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Post by Liou on Oct 8, 2017 18:05:49 GMT -5
Please - this first - here - this one first - this way - please...A starlit gallery had opened behind them, surrounded on all sides by breathtaking landscapes - oceans, canyons, vast trellises of rivers that flew up into brilliant patterns, thrumming clouds of vapors, constantly shifting phenomena. Inside, soft fans like those in the Command Center blossomed on the ceilings. Tall archways and broad sweeping passages led into warm, well-lit rooms that would be full of vibrant images. Other rooms were collapsing under the weight of what they held, their walls cracked and dented by the things that struggled inside, threatening to reel in the twisted corridors that led to them. The room that beckoned the most was not one of the largest. It was a swarm of little memories, loud only because they all repeated the same thing. They bubbled up without resistance, pausing timidly until Ayo chose to listen to them. It began with their hand - smooth, with sensitive webbing between the long fingers - brushing over a string of symbols. They were propped on their own coiled-up body. It was astonishingly muscular. Despite its length and weight, they could have sprung from their bed in the blink of an eye. Through the wall behind their head, the purr of the engine lulled them.The same vibration that filled Ayo's ear through the floor of the small office, where they had curled up after Scip's departure. For every previously inscrutable shape, a meaning shone brightly in the imprint of the Captain's clear mind. Their fingers had traced those same symbols almost every night since the plan's inception, just to add a tactile memory to the sound of them whispering the words like a mantra."Dear child. If you hear this, you have been through too much." They squirmed a little, sending awkward ripples through their fins. Who were they even addressing? "I do not expect you to forgive me. I do not expect you to preserve me.
"Yet I have the audacity to ask a favour of you." They wrapped their arms around their chest and gave themself a little squeeze, focusing on the feeling of being hugged.
"Please, be kind to them."
Their mind leapt ahead and travelled through incredibly clear images.
They let their weight flop against something large and feathery. The comfort they felt grew double, and the large feathery something engulfed them in a tremendous, fluffy hug.
Someone with wide red eyes and with bright streaks in her mane of hair was growling at them. They growled right back; then the two began to laugh and fell into each other's arms.
They threw their head back and laughed, tongue lolling out, while someone scurried frantically around the arm they could not move. The other person's worry pulsed in their stomach, so they wrapped their good arm around the other and drew them into a tight hug.
Two large, rough hands scooped them gently out of the mud. A wrinkled face like a tortoise's peered down at them. They wobbled curiously, tiny, cradled in wonder and kindness, so safe under the creature's large shell.
They lay in a pool of water, resting their head on a smooth, slippery person. They nestled into her while she hugged them with all her limbs. Her joy was so loud that it flooded them like a cleansing tidal wave and seemed to fill a whole world around them.They wished this perfect bliss would last forever.
The captain had cycled through those memories very deliberately, rocking themself from side to side in their own embrace.
"And please, know that you have always been loved."They turned sharply away from the symbols and the memory was cut. Ayo's arms were still wrapped around their chest. They did not move from where their weight had settled on the floor. No other memories attempted to prod them or rise to the surface of their thoughts; but they lay within arm's reach. The first one had been so warm. Tentatively, Ayo reached out. Flares of fear and anger lit up in the crowd; someone tried to tap their shoulder, but they slithered right through the door and down the bumpy steps, giving the guards the most obscene gesture they could think of with both hands and tentacles. They waved an official-looking document on a tablet triumphantly.
They rested their forearms on a railing. Below them, at a table littered with empty snack boxes and crumbs, crew members laughed, chattered lazily about the end of the meeting, and played games. Their gaze rested upon each friend in turn. Aching with love.
An intricate rock formation began to shift in a cloud of shimmering sand, catching millions of sparks from the setting sun. Their finger brushed against the surface of the sphere and the scene changed. Forests, seas, skies and faces glided past. All planets and people they had left years ago and would never see again. Something appeared in the corner of their eye and they swiped the last scene away. "Please don't tell the others, Scip. I'm just being silly and nostalgic."
Another world in front of them, with softly rolling hills, and mountains floating above colossal lakes in the distance. A pretty little town seemed to beckon.
"You're not joining the explorers, Cap?" said someone behind them.
They crawled back from the bay window. "Not this time. I think I feel a moult coming on. Better stay in while I can."Better come out while they could. Ayo pushed themself back up, their heart beating fast, and pressed their hands against the office's window. The crew was out there once more, and the crew deserved all they could give. Something crept up behind them and waited inches behind their back - a nebulous something that smelled of leather and walked with sounds of shattering glass. A huge wave seemed to roil beneath them and they seized the nearest memory, holding on for dear life. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," they choked. Their hand was clenched around the edge of a hospital bed, barely visible through the viscous tears in their eyes. The fear was killing them - and everyone else around them. Someone gently tugged them away.
"How can you approve of this?" snapped someone's toothy beak between flaring wings.
They closed the door behind them after excusing themself from the meeting and slowly slid down the wall, mouth wide open and tongue curled into a silent scream, because they were powerless and there was not a single thing they could do this time.
Screams rang on the other side of the intercom - the memory cut away abruptly. They were crouching, one hand raised in front of a tiny bunch of tentacles that peered up at them with curious eyestalks. "Not this way, dearie," they said in a gentle tone. They felt so much older than the little one.The memory pushed them back out. Ayo blinked rapidly, taking shallow breaths that had fogged up the window. A pair of wings had spread in the middle of the room. Another thing that should never have happened. They wiped their eyes and another tissue joined the pile in the office's bin. Little by little, Ayo walked across the bridge. They kept their eyes firmly on the floor. One foot in front of the other. They couldn't bear to look at any of the others now. They inched up to the central seat, wringing their hands. A swift peek at the others around the dais. They raised a hand and pushed forward until their trembling fingers touched the top of the chair. Their chair. Their hands settled on it and their fingers began to drum a pattern. After a moment, they looked up. "Hi." They took a deep breath. From some corner deep inside them, words exploded. "I am sorry, I am so sorry for everything you've been through," they screamed into the Command Center. More ragged breaths to stop the whimpers that were starting again. "And I'm sorry I never told you - never managed to say how much I missed everything - every place we'd left behind. All the times I wanted to stop. I'd made so many promises and invited so many people onto this trip and I couldn't let anyone down..." They swallowed. "I needed something to keep me running. And then the Beast came." They pressed a quivering hand to their mouth. "I know I've led you into a huge mess, and I promise that if we fix it, I will not run away. I will accept whatever you choose to do to me. Later." Sorry this is all rushed and crappy and two posts mushed together. Ayo gets some of the Captain's memories. In the first one that pops up, Cap literally hugged themself so their descendant would feel hugged. Creepy or sweet, hard to tell. Uh. More memories happen. Fear wave had to happen too somehow. NOW Ayo has strolled out onto the bridge, other characters can see them, and they are fiddling with the captain's chair, so characters can put two and two together. They are also talking, saying sorry for everything, it's their fault, and if you want to murder them after you're done with the beast, that can be arranged. Non-exhaustive tags: Shinko Lizica Killix ♥ Azzie Birdy Rabbit ♠ Twillie
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Post by Shinko on Oct 8, 2017 18:34:01 GMT -5
Holly felt a wet tongue on her cheek, and smiled wanly in Dunkin’s direction. The dog’s tail wagged. In a way, it was nice to see that despite it all, some things hadn’t changed. Holly’s dog was still just her dog, loyal and steadfast. He wanted to search, and play, and for his handler to be okay. He didn’t understand all of this business about memories, aliens, and beasts- The policewoman inhaled sharply. The beast. The beast.Scip had said it already, hadn’t he? Now that all of them had opened the lock on their ancestor’s memories, the beast’s memories would be coming back as well. And the beast that S’siri had known, the one Holly could now also recall, had been a far cry from the idle shadow that had been nipping at the heels of the explorers. It was monstrous, relentless, and nothing stopped it.Holly lurched to her feet, startling her brother. “Holls-” Jon started, hands raised placatingly, but she sharply shook her head. Confused, but compliant, he let his arms drop again, and took a step back from her. She looked around the room. Most of the others seemed to be in various stages of dumbstruck, either vacantly staring into nothing, crying, or in a few cases, approaching one another with expressions of confusion. Holly didn’t entirely blame them- there were so many people S’siri had wanted to apologize to, so many voices she wished she could have heard one last time, so much regret- and there was so very, very little time. Before Holly could make any moves, Ayo started screaming across the room. Holly jumped, turning to see that they had taken the seat at the head of bridge. The captain’s chair, S’siri’s memories told her. Wait, so Ayo was… Their words certainly seemed to imply it, yeah. Holly felt her gut twist at the memory of that argument between S’siri and the captain. The one that had agonized the chif’rrr’s preserved consciousness for two-thousand years. "And I'm sorry I never told you - never managed to say how much I missed everything - every place we'd left behind. All the times I wanted to stop. I'd made so many promises and invited so many people onto this trip and I couldn't let anyone down..." They swallowed. "I needed something to keep me running. And then the Beast came."Well if that line of logic didn’t sound familiar- Holly felt a bit of exasperation entirely her own, that had nothing to do with the newly awakened alien memories. Well, it had to do with the memories, but only because S’siri had been trailing down the same line of flawed logic. Ayo finished off their speech by inviting the rest of the crew to punish them, if they wanted to. Jaw tightening, Holly took a step forwards. Spreading her wings, she gave a hop-glide towards the raised chairs at the center of the room, so that she was standing face to face with Ayo. “How about no- the beast was a product of everyone. All of the minds in the crew. Trying to take it out alone is the line of reasoning that S’siri followed- the one that failed. Because this is bigger than you, and me, and all of us, and you are not taking all of the blame on yourself in some misguided self-flagellation. That’s not accurate, not necessary, and most pertinent right now, it’s not productive.” Then, she turned to face the rest of the crew. In a voice that was oddly authoritarian, even for her occupation as a police officer, she called, “Listen everyone. I know we’re all… reeling right now. Trust me, I know. And I know that at some point today, a lot of us are probably going to need to have some conversations with a lot of the others.” Her gaze flickered towards Ayo again, then flitted towards Fionn, then Harper. “There’s an entire other lifetime of baggage we’ve all just remembered. And we’ll have to deal with it, no doubt about that.” She squared her shoulders. “But right now, it has to wait. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s fact none of us can deny. There is not time for this right now. The beast is going to be on us soon- it’s probably already headed this way. Right now, we need to prioritize that over our personal issues or our ancestor’s personal issues.” Holly flared her wings, an instinctive gesture that S’siri had often employed when she was nervous- the instinct to make herself look bigger. “We’ve come too far to falter now. Learned too many amazing things to be forced to just forget all of it because we wallowed in old grief for too long. Maybe we didn’t ask for this, or want it at first, but at this point I want to see things through to the end, one way or another. We’ve worked hard, and we’ve earned it.” She looked around to where Scip was still standing placidly, adding, “Some of us more than others.” Holly took a deep breath, then folded her arms. “So- the beast. I remember that the crew wanted to make Wrighton their home, for some reason. Needed to make it their home. Something about it being a different way of running. I think we’ve got to figure out a way to use that. And fast.” “The beast came outta everybody fighting, right?” Jon put in. “I remember that- I remember being frustrated by all the infighting and how it was fracturing everyone. So somehow I think we gotta stop the fighting. Come to an agreement about that original argument. Then we won’t need the beast to keep us running.” Holly is Not Amuse at Ayo’s guilt party, and gives them a stern lecture about it. Then she tries to rally at least the folks who are in a mental state to listen to her, showing off the person that Scip reminisced about so much- and addressing him directly, albeit briefly ( Fraze). and finally brings up the question that’s been playing coy all game- how to defeat the beast, and what exactly “running home” has to do with it. For now tagging people who’ve already done their memorysplosion or who reserved posts ahead of this one, though anybody is welcome to hear her and answer. Or ignore her, that’s an option too. \ o / Celestial Tiger Twillie ♥ Azzie Huntress Rabbit ♠ Liou Killix Lizica Birdy
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Post by Tiger on Oct 8, 2017 21:28:44 GMT -5
Something moved in the corner of Harper’s vision, and they twitched, realizing they had been...not really daydreaming, but definitely lost in thoughts. A hand came down on their shoulder. “Harper?” “Mom!” They turned to face her. “Are you okay?” “I’m fine - just a pinch like brain freeze.” There was a slightly troubled look in her eye, but before Harper could question it, she asked, “What about you?” “I’m...I’m okay. It’s just...a lot.” That was an understatement, really. Their eyes dropped as they tried to just...mentally organize. ...There wasn’t much to be done except wait through it, though. One memory triggered others - wandering the halls of the ship, working hunched over a medical device, delicately plucking a wire out of a nest of circuitry, leaving a similar-looking room after a long session with their therapist, going to the ship canteen for lunch, sometimes with their engineers, sometimes with ship newcomers, sometimes with the other officers, going planetside and the tangle of anxiety and excitement, guiding an alien Harper’s memories told him was young - even though its face looked more like a deer’s than anything else, making its age hard to tell - in how to take an engine offline if it was in need of repairs, working on the arm of another one of the ship’s officers and talking about their home ship, being on the home ship, learning how to take those engines offline… They shook their head to try and dispell the worst of it. They lifted their gaze just as their father reached them, putting a hand on Radha’s and a hand on Harper’s shoulder. Radha said, “You have the Head of Engineering’s memories. I have someone who worked under them - are you all right?” Harper had the feeling they knew what she was talking about; a memory floated, unbidden, to the surface of their thoughts. ”Sometimes they get these like, panic attacks?” It’s an overheard conversation, and while Qoeln knows they should go the other way and leave them to it, they find themselves rooted to the spot. “Not in the middle of anything important, usually, which, thank the deities. But yeah, if they seem on edge, make sure you don’t push them over. I don’t even know what I’d do if I got caught alone with that situation, honestly.”Harper forced their attention back to the present. So - the people under Qoeln had known. “Yeah - yeah, they - uh, tu-alk, is that the right pronoun, Dad?” Akash blinked, but said, “It’s a valid one, yes. Probably that’s correct, if it’s the one you got from...from their memories.” “Yeah. Okay. They went by ‘they’ on the ship, this ship, so I guess… Well. Anyway - I think they had some kind of PTSD. But I haven’t gotten the memories of what gave it to them. Yet. ...They were really good at trying not to think about it.” Harper paused, feeling like the information wasn’t exactly vital, but they felt like it should be shared nonetheless. “Their names...Qoeln?” They stumbled a little over the pronunciation. “Qoeln?” Akash repeated, and their pronunciation felt much better - sort of saying an ‘o’ and a ‘w’ at the same time, so it flowed into the ‘eln’. “That’s - well, it’s an old-fashioned name, but I guess it would be, wouldn’t it?” Radha snorted. “Are you making fun of someone's name, Hasskhsto?” With a flickering grin and a brief pulse of pink over his frills, Akash said, “I would never.” Harper decided to interrupt before their dad added something cheesy like how much he liked Radha’s accent when she said his real name. “Mom - who was...whose memories did you get?” “An engineer - not the head of anything,” she said with a slightly teasing tone, “but she worked on the ship systems, too. I actually know the species,” she said, looking up at Akash. “You showed them to me before - the Tobla.” ...Harper remembered that. Not just because their father had indeed shown them the aliens before, but because they remembered the crew having a few - they’d rescued a group of them from a badly-damaged ship just hours out from losing its life support capacities. They remembered watching them file into the ship - big, bipedal lizardlike creatures with long plated tails and big, sharp-pointed hooved feet, large yellow and green and amber eyes darting about the huge vessel, six-fingered hands kept carefully in sight, claws retracted. Harper also remembered, again from both images on their father’s tablet and their own memory, those claws shooting out an impressive several inches when necessary. Something to do with them not really being sheathed, but rather broken down when not in use, and reformed when needed. Kind of a grizzly-looking process in slow-motion. ...It certainly explained how Radha’s memory-ancestor had been climbing the walls like she’d mentioned. “Anyway - from what I can tell, my ancestor seems like she was doing fine until the beast started ruining things,” Radha said. “But that definitely wasn't the case with everyone.” “Yeah, no, definitely not,” Harper agreed. They brushed some of their hair out of their face. “How’s - how’s everyone else?” Akash looked out over the crowd; Harper followed his gaze, and saw...well. Some people with tears on their face, a lot of staring, some sudden sputtering… “...Nobody seems injured,” Akash offered. Then they blinked, and furrowed their brow and scoured the crowd a little more closely. “Hold on - where is - “ The sound of steps on metal reached the trio, and they turned to see Ayo walking toward one of the chairs. ("Oh, there they are," said Akash.) As they gingerly touched it, Harper got that vague feeling of deja vu again, Qoeln’s memories nudged forward again, and they remembered someone else sitting there, someone far more comfortable with the seat - an alien who they could only describe as snakelike, and who I call ‘Cap’ because ‘Captain’s’ way too formal. The thought came with fondness and a comfortable, familiar amusement. ...Oh. It’s Ayo - Ayo’s got the captain’s memories.If Harper had possessed any doubts about that thought, they would have been thrown out along with Ayo’s near-distraught apology. But Harper...didn’t understand. "I know I've led you into a huge mess, and I promise that if we fix it, I will not run away. I will accept whatever you choose to do to me. Later."Holly was quick to jump in, thankfully. While she spoke to Ayo, Harper tried to parse out what the heck Ayo - or the captain, in their own way? - was apologizing for. Well - for contributing to the beast problem, but Harper didn’t get it. Everybody had done that, or at least, a lot of people had. Looking back at these new memories, it was obvious. everybody had been contributing in some way. That included Qoeln - Harper noticed they had very carefully avoided thinking too much about what the ancient kesterk might have been running from, but Harper wasn't Qoeln; they didn't have a bias toward the ancient kesterk. And the decision to go through with the memory wipe and save-for-later...all the officers except S’siri had agreed to that. The other infighting...that couldn’t be blamed on any one person. Before Harper could get too lost in Qoeln’s memories of going to their quarters after long meetings with their stomach in knots and all sorts of ugly colors pulsing in five spots at the edges of their vision, Holly spoke to the group at large and jolted their attention back to the present. “I know we’re all… reeling right now. Trust me, I know. And I know that at some point today, a lot of us are probably going to need to have some conversations with a lot of the others.” Harper nodded slightly when Holly looked their way. A lump rose suddenly in their throat, alongside a wash of barely walled-off grief. "What do you mean ‘she left?!’ She’s been furious over this, but she wouldn’t just abandon us!" The memories get...fuzzy, but there's a letter being shown to them and the other officers. It confirms what Qoeln already knew, that they hadn't been abandoned - but it also makes them realize S'siri's likely fate with a feeling like a knife to the gut.Holly continued, flaring her wings in a gesture that jerked more feelings of deja vu from Harper’s brain. She reminded them all how far they’d come and how careful they needed to be not to falter now - and of perhaps the most important thing of all. “So- the beast. I remember that the crew wanted to make Wrighton their home, for some reason. Needed to make it their home. Something about it being a different way of running. I think we’ve got to figure out a way to use that. And fast.”…Right - that was right, crash-landing hadn’t been part of the plan, but they’d been intending to land somewhere. That was why Qoeln had been so concerned about unleashing it on another planet - they were planning to find one anyway. But now that they’d gotten here… Jon said, “The beast came outta everybody fighting, right? I remember that- I remember being frustrated by all the infighting and how it was fracturing everyone. So somehow I think we gotta stop the fighting. Come to an agreement about that original argument. Then we won’t need the beast to keep us running.”“Yeah,” Harper agreed. “The crew couldn’t agree on whether they kept going, or whether they stopped somewhere - right? ...And even for the side who wanted to stop, there wasn’t really a place to go, I don’t think. ...A lot of them didn’t really have homes except on the ship.” Harper works on coming out of memory dump, and they and and their mom talk about their memory-ancestors a bit. Harper gives them the basics and gets a pronunciation guide on “Qoeln”, Radha reveals her memory-ancestor was a reptillian creature called a Tobla, which apparently still exist since Akash knows abotut them. Also there’s an Akash’s real name drop somewhere in there. Ayo comes to the bridge and their apology and acceptance of future punishment confoose Harper, before Holly comes to the rescue and reminds the group that hey, beast. Harper kind of lays out the argument - keep exploring!! vs settle down!! (with settle down!! subfactions of where to go). If I misinterpreted/misremembered anything about this conflict (or, y’know, in general), please do correct me so I’m not muddling the waters further! ...Uhhh I dunno who to tag, I guess I’ll tag Shinko, since Harps replies to Jon and mentions things to do with S’siri, and uh Liou because they think about good ol’ Cap, too.
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Post by Twillie on Oct 9, 2017 0:21:26 GMT -5
Liz tried to slide as discreetly as possible back into the cavernous room, hoping no one would ask about where she went or what happened. Safely tucking the mirror back into her purse, her eyes immediately caught sight with who she needed to find. Thankfully Audo was already standing alone, so Liz quietly walked over to him and gave a little call. “Hey, Audo.” She met up to him, and, taking a small breath, she started to say, “Look, about before, I wanted to-” “Listen everyone.”“Hm--?” Liz couldn’t help but be cut off by a sudden authoritative voice that boomed across the room. Her head immediately snapped in its direction. Standing tall, Liz saw Holly addressing everyone about the oncoming Bea --Wo-oa-hoa-hoah, wings??? Holly, uh, rustled them to puff up the feathers, and she continued on with her speech, but really, Liz was having a hard time listening, being a little too distracted not only by Holly’s two flippin’ giant wings, but also from the fact that no one else seemed at all bothered by this?? Liz frantically looked around at the others, hoping to see if at least one other person appeared just as baffled as her, until she realized-- Holly wasn’t the only one. What seemed like half the people in the room displayed extraordinary traits, or had just straight transformed into the supernatural. So many of them. A shapeshifter, a mermai--shark, a-- um-- seal?, a frilled alien and young teen that looked similar to them (Liz could only guess they were related). Even Atif--the same Atif that had treated her foot just yesterday!-- had a glow and floaty tail like a genie. Against her better judgment, Liz couldn’t help but wonder: why didn’t they say anything?? Of course, though, she could guess why. It was the same reason she didn’t tell anyone about Mary. But she wondered, how could they be so open now-- Wait. They had all seen Mary. And the others probably already explained to them everything they needed to know. The biggest secret Liz had worked so hard to keep hidden for over a year…. And maybe she had never needed to do that. If everyone here was so comfortable revealing themselves, why hadn’t she just told them all about Mary at the beginning? Maybe it could’ve been her introduction: “Oh hi, I’m Liz, and I can summon the literal Bloody Mary from this mirror! How about you? Werewolf? Vampire? Giant tentacle beast that feeds off of cantaloupe during the full moon?” Considering how apparently HALF THE TOWN was on equal levels of strangeness as Mary, Liz wondered why she didn’t just stroll down the street while summoned, wave to any passerby. Maybe she could’ve even taken Mary grocery shopping, who knows, perhaps it’d liven the trip up a little? Just every day, why couldn’t the neighbors look out the window and say, “Oh, how strange, it’s usually not this late when Liz goes out to walk her pet mirror demon!!!” At some point, Liz snapped back to reality, which turned out to be a lot sooner than she thought, as Holly was just finishing her speech. “So- the beast. I remember that the crew wanted to make Wrighton their home, for some reason. Needed to make it their home. Something about it being a different way of running. I think we’ve got to figure out a way to use that. And fast.”Her brother spoke up after she finished. “The beast came outta everybody fighting, right? I remember that- I remember being frustrated by all the infighting and how it was fracturing everyone. So somehow I think we gotta stop the fighting. Come to an agreement about that original argument. Then we won’t need the beast to keep us running.”The young teen and potential alien hybrid also added onto this. “Yeah. The crew couldn’t agree on whether they kept going, or whether they stopped somewhere - right? ...And even for the side who wanted to stop, there wasn’t really a place to go, I don’t think. ...A lot of them didn’t really have homes except on the ship.” “W-we’ve got something the crew didn’t!” Liz couldn’t help but speak up as well. Her chin was raised slightly as she did, as if to say “Yeah, I’m back from being Mary, you want to say anything about it?” She wondered if anyone would even turn their head at the change. “They wanted to make Wrighton their home, but we’ve already got that. We’ve already had a place to live, or a place to come back to, way before any of this stuff even started! You think we need to, I dunno, let the Beast know that or something?” Her little moment of silly defiance faded quick though the more she spoke as a much more real worry was creeping through her. That’s right. They had gotten their memories back, so the Beast did too… It was coming. It was coming. And of course, amidst everything that had happened in likely the span of a minute, Liz had forgotten the one other thing. “Oh--Audo!” She couldn’t help but whisper to herself as her eyes caught sight of him still next to her. A part of Holly’s speech echoed in her mind again. “And I know that at some point today, a lot of us are probably going to need to have some conversations with a lot of the others. There’s an entire other lifetime of baggage we’ve all just remembered. And we’ll have to deal with it, no doubt about that.”But the Beast, the Beast was on its way... ”There is not time for this right now.”Considering the kind of actual panic Liz felt rising inside her, she couldn’t argue with that. She turned towards Audo again and tried to steady her voice. “I-” She stammered, “Look, we can--we can talk about this later. Just, you should that I’m not mad or anything, really. Before, the memory had just taken me aback…” She trailed off, before concluding, “Yeah. We can talk later.” She tried to stand as non-awkwardly as possible then, before slowly moving towards Holly and the others to better hear the conversation between all of them. She couldn’t help but keep an ear out as she walked, as though making sure there were no scrapings or growls outside to announce that the Beast was waiting right by the doors. She tried to keep steady as she joined the others. I’m just hoping that there is a later.Liz ever-so-sneakily comes back into the room, and she heads on over to Audo to have a Talk ( Birdy ). She's quickly interrupted, though, once Holly ( Shinko) starts to speak, in which it turns out the Beast is on its way-- WOAH, when did Holly get wings??? And wait, when did all these other people suddenly become supernatural as well?? Was Liz really not the only one here with secrets?? =O Come on, Liz. The rest of us have already been through this. But Liz makes her own little contribution to the "Stop the Beast" conversation after the others speak ( Tiger), and she goes to join the crowd, telling Audo that they can talk later. Starting to feel a little panicky about the Beast, though, Liz only hopes that there is indeed a "later" for them.
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Post by Draco on Oct 9, 2017 6:12:19 GMT -5
Like the others, Edward Fox suddenly got a burst of memories fill his head, however there was a problem. Unlike the others his were a bit scrambled still. He looks around the room a little before clapping his hands together a bit loudly. Besides getting a pretty large chunk of his ancestor's memories, he also got most of his present day memories back. Though now knowing what was happening, he wished he got a few details that were still escaping him. "So! The plan was apparently a success. Well, partially." He shook his head and smacked the side of his head like trying to get water out of his ears. "I seem to still be missing a few things. Possibly a error or something else. But I remember enough." He notices at that time he was talking to a wall. He blinks and turns back to the others in the room. "Sca... No that's not right, uhh... What was it again? Ruby, do the thing!" The Shadow steps out from hiding, "It's about time sir." She digs into a pocket and pulls out a small object, pulling a string. A loud pop and confetti flies everywhere. She then slaps Fox across the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for?" "For having to take care of you for several years while your memory was gone! And now I have a good reason why!" Fox rubs his head, "Blame the aliens, not me." She glares at him, knowing full well that he couldn't talk his way out of this. He glances around nervously, "but uhh... Good to see you again. So on a more important matter, isn't there something we should be working on?" Ruby stares at him and shrugs, "I believe there's still the case of a nightmarish beast still. Got any plans dreamer?" Fox begins to pace mumbling to himself, stops, looks directly at her, "Nothing." Fox takes getting memories back pretty well. He's still having a few issues with the memories not fully appearing and such, but otherwise has a good chunk of things.
After talking to a wall, he calls out to the Shadow, Ruby, to do the thing.
There's confetti, a slap to the head, and a scolding from her.
They then discuss possible plans for the beast, which he had none.
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Post by Gelquie on Oct 9, 2017 16:18:36 GMT -5
The cat turned out to have an owner, who rushed over to reunite with them. Athene breathed a sigh of relief at this. Alexis, meanwhile, admitted: “...Yeah, they got in the pool.” Claire began to rock on her feet excitedly and gush about how cool everyone was. Alexis' eyes widened, but she couldn't help but give a sheepish smile. Claire went on. “Do you think Wrighton has a swim team? If not, do you think one can be started? Because I think all of you would rock at competitive swimming.”“You mean a supernatural one?” Alexis asked. “'Cause, uh... I'm on a school swim team, but transforming for that would be cheating. A supernatural swim team sounds really fun, though!” Then Claire asked fervently about Ani, to which Alexis frowned. Ani... that was the red-haired girl with different colored eyes, right? “...I haven't seen her... Sorry,” Alexis said apologetically. Some time after that, Alexis suddenly found it a little harder to pay attention. There was something about the back of her head, as if she were deep underwater and hadn't paced herself properly, or like something was about to-- They were deep below, in an underwater cave looking out into the deep, dark ocean. There were a few others with them, scurried together, their antennae down as they occasionally peered out. A variety of predators swept before them. They came every day, hoping for a meal.
Amyn's kind were tough. But only because there were creatures out there who were tougher.
They lived their lives like this, staying in abodes that would keep them safe. They could never explore for long, lest they fall prey.
But Amyn could emerge soon. They would leave, and then they would be able to go above again, see what else was up there...Alexis blinked, rubbing the back of her head. It felt... different. Not bad different, just... different. Like she'd found something she'd just lost, not an item, but-- Where was it, where was it?
Amyn scurried about their room, searching high and low and throwing things aside. They didn't need it for anything important, but now that they knew it was lost, they felt desperate. They had to get it back. They may not want to return to their planet, but it was the only memory they had of--
There. There it was. In their storage sphere, right where they left it. It was a smooth stone, shining with red stripes in-between the rock. The walls of their home, they remembered, or a piece of it that broke off. It had gotten stuck in their belongings when they left their home, but they couldn't bring themselves to part with it. After all, it was their only reminder of home...Alexis paused. That rock... Didn't she have a rock like that on her nightstand? She'd occasionally seen rocks on the beach of the river, and one time when she was a little kid, she'd come across it. She just thought it was pretty, that she should take it home with her. There were other rocks where she had done the same thing, but that one she felt particularly attached to. It had served as a pretty paperweight ever since. It looked... exactly like that. Was that...? No, it had to be a coincidence... Right...? ...No, no, it was definitely that. She distinctly remembered keeping it with her when the ship crashed, wanting her human form to keep it... No, no. That wasn't her... But it was the same rock... She saw something out of the corner of her eye—Scip. Scip had appeared in the command center. She turned to look, as did her mother, who also looked confused... and distracted by the return of her own memories. "I have fulfilled my orders," Scip said with an expression that might have been pride. "I have repaired the ship to the best of my abilities given the resources available, and the crew's memories have been restored." His gaze shifted downward briefly. "Please be aware that because of this, the Beast will shortly regain its memories as well. It is crucial now to use the crew's memories and knowledge to find a way to nullify its threat."
He paused, seeming to hesitate before continuing. "But... I am happy to see you all again." Alexis blinked, staring, taking this all in. The crew's memories, restored... But that wasn't all of Amyn's memories, it couldn't have been. But... she could feel them coming in faster. Sometimes memories, but sometimes barely that, just... little things. The command center was gradually becoming more familiar, the symbols on the wall were starting to make sense and even mean something, the fact that she had two offices, a surface one that others often borrowed, her main office down below, and the fact that at the bottom there was... ...That. That's what was down there. She wasn't sure if it'd help against the Beast, but at the same time, she felt as if she should get it. It had to be important, at least for Amyn, but there were a few that'd mean something to a few others as well. If not for the Beast, then for later... ...The Beast. Oh gods, the Beast was out... ...And they couldn't stop it before the ship crashed and... Alexis winced at this, but was broken out of her thoughts when Holly mentioned that she wasn't getting the memories either. After a brief conversation with Jon, Holly asked for no one to talk to her. While she... Looked like she was taking time to herself. Alexis decided to leave her alone; there was enough going on right now anyway. She hadn't been paying too much attention to the waters, but Fionn let out a loud cry, and Alexis quickly turned to see him. She watched him return to shore and turn back into human form, visibly... crying? “Fionn?” Alexis asked, visibly concerned. She looked ready to swim over to him, but hesitated, unsure of how to comfort him, or even what was wrong. But he seemed to gather himself eventually, stating that he was okay. Apparently, his alien ancestor could feel a lot more than a regular human. Alexis tensed at this-- she could already feel a lot, and felt a lot more from her alien ancestor... was it the same with hers? And Alexis was already human... Well, close enough anyway. Holly re-collected herself... Then leapt high above. Alexis' eyes bulged as she watched Holly, suddenly in full control of her wings. “... Woah,” was all Alexis could think to say. Athene stared too, her eyes also wide. Holly came back down, trembling, crying. “So much love. So much pain. I see now why they wanted her back.”Athene stared, for a moment uncertain of what to say before she realized there was nothing. She wheeled over to her and extended a hand, offering to put it upon Holly's shoulder for comfort, giving her a smile. Alexis stared. Her story... She wanted to know it. What... what happened with... S'siriImages of the alien flashed through her head; not just from the photo Akash found, but pieces of S'siri's everyday life, S'siri walking by Amyn's office, talking professionally, talking Amyn down on pushing an away team on another mission so soon after the last one, reminding them of the needs of the crew. Showing how much she cared... Then Harper came out of their daze, and they and their family talked about what had happened. Turned out Harper had the Head of Engineering's memories... And they had some form of PTSD? Alexis tilted her head, not knowing what that was (at least not in detail), but Athene's brow furrowed at the description. She didn't say anything, in case it triggered the memory to come, but Athene dearly hoped that Harper wouldn't remember what caused the PTSD anytime soon... Or ever, from the sounds of what it was like. It was difficult enough for adults to deal with, much less teenagers. “Anyway - from what I can tell, my ancestor seems like she was doing fine until the beast started ruining things,” Radha said. “But that definitely wasn't the case with everyone.”Alexis looked away at this. Not all of Amyn's memories had come in, but from what she could tell so far, with the way Amyn lived compared to how strongly they felt at the end... The Beast must've ruined a lot of things for everyone—heck, the entire crew suffered for it. But they... Alexis shook her head. Not now, not with so much, not with so many memories, still coming in and all in pieces... She needed to stop, take a moment, take some time for herself, away from everything, take a break, go below, and maybe while she was down there... Alexis didn't have much time to think on that when she heard a cry across the room. It was... Ayo? It was a loud, tearfelt apology for... driving them into this mess. How they made so many promises, invited so many people... A brief memory that flashed in her head gave her her answer. The captain. Ayo's ancestor was the captain. "I know I've led you into a huge mess, and I promise that if we fix it, I will not run away. I will accept whatever you choose to do to me. Later."Ayo... blamed themselves too? ...Well, they were the captain. But it wasn't just them, Alexis knew that... She felt the borrowed guilt resurging in her again as she thought of it. “...Accept... what?” Alexis murmured. But Holly took control of the situation. “How about no- the beast was a product of everyone. All of the minds in the crew. Trying to take it out alone is the line of reasoning that S’siri followed- the one that failed. Because this is bigger than you, and me, and all of us, and you are not taking all of the blame on yourself in some misguided self-flagellation. That’s not accurate, not necessary, and most pertinent right now, it’s not productive.”Alexis blinked, staring. True, it couldn't be any one person's fault. But she could feel Amyn's memories returning, the fact that Amyn took this upon themselves... Amyn had to be a huge chunk of it, couldn't they? ...Or that's what Amyn thought. Gnh, this was so confusing...But Alexis nodded; either way, she definitely wasn't going to punish Ayo for anything. “Yeah, I mean... What they did saved their crew; why would I punish them for that? ...Besides, it's... not entirely your fault. I mean...” Alexis trailed off. She wasn't sure how well Ayo or anyone else could hear them. But as Holly said, this probably wasn't the time to talk about how she contributed; Holly already said it wasn't productive. Holly turned and addressed the rest of the crew, confirming again that the baggage is going to have to wait because they have a Beast after them. They had to do something about it... It was a little hard to think through all the new emotions and memories, but at the same time, Holly was right. The Beast was coming, they had to do something about it... Before Holly had finished, a thought flashed through Alexis' head. Close the doors.Alexis blinked. Close the doors? Another memory flashed through her head. One where Amyn was frantically at their controls underwater, typing rapidly, shutting the doors to the command center. ”We need time, come on, close them! If it'll at least buy us a minute...”...From the Beast. ...If it would at least buy them a minute... She pondered this as Holly was finishing, asking what they could do to stop the Beast. Alexis' idea couldn't actually stop the Beast, they knew that. They had to find a way to stop the in-fighting, as Holly suggested. The in-fighting... Amyn wanted to keep pressing on, exploring as much as they could. And it caused conflicts; Jasna wanted to stop, to settle somewhere, but she never had anywhere else to go. And she wasn't the only one... Liz pointed out that they did have a home now, thought. The crew wanted to make a home, but for Wrighton, they... already had it. Alexis and Athene looked above, as if acknowledging their home. But how do they let the Beast know that... “...The Beast wants us to keep flying...” Alexis said. “But people wanted to stay... So Liz's right; they can stay here, right? And then those of us who want to keep flying can, uh...” She stared at the controls, almost wistfully. “Fly...” Alexis' expression was not lost on Athene, who frowned. “...Yes,” she agreed slowly. “Wrighton would give us a home... Like some of us wanted. Like I know my ancestor wanted. I don't plan to go anywhere, but if any of you want to take off on this ship, by all means.” But she gave an uncertain look towards Alexis. Still, Athene continued. “...But Harper's right, the Beast doesn't know that, and we can make all the promises to ourselves in the world, but unless we let them know and do it and as long as not every crewmember is on the same page, it's going to come and, and...” She groaned. “And then we're supposed to do something that trained crewmembers couldn't.” “I mean, we can try to find a way...” Alexis said. “But uh, I think... we need a little more time? I can close the doors to the Command Center. I-I remembered how, from Amyn; they could do it from their desk. It'll give us time. So I-I'm going down. It-it'll be quick.” She felt sure of herself, but she instinctively looked to her mother all the same, as if expecting some sort of objection. But Athene only nodded. “Alright, just... Just come back soon, alright?” Athene pleaded. “I will. Promise,” Alexis said. “And uh, someone pick up the bell? You'll need it more than me right now, in case... yeah.” She looked to Fionn and Dion. “You can come with me if you want. There's... there's something at the bottom I might need help with... No. No, it can wait. I'll just close the doors. But you can come still.” She waved to... everyone, she supposed, before diving down, letting the water rush around her. Heading down... It felt so... familiar. As if it were a part of her. A part of her that she had long forgotten. Catch-up! Alexis responds to Claire's ( Rabbit ♠) queries. Then memories return, oh my! Alexis' don't come all at once; she gets them in tidbits, little blips of memories, and also a bit of “oh, I can read squiggles now.” The way she remembers Amyn's memories relies a lot on association. Fionn cries out, Alexis draws a blank on how 2 comfort, Holly ( Shinko) has her moment, tears are everywhere, Harper's memories returned and Athene is afraid that Harper ( Tiger) might get second-hand PTSD because that is No Joke, and Ayo's ( Liou) feeling guilty and wants to be punished as if they were solely responsible even though Alexis feels a large share of the blame herself, and Alexis can't hold all these feels, she wants to go swimming. There's a call for suggestions on how to stop the Beast, and Alexis and Athene give their input (Liz ( Twillie) is also responded to). They agree that Wrighton can be their home, but how do they communicate this to the Beast, and everyone for that matter? Alexis fields her idea to close the command center doors to give them time to actually implement a plan, and she can do it from her office below. She tells the others she's going down to do this and dives with the Pool Party ( Celestial, Thorn). On Alexis' end, brb!
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Post by ♥ Azzie on Oct 9, 2017 22:03:04 GMT -5
So much was happening. The first, and clearest, thing was that Jamil had come across the room to join them. He found a place on the dais with the others, leaned against it, and asked quite a rude question in a very awed voice. “History, I think,” Mina replied. She turned to Atif and frowned. “I could’ve sworn I remembered you just now, reading on a park bench. Or someone who looked so much like you.” Atif thought about it. “I think so. I- we always did love the sunlight.” He grinned. “That explains quite a lot, actually.” “Slacking off, then?” Mina teased, and they all laughed. But the laughter died off quite suddenly as a chill went through the air. Atif tightened his grip on the dais- but, just as he was afraid the beast was already upon them, the fear passed. In its place was confusion, because Ayo had come over and was shakily standing behind the captain’s chair. And Atif began to understand, but before he could completely they shouted, an agonizing apology to everyone in the vicinity. And when they kept on, Atif wanted to step forward, to try and calm them- but would it even be wanted? Was there even time? Luckily Holly didn’t waffle as much. “Holly’s right, Ayo. This is something we all face together. We need to do it together,” he repeated, more quietly. “It’s going to be all right,” Mina pleaded, trying to catch Ayo’s eye. Atif’s attention had gone back to Holly, and she sounded stronger with every word. And it seemed to be having an effect on the others, as well. People were getting ideas, piping in. He only wished he had more to contribute himself. It seemed like an impossible problem, even now. And the fear was coming back, not the chilly wave of the Beast but a deep, faint spark of desperation. “If we’ve got to reach an agreement…” He trailed off, something dawning on him. “If some people wanted to stay and some wanted to go… who’s to say we couldn’t come back?” Post-memory family reunion! The Khouris worrying about Liou and agreeing with Shinko. And Atif can't think of much to contribute, but wonders if maybe the journey and having a place to call home might not be mutually exclusive.
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Post by Moni on Oct 9, 2017 22:56:22 GMT -5
Christian did not approve of anything that was going on. He certainly found the small amount of memories that didn't so much flood into his head as they did sprinkle onto it interesting, insofar as he could make anything else. Memories were boring, aliens were intriguing, and if you multiplied the resulting score of interestingness by the "method" factor, well, the results spoke for themselves. But these memories--or images--were interesting the same way as gamma-radiation-colored mammoths were interesting; he did not find it to be good. He was Christian Vu. Not... well, whatever the images of... numbers and tophats told him. These memories weren't his; they were someone else's, and he didn't really have any right to them. Somewhere out there, there must have been a society that punished such transgressions, much like how this society punished you stealing, well, everything. In his opinion, no self-respecting place wouldn't have laws against something like this. The guy who had these memories was probably dead. Maybe not so much insignificant-peasant-buried-in-his-farm dead, maybe minor-egyptian-noble-mummy-dead, but still pretty dead. Christian reckoned that having these memories brought this guy back to life as much as graverobbing brought someone back to life. (It probably angered their ghosts, though, which, for a fleeting moment, brought some sort of bright side--perhaps he would see an angry alien ghost!) Christian knew that graverobbing did not bring people to life because his great-grandmammy was a graverobber, and she never inexplicably morphed into anybody else. She used their stuff, sure, but that was only their stuff, and memories were probably no different. After all, if Christian was ever troubled with memories, more specifically, the rather conspicuous gaps in them, he could never function. They certainly did not transfer whoever his ancestor was to him. Or maybe this wasn't quite like graverobbing. Maybe this was like taking an inheritance, except it looked like a pretty bad deal, and he hoped there was paper documentation. It wasn't as disconcerting as grave-robbing, and less illegal, but all the rest of Christian's objections still stood--all one of them. He wasn't the same person as anybody else. Generic, sure, but the same? No. And that thing about homes and running away--that was even more turbid to Christian. He needed a good definition of "home" and a good definition of "running away." Maybe if he had a dictionary... maybe if he hadn't taken that bathroom break in the library, he would have thought of a good definition. All this stuff was undoubtedly translated from an alien language, so maybe "home" and "running away" had connotations not found in English. He didn't know what hyper-advanced aliens thought about. Perhaps he needed to learn this language. Maybe Scip gave lessons. Meanwhile, the others were proving to be more interesting than he had at first suspected. The cop lady had wings, the doctor man was green, and one of the two kids he talked to at the dinner party were--well, something. He wasn't really sure what. Maybe it was the same species of alien inspired that one Zeven Zpeilberg movie. everyone: omg feels the beast is approaching. christian: WHERE'S THE DOCUMENTATION? ? IS THIS LEGAL?
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Post by Rabbit ♠ on Oct 9, 2017 23:02:04 GMT -5
“You know, the more I remember about Kiuna, the more awesome all of this becomes,” Claire commented. Ani rolled her eyes. “Claire, you know this is serious, right? If these memories don’t prove that to you, then I don’t know what does.” “I never said they weren’t and I am taking this seriously. You do have to admit, though, this is pretty cool.” Claire stepped back and made a frame with her thumbs and index fingers. She looked at Ani through it. “You know, I can see some Kiuna in you.” “You do?” “Uh huh. I have to say, her wings are definitely the defining feature. Her left wing was green and her right one was right. Like your eyes. Granted, the green in her wings was lighter, but my point still stands.” Claire gained a sort of idea face. “I just remembered another thing! Kiuna’s wings are a mutation! Isn’t that cool? Is that why your eye is gray?” To think, after five years of knowing Claire, this was the first time she asked Ani about her eye. Ani expected that question to be asked a lot sooner. While that was a question Ani would rather not answer, especially not now, she expected that it was going to be asked sooner or later. Ani shook her head. “No, it isn’t a mutation. It was originally green.” I was told that it was a mutation for most of my life, though, she thought. “I was just given medicines for my eyes a long time ago. It turned my right eye gray.” “Then why didn’t it turn both of your eyes gray?” “Different doses to different eyes. And the medicines did affect my left eye.There’s some gray in that one.” Claire’s eyebrow rose. She walked up to Ani, got on her toes, and looked into her eyes. She almost lost her balance, so she put her hands on Ani’s shoulders. Ani was pretty annoyed by this. She began contemplating the idea of pushing Claire into the pool. “Huh, you’re right. Your right eye has some hints of green, too,” Claire commented. “You know, you have really pretty eyes.” “Claire, you are awfully close,” Ani informed. “And my eyes aren’t anything special.” “Of course they are! They’re wicked cool!” Claire backed up and threw her arms up in the air. “Everyone I’ve talked to about you think your eyes are cool. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t think that. Who would?” You haven’t met my dad. “I don’t know.” “Exactly.” Claire picked up her bat that she had dropped a while ago. “You know what, this is a conversation for later. Now’s the time for alien business. I know I said I’d be serious, but this is so cool! We’re all aliens! We’re all aliens!” And there Claire went. She was off on her alien tangent again. Was this the second time she did this? Or third? Ani was beginning to lose track of how many tangents Claire went on since this alien business started. Oh, and Claire began jumping. Yep, she wasn’t stopping soon. Then she began swinging her bat. That wasn’t good. Ani ducked when the bat went for her head. Okay, that was it. Ani stood up and took the bat away from Claire. “If you’re going to jump around like that, then you can’t have your bat,” Ani scolded. “But Ani-” Claire whined. “You almost hit me and I’m not about to let you hit anything else.” Claire lunged at Ani to get her bat back. Ani quickly moved away. Claire almost fell into the pool. Ani silently chuckled to herself. Claire quickly recovered and lunged at Ani again. She was not going to stop until she got her bat back. Then the two of them felt a sudden wave of apprehension. It was small at first, but then Claire and Ani felt it all at once. Claire began to feel funny. No no no, now was a bad time to pass out. Why did Claire have to faint whenever she was scared enough? However, Ani didn’t seem to react. She showed no sign of fear. Ani’s heart began to beat faster, her stomach tied itself into knots, but she didn’t show any fear externally. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Ani was always good at hiding her fear from everyone else and appearing completely calm. It was almost natural to act completely normal whenever she was scared like this. She had been doing it for almost her entire life. What was going on? It felt like when the beast went by them earlier. No, it couldn't be. Could it? If it was, everybody was going to be in trouble. Ani took a step closer to her and tried to comfort her. When she opened her mouth to say something, the words got caught in her throat and no sound came out. Ani was surprised. She was talking earlier and was just fine, but now she couldn’t force a word out. It was as if the fear was keeping her quiet. Then again, that made sense. After all, fear was the one thing keeping her from speaking for over eight years. The wave of fear left as soon as it came. Claire began to feel better. She rubbed her head. Her head still felt a little weird, but she knew that she would go back to feeling normal soon enough. She looked over at Ani, who was completely unshaken, albeit a little worried about Claire. “Seriously, how do you do that?” Claire asked. “How do I do what?” Ani asked back. “You felt that wave of fear, right?” “I did.” “How did you stay completely calm?” You really need to define the word, “calm.” I was far from it. “I don’t know,” Ani sighed. She shrugged. “Come on, you need to know. Can’t you tell me?” “Later, okay?” “Okay.” Ani looked around in an attempt to find something that might change the subject. Nothing came up at first, but it looked and felt like the entire mood of the room changed. If that wave of fear hit everybody (and Ani was sure it did), that would be bound to happen. However, something more seemed to be going on. She looked down at Squip. He was wet. How was he wet? Did he hop in the pool? It didn’t matter what happened, he was wet. Ani didn’t want to pick him up until he was dry. Squip had other ideas. He climbed onto Ani and perched on her shoulder. At least he wasn’t dripping wet. Claire and Ani decided would be worth seeing what was going on. The two of them walked to the center of the room. It sounded like everyone was discussing what to do with the beast. The first thing that caught their eyes were Atif. He was green and he had no legs. Ani raised an eyebrow at the doctor. That was… strange. “If we’ve got to reach an agreement…” He trailed off, something dawning on him. “If some people wanted to stay and some wanted to go… who’s to say we couldn’t come back?”Of course, Claire decided this would be a good time to comment. “Okay, first, Atif, why on Earth or wherever we’re all from are you green?” she asked. She walked up to him. “You look like that mascot of a vegetable company. And what happened to your legs? “And second, can it really be that easy? Just call a place home and keep travelling, coming back to visit occasionally? Are you serious? It can’t be that simple.” Claire crossed her arms. “If it really was that easy, don’t you think the aliens would have done that? They were all smart, they must have thought of that idea. And if they decided to try it out, it obviously didn’t work. Otherwise, all of us wouldn’t be here.” Claire and Ani talk about alien memories and stuff. Claire tells Ani she sees a little Kiuna in her. Mainly the wings. Then Claire goes on about Ani's eyes. Claire then changes the topic and decides to be serious about alien business... only for her to go off about how everyone's an alien again. We're All Aliens! (Reprise)Then Clani feel that wave of fear. Both of them recognize it as the beast (as they know what its fear feels like). Claire almost passes out again while Ani acts normally. Ani has had a lot of practice of being scared and not showing it, after all. Ani attempts to comfort Claire, but the fear keeps her from speaking. After it leaves, Claire asks how Ani keeps her cool like that. Ani really doesn't know how to answer that, since, "keeping her cool" isn't really a good way to describe how Ani felt. The two of them notice that the atmosphere of the room has change. So Ani, Claire, and Squip decide to investigate. There's conversation of the beast. Claire hears Atif's ( ♥ Azzie ) proposition and Claire argues against it (after commenting on why he's green, because he was not green before). Calling a place home and still travelling just seems too easy. Don't you think the aliens would have done that if it could have worked?
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Post by Lizica on Oct 10, 2017 11:05:07 GMT -5
Hannah picked up her tent poles and gave herself a moderately hard thwack against the forehead. “See? That’s what you get,” she said aloud to no one else. “And see? It’s not all bad, it’s good to have actual bones that work.” Run.Suddenly, in the same way that the whispering quiet had rippled outwards after solving the puzzle sphere, a wave of deep fear rippled inwards. Rather contradictorily, Hannah froze. Run.Run where? Run where? Where could they go? Were they trapped? Run--There’s nothing I can do-- “I suppose they might persevere with steadfastness.”Steadfastness-- “And there’s also a difference between being paralyzed and standing your ground.”Steadfastness-- Hannah blindly reached out, hoping to grab someone’s arm, but instead found the back of a chair. She willed her eyes closed. Hannah did not think terribly well under pressure. Maybe Bek had? Give me something, Hannah strained. Please give me something good, something useful?She remembered the full layout of the ship, even the parts she herself hadn’t seen. Not just what it looked like, but what it felt like--how it should have felt when the lights were set at this proper brightness, not set to dim mood lighting. It was warm and welcoming, both broad and intimate, and as Bek had done her rounds while on duty, the halls were a rotating song of the comforting silence of space and the reassuring sounds of laughter and chatter (and sometimes good-natured infuriated cries from the sports center). Bek never really minded having to circle the ship while on duty. It was full of life; it had always been full of life, ever since she came aboard, and she liked that. Flying in large circles meant “I’m searching” in Rambler back on her birth planet, and on some level she was always searching. But it was a different circling while on watch. It was searching for possible trouble, sure--but more often, it was finding someone doing something interesting or something fun. The ship was full of life, and full of possibilities. But somewhere that was full of even more possibilities? Outside the ship. Bek came to the corridor where a group of the crew waited for the doors to open.
“Oh, dang, good luck,” someone a few feet from her said in a rather loud undertone to their anxious neighbor. “I knew they were splitting the exploration team to cover more ground today, but I didn’t think they’d put you on Officer Bek’s team on your first go!” they lowered their voice and cupped a hoof near their mouth. “They say her wingbeats emit a frequency only homicidal creatures can hear.”
This is NOT HELPFUL, Hannah thought at the memories. I need something else.The memory paused, as if considering her request, but then the same one continued on anyway. “I can hear you,” Bek called to the pair. The listener, the exploration greenhorn, quickly exchanged parting words with their friend and bustled over into the group’s ranks. Seeing that they were still nervous, Bek flew over and hovered at their eye level. It was never good to start off an exploration overly nervous. (Getting nervous should only come once you realized you’d accidentally committed a foreign alien faux pas that was punishable by death.)
“Hey, it’s okay,” she offered. “We’ll be fine. And if we do run into trouble, just do what I do and remember: If someone starts shooting laserfire at you, just tell them you love them.”
The newbie stared at her in anxious bewilderment. “Be-because that declaration will make the assailant remember your common thread of goodness and decency?” they said.
“What?” Bek said. “No no no. Because the middle part of conveying ‘I love you’ in Rambler is a really great zigzagging pattern that’s fantastic for dodging projectiles and stuff.”
That...that is STILL NOT HELPFUL ADVICE, Hannah thought again. But opening her eyes, she found she wasn’t as petrified now. Was that only the attention-hogging Beast’s generous five minute warning, or something, or did that horrible advice actually make her feel more at ease? Someone had made their way to the captain’s chair. They spoke so loudly and with such pain that the effort seemed to wrack their entire body. They apologized. They apologized fervently. "And I'm sorry I never told you - never managed to say how much I missed everything - every place we'd left behind. All the times I wanted to stop. I'd made so many promises and invited so many people onto this trip and I couldn't let anyone down..." They swallowed. "I needed something to keep me running. And then the Beast came. I know I've led you into a huge mess, and I promise that if we fix it, I will not run away. I will accept whatever you choose to do to me. Later."Hannah’s recently-thwacked forehead knotted, but the winged policewoman had taken to the dais. “How about no- the beast was a product of everyone. All of the minds in the crew. Trying to take it out alone is the line of reasoning that S’siri followed- the one that failed.”An aching, regretful thought flashed through Hannah’s mind: Before the Beast, Bek had never lost anyone close to her. Why wear bothersome protective suits when it was only for her, and everything always came out alright in the end? It was only inconveniences and recurring pain. She could admit a mistake, but learning from them had always been harder, especially when everything had been okay before. But only before. If she had been able to prepare better, would it have made a difference?The policewoman with S’siri’s wings continued, calling everyone to action, reminding them that the Beast--that needy, memory-session interrupting creepo--was still hot on their heels. She brought up the puzzle they’d solved in the library about running home. The colorful, grey teenager added to the hypothesizing, and so did Liz. The people currently standing here--they had homes. We have a home. I can go home.Alexis and her mother pitched in from the pool area. The Beast did not seem like the sort that would listen patiently to declarations of home, so how would that work? The green doctor suggested charting the course to make return trips. Well, they ought to, shouldn’t they? Hannah had promised her parents she would come home... A girl (who in Hannah’s mind’s eye from the dinner party was a blur of pink) thought that sounded too simple. “They were all smart, they must have thought of that idea. And if they decided to try it out, it obviously didn’t work. Otherwise, all of us wouldn’t be here.”"We'll also do our best, Scip," said Bek, who cradled her broken leg but still tried to look encouraging. "We'll get you back. You'll see."
Scip glanced at her, meeting her eyes briefly, and then he looked back to the captain, and something in his eyes changed.
"And what if you fail?"Bek had tried not to think too hard about that, tried not to think about how her optimism for the future no longer worked in a world that was After the Beast, and had instead looked to the first mate for confidence, and looked to the future for a better second chance. Hannah thought about those words again: "And what if you fail?"She remembered the procedure that the captain had been forced to explain--the last resort even beyond the last resort, where the memories of the crew and the ship were erased completely. And Hannah thought about that. Really, she might not even notice if she forgot the ancestor memories. They were still new to her. How could one lose something when one never knew they had ever had it? But Hannah realized that in spite of everything, she did not want to forget the events of the past few days. Had they been terrifying? Sure. And stressful? And brain-asploding? Sure. And just outright obnoxious at times? Yes. But if she forgot all about all of this, she would go right back on her backpacking trip, miserably hiking through the wilderness with nowhere she really wanted to go besides somewhere else, and the people she had met here would merely become figments of a dream, strangers who had once played a role in something alongside her in her imagination but were lost to the tides of waking hours. And they, too--they had looked so rapturous at that pool party, being themselves, whatsoever that was. Velia and the doctor had smiled with such relief and excitement. Had Hannah ever looked that way, too, when her companions sat beside her on the kitchen floor after her buzzy episode, or when people had been dancing and playing music at the party, or when she’d collapsed on Dion’s shoulder and sobbed with gratitude, or when Beatrice had exploded back into the school, safe and sound? If everyone forgot even only the past four days, would that nullify all of that, all of that, all of that? I mean, it would still be nice to leave Wrighton eventually, of course, and at this point Hannah almost wanted to go to New Amesworth just to say that she had been there and then call it a day, and-- oh--suddenly OH--oh my gosh, what if we could fly the ship over to New Amesworth just to take a few photos together by the welcome sign and none of us would have to walk and we’d have a SPACESHIP and that would be AMAZING and--okay, okay, she was getting too far ahead of herself there, but all that was entirely beside the point. “We are not going to fail like they did. We--are-- not,” she said, rather loudly, rather decisively, and even somewhat snappishly. And then, more gently, more reassuringly: “We’re not. We’re not.” And Hannah looked at Scip, for the first time hoping to meet his eyes as herself, not as Bek. She didn’t look at him with silent pleading, or with overwrought terror, or as a request for forgiveness. She looked at him--not as Bek had all those years ago with a desperate hope that tried to appear more confident than it was--but with genuine conviction and with gratitude. “It’s not next time, it’s this time. And this time, we’ll do better. It’s important to have a home to come back to, but there’s more than that, too. All these--memories--they’re also supposed to be more mistakes and experiences to learn from, and just in these last few days, we’ve learned so much. We’re not going to fail. We’re not.” She looked at the person at the captain’s chair. “It’s not your fault. It’s my fault, too. I could never learn from my mistakes. I always preferred to run away from my problems, I always did, and Bek did, too. I always did, and I’m sorry. Returning home isn’t just about coming back to a single geographical space, it could also be about returning to people you love and also recognizing and being comfortable about where you are in yourself. It--what if it is steadfastness, what you hold onto.” Hannah was close to blubbering, and she knew it, her breathing felt ragged, and her eyes felt hot. Dangit.“The Rambler bug aliens communicate by movements,” she went on anyway, “and they convey the phrase ‘I love you’ by starting in front of the one being addressed, zigzagging away, and then zigzagging back to that same spot. It was always more than just saying ‘I love you,’ it was about saying that no matter where you went, you would always return to them--that they were a home to you.” “One can only know the way forward if one also knows the way back.”“If the way forward is by recognizing the way back, we can’t go forward by denying what’s behind and the mistakes we made, and I made a lot of mistakes and I kept going in circles and getting lost because I didn’t want to face going back until I realized I could go home, and it’s my fault, too, it’s all ours, like she said, how do you convey that sentiment to a giant hulking psychic fearmonger who clangs?” Hannah punctuated this thought by giving an involuntary snivel, and she yanked out her wad of tissues from her pocket again and blew her nose into it. Sobbing slightly, she turned and offered a clean tissue to the captain-inheritor, just in case they needed one, too. ...I...Did Hannah just give a speech? ...I think Hannah just gave a speech. Even if it’s not the most eloquent, I wasn’t expecting that either. Maybe this adventure really IS an episode of the Twilight Zone. So, fear wave hits, and Hannah tries to come up with a memory that will strengthen her. She gets recollections of the ship, of Bek’s watch duty rounds (wiki says second mates keep watch sometimes), and of her trying to encourage an exploration newbie. She listens as everyone talks and suggests ideas for the Beast, and she thinks about the crew’s final moments again. It makes her realize that she doesn’t want to forget the past several days where they’ve all been exploring the ship (and she has a legit moment of genuine excitement when she thinks about flying in the ship instead of walking). She declares aloud that they’re not going to fail, and she tries to look Scip ( Fraze) in the eye. She goes on this long thing about how they can learn from their mistakes, and she tells Ayo ( Liou) that it’s her, Hannah’s, fault, too, and brings up some different interpretations of home. (Also, Learn Rambler in 30 Days by Walking Around!) But how do you make the Beast listen? 8| Also, Hannah is crying again, just from emotions, and offers Ayo a clean tissue, too, just in case.
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Post by Celestial on Oct 10, 2017 16:44:55 GMT -5
((Collabed with Gelquie and Thorn!)) Alexis sped her way below, the water rushing past her face as she did her best to ignore the pressure building in her ears. It was easier to deal with it in this form; mermaids had anatomy that made it easier for them to perform quick ascents and descents, and though Alexis was only part mermaid, the effects were very clear compared to when she was human. Fionn followed, rapidly descending along with Alexis. In the form of a seal, he was perfectly adapted to diving, with thick layers of blubber to keep him warm and a survival mechanism to help avoid the bends. He swam around her, quickly, focusing on the rush of water against his skin, familiar as his own heartbeat. Keeping Alexis ahead also allowed him to watch her, make sure she was safe and protected, with the promise he made to Athene hovering over his head. There was plenty for him to focus on. If he concentrated on the here and now, the less chance he had of Iki’s memories- or worse, feelings- overpowering him. Alexis was in a hurry, she knew this. But on her way to her office, it was the perfect way to relax, give her mind a rest, and let the memories come in. In the back of her mind’s eye, she could see the depths of an unfamiliar sea, the coral she passed, the huge sea creatures in the distance, some Amyn was comfortable swimming by, some where they kept their distance. One bellow had sent Amyn into a cave to wait for them to pass before they continued down below. Thankfully, there were no such dangers here, so Alexis swam on. ...Although the deeper she went, the more the question burned in her mind: Where was her office? Her memories weren’t clear on that. She dug through her brain, looking for something.Amyn got up from their office, stretching and swimming out when they came face to face with Iki, also heading up. They remember them talking, not the details, but how they lingered outside for a moment, discussing something, them gesturing frequently and Iki pointing out something on her desk, and then both of them laughing about something. They decide to get lunch together, and they swim up, leaving their offices behind....Well, that gave her a hint. She had an idea of what was on Amyn’s desk, and caught a glimpse of what was on her neighbor’s desk. And judging by the lighting, it had to be close… Fionn, meanwhile, looked around, taking in the scene of the desks that now surrounded him. A sudden stab of familiarity raced through him, though it was thankfully not an all-consuming emotion, merely a tug at his thoughts. His ancestor had been here before. On some level, he knew it was a bad decision, but he could not control himself as he followed the sensation, past the row of desks. Here one was scratched, another had a doodle of what looked like a cross between a spider and a fish scrawled on it, along with something written in an alphabet he could not understand. He, however, remembered: it had been part of a prank. Iki had found it mildly amusing but Fionn had to bite his tongue in order not to laugh. The seal shut his eyes. This is not real. It’s not your feelings. They’re only memories. It felt like trying to stem the tide with a stick but the distraction gave him enough time to swim away, letting the memory go under the surface. When he opened his eyes again, he was two desks away. The cubicle ahead was a little larger than the others, and cluttered with things, from photos in waterproof laminate to bric-a-brac littering its surface, some weighed down by rocks. It was like seeing an old friend. The familiarity wrapped around him like a warm blanket. This was her desk. Fionn shut his eyes and sank on to the nearest surface to bask in the emotion. Said surface just happened to be the desk. Things clattered down on to the floor, or floated upwards, unhooked from their anchors. It was enough to snap him out of basking in Iki’s feelings and he flailed away, releasing a great cloud of bubbles in his wake which knocked more items loose. He had to stop getting so lost in her emotions! Dion drifted at a distance, now in the form of a bright pink river dolphin. The koi had been nice, but she'd been in the one form for so long and there were so many she wanted to assume! This one was comfortable- quite large at over two metres in length, and a lovely bright colour to boot. Plus, while its vision was really just ‘okay’, it could echolocate. Which gave her a good reason to do the closest thing to her beloved humming: clicking her mouth repeatedly as she drifted a few metres beyond the cubicles, back and forth, rolling and clicking and wondering what on earth these Wrightonians were up to! Fionn flailed and tumbled, but soon sorted himself out. From the look of it, he'd lost his balance and fallen off a table-thing. Dion had seen many seals, and they usually weren't so clumsy. Obviously, like her, he'd been spending too much time as a human! Alexis watched as Fionn approached a particular desk, paused in thought for some time, and flailed, knocking things over onto the floor built for the cubicle. Alexis blinked, unsure of what to make of it; was Fionn getting lost in his ancestor’s emotions again, like on the surface? ...She couldn’t say anything to comfort him, and she highly doubted that he knew any mer sign language. (And besides, her vocabulary of it wasn’t great.) She tried to catch his gaze to give him an encouraging look instead. Then she noticed what was on the desk… That desk, it was… familiar… Yes, that was it! That was Amyn’s neighbor’s desk! That meant that their desk… Alexis looked over and flailed in excitement. Yes, just as they had left it! She darted over to the cubicle, focusing on the screen embedded into the wall--designed to be waterproof, Alexis remembered, so that Amyn could work with electronics without needing to surface. That was really amazing technology; based on what her father said, it wasn’t something merfolk could ever achieve due to the nature of electricity. If there was a way… ...They would probably never find out, Alexis thought. Perhaps they shouldn’t. ...She pushed the thought out of her head. No. Not the time. She knew that she had to close the command center doors, and now that she was at her cubicle, she felt the urge increasing… Amyn was frantically working; they had to the doors closed, they needed at least one area safe from the monster while they thought of a plan, studied it, figured out what to do…The edges of anxiety sharpened in Alexis, and she gritted her teeth. The others above were counting on them, they had to do it. ...She. She had to do it. Not Amyn. ...Well, someone had to do it. Alexis moved towards the screen and followed a now-familiar motion to turn it on. The screen lit up, and symbols appeared before Alexis, symbols she could now understand. “Welcome back. Install updates now? (Y/N)” Alexis quickly hit N and waited for the prompts to appear before her. Fionn noticed Alexis popping into the cubicle next to him and took the time to poke his head over the wall, checking what she was up to. She was hunched over a computer, waiting for something, so she was probably alright for now. The seal turned back to the objects that he had knocked over, watching one as it ascended up to the surface. He could retrieve those later, he thought, paying more attention to those that still lay on the floor. Why did his ancestor collect so much junk? She hardly seemed like the type. One of them was sparkly, piquing Fionn’s curiosity. He swam towards it, nudging it with his snout. A geode, its azure crystals shining with a light that came from within. Carved from them was an underwater scene, in the centre of which was an alien creature which resembled a whale with wings running all the way down its spine. Objectively, it was beautiful, but Fionn only had a brief moment to register that thought before Iki’s memories welled up, filling every cell in his body with an emotion unlike any other, one he could not even put a name to. He tried to fight, to remind himself those feelings were only memories belonging to somebody long dead, to control himself from sinking into them, but it was such an intoxicating emotion that resisting it was futile. The captain had given them that. She remembered when they handed it to her, the utter delight she felt at getting a souvenir from a planet she could not visit, and to know that they were thinking of her. The feelings guided him deeper into her mind, into memories of lying there, their serpentine coils wound beneath her and around her. She, in turn, was doing the most intimate thing a kvagulaar could do: touching them with her tentacles. They felt smooth, alternating between hotter and cooler, and earthy to the taste that funneled through her suckers, like fine sand. “Oor'cha,” she murmured in the memory. That had been the captain’s name. When they turned to her, she gestured with her tentacles. It was a complex gesture, as befitting a complex, multi-faceted feeling which could take many forms, but Fionn suddenly understood what it was that was consuming him. Love. Iki had loved Oor’cha, the captain of the ship, in a deep, passionate way. They were hardly exclusive, but that did not matter to either of them. Fionn had certainly never loved anybody like that. He fell back and began to sink, his eyes glazed, blind and deaf to everything except the feelings found in Iki’s memories. At first, Dion thought he might be playing some sort of game. Like those trust-falls humans sometimes do- perhaps Fionn was expecting Alexis to catch him? But there was no way she was strong enough. Something about this just wasn't right. Dion propelled herself after him. This form was not built for speed, but thankfully there were only a few metres between her and the unresponsive seal. She approached him and circled, nudged Fionn with her snout, clicked in his face. He didn't react. This was strange! He was alive but he wasn't doing anything. What was going on? Was he unwell? That had to be it! Surely there was some way to snap him out of it, if only long enough to get him out of the water? What was that thing humans did when they thought they might be dreaming...hit themselves? Something with water, but...they were already in water. That wasn’t it, anyway. Oh! That’s right-- they pinch themselves!The dolphin found a fold of flesh and sank her teeth in- hopefully not deep enough to draw blood (she was still new to this form, and it was easy to misjudge), but surely enough to get some response, if only an automatic twitch! Please don’t be dying. Lots of terrible things have happened already, you don't deserve that.The seal bellowed at the sudden pain flaring from his side. It chased away the haze of Iki’s feelings back to whatever they rested in his mind, leaving him exposed and open. He was in the water. Breathing was not a good idea. However, he still had enough oxygen to last the dive. A part of him wanted to return to the soft feather bed of those feelings, basking in them for eternity. It was tempting, so tempting, but Fionn forced himself to resist, pulling in all his will and self-control to do so. Usually he would follow his whims, but in this case, it was stupid and dangerous. Even if he was not in the water, he did not want to be consumed by the memories. He blinked, looking at where the source of the pain was, only to find Dion looking back at him. Even if her face was nowhere near human, it was impossible to mistake her expression for anything but concern. Fionn flicked his back flippers, righting himself, and gave her a nod of thanks as well as an affectionate nudge. Dion wasn't sure what had just happened. Fionn seemed alright now, but that didn't mean he would stay that way. Sometimes strange things happened just once, but sometimes they happened again and again, and that would be a problem here. So when the seal started to move, she swam after him. Alexis was unaware of most of this, save for Fionn’s bellowing that briefly grabbed her attention right when she was nearing the prompt she needed to activate the doors. She turned her head in time to see Dion withdrawing from biting Fionn and Alexis blinked in surprise. Did she just… attack Fionn?! She was about to go over there and find out, but Fionn didn’t seem angry… Maybe she missed something? That bellow definitely seemed painful, though-- A bellow emanated through the ship, one that made Amyn freeze in place. That bellow--the Beast, it had to be. Not like the ones back on their homeworld, and yet… it reminded them so much of them.
They had to run. Right now. And hide, and wait for it to go away.
What were they waiting for? Move! At this moment, a wave washed over her, and a persistent thought came through her head. RUNAlexis shivered, her eyes going wide and darting her head around. The Beast, had it come in, was it with them?! What-what could she do? She-- she could hide in the cubicle, wait to see if an opportunity came, and-- No… That was a memory. The first one where Amyn encountered the Beast? Or was some of it... Alexis put a hand to her head. That fear… It was hard to push it out of her mind. And the Beast wasn’t even with them yet… right? She tried to focus back on the screen, but her work slowed. The memories of how to access the panel were coming more slowly now that she was distracted. She had to keep pushing on though, she had to… She found the correct screen, and she was given a prompt to close the command center doors. She pressed Y before she had time to think about it. I...I can at least do that, Alexis thought. They were doing as much as they could. The defense systems are up, everyone’s working on them, all personnel are employed, all of our minds are put together to try to figure out how to stop the Beast. But it wasn’t enough. Amyn didn’t get it. They’d spent so long; the Beast wanted to run, so continuing to run should be working, right? Everything they should be doing… But everything was still getting worse.
They forced themselves to focus on the screen, deciding which doors to close off next. But they couldn’t help but wonder. Would it do anything? Would they be forced to use their last resort, have everyone fall to the Beast, just like S’siri did?
They kept working, of course. They were one of the crew aboard who could do something to at least mitigate the damage. But they could feel the crew resenting each other more, the Beast growing stronger… Would it make a difference?
...It didn’t make a difference back on their home planet. They could only do so much. And they tried. But it wasn’t enough; they couldn’t save their community.
...But they still had their crew here. They couldn’t mess up this time again. They had to try. ...And they did try. They tried their hardest, they knew so much. They went their all, desperately trying to protect the crew, their new adopted family after the disaster that apparently happened on their home planet, that left them nearly alone in their community. They’d done so well before. But the Beast was too powerful… And at the end of it all, Amyn could only blame themselves… ”I’m sorry…” The memory flashed in Alexis’ mind again. Alexis froze, staring in front of the screen, overwhelmed by their emotions again. Maybe they weren’t Amyn, but she definitely shared their drive. What if that was only making things worse? Should she just… stop? But she wanted to try. And she had. She’d closed the doors. Would that have done anything, ultimately? That was a minute down here that she could’ve spent above, talking to the others about… About what? What could she offer that the others couldn’t? What could she do against the Beast? Or anything?She was just a kid…She hadn’t noticed herself sinking to the bottom of the cubicle, but she let herself land when she did. She could feel tears coming from her eyes, but she knew they would be invisible underwater. Dion watched the girl sink. There's something in this water. We need to get out!She put on a burst of speed and reached Alexis, nudging her with her snout, hoping that she wouldn't have to bite her too because humans were so much more delicate than seals, and Dion didn't trust herself to not do any damage. But it wasn’t enough! What should she do? Fionn, meanwhile, had felt the wave of fear Alexis did. His first instinct was as if he had seen a killer whale coming for him: run. And run he did. The seal put on a burst of speed, dashing in a random direction. Iki’s memories began to rise again like bubbles, threatening to engulf him again. No! He forced himself to stop, shaking his head to get rid of them. He could not afford to fear. Not now! There would not be Dion to bite him out of it this time! Dion? The seal noticed her swimming away, looking like it was urgent. He followed Dion with his eyes and saw her nudging Alexis, who had fallen down at the bottom of a cubicle. Oh no. What if she was hurt? That would be bad enough on its own, but he had promised Athene he would keep her safe- The seal swam over, and was relieved to see Alexis was not visibly hurt, though that did not mean he was in the clear yet. Fionn sank down beside her, looking her over. Her face was scrunched up in distress, though it was not from pain. It was despair. Ancestral memories, like with him? Or was it her own? It did not matter. Either way, he had to help her. He nudged her with his snout, not even minding that his whiskers would be ticklish to her. Maybe that would even be for the best, helping her snap out of whatever it was that had gotten over her. Wriggling under her, Fionn pushed Alexis up in the water before putting his flippers around her in a hug, giving her another light nuzzle on her cheek. At the same time, he hoped she would catch the look in his eyes: it’s okay. Everything is okay. I’m here.The sudden gesture from Fionn and Dion surprised Alexis. The nudge from Dion was enough to grasp her attention, enough for her to look in time to witness the two trying to comfort her. The tickle from Fionn’s whiskers, while not enough to make her burst out laughing, was enough to startle her out of her current thought. And then moreso when Fionn wrapped her into a hug, giving her a look of comfort. Alexis could only stare a moment, taking in the moment before returning the hug as best as she could. Dion was relieved, but surprised, that Fionn’s gesture had been so effective. It wasn’t as if seals were capable of giving very strong hugs, which might have put pressure on her ribs or otherwise shocked Alexis into consciousness...yet, somehow, it had worked. Alexis wanted to speak, to tell the others what was up. But here, she couldn’t. All she could do was accept what they were giving her, the comfort and being shocked out of the emotions, and the fact that he came for her. ...They came for her. That was right. Even though they barely knew each other. But then, Fionn was another member of the Sixteen, and Dion had been around to help everyone, even though she didn’t have to.. In a way, they were all connected. Even without the exact memories of what their ancestors may have had together… The memories. That… That was what caused this, wasn’t it? She was startled to realize that what she was thinking before, and the emotions behind them… they began to fade. Her doubts lingered, but they weren’t nearly so strong. Amyn… Did you feel this too?...But Amyn was amazing. They looked amazing, they did so many amazing things, they could do all of this, they did so much for the crew, even if they couldn’t figure out what to do… Just like everyone else. And they certainly weren’t the only ones who felt guilty. But they did so much... Amyn really didn’t give themselves enough credit. And Alexis could feel it. It wasn’t exactly the same thing Alexis felt, but it was similar. Their emotions… they must’ve mixed with hers. It was hard not to when they were so much alike, and she could feel everything they felt. But they weren’t all hers. This realization, along with the nudges from Dion and the hug from Fionn bracing her back into reality, helped her regain her composure. She looked at Fionn and Dion in turn and gave them a nod. Out of the corner of his vision, Fionn caught the glow of the monitor, along with the complex diagram of what he guessed was the ship displayed on it. Had she been working on that? The seal peered closer. Everything looked more or less complete. Alexis had done her job. He nuzzled her again and still using his flippers, maneuvered her upwards, still keeping her in the hug. Fionn looked up, towards the surface. His breath was growing short, and if everything here was done, perhaps they should be getting back. The seal let go of Alexis and swam upwards a little, turning back to her and pointing with his nose up to the surface. She did want a race after all. Maybe this would help her recover from whatever it was. It would certainly help him. Alexis followed his gestures, first gathering that he wanted to go to the surface, then that he wanted to race. Alexis would’ve only been glad to race, but she hesitated. She still wasn’t sure exactly how she could help… But even then, that didn’t mean she shouldn’t go back, or that others didn’t want to see her. Her friends and family were up there. And she promised her mother that she’d come back. Besides, what could she do down there, poke at the doors more until the Beast came through? ...She really hoped it wouldn’t. She really hoped that the others could find a way. But even if they couldn’t… Amyn was alone when they lost their memories, and they were at their worst. If Amyn’s memories were with her, then she certainly didn’t want to leave them alone again. And she didn’t want to be alone if something bad happened. Nor did she want to leave anyone else alone. ...A race sounded good right now. Alexis nodded and moved up. She flicked her tail as a warning that she was about to start before she snapped forward and sped her way back up. Fionn barely had time to register the tail flick before Alexis dashed up. Oh no she did not! His back flippers went to work, propelling him through the water at speed. To give himself a boost, he tucked in his front flippers, making the water flow over his smooth skin much easier. The surface rushed up. He could win this! Dion followed more slowly. They’re certainly in a hurry to get back! It seemed Fionn and Alexis understood the danger of these strange unresponsive episodes after all. Though up there was still a beast formed of fear...it was a disturbing concept, this dream-beast. Madmen dreaming up journeys... and then dreaming up beasts too! She hoped the sixteen would be able to defeat it, or at least evade its clutches long enough to compose a better plan. Everything in her wanted to find this beast and hit it with lots of sharp stuff for what it had done to these people and their ancestors. But this was a growing-up thing, and they would have to sort it themselves...and if they didn’t, well... She wouldn’t think about that too hard. It would be okay! Fionn’s attention was on nothing else but the race. Light streamed past him as the surface of the water grew ever closer. He pushed hard against it with his flippers, giving himself one final boost before breaking through. The seal poked his head clean out of the water before taking a deep breath. Aside from him, the surface of the pool was clear. He gave out a small bark of exultation. He’d won! Shortly after, Alexis emerged from the surface, her face a mixture of just-broken focus and exhilaration. Smiling, she looked around the pool expectantly only to look startled when she spotted Fionn, already celebrating. Alexis let out a soft, playful groan. “Aww, you beat me!” Alexis said. “Guess that’s what I get for not swimming like this for a while. Good job, Fionn.” The seal stuck his nose up in the air, looking very pleased with himself. Alexis gave a smirk. “Next time, I promise!” She paused, looking over to shore. “...Uh, speaking of promises…” She began to swim back to shore. From where she was, she could see her mother staring at the water, sighing and smiling in relief. Alexis smiled back and waved before speeding her way to the edge to meet her. POOL PARTY *Tosses a beach ball around*
Alexis, Fionn, and Dion dive down into the depths, with Alexis’ goal to close the doors to the Command Center so that the residents have more time to plan against the Beast. Fionn comes along to make sure Alexis is alright, remembering Athene’s warning. And Dion comes along because she’s curious.
Alexis and Fionn find their cubicles. Fionn has FEELS. Specifically, he remembers Iki’s relationship with the Captain. The FEELS overwhelm him and he has to be snapped out of it by Dion, or rather, Dion’s teeth.
Alexis closes the doors, but the memories that come with it along with the Beast’s fear wave also gives her FEELS, this time of despair. Dion and Fionn cheer her up as best as they can without words (and without teeth), and Alexis manages to snap out of it when she realizes that a lot of her emotions are from Amyn, who she feels really shouldn’t blame themselves, but also that they have a lot in common.
To help snap out of their emotions, Alexis and Fionn race, while Dion follows. After the race, they swim back to shore to continue talking about Important Things, but also to reunite with friends and family.
In posts, people can assume that all three of them have returned to shore. There might be more responses to things going on, but we’re letting this collab stand as-is.
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Post by Shinko on Oct 10, 2017 18:42:09 GMT -5
Holly listened as the others spoke, listening and absorbing their words like a sponge, but not responding. She felt like this was a question all of them had to come to an answer to on their own, but also that the answer had to be an agreement. She frowned when Claire shot out her refutation. “And second, can it really be that easy? Just call a place home and keep travelling, coming back to visit occasionally? Are you serious? It can’t be that simple. If it really was that easy, don’t you think the aliens would have done that? They were all smart, they must have thought of that idea. And if they decided to try it out, it obviously didn't work. Otherwise, all of us wouldn’t be here.”Hannah spoke up then, addressing both Ayo and the room at large. Her words were rousing, and had a ring of truth to them. However, she ended with the despairing note of “ -And how do you convey that sentiment to a giant hulking psychic fearmonger who clangs?” Holly’s eyes flashed. “0111 The beast of our own minds. That’s the answer- the answer to your question and to-” she glanced towards Claire- “yours. In order for the beast to know we recognize the need for a home and that we’ll move forwards while having a place we can go back to, we only need to feel it- the beast will know. It is literally of our minds, it has remembered as we’ve remembered and it knows as we know.” Her wings fluttered slightly. “And the original crew couldn’t do it themselves, because even if they’d stopped somewhere and declared ‘this is our home’ they wouldn’t have felt it- and the beast would’ve known the lie.” She strode forwards. “That’s why they couldn’t stop it themselves. That’s why it had to be us. Because the aliens settled Wrighton, but two-thousand years of our human ancestors made this place into what it is now. Made it our home, where we celebrate the spring festival and hang out at the pub on Saturday night and teenagers dare each other to climb the ruins of the wall. It isn’t just about saying that we have a home to return from journeying to, it’s feeling it. We all have to feel it. All of us, the whole crew.” She bit her lip. “But all of Wrighton is the crew, and we have so little time- Scip!” She whirled on the AI. “The first day when you spoke to us, when the beast almost got out of the ship- you weren’t there, but you sounded like you were standing right next to all of us. Can you do that again, but let them hear us and make it heard across the entire town?” Holly listens to everybody’s words, taking in the various theories and suggestions. When Claire pipes up an objection ( Rabbit ♠) Holly initially has no reply, but after Hannah speaks up ( Lizica) Holly remembers her buzzy message. “0111 The beast of our own minds.” She concludes that they don’t have to actively tell the beast anything, the beast is of their minds, and it will know. This also answers Claire’s question as to why the old crew couldn’t do what everyone is suggesting now, because the beast would see in their minds that they didn’t really think of any given place as “home.” So she concludes that everyone has to really feeeeel the sense of “we have a home and we will run back to it when we need to” and asks Scip ( Fraze) to start the citywide broadcast.
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Post by Fraze on Oct 11, 2017 16:33:54 GMT -5
Scip watched as the Sixteen, and several people close to them, worked through their newly rediscovered memories and discussed options for dealing with the Beast. Someone watching very closely might have noticed a slight tremble in the looping animation of the rise and fall of his shoulders that simulated breathing; a wobbling tension in his otherwise amiably neutral expression; the occasional twitch of his fingers as though he were about to clench his fists. It had been so long, but they were here again. They were talking. They were purging hurts and fears and regrets that were thousands of years old. They rememebered each other, and they remembered him. But most importantly for the present moment, their brewing plan to defeat the Beast sounded like it could work. When Hannah looked to him and said they would not fail, he smiled to her and nodded back firmly. "Scip! The first day when you spoke to us, when the beast almost got out of the ship- you weren’t there, but you sounded like you were standing right next to all of us. Can you do that again, but let them hear us and make it heard across the entire town?”Scip nodded. "Yes, that can be done. Do you also want an image or a video projected onto the dome?" --- The Beast faltered. Something was different. It felt different. It continued its chase anyway, ripples of dread heralding its approach.--- Aboveground, the morning's showers had emptied out the rainclouds and the early afternoon sun shone down. The people of the town were busy but quiet, reflecting on the memories of the thousands of aliens they had once been. By simultaneous unspoken agreement, everyone had more or less stopped what they were doing. Workers stared into space, drivers pulled over to the side of the road, families at home sat cuddled together and just thought. The groups still gathered around the four ship entrances sat on the ground and watched the obscured sky. Everything else could wait, and they all knew it. Without warning, a crackling noise like a microphone being turned on echoed throughout the town. The Officers had a message for the Crew. Scip has EXTREME FEELS. He gives encouraging acknowledgement to Hannah's ( Lizica ) rousing speech. Then he answers Holly's ( Shinko ) question: yes, he can set up a town-sized broadcast system for them. He asks if they also want an image projected onto the dome. (If the answer is yes then just assume that Scip will do it, no need to wait for a response.) Meanwhile, the Beast feels something different but continues towards the Command Center. Meanwhile-meanwhile, aboveground the entire town is pretty much on hold while people process their past-life memories. Then suddenly Announcement!
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Post by Celestial on Oct 12, 2017 11:05:50 GMT -5
Fionn swam to the edge of the water, quickly shifting back to his human form. He took his coat off, shaking most of the moisture off it before turning to Athene, bowing his head. "I kept Alexis safe, as I promised. In return, I get to keep my coat," he paused. "Thank you for giving me the chance." He turned away, looking over Athene to take stock of the situation that had developed while he, Alexis and Dion had been in the water. The Beast was coming: he knew that much. The fear that he had felt down there, even more raw and powerful than the seal instincts that told him to avoid killer whales and when to breathe, could not have been anything else. The rest of the group were talking about the Beast and how to stop it. They had it under control, so Fionn looked around at the others, trying to see if they were okay. His eyes landed on Harper first. The young half-kesterk looked subdued...and looked so familiar. Before he could even stop himself, Iki's memory took over, summoning images of another kesterk, this one with five frills instead of six. Qoeln, that was their name. They were working on the engine, though what they were doing neither he nor Iki understood. She was helping them out with lifting some heavy parts while they worked. Unlike her usual, exhuberant self, the kvagulaar was a bit more subdued around them, almost not wanting to startle them. Nevertheless, it did not prevent her from chatting to Qoeln. "So how to kesterk pronouns work exactly?" she had asked. That was enough of that. Fionn once again gripped his coat, the cold rivulets from it flowing over his palm and out through his fingers. Was that Harper's ancestor? It could have been: the demeanour was far too familiar. He refocused. Liz hovered on the edge of the group, though it was definitely Liz now and not Mary. Mary- she had also been on the ship! Except back then, her other form had not been Liz, but a bright, colourful creature called Theo. Warm feelings of friendship welled up again. He bit his tongue to stop himself laughing from the barest hint of amusement as Theo had examined the bright spots on Iki's skin soon after Theo had joined the crew. Fionn slapped himself with the wet side of his coat, sending droplets of water splattering against his clothes. Was there anybody on this ship his ancestor did not know?! The answer presented itself almost obviously: there was not. She was the extroverted Head of Relations: it was her duty and her pleasure to know everyone. And yet, she was closer with some than others. He could see Holly, though the latter seemed far more confident and authorative than before, and more at ease with her wings- Fionn sank his teeth into the skin at the base of his thumb, letting the pain distract him before he could fall into the memory trap again. He had been right: Iki had so much love and so much grief over S'siri but this was not the time to explore them, no matter how warm and inviting her feelings of friendship were. Shaking his head, he dipped his hand into the folds of his coat, focusing on the damp, silky fur that made it up and the feeling of comfort that emanated from it. Behind her, out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the central chair... and somebody was occupying it. His hand flew to his throat before he could stop himself, forcing himself to focus on his breath before the memories of Oor'cha surfaced again. Whoever was on the Captain's chair must have been their ancestor. He could not resist the temptation of looking. Fionn's eyes widened when they saw Ayo. Ayo was Oor'cha's descendant? He snorted, and this time the feeling was all his own: so they had not sat on each other's laps during the party last nigth confessing their deepest, darkest secrets for nothing! Their ancestors had done just the same thing. At least cuddling was as intimate as he and they got last night. Nevertheless, looking at Ayo, his heart clenched at how dejected they seemed. Knowing them, and knowing the Captain, they blamed themselves for all that had happened. He bit his lip and took several steps forward, heading up to the central chair. When they got there, Fionn kneeled by Ayo, putting a hand on theirs. "It's okay. Everything will be okay," he smiled. "It's not your fault, or Oor'cha's. They did what they thought was right, to save everyone. And you, Ayo, you're wonderful in your own way. Whether you have their memories or not, you're not responsible for any of this. It will all be alright-" A shout from Holly broke off whatever he was going to say next. "That’s why they couldn’t stop it themselves. That’s why it had to be us. Because the aliens settled Wrighton, but two-thousand years of our human ancestors made this place into what it is now. Made it our home, where we celebrate the spring festival and hang out at the pub on Saturday night and teenagers dare each other to climb the ruins of the wall. It isn’t just about saying that we have a home to return from journeying to, it’s feeling it. We all have to feel it. All of us, the whole crew. But all of Wrighton is the crew, and we have so little time- Scip! The first day when you spoke to us, when the beast almost got out of the ship- you weren’t there, but you sounded like you were standing right next to all of us. Can you do that again, but let them hear us and make it heard across the entire town?”Fionn looked over, catching the image of Scip nodding. ""Yes, that can be done. Do you also want an image or a video projected onto the dome?"And then there was a loud crackle. Fionn's stomahc sank. They were now being broadcast live. "Wait, what is going on?!" he cried out, and realised he had just spoken live, on air, no doubt the whole town hearing. He swallowed, thinking. What were they doing? The Beast. Stopping the Beast. In order to stop it, they needed to find another way of running. Running...Fionn had been on the run all his life: it was how he was born, it was how he had lived, and there was nowhere he felt attached to. He was like the crew of old. Except...he had always been drawn to Wrighton. "So...uhh...I guess I should speak first, since I already have," he cleared his throat. "Hi, everyone. Some of you might know me, but for all intents and purposes, I'm Fionn Colby, one of the Sixteen. I'm currently broadcasting from the ship's command centre- yes, we got there in the end. So, basically, as far as I understand, there was a beast chasing the whole crew, two thousand three hundred years ago. They crashed here, forgot who they were and became human, leaving their memories in a mindprog so the Beast would not hunt them. Scip talked about this a few days ago, I think. But now we've unlocked the memories and the Beast is out again. It was created because the crew was torn between travelling and needing a place to call home." He smiled awkwardly. Performing in public was easy, but speeches were so hard. "I...kind of get that. I spent my entire life travelling, without anywhere to call home. I lived out on the open seas, resting wherever, feeding where there was food and doing what I could to survive. But Wrighton...it's where my grandma came from. Where my dad was born. This place had always been special to me. It's the site of so many good memories from my childhood. And when I felt like there was nowhere else for me to go...I came here. It felt safe. It felt like home" Fionn sighed. "I wonder if...if that's what the crew needed too: a place where they could always rest and call home whenever they grew tired of their travels, and could start travelling from again when they got sick of being in one place. If such a place exists, maybe...maybe we don't have to be afraid of the Beast anymore? We have somewhere to stop running, where we can be safe, where we don't have to be afraid?" Fionn turns back into a human, telling Athene( Gelquie) that he kept his promise, so he can keep his coat now please? *puppy eyes* He catches up on what he missed out while the pool party was going on, realising everyone is talking about the Beast and how to defeat it. It seems to be under control, but there are people who catch his eye. First Harper( Tiger) triggers memories of Iki and Qoeln, and Fionn wonders if maybe the two kesterk are related? Then he sees Liz( Twillie) and remembers Theo because Mary was similar to Theo's combat form. Darnit, Iki knew everyone, didn't she? As if to confirm, he almost gets overwhelmed by seeing Holly( Shinko) and her wings because of S'siri, but a well-placed bite distracts him. But he still sees the captain's chair behind her, occupied by a very sad Ayo( Liou). Fionn cannot stand to see sad!Ayo, and not just because Iki loved their ancestor, so goes over to them, offering words of comfort. That's when the broadcast goes live, catching him unawares. Fionn figures since he is talking, he might as well keep going, and delivers a speech about Wrighton and how, even though he is a wandering sea creature, it is the place where he can be safe, so it's the closest he has to home. And hey, maybe that's the way to defeat the beast? Tag @everyone ( Lizica, Rabbit ♠, Huntress, Moni, ♥ Azzie, Killix, Birdy, anybody else I forgot) who wants to contribute more about what "home" means to their characters. Will do react post with Maggie on the surface when there is more to hear.
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Post by Shinko on Oct 13, 2017 7:19:05 GMT -5
Holly shot Fionn a rather pained look that spoke a plain message of "Have you really been ignoring every word we've said?" without actually speaking it. Across the room, Jon brought his face down into his hands with an unsurprised sigh. At least, he reflected, Fionn was quick on his feet when it came to improvising and more-or-less said what needed saying. Once Fionn was done speaking, Holly hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath and spoke up herself. "The ancient crew were afraid- half of them were afraid of never having a place to belong, and the other half were afraid of giving up their adventures to settle down. So they quarreled. And from that dissension and fear, the beast was born. It became the force that kept the crew moving, running, when it seemed their internal strife would stop the journey for good." She pulled her wings tight against her back so they wouldn't quiver with her nerves. "Because they never had a home, many of the old crew saw a home as a cage. A place to be trapped." She looked towards Jon, who gave her a crooked smile in reply and nodded. "But it doesn't have to be like that- home is just a place to go back to when you need to rest. When you need an escape from everything. It doesn't mean you can't go off again once you're ready to." Holly swallowed hard. "In order to stop the beast, to shake it for good, we have to agree where the old crew couldn't. We have to bury the hurts and the strife. And it seems to us that the best way to do it is right in front of our noses- we do have a home. And we have the ship, and all it's potential. We can have both." She looked out to the others of the sixteen, adding, "Am I wrong?" I left it vague if there is a visual broadcast being done alongside the audio because I feel like that's a decision for the obviously visually supernatural ( Tiger Gelquie ♥ Azzie). Which no I am not counting Holly because she can't put her wings away, so she's of the mind that "might as well show them now, they'll see eventually anyway." XD Holly's mildly exasperated with Fionn ( Celestial) for not having paid any attention to what anybody else was saying, and Jon double-facepalms at the broadcasted "Wait what's going on?!" because the mental image of Jon doing that was too funny not to use. Shaking this off, though, Holly addresses the town herself. She explains the conflict that created the beast, tying it into what Fionn said about fear, and then talks about how they need to resolve the conflict and heal old hurts to stop the beast. She then prompts the others to contribute their own thoughts. Like Celes, I'll post with Rosemary and Esther on the surface once more people have talked.
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