The Return Journey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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returnjourneylogs2022-02-11 12:33 am
returnjourney) wrote in returnjourneylogs2022-02-11 12:33 am
Entry tags:
- !port,
- alex mercer (prototype),
- alice quinn (the magicians),
- bucky barnes (mcu),
- claire fraser (outlander),
- grace gibson (original),
- j. a. volkhov (original),
- jack (mass effect),
- loki odinson (mcu),
- lucifer morningstar (lucifer),
- malekith the accursed (mcu),
- rhys strongfork (borderlands),
- silco (arcane),
- theo crawford (original),
- theon greyjoy (a song of ice and fire),
- travis touchdown (no more heroes),
- viktor (arcane),
- waver velvet (fate),
- william (westworld)
PORT: MEODRIOTOPE
PORT: MEODRIOTOPE
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.
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.
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[His heart is hammering, he can tell there's an anxiety attack building but he's hoping he can ride it out.]
We need to ... play a board game or something. Something low key.
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I play a mean game of Scrabble. But you're all right. I think it better me than anyone else.
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[He's not thrilled about that.]
I'm never going to go home. Fuck, I'm - I'm never going to make it back.
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[He's just sort of a mess. Small obstacle, right?]
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[And...]
Maybe don't fall into any more holes, too.
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[Volk takes in a ...deep breath.]
I don't - I don't know why everyone is just handling this? I don't. I don't. I feel this way all the time. I don't know how people just deal with things and keep going.
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Everyone here is strange. One day, I touched a rock and traveled hundreds of years into the past. I've seen ghosts. Is setting foot on an alien planet absurd? Yes, but I've witnessed a lot of that. I think that's the case for a lot of people. Bloody Lucifer is here and he has an English accent. Who knows what the hell [ha] he's seen.
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Maybe you did. Maybe you actually did time travel. Queen of fucking Thorns. Maybe the universe is - ...
[Bigger. Stranger. More wonderful.]
Do you ever wonder 'why you'? Why me? Why us?