Intro Log: The Forgotten City

[atlasmods]

GOOD MORNING NEW ARRIVALS This time for real! WAKEY WAKEY. As the storm finally peters out and characters can once again move above ground it becomes abundantly clear that the landscape has changed. Where vast expanses of sand dunes once laid is now the half-buried remnants of what looks like some sort of...city? Full of structures. It stretches so far it's really hard to tell. But there is one thing characters will notice: There are more stasis pods. Revealed by the sandstorm, a whole new flurry of pods can be found scattered on the way to the city (curiously though, not in it. Hurry and wake those guys up! SPREAD THE LOVE. OR ACID. With the departure of the storm there's even more new arrivals to be found besides those fellow travelers of yours! The "Seedlings" and "Cactus" are now both available, the former blown in by the storm and the former uncovered. The Seedlings are generally pretty harmless. They like to burrow into the sand so only their "Leaves" plant-like leaves remain above ground, and they're quite happy to stay that way until surprised. Then they pop up and trip over themselves a little, before slowing down and wandering aimlessly. When they find a patch of sand that looks comfy they begin burrowing back down. Pull or yank on their leaves though and you'll find yourself with a face full of pollen that makes you want to just tell everyone how super-cool they are. It lasts a while, and then you get a fever and vomit for two hours. Good times. The Cacti are much less harmless and just...why would you eat them? Everything about this plant is poisonous, and cracking it open causes a corrosive acid-like substance to spill out. It'll eat through everything but...dirt, oddly. Metals and flesh are like hot oil on plastic. DON'T GET LOST And last but not least: The Forgotten City. Maybe you want to check out the Hull first for some loot, but maybe that's not such a cool idea anymore? Although it looks like the ship's definitely more powered after draining the suits of whoever went in, now it's started to spread and fill the sinkhole the ship's in. Suits can go from 100% to 0% in just ten minutes--not good! Lucky for everyone else, it looks like finally there's some sort of civilization up ahead. Go on and check it out! OR DO. THAT'S OKAY TOO. Go nuts, have fun, and enjoy! (This is the wildcard option) OOC The Flora, Fauna & Resources page has been updated with information on the seedlings, cacti, and crystals! These items are now all available for Discovery, and The Forgotten City will be available indefinitely from now on! Characters can take this time to settle & build up a foundation for themselves, explore the area, and of course, harass those poor little seedlings. We encourage players to make their own open posts for this setting--you don't need to stick to just this intro log! But make sure to make our newbies feel welcome!

Comments

The Iron Bull / OTA (including observing the closed sections)

[ex_broach530]

AWAKENING [ closed to cayde ]

Choking darkness smothers him, bringing back memories of heavy fog, thick in the lungs, a vice around the throat, and then the whisper of the blade in the darkness, a scream —

The scream is his own, torn jagged from bellowful lungs as the pod ejects him unceremoniously into the hot sand. The last time he was in a desert was a Tevinter sortie, and immediately he thinks he's home — that isn't the kind of thought that's a comfort. His bad knee shouts that he just landed on it without the brace, but he ignores it and springs up as fast as he can, all that grey bulk agile in a fight. Reaches for his sword — no, shit, no sword — no armour — not even the familiar weight of his eyepatch over the absolute ruination of his left eye.

The right one blinks at the guy who freed him. Who, notably, isn't trying to attack him. His mind works quickly then, pulling in details of his surroundings, and slowly hammy fists unclench, though the muscles in his shoulders are still tight, still feeling Fog Warrior eyes on the back of his neck. "Hey. You wanna fill me in on what the hell just happened?"


DESTROYING THE STASIS POD

It's resilient, and he's weaker than usual: the heat, or these skintight fucking clothes (he's been here, what, an hour? And he already hates the suit.) But Bull is doing his best to tear the pod that trapped him to bits. There was food in there, sure, but he needs a weapon. And uh, maybe something he can jam on his horns to keep the sun off. Still, it's not as easy as he thought it would be when he started...


FORAGING

Even when he was a kid he wasn't a big vegetables guy, but aside from what looks to be about three days of rations it doesn't look like there's a lot around here to eat. Food, weapon, shelter, storage; Bull knows his priorities. Still, he's not in this alone, so it can't hurt to make a few allies and work together. So that's a large part of why he's hanging around the area that was once the corpse of the trilobite queen.

And he's, uh, noticeable. Seven and a half feet tall, wide horns, grey skin, muscles that bulge the constraints of the suit — not that he's even wearing it properly, the top half skinned down to his waist and tied like a belt. If he catches you looking at him, though, he'll give you an easy smile, maybe something that has the feel of a friendly wink (winking is hard with one eye.)

Right now he's looking less for food and more for plants he can weave, testing the strength of anything that looks like a vine, bark fibres, and even digging for grassroots. "How you doing?" he'll happily ask of just about anyone. "Hot as Andraste's tits out here, right?"


PASSING OUT LIKE A MORON

About an hour after he's decided to strip to the waist, he starts to feel a little funny, but he just blames it on sweating in the sun. Been a while since he's endured this kind of heat, right? Skyhold was freezing, and his body is just taking its sweet time adapting.

About half an hour after that, he realises he isn't pulling deep enough breaths, that same suffocating feeling slowly returning, and he decides to take a break and maybe find some shade to sit in. Hell, he can make some shade to sit in.

Yeah, and then about five minutes after that he crashes into the sand like a chopped tree. Timber! Someone put his clothes back on properly.


REUNIONING [ closed to dorian ]

By this point Bull has pretty much accepted that he's a long way from anything and anyone he knows. People don't even know what qunari are, and he's definitely not anywhere in Thedas — maybe a neighbouring continent. Definitely outside the Inquisition's jurisdiction. So when he hears the strain of familiar dulcet tones, he assumes he's having some kind of sun-induced hallucination and needs to drink more water.

But no, Dorian comes into view and he's no mirage. Wearing the same suit as Bull is — several sizes smaller, of course. "You're shitting me," he says, delighted, and then — hope you weren't talking to anyone, babe — barrels over to lift the Vint right off his feet and into a crushing hug. Hi.

PASSING OUT LIKE A MAROON

[cortexual]

[ This is what happens when you let the inexperienced run around in the unknown! Humanoids passing out like idiots on a hostile planet. But after years of enduring idiocy, nothing surprises McCoy anymore. Common sense is not everyone's forte despite how, you know, common it should be; if it was? Honestly? He would likely be out of a job.

So, calmly and efficiently, McCoy checks for a pulse. It's thready and falling fast. He keeps track of it with one hand while the other does its best to resuit this lumbering mountain of muscle. And then with expert precision takes the meaty side of his fist and slams it into the horned man's sternum. If all goes well it should create a instinctive reaction in him, sucking in air like a vacuum. If not, McCoy will have to resort to rescue breaths. ]

[ex_broach530]

[ Qunari physiology isn't all that alien, and at the fist to his bare chest Bull pulls in a sharp gasp of breath, the noise it makes jagged and wheezing. The lower half of his suit valiently tries to help him, as does his excessively hardy constitution, and his body manages to force a breath out again, and then a couple of hiccuped smaller ones, like someone in the middle of an asthma attack. He'll probably come 'round in a second, dizzy and weak. ]

[cortexual]

[ No kiss of life for the Bull today. McCoy keeps two fingers at the man's neck in precaution and counts the best he can without a standard reference of time. Be nice if he has his goddamn tricorder, but... ]

Welcome back. [ His hands urge him to roll over on his side in case his stomach makes the decision to throw everything up. ] Just focus on breathing for right now.

Destroooooy

[dateme]

[ Alright, so Inui arrived with the initial batch yeah? And he had enough time before the pods below up to see people tinkering around with them to come to the conclusion that randomly bashing them to bits is probably not the best idea.

So when he sees Bull (who looks terrifying enough on his own) Inui almost blanches--almost--because it's still. Like. Cool as hell to see people who don't look human. ]

Uhhh--you might not wanna do that! [ he calls out, keeping a safe distance away. Just in case. ]

[ex_broach530]

[ The Bull pauses, turns slowly to see who it is just called to him. They look pretty nervous, which, normally people just admire the view. ]

You kidding? [ he bellows back. ] Can't just let all that metal sit there.

[dateme]

[ Inui has history with these pods Bull. They make him wary for his life. ]

The last guy who messed around with those things blew up, and then almost blew the rest of us up with him.

[ foraging ]

[anewhope]

[ Clark stares a little because he's still not used to people like himself - non humans simply ambling along as if nothing has changed while Clark continues to feel like the world has spun him on its axis.

All the same, he offers a tentative smile. ]

It gets cooler during the nights at least.

[ deeply pleased pesterbird ]

[ex_broach530]

[ It's fiiine, the Bull is used to staring. And he's definitely not going to object from a guy who looks like Clark. One eyebrow lifts. ]

Cooler? Or two-to-a-bed frosty?

[ <3 ]

[anewhope]

[ Is that an innuendo?

Maybe it's an innuendo. Clark gracefully ignores that implication and answers honestly. ]

I'm not the best judge, but the others seem to manage.

HELLO NEW BFF

[exorion]

"You woke up."

He's helping, Bull.

Cayde shrugs a shoulder, glancing out over the new pods with a squint at the sun. Then, back to Bull. He's never seen a Qunari before, but he's none too fussed about it, (though part of him suddenly wishes he had horns like that instead of the one,) and gestures to the others around.

"We're kinda still figuring all that out. Welcome to Confusion Club."

[ex_broach530]

"Great," Bull mutters sarcastically. Just when he was done with everything going to shit in a whirl of confused chaos, now he's been thrown right into the middle of something new. "How long have I been out, d'you know?"

[exorion]

"Another mystery," Cayde shrugs a shoulder. Seems like it's been a hell of a long time, but as far as any known amounts of time go. Eh. "Most of us woke up about 10 days ago, so I'd guess at least that long."

foraging because there's always more of that to do

[mousewhisperer]

[ So Allura's used to people who look distinctly different, even if her initial reaction to humans wasn't entirely favorable. So Bull doesn't get an odd look for that - no, her odd look at him is because he's digging in the ground. ]

What are you looking for?

[ex_broach530]

[ Bull looks up to find he's being spoken to by what might be the most beautiful elf he's ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on, and for a moment he's uncharacteristically short on speech. But he recovers fast, doesn't blush or stammer. ]

Roots.

[ By this point he's already got a handful of long, sharp blades of grass, even if he had to get covered with their tiny annoying spines to pick it. ]

The stringy kind, not tubers. Good for binding.

destruction

[adamance]

Lexa is clearly someone who has a weapon—a bo staff made of metal. It's currently powered down because she hasn't figured out how to make it have power, but that's hardly a problem for her. A blunt object is still a blunt object, and she's happy to make it work.

As it is, she didn't make it out of a destroyed pod ... which is likely the most important thing to note here. She comes to a halt, recalling some of Inui's words about a "man messing with a pod." The last thing they need is another explosion, even if she has her doubts that the previous explosion had been the result of someone messing with the pods themselves.

"You should pause before you act. You may risk the lives of everyone here." She'll deal with his alien appearance in a moment. Preventing everyone's death (or the sole person she cares about here) is most important.

[ex_broach530]

The Bull does pause, with his fist literally raised for another attack (if only he had his sword, he tells himself, he'd Mighty Blow this thing into smithereens.) He lowers it, turns to face the woman who addressed him. She's young, but like the Inquisitor there's something serious about her, that speaks to heavy decisions. And she has a weapon.

Also, he's way more likely to fall in line on the instruction of a woman than a man, for cultural reasons he hasn't quite been able to dig out of his subconscious yet.

"How'd you figure?" he asks, folding his arms and leaning up against the pod instead, more a lazy sort of slump than an arrogant one.

hi im here to ruin your day, also foraging

[mobilized]

He hasn't been... staring, exactly. More like he's been peripherally aware of Bull for a while, which isn't that hard to do, all things considered. But even all that peripheral awareness doesn't prepare him for, well, the friendliness, and he ends up startled enough that it gets a real answer out of him.

"— Yeah."

The syllable gets dragged out a little, a combination of the mental reshuffling he's having to do plus coming to terms with the fact that he actually has to tilt his head back a little to look at this guy properly. Bull is very big up close, which makes Fuyuhiko feel very small in comparison (horns shouldn't count, that's cheating), which is not something he enjoys. He clears his throat and squares his shoulders out, not unlike a little bird that puffs up to look threatening but actually just looks like a slightly larger floof.

"I mean, whoever decided a desert was the best place to dump us was a fuckin' moron." He's pretty sure that's what Bull means, anyway. He assumes "Andraste" is a person (he's not a little kid, all right). Is she just really hot? Is that the colloquialism? That seems too stupid to possibly be a thing. But then, what does he actually know about aliens, anyway? "But better that than freezing to death, I guess."

[ex_broach530]

"You got that right," agrees Bull, crouching down. Not to be condescending, he's just interested in the little plant at his feet, touches it carefully with delicate forefinger and thumb. That does mean now he is the one looking up at this puffed up little kid though. Maybe that will make Fuyuhiko feel better.

"Last thing I remember," he adds conversationally, as he tears off a leaf, crushes it a little between his fingers and sniffs it contemplatatively, "I was someplace called the Frostback Mountains. Whoever named them wasn't all that creative, and it was cold. As. Shit." He touches the leaf carefully to his tongue, hums. "Desert is tough, but it's a tough I know, at least."

WEH ... I mean hi

[devintered]

Dorian's familiar dulcet tones are currently grousing at another Seedling, because a] he will find something to fuss about in any environment and b] they keep surprising him!! Honestly, how dare they.

So incoming charging Bull (get it) probably saves him a smack of pollen to the face; it's telling of a whole host of things he would wrinkle his nose at that while he might have been startled by plantlife, familiarity and instinct give him just a lash flicker of a head's up before he is being swooped into the air, ribs pulverized.

This incites the reaction he always has whenever they've been separated by fetch quests work at opposite ends of Thedas, which is to sputter like a sack of angry cats while, you know, clinging ferociously. Those behaviors make total sense together and you can't tell Dorian otherwise. "Oof--yes, yes, I'm glad to see you too, you mountainous disaster. Now put me down at once."

... wait. No, that's wrong, how to correct this hmmmm-- "On second thought, don't. I've been here at least an hour without scandalizing nearly enough people."

He might be saying some of this into Bull's neck. Which is none of your business, creepy sentiment seedlings.

[ex_broach530]

Bull swings him around and then, with a hand on his ass, hauls him close to be seated comfortably on one cocked hip. The kiss that follows both Dorian's protestations and invitations is as inevitable as the sun rising, but it's not actually sheet-shredding passion. A light press, lingering, tense at first but relaxing into it as the reassurance of being together again finally calms him.

Then it's back to hugging the crap out of each other. He knows that if Dorian has been here longer than five minutes he doesn't really have to explain why: unlike fetch quests, he didn't know how far apart they were or if they would ever actually see each other again. Bull plays at independence, but the Inquisition and the Chargers and Dorian are all more important to him than he can adequately convey, and he's glad he has the stability of at least one of those things in this brave new world.

"Okay," he says, once he's got all that out of his system (or enough of it, at any rate). His grip loosens, but he still doesn't actually put Dorian down. "That's enough of that. Too many kids around." We're in a PG rated game now, Dorian!! But just you wait until they get some privacy, his look says. (Speaking of; he's eyepatchless. Dorian is probably the only person who might have even an inkling of how tough that's been for him so far, since the ruination of his face is just about the only part of his body he gets self conscious and shy about.)

foraging plus a little wild card. i do what i want.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka watches Iron Bull foraging from her perch on top of the side-lying body of the queen, now dead and mostly hollowed out. She doesn't approach him at first-- rather, just watches him interact with others. She isn't shy, but Bull is the first non-human other than herself she's encountered here, and she's never seen his species before. Time was, she would run up to him and introduce herself, excited. But she her world now is a more cautious one. She has to be more circumspect with what she gives away about herself to others, more choosy in her friends.

Finally she peers over her ledge, making herself fully visible, and speaks up.]

If you're more after meat, we've got some stored from the queen. Most of it's been smoked by now, though.

[ex_broach530]

[ He realizes he's being watched, oh, probably around about the time he goes off to let Clark rough him up some, but there are always a lot of eyes on him, so he doesn't peg quite where from until well after he's returned. Once he's worked it out, though, he doesn't do or say anything, or even try to get a better look at his audience, just keeps himself ready for an attack from that side and keeps doing what he's doing, taste and sniff testing all the plants.

So. He's not startled when she speaks, but he is kinda surprised when she reveals herself, all orange and little. What she says sure has him perking up, though. He straightens, looks up at her, lifting a hand to shield his good eye from the lowering sun.]

Hey. Any meat's better than this halla food.

shows up late to the passing out party

[ex_bossily211]

Clara isn't too far off from when when he crashes. He's drawn her attention just from appearance alone, but since he's a new arrival she doesn't want to overwhelm him too much in one day. But it seems like he's content to do that on his own. She watches him for a moment and when he doesn't get up right away she hurries on over.

"Hello?" She tries poking him with her toe, giving a gentle nudge.

There isn't any response. Which makes her sigh, because she's not about to let someone up and die on their first day here. So Clara does what any sensible person would do: tug down his clothes a little further. Not to get a good peek but to help get some leverage so when she tugs them up they're more liable to be pulled up properly. It takes her a few minutes, but once she has his suit back on again she falls back to sit in the sand. And waits.

"You better wake up, do you hear me?"

ain't no party like a passing out party cuz a passing out party stops abruptly

[ex_broach530]

Oh, she's a clever girl. It takes a while for the suit to do its thing; it's using power at about the rate it can suck it up in order to try and heal the damage Bull has been slowly taking for the last hour or so of partial exposure to the atmosphere. But he does eventually come around, opens his eyes — instead of being halfway to asphyxiated his lungs have healed a great deal and instead he just sounds like sandpaper. To the Iron Bull, only a couple of moments have passed since he started feeling woozy, so finding himself horizontal with some lady peering down on him in a surprise.

"Shit," he says eloquently. "What happened?"