO KNOWS.]

Following you awakening and talking with a few of the members through the communication systems by way of the three kind people who had awakened her, Nezaitben realized how the crew was stuck in a terrible mess.

So many of them felt sad and depressed. Considering the entire ship, it wasn't too hard to see why. The next day, there had been an unusual amount of magical flowers spreading all over the ship. Nothing that damaged the controls (she might be naive in the way humanoids were, but Nezaitben was no fool either) but they were found in the most unexpected of places. Her own awakening area was now blooming in a flower paradise, the wooden palace standing proudly on top, the smell and pink cherry blossom strong enough to carry through most of the central city area where most people resided.

Yet the ship was still sad.

This would not do.

That night, or what passed as a night for in the ship, Nezaitben took to the 'sky', letting pieces of her own essence fall on top of the sleeping populace, or those that were not sleeping finding themselves feeling the need too. Enveloping the ship into a peaceful slumber, she searched their dreams. The powers granted to her by the pantheon of gods in her homeworld allowed Nezaitben to weave a series of dreamcatchers giving her the ability to see those whose hearts connected true.

These noble souls would do. Lead by example had always been her philosophy. She would give them a great gift - communication with each other in a single body, allowing them to share everything together. Their two soulcatchers were woven together that night into a single, grand ones, hanging in the garden's trees.

A few minutes later, the empty husks of the bodies that weren't being used showed up at her palace. With a smile, she welcomed them like her own children and began to dress them for their task.

That morning, some of the crewmen would wake up to a strange surprise...and that would just be the beginning of a long, strange misunderstanding and young gods trying too much to please everyone.

[OOC - Just a few rules. Keep in mind the listed rules. You can all start your own threads of waking up in the bodies of others. If you feel like leaving a 2nd post for other people to intact with them, start a reply to your own first post with OPEN header. That way everyone else will know where to post and if you don't feel like having an open interaction post right away, you won't have to!

There will also be another post for all the soulless characters to go around spreading joy and love, so look forward to that too!]

( Terrible song parodies and terrible pictures beyond the cut. )

[Chell and Aya are out and about in the City, wherever you need them to be. I sincerely apologize for this post. The end.]

Another day, another patrol; by now, Zouichi was accustomed to the layout of the ship, and though nothing in particular seemed to be amiss (well, beyond the ordinary conflicts and problems, of course), he dutifully canvassed what areas he was assigned. His bike ran smoothly and quietly, and using it to get around made things a little easier. On the occasions when riding wasn't an option, however, he'd simply sling it over his shoulder and carry it along (that was what the handle was for).

He stopped to chat with people he ran into along the way, but at the end of the ride, he found himself wandering about in an area of the City he'd not yet visited. Which is how he ran into the Parthenon, not a crumbled ruin as it had been in his own time, but fully restored (or perhaps it had simply not yet had time to fall into disrepair). He looked up at the stone structure, curious. A relic of a time when people believed in divine beings as patrons of their cities.

Harry Potter was, inexplicably, unbelievably (given the circumstances) bored.

Then again, maybe it wasn't so much boredom as the fact that he was used to running and fighting and running and mulling over puzzles and running and fighting and so on and so forth, that being stationary for so long was difficult to get used to. Knowing even more was to come had him keyed up with a sort of nervous energy that was difficult to disperse.

He tried fighting holograms with his magic in the Sensoriums, but that didn't help him in the least bit, because he only got more ramped up instead of letting the coiled up spring in his chest release. (Hands down, the feeling was far worse than previous chest-feelings he'd had in the past). He wandered the hallways aimlessly but that only made him feel more restless. He poked his nose in places he was fairly certain he wasn't supposed to go, like the Bridge and the Special Weapons lab, but that didn't help, either. He stared out the Obs Deck window, he canvassed the Art Hall, and he even took a hike through the city, but the feeling wouldn't go away.

In the end, he wound up in Hydroponics, laying down in the grass, the fake sun on his face. Pulling the legs of his plantsuit apart slightly got his feet free and let him wiggle his toes in the grass.

This is relaxing, isn't it? You can still do relaxing, can't you?

He couldn't, though. He just couldn't. In fact, he was fairly certain that even if Ron and Hermione had been there, and they'd been lounging around by the fire of the Gryffindor Common Room, he still would have had trouble.

Why couldn't he seem to let his guard down for even a moment?

[ooc: You can have your character find Harry in just about any area of the ship! Just specify where your character ran into him. Also, please note, I will be tagging this VERY slowly until probably Friday or Saturday, due to school.]

||Attention all crewmen, shore leave is now in progress, attention crewmen, shore leave is now in progress...||

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: Geartopia
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens, Homo Animalia, Machina Erectus.
Water: 20.6% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Earth-like, Arid desert
Landscape: 70% Desert..
Air: Normoxic concentration.
Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.
Warnings: Wildlife, humanoids and plant-life can be hazardous.
Nomalanga has given us a map with which areas to avoid.
Mission: Shore leave, and preparing for an attack in a few days, planet's time. Nomalanga has promised food, clothing and animals in exchange for your cooperation in aiding her.

( You are then given more information, from what you know... )

[OKAY ALL DONE GO FOR IT. You are also free to create additional places, to post your own private logs involving the town! Contact me if you need extra information about Geartopia either via PM to things_go_boom's account or by AIM, I'll be happy to answer. NPC goons if you want to do a bunch of bar fights, just think typical cowboy stuff. Shore leave will last until the 31st and players can go to and from the ship to the city each day, so you can have your characters stay for a day or two and then come back.

People in the miniplots, the mini plots will start up in a few days! There will also be a general fight for anyone who wants to join in on the 29th. Thank you and enjoy yourselves!]

Most of the recently-awakened people had probably heard of the Drunken Dragon tavern within a few days of getting accustomed to the ship. Some had already visited it, and a few had probably even become regulars already.

As usual, the door was open, and Kang and his helpers were there, refilling drinks and being sociable.

The stage was free for anyone that wanted to share a story, sing a song, or play an instrument, and it was more than welcomed, for what's a tavern without some form of entertainment?

[OOC: If your character wants to speak to a tavern person in particular (Kang, Kaylee, Nima or Kali), just make a note of it in your tag. Threads here can pretty much cover any time from the most recent podpop to just after Happy Happy Fun World; backtagging is our friend in T9. :D

Newbies, please make sure to read the tavern link! It's got all the info on the setting, available drinks, etc.]

Weeks had passed since the battle, but the Quarter's repairs were coming along at a crawl. Breeches in the hull were one of the most ticklish things to fix on a starship, and the Ohm's weapons had of course fried most of the circuitry and broken all of the conduits around the breech area. Working with salvaged materials as they did, it was an unfortunate fact that sometimes the fittings just... didn't fit.

"You yī dà tuó dàbiàn!" Wash shouted, hurling his spanner across the cramped area he had himself wedged into. It bounced around the inside of the space and fell clattering on the floor of the hanger. "Damn," he said, and started the process of extracting himself from his spot.

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. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicom. New crew-mates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that) and purple 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.]

To say Chell had been shaken up by Stacy's "gift" would be an understatement. First, Cave Johnson, in the flesh, then the mysterious Other Person, the one who'd led her to GLaDOS' chamber that first time, the one who scrawled cryptic messages in back rooms and painted all those murals of her. Knowing there had been another living person running through the bowels of Aperture the same time she was fighting for her life was a shock, to say nothing of actually meeting the man. It was only a day, but it was enough. She needed to get her mind elsewhere before it wandered to unsavory places. Well. More unsavory places than it had already been.

Generally, when she spent time in the Sensoriums, it was in an imagined outdoor landscape, a yellow wheat field with a brilliant blue sky and perfect white clouds--the opposite of the lab in which she'd been imprisoned, almost foreign. Now, however, Chell was looking for familiarity, and as much as she hated the test chambers, hated what they reminded her of, she had to admit they were the most familiar thing she knew. And on a place like Stacy, familiarity was comfort, especially in the wake of recent events.

And it was good to have a portal device again, even if it was only imaginary. She just plain felt safer with one, the weight of it in her hands and the knowledge that it could provide life-saving escape if the need arose.

Chell had always thought that GLaDOS' puzzles would be fun without the presence of a homicidal robot or two after her blood, and so she found an unoccupied Sensorium and started devising a few of her own, ones with lots of sheer drops and high-mounted panels and aerial faith plates, perfect for launching herself from ledge to ledge around the chamber. If she closed her eyes it was almost like flying.

[OOC: Bendytimed to after Visitation Day. LET US ALL THINK WITH PORTALS.]

Compared to yesterday where the sensoriums had gotten so much use, Lash was glad that it was mostly quiet as she slipped into a free one. The day had passed relatively quickly thanks to running mazes, but even that hadn't gotten her as joyful as she should be, as strange and exciting as it had been.

The world around her changed as she stood atop a giant mountain overseeing the forest below her. Her army stood closer, as her opponent in the horizon began to prepare to attack her. A typical scenario she liked to play out at least once a week, each time using it to test out new invention ideas and fixes she should make to her existing ones.

But she wasn't there. The spark, the thing that made Lash excited about anything war-related and gave her an almost-worrying macabre yet positive outlook on nearly anything appeared to be extinguished. She'd been thinking a lot. Even now, she didn't raise her arms dramatically as she usually did to get the battle started, but merely an uninterested movement of her fingers as she dismissed it all and sat down, dangling her legs over the edge.

"Good evening Mistress Lash! We await your orders!"

She said nothing.

( So what happens if I'm all alone from my world? )

Let it never be said that Stacy was not benevolent toward her crew. Truth was, she loved them, to the point of risking her own life. And thus, she'd been busy for quite some time... silently she had worked, trying to get into her own archives and cross-checking references. She was going to help boost morale and give them a gift - show them people they cared about, wake them up for a single day as proof that, yes, they were there, close by. She was going to give them a day to awaken, to see their loved ones again and to go back, knowing that their time would come one day or another...

It sounded so beautiful and poetic on theory. In reality, it could become a true disaster. Spent of most of the energies doing this task, in complete secrecy to keep it as a surprise, Stacy's never-ending work was only stopped by its own Warden program, which pulled the plug on the ship's search to find everyone at least someone they cared about. That, unfortunately, left her not only spent of energy which was dangerous in itself - but it also meant that some of the crew would be deprived of seeing their close ones, no doubt leaving some of them bitter.

The road to hell has always been paved by good intentions.

Stacy's voice was decidedly more cheerful than normal as she spoke to the entire ship.

|| Transmigration Nine crew, please report to the Observation Deck. I have a gift for you. ||

She repeated the request, and waited.

Once most of the crew had made their way there, she continued.

||I have been working on a...|| she couldn't quite find the proper word and settled on the next one, || present for you. While many of your records are locked to even me, I have worked to find the pods which contain people close to you. I...apologize if some of you may end up with no one, it is not my fault I...|| suddenly Stacy's voice seemed a little less cheerful, ||The Warden stopped me before I could finish everything completely. Please do not feel like I targeted you specifically, I really did my best to get as many of your friends and companions awake as possible for today.||

Now was the hardest part to explain.

||And that is, unfortunately, all that can be given to you. Because their avia are not yet ready to be properly awakened, they'll be here for a single day. Please make the most of it, so you can feel better and continue our mission with renewed vigor . I hope that meeting those that care about you will give you a boost of energy that you all need.|| Spoken like a mother who put her children before herself. ||But if you can...look at it this way, it means that they are here, and one day I will proudly awaken them properly when they are ready.||

Her voice was becoming strange as she went on. Not static-like, but raspy, like someone who was running out of breath.

||And I am afraid that I must go offline for a few hours due to the strain this is putting on...me...|| It sounded really painful for her to speak, completely spent and only going because she wanted to at least give them a proper last word. ||I...hope...you...will...be...happy...a...lit--||

For the first time in a long while, Stacy was completely silent.

[OOC: GO FOR IT.]

Chell was generally not an indecisive person--after all, you couldn't afford to be when you spent the last god-knew-how-long fighting for your life against crazed computers hell bent on stamping you out of existence. She had to admit, though, that her recent waffling was a little ridiculous. Her own sheer stubbornness, though arguably the trait that had kept her alive through the aforementioned attempted murders had become something of a hindrance, especially aboard Stacy, where she might be called to battle at any moment. To put it lightly, she had endured what seemed to be an eternity of toting about an incredibly grating personality sphere because she was too gosh-darned pigheaded to admit that she needed to cart him to Engineering and grant him some form of independence.

And that's where the indecisiveness came in, because there was a very large part of her that was not ready to do such a thing. She knew from experience that granting her robot frenemy any sort of autonomy whatsoever usually ended badly, and there was still a bad taste in her mouth from Lirath's mech suit adventure, to say nothing of their time in Aperture. Chell wasn't entirely sure if she was prepared to be in a situation where she could not monitor him constantly--what if she wasn't there and he got himself plugged into something important?

On the other hand, she recognized the impracticality of keeping him on her person at all times, and knew that the trip down to Engineering would be inevitable. Her arms really, really hurt.

After weighing (ha ha) all her options and speaking to that slightly manic afro girl (who seemed to share similar problems in the "my best friend is an immobile, inanimate object" department), Chell decided it was high time she got Wheatley some limbs...or a jetpack...or something. A consultation with afro-girl and the Engineering department, at the very least, wouldn't hurt.

So there she was, marching down to Engineering and setting Wheatley down on a worktable with a resounding thunk that was obviously meant to draw the attention of anyone in the general vicinity.

Super polite.

[OOC: SO UH marked as open in case any other engineering types (or not-engineering types) want to get in on this and have a free-for-all with some very exciting Aperture technology. VERY. EXCITING.]

Despite not requiring much in the way of food, Zouichi did know how to cook. But with friends and acquaintances from wildly different backgrounds, he figured he could stand to expand his repertoire. So today he was trying out desserts. The inside of one of the Sensoriums had been transformed into a brightly-lit kitchen, its counters covered with baking pans, bowls, fruit, flour, and a multitude of other ingredients.

Zouichi, wearing a dark blue apron, was just taking a batch of chilled dough out of the refrigerator, rolling it carefully out between waxed paper sheets. It was looking pretty good, or so he thought. Nothing had even exploded yet!

From somewhere within the kitchen, the smell of cake wafted up into the air. Caaake.

[This is for Team 1: Lash, Zetta, Martha, Howard, Doctor, Chell, Doc, Sumeragi. The first shore leave / observation deck post is here where they can say goodbye to others.]

As they arrived and landed, there was just a small track of land with one large wooden boat. A man, clothed in black, ushered them in. He didn't answer anything, in fact from the way he squeaked from rust, it was easily to see he was mechanical. Even the water didn't look that deep until near the end, as what looked like sharks swam around them menacingly before disappearing abruptly as they arrived in the middle of a black obsidian castle. The landing wasn't gentle, and everyone was pushed against each other, as the boat lifted itself up and dropped them all together on top of stacks of hay.

There were two rooms leading out. One had carved in "YOUNDER MALE OR WHATEVER SPECIES" and the other "YOUNDER DEM BEAUTIES". Inside, each would find leather outfits, and white underwear so there would be no chaffing. They could use their plantsuits for that too. Soft moccasins for their feet too with a note that while it was not era-perfect, they figured they would appreciate not having too many bruises on their feet (at least for now). The leather was pretty fresh from the smell and looked to have been made just the right size for each person too.

Kinda really creepy when you thought about it.

But that wasn't the worst of it, oh no. The doors would not open until everyone was fully clothed. For those that still refused, ghostly white hands came out of the walls and did the deed for them, removing all weapons and putting them in the appropriate attire before giving a thumbs up and disappearing again.

As the second door opened, with a red glowing orb turning green, they could see many doors leading around twisting, moving stairs that somehow didn't quite seem possible.

The sound of a gong going off somewhere. Again. Three times. Suddenly the weather shifted to sunset (and never changed) and one could swear those ghost hands were now throwing plastic seagulls in the air, as they mostly flew for a few seconds and crashed into the walls. Seawater was blasted off from tiny little spray bottles.

A large scroll appeared, dusted itself sending dust bunnies flying into the air and unwounded before them.

ATTENTION CONTESTANTS! WELCOME YE FAIR OF MIND AND BODY, TO THE GREATEST PHYSICAL CHALLENGE IN ALL THE UNIVERSE!

After what sounded like someone thinking about it, coughing, a few more words appeared.

PLEASE HOLD ON WHILE YOUR HOST GREETS YOU, IN JUST A FEW MINUTES. THIS IS OUR PLAN, WHICH WE ARE TELLING YOU, THE CONTESTANTS.