themnemosyne

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🪐 event

Event

EVENT

As L3Th3 predicted, Mnemosyne reaches the found planet on the 15th. The first view of the planet is both awe-inspiring and perplexing; a world fractured into countless floating landmasses, orbiting a radiant core that pulses like a living heart. The core's golden-red light casts shifting hues across the fragments, where forests cling to jagged cliffs and rivers spill into the void in endless waterfalls. Despite the chaotic appearance, the ship's sensors confirm the presence of a breathable atmosphere, stable temperatures, and signs of life. Strange energy readings does emanate from the core, while metallic signatures suggest ancient remnants of advanced structures scattered across the fragments.

The ship's cameras capture even more details - bioluminescent foliage shimmering under the core's light, clouds of mist swirling between fragments, and glimpses of winged creatures darting through the open air. L3TH3's systems report unstable yet navigable conditions for a shuttle, but urges caution while exploring.

When descending from the Mnemosyne, the landing shuttle's autopilot will navigate the surreal landscape of floating islands. The fragments are larger on the outside, breaking into smaller pieces the closer to the core they are, and reveals alien forests, glowing moss, and grassy plains. Here and there, vines stretch like natural bridges between landmasses, making the navigation a bit rough without an experienced pilot. Weaving through shifting gravitational forces, the shuttle's engines hum as it adjusts to the planet's gravity.

As the shuttle nears the landing zone - a stable plateau near the edge of a larger fragment - the core looms in the distance, its pulsating glow bathing the surface in warm light. The shuttle's landing gear extends with a soft hiss, touching down gently on the alien soil. The engines wind down, leaving only the faint heartbeat of the core and the distant sound of wind rushing through the fragmented terrain. The planet waits, silent and enigmatic, for the first steps of exploration.

Welcome to AG-001!

In the spirit of world-building... here is one! Characters are welcome to create and build this planet within the frame of the setting. Creatures, flora, anything non-sapient. In the end, it will not be a good planet to create a settlement on, but markers to survey it will be added.

On the 22nd, the Mnemosyne will continue the journey.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[On the other hand... Rin absolutely doesn't want to be down there on the planet. They don't prove it in direct statements but mostly in stalling tactics involving forwarding safety protocols to everyone, double- and triple-checking suit filters and air supplies, insisting on a formatting check of the shuttle's systems...

Generally making a rule-based nuisance of themself in non-usual ways, in other words. But this is, as Captain Drake has noted, the mission - and so eventually, things get underway, mostly due to Rin having run out of things to safety-check.

From the moment they leave Rin dives into their CL-10, monitoring not the shuttle's piloting (they don't have a license for any kind of shuttle flying) but all of the other markers on the planet. They're not staring out through the shuttle windows at the floating islands or the faint creatures or any of it, they're diving into the datafeeds of all of them as they pick a chair on the shuttle and don't move from it until they've finally settled onto a solid surface.

Even then, they linger at the shuttle lock and stare from behind their filter-mask at the plateau that extends before them. The first step onto alien soil, should any be eager for it, is there for the taking.]

... Recommend leaving helmet cameras on at all times during exploration.

[ Wolfwood does not want to be going down to this planet. He managed to avoid exploring the salvaged alien ship, and he was hoping that he could avoid having to head out onto this whole alien world, too, but there's just too much work that needs to be done. He can't sit back and let the rest of the crew take on all the risk -- nobody called him a coward to his face, but over the last few days he's been calling himself that, and worse.

Besides. He has to get off the ship, at least for a little while. He has to see a sky, be somewhere with no walls, even if he can only see it all from the other side of a helmet.

Rin's been staring at their tablet the whole flight down (and how they can read through this turbulence Wolfwood doesn't even know), but Wolfwood's glued to the windscreen, watching the world beneath them come into focus. And it's a beautiful world! Greens and blues not unlike Tellus, clouds and water and, in the initial reports at least, the promise of living things. A natural world. A paradise, maybe.

They land eventually, on one of the larger floating islands, and Wolfwood's initial fears are washed clean away. Rin might be lingering in the doorway but Wolfwood wants to be outside, now, wants to feel the crunch of soil beneath his boots and the wind in his hair.

He'll settle for the crunching part, though, at least for now. ]

Look at it!

[ Cameras on at all times, yeah yeah, his is running and uploading via link in realtime. Enjoy the show, Saverem -- Wolfwood's going to look at everything. The spot they landed in is mostly clear, aside from some low-lying tufty kind of moss, but not far off are things like trees, or maybe giant grasses? Either way they're swaying gracefully in the breeze, and whenever a bigger gust comes along there's a spray of reddish-gold pollen that catches the light.

He's never getting back in the shuttle. ]

[Rin finally looks up, attention dragged onto the landscape by Wolfwood's voice and demand. Their attention drifting over the plant life, shying across the moss and the spikes of giant leaves. The spray of pollen has them lifting a hand to make sure their Psi-core mask is in place and the filters are working.]

I see it. It's green.

[It's possible to sound more unenthusiastic about all this, but Rin isn't putting effort into emoting. They step down onto the surface of the ground, rocks and earth grinding beneath their boots as they walk up next to Wolfwood. They take another second or two to watch the surroundings, before turning back towards the ship to retrieve a bag full of sampling equipment.

They turn back, and - okay, maybe they can admit that the glint of light and the space to move is nice. That it looks like something out of an adaptation of a sprawling fantasy story, and floating islands are weird, but also pretty cool. They take a few steps forward to nudge at some of the moss with their boot.]

[ Rin can be a sour shit all they like -- Wolfwood's outside, even if he can't really feel the greenery beneath his feet or smell the air, and for the first time in years he's happy.

They're here to investigate and not just run around like goofy idiots, though, so he finally remembers to bring up his own CL-10, confirming what the initial scans said: the atmosphere mixture is well within human (and elheen) requirement parameters, the temperature is on the warm side but fine, and he's not seeing any animal life bigger than a bug. It's getter harder and harder every minute to remember not to take his helmet off.

He really wants to take his helmet off. ]

All readings green too. CO2 higher than nominal but still breathable, the ground's sturdy, solar UV...

[ Wolfwood turns his face up to the big yellow sun in the sky. The slightly thick atmosphere makes the light extra golden, and even through the faceplate it's warm. He's missed being outside so much. ]

...is bright an' sunny.

[ This could be it. This could really be the place they've been looking for! ]

[They will, thanks! They don't do something like ignore Wolfwood, because this is still an alien planet with unknown hazards and communication is important and blah blah blah, but they're going to get a start on taking samples if Wolfwood is going to focus on the big picture. Their first victim is the mossy groundcover that surrounds the area the shuttle landed.

And - okay, Rin's not a plant biologist, or any kind of biologist really, but on close inspection the tufts shade from a light green at the surface to a more red-purple at the base of their little fronds, and they all interlock together like the plant is actively weaving itself into a microscale net. They make sure to take a few photos of that, then move on. Any interest or wonder they feel, they're keeping it entirely buttoned up as they work.]

Currently stable. We should look for evidence of fractures. Floating islands like this might fall apart.

It's not gonna fall apart.

[ Wolfwood doesn't sound half as annoyed as he could have, because this place is doing great things for his mood. He's even willing to let Rin keep being surly and wrong in the background, so long as it doesn't interfere with his own inspection of the world... which is currently admiring a divot at the base of a... tree? Fern? And all the colors of the smaller plants clustered there. Stay close to the shuttle if you're scared, pal -- Wolfwood's gonna go check out that little pink plant. ]

Look how big these trees are! This island's been here for awhile. It's stable.

[ Wait, is that a plant up ahead? He thought it was a pink puffball, like a Tellusian fungi, but as he approaches it seems... bright?

Bright and floating. ]

Huh.

Right.

[Nope, never mind, shutting up now, even with their hidden expression going sour. The ship's sensors declared it safe enough for this particular foray, but Rin doesn't think they're long-term viable, given that they're floating islands. But even if they've got initial data that Rin finds dubious, the survey needs to be made. They're just... trying to do a lot of sampling before the two of them have to work their way out into the areas of more dense foliage.

They're going to get to the fern, probably, but if Wolfwood's going to do the investigating there they can leave him to it. Which is why they don't react at all until Wolfwood's thoughtful little sound.

Is that thing glowing? Why is that thing glowing? Did it just chirp?]

Scan it.

[ Weird plants is one thing. Weird animals? That's less amazing. ]

Huh?

[ Did Rin say something? ...Oh shit, yeah, right. He raises his scanner, pointing it at the...

...it's a fairy. A bright light in a colored ball? That's a goddamn fairy, what the hell?! ]

Yeah, yeah, scanning.

[ It's definitely animal and not plant. The scanner doesn't report any toxins or sharp bits, but Wolfwood takes a step back anyway, in case it, y'know. Explodes. ]

Nothin' immediately threatening. No idea how it's glowing though. Scanner's just reporting a lot of unknowns.

[Scanning aliens is always so helpful, isn't it?]

[Rin takes a few cautious steps closer, moving slowly and cautiously as they put themself at an equivalent distance from the creature to Wolfwood, though they've left a generous space between the two of them, far enough that neither could accidentally nudge into each other. There's a few flickers of their CL-10 screen, as they start pulling information.]

Bioluminescing is usually harmless. And threat displays are usually... more threatening.

Yeah, on Tellus.

[ Rin isn't wrong -- the bubble fairy doesn't seem threatening -- but neither does an anglerfish's light to its prey. Wolfwood stops scanning the fairy -- yes, he's going to call it that -- since Rin is already on the case, and instead turns his attention and scanner to the surrounding foliage. Is there anyone hiding in there? Come out come out wherever you are! ]

I'm seein' a bunch more of those things, distance point eight meters through, uh... six meters. Plus a bunch of smaller life forms, looks like swarm bugs of a couple kinds... somethin' like a fungus... nothin' big enough to take a bite out of either of us.

[ Which doesn't mean that unknown life won't poison or electrocute them and then spend the next three weeks chomping through their corpses. ]

Confirmed, next estimations will be drawn from extensive database on alien fauna.

[You know, the one they definitely don't have. They frown down at the screen in front of them, shuffling a few more things before closing it away again and refocusing on the problem(?) at hand.

... Poking this thing would be stupid and they're not going to do it, but they do kind of wonder what would happen if they did. Would it just deflate? Or maybe it does have some defense mechanism despite its general harmless appearance.]

Watch out for nests.

[Hey - fuck, that blob's floating closer. It's almost funny, how quickly and completely Rin ducks to the side to get out of its drifting path.]

[ Wolfwood would laugh at how frantic Rin is to get away from the little fairy light, but he's too busy sidestepping away in the other direction to comment. ]

Wha...? I'll fuckin' nest you!

[ Wolfwood, that didn't even make any sense. He flips a hand at the fairy, to see if it's just caught in the breeze and he can waft it away. ]

Shoo!

[If they both duck away like it's a bomb, it doesn't count, right? It's a tie, neither of them says shit about it, they both mutually silently agree that it never happened. Rin will just keep their distance as Wolfwood tries to direct the thing further away.

That response, though;]

Even I'm better at comebacks than that.

[It's the most casual Rin's sounded since the entire team came down to this planet. Maybe the most casual Rin's ever been, talking to Wolfwood. Even that first time, they weren't angry, but they were still being kind of a dick about everything.

They shake their head as they straighten, examining a smear of dust and plant matter on one palm of their suit, where they'd been forced to plant a hand against the base of one of the taller fern-things.]

Let's outpace it.

Edited (rereading a tag as I hit post is a curse) 2025-02-05 22:21 (UTC)

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