Intro Log: The Forgotten City

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He shrugs. It's not really in his nature to be optimistic about anything, and he remembers starving too well not to worry about it.]

There's more of us now. And I'm not gonna count on some kinda convenient oasis popping out of the desert.

But if that's a risk you wanna take, be my guest.

The ship is over that way.

[She gestures vaguely in the direction of the ship, having already gone for a little wander to check out her surroundings before coming back to the pod to see if there was anything left worth scavenging.]

If you'd like to take a look, I mean. Or there's a city in the opposite direction, there's likely water there.

[This place may not have always been a desert, but it's still unlikely a city wouldn't have some kind of water source.]

[A beat, while his good eye swings in the direction she indicates. It does sound promising, what she's saying.]

— Thanks.

[It's a little awkward; he's not super comfortable with her knowing how worried he really is about it. But he is genuinely grateful for the directions, and he's trying to be better at actually, like, communicating that to people. It's a work in progress.

His shoulders hunch a little. He misses having pockets to shove his hands into.]

My point still stands, though. Cigarettes are fuckin' stupid.

[Max was a very awkward child; it took her a few years to learn how to properly deal with people, so she can empathize with that little bit of awkwardness, especially considering how strange this situation is.]

Quite a lot of things we do are fuckin' stupid, it's what makes us human.

"Everyone else is as dumb as a bag of rocks, so I might as well be too"? That's a pretty low bar for humanity.

[That said, even he knows that once you hit "fundamental part of the human condition," it's pretty much a lost cause.]

Whatever. It's your stupid decision if you wanna make it, I guess.

I was thinking more along the lines that it's fun to be stupid once in a while, though you're not wrong.

[Especially the low bar for humanity part, to be honest.]

Has anyone ever told you that you're very judgmental?

[yes.

He does balk a little at having it pointed out so plainly, though. He glares somewhere off to the left instead of at her in what could almost be called abashment, but not quite.]

Yeah, and? Everybody's judging everybody for something. At least I have the guts to say it.

Or the stupidity.

[She mostly sounds amused though, or maybe like she's giving him some genuine advice.]

Not everyone takes being judged as well as I clearly do.

I get it. You think nobody's ever punched me in the face for runnin' my mouth before?

[A month ago that might have been a brag, but today it's borderline self-deprecating. He's never been good at impulse control, and truth be told it's gotten him into much hotter water than just a black eye. He likes to think he knows his limits better now, but ehhhh.

He doesn't actually seem to mind being lumped in with the "stupid humans making stupid choices", because, well, yeah.]

Well, don't worry. I don't say shit I'm not ready to back up anymore.

[most of the time.]

[A black eye is on the low end of what Max was thinking about, considering some of the people she knows. If she was playing the Sphinx right now, she'd have to pretend to care what some kid is saying about her, which might not be fun for either of them.]

And yet here you are, on a planet full of complete strangers with god knows what sort of powers, talking shit.

[She figures that "super powers" might not be that common to every universe, but it doesn't remove the fact that it's possible.]

["Super powers" in the traditional sense, maybe not, but certainly the closest his world ever comes to them. He lifts his chin, stubborn.]

And? If you're going to mess me up for talking shit about your gross habits, you're waiting an awful long time to do it. If you're not, I don't see how it's any of your damn business.

[He doesn't think she will. She seems way too collected to let something that small get under her skin. But hey, maybe he's wrong and his shit's about to get wrecked. Wouldn't be the first time.]

[She could do it just to prove a point, but that seems unnecessary and a little more cruel than she's inclined to be when there's no one watching.]

It isn't me I'm concerned about. Are you planning to trust that everyone here is a decent person?

[She sure as hell isn't, both willing to trust nor a decent person.]

That's not what I'm saying.

[Although, on an unrelated note, yes. Or he wants to, at least. The trouble is, he's in the same boat as her— he doesn't consider himself a decent person, and for a long time he coddled his own paranoia and mistrust in an attempt to protect himself. It didn't go well.

So, he wants to. Whether he's successful or not is something else. Case in point: he's not telling her any of this.

He sighs, rubbing both hands along the back of his neck. Some of his bravado falls away.]

I'm saying I got no illusions about consequences, all right? Dealing with them is my problem, not yours.

[It isn't her problem, really, but if there's one thing she can do that actually feels good, it's looking out for people, regardless of whether they want it or not.

And she's kind of fond of this little shit now.]

Perhaps I want to make it my problem.

[Well, of the directions he expected this conversation to go in, that was not one of them. Surprise registers pretty plainly on his face; "wears his emotions on his sleeve" is possibly not a sufficient enough colloquialism to describe him.]

— You're joking, right? I just called you gross not even two seconds ago. You don't even know my name.

I've been called far worse.

["You have a stupid habit" doesn't even make the top fifty, really.]

My name is Max.

[The implication is there for him to share his name, now, to get that issue out of the way.]

[He hesitates for a second; that didn't really help him understand her any better. She reminds him of his sister, a little bit, the way she steers the conversation around the way she wants, and apparently gives a shit for reasons he can't figure out.]

... Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu.

[He gives his full name almost purely by rote; it was always important that people hear his family name, for them to know who he was and what that meant. Now it barely matters— it's not like there's anyone here who would recognize it, and he wouldn't care whether they did or not anyway. Just an old habit from an old life.]

You're kinda fuckin' weird, you know that?

[She's already getting used to dropping her surname; most people here don't seem to care that much, and it's not like Max Briest means anything to anyone here. She could have picked another name entirely, but it's easy enough to go with what she knows, at least for now.]

Would it help if I said something cliche like, oh, you remind me of me when I was young?

[It's not really true, she was a lot more hesitant at.... fifteen? Sixteen? Whatever age he is. But sometimes people find that sort of bullshit reassuring.]

[More like nineteen, but you'd never know it by looking at him. He's got the sort of face that would get him carded everywhere until he's thirty; he's probably lucky to get sixteen. Don't tell him that, though.

He grimaces.]

Fuck no, that'd be even weirder. [He likes her just fine calling him out on his bullshit. Suddenly whipping out some nurturing nonsense would just be annoying.] Just, I'm not some little kid, all right? I don't need you following me around patting me on the shoulder or shit like that.

[Max seems to consider what he says, even though it doesn't really need that much considering, before she leans forward a little, elbows braced on her knees.]

You want to know the truth?

[It's a very important secret, clearly.]

[He is Unsure in the extreme. He resists the urge to lean back to accommodate her leaning forward.

He thinks there's like an 85% chance she's fucking with him, but he's not gonna say no, so:]

... Sure.

So far, everyone I've met as been wonderfully helpful and charming. I don't trust it.

[It is, at least, partly the truth. Fuyuhiko hasn't been horrible, but he's been blunt and a little bit of a shit, which seems far more honest to Max than people like Clark and Jim being kind. There's always an ulterior motive.]

Oh.

[Yeah. Yeah, that's a perspective he understands.]

You know, some people really are that dumb. They'll help someone else out even if it means fucking themselves over. [He doesn't say it like a criticism. It's almost a little morose.] Don't get me wrong, most of 'em are fuckin' liars. They're either lying to you or they're lying to themselves. We'll find out which it is if the supplies ever start getting low, I guess. [beat] I'm just saying.

[Desperation will bring out the reprehensible in anyone; he's seen that firsthand. He doesn't know any of these people. They're not his friends. He doesn't have any reason to believe any of them are more ally than enemy at this point.

But.]

But you're going to have to work with them anyway, you know that, right? We're all dead if we don't.

[He's preaching to the choir, really, but Max isn't rude enough to point that out, instead nodding at what he says.

She's not sure whether she thinks most people here are lying to her or to themselves; it doesn't really amount to the same thing in her mind, though if it comes to it, the way either path ends will be messy.]

I know, but any difference is refreshing.

[It's not that she's going to trust him more just because he's an asshole, but it makes him easier to get a read on.]

[He actually laughs, a small, incredulous puff of air. "Refreshing" is not really a word he's ever heard used to describe him before.]

Yeah? Well, you're fuckin' welcome. You ever need a break from the kumbaya bullshit, I'm your guy.

Intro Log: The Forgotten City

GOOD MORNING NEW ARRIVALS

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