=>Take Conveyor 8 You get into line and eventually step into Conveyor 8, a small room lit by powerful green light strips. The door slides closed behind you, and a light set into the wall over it flicks red. The room starts to rise slowly, but eventually picks up speed. After at least ten minutes of rumbling, the light above the door flicks yellow, then green, and it slides open.
The room outside looks like a repurposed ship hangar. There are rows of folding chairs set out in groups and rows, with more piled closed in a corner. Tables are set out with things like food, water, and propaganda pamphlets. A few vending machines are set by the door, with more scattered around the vast hall in clusters. Directly on to the left of the conveyor are two double doors - one currently locked, the other with ablution block signs glowing over it. Farther down the hangar, half hidden behind some privacy panels, are around four dozen portable recuperacoons. A large troll half hanging out of one is snoring deeply, providing a deep, rumbly, and oddly relaxed ambience to the entire place.
Newly arrived volunteers:
Trolls in uniform are herding and guiding other volunteers around, and you're barely given time to take it all in before one of them's ushering you along to a sign-up table. Behind it are a few adults, hemoanonymous except for their eyes, who are a scattering of low to midbloods. One of them leans forward and demands your name, then types it in on a grubtop in front of them.
If your name is not recognised*, they give a small pause then, sounding annoyed, tell you to come back when you're ready to tell them your actual name. A troll registered in the database vouching for you, or a sufficient amount of beetles slid surreptitiously across the table can solve this inconvenience, otherwise the troll refuses to talk to you.
If your name shows up, the troll keeps typing while eyeing you up and down and tossing questions at you, up to and including your hive's location, lusus's appearance, height, and weight. Once they're satisfied, they print out a long and dull legal waver for you to sign. It seems to mostly about how you are not allowed to take anything out of the space elevator that you did not take in. They also give you a few pamphlets, with names like 'Space Sickness and You' and 'How to Foster Harmony and Teamwork in Zero Gravity'.
You are then shuttled to a group of chairs surrounding a small stage where a shockingly young looking blueblood officer is maniacally pacing around, repeating the same spiel to whatever trolls are currently sitting in front of them. You seem to be coming in on the tail end of the current loop. " - on your way out. Got that? Good. Again, for the new trolls! Welcome to the Outreach Corps! We're the overhauled branch of volunteer soldiers who come out to help our good buddies in the army when the job's too big for conscripted trolls alone. With us around, there's always enough hands to get things done! Wooo! Wooh. Our job now is to help clear the space waste from around our planet, and make it beautiful again! But hey, it's not all waste - we still have a lot of good ships that can serve our army mixed in among the junk. So what we're going to do is help pad out the numbers. The military's sending out squads to enter the ships, scout em out, and see if they're no good junk or still sturdy. The junk we blow up, the sturdy ships we boot up so they can be steered to safety. Sounds great? Great! So we'll be standing by, until we get a request. When we do, the troll giving them will be Lieutenant Bekuar, the troll we're all going to be reporting to. We'll either need to just suppliment squads that are low on numbers, or if they need a ship scouted asap, making our own squads to send out. Remember guys, we're working with the military, so be sure to listen to and obey all orders given! And be sure to leave any non-personal material with your assigned officer on the way out. Got that? Good. Again, for the new trolls-"
Once you realize that the blueblood is looping back on himself, you notice that other trolls are getting up and wandering off. It seems now you're free to hang around and prepare yourself for duty, whenever or wherever it will arrive. Or perhaps you could wander down the hallway in search of the mentioned Lieutenant that you'll be serving under...?
*You are using a pseudonym that has not been registered in the government databases. IE you have never used it in an event, given it to a troll in the military/civil service, or otherwise had a reason to be entered into their database. OR you grew up in Salamire Outpost and have not been registered in the government databases through the same reasons as pseudonym.
After you get comfortable and find your bearings, you can probably head back down to the bottom of the space tower, should you want to go out and stretch your legs. Just be sure to come back!
This thread is open for rp until archived. Troll that do not have access to this room (non-space volunteer) should not be here and will be kicked out!
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 12:58 pm
So this was it for now, hunh? Just had to wait for their assignment, and then they'd be jettisoned off into space?
No lies, Mahmud was pretty excited for the whole ordeal. Although the way he shrunk away from the other trolls wouldn't suggest that he was keen on the idea, getting to see some new things would be good for him he thought. After all, spending all his time cooped up in the nightclub wasn't doing good for anyone, especially his boss. Best to give Cerpin a break, Best to give himself a break.
Yup. This was it.
Mahmud stared at the overly minimalistic decor as he sipped a drink from the refreshment booth he stood nearby.
What a break this was going to be. Yup.
There was a small pause in his thoughts where Mahmud scratched at his arm a little bit with a nail, eyes darting around the place.
...
Okay yeah he was nervous as hell, and there was nobody to small talk to relieve it yet just enough bodies in this room to make Mahmud feel absolutely isolated and alone, contrary to the obvious evidence. He kept picking at a spot on his arm while he looked around. From what he could find in this room there... wasn't anyone bad here. Like those girls. Oh, those girls. Sirens, they called themselves. No, he managed to sneak away from them before he was signed into the military far too early for his own good. But for the time being he didn't see anyone that could provide any sort of comfort. Instead, he took comfort in the snacks provided as they waited for their assignments.
This was going to be a far longer adventure than he was prepared for.
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TL;DR Mahmud's just silently screaming underneath it all as he hovers around the refreshment table go nuts guys.
To say he was excited would be the understatement of the sweep. Deimos was practically vibrating with energy as he made his way into Conveyor 8. After getting processed though the line and filling out the immense amount of paperwork (did they have to have so much of it??) he followed the flow of the trolls over to where the blueblood kept repeating the same speech over and over again. He really hoped he got to be on the teams that booted the ships up - blowing stuff up was fun and all but he wanted to see one of them in action.
Speech over, he followed the flow of trolls wandering off. There were so many people around - but none of them looked all that familiar. At least, not until he spotted someone over by the snack table. He hadn't seen Mahmud since Bloodfest. He made his way over, mindful of the crowd. "Mahmud." He waved slightly as he approached, trying to flag the orangeblood down. "Fancy seeing you here. Gonna admire the architecture?" He grinned - almost uncharacteristically for people that knew him. He was just so excited, he couldn't help but actually smile for once.
Skyli Peep
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:01 pm
By this point Mahmud was stuffing something in his face (vaguely savory? A little sweet? What was this dish?) when he heard a voice call out to him. "Mmmph?" Quickly he swallowed, and looked up only to find... well! Look who was here!
"Deimos! Hey!" Out of instinct he stood on his toes and waved his arm around a bit, trying to flag down the other in return before realizing 'oh yeah, I'm not tied to this refreshment table'. Carefully placing his trash in the bin, Mahmud then walked over and smiled. Wow, was Deimos smiling too? Well of course he was, duh... look where he was!
"Yeah, totally. I wanted to see how the tower was... isn't it amazing?" Truly, it was a work of art to him. Technology and design all mixed together... really, he could go on for hours about it but after their last meetup, he knew Deimos could get bored pretty easily. Besides, he could tell what Deimos was really dying over. "Couldn't resist going to space, could ya?" Mahmud's hands were comically on his hips and he gave a goofy grin. "No seriously, I'm wicked excited you're gonna go up too. What'ya most excited about? And oddly? He wasn't lying, or putting on airs. Mahmud felt some happiness knowing Deimos was going to fulfill one of his dreams. Gave him the warm fuzzies and whatnot.
Deimos quirked a brow at the display, but quickly brushed it off. "Yeah, it is. You weren't wrong about it being a work of art." Whether Mahmud had used that exact phrase or not didn't... particularly matter to Dei- it was how he'd interpreted it last time they'd spoke. Truth be told he was pretty awed by the structure, though he didn't understand the logistics behind it. "Of course not. Like I'd pass up this opportunity for anything." He snorted, waving a hand dismissively. He meant it- there wasn't anything in the world he wanted more than to be up there and he'd long since decided he'd do whatever it took to accomplish the goal. This was just a stepping point.
"Hard to say... I'm interested in the ships that still work, mostly. But I guess starting with just seeing what it looks like up there is all." He shrugged, still grinning through everything. Had he ever smiled this much? Probably not, his face hurt already. "You think Polair will come? I bet she probably has some important task or somethin' to do. What're you looking forward to?"
Skyli Peep
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 7:42 am
"To be honest..." Mahmud had gone from a mildly goofy stance to standing normally, although now theere was a hand raised to an upper arm, rubbing it as he thought of what to say. "Anything."
There was something kind of lame to hoping something, anything would come out of this. "If Polair came, that'd be pretty awesome..." It would be, really. Even if it was awkward, seeing someone you used to have a crush on... Polair was an excellent friend. "I didn't think about that either, getting to see friends." How many people would show up here? How many friends would he run into. Maybe Static? And Poe? If he saw Poe and Static, no lies,he'd probably explode. There was so much he had to tell them!
"I was more just thinking... that something would have to change, you know?" With a little laugh-sigh, Mahmud shook his head and looked to the locked door. "I mean... ya know. Space. It could be anything we want it to be, and there's infinite stuff that could happen. I thought if I went out here... I could find some inspiration to do stuff I like again." There was a pause as he kept looking in that direction before blinking and looking downright embarrassed. "Ah! Sorry." All that was boring, wasn't it? Deimos didn't like boring. "Anyways, I hope they let us take something up so we can take notes or something. If we can't take anything with us on the way out then..."
Friends- outside of Poliar he hadn't given it much thought, but technically he did have at least one other "friend" that would probably be interested in this venture. Would it even be safe for Cerpin to show up here? Probably not, but then again who else knew about his... other... allegiances? And then there was Pero--Forera. He hadn't thought to ask if she'd come. Honestly he kind of hoped that they wouldn't show up now. The smile that had been plastered on his face since arriving faltered for a split second before he pushed those thoughts aside. If they came, they came. He wasn't going to get involved if at all possible. "It's a pretty big event so... I'd think a lot of trolls would come." He shrugged, thankful that Mahmud kept talking - that would let him focus on something else.
Though he quickly regretted it. Mahmud seemed to have a lot of... baggage going on, and Deimos was not sure how to handle that, honestly. He didn't even know how to handle his own baggage, let alone someone else's. "Uhh," he started, but then Mahmud was apologizing for rambling. "It's fine. I guess I get that. I hope you uh, find that inspiration again." Not really. He didn't get it at all, but a little white lie never hurt anyone did it? And words of encouragement were important for maintaining friendships, weren't they? He really needed to read that Friendship for Dummies book again.
"Ugh, that rule is so dumb." He rolled his eyes, muttering his distaste under his breath. That had been the one thing that actually soured his mood once he'd heard about it. Figures things would be off limits. "I don't see why we couldn't take stuff up if its simple stuff like a notebook. Maybe a camera. I dunno, I want to learn from this, not just wade through wreckage."
Skyli Peep
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:56 am
Oh whoops. There goes Dei's good mood. His pumpbiscuit dropped knowing that he brought up a sore point. But... in a way, that was a bit of a relief? Truth be told, seeing Deimos so happy for so long instead of his neutral to displeased self. It was almost a bit too... creepy wasn't the term. Uncanny? Unnerving? Yeah. Unnerving would be the best way to describe it.
"I know!" Mahmud made a little waving motion with his hands, clearly displeased with this venture as well. "I mean like... I get it I guess. nobody should have government materials but... they weren't even using it to begin with anyways!" Sighing, Mahmud crossed his arms in front of him. "Memories fade and change, we should be able to have concrete evidence or... oh! Ohhhhh..." An idea clicked, and he snapped his fingers a little bit as he thought of how to articulate it. "Military personnel..."
"Maybe that's why they were recruiting so much for the military here. I mean... they do all the time but... maybe they're trusting those involved with them to gather the information, instead of common folk? Kinda stupid but... I can see that being the reason why." As he spoke he drummed his fingers against his bicep, clearly trying to find a reason to these rules. "Sorry, I know this must be boring." Mahmud thought again (which by now, both boys should have learned was dangerous) and then added "Hey... I'll find a way to help you take some info back if we don't work together, okay?" There was a seriousness in his eyes as he looked to Deimos.
"I think you could make better heads or tails of it than some of the folks in the military... so long as we don't get in trouble, right?"
Trusci did want some opportunities however, and the sound of rooting through old spaceware documentation sounded exactly like something she wanted to do. Think of the headlines, or the things she could uncover, or the secrets she could hold over other troll's heads. Of course, she didn't say any of that aloud, and she passed through the shakedown smoothly enough. Being foist into a large group of trolls should have been right up her element, but she was somewhat nervous too.
One, she didn't know anyone present, at least of the crowd that turned up. This was fine, of course it was fine, but it helped to have someone to stick and schmooze up to.
So instead she loitered in the back, ever present, ever watching, waiting for an awkward troll to distance themselves from the pack (or witness an opening in a group) for her to swoop in for some relationship building. She could play whatever part she needed to—innocent lowblood, feisty lowblood, whatever lowblood—so she wasn't worried, not completely, not yet.
Now, so long as she could keep her mental abilities on the down-low, she'd be golden.
anyone
trusci is open for interaction! will you find trusci or will she find you
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:20 pm
"I am not surprised to see you two here! What up, bitches?" A cocky voice cut through the end of Mahmud and Deimos's conversation. Golden boots, a flowing cape, spiky hornaments, Cerpin Sugall the king of interruptions had arrived in the flesh. Tevini walked after him, probably not as comfortable to be there. But the purpleblood looked ecstatic and it showed in both his face and posture.
He had known the others would be here. It was impossible for this kind of work not to attract starry eyed Deimos or architecture loving Mahmud. Their obsessions were cute in a way.
"You guys ready to geek out? Meet my even bigger nerd friend!" Mahmud already knew her but Deimos had yet to meet the talented and unsociable engineer on Cerpin's team. He nudged the redblooded girl and cocked his head towards Deimos to indicate the person he'd been talking to her about prior to this. Somehow, it felt weird to be standing in a group made up of carpentry nerd, star nerd and machine nerd when he was so blatantly out of place but he'd make it work.
"Pretty wicked that this is all happening, huh?" He uncapped one of the free bottles of water to take a drink. He had taken a few extra from the tables providing them and stashed them in a bag. It wasn't that Cerpin desperately needed them but rather than Tevini always wanted to take and hoard as many free rations as possible. So fine, he'd help out a little.
She was actually one step closer to SPACE. Polair was could hardly keep the excitement in! Or actually, could do it. She always managed to do it. But the highblood kept shuffling on her seat thinking, SHE WAS ACTUALLY HAVING A SLIGHT CHANCE TO GO TO SPACE!!!
"Ok... Breathe... You're assisting the military not playing around." Polair said to herself, trying to regain her composure again. The highblood sat down, trying to relax by listening space documentary on her cassette player. Her cane was folded besides her, as she didn't intend others seeing it. Bad enough was the attention she brought by even being there. One, because she was a highblood and, not only a highblood-- but a seadweller. Two, she was working to be a scientific icon. And three, because some might recognize her from Superstar Authority which was not as bad as the first reason but somehow adhered to it. So she didn't want others to associate any of that with her blindness. They'd be disappointed, for sure.
So it was good to stay on the low for now. It allowed her to avoid such thoughts and allowed her to put into practice what she learned in her meditation class.
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:40 pm
Engrav couldn't keep his grin to himself.
He'd been wanting to get some insight into stellar surveillance since he'd heard about the old, deactivated satellites a few months ago. He'd tried a few different options, but nothing had panned out.
And then they'd just gone and handed out the information to anyone who was asking. A chance to go to space, to see the stars from outside of the atmosphere. A chance to see the science behind all of it for himself.
Admittedly, they weren't letting any of the volunteers bring anything home with them, which was pretty much what he'd expected. And he'd been burned before. The space where his eye had been burned a bit when he remembered getting ahead of himself he had gotten. Not this time. This time he would move carefully. Cautiously.
And not on his own. That was the most important part.
The yellowblood glanced around the hanger after triple-checking the waiver. Standard lowblood "you can't get mad at me" stuff. Couldn't win if you didn't play though. Engrav made some quick notes, scrawled a few meaningless corrections, and then signed like the rest of the baabeasts.
Trolls were assembling on the hanger floor, and Engrav stalked ahead to join them. most were gathering around the snack table, which definitely made a lot of sense. He thought he might recognize one or two from the construction of the space elevator, but it had been some time since then.
The yellowblood approached the snack table and grabbed a water bottle, waving to those milling about. His stomach wasn't quite settled enough to actually eat anything, but the drink would do just fine.
A quick look revealed a few trolls that seemed to know what they were doing. One yellowblood stood back with an appraising look- Engrav definitely recognized a fellow watcher. He nodded to her and turned back the table.
He also noticed Polair out of the corner of his eye. He knew exactly what she was here for: the same thing as him. She wanted to be out among the stars. He'd seen her on Superstar Authority, but hadn't really fgotten a chance to catch up with her for a long while. Engrav almost started over towards her, then stopped himself. She looked like she was trying to not call attention, and he could get behind that too. He looked away from her, wondering if she'd even recognize him now.
Instead he moved to the small group that was forming around the other side of the snack table, trying his best to walk with confidence. "You three look like you know what's going on here," Engrav called out to the assembled group. "Do you know who is going to be assigned together, or are they going to announce it later?"
Skyli Peep
Yamashii
ImaginationsParadise
nepsah
Melancholies
Buzzwulf
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nepsah
Malevolent Mage
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:35 pm
"Most of it's probably junk anyway, what're we gonna do with junk?" Loads, honestly. He wasn't a mechanical genius or anything but he was pretty sure he'd be able to do something with some scraps. Maybe. He wasn't going to get a chance to find out anyway though so why even bother thinking about it. "You... only just figured that out?" Dei quirked a brow- the question had come out before he'd even really finished the thought. Oh, how rude.
"I mean, uh... I guess I just assumed they didn't want us taking anything 'cause they'd have the military people do it instead." He rubbed the back of his head with one hand, hoping that save had actually... been a save. "It's not boring. And.. deal, if there's anything I see that I think might interest you I'll do the same." The grin returned to his face as he nodded - though... Cerpin's very loud appearance caused him to grimace a little.
Deimos sighed, figuring it'd be too much luck to assume Cerpin wouldn't arrive. And even more luck to assume the purpleblood wouldn't come talk to him. Though... you two... He looked from Cerpin to Mahmud, eyes narrowing, then back again. "You know Cerpin too?" He hadn't meant it to sound accusatory, but honestly.... his mind was reeling again. Was there anyone that Deimos knew that Cerpin didn't? Probably not. How many of them were involved with-- no. He refused to think about it.
"Figures you'd come in making a scene. Do you ever shut up?" Deimos rolled his eyes at Cerpin, though his tone betrayed the annoyed look he was attempting to give him. "Sooo... That's Tevini. Funny, I thought you'd made her up or something. Deimos Somnus." He nodded his head at Tevini, noting to himself that she seemed absolutely nothing like Cerpin (thank god, he wasn't sure he could handle two Cerpins). "Wicked is a word for it, yeah." He was considering going for some snacks (since everyone else seemed to have something) when a newcomer approached.
"I think we're being told later. I don't know my grpup yet, anyway." Deimos shrugged- then again maybe they'd already been assigned and he'd just not seen it in the sea of paperwork... Hopefully that wasn't the case, he didn't want to be late.
Skyli Peep
Yamashii
Doutei
Buzzwulf
Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:49 am
The nervous redblood peeked out from behind Cerpin, finishing her stuffing of her bag with free granola bars and other food. She'd been told a little bit about Deimos and was curious what kind of troll he'd turn out to be. Cerpin had a weird way of making friends with a wide variety of trolls. One never know if they would be his speed or her speed. Fortunately, this was was seeming closer to her pace.
"Nice to meet you Deimos. Thank you for taking care of Cerpin so far." She bowed her head slightly, awkwardly formal. Tevini wasn't great at being casual with strangers. She was rarely good at it privately either. She internally cringed at herself and wished she was better at making small talk. She was about to shut up and let Deimos, Cerpin, and Mahmud all go back to chitchatting amongst themselves when a familiar yellowblood appeared.
"Ah, I think we're assigned to Lieutenant Elishe Bekuar. She could probably tell us more." The engineer considered, as Engrav approached with an excellent question. Tevini felt her stomach tighten from nerves. She was very excited at the prospect of going out into space. Unfortunately, she was also very tense at all the ways this could go horribly wrong.
My apologies if I missed quoting anyone! Getting a little confused who all is in the group conversation atm! @ w@;
Yamashii
nepsah
Buzzwulf
Skyli Peep
Doutei
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Buzzwulf
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:26 pm
Engrav extended his prosthetic for a firm handshake to a tired, thin-looking tealblood. "Engrav Setlar," he announced to the group. "I've met some of you before - not all though. It's a pleasure to meet you. And I think you're right, as well. The military probably wouldn't be too happy about tech getting into civilian hands, which is probably why that waiver was so extensive." The yellowblood looked at the group for a moment, lingering on Tevini.
He'd been wondering where she'd been since they'd met, and he hadn't been able to pick her up on any of his surveillance equipment around Chittentown. That and the fact that her name hadn't appeared on the registry of volunteers, like he'd expected it to... Well, the yellowblood had a few questions. They could wait though. And if those questions had the answers he thought they might, he definitely didn't want to expose her here, in the very beginning of the space race. He couldn't resist giving her a quick wink, however. Priceless.
Well, as much a wink as you can with only one eye.
So more of a blink, really.
Ok, that was gonna need some work.
"I did notice a few omissions, though, as I'm sure all of you did as well," the yellowblood continued. "They were pretty exacting about not bringing anything back to the surface, but they definitely didn't say anything about pictures. They didn't say anything about notes either." He grinned, and could feel it tugging at his scars. He didn't care. Engrav was too excited about the technological possibilities to worry about the small stuff.
"And I, for one, am excited to share notes with everyone."
