Jason Lee Scott (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingtyrantranger) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionmissions2016-11-11 12:53 am
kingtyrantranger) wrote in legionmissions2016-11-11 12:53 am
Camping: Part II!
Jason didn't exactly sell the new world well. Stepping through the Threshold Gate, the Legionnaires find themselves on a landing platform overseeing their new vacation hotspot. The first thing they'll notice is that everything feels slightly heavier. Nothing dramatic, but if they were carrying a hundred pounds of stuff, now they've got twenty more pounds weighing them down. The planet, Futuro's Folly, is as advertised, hollowed out with the entire ecosystem on the inside. Outside, if they'd bothered to look, there was only a barren, crater-pocked surface of a dwarf planet about half the size of Pluto. Inside, however...
While they're standing in the midst of what was surely once a base of some kind, the criminal resort according to Jason, it doesn't stretch out very far. Just about three quarters of a mile out, the 'settled' area ends, taken over by a vibrant jungle of dense violet and orange foliage, with gigantic red and blue mushrooms filling just as much area as the trees. More, in some cases, as some of them seem to be miles high off in the distance, just when the earth seems to start curving in on itself. An orange sphere that seems to be the size of a silver dollar hangs in space above their heads, with something rotating in the core of it. If anyone were to watch it, the orb flickers rapidly as rings blur around the sphere itself. After about 8 in the evening, the fields that the rings generated would turn slightly opaque, bringing darkness to the entire planet at once.
The former crime resort itself isn't exactly in the best of shape. By 31st century standards, the technology is centuries out of date and finding people who are capable of repairing it without ruining the 'historical significance' is increasingly difficult. There are six main buildings other than the small spaceport they're standing in:
When the Legionnaires approach the border, heading to the wilderness, there's a small, almost decorative-looking wall. Even those with normal hearing will pick up on a ringing tone as they get closer to it, like a bad case of tinnitus. Walking through the gates is almost like walking through an actual barrier, but once they've done that, the noise fades the further they get from it. The sonic barrier covers the resort in a dome, meaning that they'd run into the same thing if they flew straight up.
Immediately outside the wall, the jungle starts abruptly. And, compared to the relative silence of the resort, the noise of life is practically deafening. Bugs clicking, birds calling, animals screaming at one another, it all slowly fades in the deeper they get. There are trails through the jungle, but they're slowly becoming overgrown as the resort's popularity slowly fades.
As they go deeper, it's not hard to find the first actual animals. Totally unused to humanoid life, they show more curiosity than fear. Small, chicken-sized dinosaurs roam in packs, sloth-like creatures hang from the ceilings, and there are trees that have been knocked over, and recently, in some huge brawl between titans. Every now and then, a small batch of overgrown buildings can be found, mechanical parts pushed out of them by growing vines, or torn out by wild animals. Slow, crackling noises that sound like drawn out thunder echo in the distance as something snaps trees, some of them several dozen feet in diameter, like twigs in the pursuit of prey.
The only thing that Jason's marked on the maps, beyond the default markers that the resort gives out, is a lake about five miles outside of the resort. Set in a clearing, it's over a mile long and several hundred feet deep, with a cave system connected to it underneath. The data regarding the caves is corrupt, the maps refuse to include them. A river feeds into the lake by a waterfall, and a number of small creeks seem to spring up near it. It's not uninhabited, there are several fish in there. And, possibly, something living in the caverns underneath. It's rare, but someone might see animals drinking from time to time, from the small dinosaur packs to titanic mammoths... with weapon mounts that alarmingly track anything that move too close, too fast.
There's a lot to work with, and Jason's rented the place for several days. Hopefully, everyone will find what they need to relax and recover from their recent traumatic events. Or just socialize and meet new people.
[[Okay, so there's some generic activity headers up right now. Feel free to pick one up and run with activities running in any of those areas. For those of you who wanted action, I'll have a separate top-level for that. However, I won't be running any of that chaos, so feel free to take it in the direction you'd like.
If you want to do anything, anything at all, and it doesn't fit into one of my toplevels, feel free to make a new thread entirely! Go wild with it, y'know?]]
While they're standing in the midst of what was surely once a base of some kind, the criminal resort according to Jason, it doesn't stretch out very far. Just about three quarters of a mile out, the 'settled' area ends, taken over by a vibrant jungle of dense violet and orange foliage, with gigantic red and blue mushrooms filling just as much area as the trees. More, in some cases, as some of them seem to be miles high off in the distance, just when the earth seems to start curving in on itself. An orange sphere that seems to be the size of a silver dollar hangs in space above their heads, with something rotating in the core of it. If anyone were to watch it, the orb flickers rapidly as rings blur around the sphere itself. After about 8 in the evening, the fields that the rings generated would turn slightly opaque, bringing darkness to the entire planet at once.
The former crime resort itself isn't exactly in the best of shape. By 31st century standards, the technology is centuries out of date and finding people who are capable of repairing it without ruining the 'historical significance' is increasingly difficult. There are six main buildings other than the small spaceport they're standing in:
- The main building. The top three floors were once dedicated to administration, communications, and security. The bottom two floors are dedicated recreational areas, with infonet hookups (reception's not a problem when you can turn your entire planet into a signal amplifier), a variety of holographic games, and a bar/lounge area with some futuristic gambling machines tucked into a corner. Jason has turned on the parental controls, however.
- Behind the main building is the storage center. There's a vast array of vehicles, furniture, and machinery that can be asked for, and it's all stored underground. Simply type in a command and the robots underground will shove the requested item into the gravity tubes, shooting them up to the customer's level.
- The food court has the option to make your own food as well as an outdated and slightly buggy robo-chef that can make a variety of meals. Meat is on the menu, but if anyone asks for meals that require it, they'll have a long wait. The larder hasn't been stocked in centuries. However, it does have coffee. STRONG coffee. And just about any vegan meal you could ask for. It's open air, but can be covered with a dome at the push of a button. The dome has controllable transparency and can be programmed to display any number of things as a ceiling.
- Standing roughly three hundred yards apart are two convertible athletic fields, each about a half-mile in distance. In the old days, they'd hold races or gladiatorial bouts in them. They'll form just about any field needed, however, from obstacle courses and splatterball to golf to the now-illegal slaughterball rings or laser tag arenas. However, most of the gear needed to play is in the storage center.
- Finally, there's a single public bath house. Rather than the sonic showers of Legion World, these use real water. The bath house holds rooms for spas, saunas, massages, public bathing, and showers. Jason has assured everyone, however, that there are private bathing arrangements. He neglects to mention the cameras that subtly fill the rooms, though they are now sporting brand new Legion of Super-Hero stickers over the lenses to keep everyone's privacy intact.
- About a quarter a mile off in the distance, there's about fifty luxhabs. Small cabins built for two people at most, with private bath rooms, small kitchenettes with freshly stocked food, personal computers, and a communications system to contact other luxhabs or make orders from the main house and kitchen. Food can be delivered by small drones if it's called for. The beds are made of a oxygenated memory gel, capable of taking nearly any consistency and shape requested, from a pudding to rows of gel-blades. Climate controls, down to programming the inhabitant's favored atmosphere or filling the luxhab with water, are in full effect. The outsides are programmable ferroliquids, so the guest can customize their vacation home's exterior, even going as far as to add porches.
When the Legionnaires approach the border, heading to the wilderness, there's a small, almost decorative-looking wall. Even those with normal hearing will pick up on a ringing tone as they get closer to it, like a bad case of tinnitus. Walking through the gates is almost like walking through an actual barrier, but once they've done that, the noise fades the further they get from it. The sonic barrier covers the resort in a dome, meaning that they'd run into the same thing if they flew straight up.
Immediately outside the wall, the jungle starts abruptly. And, compared to the relative silence of the resort, the noise of life is practically deafening. Bugs clicking, birds calling, animals screaming at one another, it all slowly fades in the deeper they get. There are trails through the jungle, but they're slowly becoming overgrown as the resort's popularity slowly fades.
As they go deeper, it's not hard to find the first actual animals. Totally unused to humanoid life, they show more curiosity than fear. Small, chicken-sized dinosaurs roam in packs, sloth-like creatures hang from the ceilings, and there are trees that have been knocked over, and recently, in some huge brawl between titans. Every now and then, a small batch of overgrown buildings can be found, mechanical parts pushed out of them by growing vines, or torn out by wild animals. Slow, crackling noises that sound like drawn out thunder echo in the distance as something snaps trees, some of them several dozen feet in diameter, like twigs in the pursuit of prey.
The only thing that Jason's marked on the maps, beyond the default markers that the resort gives out, is a lake about five miles outside of the resort. Set in a clearing, it's over a mile long and several hundred feet deep, with a cave system connected to it underneath. The data regarding the caves is corrupt, the maps refuse to include them. A river feeds into the lake by a waterfall, and a number of small creeks seem to spring up near it. It's not uninhabited, there are several fish in there. And, possibly, something living in the caverns underneath. It's rare, but someone might see animals drinking from time to time, from the small dinosaur packs to titanic mammoths... with weapon mounts that alarmingly track anything that move too close, too fast.
There's a lot to work with, and Jason's rented the place for several days. Hopefully, everyone will find what they need to relax and recover from their recent traumatic events. Or just socialize and meet new people.
[[Okay, so there's some generic activity headers up right now. Feel free to pick one up and run with activities running in any of those areas. For those of you who wanted action, I'll have a separate top-level for that. However, I won't be running any of that chaos, so feel free to take it in the direction you'd like.
If you want to do anything, anything at all, and it doesn't fit into one of my toplevels, feel free to make a new thread entirely! Go wild with it, y'know?]]
no subject
no subject
Red and grey paper flew from Kubo's pack, folding itself into a small red boy, and two identical, broad-hatted women. Dark green paper swirled around them like menacing smoke. They crowded the paper boy in with deliberate, threatening movements, until a golden sheet of paper snapped between them and the child, became a figure of a woman, and exploded in a paper flurry that dispersed the grey sisters and the green paper "smoke."
"Our hero, chased from his village by the terrible daughters of the Moon King, his mother gone after using the last of her power to save him from her evil sisters, was no longer alone." Kubo announced, as the fleeing paper boy found his feet, looked around at his solitude, and made a few tentative, searching circles. "His quest for the Sword Unbreakable began with the help of his new friends -"
The white paper launched to the foreground of Kubo's playing stage and folded itself into a monkey again, its movements animal and quick through a complex martial arts sequence that defied the realm of what should have been actually possible to depict with origami.
"Monkey! His mother's last magic brought her to life to protect and guide him, no matter how hard, no matter the cost!"
The dark green paper flew back into the exaggerated shape of a four-armed Samurai, fitted an impossibly intricate paper arrow to the string of a paper bow, pulled and aimed, four more tiny arrows held in his lower set of arms.
"And Beetle - once a mighty samurai, now a cursed half-man, half-bug, wandering the Farlands with no memory and no quest - until our hero brought a quest to him!"
The twang of his rolled-paper bowstring could almost be heard as he fired one, two, three, four, five arrows, and each paper arrow split the one before it down the middle.
"Together they journeyed through sleet and cold, through sun and cloud, out of the cold, distant Farlands and down, down the mountains, to the very gates of the Temple of Bones -"
Kubo's plucking took on an ominous tone as he described their approach to the Temple of Bones. The last time he'd told this story, he'd emphasized the action of the battle, but now, he took his time setting the scene - leading his audience down the eerie bone-strewn jade path, into the wide temple where an enormous skeleton hand held a single sword beneath a roof so tall it could not be seen in the darkness.
The foolishly enthusiastic Beetle tripped the very obvious trap by pulling the sword from the open hand of bones, bringing to life an enormous, jagged-toothed paper skeleton that loomed behind Kubo with a head full of paper swords. The fight for their lives commenced as the Gashadokuro snatched the paper figures in turn, raising them to its broken teeth to bite their heads off, foiled each time by interference from whoever was free of the skeleton's two hands at the time. Kubo wove in moments of suspense and terror and glory for each fighter - Beetle's arrow pinning the falling Kubo to the wall through the neck of his robes, Monkey's relentless strength breaking free from the skeleton fingers to smash sword after sword in search of the Unbreakable one - until, when Kubo's friends were moments away from literally losing their heads, the tiny paper boy plucked the Sword Unbreakable from the demon's skull, and sent it crashing down to the floor of the Temple of Bones.
He could have focused entirely on the suspense and the fear of the battle, but he found time to fit in emphasis on Monkey's determination and skill, and all of Beetle's silly jokes. He'd cared deeply for his companions on that quest, that was clear in the telling.
"But their next great journey was about to begin," he said, when he'd left the trio on the beach of the Long Lake, "For now their quest would lead them on - in search of the Breastplate Impenetrable. For all stories have an end -" he finished, with the way he'd become accustomed, in these last years, to ending his tales - "but there is no end of stories."
The tale was not by any means a traditional campfire story, but only because Kubo had no frame of reference for what scary stories campfires called for.
no subject
So, sure, it wasn't all that scary but it was a very well told story and that could make all the difference really. When Kubo finished Jason applauded, because how could you not? "That was really good, Kubo. The fire light made it even more intense I think," he added. He doubted even Apollo could deny this kid's skill with an instrument and a story.
no subject
"So, how about you?" he asked of Jason. "Do any stories from your adventures work even better with a fire?"
no subject
It didn't really have fire in the story, but any tale involving two children of Hades and near death experiences had to be good right? Jason offers Kubo an apologetic smile, "But, I'm not a story teller like you are...so bear with me here." He just hopes he makes it sound even a fraction as interesting as Kubo's had been.
"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.
Seven demigod heroes, from Greek and Roman backgrounds, had been chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy. It had taken them half-way around the world and along the way two of their number had fallen into the bowels of Tartarus. Their last words before they fell were for the group to meet at the Doors of Death in hopes of fulfilling the prophecy and hopefully rescuing them from the worst nightmare imaginable. The others knew it would not be easy, but they had no choice. They headed for the next part of their journey.
After many trials for another time, the heroes had reached the doors of death, located in the Necromanteion, an ancient Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades and Persephone. Hades and Persephone are rulers of the underworld and in order to enter their temple you must drink a toxic potion. However, to avoid actually dying, the heroes had consumed barley cakes which would help absorb the toxins and keep them from feeling the effects. As they descend into the temple they are faced with monsters and numerous Earthquakes to prevent them from getting to the heart of the temple and rescuing their friends.
One of the heroes, a son of Hades, uses a magical scepter to summon ghostly Roman soldiers to aid them in their battle as the monsters have grown too numerous to fight with just their small numbers. Normally, the Romans would answer to the command of a Praetor, a title held by one of the heroes, a son of Jupiter. However, during one of their stops the son of Jupiter had realized that his home was no longer among the Roman demigods he had grown up with -- he had started to feel like his place was among the Greeks instead. Sensing this change in him, the Roman ghosts would not obey him despite his title.
It was looking grim and the son of Jupiter knew that this was the last part of his old life he must set aside in order to move forward and save his friends. Before the monsters could destroy them all, the hero resigned his title and bestowed it upon one of the other Roman demigods present -- a hero who had proven himself in battle time and again and was a true Roman Legionnaire. This hero was a son of Mars and he was able to immediately turn the tied by commanding the undead soldiers to defeat the monsters. Once their path was clear, they were able to press forward and find the Doors of Death."