THE AURORA was once a sight to see. An impressive mining ship, home to many, it could travel across great interstellar distances while providing all the comforts necessary to those within. Its star-sailing days are over now, as it now is a terrible wreckage, with salvage and dangers for those who come near.
It’s also exactly where the new crew members just showed up. URSULA will be immediately sending the on-base crew towards the Aurora, while those who have just arrived have some time to explore. The Aurora, however, isn’t the safest place to be. There are some large creatures in the water, and they may not be friendly towards the crew…
Below is a timeline of events as they unfold, with some further information!
1000: THE AURORA
While the new crew may have arrived anywhere throughout the ship, many will have found themselves in the common rooms, surrounded by the comforts of those who once lived here. Those who choose to wander further may find many rooms throughout, often in varying states of decay. While there are smaller predators on the Aurora and the danger of a wrecked vessel, an unsettling peace pervades the crashed ship. For now, they are safe.
1030: THE BASE
At 10:30 in the morning, URSULA reaches out to all crew members with an urgent message:
”All crew members please report in immediately! Life signs detected on the Aurora! Please stop all other activities and begin rescue mission. Gather any supplies you need, use the vehicles and help any survivors you find. Devices are near the entrance to track life signals once you're on the Aurora. If they're safe, please remember we need to salvage what we can from the Aurora as well. The supplies will benefit any survivors as well.”
Get cracking, crew! Base and Biome have information on what kind of weapons and defenses your fellow crew have had.
1100: THE AURORA
Thanks to the transportation they had built, the base’s crew is able to arrive in record time. They can help seek out their new crew members, take the opportunity to explore more of the Aurora, or just sulk in the transporter. URSULA reminds everyone that salvaging is a key part of their mission, and they should gather what they can before returning to base.
1200: THE AURORA
The crew however only gets an hour to enjoy itself (?) in the wreckage. At noon, URSULA broadcasts to all present, new and old:
”Attention! Dire warning! Reaper Leviathans! According to what I've salvaged of my database, they're apex predators from the westernmost region of the ocean. One signal coming from the west, two others coming out of the Void from deep below the ship!”
The crew may try to evacuate, but it is probably better to prepare for battle or hiding instead. They won’t get enough time to get out of the way before…
1210: THE AURORA
The Reapers are here. Peering out one of the Aurora's entrances will reveal that they are already circling around the vessel, as if they realize something is inside. One even beaches, its entire, 160 foot body soaring through the air before slamming down into the water. It almost feels like a warning. A threat.
URSULA urges the crew to stay inside where it is safe, but if anyone does insist on charging forward, she advises them to split into teams and take on as many Reapers at once as possible to avoid any group being teamed-up on by multiple Leviathans.
NOTE: To fight a Reaper Leviathan, comment under the REAPER FIGHT THREAD comment below! We ask that you work in teams of two or three for the battle to keep threads organized and minimize the number of fight threads the mods will need to work through. Be mindful that these are extremely fierce, dangerous, fast, giant apex predators, and they are very likely to do damage against those who fight them! By tagging in, you are agreeing to put your characters at risk of injury from the Reapers. As URSULA advised, those who don't want to get hurt should hold back and wait.
1300: EVACUATION
Things are looking grim. While the crew's teams make a good fight of it, these Reapers are durable, and they just keep coming back for more. It seems they're on a mission, to stop the crew, no matter how battered they become.
That's when the bellowing starts. Coming from everywhere, a song like that of the cavalry that disorients the Reapers as a large pod of Reefbacks swim in. Several put themselves between the ship and the Reapers, allowing anyone on aboard to safely get into the transports and into the water.
Others begin to fight. The use the concentrated power of their songs to knock back attacks from the front, powerfully lashing their tentacles like whips to crack against the Reapers. In battle they're surprisingly agile, able to spin around in a moment's notice to alternate between confusing and attacking the Reapers.
But any crew members watching can see the toll it takes on the Reefbacks. One Reefback in particular chooses to guide the crew back to the base by swimming along aside them. Thick, dark blood trails in the water behind it but it beats off any curious smaller predators like Stalkers. But its shell is cracked, its 'face' smashed in, and it gets no further than the Kelp Forest before it settles into a dense patch of creepvines for a final rest. It sends out a final cry that somehow feels like a wish for the crew to keep going on to the base, away from the continuing battle.
The rest of the pod manages to drive the Reapers back, though they too have their casualties. Still, the Aurora and the crew are safe for now.
Perhaps that was their only wish.
Direct any questions and plotting to the OOC post and have fun!
[And that's when the sylladex spat out everything in it.
It is not a nice pile. There is a terrible sord that is somehow covered in bad jpeg artefacts. There are a dozen of various kinds of orange soda bottles. A spare shoe, a Game Bro magazine, a skateboard? a Hello Kitty plushie, one of these horrors, a grenade, and a baseball bat. (Some of them may have gone flying. Sorry.)
Dirk is standing in the middle of all of this. Completely expressionless.]
Okay.
So this is basically bullshit.
[1100: THE AURORA]
[Dirk has taken URSULA's message to heart and wandered off salvaging. He hates being stuck at sea, but he knows the rules. You find any even remotely useful debris, and you make sure you grab it. This goal is, however, hindered by his sylladex being limited to ten items, and most of these items needing to rhyme.
That is why Dirk is sitting in the middle of the floor in one of the bedrooms, surrounded by a pile of junk that includes some nice medical supplies, robot scrap parts, and a little toy horse. Muttering under his breath, trying to work out..]
Toy horse, horse toy, small pony, equine, equestrian... Nah, bro. [Without turning to look, Dirk grabs his sword and spears it straight through a cave crawler that was approaching. Nope. None of that. He is busy here in rhyming hell.]
Fuck it. I'm naming this thing Canta. Fanta, Canta, we're done. [The toy horse (to be henceforth known as Canta) vanishes into the hammer space of his sylladex.
Now there's just the rest of this.]
[1300: EVACUATION]
[Once the Reefbacks take the frontline, Dirk forces himself to pull back from the fight. He really, really, really wants to keep stabbing things with the sword, but the message is pretty clear: there are too many people around here who need to get to safety.
He flies down to anyone who looks like they need a hand moving from the Aurora's dangerous exits, made more hazardous by the rocking of the waves, to the transportation. He holds a hand out.] Here, come on. We've got to move.
[ Dave isn't expressionless for the moment, if only because he was standing near enough to get hit in the head with one of those orange soda bottles. He'd been turned away looking at something and hadn't expected Dirk to DROP FUCKING EVERYTHING. ]
Wh - OW.
[ At least he didn't get beaned in the head with a grenade, but cue Dave putting a hand to his head and looking over his shoulder at Dirk. His shades have been knocked askew enough to reveal his eyes for the moment. ]
Dude. [ Are you thirteen???????? What was that - oh, orange soda, Dave goes to pick it up but freezes. That sure is a smuppet down there and he half expects 5 zillion more to fall out of the sky. After a pause he picks up the fanta while avoiding the puppet, before straightening back up. ] Yo, are you tryin' to even us up on the head score or what? 'Cause - holy fuck is that a Sord.
[ Whatever aborted decapitation joke he was about to make was probably going to be Too Soon. It's too soon even for Dave but that's hardly ever stopped him from bringing things up before. He got worse on the meteor. There's actual genuine delight at the shitty jpeg sord, though...
[1000: A Gamer Is Born] [Merrill is taking some time in one of the common rooms. She's putting some magazines into her pouch and some folded up board games but what she stops to work on is a rubix cube.]
Oh! I see, here you just... Oh, wait, no, no, that's all wrong, you have to-- [She sees the point of it now. But even though she just got the orange to align, the blues won't.] Wait, maybe if I...! But now the greens don't like me.
[If you don't see her struggling with the rubix cube, you can also find her getting confused over a video game system. She hit the button and the TV flickered to life. Now she's just. Hitting buttons. Randomly.]
What are...? Oh, this little... stick selects different words on the glass...
[She accidentally managed to boot up a racing game in fact. She's just selecting cars without any idea what she's doing or what these are.]
[1100: Hello Crew!] [Though by now Merrill is wandering the ship, putting out fires when she can and zapping Cave Crawlers when they try to jump her.]
Hello? Helloooo? Is anyone else here? I'm friendly! I mean, unless you want to attack me. That's not a very friendly thing to do. But I am here if you're lost, too!
[Really though someone get her out of this tangled mess of a dungeon.]
[1300: Sad Whale Noises] [When the Reefback settles far down on the seafloor, Merrill stops, frowning. It gave its life to protect them. Is it something they can't save for certain? This animal seems as intelligent as any one of them. She twists around on the surface, looking around.]
Is anyone here a healer?! [It might help. It's worth a try. Anders might be able to do something, wouldn't he?]
There is a vague hint of a wince made visible by the curving of his brows. Sorry for getting you on the head, bro. This turns into some concern as Dave notices the smuppet. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Fuuuuck.
While Dave examines the Sord, Dirk does a quick flashstep to pick up the smuppet and just shove it right back into the now-empty sylladex. SMUPPET? HAHAH WHAT SMUPPET. Out of sight, out of mind?
To prevent any post-traumatic puppet disorder moments, Dirk zones in on the Sord. Also, because he loves talking about his Bro's work. You chose to open that can of affection, Dave.]
Yeah, it's one of the weird, shitty three dimensional jpeg artefacts you made in my universe, like the Statues of Liberty. They're insanely durable. That one made it through re-entry into our atmosphere after a couple centuries in space.
[ Dave's just kind of sorting through some of those board games - he flipped through one magazine and poked at the video games, but ultimately went over to the normal game shelf - with an air of idle boredom. ]
Whoa, Monopoly. Guess we know what took this thing out now. Monopoly kills all friendships, they should've known better than to fuck with that shit. [ This is probably not the actual cause of this wreck, but Dave's just making conversation with you. ]
AURORA: 1100 STORAGE
[ There is a ridiculous amount of Daves up in here. Admittedly there is only One to start with, but that single Dave noticed something highly important: there are fucking earth planet plant seeds in this shit. That single Dave immediately changed every priority he had and abandoned any plans of finding or salvaging anything else. Searching for one type of plant seed was immediately more important than any other task, but given everything in the room it required a shit ton more time than anyone had.
More time than anyone but the Knight of Time had, anyway.
Given the situation, the Daves are all wearing the same god tier pajamas, though the hood is down. It's kind of hard to count them, although all of the Daves (who are the same Dave, looping back from the Reaper warning ad nauseum in order to secure the goods) are the same Dave, keeping up a careful symphony of time shit. He's not a huge fan of time shit even though it's his thing but THIS IS IMPORTANT. ]
I got pears over here, we're gettin' a little closer. What've you got, Chapelle?
[ One Dave says to another Dave, all of them seeming to be fine keeping track of who's doing what. How many hours is this even adding up to here, Dave? And why isn't he doing anything to prep for the attack he's looping back from. ]
No, shit, we found ORANGES, who the fuck wants oranges. And lots of weapons I guess, whatever.
[ Another Dave from across the room calls out ]
Some sort of divin' shit over here.
[ All of the Daves shut the fuck up (some of them are definitely talking to themselves) when the furthest-forward Dave finally finds them. ]
Holy shit. Hooooooooly shit. They're here. Omg I found them. [ Given the nature of the timeloops, the dozen Daves don't disappear since they're not going to disappear until they hit the reaper warning when Dave starts looping back, and this furthest forward Dave stays behind having done all the time bullshit already, but. Instead all of them just kind of...crowd around the furthest forward Dave this is so fucking dumb. Most of the iterations of himself had by this point seen the seeds being found but due to time travel bullshit had to go looking for them anyway.
God he hates time travel normally but today is a great day because... ]
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck yes. Apple seeds! We have apple seeds! [ HANG ON HE'S JUST GONNA TAKE THOSE AND LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE OF USE FROM THIS ROOM while the past versions of himself clap one another on the back and help open the canister. Honestly Dave is just. Going to hold his prize and sort of have a dopey, happy look on his face also holy shit he wants to cry a little bit.
....................this is stupid. honestly no one could blame you for turning right the fuck around and walking back out of the storage area, but if you want to address the fact there are like 12+ Daves spazzing out about apple seeds and ignoring anything else of potential use, you can. ]
EVAC: 1300
[ While it's hard to read Dave's expression a lot of the time, the blank look he gets when the reefback settles to the ground is a little painfully careful. ]
Shit. [ It's muttered under his breath, and he knows death when he sees it. ]
[ Dirk, did you just force yourself into rhyming with puppets or are you gonna fix that later... ]
Haha, shit, I remember making that. [ In his own session, he means. ] ...We should probably find you a weapon that doesn't fucking suck, cool though it would be to fight with that thing. It's kinda hard to hold, right?
[ He holds out the orange soda DIRK CRUELLY THREW AT HIM (no) to his brother, before kind of. Nudging the Sord with his foot. ]
Also I'm not sure it can even give people paper cuts. Or if it's just capped to nothing worse than that? [ this close to picking it up and testing it on himself... ]
[Sure did. Sure just set up a really fucking difficult rhyme. Sure will need to fix that if he wants to get anything done in his life.
Unlike some iterations of Dirk we could name, Dirk is not okay with Dave playing around with shitty swords. Admittedly, that might be because this particular shitty sword is a Sord and he loves that Sord. Either way, he picks up the Sord before Dave can do something stupid with or to it, and he captchas it.
While holding the orange soda.
Puppets and Sord. Those are the rhymes now. There is absolutely no way he can get rid of the soda in his hand.]
Not that I'm objecting to getting my hands on a weapon that hasn't been cut in half [beautiful unbreakable katana you served him well] I'm kinda more concerned about why we're here and the others aren't? I know our session is all kinds of irregular, but I don't think the game would just scatter us. [You know who has scattered Dirk before? Jade Harley.
He is blaming your dog friend, Dave.]
Does this make sense with anything that happened in your session?
[It's a miracle Dirk hasn't given up on his compulsive need to understand a situation after all this time in Paradox Space.]
[ Dave has just been SO HELPFUL in the past two minutes, forcing Dirk into a useless captcha grid. Thanks, Dave, you're a bro. ]
Man, can we just acknowledge for a second that I have climbed the sword-breaking echeladder to the TOP, though. Your stupid unbreakable shitty sword beat thirteen-year-old Dave, but I got my revenge. ...I mean, sorry about the broken sword and shit but heck yes no sword can stand my stupid sword breaking skills. It's like I caught all the Pokemon, although if it were just like that I guess in about two days there'd be like, five new unbreakable fucking swords I'd have to learn to break and my quest would never end?
[ ..................okay, right, dirk actually was talking about something important and Dave turns his attention to that now that he's rambled about swords.
And shrugs. ]
Dude, did anything in your session make sense? I literally at one point had to get thrown into a pot with onions and soup shit by nakodiles. Because shenanigans. This seems to make about as much sense as any of the other bullshit we've been thrown at.
[ Dave really can't work up to being that concerned about More Paradox Space Bullshit just now, although - ]
I don't like that we're separated from the others just now, but I'm assumin' it's a temporary thing.
[ FAIR...save yourself, Dirk. None of the Daves even notice him absconding because they are...too busy being absolute idiots re: the tantalizing future prospect of apple juice. ]
[Thanks for keeping focused, Dave. You're really helpful here. Ruining his grid. Talking about Pokemon. Great.]
Congratulations on breaking my sword. [...He thinks? It seems to mean a lot to Dave. So, good for Dave. He will be supportive and brotherly about things that matter to Dave, yeah! ...Even if it's breaking his sword. The important thing is that Dave is happy about it, so Dirk will be happy for him.]
Our session was pretty logical. It was doomed, we ran around attempting to do things in a framework that inherently refused to let anything get done, and then your session crashed into it and we killed all the bad guys so we could win the game.
[Simple. Logical. What was that about retcons and intermissions? Dirk doesn't remember those.]
I guess it's out of our hands, since neither of us have the appropriate powers. [Out of their hands. Out of Dirk's hands. It's out of Dirk's hands and he has to wait for someone else to sort it all out.
No.]
I should organize this shit before I explore this place. I'm pretty sure my sylladex just got ridiculously smaller.
[He's fine. This is fine. Everything is fine. Nothing rhymes with 'puppet' but everything is fine.]
[He's been tracking the fallen Reefback since he noticed it was injured. Surely they're far enough away from the Reapers to take a few minutes to attend to it...he winces at heavy way it settles into the creepvines, and at the cry it makes resounding through the water.]
Yes. I can try some artes on it...hopefully it's not too far gone.
[He doesn't actually know how much difference his spells will make, with such deep visible damage and his mana low from dealing with the Reapers, but if nothing else they'll dull the creature's pain.]
Uh, thanks? [ It's. So weird. To hear any genuine congratulations from Dirk. Well, no, that's false - it's not weird from Dirk (except it is) but it's more weird in that he can't really think of a time he ever got that sort of thing pre-scratch.
Don't think about it, Dave. ]
Also, yo. If you see anything in the game as being logical we need to have a serious discussion about your definition of "logical". Because I'm not sure "logical" and "Sburb" are allowed to be in the same sentence, let alone the same universe.
[ Dave kind of looks to the side, checking his own shit - he had less than ten items on him to start with, and nothing was conflicting, so it didn't eject everything. ]
...Whoa, shit, what the hell, are we thirteen again? I lost like most of my free cards.
"There's no sense waiting around in here. Those things don't look like they're going to leave any time soon."
Jotaro is standing in the twisted remains of a corridor, peering out through a gap in the bulkhead at the creatures that are circling, threatening them.
"They look pretty tough, but they probably don't actually want a fight," he says, cracking his knuckles. "If we rough them up some, I bet they'll go look for easier prey."
[Whenever he gets a reaction like that, Dirk affirms that there is a splinter of him out that that he must never become at all costs. Clearly, he will have to remember to express approval for Dave more! (This is dangerous.)
Before Dirk defends his version of 'logical' with a dictionary definition and a serious overestimation of his ability to actually parse out causality in Paradox Space, Dave makes an observation that coincides with Dirk's problem.
That's weird.]
How many cards do you have left? Because I only have ten on a tech-hop style fetch modus. [He's in Hell, Dave. He's in Hell.]
Dude. Duuuuude. I'm callin' first dibsies on that!
[ Roxy's eyes are as wide as saucers as fall upon the old-school Nintendo Entertainment System on the shelf. How did they know she loves retrogaming? She's only ever seen one of these systems online and in old and crusty magazines. It doesn't matter that the place is run-down and looking like a tornado ripped on through the ship, she's perfectly okay with just chilling here and playing video games for a bit. Why not.
But thirstfirst thing's first. She helps herself to one of the many cans laying about, cracks it open, and lifts it to her mouth... only to be greeted by the smell of beer.
Fuck! She drops it so fast, she nearly flings it across the room. That is the last thing she needs right now, but needing and wanting are two different things.
She frowns at the spilled beer, the overturned can pouring its delicious elixir out all over hell. She just watches the can empty itself with a frown. ]
Now that is real alcohol abuse.
[ Man, what a waste. ]
[ 1300: EVACUATION ]
[ Oh god, the bellowing. Roxy has good enough of a reason to not particularly care for the sea, in the sense that the sea is where evil tyrannical seawitches come from. However, she did not hesitate at all when she was approached and asked for help. It's not in her nature to turn away anyone in need, be that someone a person, an animal, or a planet.
But now that she's had time to think about it? And she witnesses the damage the Reapers are doing? She has to wonder if this was Batterwitch's plan all along. Maybe seabitch is punking her?
That train of thought is quickly derailed when she spots the Reefbacks swimming to their rescue, guiding and sheilding them as they flee to the safety of the base. She notices one Reefback in particular, injured and bleeding, and presses her face against the window to watch it descend into the kelp. Her own injuries are minor in comparison... she knows it won't make it. ]
No...!
[ Roxy hears its cry. Her blood runs cold as moisture builds up in her eyes. But... the Reefbacks are so adorable, and they helped them, so why did one of them have to die? That hardly seems right, especially after one of them sacrificed itself to help them. If only there is something she can do to help.
But there isn't. She's pretty sure that throwing the hatch open now will endanger all of them. Alas, she is able to do nothing but cry for and mourn their fallen hero friend.
'Sord' for one column. [Dirk's voice, which is admittedly often spoken low in the throat, suddenly becomes even more low. Borderline mumble-y. Like he doesn't feel like talking to Dave about the other column?] 'Smuppet's in the other.
They're unlikely to actually be steel. Given that this is a space-faring craft, I'd assume they're using some kind of alloy that won't melt under the heat of atmospheric entry.
[It's a little weird that he'd heard that voice. Help Them, it said. He was trying to help himself a little, head out with some of his friends and save an area or two from Risen in the Outrealms. Instead, on the way back he's being stuck in some sort of...completely metal living dwelling full of things he's never seen before. A little poking around has revealed some strange pictures of people that don't look like paintings, some clothes made of fabric he's never seen before, and what appear to be tiny little candies in a bottle made of a material he also hasn't seen before.
A lot of things he hasn't seen before. Anyone passing by the bedrooms might hear him sigh aloud or try to talk to himself.]
Oookay. So what if you've never seen any of this stuff before? It...it can't be that bad, right? ...Or it's really, really bad, because what are all of these things made of?!
[He wishes for a simpler life of wood and brick, okay? He occasionally peers out into the hallway, listening for other people, but...he always ducks back into the room. He's going to stay put. Right. Someone will come find him, right? ...It's safer here.]
[11:00 - 11:59: It Is Not Safe Anywhere]
[So, against his better judgement, Yarne has decided to start moving around the ship. He should probably start finding a way out if no one else has helped him figure that out already, which means he's going to encounter...everything else that he doesn't want to see, naturally, and he's going to make a lot of noise while he does it.
Maybe someone will come across him seeing a mostly picked-clean skeleton. Maybe someone will hear him scream, causing the three crawlers finishing off the flesh to turn and jump at him instead out of alarm. Once he's gotten the attention of three animals he had no desire to get to know more intimately, he'll start trying to beat them off of him before making a run for it. Hopefully, he won't make a wrong turn or end up running down a fiery shaft...or if he does, that someone is there to stop him.
A lucky person or two might even catch him in a different form, quickly spinning to put pressure on his hands while launching his feet at a crawler, sending it flying into the nearby wreckage. It doesn't get up again. The creature, however, stands on his hind legs and speaks with an almost ghastly voice.]
No, you don't get up!
[13:00: Run Away, Run Away]
[So, there are gallant fish. Giant fish, bigger than anything he's ever seen before aside from Grima, and they're throwing themselves in harm's way just so they can get to safety? Despite having been hiding during the reaper battle, clinging onto the small belongings he'd grabbed while looting, that really hits a nerve. How dare they do that, when he can't even help them in return.
For that reason, Yarne looks more angry than upset, but given the surrounding events it likely doesn't make him stand out. While trying to get to one of the transports, he's going to try and follow anyone who looks like they've been here longer, the ones who look like they've come prepared as opposed to the people he's seen on the Aurora.]
H-hey! Are those things safe? Are we...are we really getting into one of those things?
[What are they? Again, he has no idea how any of this stuff works, but he's not going to complain too much about getting himself behind something sturdy and to safety. But he's always hesitating, looking back. That song is so painful, and he's had enough loss in his life, too many sacrifices already. And he doesn't even know these fish!]
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