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.
badassfreakingoverlord: (my point is made!)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-19 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm just saying if they wanted politeness, maybe they shouldn't have screwed everything up so badly that a wacky train of interuniversal forced heroes had to show up to fix it!"

If he HAD to help, Zetta wasn't gonna take care not to break a few million eggs, and neither should anyone else in his opinion.
springforth: (380)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-19 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"And here I was thinking that if things had gone so badly that I needed to call for help, the last thing I'd want is the help trampling my bushes and letting my vines run wild. But I get the point."

They are forced to help, regardless of their own skills or the problem. Which can get extremely annoying.
badassfreakingoverlord: (damn)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-19 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Serves 'em right for calling for help from involuntary helpers! I keep hoping that if we screw up bad enough, the train will give up."

So he said, but Zetta kept trying his damndest anyway. Pride demanded no less.
springforth: (pic#14100212)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-19 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"They don't know we're not volunteers, so don't be that mean." Don't think she hasn't noticed that he tends to do what's asked, even if it's grumpily. She leans in to kiss his cheek, a balm to whatever reply that 'Don't be mean' was going to get and pulls back with a little smile.

"By the way, if a gray haired guy with a hoodie and like, maybe a scythe, shows up in the garden, be nice. He's a god from... Well not my world but my set of gods. Us. Anyways, he likes rivers and that's all we got."
Edited (Wow thanks dw I wasn't in the middle of that ) 2021-01-19 21:19 (UTC)
badassfreakingoverlord: (why am I hurt?!)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-19 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
"What, wait? Who's this guy?" Zetta's snap into jealousy might be worrying if he weren't generally actually harmless.
springforth: (059)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-19 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Persephone winces. Right, well let's do this. Bite the weird bullet.

"His name is Thanatos, god of death, someone I've only met like twice in my world but uh--I guess his version of me is Queen of the Underworld but I think I broke him of calling me that."
badassfreakingoverlord: (aww yeah i'm one studly book)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-19 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, okay." Zetta relaxed, not particularly bothered by a god of death. After all, he hadn't lived 35 millennia by NOT being too strong for death to take. "Queen of the Underworld, huh? That's hot!"
springforth: (004)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-19 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"Pft." She laughs awkwardly, "You would say that. It did come with a husband and a kid. In that world. Not my world. I am, as you are aware, super not married. Or Queen of anything."

She does feel like this needs to be stated. Firmly.
badassfreakingoverlord: (omfg yay)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-19 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"You're totally Queen of Hotness!" Zetta said, delighted at being able to tease her.
springforth: (281)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-19 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't tell you this to get teased! You're the worst!" She huffs and wags her finger.

"I just didn't want a whole 'why didn't you tell me this' if you hear this from someone else. Or Gaia forbid, Thanatos himself."
badassfreakingoverlord: (disgruntled)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-20 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's not your job to tell me stuff! How would I have even known you know? Things are so messed up we just gotta roll with all this crap."

Experience not only from the train, but from time in the Far Shore as a god.
springforth: (pic#14370786)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-20 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm communicating things that happened! Because I've told other people and I thought you'd want to know too, that you deserve to know--but if you don't want to, that's fine." She deflates, tucking her hair back.

"It was just a big shock for me, finding all that out, and kind of upsetting, but you aren't me and you don't really get all the--it's fine."
badassfreakingoverlord: (eyebrow raise)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-21 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey, I wanna hear stuff, you just don't have to tell me." Like he wasn't sure 'Sephe was hiding, intentionally or not, some other stuff. "I'd get mad if he was some guy you were eyeballing, that's all!"
springforth: (pic#14312879)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-21 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"He's friends with my--her son? This is still weird. Another Persephone's son. And my world's version didn't like me very much. It was mutual. He pushed out of the way to get on a train instead of me." Huff pout. She hesitates and then shrugs, smiling crookedly.

"Thanatos was just the bearer of weird alternate world news. No need to get all in a weird jealous huff over nothing."
badassfreakingoverlord: (adrift in a sea of nothing)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-21 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Huh, that's weird. Professional rivalry or something? You're just too likeable to... not like." Zetta frowned by the end of that sentence, as it hadn't exactly gone down the path he intended it to. But he made his point, right?
springforth: (048)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-22 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
"No, I mean, that was our first interaction. The man had wings, he could have flown, but no, had to stop me from getting in--but he took my baklava when I was giving some to Hermes." It makes her grumpy just thinking about it. She frowns, and bites her thumbnail.

"Regardless, that's not the one who's here. This one is far more polite. Apparently the worlds are pretty dang different."
badassfreakingoverlord: (dot dot frickin' dot)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-22 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, different universes can get really wild. I wish now I knew if there was a Persephone in the Far Shore. We had a whole bunch of different gods there."

He hadn't really paid a ton of attention to the other god names back there. In fact, the one he remembered most strongly was Hibiki's, just because she would not shut up.

"You ever heard of an 'Apollo'?"

To his inevitable dismay, Zetta had lost touch with how much Hibiki ruined everything.
springforth: (413)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-22 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"I mean, weirder things have happened."

Like, you know, everything that has happened now. She doubts he did, mostly because he has absolutely no reaction to her name. Then again, so did people who had known it.

And she wonders how they did it because when he casually drops the name, she flinches. Her expression is hard to read, maybe distress, maybe fear, maybe just surprise, but it last just long enough to register before she recovers her calm. It's a shaky unconvincing calm but she supplements it with forced casualness and turning away.

"Yeah--um yeah. Sun, music, blah blah blah." She wasn't supposed to have to hear about him ever again. Never. Not until she had to go home.
badassfreakingoverlord: (sulking and grumpy)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-23 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey."

Even Zetta couldn't fail to notice that expression, that sudden change, that total fakery.

"I just said you didn't have to tell me stuff, right? You totally don't. So you don't need to pretend." Boy, had he stumbled into SOMEthing here. Searching rather desperately for some sort of solution, he quickly added, "But, uh, I was pretty much at eternal war with the Apollo I knew. Total antipathy, because she was a giant idiot and jerk."
springforth: (115)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-23 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
It doesn't even help to hear his Apollo was a woman. She fusses with the zipper of her hoodie and tries to settle her shaking hands. Yes she doesn't have to tell him anything. That's good, she doesn't want to touch that broken bit of herself at the middle. But maybe at the edges, so he knows not to--so he won't say his name again. So she won't have to hear it from him if all people.

"Uh--well he and I--we had a difference of opinion. On whether I was interested in him. And whether my lack of interest meant I wouldn't be in a relationship with him. He didn't seem to care."

There's a lot in that words, things said, unsaid. She twists the strings of her hoodie round and round her fingers.

"So--please don't mention him again? And don't get all puffed up. I can't--" She doesn't want to deal with his feeling about it on top of her own. He doesn't even know the full extent, everything to be angry about.
Edited (Dumb typo) 2021-01-23 15:42 (UTC)
badassfreakingoverlord: (determined)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-23 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah."

'Puffed-up' wasn't the right word. More like 'absolute cold fury', as Zetta read into what she'd said and didn't like what he came up with. Apollos, it seemed, were jerks no matter the venue.

"Prinny Squad!" he bellowed, abruptly, and in response to his orders, the three familiar Prinnies popped up to do the Overlord's bidding. In this case, it was to throw themselves at Persephone and capture her in a hug around the leg, waist, and shoulders in that order.

Zetta couldn't do it himself (which was sort of fortunate, because otherwise he'd be in quite a state about the appropriateness of showing affection and support to someone instead of lust and lechery), so this would have to do.
springforth: (137)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-23 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not what she expected. She didn't expect anything, silence or just--something else. The sudden hit of three Prinnies about her body almost knocks her over but she stays upright, eyes welling up. No--no, she wipes at her eyes and pat the Prinny at her waist.

"Sorry to bring the mood down. Um--come here." She sniffs, trying to hold back the urge to cry, and gestures to him. She would move but three Prinnies do have some weight to them.
badassfreakingoverlord: (flat on my back)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-26 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
"Uh." The book obligingly sort of shuffled forward in midair, one corner forward and then the next in a waddle-walk that didn't make any sense even by normal rules of Netherworld-nonsense. But it got him closer, at any rate. Let's pretend that never happened.
springforth: (137)

[personal profile] springforth 2021-01-26 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
Persephone snorted, wiping at her eyes and reaching awkwardly for him. Heavy as he is, she can manage to grab him without falling over and tug him closer. He gets tucked against her chest, facing out with her chin tucked on top of him, as close to a proper hug as she can get.

"You deserve a hug too, you know." It's mumbled, unsure. "...This sucks."
badassfreakingoverlord: (maniacal glee)

[personal profile] badassfreakingoverlord 2021-01-27 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey, I'm not complaining!" Well, he sure could wish he was turned the other way around, but you know what, this was okay. "I'm pretty damn happy right here!"

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