=> [META] The Last Spaceship

[Hivestuck]

As you trudge back through the swamp, retracing your steps, you slowly feel the world around you shift back from swamp to forest. The land hardens, the trees branch out and grow thicker, and the air becomes fresh with a breeze. A warm breeze, with a faint scent on it. Is it unseasonably warm, or is it just you? Shrugging it off, you keep going. Soon, you can rest and relax. There's a supor slime-filled recuperacoon with your name on it, somewhere in Four Fronds.

Or maybe not. Through a gap in the trees, a large structure looms up in the night. Hundreds of glittering windows reflect the moonlight. The breeze shifts again, and the scent on it is unmistakable this time - fire. Is the forest burning? You gather your energy for one last burst of speed. If it is, you don't want to be caught in it.

Finally, you burst through the treeline and see the lake below. Silhouetted against the sky, a massive spaceship sits nose-first in the centre of the small, lakeside village. Four Fronds, usually a quiet paradise, burns merrily in the night. Debris lies scattered around, some of it flung so far that you see it smouldering around you. Flames lick up from the town, reflecting and glittering in the water below. It seems like you won't be getting the sleep you so clearly need quite yet.

Mule-played NPCs are available to answer your troll's questions and interact with them in this thread. Simply have your player approach a townsperson or fire drone in a rp and quote the mule, and you will get a response. Only those who have been directed here may post! Rp in this thread can be used for a growth rp.  

[thyPOPE]

Lost.

Perhaps Dictys should clarify: ey wasn't lost. But the rebels had been, and that mothergrub that the military had been talking about with them. Stupid, Dictys thought. Didn't anyone care for those grubs the rebels had just up and kidnapped? How would the weak be culled from the strong? How would they be assigned lusii, without jadebloods or the trials? What if the rebels infected them with whatever disease that pinkblood carried in her saccharine-looking veins? Why hadn't anyone tried harder to catch them? What was with all of these drones, anyway? It seemed, in large part, like they lacked ambition.

Dictys supposed that was the very definition of drones: lowbloods who weren't exemplary enough to earn their horns into adulthood. But it was very different to see it firsthand. Here ey'd thought badly of Atiqua and even, a little bit, Abrila, at first. But neither of them were as disgusting as these.

Still, as much as Dictys wanted to, ey couldn't face down the rebels emself. There was the risk of infection, after all, and Dictys was still only one troll. So ey headed back to Four Fronds with the remainder of the forces, Mommydaddy wrapped tightly round eir arm. Ey strode in the front, confident because someone had to be.

But nothing could've prepared em for...whatever this was. Dictys saw fire and recalled first the jadeblood this past cold season, and then, more immediately, the caves brimming with treachery and flames and traps. But here they were outside, in open nighttime, and in the center of the lake...that wasn't a sight Dictys had really expected to see until eir adulthood. For a moment Dictys simply gaped, drinking in its sleek beauty and power. And then ey saw its nose pointed pertly at the lake's bottom. It wasn't an Alternian hero's ship, preparing to be launched.

Dictys ran forward, letting eir long legs propel em. "You!" Dictys said, gesturing at the nearest horned member of society. Ey didn't really expect intelligence from a drone right now. "You. When did this happen?" Dictys asked, eyes narrow. Eir fins flared imperiously: a signal that ey deserved to be answered.

Hivestuck

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

After trudging through the slime and grime of the swamps, a very tired Eostre Diazzi was ready to go to her hive. Crawl into her recuperacoon after kissing her lusus on the head, and go to sleep. Hadn't she suffered enough with a grueling fight with an insane mutant, and then hunting the loose rebels through the swamp? And so close to home she could smell the forest, her sniffnode pleased and ready for the relaxing scent of her underground hive and beautiful forest scenery.

But no. Instead she was greeted by flames as something set her entire forest ablaze. Alarmed, she thought of her hive, and her lusus, left behind as usual. Around her, her favorite shops and locations seemed to all be engulfed in flames from scattered blazing debris. Would her hive be caught on fire? Could something happen to Volcano? She pushed through useless drones and gaping standbyers, racing to the cottage that marked the beginning of her hive, half sunk into the ground.

It was there, but smoldering and ready to burst into real flames. But more concerning to her, was the very large piece of debris that crashed into the ground a bit further ahead. That was right on top of her tunnels, and the force of the crash... Eostre couldn't check inside through the main entrance, which was too dangerous. Pressing her mouth into a line, she made her way around the perimeters of her underground hive, where the other exits and entrances were, each one making her more and more frantic until she was literally pulling at her hair with her bloodied hands.

"Volcano?"she called out, wondering where her guardian was. He could be stubborn but he wouldn't stay in the hive if it was collapsed would he? "Volcano! You stupid lusus, get out here!"Her pumpbiscuit was beating hard, when something creeped up behind her.

Sheesh kiddo, what's got yer bloomers in a knot? I'm right here,Volcano said, thumping his foot on the ground behind her. The dang tunnels broke. Can't get to the boxin' block no more. Real shame, kiddo. He seemed grouchy (normal), a bit dusty, but otherwise not seriously hurt. No worse shape than Eostre herself.

Eostre felt the cold stone that was worrying a hole in her belly dissipate, being replaced by a mild rage. What was causing this fire, this debris that could have killed her lusus? Finding a nearby fire drone wandering and trying to direct action for the fire, she demanded an answer. "What's causing this fire? Why haven't you stopped it yet?" she growled, grabbing its arm to direct its attention to her.

Hivestuck

 

[zeflamigo]

Finally, something interesting. As Leeroi approached the burning horizon, his blood pusher filled with glee again. This story wasn't over, it was just beginning. "Psy, do you see that?" He asked, nudging her. Scratch that, shaking her. "Let's go check it out, come on!" He nudged Glitch to move in closer towards the spaceship, giving little heed to the fiery Four Fronds. It wasn't his home or anyone else's that he knew. Besides, only rich folk lived here, right? They could rebuild. And who cared if the town was on fire?

There was a spaceship to explore.

Navigating his way through the panicked crowds, Leeroi finally found himself close to one of the fire drones. He rode up alongside them. "HEY!" He shouted, trying for their attention. "Who's ship is that?" He asked, fidgeting in excitement. Was it an imperial spacecraft? How old was it? Were there survivors on board? Or better, sweet loot? Leeroi just had to explore it. He leaned in closer to the drone, watching him with wild eyes. "And how do I get inside?" Leeroi smirked, pointing at the massive spacecraft. Giving an excited, dangerous smirk to Psykgi, he waited eagerly for the drone's response.

Hivestuck

 

[DraconicFeline]

Psykgi Mentha
With Leeroi Furore

Holy s**t. ”I sure do!” she said, surprised out of any consciously remaining cruddy mood she might have had. Psykgi had not been expecting Four Fronds to be on fire and most of all, didn't want to burn. She was glad for Glitch's speed and willingness to carry her, and once out of the immediate danger of the forest, she could look at the spaceship with all appropriate interest. This was a perfect oppurtunity to study the psychology of disaster. Especially the highblooded response, since it had hit Four Fronds which, as anybody knew, was like the resort version of Civisect... Of course, Four Fronds had come first, but she was sure it was only second to her fair city. Either way, the lowblood response to disaster was well documented, as was the highblood response to lowbloods in a disaster... but a almost purely highblood disaster? Right in front of her?

A perfect oppurtunity

She also, admittedly, would be up for 'sweet lewt' as Leeroi called it. Treasure and exploration of something other than the swamp seemed like it would be the absolute perfect thing right now, too.

But a perfect oppurtunity and a perfect idea... going inside versus observe outside... Outside... inside... Well, she could do both, couldn't she? If the spaceship was not enterable for a while, then that gave her time to watch, and she could find something to keep Lee's spirits up for that time. She patted Glitch's side and waited for the drone's response, and Lee's response to said drone – that would determine the next thing she would do.

Ma'am, for her part, was dangerously close to losing lusus-grade cohesion in this area. Between the heat and confusion and the lack of available shelter as she kept up with Glitch, the fire had cut the swarm with Psykgi by about half. With the numbers Ma'am had with her – even bolstered from her Busthind contingent – half was far too much. She had no contingent in Four Fronds, and if she had, they would probably have burned anyway. Perhaps a portion could be salvaged from the forest flames – her individual components werent that easy to kill – but the flames made it difficult to communicate with pheromones. At this point, Ma'am wanted her charge to either stay put or go home. No more exploring, no more gallavanting, just home, where the main swarm was and where she could easily regain her numbers. She was probably not going to get what she wanted, though...  

[Hivestuck]

The nearest troll was, in fact, a tear-and-soot-streaked purpleblood who was sitting on an upturned liquid-dispersing-receptacle (that was in no ways related to a bucket). They turned to Dictys, hair gently smouldering. "Eh? Huh?" Blinking a few times, they looked back over the city. "What does it look like? That horrible, horrible ship landed face first in our beautiful town. My priceless, beautiful collection of fine art was crushed underneath falling debris, and everything's burning." Giving a small sniff, it looked like it was debating crying again, but seemed to not have the energy. "None of the drones are even helping, they're all over on the other side of town trying to put out one little fire in one stupid little building. I'm sure whatever's in it isn't half as valuable as what I lost." The sharpness of Dictys's tone was clearly lost on the distraught troll. Too wrapped up in the agony of personal loss, they couldn't bother with any pretend show of reverence towards the small seadweller. Instead, they continued to mourn their loss with more whining.

thyPOPE

The drone Eostre flagged down was dragging a long heavy hose from the direction of the lake, easily under one bulging arm. It turned and gave a polite salute to her, but seemed slightly unwilling to stop moving, and continued to slowly shuffle in the same direction it was originally headed. "Morning miss! These fires were started by that there yon spaceship you can see crashed into the ground. Right there above the treeline, with the glittering lights." A beefy finger was thrust out to where the silhouette could be just seen against the dark sky. "I'm afraid we can't help civilian hives quite yet, our radio tower was badly damaged. If we don't get it fixed, a lot of good soldiers are going to get lost in the northern swamps." It seemed well aware that this wasn't the response Eostre wanted, and steeled itself for yet another angry purpleblood trying to recruit it to rescuing their personal belongings.

purplerosesbeauty

The drone approached by the two children was enormous, as thick as a brick wall, and resembling one in the face. It remained silent for the first onslaught of questions, a piece of broken ship hull the size of a small lusus held comfortably under each arm. After the final one was posed, it narrowed it's eyes imperceptibly, and bent down slightly towards the children. When it spoke, it's voice sounded like a far off avalanche. "Ya don't get inside." Standing back up, it focused it's gaze on Leeroi's lusus. "That there's military property. See your charge doesn't tamper with it, or they'll be breakin' the law." Pausing for a moment, it considered. "Plus, 'tis all on fire."

Kimbley Kitty

 

[ImaginationsParadise]

Before carrying out her master plan, Eridia needed to get some supplies. She trotted her way back to the famous four fronds, not fully knowing the way there but she relied on her instincts. And after encountering Leeroi and Psygki, she just wanted to shake those thought for now. The smell of burning wood filled the air which made Eridia wonder what the heck was going on? Maybe there's a hunt or.... no...

Fire.

The child eyes widened when she saw the flames and a spaceship? Exchanging worrying looks with her lusus, they approached the scene. Eridia covered her nose fully knowing the smell would affect her later on and eyes peeled on the spaceship. This was uttermost intriguing. Even if it her plan to get more traps and whatnot seemed impossible now, she could still get nifty supplies from the spacecraft. A smile plastered on the purpleblood's face, gave away the joy she felt. Change of plans? Sure-- as if that didn't happen frequently. First, she needed to get the details. Those details could be of use to get into the spacecraft.

"You there!" She said at a townsperson. "Surely you must know what happened here! Care to tell me?"

Hivestuck

 

[DraconicFeline]

Hivestuck

Can we go in the spwaceship mister drone?

Psykgi Mentha

”Goodness, well, if it's on fire...” drawled Psykgi. She slipped off Glitch's back walked next to Leeroi, ready to keep the conversation civilized. Even if breaking the drone's nose or other parts was the way to get to any further information about the way in, she wasn't sure if she wanted Leeroi in a fight with this particular one. Besides, talking was her forte.

”Of course! It's military property... but surely you could use some assistance to get the military spaceship-related objects out of the fire, no?” she asked slyly, ”I mean, between all the unhappy residents and the other fires, you must be so busy.” she grinned at the drone, putting on her best guileless face. She could be cute when she wanted to be. ”And we were just working with the military, weren't we, so if we were to offer to help put out the fire at the spaceship and retrieve some of the things, what would you say? It wouldn't be breaking the law if we were helping, would it?”

Psykgi didn't particularly care about retrieving items for the military, personally, but if she could talk her way into the spaceship, wouldn't that just be spectacular? She took in the ruins around her, and decided that exploring might take precedence... after all, the highbloods would likely still be upset later, and the spaceship... well, if it was off limits, it would be even more off limits later... perhaps even dangerously off limits.  

[Hivestuck]

There was a long pause as the drone considered the children in front of him. After what felt like a lifetime to the impatient children, he shrugged. In his mind he had clearly been weighing the effort required to dissuade these children versus pretending he never met them at all. "Can go burn up f'r all I care. Though y'cant get in without an access key." Turning, he hefted one of the heavy loads in the direction of a few adult trolls, lounging around a dry fountain in the middle of the small square ahead. They all wore military space suits, tired but alert expressions, and were heavily covered in ash and sweat. Seemingly disinterested in helping out with the fire, they sat with hands on weapons, muttering and laughing with each other. A drink was being passed around, and they seemed comfortably at home in the smoking desolation that surrounded them. "Ya want in, go talk to the crew. They'll probably jus' tell you to glub off tho'."

Kimbley Kitty

DraconicFeline

 

[thyPOPE]

Some trolls, Dictys thought, were just useless. Art? If, perhaps, they'd been mourning the loss of some technological device, or significant historical paraphernalia, perhaps Dictys would've had some sympathy for them. But this was a lowblood, and in the absence of a superior even a lowblood needed to, if only temporarily, hold down the fort. "I don't see you volunteering, either," Dictys answered, stung. Dictys had emself just come from a wild, messy trek though the swamp, and though ey'd perhaps not succeeded in the task of retrieving those poor kidnapped grubs, ey'd at least put the effort in.

They hadn't even answered Dictys' question. How long had this been going on for? What was the ship? Dictys looked around town for someone who might be in a more supervisory role. Who'd commanded the drones here? Were there adults, or someone high-ranked and reasonable? There were lake dwellers in the Fronds, after all. Who else could Dictys rely on to provide facts?

Wait, no. There was a group of adults in a fountain, wearing distressingly familiar outfits. Could it be? Had it been true? In the previous dry season Dictys had tried, to no avail, to learn of the military's plans for restarting the space travel program, and how Dictys emself might get involved. That'd proved fairly fruitless. But here, before eir eyes, was visible evidence that Alternia had not given up in the face of its previous loss.

Dictys stumbled over as quickly as ey could, the aches in eir legs forgotten. This was a chance to learn about the most noble Alternian vocation: forging a path between the stars. "Hello," Dictys enunciated as ey arrived, flipping the long snake of eir braid over eir shoulder to better emphasize eir fins, which bore no sign of damage from the days ey'd spent in the swamp. It was a bit of a comical sight: Dictys was, at best, a very tall child, facing down a group of adults. But Dictys did have eir fins on them, and ey intended to use them. "Which of you is the most senior officer?"

Hivestuck

 

[zeflamigo]

Once he trotted out of earshot of the drone, Leeroi turned to Psykgi with an ear-to-ear excited smile. "That was ******** awesome, Psy," He congratulated her, offering her a fist bump. Leeroi's chest swelled with pride. Psykgi wasn't just a great ally, she was his perfect foil. She was the brains to his brawn. With her magic way with words and his fists, they could accomplish anything. He turned his attention back to the space crew.

Everyone save the seadweller were in suits, and Leeroi quickly realized that ey were not a member of the crew. He frowned. No way was a fishblood going to stop him from getting inside that ship. Leeroi kicked Glitch into action, charging towards the crew at high speed. He kind of wanted to knock into the seadweller, but he knew Glitch would never allow such a thing. Once close enough to the crew, he made a harsh stop, turning Glitch parallel to the group so he needn't talk over her head. He did accidentally bump the seadweller in his stop, and he tried to hide his terrible smirk from em as he spoke to the crew.

"No time to waste!" Leeroi shouted, trying to steal the attention from the seadweller. "We're military personnel, on a special mission to retrieve anything you lost on board!" Glitch paced forward slightly, unhappy with the unravelling turn of events. Leeroi did his best to quell his excitement, trying to keep a serious face for the space trolls. If Psykgi could trick people with words, than so could he. Besides, everything he was saying was true. So what if they were on a self-appointed mission?

"We need an access card, STAT!" He said, watching the crew with piercing, impatient eyes. Important loot was being burnt up as they spoke! He didn't want to waste the time entertaining a hoity-toity seadweller who was probably more worried about the status of their vacation home, probably blaming the crew for their lost shoe collection. Hell, he was probably doing these trolls a favor.

Hivestuck

thyPOPE

leeroi's a d**k and i apologize

 

[Hivestuck]

The trio of trolls by the fountain were a ragtag group of grizzled veterans. Their chatter grew louder as the children approached, mumbling rough words and occasionally looking from the ship and back to the rest of the flames as though such destruction was all too common. They eventually became aware of the kid’s presence, and while they at first ignored them their efforts were finally acknowledged. All eyes – pupils filled in with teal, orange and red blood – focused on the little trio on front of them. They then looked at each other, and laughed.

The tealblood stepped forward. She was short and sturdy. Long scars were carved laterally over the sides of her shaved temples. Her dreadlocked hair, pulled into a small ponytail on top of her scalp was framed by her horns. One broken off at the base – the other curving up and back, displaying notches carved intentionally into the surface. Most notable, however, were her arms. Both of them had been amputated at the shoulder. Her right arm looked to be custom-built, for fine motor action. It was well-sheathed and smoothed off, with an indication of sharp bladed edges that were obscured by a cuffed glove she wore on her hand. Her left arm, however, was a masterwork of fine independent weaponry engineering. It hummed with mechanical energy, hydraulics pumping and whirring. Currently, the shape of her prosthetic was a huge gatling gun. She rested on it as though tired out already by the youngster’s demands.

“That’s me,” she drawled. She tilted her head to look at Leeroi and Psykgi and raised (what was left of) her eyebrows. “Lieutenant’s got it under control inside, yeah?. You’ll blow up if you go in there, squeaker. Leave it to us adults.”

The trolls behind her laughed. The orangeblood piped up, “Oi, ye! Why don’t ya run along and help the fire brigade, dumplin’?”

thyPOPE

Kimbley Kitty

 

[Hivestuck]

The troll who turned to look at Eridia was young, and wore a stunned, wide-eyed expression on their face, burned clothing, and faint trickles of blood crusted on their face - from their nose, eyes and mouth. Down the sides of their neck dried teal blood was also streaked, having dripped down from their sponge clots. It took a few moments for the troll to focus their eyes on her. "WHAT??" The question was bellowed in response, way above the required volume level. The troll frowned, looked thoughtful, and tried to correct their volume. "WHAT???" A large three headed maulbeast shuffled over, the troll's lusus. It was nearly soot black, ash and dust thickly covering it's white fur, and it put a comforting heavy paw down on it's trolls shoulder, trying to lead the concussed and stunned teen away, to loud protests. "THERE IS A THING, IT IS ASKING ME A QUESTION? I THINK?? IS THERE A THING THERE??"

Maybe your troll would have better luck asking that group of rowdy adults by the fountain, there seem to be other kids gathering around them.

ImaginationsParadise

 

[ImaginationsParadise]

"HEY I'M NOT A THING!!!! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO WHAT I'M-- UGH! FORGET IT." After screaming at the tealblood over and over again, the child decided to drop the other. Not even her gestures could get through their thick skull.

"Useless, totally useless!" Eridia screamed and tried not ripping her hair out. Clearly Leeroi had pulled out plenty already. She sighed and rubbed her temples. Think Eridia think! A burst of laughter rang in her ears, interrupting her train of thoughts. Her head whipped at its direction and just by the fountain, two different groups stood by it. One of adults and the other of kids. The children's faces looked familiar from afar. Her gut told her to approached them. Maybe she could force her way in. She walked towards the group as confident as always, her chances of getting in were pretty slim. She looked as the crew laughed again and slightly clenched her fists.

Breathe and hopefully things will go smoothly. Said Lovedad. Just try to be respectful okay?

"Seems like no one can't even handle a few questions around here nor a small lil' fire." She smirked fully raising her voice. Lovedad would've facepalmed if he was able to. First thing he instructs her and it's the first thing she doesn't do. Show respect. Adults were always hard to handle, specially if they were addressed by kids. She looked at the other kids out of the corner of her eyes. Seemed like Lee and Psy beat her there, also a particular seadweller was there. Didn't matter, they could burn with the forest for all that she cared. More trolls who seemed intrigued by the spaceship? Hopefully not. But ey could be useful and possibly the two other buffoons.

"What happened here?" Eridia said sternly. "Things don't fall out of the sky without a reason. Plus..." She looked back at the kids with a slightly menacing smile and back at the drones.

"...the queen doesn't tolerate useless drones."

Hivestuck

thyPOPE

Kimbley Kitty

Oh looks who's here!

DraconicFeline

 

[thyPOPE]

Dictys put eir palm on eir forehead, briefly, at the tiny lowblood's outburst. "I should think," ey enunciated frostily. "There's a significant difference between military personnel and volunteers in the face of a staff shortage," Dictys added. Was this one of the kidnappers? Dictys took Leeroi's and Psygki's - oh, ey recognized that second one, but that really was a matter for later, when this had been sorted out - faces into mind and dismissed them. Whatever they were here for, they were in plain sight for now, and the true military personnel was clearly before them.

Far more important was the allusion to space travel.

Just as ey was about to speak again, though, another voice spoke up. Honestly - were all the volunteer forces so brainless? No wonder they'd lost the mother grub, and the children she'd born. "Pay her no mind," Dictys said, narrowing eir eyes at her. And here ey'd thought she had some sense to her, in the battle! Perhaps it'd been the adrenaline muddling eir senses. Still, ey couldn't help turning to hiss: "They're open-horned and display hemochrome! They're clearly not drones!" The one who'd declared herself the highest-ranking member had a gatling gun for an arm. Lowblooded though she might be, she was clearly not a member of the uniformed firefighting crew.

"I apologize for this..." Dictys trailed off, flashing eir fins at the younger trolls around em. "This disgrace," ey finished, tilting eir head to the side. "I only must ask - was the return planned?" Why hadn't Dictys been informed that Alternia would be returning to the open void? "What are you back for? Is your helmsman still in good condition?"

A pause. But Dictys couldn't help but push on. "And what were you there for? Was it beautiful?"

Hivestuck

Kimbley Kitty

ImaginationsParadise

DraconicFeline