VoidTrecker Express Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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middleofsomewhere2021-05-09 06:48 am
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2021-05-09 06:48 am
Entry tags:
- !mission twelve,
- cassie cage [ou],
- devero [ou],
- entrapta [ou],
- inigo [ou],
- jaisyn solo [au],
- kitty pryde [ou],
- lan sizhui [ou],
- lapis lazuli [crau],
- little one [ou],
- madoka kaname [ou],
- romeo [crau],
- seto kaiba [ou],
- taiki [ou],
- thanatos [ou],
- tidus [ou],
- trunks brief (future) [ou],
- yondu udonta [ou],
- ~x~adam parrish [ou],
- ~x~bucky barnes [crau],
- ~x~casper leblanc jr [crau],
- ~x~curufin [crau],
- ~x~jon snow [ou],
- ~x~lena sabrewing [ou],
- ~x~mami tomoe [ou],
- ~x~merwen [ou],
- ~x~raven [ou],
- ~x~roland crane [ou],
- ~x~rui ninomiya [ou],
- ~x~shen qingqiu [au],
- ~x~siobahn chereshei [ou],
- ~x~v [ou]
What their Eyes See: Start
"Good Morning Voidtreckers, today is day five of the month of Llama." 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.
Preperation and Arrival
As usual they have a couple of hours before arrival to ready themselves for the mission ahead. As promised the dressing carriage is open for them to find suitable clothing. Trench coats, a lot of leather, a lot of black with neon colours thrown in here and there. There is a lot of choice in a variety of sizes so everyone is bound to find something to fit. Hopefully something they like, though some passengers may be more comfortable with the fashion choices than others.
A couple of hours after the announcement of the mission the voice speaks again. "Shortly arriving in system #93426194992. Arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The train shakes as it leaves the void, colours fading to be replaced to a grey thick smog outside the windows.
The train bumps slightly as it hits rails, snaking its way towards the city before entering a tunnel. A few moments and they come to a stop, the doors open onto a platform. Stepping out into the station the first thing to hit them is noise, it sounds like there are ten different advertisements blaring, someone or something is playing loud music. There's a lot of flashing signs, screens with advertisements, bright lights that change colour for no real apparant reason. Heavy on the senses as they make their way to the gates.
They will find that their SCAs allow them through the barriers and into the wider train station, which is somehow even louder. It is busy as well, people hurrying from place to place. There are signs declaring this to be Tier Three, Home of Manufacturing. as well as signs pointing the way to lifts, to take them to other tiers.
Tier One
Mapping
For those travelling up to tier one the first thing they will notice when they leave the lift is, it is a lot quieter up here. Peaceful even, there are people around, all looking official and busy. None will pay the Voidtreckers any mind unless they are acting particularly suspicious.
The air feels better here, probably because the whole tier is encased with a dome that they will be able to see as they enter, coming from a lift near the edge of the tier. The buildings are all harsh dark metal, almost uniform in design. The streets are clean and there has been an attempt at greenery with some shrubs and simple plants.
The buildings all need to be accessed using their SCA's. Their SCA maps show them where the buildings are but give no information about them, nor do they have maps of inside. Once the voidtreckers enter they will find that their maps fill in as they explore.
There are plenty of different buildings, offices, labs and meeting rooms. There are also a lot of security staff and anyone acting too suspiciously will be approached and questioned. Hopefully they have a plan, blend in or sneak around.
Flickers
Sometimes though that is a little harder, they might enter a room to find themselves on their old street, in a world they have visited before on the train or somewhere else that is decidedly not here. These illusions get more common as time goes on and people will begin seeing the illusions of others or find the two scenes merging together.
Voidtreckers who are immune to illusions will not see these strange visions and those who are particularly strong willed will be able to fight them off. Once people know they are illusions they can focus through them to see reality even if it is overlaid with what their minds want to see. It will take a lot of concentration to stay focused and get an accurate map.
Tier Two
A Mystery
The lift here brings them out into a glass covered corridor. Outside the glass the air is thick with smog but the filtration systems means that the air seems fine inside, especially with their SCA's helping out. Outside the tunnels they will be able to see the lights of hovercars zipping around and the silhouettes of buildings. Office blocks and large houses make up this sector. Large billboards blare out advertisements at all hours, neon lights shining through the smog.
The atmosphere of the sector is one of fear, people hurry about their business, keeping an wary eye on their surroundings. The newcomers won't get too much scrutiny but people are likely to be very wary if approached or questioned.
But they will talk once they guage them to not be a threat. Murders. Six people dead, from inside their own houses. Locked doors, security systems, all for nothing. Is it a serial killer? But the reports suggested an animal attack? From what animals?
Getting access to the houses will take some negotiating or breaking and entering. The bodies themselves have been cleared by law enforcement, caution tape still up to keep out any nosy public.
The rooms the bodies were found in were all rooms that used holograms as decoration and the voidtreckers will realise when they enter them that these holograms seem a lot more realistic than some of the others they might have seen in their stay in the sector so far.
Creatures
As they talk to people, or overhear gossip they will hear more about animal attacks. Someone swears they saw a lion prowling the streets. A hovercar crashed and the driver swore they had been attacked by an eagle. Neither of those creatures live in the city. Neither of those creatures exist on this world anymore.
But the Voidtreckers will quickly learn there is something to these rumours, especially as dark falls, the feeling they are being hunted. A paw tread, a tail disappearing around a corner. As days go on they may get attacked by a bear, a tiger or perhaps a creature from their own world, one that should not exist here at all...
Tier Three
A Crisis
Leaving the station brings them into crowded streets, air thick with smog, Up above them is the floor of the plate above, set with bright lights to offset the lack of natural light getting through. Billboards and screens blare advertisements, traders yell their wares. Life is fast and swirls around them as they step out into the streets.
Here also there is an air of worry. The talk is all of Spectura, kids unconcious after playing video games, hospital overflowing. Spectura's fault, there are calls for accountability, claims of sabotage. No person gives the same story and it becomes clear that most people don't know what has happened but almost everyone knows someone who has been affected. Fear, blame, tensions are high.
But life must go on, the factories never stop, people can't not work and with so many people unconscious people have to pick up the slack. The whole sector feels at breaking point.
If they try and buy Spectura systems they will not be stopped though they will need to sign a waiver, to take on all responsibility for what might happen to them if they go into the system.
Spectura
There are a whole range of games to look through, though the two most popular ones where the majority of players can be found are an open-world farming MMO called AgriTopia VI Ultimate, with bright landscapes and calming diegetic music, and Aegis Force, a tournament team shooter with short battle scenarios and smaller maps.
Those entering the system will fall unconscious in the real world and as they enter the problem will be pretty obvious straight away. Red vines, covering everything, tangling trees, creeping up buildings, coming straight for them to attack.
Anyone who gets overwhelmed by them will be stuck, unable to move or progress. It is possible to fight them off and for those voidtreckers who have faced the vines before they will find their soothing powers will work here as well.
People are tangled throughout many different games and once they are freed will need some help to find the next save point or exit. They need to help plant the final hundred potatoes, or team up to take down the level boss or solve the next puzzle, keep the vines away and free as many people as they can.
Tier Four
A Way In
As they leave the lifts they will find this tier is dark, dim lighting barely penetrating the smog. Homes are makeshift and all on top of each other. The streets are crowded, loud and people don't stop to chat. It is incredibly claustrophobic, with large support columns, exposed wires and large pipes running alongside and over the 'roads'.
Here there are plenty of stores selling anything and everything, certainly not above board. Credits are sometimes accepted but more often store keepers will prefer to trade in barters, food is popular. Anything that isn't nutri slime or the even worse unbranded basic version.
Bars and other seedy establishments are open all hours, neon signs beckoning. It is here that they will find the entry points to the fighting rings.
People don't talk about it openly but you look big enough, mean enough or dramatic enough then it will be slipped into conversation. Have you heard? Winners get a dream come true.
The fights are a mix of one on one and group fights. All terms are negotiated before hand with an overseer and fights are to the yield. The crowd wants a show and so dramatics are encouraged.
What was that?
The rumours about people going berserk are spoken in whispers. No one really knows what has gone on. A few fights have gotten out of control, a couple of fighters broke down after fights, at least one has quit for good. Most spoken about is The Crimson Fist. The best fighter in the ring who two days prior just left. Left the city with no protective gear, no word to anyone. No one knows what happened to them.
As the voidtreckers get further into their fights they will begin to realise something strange is going on. That opponent you are facing? They now look like your worst enemy, or perhaps your best friend, your lover. Sometimes you're no longer in the city but in a place of fond memories or your worst nightmares. Fights can very quickly go south when your opponent believes you their greatest foe.
Advancing the ranks now seems like it might be more difficult than first it appeared.
Preperation and Arrival
As usual they have a couple of hours before arrival to ready themselves for the mission ahead. As promised the dressing carriage is open for them to find suitable clothing. Trench coats, a lot of leather, a lot of black with neon colours thrown in here and there. There is a lot of choice in a variety of sizes so everyone is bound to find something to fit. Hopefully something they like, though some passengers may be more comfortable with the fashion choices than others.
A couple of hours after the announcement of the mission the voice speaks again. "Shortly arriving in system #93426194992. Arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The train shakes as it leaves the void, colours fading to be replaced to a grey thick smog outside the windows.
The train bumps slightly as it hits rails, snaking its way towards the city before entering a tunnel. A few moments and they come to a stop, the doors open onto a platform. Stepping out into the station the first thing to hit them is noise, it sounds like there are ten different advertisements blaring, someone or something is playing loud music. There's a lot of flashing signs, screens with advertisements, bright lights that change colour for no real apparant reason. Heavy on the senses as they make their way to the gates.
They will find that their SCAs allow them through the barriers and into the wider train station, which is somehow even louder. It is busy as well, people hurrying from place to place. There are signs declaring this to be Tier Three, Home of Manufacturing. as well as signs pointing the way to lifts, to take them to other tiers.
Tier One
Mapping
For those travelling up to tier one the first thing they will notice when they leave the lift is, it is a lot quieter up here. Peaceful even, there are people around, all looking official and busy. None will pay the Voidtreckers any mind unless they are acting particularly suspicious.
The air feels better here, probably because the whole tier is encased with a dome that they will be able to see as they enter, coming from a lift near the edge of the tier. The buildings are all harsh dark metal, almost uniform in design. The streets are clean and there has been an attempt at greenery with some shrubs and simple plants.
The buildings all need to be accessed using their SCA's. Their SCA maps show them where the buildings are but give no information about them, nor do they have maps of inside. Once the voidtreckers enter they will find that their maps fill in as they explore.
There are plenty of different buildings, offices, labs and meeting rooms. There are also a lot of security staff and anyone acting too suspiciously will be approached and questioned. Hopefully they have a plan, blend in or sneak around.
Flickers
Sometimes though that is a little harder, they might enter a room to find themselves on their old street, in a world they have visited before on the train or somewhere else that is decidedly not here. These illusions get more common as time goes on and people will begin seeing the illusions of others or find the two scenes merging together.
Voidtreckers who are immune to illusions will not see these strange visions and those who are particularly strong willed will be able to fight them off. Once people know they are illusions they can focus through them to see reality even if it is overlaid with what their minds want to see. It will take a lot of concentration to stay focused and get an accurate map.
Tier Two
A Mystery
The lift here brings them out into a glass covered corridor. Outside the glass the air is thick with smog but the filtration systems means that the air seems fine inside, especially with their SCA's helping out. Outside the tunnels they will be able to see the lights of hovercars zipping around and the silhouettes of buildings. Office blocks and large houses make up this sector. Large billboards blare out advertisements at all hours, neon lights shining through the smog.
The atmosphere of the sector is one of fear, people hurry about their business, keeping an wary eye on their surroundings. The newcomers won't get too much scrutiny but people are likely to be very wary if approached or questioned.
But they will talk once they guage them to not be a threat. Murders. Six people dead, from inside their own houses. Locked doors, security systems, all for nothing. Is it a serial killer? But the reports suggested an animal attack? From what animals?
Getting access to the houses will take some negotiating or breaking and entering. The bodies themselves have been cleared by law enforcement, caution tape still up to keep out any nosy public.
The rooms the bodies were found in were all rooms that used holograms as decoration and the voidtreckers will realise when they enter them that these holograms seem a lot more realistic than some of the others they might have seen in their stay in the sector so far.
Creatures
As they talk to people, or overhear gossip they will hear more about animal attacks. Someone swears they saw a lion prowling the streets. A hovercar crashed and the driver swore they had been attacked by an eagle. Neither of those creatures live in the city. Neither of those creatures exist on this world anymore.
But the Voidtreckers will quickly learn there is something to these rumours, especially as dark falls, the feeling they are being hunted. A paw tread, a tail disappearing around a corner. As days go on they may get attacked by a bear, a tiger or perhaps a creature from their own world, one that should not exist here at all...
Tier Three
A Crisis
Leaving the station brings them into crowded streets, air thick with smog, Up above them is the floor of the plate above, set with bright lights to offset the lack of natural light getting through. Billboards and screens blare advertisements, traders yell their wares. Life is fast and swirls around them as they step out into the streets.
Here also there is an air of worry. The talk is all of Spectura, kids unconcious after playing video games, hospital overflowing. Spectura's fault, there are calls for accountability, claims of sabotage. No person gives the same story and it becomes clear that most people don't know what has happened but almost everyone knows someone who has been affected. Fear, blame, tensions are high.
But life must go on, the factories never stop, people can't not work and with so many people unconscious people have to pick up the slack. The whole sector feels at breaking point.
If they try and buy Spectura systems they will not be stopped though they will need to sign a waiver, to take on all responsibility for what might happen to them if they go into the system.
Spectura
There are a whole range of games to look through, though the two most popular ones where the majority of players can be found are an open-world farming MMO called AgriTopia VI Ultimate, with bright landscapes and calming diegetic music, and Aegis Force, a tournament team shooter with short battle scenarios and smaller maps.
Those entering the system will fall unconscious in the real world and as they enter the problem will be pretty obvious straight away. Red vines, covering everything, tangling trees, creeping up buildings, coming straight for them to attack.
Anyone who gets overwhelmed by them will be stuck, unable to move or progress. It is possible to fight them off and for those voidtreckers who have faced the vines before they will find their soothing powers will work here as well.
People are tangled throughout many different games and once they are freed will need some help to find the next save point or exit. They need to help plant the final hundred potatoes, or team up to take down the level boss or solve the next puzzle, keep the vines away and free as many people as they can.
Tier Four
A Way In
As they leave the lifts they will find this tier is dark, dim lighting barely penetrating the smog. Homes are makeshift and all on top of each other. The streets are crowded, loud and people don't stop to chat. It is incredibly claustrophobic, with large support columns, exposed wires and large pipes running alongside and over the 'roads'.
Here there are plenty of stores selling anything and everything, certainly not above board. Credits are sometimes accepted but more often store keepers will prefer to trade in barters, food is popular. Anything that isn't nutri slime or the even worse unbranded basic version.
Bars and other seedy establishments are open all hours, neon signs beckoning. It is here that they will find the entry points to the fighting rings.
People don't talk about it openly but you look big enough, mean enough or dramatic enough then it will be slipped into conversation. Have you heard? Winners get a dream come true.
The fights are a mix of one on one and group fights. All terms are negotiated before hand with an overseer and fights are to the yield. The crowd wants a show and so dramatics are encouraged.
What was that?
The rumours about people going berserk are spoken in whispers. No one really knows what has gone on. A few fights have gotten out of control, a couple of fighters broke down after fights, at least one has quit for good. Most spoken about is The Crimson Fist. The best fighter in the ring who two days prior just left. Left the city with no protective gear, no word to anyone. No one knows what happened to them.
As the voidtreckers get further into their fights they will begin to realise something strange is going on. That opponent you are facing? They now look like your worst enemy, or perhaps your best friend, your lover. Sometimes you're no longer in the city but in a place of fond memories or your worst nightmares. Fights can very quickly go south when your opponent believes you their greatest foe.
Advancing the ranks now seems like it might be more difficult than first it appeared.
no subject
So instead she decides to just accept that she's stuck with water, picking up the glass and taking a sip from it.
"Please don't actually eat anyone's brains here. It'd cause a fuss, and that would be a pain to deal with." Because, you know, that's clearly the biggest argument against it. Not that eating brains is bad.
(Most of the people here are so rude, they deserve to have their brains eaten, Alice thinks.)
"There's enough fuss already with the way some of these fighters are acting."
no subject
He pours himself a glass of something strong and not watered down with seaweed misery water.
"I've been keeping busy, anyway." His eyes dart around the room, seeking out various 'whispers' he's been loosely following. He's only applied pressure to a couple of people so far.
"I had to break up a fight earlier. I wouldn't doubt someone's testing strength or testing control or trying to rig the game or whatever. But they know what they're doing and they are interfering."
no subject
Well, either that, or these people are just violent by nature. Alice herself thinks that the true reason lies within a little bit of column A, and a little bit of column B, especially when she sees what sort of folk hang around these bars.
As for the prize itself - she's not too sure how to feel about it. Honestly, she doesn't even know if it's real or not, but she figures it would sound appealing to pretty much everyone.
.. it's that last thought that makes her pause. "Weren't you interested in it?"
no subject
He rolls his shoulders in steep shrug before taking another drink. "I don't like to fight that much. People always have these scenarios where they say 'it's worth fighting for' or 'it's worth dying for' and as someone who's died for someone else's goals and fought for the bare minimum right to keep existing? I dunno, there's no hope or glory in it that I can see."
But he gestures away, towards the ring.
"I'll watch the shit out of other people fighting, though. They can have their good time and I'll have mine."
no subject
But she might as well give it a shot.
"You sound exactly like someone I know," she instead points out. "He always said things like that too. 'Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as the measure of worth,' those sorts of things." Blasted cat. "I, however, figured out that I might as well see for myself if this prize is the real deal or not."
no subject
If Murphy were to know he were the Cheshire cat in this scenario, he'd be pretty amused.
"He's not wrong, whoever he was. I've met plenty of savage people. Some of them make better company than others. Not a one is glorious just because they're savage." Roberta he'd hold high among them any day. The perfect warrior woman. "The best one I know could kill a man with her fists or her words.... And I mean that. I saw her have a rap battle once. She was impeccable."
no subject
Please, Murphy, you can't suddenly start on all these modern things. Alice is a good old Victorian lady, okay, this stuff is way beyond her.
But she doesn't seem to want to linger on it herself either, judging by the way she shakes her head. There's more important matters to attend to right now.
"I don't think the fighters here seem particularly impressive. I'm fairly sure I can win." And find out what that prize is, and whether it's even real in the slightest or not.
no subject
Best explanation he can offer.
"Yeah? Well, when a match comes up you should go for it." He doesn't try to dissuade her. Even if she's a Victorian lady, he's seen what ladies can do. "Just don't get knocked out up there. If something happens to you- if that... whatever it is, happens to you... Do I just let you kill 'em? Or do you want me to try and stop you?"
no subject
But while the other thing that Murphy says surprises her, it's on a different level entirely. Alice doesn't feel like this is also just about cultural differences, and it leaves her puzzled for a moment longer.
"Why would something happen to me?" It's not said in a suspicious tone. After all, they both just arrived in this world. There's no way he could know that much more than her, Alice thinks. It's mostly just confused, puzzled, like she's trying to figure out the answer to that question too while she poses it out loud. "Isn't it just a simple fight? I'm not just going to kill these people for no reason."
no subject
He takes another drink and shakes his head.
"I don't think we're immune. I've not heard anything yet but from what people say, illusions have always gotten us before. Maybe not me, but my brain works a little different. No hallucinations to speak of. Not even dreams."
no subject
But even as Alice is saying that with her usual deadpan drawl in response to him saying he can't be affected, she's busy thinking. The gears in her head sure are put to work when he's talking about all of that. Alice would like to think that she wouldn't be influenced by some petty illusions, but.. she knows what she's like. She knows how weak her mind still is, recovering from years of abuse and neglect. From a still not entirely processed trauma.
Maybe the more obvious answer would be to not get into the ring in the first place, but that feels like admitting weakness. Like giving up.
She's never going to give up.
Alice stares at her glass. ".. I don't know what would happen if I saw an illusion."
But she does. Admitting to that is the hardest part, because it makes those voices from the memories speak to her all over again. I know you for an unstable and violent person. It's not her-- she doesn't want it to be her, even in a place like this. But she knows she's already been ruined, that she already is naturally inclined towards being violent. And if control was taken away from her, there would be no stopping her.
no subject
But he can tell the idea bothers her. Not the normal 'time to think of a back-up plan' amount. It truly, deeply, intrinsically bothers her. She's never explained why, he's not pried. But maybe he will now eventually.
Still, the point stands.
"Well, I'll ask again. What do you want me to do if you lose control in the ring." He puts his now empty glass on the bar and turns it. "Would you want me to stop you, or would you want me to let you kill 'em. Because hell, if you can live with the latter I'd just applaud you."
no subject
But she lets out a sigh, obviously not very happy about either possibility in this scenario, just judging by the way she frowns.
"So.. yes, stop me if that happens." Though that leaves another question entirely, one that appears in her head obviously enough that she can't help but add: "If you could?"
Look, she knows she looks scrawny, but Alice is a lot stronger than her toothpick arms would indicate.
no subject
It'd probably be a thing to see the bartender run down and break up a match. But he's willing to do it. As another twig that's stronger than he looks, he's at least confident in his ability to interfere. Maybe not to win (without back-up or his other abilities), but he can at least stop Alice from doing a murder.
"How do you usually fight?"
no subject
After all, there may not be any magic in the ring, but there's nothing magical about the weapon once she already has it out.
"I've taken down beings bigger than grown men with it."
no subject
"I bet you've made a ton of big strong men feel real small when you whipped that out." An irony he can appreciate.
"Alright. Well, I'll keep you from smashing someone's head in with it. But I won't do anything for their kneecaps."
no subject
Or even more than that.
So a part of her looks pretty selfsatisfied at him pointing it out before making it disappear from her hands again - if not just so she can take another sip of her glass of water.
"That's fair. They should expect to lose those when they enter the ring, either way." It's not like they wouldn't do the same to her, given the chance.
And though she seems a bit more reluctant about what she's about to say, she does continue to add (semi-awkwardly): ".. Thank you for helping out."
no subject
He appreciated their work, but he also hated how they expected respect for making people do what they didn't want to. Her associations might be different, but that's where his lied.
"You're gonna give me a bad name, pointing that out," he says wryly. "I'll keep an eye on you."