PORT: MEODRIOTOPE

[returnjourney]

PORT: MEODRIOTOPE

Feb 11, 2022 – Feb 13, 2022
Welcome to Meodriotope! (Try spelling that without double-checking. I double-dog dare you.) This is our first port. Ports are, as the name implies, a visit to "shore", which can be just about any planet in the Oos Galaxy. This time, the Peregrine is dropping in on a flower-gathering errand, but it's a good opportunity for characters to stretch their legs.

The full OOC write-up for the port is here. If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.

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Questions & Answers

1. Disembarking

For some passengers, this will be the first time they've touched land in almost forty days. Is it unusual, stepping down onto solid ground and breathing cool, fresh air? Is it frightening, to look upon the sea of blue grass and pale sky and realize you have never been so far from home? Is it exciting? Awe-inspiring? Gross, because who likes the outdoors anyway?

Of course, not everyone will disembark. Inmates cannot leave the ship without a warden as escort, and wardens will be responsible for inmates in port — they don't have to be glued to each others' sides, of course, but it's harder to make trouble under a watchful eye.

2. Camp

There'd be a lot of walking without the ATVs, so the Navarch has deployed both vehicles to serve as transport and support for housing. The campsites, once set up, look very much like regular Earth camping — turns out at some point in human development, people pretty much perfected what a rapid set-up/rapid tear-down camp can be, give or take some aesthetic trappings. A sleeping bag is a sleeping bag. A camp stove is a camp stove. It's just cooler when it's made of sleek white metal with designer rounded edges and blue lighting, and all.

There are four tents set up, each sleeping 4-6 people, so even if everyone decided to camp, it won't be too crowded. They are equipped with a solar-air tube that can generate power from sunlight, so they are climate controlled and have built-in lighting. An additional tent serves as a mess tent, though you'll all be eating on little folding chairs. Plastic trunks store rations. Those who want a bit of local fare will have to work for it.

Wardens also have a locked toolbox containing a hatchet, a firestarter, and a pair of utility knives. Should be handy for setting up a campfire at night. Shame no one picked up marshmallows from the commissary; that would have been nice.

3. [Mis]adventuring

There's plenty to see out in the world of Meodriotope:

Burrowing holes — Beware your ankles: the fields are home to colonies of littari, rabbit-like creatures the size of labradors. They leave large holes that are easy to fall into, if you're not watching where you step. This time of year, they usually stay deep in their warrens, but occasionally they pop up to smell the wind and scavenge for edible plants in the thick grasses. They're largely harmless, preferring to flee when possible, but they may go for the calves with their large, blunt teeth when cornered or struck. (They also taste good with mint sauce.)

Lover's Kiss — These little plants can be difficult to find, as they thrive under the grasses' shade, but when you find one, you find a lot of them. Each vine has fifty or more bright, red blooms, pinched at the sides and bowed in the middle like a pair of juicy lips. The Navarch requests that they be harvested; they're used in medicines on a neighboring planet and the Admiralty has asked the Peregrine to pick some up while we're in the area. Be careful, though: if you pluck them too roughly, they'll explode, and the red markings take weeks to wear off skin, even with dutiful scrubbing.

The Fishwives' Village — Five hours west is a small village close to the shore, home to...well, who knows if they're wives, but they have fish heads and bodies with humanoid arms and legs, and they wear little robes. Kind of like reverse mermaids. They are quite small, barely reaching four feet tall, and they speak their own language, leaving communication to little gesticulations and gestures. They live in small stone huts, arranged in concentric circles with a small market in the middle, and barter roast seafood, handicrafts, crabgrass beer, and small tools for off-world goods. Most of their culture seems to revolve around fishing and goods made of woven grasses. The fishwives are fussy about outsiders and carry little fishing spears when they visit, just in case.

The Shoreline — Long, long, long coastlines looking out at the sea, with beaches made up of smooth stones. There are plenty of interesting sea creatures to see in the rocky tide pools, but try not to handle anything indiscriminately (many things bite and some of those things are venomous). You can walk a long way out before the water gets deep, but be careful and make sure you aren't too far out when the tide comes in.

Rock Formations — Weathered in fascinating shapes from centuries of storms and high winds, these formations curl across the southeastern plains. They make swooping sounds when the wind passes through them, like deep and echoing woodwinds. Suneoff, resembling cat-sized mudskippers, dwell in the formations' shadow, while the bat-like knassu nest in the better protected crannies.

4. A Very Wet Last Day

Looks like we didn't manage to miss the rain. The storm clouds on the horizon take their sweet time to arrive, but on the last full day before departure, wardens and inmates will wake to the sound of heavy rain on the roofs of their tents. For some, it may be a struggle to leave the warm, dry confines of the tent to venture into rain. It's the kind that comes down relentlessly, soaking you to the skin within minutes, and cold to boot.

To make matters worse, the rain has transformed the long grasses into a veritable slip-n-slide. Step too quickly and you might find yourself shooting down a sloping hill, or at the very least on your ass. Visibility drops to barely twenty feet ahead.

Packing up in this? Ugh. We have to be back on the ship by nightfall! Anyone who isn't aboard gets left behind.

Comments

[rank1]

Misadventuring I Closed to Waver, Rhys and Jack

Travis really wanted to drive the ATV, but this square warden said no. It's been itching at him for two hours. Waver's fine. "Nice", or would be considered so if that was a word Travis ever felt inclined to use on people. Listening to him talk about magical theory is fine. But god if the guy isn't a boring driver. Travis has the brief image of himself as a toddler, in diapers and a t-shirt with a picture of a Disney character on it, strapped into a car seat for hours. Bored out of his fucking mind. He then he realizes that he is 34 and the crossed straps of the ATV's bucket seats are functionally the same fucking thing. He looks down at his shirt. It's got a picture of an anime girl on it.

Well, at least he's not wearing a diaper.

He looks across the narrow aisle to Jack. He thinks, briefly, about how cool she looks. He bets she's bored as fuck too.

He says: "You getting tired of this?"

[professor_charisma]

Waver isn't normally this cautious of a driver, but then, all he's driven are, y'know, cars. Normal everyday cars. Even mages just drive Priuses and minivans sometimes. But this? It was definitely exciting, but once he got in the driver's seat, it was a bit intimidating.

Travis had bugged him to drive, but he refused. From the stories he's heard, Travis gets into enough trouble without needing to be behind the wheel of something like this. A vehicle of which Waver would be a passenger. No thanks. Besides, he was the warden, and driving seemed like a warden thing to do.

It might seem like he's being overly cautious - and he is, a little - most of it is him actually gawking at the scenery. Maybe it didn't look like much, but this was an alien planet. It was hard to believe he was currently driving around an oversized dune buggy on a goddamn alien planet. He might be more willing to let loose a little if he was on his own, but with not one but two inmates in tow, he needed to play it safe.

Travis's griping is enough to bring him back down. The ever-frowning professor turns that expression to the inmate for a moment, eyebrow raised.

"I'm sorry, is traipsing around on an unfamiliar planet in a giant space off-road vehicle too boring for you?"

[n0ught]

"Been there, done that," Jack says breezily to Waver, rolling her eyes in Travis's direction and making a jerk-off gesture.

Okay, so, it was less of an off-road vehicle and more of a hovercraft, but the same principle applies. The way most of these people deal with space and other planets makes her wonder just what kind of backwoods places they're all from.

"You drive like somebody's grandma. C'mon, let's find some jumps or something."

[rank1]

Travis gives Jack a wolfish grin. There's something about this minute that feels right. Like there are a lot of ways this could go, but there's one route that feels the most exciting, and he's just a button-push away from taking it. And this chick is cool, right? He looks at her and can just tell. It's the line of work. It has a vibe.

"I'd kill to drive this thing," Travis adds for Waver. "The engine's got real power, it's such a fucking waste on this cautious shit. You sure you don't want me to drive?"

[smugreport]

[ Rhys thought he was done with clandestine road trips across backwater planets, but here he is! Once again stuck in a vehicle with a bunch off assholes for god knows how long (hopefully not too long...William is going to regain consciousness at some point.) At least last time Vaughn was with him, this time Volk (new, worse Vaughn) had to go and get cold feet at the last second and leave his fate to the will of these total dicks. For the time being though, they're on the same team.

He hasn't really been listening to the current conversation, interjects anyways]

Can I just say, it is so nice to be travelling with people who don't want to rip my skin off and wear it as a suit.

[professor_charisma]

"The landscape's a bit flat for jumps." Or so it had been so far. Waver speeds up a bit, hoping maybe it'll stop the complaining.

"Yes, well... Glad to be of service, Rhys."

What was that comment about? Was he really expecting someone here to do that? This wasn't helping Waver in the slightest. His mind is in a hundred places at once since he arrived, and that doesn't lend itself to very exciting driving. His shoulders are tense as he grips the steering wheel a bit too tightly. If he can get these inmates back and forth on his own in one piece, he figured it'd be a miracle.

"Fine, I suppose I'm a grandma then. Let's just get to the village and then--" They hit a pothole in the form of a littari warren, rocking the ATV sharply for a moment. Waver curses under his breath.

[n0ught]

The pothole is the first bit of excitement they've had on this whole fucking ride, so Jack throws her hands up and whoops loudly.

"Finally, some all terrain! I was falling a-fucking-sleep. Hey, let's take a detour to the beach. Gotta be more interesting than anything called a 'village.'"

[smugreport]

Listen Waver he's just trying to make pleasant conversation with a group of people he hates okay?

"Uh, the village probably has y'know stuff and people. It's a way better idea then heading to the beach."

Civilization is kind of a key element in his whole escape plan.

[rank1]

Travis laughs, even rattled.

"Yeah, I vote beach," Travis adds. Harder to dump a guy in a village, after all. He unbuckles his seatbelt so he can lean forward, elbows on his knees, to put his head into the front seats. "Let's do it, bro. We can stop and take a lil walk, stretch our legs."

[professor_charisma]

Waver pokes at the map on the console, frowning in thought.

"We can do both. I'd rather approach the villagers in before the sun sets if we can, though. Not sure how they feel about a bunch of strangers showing up will be, but I'm sure we'll be better received in daylight."

The village was pretty close to the shore, according to the map. Two birds, one stone then.

"Suppose it makes sense that the town's near the water. So we can camp out there overnight, maybe. Hope you brought your swimsuits."

[n0ught]

Jack just laughs at the swimsuit comment. She is basically half naked at all times; the idea that she wouldn't just strip down and get in the water is ludicrous.

"Or we could camp there now, and meet the villagers in the morning..."

She just wants to skip the village altogether. The fewer people who can track their movements, the better.

[smugreport]

"Oh yeah, camping out on a strange planet overnight sounds like a greeeat idea. Let's just tape raw steaks to our bodies while we're at it."

Is this place as big a deathtrap as Pandora? Unlikely. But it's not worth the risk and he wants to get out of here come on lets go!!

[rank1]

Travis sits back and listens to all this (except Rhys, because fuck Rhys) and gives a considering nod. The beach, the village, sure, whatever. Does it matter? He glances sidelong at Jack, and the glint of light that catches his aviators makes the curl at the corner of his mouth look a little wolfish.

"Let's do the beach right now," he says. "This girl right here is itching for it, I can tell. What the lady wants, the lady should get, right?"

[professor_charisma]

"That was sort of the plan from the beginning, Rhys. We have enough supplies that I promise it won't be all that bad." Waver's certainly made due camping with much less than they were given.

He taps his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking.

"Alright. Look. We're headed towards both anyway. We'll see how much daylight we have left by the time we get there. If it's getting close to sunset, we'll head straight to camping and hit the village in the morning. Deal?"

[n0ught]

Jack raises her eyebrows at Travis, the corners of her mouth twitching up in half disbelief and half amusement. Just what is she itching for, specifically? "You're damn right," she says offhandedly, eyes sparkling; she does indeed get what she wants.

What she does not want is to argue this stupid fucking point any longer, so she rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically, slumping back in her seat. "Whatever! I don't care that much."