Reavers.

Of course there were Reavers on the ship. There were teenagers who turned into monsters and viruses that made people crazy and clocks that made people age backward. Why not Reavers?

Following his announcement on the omnicomm, Wash had spent most of his days shut up tight in Serenity. Oh, he wasn't about to have the General come drag him out by his ear, so he still left the ship once a day, but in that time he went straight to the Sensoriums and straight back to the ship.

He was not taking any chances. Miranda was the last time in his life he wanted to see Reavers. Ever.

It was starting to wear on him. Not the close quarters of Serenity - he knew ever door and every switch on that ship almost as well as Kaylee did. No, the ship was the good part.

The bad part was the lack of company, the constant feeling of being at loose ends. Wash paced, more often than not, walking from the silent cockpit to the empty cargo bay to the deserted kitchen and back again.

Needless to say, he could use some company.

As the Clock was destroyed, all of the stolen time rushed back to it's original owners, causing them to rapidly age back to normal. But as the crew would soon notice, it seemed that the stolen time didn't always go back to exactly the right place...

[[ooc: Time to get back to normal guys! This is basically a case of very rapid ageing - they'll basically speed through the years through about a couple of minutes or so. Of course, everyone won't get back to exactly the right time - most will only be out by a pretty insignificant amount of time (such as a few minutes, or hours, or days, etc - depends how close significant events are to the point they're from.) For those who are using this to change canon point, they're going to end up at a different point, obviously]]

It hadn't been long after the end of the Ohm encounter that Duo, troubled by the ever-increasing spots in his memory, had vanished into a self-imposed exile between his cockpit and around the City. Eventually, he stopped showing up much of anywhere- at least as his recognizable self.

The braid remained but both it and he himself had lost a handful of feet and years, and even more of his memory now. Gundams? Only a faint suggestion of that word remained in his memory from his time on Stacy. Sure, he knew mobile suits well enough still. But he hated seeing him, so whenever he did go to the hangar, it was usually to skulk about as unseen as he could manage to, glaring at the towering structures. It seems people couldn't just leave them alone and put their weapons down here, either. He could just picture the concerned look on old Father Maxwell's wrinkled face if he saw all the weapons they had lined up here.

When he wasn't searching for places to swipe food– which he was finding to be even more scarce than it'd been on V-08744– he came to find his favorite pasttime was exploring the impressive structures he came across within the city. He'd only ever seen a few books about the Earth and any of its architecture or structures between his short schooling experience and the church, but he thought the places he'd found here took the cake to anything he'd ever looked at in a book.

Still, he was starting to get lonely. He missed Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. He could get by without the roof over his head and the food on the table that he'd come to enjoy in the past few months, but nothing could substitute being in good company. It was inevitable, he might think in a particularly solitary and objective moment, that he started slipping up in his sneaking about, if it meant that he wouldn't be alone for a little while.

[ooc; Feel free to bump into 8 year old Duo however you like! Replies will be from solo_duo!]

A good number of those affected by the clock had reached childhood, and required supervision. Several of the adults had offered to help, and no one was quite sure anymore who had first suggested it, but it was decided that one night, there should be a sleepover, something fun for the children. The idea had grown; Eva had offered Cassie's house, after getting permission from the other non-deaged resident, Aximili.

In the end, it turned out to be a packed house. There were about twenty children running around, and thankfully, there were five adults and two teenagers supervising. Luckily for Eva, she had made sure to childproof the house the best she could beforehand.

It was going to be needed.

[Planning post is here. HAVE AT. A description of Cassie's house is here, and if you have any questions about it, you can ask Lisa (Eva), Blue (Marco), Cait (Rachel) and Kaylin (Ax). Start up subthreads for stuff, and try not to wreck the place. :D; ]

After everyone and all of their ships were properly loaded the Quarter had launched successfully. The journey from Stacy to the Trojan Asteroid field trailing NiSaris took several hours, but they managed to approach the field with the people of the nearby world being none the wiser.

The problem was that the NiSarians weren't the only ones watching the skies.

As the Quarter approached and entered the asteroid field, all was quiet. But it was only going to be a matter of moments before that would change.


((ooc: See this post for instructions, but otherwise, have at it, and have fun.))

While most people would have been on Shore Leave and head down to the planet, Hilde had decided to go and explore the ship. She had a lot to figure out and she wondered just what kind of places there were. The city had been a sight to see. She had spent a day just exploring that while Duo had gone down to the planet. She hadn't seen a whole lot of him since she first arrived, since he chose to sleep in his Gundam. She didn't think the cockpit of that Taurus unit was that comfortable.

This was her second day of exploring and she was on the outer edges of the city when she spotted something familiar. It looked like a pile of scrap metal piled up about a foot above a fence. She decided to take a closer look.

Once she got closer she realized why it seemed rather familiar. It was her scrap yard. It was separated into different sections by fences and one of them had two buildings, one that served as an office to the yard and the other as her house.

She couldn't help herself and ran back to the hangar to find a certain braided pilot.

"Duo! Duo!" she called out, knowing that he'd hear her.

(OOC: The post is open to anyone wanting to find her in the scrap yard, but one thread is going to be her dragging Duo back to it. Feel free to tag once she gets back in!)

While everyone else was busy going shopping down on the planet, Setsuna had more important things to do. Namely, take his Gundam out for a test run.

Everything had gone smoothly, and all systems were functional. Which bothered him a little bit. There had been certain subtleties to the 00, sometimes it would pull on a hairpin turn, an occasional rattle in the cockpit when he pushed past a certain speed... none of those things were there. The suit was perfect. Too perfect. It was almost as if the suit was brand new.

Except the 00 Raiser had been through hell, and the odds of its GN drives being repaired after Exia and 0 Gundam exploded were faint at best. It did have all the hallmarks of Celestial Being's craftmanship, but even so, Setsuna couldn't help but wonder where did this suit come from? And its GN drives? Two more questions to add to the growing pile, and he still had no answers.

"Gundam..."

As he exited the machine, he half expected to have Trudy screaming at him again about him not asking permission before launching previously. As if he needed her permission, or anyone else's, to take his own suit outside. But as he lowered himself from the cockpit to the ground, those concerns went right out the window as he noticed the two suits docked behind Dynames.

...so, he was here now. And off in the distance he could see that Tieria's suit, which had disappeared briefly, was back again. Which meant that the four of them were together again. The thought brought the smallest of smiles to the corner of his mouth, though only for a brief moment.

"Allelujah..."

As his feet hit the hangar floor, he scrapped whatever plans he did have. After all, if Arios, along with its predecessor Kryios, were both here, his comrade was sure to show up soon enough looking for them. Setsuna would just hang out by his own suits and wait for him.

Down one of the back alleyways, one might stumble across a small sidewalk market full of peculiar shops. To one side was a store selling hub caps, to the other was a man who'd try to convince you that his potions would bring you eternal youth, really.

But in the middle, was a clock shop. It's collection of clocks in stock was peculiar, made of strange materials and working in odd ways (and if you wanted a cuckoo clock, here you could get one with a real cuckoo). But by far the most striking clock was the one that was draped across one of the back tables. The fact that it could drape at all was a big hint to the clock's strangeness. It looked like a giant, metre-wide clock face that had an unfortunate accident with a Bunsen burner and gone all floppy as a result, like it was melting. And yet, the clock still ticked.

The merchant spoke. "Do you want to see something strange and mystical?"

[[ooc: Alright, this is the post that kicks off the Melting Clock! The clock store Merchant here is Jeepers/Peepers, who's being NPC'd by Allen. Since people other than the Melting Clock guys might want to tag Jeepers/Peepers, please mention in your subject line whether your character is to be affected by the clock or not, so Allen knows who to set the chime off at!

Important Note! If your character is to be affected, make sure that you've signed up, guys. If you haven't filled out the form, you haven't signed up]]

Another Important Note: No more new threads please! If you really really want to thread this out, please ask Allen directly if he's able to. Otherwise, just handwave them coming to the shop.

After finally getting around that annoying creature, Sonic decided to put his priorities in order: if he was going to hang around on that ship any longer, he was going to need supplies. HIS kind of supplies.

Which is probably why, at the moment, one could see Sonic leading a few people with what looks like a big fridge and enough chili, hot dogs and hot dog buns to feed an army.

"It's about time we had some quality food on this ship. Well, quality for me, at least." Sonic said. "It's been ages since I had a decent chili dog. That wasn't faked."

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.]

Feldt was starting to feel more at home in the hangar than anywhere else on the ship. She felt at home around the different machines and the couple of Haros that Celestial Being had usually came with her. Lockon's Haro tended to wander back to the Meister, so she was left with the Red one for now. She didn't mind, she loved the little robots.

She didn't go near any of the other suits in the hangar, since she didn't know if the other pilots would want her to look at their suits. Still, she was curious about how they ran without GN drives. All of Celestial Being's Gundams had them. She paused for a moment, looking over at Deathscythe as she made her way to Dynames.

She knew that Lockon had done checks, but she wanted to see the data for herself. The last time she had seen this suit it had taken a lot of damage.

Now Duo wasn't one to call himself an expert on the subject, but he knew it was one of those things he knew he just had to get involved with when he saw it. Just like that guy and the princess.... Duo shook his head as he slid down Deathscythe's wrench to the hangar floor, determined in his intent.

He was gonna make sure that Setsuna and Feldt didn't screw it up.

Strolling across the Hangar floor, he moseyed himself along towards Celestial Being's machines- specifically, towards the Gundam Dynames, trying as best he could to be unseen or at least innocuous looking to Setsuna and Feldt as he did so.

After that, if he could convince Lockon, it was just a matter of the Team of Two breaking the will of Captain and Lady Lineface.

It was about time for Yzak to give Dearka the rundown on how the Sensoriums worked. Of course, Yzak wasn't one to skip on multiple lessons if it was possible. Not only was it a crash course, but a training session for him to get a better feel for what they were up against, so anybody entering the Sensoriums would find themselves on an observation platform if they chose not to conjure up their own mobile suit or decide to just float around in the imagined space environment. The setting for many would also be familiar if they were on Stacy for long enough. Just outside of Zokez II's atmosphere, only not as peaceful-looking as the resort planet had looked when they first arrived. The Ohm in the distance entering the atmosphere were enough of a clue that things were just as hectic down there as it was in space, and space didn't exactly look like a cakewalk itself. In fact, it didn't look like a very winnable scenario at all, even for the biggest teams.

And while they were there, Yzak figured he'd call the other two pilots on his team so the four of them could get some time in together. Publicly, of course. Yzak certainly didn't mind if anybody else from the Blade Squadron or Starfighter Command (or any stragglers) showed up for their own purposes (or, you know, by accident). For now, Yzak stood on the platform next to his white GOUF, and waited.

 So, she'd gone and passed out and gotten quite a lot of sleep. Since then, she'd been doing her best to catch up in terms of training and preparedness. Apparently there was a new group of people flying things called Mobile Suits (which were basically like Evas, except smaller and not as good) and they had their own group.

Or something.

Asuka wouldn't have wanted to work with them anyway. Unit 02 needed no backup! At least, that was her thought. But it'd been a while since she'd taken it out for a spin (and what had ever happened to that guy who was working on a fusion generator for her). She'd have to look into that. Again. At least she wouldn't have to go through basic.

She adjusted her duty jacket, perched on the shoulder of her Eva in the hangar bay. The entry plug was deployed - out and waiting for her climb into it if she wanted, but the damn thing wasn't ready for that yet. She needed LCL, a whole support network, so many things that she didn't have at the moment. She groused to herself and then headed for the catwalk surrounding the monstrous machine. Maybe she should go poke at her X-Wing instead. 

There were some unusual sounds in the Hangar today. Namely, the sounds of a large particle rifle discharging several rounds, followed by the sound of whatever was on the wrong end of those shots quite violently becoming shards of scrap metal. Occasionally, there were also some loud thump, thump, thumps, as a pair of mobile suits would periodically reposition themselves.

Yep. Mobile suits. Or more specifically, the Gundams known as Dynames and the 00 Raiser.

( Read more... )

"Target row cleared. Hit rate: 100%" he spoke over the comms, his voice as emotionless as it always was. "You can commence firing at the next row at your discretion."

Still, while Setsuna's attention might have been focused on Lockon's ability, the fact that there were two giant robots blowing stuff up indoors might draw the attention of others as well.

[Feel free to talk to Setsuna or Lockon or both, or whomever else is around. Thread crashing is encouraged, though you might want to ask first just to be safe]

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.]

While he'd certainly noticed the Vatican plopped down in the middle of the City beforehand on his treks about the area, he hadn't actually found himself compelled- or at least, willing to go near it until now. He wasn't quite sure why, considering it'd been a while since he'd arrived here, but there were lingering thoughts on his mind lately that finally caused him to cave and approach the area.

He'd never actually been to Rome; he'd been just a mite busy for that when he'd gone down to the Earth the previous year, and besides that he couldn't say he was ever all that compelled by whatever good Catholic urges might have been taught into him those couple of years to do the whole pilgrimage deal. He'd had a pilgrimage of his own, and it sure didn't involve going to lay eyes on an old guy with a swank house.

Well, it did. But not That Guy.

Still, he couldn't deny he was at least somewhat affected by the sight of it, deeper he walked in and saw the extent of the damage the place had apparently suffered. "Man, look at this place. Some people just dunno the meanin' of sanctuary," he muttered darkly to himself, stepping over occasional cracks and rubble in the area. Considering, he supposed he couldn't say it was in all that bad shape- but it was just a bit of a shame. One could tell the place had seen better days.

He found himself wandering deeper and deeper into a structure that anyone who had ever opened a travel guide could tell was the inner sanctum of St. Peter's Basilica, and it was then that it occurred to him with much amusement why he'd found himself drawn here.

"I guess this place ain't gonna be holdin' a Christmas mass, this year, huh?" He called out to (apparently) no one in particular, hands on hips as the echo rang through the cavernous hall. Walking deeper in, he eventually plopped himself down in front of the altar in the center of the room, eyes becoming almost dreamily glazed over as he flopped onto his back and stared up at the high ceiling.

"If you could see this place.. The Church would seem like just a hole in the wall, huh...?

[ooc; oh my goodness Duo could you possibly be more tl;dr. Feel free to have tailed him into the Vatican if your character wouldn't have been there already, he'd probably be too navel-gazey to notice 8)]

Now that he was finally taken to medbay and treated accordingly, Yzak was feeling so much better than the time in between the initial tyrant attacks and the holding out in the hotel. Of course, now that he was feeling much better, he felt a little less inclined to stay in medbay. He wasn't stubborn enough to disobey doctor's orders of course, but just stubborn enough to ask about it once or twice and look none too pleased with having to stay put. He was still pretty sore all over, but he'd dealt with this before-- whether or not this was worse was debatable. And at least this time the circumstances were vastly different in more than one area. Plus, blind vengeance-bent rage against a tyrant wasn't a smart idea anyway.

Sitting up and leaning back against the headboard, Yzak sighed. But he was thankful that he'd heal fairly quickly, so he wouldn't have to be holed up here for too long. But in the meantime, there were a number of others who were there for the same reason he was, so at least he had company.



[ ooc; open for people in medbay or visitors to talk to the grumpiest pilot ]

Who knows why the ship was doing this. Maybe it was some kind of social experiment. Maybe Stacy was feeling festive and somewhere, out there, it was Halloween. Maybe the players just wanted to have Halloween fun. No one would ever know, would they.

In any case, what better place for a Halloween dance than a graveyard? In an area in the center, clear of headstones, there was a dance floor, and there were seats and tables with skeletal frames. Somehow grisly carved torches and jack-o-lanterns of varying sizes and shapes, cast enough eerie light to light up the place, despite the fact it was night. There were places to bob for apples, popcorn balls on strings strung up for people to try to eat for games involving that. The food tables will full of Halloweeny snacks and candy.

Far off, there was a haunted house, decrepit and foreboding. It seemed people could look into it if they dared sent down the dark trail to where it was. [ooc: Haunted house post link forthcoming].

Creepy--but danceable music was playing, from nowhere.

Perhaps most notable was the fact that the moment someone entered the Sensorium, they would find themselves in a costume. Sometimes these costumes would be what the character themselves would choose, but sometimes they'd be dressed as something strange, embarrassing, or just something they wouldn't even recognize. Leaving and coming back wouldn't fix the problem, in most cases. The costumes wouldn't change, and if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd change to something better.

Whatever the case, party hard, Meatship. Somebody's got to teach the Vikings, draconians, aliens, and other sundry people to Thriller dance.

Setsuna had stayed, and once again observed the training session of Starfighter Command, but declined to participate. While he had taken time to observe everyone's performance, and had his red Haro record the entire exercise, his attention had been mostly focused on Blade Squad. No surprise there, since they were mobile suit pilots. Like himself.

No. Not like me, he thought to himself.

He was on the bridge of the simulated Quarter right now, and had commandeered one of the various consoles. His Haro was connected to one of them, and was playing back part of Blade Squad's performance in the exercise.

As a team, they did fine, though something was missing in the way they operated. What that was, however, was something Setsuna couldn't quite put his finger on. Perhaps it was just this false environment they were in.

Still, something about this didn't sit right with him, so he reviewed the footage, and largely ignored the goings on around him. Maybe if he watched it long enough, he'd be able to figure out

((Free threading, mostly for Starfighter Command pilots, but everyone is welcome. See the ooc post here.))