VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-01-11 05:58 am

Fierce New World- Mission Start!

"Good Morning passengers. Today is day six of the month of Jelly." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preparation and Arrival

They have a short time to prepare for their mission, enough time to read their briefs, make decisions, meet in their teams and gather anything they may need.

A few hours later there is another announcement. "Shortly arriving on System #2207385. All passengers get ready to disembark. Next stop world #2207385. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train judders as it leaves the void, the colours from the windows turn into the blackness of space but quickly white as the train descends into the entrance of the biosphere.

The doors of the train open and passengers can enter the large white-walled holding bay. Currently, they are the only vehicle inside. There are four large doors around the bay each labelled with where they lead. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The doors open easily, and their SCA’s show a basic route, though the non-linear nature of the sectors mean that obstacles will need to be navigated. While they are in a closed world, there is a day and night cycle: the panels far up above are designed to make it seem like there is a natural sky, brightening and dimming every ten hours.

Red/Summer

Empty Streets

Wide streets divide sealed-off factories and manufacturing pods that tower up towards the ‘sky’. It is hot here, though the fumes from the factories are vented out, leaving the air breathable if overly warm.

Sometimes the pods are not yet finished, empty shells that can be sheltered in. There are also stations for living, with plumbing and basic amenities scattered through the sector. Places to rest as they move towards the center and the Great-Summer that they seek.

Helpmates

Where factories are still being built they will find Helpmates, operating machinery or moving materials.

They will not pause in their tasks for long but are programmed to answer questions so can be drawn into a conversation. Or, if the Voidtreckers are unfortunate, they will find those that are malfunctioning turning on them as they approach.

They aren’t too difficult to fight, but can do some damage with the machinery if they manage to take a Voidtrecker by surprise. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down outright.

Wild Weather

Though warm, the corridors remain a constant temperature that is not too unpleasant for people. For the most part. Unfortunately, due to the malfunctioning state of things routes may become impassable. Boiling air, freezing blasts, electricity crackling across a pathway.

Their SCA’s do a good job of warning them, allowing them to change direction or shelter in nearby buildings.

Purple/Autumn

Exploring

The Autumn sector is the least complete of the sectors, with shells of habitation pods and not much else. No one is expected to live here until nearing the end of construction, and so the pods are unfurnished, many missing doors, some missing internal walls.

Outside the streets are wide and clearly made to be pleasant to walk on; it is airy, bright and spacious, if a bit eerie due to the quiet.

There are panels on the walls, to call Helpmates to appear. Here they are primarily for helping citizens, giving directions and offering aid.

Malfunctions

Since there are more helpmates there is more risk of them malfunctioning. They attack with or without weapons, using any tools they can pick up to attack. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down.

They won’t chase people into the houses, their privacy programming preventing them from doing so.

Turned Around

The roads seem simple, built in a grid pattern around the houses. However, whatever is going wrong here is affecting the very streets themselves. Sometimes there will be a wall where there wasn’t before or roads go in circles. Sometimes they find themselves at a dead end, trapped until structures shift again.

Their SCA’s do their best to keep up but it can take a while for them to reroute and by the time they do, that path might be blocked too!

Blue/Spring

Patchwork Forest

The Spring sector houses the hydroponics and pastoral sections. It alternates between grazing land and more heavily forested areas with rows of pine-like trees in a checkerboard pattern, with empty plots interspersed. Walkways divide each square, but all squares appear able to move about as required, as though on a conveyor system.

There are clear walkways to avoid stepping on any newly growing plants. In the grazing land live flocks of camelid creatures resembling alpacas with blueish wool, on average a metre and a half tall at the shoulders. Helpmates appear here as if on a timer to feed the animals and tend to plants.

Destruction


If the Helpmates here malfunction they attack anyone nearby, cause havoc to any farming equipment and frightening the animals.

They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down. The panels here are less obvious than they are in the more urban sectors, low to the ground, looking almost like energy panels. But once they know what to look for they will be able to use them to shut down the Helpmates.

Stampede

Frightened animals are likely to flee and unfortunately in this case it means rampaging across the grazing land to the newly growing trees.

They will need to be calmed, returned to their grazing lands and the plants restored. Or it might be that the Voidtreckers can stop the Helpmates before the creatures get too spooked.

Orange/Winter

Exploring

The Winter sector’s primary concern is life support. Huge banks of air scrubbers form artificial cliffs, while other sections are tanks filled with water in varying stages of processing or recycling.

The paths here are a lot narrower than they are in other areas, sometimes requiring moving between pipes or scrambling over layers of railing.

There doesn’t seem to be any easy or straightforward path through the sector, their SCA takes them on wild winding routes through the machinery.

Help or Hindrance

The fluctuating temperatures here are causing problems with many of the pipes, several sections are flooded, others are in danger of being so.

There are patch kits in easily opened panels, designed to be used by the helpmates and indeed there are many helpmates out.

But some are less helpful, those that are malfunctioning are more likely to cause more damage than they are there to fix. They will attack any one who tries to interfere with them. They can be fought with weapons or magic, or for those that think to use the panels they can be shut down.

Patch Job

Once the malfunctioning Helpmates are dealt with the pipes still need to be fixed. The patch kits do not have any instructions but are simple enough that anyone with a basic knowledge of how to fix things should be able to figure them out- though the more knowledge and expertise they have the better the fix!

For those that don’t, many of the jobs will need more than one person and so for those that don’t mind taking instructions they will find an extra pair of hands is always welcome.
adregem: (dad can only do a jig)

[personal profile] adregem 2021-02-25 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
"Of course it isn't. I mean, sure. Every kid faked to be sick just to get out of something right? But here's the thing..."

The way he leans to the side conspiratorially could draw anyone in, but he hopes the payoff is worth it. Not one to be pressured, Roland is sharing something both private and personal with Inigo. Plus, maybe a small part of him wants the pup to know he was so vastly different as a kid than what he ends up with on the train - which is lucky. That's definitely for the best.

"I didn't want to go at it alone. I wanted to take my best friend and my girlfriend with me. So I snuck out and asked them to fake being sick too." Roland conveniently leaves behind that he remembers his best friend actually being sick, and how his girlfriend wasn't all that keen of lying to her family about skipping school under unsavory pretenses, but those details are what color such memories as fond for what they are. Roland's grand, teen day-off.

He bounces Inigo's hand in his palm as he continues, the smile on his face brightening up his usually stern expression.

"We had no agenda. We didn't know what the day would hold. And it was the best part of faking being sick. Nobody knew what you were up to. You just...had all the time in the world. Or at least, that's how it felt. Who needed school, we had that every day of the year. That's what I was thinking." Roland raises his eyebrows up, hiding beneath long bangs.

"Now, ask me how we got around town."

It's about to get exciting. Hold on for the ride, Inigo. Your dad was a rebel.
flatteries: (count your blessings)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-02-25 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Okay, okay."

The response may be the tiniest bit exasperated, but it's fond in every single other way. It's just great to see Roland get so excited, even if it's about something that seems so totally uncharacteristic for him. Maybe he really was a bit more of a regular teenager when he was younger?

It's so weird to imagine. Roland not acting all.. Roland-y. But Inigo is willing to go along with it, smiling and clearly full of interest as he stares at the other.

"Tell me how you got around town. How wild was it?"
gundamofthedesert: (on a mission)

omg! I totally did not get a notification for this tag!

[personal profile] gundamofthedesert 2021-02-25 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[Quatre completely understood what he was doing. If he had to move to other locations, he was a target as even something with terrible sensory functions would be able to spot something moving.

He stayed perfectly still for a long moment as Roland began taunting them and leading them away before he ran to go start shutting more of them down the various different panels.

One by one, he was shutting down more of the Helpmates]

[ooc: I know it's late. If you want to call this one and we can work on a different thread, that's fine too]
adregem: (the brilliant life doesn't look like it)

[personal profile] adregem 2021-02-26 10:33 am (UTC)(link)
"I had to steal my mom's car." He lifts his brow up in challenge. "But it didn't have any gas, so it couldn't run on any fuel." Did Inigo know what cars were? Gas? Any of this? It didn't matter, Roland assumes the best of his understanding. After a million and one worlds, he's certain this made sense even through context. Besides, the more he speaks, the more vivid the memory is reimagined. As if he's watching it come to life before his eyes.

This is where it gets interesting, after all. He chuckles to himself.

"So I had to siphon gas out of my neighbor's old Chevy." This is something Roland's certain Inigo won't know thru any experience, so he clearly demonstrates with hand gestures as he slowly removes his hand from Inigo's hold. The flowers wrapped around him disappear in gold. "That's when you get gas from another car that has a full tank by attaching a hose from one end and sucking on it from the other. The fuel gets in your mouth, but you just rinse it out with water afterwards. When the fuel starts coming out of the other end, you fill up your own gas tank and...off we went."

He's fully reminiscing now. The free hand he used rubs the underside of his chin, thinking. Remembering. Happy that his mind from that world is still intact.

"My two companions had to distract the guy till I could finish at least a half-tank out of his car. Heh. I can't believe we managed to pull that off without getting caught." Yet.
flatteries: (if you've ever heard a beating heart)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-02-26 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Roland is lucky, because an early mission has made Inigo very much aware of what cars are. Fuel is another story entirely, however, but thankfully context clues are doing a whole lot of heavy lifting here. He can mostly understand Roland's story, no matter how foreign it might be to anyone who would come to Ylisse and then suddenly hear a story like this.

(Then again, maybe it's for the better that Inigo doesn't know exactly what gas for cars is, or he may be a lot more concerned about this whole 'fuel getting into Roland's mouth' deal than he is right now.)

"You stole things, Roland?"

Look, it's not.. as if Inigo might not have taken a thing or two just to get by, food-wise.. But it's another thing entirely when it's under less desperate circumstances!

And even moreso when it's Roland of all people doing it. Indeed, this story is much wilder than Inigo could ever have anticipated as it started out.

"Wouldn't the people be mad they made you president if they knew that?" He remembers, after all!! Presidents are chosen, unlike Exalts!!
subcircuits: (determination)

he's so pure, help

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-02-27 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Devero's got a hand on one of his pipes as the Helpmate materializes in front of them, relaxing a little when it shows no sign of malfunction. He instructs it briefly to stay where it is, glances at Romeo with a little nod, and then starts to navigate his way back through the panel's UI to that configurations menu.
subcircuits: (appealing)

[personal profile] subcircuits 2021-02-27 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
funny thing about that kid.....

"Of course I wouldn't like that," Devero says cheerfully, because he has boundaries and knows what is and isn't appropriate to talk to a kid about. "That's a good point."

He approaches the alpaca again. It watches him warily out of the corner of one eye, its chewing slowing down noticeably, but he only pats it on the flank, on top of its springy coat of fur. "I'm sorry about that," he tells it. "I didn't mean to pull."

After a couple more chews, it looks away from him. Apology accepted?
hotheadwarmheart: (Small smile)

[personal profile] hotheadwarmheart 2021-02-28 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
Who knew? I may be a bit of both. At least, once they'd gotten to know each other a bit. But for now, Lea suspected it was all his Keyblade.

He chuckled at the jangled greeting though. "Nice to meet you, Klefki," he said. "Sorry the Keyblade thing didn't work out for you. But I'll tell you what; I'll keep an eye out on missions from now on, see if I can find you a nice key you can actually carry. Or maybe even some good metal to make you one."
hotheadwarmheart: (Got it memorized 2)

Yep, good place to wrap. :) TY for the thread.

[personal profile] hotheadwarmheart 2021-02-28 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Lea nodded. "Let's see what there is to see," he agreed. And off they went into the squares of grass and trees. Ready to lend a hand, however they could.
adregem: (Default)

[personal profile] adregem 2021-02-28 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
( ooc: we can definitely jump on a newer thread! <3 it's no worries at all, dreamwidth really be like that sometimes )
adregem: (khunbish pls dont blow this for me)

[personal profile] adregem 2021-02-28 10:40 am (UTC)(link)
He actually laughs at such a reaction from Inigo, his head dipped low to hide his wide grin. Letting go of their hands, he crosses his arms over his chest before responding. He told Evan the same thing before; that it would have been impossible to get Roland to do anything responsible had he actually been much, much younger.

"Well...At that age, siphoning gas out of someone's car wasn't the worst thing I did. Let's just put it that way." Talking about it now, after decades and all that he's been through on Earth, in Evermore, and now on a train voids away...it's surreal in different strokes. He almost speaks of the memory with fond distance. "And thankfully they don't consider your delinquent track record at fifteen to become President. Heh."

Was he even younger than Inigo back then, having adventures and being an overall bad influence before his mother found out and scolded him till kingdom come? What a time to be alive, truly.

"So we drove to the city and we messed around wherever we could. The stadium, the museums, the parks...I even ran into my mom in one of the places we visited. You won't believe how fast we ran the opposite direction so she couldn't catch us."
inquisitor_lavellan: (pic#14488443)

[personal profile] inquisitor_lavellan 2021-02-28 02:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Fucking shit. Alley grabs onto the side of the truck bed with her singular hand, grip strong enough to possibly dent the metal.

"--All the fucking time, obviously."

Dry, dry humor. Don't worry, she expects it to be lost on this critter.
inquisitor_lavellan: (pic#14486533)

[personal profile] inquisitor_lavellan 2021-02-28 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's the lack of control that's the main problem. I don't want to go snooping into other people's nightmares and shit."

But sometimes, she doesn't have much choice.

"You'd probably like the Fade, it's the land of dreams itself."
happyends: (that has been plucked)

[personal profile] happyends 2021-02-28 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh boy. Does that ever excite the little keychain. It starts jingling more rapidly, now flying in circles around Lea. Apparently it's pretty easily pleased by even the idea of such a treat..

"Klefki really does like you!" Madoka laughs. "It's okay if you can't ever find one though. I mean.. I've also been on the lookout here for anything that looks like a key, but it seems like they don't have any traditional locks around here at all.."
flatteries: (you look like you've been)

[personal profile] flatteries 2021-02-28 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
This story is getting wilder by the moment.

Inigo's jaw drops the more he listens, just staring at the other guy. It feels near-impossible to imagine Roland doing all of that. After all, it's not like Inigo has never pulled any mischief in his life, but he's pretty sure he's never quite done anything on the level Roland is describing right now - and the other was even younger than him when he did all of that!

Inigo rapidly shakes his head, forcing his mouth closed once more.

"You make it sounds as if you were a completely different person when you were younger, father! What happened!"
myblueskies: (of course!)

here to protect with cute

[personal profile] myblueskies 2021-02-28 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Romeo gave him a big grin and a thumbs up with his free hand, he kept his eyes on that helpmate though! Just in case it tried to do anything tricky!

"What are you going to try first, sir?"
irrationally: (i don't even have a song)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-02-28 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"The land of dreams.." Alice repeats. Her voice sounds a little floaty, like her mind is already drifting off to think about it. Think about what it would be like, this mysterious place.

"It sounds a little like Wonderland in that sense. Are things often illogical there?"
gundamofthedesert: (Default)

[personal profile] gundamofthedesert 2021-02-28 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ooc: Sounds good! Yeah, DW is a derp sometimes]
inquisitor_lavellan: (pic#14480649)

[personal profile] inquisitor_lavellan 2021-03-01 10:11 am (UTC)(link)
"They have their own sort of logic," Alleyana, after all, has been there physically more times than anyone else, at least since the Veil went up. "But it's absolutely not the logic of the waking world."
badassfreakingoverlord: (prinny dood)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-03-01 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey, me too, dood! Wanna do it together sometime?"

Yes. This is your life now, Alley. Being hit on by a Prinny.
irrationally: (ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴍᴀᴅ ʜᴇʀᴇ.)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-03-01 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"It sounds great."

Apparently the other was right on the money - that's exactly the sort of thing Alice is into.

Escaping from the dreary reality she once found herself in to any other place but said reality. The Fade sounds great in that sense. The girl even faintly smiles a little - for once - as she thinks of it.

"I hope I can somehow see it one day."
inquisitor_lavellan: (pic#14480649)

[personal profile] inquisitor_lavellan 2021-03-02 11:04 am (UTC)(link)
"You can either stop talking to me, or I can throw you off this thing."

Choice, the Prinny has one (1)!
inquisitor_lavellan: (pic#14488473)

[personal profile] inquisitor_lavellan 2021-03-02 12:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, if I ever have advanced warning of a trip into the Fade, I'll be sure to invite you along."

She's only half-kidding.

"You see any bright green tears in the sky, or giant mirrors anywhere, you let me know."

Not that all giant mirrors are eluvians, but hey. You never know.
Edited 2021-03-02 12:42 (UTC)
badassfreakingoverlord: (determined)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-03-02 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
The Prinny flung up its fins in horror, then scrambled behind one of its brethren.

"Hey, heads up!" came the voice of the Overlord. "There's a bunch of those annoying dudes up ahead. You ready for more fighting?"
adregem: (when they do i'll be right behind you)

[personal profile] adregem 2021-03-02 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
The look on his face, the distant one that remembers it all with gladness, grows even fonder if that were at all possible.

"I guess I was." Is his simple offering, free for Inigo to interpret as he wishes, or to fill the blanks in between. "What happened...? Well. I grew up, pup. I had to."

In all ways. Little by little, a young Roland moved to shed or hide layers of innocence for the greater good; such that his tales of crazy shenanigans ended up being just that. Stories he tells around campfires in happy reminisce. It's why he believes the young should go for what they want, for their dreams and goals. It's why he supports them so much. Why he sees potential in them regardless of their background or where they come from. That energy, that hope; it'll drive the future where his kind could not. Did not.

"Heh. Anyway. My point being after all that is I can do what needs to be done, even if it means playing the rebel once in a while. I've still got it in me, don't you worry." He knocks their heads together again, not to hurt of course, but just as a regular sign of his affection for him. "That's probably enough of my rambling, though. Are you feeling more rested? How's your head?"