Breq of the Gerentate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
breqintopieces) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riverviewlogs2018-07-16 08:25 pm
breqintopieces) wrote in riverviewlogs2018-07-16 08:25 pm
The Sound of Silence
who: Closed to Breq's exploration team (Steve, Peter, Jim, Beverly, Sigrun).
what: With the team gathered, it's time to venture down into the dead zone.
when: July 17
where: The Abandoned City.
warnings: Potential injuries, ambient creep factor, and some telepathic weirdness.
Mingle Prompts
i. Outside
The team is gathered: After feeling out some contacts through the Perimeter Guard's roster and connection, Breq had put out the call, and this team had answered. Not only that, but helped to arrange it themselves, in some cases. Now they have everything they need, and it's time to go out and investigate. Thanks to Jim's handy offering of a shuttle, getting the entire team out to the crater is a quick trip, just long enough for the shuttle's passengers to get to know each other, fall asleep, or work their way through whatever pre-mission rituals they might care to partake in.
Not much more than an hour or two, from the moment they lifted off to the moment that Breq interrupts her humming to point out the spheroid depression in the earth, surprisingly stark against the ruins of the city that rise up around it.
"There. Careful of the field around it."
Descending the steep walls is a simple matter, again thanks to the shuttle. Whatever caused it-- impact, sinkhole, or some other, stranger source, there's enough space for them to find a stable, relatively even place to set down and step out. Despite the strangeness Breq had observed, the inside is surprisingly lush, filled with a variety of plants that seem to be taking advantage of the natural reservoir the crater forms. Living things are everywhere, hunting and running and flying.
They all hardly seem to make a sound.
In fact, nothing in the depths of the crater seems to make a sound. The members of the team will feel like they've walked into a soundproofed room, or like they're trying to listen through noise-cancelling headphones. It takes effort to hear one another speak, and if they pay attention, they might sense a sort of buzzing, fuzzy feeling, as though some pitch is playing just beyond their hearing.
The strange podlike building stands in front of them, shimmery and nearly untouched. Strange triangular panels both large and small, all colored strangely opaque, seem to be set into the sides in place of doors. It might take a few creative solutions to open them.
ii. The Capsule
Inside of the pod, the not-quite-there buzzing feeling only gets stronger, and the silence feels that much heavier. It's taken on an urgent strength, It's like the feeling of an unexpected hand at the nape of your neck, the ache of something sour in your mouth. The source seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Inside, the capsule is dim and featureless. The corridors are awkwardly rounded at the corners, meaning the footing is never quite solid and flat, but the paths twist with seemingly no reason. Even worse, every time a member of the team turns around and tries to go back, it never quite seems to lead back in the direction they remember, though if they keep walking, it still returns to the places they were trying to go.
iiia. Meet and Greet
They're around corners and through doorways. They're clinging to the ceiling. They're scuttling along in strange, meandering paths when the members of the investigation team come across them. 'They' are strange, triangular robots, ranging in size from roomba to obelisk, with strange, sharp, spinning tools that come off of arms along every point of the triangle. The rest of them is covered with a strange, dull grey metallic carapace that gives no sign of their internal workings.
Even stranger, is the way they react to their discovery. Their reactions seem to mirror the actions of those who find them-- aggression or fear will be met with the same, and be careful-- those tools of theirs are devastatingly sharp.
iiib. Did You Say Something?
It's hard to get a sense of direction inside of this place, but the team members will get a strange sense, as they continue wandering, that their paths are taking them closer to the "center," whatever that might be. Nothing else seems to change, in the branching paths and random doorways.
What does change is that there-but-not buzzing. It grows more powerful with each step, until every member of the team seems to feel their head fill with fuzz. Thinking slowly begins to feel like struggling upstream against the current, and to get a coherent line of thought together, everything feels, mentally, like shouting. A thrumming need seems to fill them, driving them onward wordlessly. It feels like something is beginning to whisper inside their heads, words just beyond the range of hearing, just too far away to make out. Something like another mind touching theirs.
Some of that noise in their heads isn't on the edge of their hearing, though. Some of it is much more audible, though still disjointed-- and it sounds a lot like the person they're standing with-- even though they're very sure they didn't say anything out loud, just now.
what: With the team gathered, it's time to venture down into the dead zone.
when: July 17
where: The Abandoned City.
warnings: Potential injuries, ambient creep factor, and some telepathic weirdness.
Mingle Prompts
i. Outside
The team is gathered: After feeling out some contacts through the Perimeter Guard's roster and connection, Breq had put out the call, and this team had answered. Not only that, but helped to arrange it themselves, in some cases. Now they have everything they need, and it's time to go out and investigate. Thanks to Jim's handy offering of a shuttle, getting the entire team out to the crater is a quick trip, just long enough for the shuttle's passengers to get to know each other, fall asleep, or work their way through whatever pre-mission rituals they might care to partake in.
Not much more than an hour or two, from the moment they lifted off to the moment that Breq interrupts her humming to point out the spheroid depression in the earth, surprisingly stark against the ruins of the city that rise up around it.
"There. Careful of the field around it."
Descending the steep walls is a simple matter, again thanks to the shuttle. Whatever caused it-- impact, sinkhole, or some other, stranger source, there's enough space for them to find a stable, relatively even place to set down and step out. Despite the strangeness Breq had observed, the inside is surprisingly lush, filled with a variety of plants that seem to be taking advantage of the natural reservoir the crater forms. Living things are everywhere, hunting and running and flying.
They all hardly seem to make a sound.
In fact, nothing in the depths of the crater seems to make a sound. The members of the team will feel like they've walked into a soundproofed room, or like they're trying to listen through noise-cancelling headphones. It takes effort to hear one another speak, and if they pay attention, they might sense a sort of buzzing, fuzzy feeling, as though some pitch is playing just beyond their hearing.
The strange podlike building stands in front of them, shimmery and nearly untouched. Strange triangular panels both large and small, all colored strangely opaque, seem to be set into the sides in place of doors. It might take a few creative solutions to open them.
ii. The Capsule
Inside of the pod, the not-quite-there buzzing feeling only gets stronger, and the silence feels that much heavier. It's taken on an urgent strength, It's like the feeling of an unexpected hand at the nape of your neck, the ache of something sour in your mouth. The source seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Inside, the capsule is dim and featureless. The corridors are awkwardly rounded at the corners, meaning the footing is never quite solid and flat, but the paths twist with seemingly no reason. Even worse, every time a member of the team turns around and tries to go back, it never quite seems to lead back in the direction they remember, though if they keep walking, it still returns to the places they were trying to go.
iiia. Meet and Greet
They're around corners and through doorways. They're clinging to the ceiling. They're scuttling along in strange, meandering paths when the members of the investigation team come across them. 'They' are strange, triangular robots, ranging in size from roomba to obelisk, with strange, sharp, spinning tools that come off of arms along every point of the triangle. The rest of them is covered with a strange, dull grey metallic carapace that gives no sign of their internal workings.
Even stranger, is the way they react to their discovery. Their reactions seem to mirror the actions of those who find them-- aggression or fear will be met with the same, and be careful-- those tools of theirs are devastatingly sharp.
iiib. Did You Say Something?
It's hard to get a sense of direction inside of this place, but the team members will get a strange sense, as they continue wandering, that their paths are taking them closer to the "center," whatever that might be. Nothing else seems to change, in the branching paths and random doorways.
What does change is that there-but-not buzzing. It grows more powerful with each step, until every member of the team seems to feel their head fill with fuzz. Thinking slowly begins to feel like struggling upstream against the current, and to get a coherent line of thought together, everything feels, mentally, like shouting. A thrumming need seems to fill them, driving them onward wordlessly. It feels like something is beginning to whisper inside their heads, words just beyond the range of hearing, just too far away to make out. Something like another mind touching theirs.
Some of that noise in their heads isn't on the edge of their hearing, though. Some of it is much more audible, though still disjointed-- and it sounds a lot like the person they're standing with-- even though they're very sure they didn't say anything out loud, just now.
no subject
His breathing is still a little rapid from the run, but he is visibly relieved to see her. He makes his way over and makes the decision not to step any farther away than he has to. He won't take a corner without her, this time around, lest the same will happen to either (or both) of them. ]
No, I'm alright. I just... I got lost. [ He looks over his shoulder at the turn he just took. ] I don't know how.
no subject
I don't remember coming past a branch like that.
[It's an eerie admission, but she doesn't seem particularly bothered as she says it, matter of factly. Even as she has to raise her voice to make sure it's heard past the odd muffling.]
Unless it was hidden.
no subject
It wasn't there.
[ He sounds sure, but it's one of those things that he'd be less sure of the more often he said it out loud. ]
It's this place— this building. It's doing something to our heads. [ He ponders. ] Might be some sort of radio signal. If we could find the source, we could try to shut it down.
no subject
[Breq looks around at the walls, particularly at the corridor that shouldn't be here, but she also nods.]
The source should be deeper inside.
[If they can find their way further in, which, considering the state of things, might seem to be a problem. But from the set of Breq's expression, she doesn't intend to let that stop them.]
I don't know of a signal that can deaden the air. [Hard to express through that same deadness, but since their sticking closer together, maybe that will help.]
no subject
[ Never mind that the effects seem to get stronger the deeper inside they get. Jim's worried about it, sure, but he's not gonna let it stop him from trying to figure it out. At least Breq's with him now, and he's not planning on putting too much distance between them.
Even if he's still worried about where the others might be— if any of them might have gotten lost just like he did. All the more reason for them to find the source of... whatever's doing this to them. ]
Well, if not a radio signal, then some kind of particle emitter. A drug. Anything— messing with our senses, our perception.
[ He has a hard time imagining that it's the place itself that's changing. Not this fast, anyway. It has to be them. ]
no subject
[She holds up her fingers, interlacing them to indicate the kind of tangled web of corridors that would create.]
Easy to move through as long as we keep oriented.
[It's too bad for the strange state of the walls and the little robots occasionally skittering around. They could use marks to show where they've been.]
Strange, what it does and doesn't effect.
[Breq, turned toward Jim rather than the wall, doesn't immediately catch what happens next. Between one glance and another, when no attention is on it, one of the walls seems to have developed a dark, deliberate mark, an arrow-shaped thing that almost looks hand-drawn, pointing in the direction they're currently moving.]
no subject
Alright. Then let's...
[ His thoughts are cut short when the wall just behind her changes and shifts. His immediate reaction is to gasp and reach for Breq, pulling her away— but the wall doesn't seem to be doing anything dangerous. He urges her to turn around, gesturing at the arrow. ]
It's like it's pointing the way. [ Or trying to trick them? ]
no subject
That stops when she sees the arrow, and her eyes narrow as she looks from it, back to Kirk.]
Do we know anywhere else to go?
no subject
Do you have any idea where you're headed? Because I don't. [ They've been walking in circles inside the capsule for what feels like hours now. Simply put, they're very much lost right now. ] We don't have much to lose, at this point. Let's give it a shot.
no subject
Even if walking into a trap may be the only way to do it.
[And with that solemn sentiment, she tips her head in the direction of the arrow, and starts moving again.
It's not the last arrow, either-- though the others don't appear quite so dramatically as this one.]
no subject
Jim keeps his weapon in hand, ready to lift and shoot at a moment's notice, although so far they haven't found anything trying to harm them. The whole place seems geared towards disorienting and confusing them, but not actually hurt them. Which, all things considered, is pretty good.
At some point the arrows stop surprising him, and he actually seems to expect them to pop up every so often, showing them the way. Where to, he doesn't know yet. They'll have to wait until they get there. ]