☆TRACK VI: THE NEW AMERICANA

[interdimanagers]

Who: All the rescuers...and DAFT PUNK.
What: The rescuers enter Vista City for the first time.
When: January 20th, 2055
Where: The ship, the coast, and outer Vista City.
Warnings: Could basically be anything.

“Viral mess turned dreams into an empire. Self-made success now she rolls with Rockefellers. Survival of the richest, the city's ours until the fall. But we don't feel like outsiders at all.” ☆THE NEW AMERICANA Your arrival on Tera doesn’t exactly happen with a bang – though maybe that’s a good thing, given that this is supposedly a stealth operation. The ship firsts touches down somewhere in the ocean, at which point it hovers above the waves for a few hours while Shep “touches base” with some “contacts.” This is your time to get ready, to collect any gear you’ve been assigned, and to talk over initial plans with your new teammates. You’ve been given a rough outline of what to expect upon reaching actual land. You’re going to be dropped off in the ring of forested land outside of the city, at which point you are to access a hidden stash of supplies that has been planted there for you and head into the city, where a second stash of supplies will be waiting for you in the outer ring of the city. It will probably be a long walk. From the onboard supplies everyone will be given the following: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING: if your character doesn’t already speak English, they will be given some time with a crown like technological device that seems the be able to psychically teach people languages at a rapid pace. Whatever has been enabling communication so far won’t cover you once you enter the city, so it’s important that you’re prepared. How easily a person’s brain accepts this information will vary based on unseen neurological factors, and can range from perfect fluency to an uneasy second language. (On an OOC level, whether or not your character struggles with picking up English is completely up to you.) Most of this training will be done on the trip to Tera. THEIR DESIGNATED TOOLS: any items your character was designated on your application will be given to them now. They’ll have some degree of choice in what they get, but everything is limited in supply. There are manuals for everything, but how much you can be fucked to read them will vary. Also, some of them aren’t in English or anything else even remotely recognizable. COMMUNICATION DEVICES: Everybody will get a communicator, which are worn around the back of your ear and project a holographic field over your eyes when activated. The device itself must be manually switched on with your fingers, and from there on out your exact method of controlling it depends on the settings. Some of the more basic functions can be manipulated with “brain waves” (though nothing very complicated) and the rest is mostly voice or touch activated, though you can also set it up to be controlled with blinking and eye movement if you are a “pro”. Its functions include voice, voice-to-text, and a sort of janky manual text mode that you have to touch the screen to use. Video chat is not available, though it is capable of recording video from your POV to be shared manually after the fact. It can also share still images. Various channels can be set up and accessed, both private and public, much like a Teamspeak server is used in gaming. HOLO EMITTERS (LIMITED): The amount of these available are limited by “plot convenience.” Do you want your character to have to struggle with their alien appearance to get by constantly? Then imagine there wasn’t enough of them to go around and your character was unlikely or benevolent enough to not receive one. Would you rather they have access to one? Then you can have one. A holo emitter is capable of projecting a holographic image around your character and disguising their appearance, the complexity of which is entirely up to you. The major problems with it are that 1) it can’t conceal things that the hologram doesn’t actually touch – cow horns could be covered in a hologram to look like a hat, but it couldn’t make them look as if there is nothing there at all, and 2) the holograms have no mass, and so if anyone tries to touch them they’ll realize they are just light projections. Also, like most of the equipment, they only work for a few hours before running out of power. ☆STASH NUMBER ONE: THE FOREST Once Shep has made sure things are prepared and everyone has their stuff, the ship will very briefly skirt close enough to the shore for people to disembark. The beach seems totally free of witnesses, and once you’ve hit land it’s a short run to the tree line. A few random people will have map information uploaded into their communicators (Usagi, Saitama, Reborn, Pearl, and Sparks Nevada are the lucky winners) and will be put in charge of making sure everyone navigates to the first stash correctly, and then into the outskirts of the city where a meet-up point and a second stash of equipment is located. The directions are not complicated, but it’s a lot of people to shepherd around incognito. How everybody handles this is completely up to the characters. Meanwhile, Shep is piloting the ship back off into the ocean to hide it somewhere. He says he’ll meet you in the city at some point, and that he’ll keep in contact via the communicators. Stay safe, and good luck! The first stash is about a twenty minute walk into the forest, and should be found with relative ease. It is basically just a few large, plastic tubs buried beneath soil and moss, and has to be dug up like treasure. Inside of it lies the following: AMERICANA DISGUISES: Clothing, make up, the works – everything the average joe needs to pass themselves off as a resident of Vista City. Outfits are perhaps a bit more eccentric and flashy than you’re used to...or maybe a bit less, depending where you come from. Either way, it’s a specific look, and there should be enough here to accommodate new outfits for all the humanoids. If you’re a horse, you’re sort of on your own. What your character ends up with is up to you, though “space rave” is a good way to describe common aesthetics. There are also a lot of hooded coats, hats, and other articles that would be good for hiding inhuman characteristics. RATIONS: Enough food at water, tightly compact, to last everyone for a few days. It’s going to start to run out quickly, though, so the group is going to need some breadwinners sooner rather than later. A WELCOME CARD: A welcome message from these two with their selfie printed on the front. Written inside are the following messages: “Glad you could make It! ♥ –Gold” and ”Welcome to hell. ☺ -Silver”. They are both in the same handwriting. From there, the maps only lead further into the city. ☆STASH NUMBER TWO: CITY BOUND You'll quickly notice that Vista City comes with multiple levels - the ground level, that actually touches the earth, and then a second level of streets and walkways that occurs halfway up the mountainous buildings. Cars streak down both sets of speedways, and the signs of life scatter every inch of the towers surrounding you. At the same time, though, a city of this magnitude leaves a lot of nooks and crannies left frequently unseen - something you'll definitely have to take advantage of. In the outer ring of the city the population is less dense than it gets towards the center, so at the least it gives you the opportunity to get your bearings. You'll find that there is no shortage of people stalking around in the darkness, even as the sun sets and night totally takes hold. A lot of them are dressed pretty funny, too, and any insecurities you had about looking ridiculous can tentatively be put aside. The costumes you were left do allow you to blend in about as well as you could hope. If the navigation team holds true, you'll be able to make it to the next stash in good time. You've been advised to avoid talking to locals as much as possible, at least until you've figured things out better. There is a notable absence of homeless people on the streets, which could mean any number of things. The place you end up at is, unsurprisingly, a warehouse. One of the few entirely flat buildings in the cityscape, the maps will lead into the center of the building. You try the door. It opens. When you go inside, you aren't alone. The floor is littered in blankets and what passes for foam mattresses. Waiting with them is the silver helmeted figure from the welcome card earlier. They usher you in hastily and ask you some cursory questions about whether you've been followed. When they seem satisfied, they'll tell you that you can spend the night here. "This is the first and last time you can stay here," they'll say, gesturing around. "This was Gold and I's launchpad for the last little while, and we're junking it after this. I recommend you follow our example. Don't stay any one place too long, and don't travel in one huge group. If you do that, one bad night will pin you all down." Silver will pass out what is apparently enough fake IDs for everyone in the ship - complete with each individual's image (or a human approximation) and a made up name. It's enough info to get a job with, they'll explain, if you can manage it. Avoid pushing the forgery's limits, though, if you can. They made them themselves so they expect they are excellent quality, but you can never be too careful. "...Most importantly," they'll finish. "Don't go looking for the prisoners right now, as much as you might want to. If you fuck that up, you'll fuck this up for everyone - and I'll tell you right now, other people have already invested a lot more blood and tears into this than you have. Respect that." Silver will stay for a few more hours, and then Gold will appear to take over, bringing snacks and hot chocolate with them. Get a good sleep, you'll need it. “We are the new Americana. High on legal marijuana, Raised on Biggie and Nirvana. We are the new Americana.”

Comments

[lightthedarkness]

"Well, then when I get home I'll make sure I get a chance." Ami and Michiru were admittedly the ones most connected with water, and Michiru especially the ocean, but she still loved her precious star and everything about it. She should go out on a boat, she should go to other countries and explore them, knowing that by experiencing the people and culture there, she'd have a better understanding of them.

She closed her eyes as she thought back to her time on the moon.

"It is rather criminal," she admitted. "Especially with how beautiful it makes Earth." She tried not to get into too much detail, not wanting to think it odd her vision of earth was so distant. "I've never been on the water in a ship or anything, but I love the smell of it and the way it carries on the wind. Where I'm from, Japan is really dependent on the ocean, you know?" she opened her eyes and smiled.

"We're a big island but it's really a part of our lives," she smiled as she heard him talk. "Is that what made you want to be a pirate?"

[dishonestlyhonest]

"Aye, you do that. It might be fun even."

Jack had seen the world, though he knew the waters of the Caribbean like no other. He had been to ports that other men might have heard, have met some strange and exciting people (and have dodged their idea of justice on more than one occasion), and generally got along knowing that as vast as the world was, it was still full of people who weren't that much different from him.

Well, save the fact that he believed that all lost treasure should belong to him that is.

"Yes?" He thought about it for a moment and then laughed. "Actually, to tell the truth, I was born one. Me mom was a pirate and she gave birth on a pirate ship in the middle of a typhoon. I learnt me letters from the Code of the Brethren, which is our laws and guidelines to living afore the mast. I swam with mermaids, and danced with ghosts, and even spat ol' Davy Jones in the eye. I may have tried to be an honest merchant sailor, but the life, the sea, she called me back and there I stayed."

[lightthedarkness]

"Oh wow!" she didn't know pirates could just be born and raised to be pirates, she always thought that they chose that life-style when they got older. Well, she supposed it made sense, she just didn't know.

However, he said something that made her pause and wonder, she tilted her head, pressing a finger to her chin in thought.

"Why couldn't you be an honest merchant sailor? Don't they get to be on the sea too? Or was it something else?"

[dishonestlyhonest]

Well, they could just not become pirates, but often times those children born to people who mainly at Shipwreck Island tend to usually stay pirates. He had heard of a few who went and became honest sailors or even gave up the sea all together, but it wasn't common. There were many things that he could say concerning that bit of pirate history but he wasn't going to. For one, he didn't think that it was that important, and for another, it was just like being part of a country.

You can be born to the country or you can later enter the country and claim citizenship.

"I had a disagreement with the East Asia Trading Company about what should be considered cargo and what should be considered people."

She was a gentle soul. Any one with eyes that could see could see that part of her. She was a gentle soul that shined brightly and seemed so sweet and pure and he really did not want to be the cause to stain those particular nightmares across that smile. Yet Jack could not hide the venom in his voice as he spoke, remembering the one single time he had tried to do what he was told as an honest merchant sailor. The price of setting the people free - the lost of his means to ever sail those waters again to that hidden island, the thirteen years of freedom to end with a hundred years on board The Flying Dutchman, the 'P' brand forever on his skin - was well worth it.

[lightthedarkness]

Whether Jack wanted to put nightmares across her soul, she had them. Truly, she had faced great trials and tribulations. It takes her only a moment to realize what Jack meant. Her eyes widened and she pressed a hand to her mouth.

To think that they couldn't let him- all because- she swallowed and then pressed her lips together. She reached out and grabbed his hand. His kissed with the Caribbean sun, hers the pale moonlit, it was a stark contrast.

"You are a good person, Captain Jack," he said honestly as she looked up at him and made sure she was looking into his eyes. "You are absolutely correct, people aren't cargo, or anything like that. I bet that's why they asked you to come."

[dishonestlyhonest]

So had he, but in his humble opinion there was nothing worse then the slave trade. Nothing. Not even vengeful demons, wannabe gods, the full fury of the sea goddess, Davy Jones' squid face, nothing. All that stuff was of the unnatural and the divine - or not-so divine - and not caused by humans who decided that other humans were less then them.

He was an ablebodied seaman before the mast. Every thing that he did, he did with honest sweat and the work of his own hands. He refused to make his wealth and name by breaking other people to do that work for him. Though he was a pirate and many would claim that pirates were prone to steal what others had worked for, but that was besides the point.

The point was that people were not cargo.

Jack looked down at their hands. He looked at Usagi's face, meeting her eyes and smiled. It was the kind of smile that charmed many young women (and a few men not that he thought about that too much) but he was a gentleman. He just didn't steal kisses from ladies because they were being earnest and forthright. He does however decide that a kiss on her hand was polite enough for first meetings.

"It might be, it might be," he said, not about to disagree with her reasoning. After all, he did hear something about people being turned into musical slaves in the middle of drinks.