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 Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 5:11 pm
✪ // Asteroid Base Alpha-MuIt is the year 2025.
NASA's Asteroid Capture Mission, which successfully took place roughly four years ago, was the foundation for a humble orbiting moon base. It would have housed astronauts that showed promise in training for the first manned mission to Mars, had enough of NASA survived.
Patient Zero arrived in a hospital in London in February of 2022. Humanity fought with inflated confidence, and scattered in desperation when it became obvious that there was nothing but failure in their future. It was too late to run away from this; they went home to their families, gathered water and canned food, and holed up in basements and bunkers as they waited to die.
The asteroid base is now home to a small team of Hunters from Deus Ex, predominately from Life Division. Summoned weapons were useless here - to anyone who intended to keep the airlock intact, at least - and have been re-purposed into 'VIA Entities' (visual, intangible assistant). They function in a way similar to standard haunts, except in the form of holograms, if the weapons were haunting their totems. A scattering of voluntary refugees from Halloween serve the same general purpose aboard the base, but are not bonded to any specific Hunter, despite their attachment to a totem.
FEAR-healing made most Hunters impervious to the rapid spread of the disease that catastrophically compromised the human immune system, but it didn't save some of them. The front line divisions with repeated exposure to the human world, as they gathered supplies and prepared for a full evacuation, were largely wiped out. Though Life did have the largest number of survivors, all divisions have taken on a unified purpose to preserve what remains of humanity, in hopes of one day returning to Earth.Quote: tl;dr★ Deus in SPAAACE
★ Runic technology is still in use, along with an experimental new variety of energy
★ Visits to the moon's surface are possible, but visits back to Earth are not, with the exception of annual supply runs
★ Use of weapons is forbidden, with the exception of foam or wooden sparring tools, which can be used in a simple sparring chamber with artificial gravity or on the moon's surface
★ The majority of the facility is scientific in nature because NASA built it
★ Communications are through tablets (like iPads), modified cell phones, and intercom systems
★ Anyone who falls ill is immediately quarantined, assessed, and treated as necessary; the dead are released into space, r.i.p. Quote: Anyone is welcome to use this setting if it inspires you. Please make a separate prp or orp thread though! ♥
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 6:32 pm
// March 21, 2023
This was not how any of this was supposed to happen.
This was not how any of this was supposed to be.
The sudden variable of a disease of this nature could not have been predicted, but this was not remotely ideal, even if the outbreak had never begun. Space was an unfathomably expansive place, definitively separate from the constraints of Earth and its gravitational pull to humanity, an ideal vacuum absent of all but curiosity and wonder.
The cosmos sat at the end of Mimsy's first ever escape route, a path to unparalleled safety that nothing else could offer. It was where she could belong without concerning herself with what she was supposed to do, where she could just be, where she would disappoint no one as she experienced the freedom of discovery in its purest form. Now that she was finally here, within the comforting lull of recirculated oxygen and airlocks, she had not escaped after all. She was cursed to chase a white rabbit that she would never catch - one that could lead her to a place that felt like home again. One she had to believe in, for the sake of survival.
And no matter how clear that was to her now, she still saw that flash of white when she closed her eyes, and the ticking of the pocketwatch (too late, if only just a moment sooner) never left her mind.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 8:20 pm
// March 18, 2023
He let out a long, proud whoop as he slid down the metal stairs, his hands on each banister holding the rest of his body up. He slammed his boots down on the ground when he reached the bottom, and took off in a run. Something flickered in the corner of his vision, but he ignored it and kept running. His grin was wild and he felt like he was flying. He could do anything, if he wanted to. He could open the airlock and shoot off into space if it sounded like a good idea.
He slowed down, after heading through cargo bay 3's door at full speed, and sobered up quickly. That did not sound like a good idea.
"Supplies secured, Captain." He called out, knowing she'd get the message. His hands settled on a display, sliding a holographic screen up into the air in front of him and swirling it off to one side before opening up another, and another. "Bay's secure, thrusters are primed, she's ready to go." His voice hummed with impatience - the holographic images in front of him flickered and changed at inhuman speeds as he changed through them with eye movement, and they listened to every flicker, every blink. His elbow crooked out to the side, tapping on what looked like a big red button in one holographic display. Instantly, music flooded his tiny little bubble of workspace, and echoing past the walls of the station room he worked off of. The music was old, ancient - and he loved it with a passion that rivaled his love of the captain herself. His head nodded with each throbbing beat, even as he primed the engines and prepared for the moment she gave the order.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 2:22 pm
// June 07, 2023
Dreams were not the same here. There was no conclusive evidence to support this, and nobody ever mentioned anything to Mimsy about their dreams when they all had much more serious issues to concern themselves with, but she could tell. There were no more grand adventures. No more Wonderland. There were more nightmares than dreams, but none that made her actively attempt to avoid sleep. It was so long ago that she'd insisted upon doing that - over a decade now - but it was the same doubt-filled thoughts that crept into her mind.
She woke with a jolt of adrenaline that didn't stave off the anxieties. It wouldn't help to rely on herself, to reason with her own wandering thoughts that they were unfounded and asinine. She needed reality. She needed evidence. She needed--
"Robert?" she whispered, shivering as her breath left her lungs. The bed was always so cold here, just like almost everything else was, and she couldn't see him in the darkness. Was he still there? The thought that she had lost him now, after everything, turned adrenaline to panic. What if, what if...
Her fingers brushed something warm within the cold sheets, and she felt it stir beneath her touch; he was there, as always, right next to her. Of course. Of course. Where else would he be?
A sigh met his smile. She settled against him, ear pressed to his chest, to coax her racing heart to match something more reliable.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 3:35 pm
// October 13, 2023
Svensyl and his sister, who was upside-down on the ceiling, sat at the end of the hall. Mimsy intercepted one of his motions and stole a high five as she ducked past, lips curling into a smile.
They were playing patty-cake in four dimensions (the logistics of which they kept firmly to themselves), giggling madly and spinning off with a lack of gravity each time their holograms glitched and connected their fingers or palms.
It reminded her of something simpler. Not better, necessarily; just a time when there was not a consequence to every single action, when she was not in charge of more than just a family. Had she ever imagined that she might be nostalgic for a time where she was comparably powerless, she would have laughed until she cried, but the thought wasn't so strange now. Spreading her attention thin was not anything that she would have ever chosen, but it did make those moments of singular focus more important. Something crucial and special among the menial and meaningless.
The airlock of the medbay hissed as the door shut behind her, which was certainly louder than the sound she made when she cleared her throat, but habit was difficult to abandon.
Even now.
"I brought something for you." She smiled, jabbing a toothpick through a rehydrated olive before she offered the plate - and the sandwich on top of it, naturally.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 3:54 pm
// October 13, 2023
The hiss of the airlock made his head snap up in surprise, and he slammed on a button to cover the petri dish of highly contagious substances he was working on with a glass dome. It snapped closed with a violently fast motion, and he pulled his hands away and swiveled off of the chair.
"Mimsy, baby, you gotta give me more warning, this place is dangerous. You know that." Even his reprimands, as serious as they were, sounded soft and love-stricken. He sighed, bending in to steal a kiss before she could say a word, and whisked the sandwich away from her hands.
"Oh my God, is this - holy s**t it totally is. Black Forest Ham today! You remembered! ********, you are getting so much better at this. I mean, of course you are, you've got the best teacher ever. But damn, just look at that melted cheese mmmm, I bet it's ********' delicious."
He put the plate down for a moment, underneath a small cabinet. Later, when Mimsy left, he would open it up as he always did, and settle the plate carefully underneath. There had to be room somewhere, despite the dozens, possibly hundreds of similar looking plated food within. He'd find a spot for it. A nice spot.
"I love it. Come here." His hands rose up, waiting for her to climb into them. "What would I do without you? I wouldn't last a day, that's what."
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 4:28 pm
// March 17, 2023
The control panel for the supplies vessel sang a quiet hum penetrated with intermittent beeps, as the auto-pilot plodded it steadily through the black space between it and home base. Robert's feet were up on the panel, one crossed over the other. He was staring up at the ceiling, and he was bored out of his mind. The steady beeping hiccuped, and he knocked forward to check out the source of the discrepancy, only to find they were safely passing by a large, floating asteroid. He watched it as they came closer, and the glint of the panel itself caught his eye. It was relatively reflective, which caused him to check his hair. He ran a hand through it, and watched the locks fall perfectly back into place, each and every hair returning to its initial position as if they had no choice. He shook his hair again, and the same thing happened. Damn, he had good hair.
"Alert. Alert. Impact imminent. Alert." Robert hadn't felt fear in a long time, but that warning call had come out of nowhere, and he could have sworn his heart just leapt into his throat. He slammed his hands on the controls. "Auto-pilot disengage, give me manual control. NOW, DAMNIT." The giant joystick in front of him was suddenly in his hands, and he wrenched it with all of his might to the left until the ship barely scrapped by the asteroid that had been hiding behind the bigger one. "Compensate with aft thrusters. Watch the tail, watch the tail, don't let her hit our a**, Svensyl GET OFF THE CONSOLE I can't handle your s**t right now, ********." When he reached out to the console, his hand went through the body of a Jabberwock. He heard the scrape of metal as it tore through the top hull, and winced. Several grueling seconds went by as they listened to the ship losing it's skin, but it held together. Alerts continued to blare up as the computer informed him of the damages, and when he moved to try and disable the warning systems, Svensyl was sitting on the console again.
"I'm gonna put a ********' restraining order on your bio-hologram when we get back to base." Robert growled, jamming his hand straight through Svensyl's chest to turn the warning system off. "Literally just. You can't form within 50 feet of me. Restraining order. Pain in the a**. Never takin' you out for walkies again. Never."
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 5:59 pm
// October 13, 2023
"Robert," she scoffed, folding her arms as he took the plate from her. "I'm an astrophysicist, and this is space. I'll be all right."
Technically, he was very obviously doing work in astrobiology, but most people rarely called her bluff on this. Or didn't care to, which was the more probable option.
All of the praise he gave her for the sandwich received a wide, beaming smile in return. She looked every bit as proud as she was, her head held high, and she made sure to nod along when he talked about how delicious the sandwich might have been.
"Yes. Very delicious. I made sure of it! Do you know why?" As expected, she leaned forward until she fell into his waiting arms, giggling as she looked up at him. By now, her laughter sounded like she belonged in Svensyl's family, as if he'd had another sister all along. "The tenth anniversary is...well, ten years is a decade, and that would make the tenth anniversary the most decadent, naturally, so it is the sandwich anniversary! Or cake anniversary, perhaps, er..."
Mimsy paused. There had not been any whispers of cakes or crowns for a long time, so it was an easy mistake to have made, if cake was the case.
"Well," she sighed, content despite the dilemma. "You can eat anything imaginable, cake or otherwise. You know why?"
With a grin and a little indulgent laugh, she reached up to pat his cheek.
"Because I wouldn't last a day without you either." The grin turned to pursed lips, and she poked his nose as she scrunched up hers. "But you know that, right?"
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 7:29 pm
// October 13, 2023
She was so good with anniversaries. Still, this was a big one. Ten years.. it felt like time had stopped for them somewhere along the line. It was so hard for him to keep track of things like dates, and time. She always remembered. He could always count on her for the things he lost along the way.
Because I wouldn't last a day without you either.
His smile faded, just for a moment, before he picked himself right back up again and kissed the tips of her fingers. "You bet I know." He admitted, grinning from ear to ear. That was why he was here. Why he'd always be here, until the day she died.
"That's why you'll last forever."
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 6:27 am
// April 22, 2023
Just before midnight, while most of the crew slept or socialized in their quarters, Mimsy ran through the corridors as quickly as her long legs could carry her. She was on a mission of grand importance: this was the night of the first meteor shower since their departure from Earth, the Lyrids, and she refused to miss it.
When she reached Alpha-Mu's eastern cupola, she slowed significantly, but didn't stop moving until her hands hit the window, anxiously clammy palms cooling against the composite glass. She took a deep breath, smiled, and pressed her face to it, filled with the same excitement she felt on the first night she'd watched the meteors as a child.
It was ironically her childlike enthusiasm that ruined that excitement - through all of her plans, in all the time she looked forward to this, she had failed to remember one embarrassingly elementary fact.
Meteor showers occurred when cosmic debris entered and burned up within the atmosphere.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 6:47 am
// April 23, 2023
Just after midnight, well past the standard timeframe for most standard missions, Mimsy impassively strode into the interim room that housed all of the suits and equipment. It was as if a switch was flipped within her sometime in the last few minutes, polarizing all of her eager happiness into so much nothing that she looked less lifelike than the holograms.
In truth, all of that energy was now put towards keeping herself together. One step after the next. Suit, then boots, then gloves. System check. Oxygen check. Atmospheric check. Vitals secure. Svensyl on standby.
Her fingers shook as she tapped the button to initiate communications system Alpha - little more than her high-tech futuristic glorified speed dial - and the trembling decline of her ability to continue normal functions made its way into her voice as she spoke.
"I need to go. We need to go," she said, in the same serious tone that meant emergency. "We have to go to the surface. Now."
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 7:18 am
// April 23, 2023
Once or twice per minute on average, a rate about one and a half times more frequent than Earth's Lyrids, a piece of organic debris left behind by Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher struck the impermeable exterior of the moon's artificial atmosphere.
For almost an hour, Mimsy was completely silent. She offered no explanations or answers, and simply stared skyward, taking in the sight of the very first lunar meteor shower. The sight was almost incomparable to what she knew of the same cosmic event back on Earth - this display was much more brilliant, more violent in a way, as the falling 'stars' exploded into sparks and ignited chunks of carbon upon impact. The larger bits that survived were propelled back into the vacuum of space, and she wondered if they would find their way to Earth sometime. She wondered if any of the survivors could even begin to fathom what they had seen.
It was a fireworks show of unprecedented magnificence, put on by the cosmos for them. Only them. There was no one else who could see what they were seeing at this moment, and she was not inclined to share this.
The ownership over the stars that she'd once relinquished had returned in full, now 'ours' instead of 'mine'.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 7:36 am
// April 23, 2023
"You know," was the first thing she said, when she finally broke her silence, "this will be so much better in a year and ten months, if all remains on course."
She had been fidgeting, fussing with the gloves that kept their hands apart, an unwanted barrier that prevented her from achieving the proximity she desired.
"Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to walk on the lunar surface without requiring all of this? Can you imagine how nice it will be to not need a full suit when we come to see another meteor shower? How incredible it would be to have a tactile experience of all of this in its original environment? Do you think it would be like walking barefoot in the sand on the shore of the ocean, but with dust?"
She smiled up at the sky, hungry for progress. She was actively witnessing an undocumented event in her very own field of study, but it didn't sate her need for more.
"Maybe we can even build a home here someday." Her gaze fell back to him with her suggestion, and she tried to squeeze his hand, but only squeezed her glove. "We could be the first. And we said we could have a home for every world, right? This is a new world - or it can be. We can do everything just like we used to, bare hands and all."
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 4:06 pm
// April 23, 2023
Maybe he was quiet for a second too long. All of the thoughts that passed through his mind seemed to rush by, quick enough to leave him no more than a second of melancholic silence. It wasn't enough to make her realize that he'd almost considered reaching out for her hand, when he felt her squeeze the gloves. When she asked him what it would be like to walk on the surface without a suit. When all the memories of him and Svensyl on the surface shot through his memory like tiny flickers of a movie, too fast for the normal eye to catch.
It was only a second.
"We can totally build a house here." He breathed out, childlike wonder infused in his voice. "A big one. A GIANT ONE. THE BIGGEST HOUSE THERE IS! Nobody can tell us no, because we'd be the first ones here." He let go of her hand, and bounded forward, mapping out where the house could be with his hands.
"Everything'll be just like it used to."
A flicker of thought passed by again. Too fast to catch the sadness in his eyes. Too fast.
No it wouldn't.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 5:47 pm
// July 18, 2023
With a whir and a surge of energy, the synthetic canine form on the table in front of her came to life, its chest rising and falling in time with the programmed algorithm for lifelike functions. A wide puppy yawn displayed little puppy teeth, structurally perfected to be optimal for fetching and chewing up everything it wasn't supposed to. Two wide, glowing green eyes looked up at her as a tiny tail began to wag back and forth, responding to the facial recognition system she'd installed. It looked at the man next to her, paused for several seconds, and eventually did the same.
She didn't know why that happened.
"Look! Look!" She bounced on her toes and tugged on Robert's arm, breathless with excitement. "I did it! I brought him back!"
That was debatable. A standard thought experiment about matter and identity, Theseus' paradox, a game of fundamentals and intellectual argument that she swept aside with Occam's broom. Only fragments of the original remained, if that; she couldn't exactly prove that the energy infused into the cybertronic dog had actually come from the original Laika, but she had to believe it.
"Is it satisfactory? Are you happy? I really hope so." She leaned into him, cheek pressed against his shoulder. "Oh! I think he missed you too!"
She had to believe it to be okay, so she did.
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