ataraxionlogs | ARRIVAL ▒ 006

Entry tags:

ARRIVAL ▒ 006

CHARACTERS: Any and all.
LOCATION: Basecamp, Medical and beyond.
WARNINGS: Implied (and possibly explicit) nakedness. Gore and violence.
SUMMARY: The Tranquility jumps again, while the camp is beseiged by bloodthirsty monsters.
NOTES: Can be found at the bottom of the post. This post is also a plot post.

T H E C A M P ( C U R R E N T C H A R A C T E R S )
The Tranquility sirens have been wailing since daybreak, heralding a jump, but they don't command the same attention as usual. The air tastes smokey and there are fire-glows blossoming up from the tree line in the southern portion of the jungle, but there's a more immediate problem to contend with. Jungle creatures come barrelling from the tree line, making bad, frenzied dashes across the expansive crash path, directly for basecamp. Shrieks, growls, and the thump of bodies and scrape of claws against wood and metal, all connote the besiegement that those on the ground can't clearly see.

A monster, bigger than a black bear, with jagged bony growths breaking through its skin, slams its paws into wooden walls, where overgrown claws strip splinters from them, shaking them, testing their strength. It leaps, snapping, blood spatter from its open maw painting ruined wood. An animal that looks like a cross between a heron and some kind of feline, scrambles up into the trees, and launches itself down onto an unsuspecting crewmember, who screams as tooth and claw slice through his clothing, flesh, muscle. A horse-like creature with a bony head slams itself recklessly into the wall, pieces of wood shattering, provoking cries of alarm from the people within.

And on and on.

The initial wave eventually dies off, but the animals persist, and so do the fires in the distance. Those brave enough and capable enough might investigate and put a stop to it themselves, and perhaps gain an idea as to how they began. Those that stay behind have the arduous task of defending the camp, dealing with the swiftly rotting corpses of infested jungle animals, and fortifying the camp.

It's ten hours later when the jump happens, sneaking up on those preoccupied with the current crisis. There's a tremble in the earth, shaking up through the trees, and the wreck of the Tranquility begins to cord with lines of white light, threading across the hull like veins, some patches remaining dark, standing out against the vision like splotches burnt to the back of the eyelids. There's no great sound. In an instant, the ship is gone, a soft whomp, a feeling of air rushing past, the trees bending towards the site as if blown by a fierce wind. It's only a second. With a crack, the wreck returns, a rumble rolling through the air like thunder.

The earth shakes. The trees tremble. The ship groans, the sound echoing out like the cry of a wounded beast.

The jump has passed.

Most of the crew and the passengers are unaffected, but some experience a moment of unbalance, the world going black at the edges, and a sudden trickle of blood running from both nostrils, or bursting the fine veins in the eyes to make annoying red splotches on white. The moment passes, and the immediate nausea subsides. There is still work to do be.

M E D I C A L ( N E W A R R I V A L S )
You wake up, alone in the dark. There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Through the fog you can see shadows of movement, the muted sound of alarms crying. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're suddenly dropped several feet onto the opposite wall.

The impact is painful, winds you, and it takes several seconds to overcome and persuade uncooperative limbs to move. All around you is chaos: the sirens of alarms are shrieking in your ears, close and claustrophobic in the wreckage of the medical bay you've awoken in, lit dim and red. Around you, others are waking up, falling from other gravcouches, stumbling to their feet. Light catches your eye, and you look up to see a huge rend in the outer wall high above you, overhung by broken structural beams and damaged cabling.

Climbing up takes all the strength you have.

You emerge to air that smells smokey and a little gory, surrounded by an immense, vast jungle. As your vision clears, you realise you stand on the hull of a colossal spaceship, crashed on an unknown world, two moons hanging heavy in the sky above, visible as the sky begins to darken. In the distance, far out on a great swathe of torn up earth through the jungle is a campsite, surrounded by walls, and seemingly beseiged by sporadic attacks of monster.

Hopefully, someone will think to come and help you. Otherwise, you best be ready to run.

N O T E S
Anything remaining within a mile radius of the ship when it jumps will be irreparably damaged. Soft organics will be pulverised, while all trees and plants will initially appear fine but crumble to pieces within a day (or sooner if disturbed). Non-organic material will also be weakened, bending or falling apart when touched.
Newly arriving characters venturing through the medbay will discover their inventory items scattered beyond the ship. Feel free to find all of your inventory items, or lose as many as you like, as they will be randomly distributed around the jump radius. They will also be able to find jumpsuits and other standard clothing in the wreckage of medical.
The alarms will cut after two hours, a which point a looping audio message telling passengers to make their way to the blue lifts will be audible. The lifts, if investigated, will be missing, leaving only empty elevator shafts.
The wreck will show increased signs of instability for a few days after the jump, and will have seemed to have sunk further into the rock of the cliff than it was before.
As mentioned, some characters will be affected by dizziness, nausea, and nosebleeds/eyebleeds for a moment. This will only apply to characters who are at ability grid levels three through six. Everyone else remains unaffected.
This arrival log doubles as a plot log. Please feel free to be attacked by and kill as many monsters as you like. Breaches to the wall will occur, but the camp will not be completely overrun only thanks to the combined efforts of passengers and crewmembers.
Those investigating the fires should mark it clearly in their subject header, and if you are touched by a GM/NPC tag, please feel free to continue to tag in whatever order.
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact us via PM, the FAQ or Questions pages!

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Firo drops the smirk, his voice dripping with contempt. "You're funny. What makes you so sure you're superior, huh? Goin' in thinkin' you're tough shit without considerin' what the other guy can do is how a lotta guys wind up dead."

Lucky for many of the people facing Firo, he's not the type to slit throats first and ask questions later. He doesn't like killing. But he's not going to admit to that right now, considering it's a major weakness.

"But why am I givin' advice to you, huh? You're probably not listenin' to a word of it."

Algidus' body tenses when Firo's expression goes more serious--it's like he can feel the air electrify with tension, and he could snap into movement at the drop of a pin. The alien, however, still does not advance. Instead he stands his ground, and then after a moment, he gestures grandly to himself.

"Oh, I will listen. In fact, I am all too happy to indulge you here. Go ahead--throw the first blow, and show me what it is exactly that you can do." Now the alien leers again, hoping that contempt he can hear in the human's voice means that he's itching to attack. Because he knows for a fact that his icy armor will allow him to weather a multitude of blows--in fact, unless Firo has some sort of powers or great strength under his belt that he hasn't show off yet, he's more likely to hurt his hand before he can even begin cracking it.

Firo doesn't like to be the first to strike, in part because that means it's harder for him to plead self-defense if the cops come sniffing around. The other major drawback is, obviously, that Algidus will know when he's coming. But there are no cops around here, and, to be honest, he kind of does just want to hit the guy.

Fine. He rolls his shoulders. "Just don't forget that you started this."

With that, he'll dart forward, ducking in low and coming straight in to try to dig the fingers of his left hand into the space where Algidus's leg meets his hip.

"I started this, of course. Have you forgotten your threats--" But Firo doesn't give him any time to finish that though; he's already darting forward with a surprisingly smart attack decision--for the ice that coats that joint is less solid to allow for a full range of movement in the alien's leg. Algidus does not, however, balk--he is a resilient creature who isn't going to be thrown off by one attack. Instead the alien takes it, ignoring the jolt of pain in his joint and shifting his leg to pin the man's hand--and his own swoops down to grab his assailant by the head, palm smothering his face and his two thumbs locking in place around the sides of his skull.

Then, surprisingly, instead of retaliating he simply tosses Firo away with an air of nonchalance and a low chuckle. It's very clear that he's still playing around, doesn't see any reason to take the man seriously yet, even though the dull ache that's slowly ebbing in his hip might suggest otherwise. "Come now, human. Surely you can do better than that?"

Damn it. Firo rolls when he hits the ground, but being thrown certainly isn't fun. He doesn't waste time rising to his feet, though he's surprised to see that a follow-up attack isn't coming.

Can't leave a taunt unresponded to. "Who's dumb enough to start a fight by goin' all out on the first hit?"

Except that is the way to do a fight--a certain kind of fight. That's what Firo's used to doing when he faces groups of men, but groups of men aren't outrageously tall ice aliens. He has a feeling that this is going to last longer than what he's used to.

"Why don't you come at me, if you're so tough?"

"Normally I would not indulge you, but I'm worried that if I do not take some initiative here I might get bored," Algidus snorts, tossing his head. Now he looks Firo up and down, trying to decide where to go from here. The stand-by of forcing his opponent to run a deadly obstacle course of hails and shatters is always amusing, but the ice alien still doesn't seem much of a reason to be wary of getting in a close-quarters fight with the man... and the idea of pummeling him with his hands is satisfying in its own right.

So Algidus tucks one shoulder down and performs a quick dash forward, covering a surprising amount of space as he attempts to catch Firo off guard and bash the the base of one curling spike into his opponent to beat him back and open him up for further attack. Should the move be blocked or avoided he'll be open briefly for retaliation... which Algidus still doesn't seem to mind, knowing he still has natural armor to take hits for him.

No time for verbal jabs now; if he could think, Firo would reflect that now is the time to really get cooking.

The observation that pops into his head is that this guy may be as fast as Maiza, but Firo doesn't linger on it. He drops in low to the ground this time, aiming to slide between his opponents' legs almost like a baseball player crossing home plate. The ice rains down on him, cutting into the exposed skin on his face and hands; he winces put pays no mind as they start to heal up already.

If Algidus hasn't already moved, Firo stays crouched on the ground as he tries to drive an elbow into the back of his knee. The instinct driving him consists of both the desire to cause pain--probably not likely--and to use the natural hinge to cut down on the other guy's height.

Edited 2016-02-18 04:54 (UTC)

Firo's dodge shows some surprisingly quick thinking; Algidus' past opponents had a number of ways of dealing with his pressure, but very few of them had straight up slid underneath him like this; by the time his feet are coming back down to sink into the earth and halt his momentum, the human is already striking at the back of his knee. The ice alien gives a snarl as his leg threatens to buckle under the impact, shifting one forearm into an elongated spike that he drives into the ground to support himself. His other arm swivels around behind himself, fingers grasping repeatedly, attempting to snare Firo by whatever point he can, be it a limb or hair or clothes so that he can force the human away again. Energy is already crackling over the back of his hand, across his palm-- ready to be unleashed in a potent blast should he get a proper grip on his opponent.

He feels the hand come down on his shoulder. Trying to get away from that grasp isn't an option--too late now--so he braces for the impact and grabs for Algidus's wrist. If he can make it, then at least he could get an opportunity for another opening out of this. It could make whatever's coming worth it.

[ooc: Sorry for the slowness; had a couple busy days!]

[It's no prob you're all good!!]

As soon as Algidus feels that he has a grip on his adversary, energy ripples across his hand and accumulates in the center of his palm; a light winks into existence, giving off a low hum as it swells and sharp rays of light prickle forth. The ice alien is channeling the metaphysical energies of his body, turning it all into an offensive blast that snaps forth from the mote of light in a burst of glimmering lights. It's a powerful attack that hurts rather a bit, but isn't necessarily strong enough to knock Firo off of his feet unless he somehow manages to lose his footing in the dirt and grass when he's flung backwards multiple feet.

In the meantime, Algidus uses the space that he's earned from the technique to set up some defense. He waves an arm over his head, generating a jagged ball of hail that hangs in the air above his head, rotating and ominously shedding sharp particles. When the man decides to get in close again, the hail will launch itself at him, forcing him to either take another painful hit or disengage from his offense, giving the ice alien another opportunity.

Firo moves back with the force, digging his heels in after several paces to catch himself. He spares a quick glance down at where he was grabbed--is his sleeve burnt from that? It may seem a trifling thing, but his body heals. His clothes don't.

He's wary of that ball of ice, so he tries to prod with a taunt first. "That all you got?"

"If it is so insignificant a thing, why do you not approach? You are not already giving up, are you?" Algidus crows back, seeming to enjoy these taunting battles. Meanwhile the hesitation is exactly what he needs--from here it will be simple enough to start putting up a dangerous obstacle course for the human to scramble over if he wants to get anywhere near the ice alien.

Curious to see how his opponent will react, the alien gestures, lifting his arm and curling his hand towards himself--and as he does so a beam of light shoots up from the ground right beneath Firo's feet. A moment later, a column of ice erupts from the dirt in that same area, aimed for the man's face in an attempt to strike and disorient him--and now the hail also launches itself forward, so that any vertical movement that Firo might attempt is covered. If he remains where he is the shatter will strike him, and if he jumps over the column he'll have a jagged ball of ice exploding in his face--a quick dash backwards or to the side, however, should have more luck in getting him safely out of this predicament.

It's to the side Firo goes, though not out of any grand strategy or prescience. It's not exactly an instinct either, but an impulse that's been trained into him by his Martillo teachers. It's human nature to want to barrel forward or stumble back, so you roll off that line, making for the corners out of range. That's what Firo does now, bouncing up almost immediately after his shoulder hits the ground.

Instead of moving away, though, he now darts back in, coming towards Algidus on the diagonal. He's already tried going low, so now he springs up high to try to grab Algidus's wrist as he shoots a knee at his side.

Algidus clucks his tongue--this human is showing remarkable awareness in the heat of combat. He's lost count of the number of opponents that simply panic and jump to avoid the shatter and get a face full of jagged ice shards for their poorly-thought out methods. The human manages to close the distance, and now the ice alien lets him take hold of his wrist, not sure what the intent is there; he knows that his opponent lacks the physical strength to tug him around, and if they're interlocked like this is means Firo won't be moving around a whole lot, which will make it easier to grab him and subject him to yet another blast of energy.

As his free hand comes back around to try and grab his opponent, he feels Firo's knee drive into his side. Well, that can't be comfortable for either of them. The ice over his flank is solid, well-accustomed to receiving blows, so while it hurts it isn't enough to get Algidus to flinch. He snarls, allowing the limb that the human has a hold on to liquidize so he can free himself--then takes a step back and shifts it into a massive gob of solid ice, attempting to slam that fierce attack right into the human's gut.

Disappointed, Firo notes the lack of reaction--at least now he knows not to try there again. He tries to cover up his surprise at the sudden melting with a mocking jab. "Never seen anybody retreat from a fight like that."

Whether or not it actually offends his opponent, he keeps moving as he speaks. He flings himself back to lessen the impact of the blow. He can feel the force right at his midsection, but knows that any lasting damage will be gone in moments. Besides, Firo's never been one to worry about what condition he's going to come out of a fight in. Once he has some space from the blow, he comes right back in, moving low.

This time, he goes for the leg--hoping that Algidus will liquidize it as before. If so, he'll then simply hurl himself at the alien to try to catch him off balance.

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ARRIVAL ▒ 006

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Thanks for the video link!

No prob, I like to think it's a neat visual aid!

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