IC INTRO - MARCH

[phantasmods]

Sometime after the showdown, those with communication devices from the station will all get a collective message -

Okay, everyone come back! We might need to do a final sweep or two of the beach, but it looks like most of the Fissure is stabilized! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Everybody go ahead and come back up - and bring anyone else you found with you! I know I saw a couple new faces on the drone cameras. (*･▽･*)

Also, if you get a chance, check out the new door leading out of the residential area! It's a surprise for all your hard work. (´◕ ◡ ◕｀) There's also food in the kitchens if you're hungry and want something warm!

With that in mind, grab your new friends and go ahead and come on back.

STATION EXTERIOR

Upon returning to the station, the first thing most will probably see is Up, standing on the rooftop to congratulate everyone on a mission accomplished and also handle any questions the new arrivals might have that haven't gotten answered yet. They stand tall and graceful beside the ramp... Most of the time. Occasionally, one might catch them trying not to fidget with the belt that now hangs fashionably askew on their hips.

For those who want to seek out the surprise Charm promised, there's a second ramp leading down off the far side of the roof, as well as the door he mentioned on the network. Both lead to the shiny new viewing deck, with its mismatched furniture, half-roof, and view of the beach.

Charm himself is here, long android limbs spread across one of the lounge chairs as he fiddles with one of the wind element crystals in his lap. It occasionally reacts and blasts the tails of his red scarf in random directions, but he doesn't seem to mind.

STATION INTERIOR

Those adventuring to the kitchens will find that there are four large pots arranged in a line beneath a set of heat lamps on the stove. Three contain curry - labeled "mild," "spicy," and "the fire of a thousand suns" in neat handwriting - while the last contains plain rice. An assortment of mismatched bowls and utensils sit on the counter nearest the pots. (Welcome to Keystone Station, you'll have an easier time finding matching cutlery at your local Goodwill.)

In the common room, meanwhile, the boxes of clothes and trading post are set up again. Those who investigate something fluffy in a particular box on the end of the couch may discover a girl and friend taking a nap...

Comments

TRADING POST

[phantasmods]

[Got shit to trade? Dump it here!]

[photoshooter]

[Yeah, Prompto found a ton of weird stuff. Here's what he doesn't know what to do with:

-> A three-pack of sentai figures from a series you're not familiar with.
-> A box of instant gelatin, flavor... moss.
-> A half-tray full of primroses in assorted colors. Seven in all.]

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Someone could make better use of this:

-> A bulletproof vest, a bit on the larger size. The shoulder is a little ripped, but otherwise it's in good condition.
-> A package of red candies that claim to be palatable to vampires. They're individually wrapped and smell like fresh blood. You should maybe not eat them. (note: the package is open and one is missing. he had to try it, okay?)]

[matchmakes]

[Robin's just going to be dropping off a t-shirt (with NSFW text, beware!) and then making himself scarce.

He doesn't want it. Someone please take it.]

UP

[personalityquarks]

[Everyone came back okay, right? Let's do a headcount and - well there are sure a couple more of you.

Awkward boss android wave.]

[shiritai]

[ There sure are! And over to Up one of them comes, with purpose in her stride and a remarkably heavy looking typewriter travel case in her hands.

... it's sort of hard to tell if this is an implied threat or not?! ]

Excuse me.

Are you responsible for bringing us here?

[foolishjustice]

[A few more...but one missing. Goro's looking around the group nervously, before...practically shouting at Up. Sorry, he's still a little mostly deaf.]

I HAVEN'T SEEN AKIRA SINCE WE LEFT.

[thoroff]

[So this one of the 'androids' that Izunia spoke of? How fascinating! And indeed a little eerie, though less for the height, as he suggested, and more the overall not-quite-humanity of them; while she has known her fair share of non-humans, none of them hit the uncanny valley in the same way. Wren finds herself simply staring at Up for a moment before she remembers, this is a person, staring is rude, and approaches them.]

Hello.

CHARM

[personalityquarks]

[Down on that shiny new viewing deck, just kinda chilling with a batch of crystals, here's this one.]

[newlawtolight]

Here comes a very well-put together woman, looking around at the viewing deck.]

Ah. You must be one of the clockworks?

[superstylishsquid]

[Hey, Charm. There's a demon coming out to check out the deck and giving that crystal you're holding an irritated look.]

Are those things common around here?

[byanyother_name]

It looks so normal now. A rather sharp departure.

[Not that Kurama is sorry to see the blood red water go in the least.]

JOSEPHINE

[trashcats]

[Is that... a possum sleeping in this box of clothes?

Well, judging by the bright orange collar around her neck, she seems to belong to someone...]

[nightcure]

[ what the hell is this thing ]

... Uh. Hey there?

[photoshooter]

Inside the Station

[Probably no one who's interacted with Prompto at all over the past month has ever seen the kid so happy. He's never far from some guy with black hair, but he does make a stop by the curry pots, because damn, a guy's got to eat.

He sniffs at each pot before loading up a bowl half with rice and half with the curry labeled 'spicy.' Or at least, mostly. Curiosity gets the better of him, and he spoons a small amount of the 'fire of a thousand suns' curry towards the side of his bowl. He takes a bite.]

--MMN!

[Bright red, teary-eyed, one hand clapped over his mouth, Prompto drops to his knees and experiences Regret.]

[goafk]

[ oh hey, it's that guy who tried to shoot her! you bet hana's gonna give him some shit. poor boy can't seem to handle the curry, and hana is pretty confident she can.

she walks up to him, hands crossed over her chest. ]

Aww! Can't handle a little heat?

[ well...okay. she'll prepare a little cup of water for him, at least? ] G-G!

[nightcure]

[ So here's a new face! He's never too far from a freckly blond, but it's not impossible to get him to talk to whoever comes over. Right now he's just taking things in--you know, since he never thought he'd get out of the crystal alive.

He's also kind of tired, but the boss battle put him in a weirdly good mood. Mostly, he's worked off some energy, so he's just. Very chill. And right now, he's ridiculously hungry. So Noct goes on over to those pots of curry, and picks a mild one. He takes a bite of it, and immediately, his nose wrinkles. ]

Ugh. Vegetables.

[ rude.

Aside from that, he's mostly just milling around. Come say hi!! ]

[goafk]

Ugh, tell me about it.

[ guess who else doesn't appreciate veggies? that's right, hana doesn't. she eats them to stay in shape but if she could? she'd just eat junk food all day.

she's assuming he's talking about raw veggies, though, but nope! it's just...the ones in the curry. huh. ]

...Well, if they're mixed in with the curry, then they can't be that bad!

[riderofcharlemagne]

[After coming back to the station, and having introduced himself to the new faces, Astolfo can be found on the viewing platform. To those who may notice, he's carrying a sword he didn't have before, as well as looking uncharacteristically troubled over it.

As he makes his way back into the station interior, anyone with grievances over their earaches from the incident on the beach can approach him with their complaints, comments, or suggestions.]

[foolishjustice]

[Grievances, huh? Yeah, Goro has some of those. He's going to catch Astolfo on his way back inside and give him a smack over the head. He...might maybe be speaking a bit louder than normal. Or significantly louder than normal. Maybe he's still having trouble hearing.]

Next time, look before you deafen everything in an area.

[dubiouslychthonic]

[In the immediate aftermath of the mission, Jetshard stops by her room to drop off the stuff she found in the fissure and throw on a fresh change of clothes, and then heads up to the med bay. She can be found there for a few hours, if anyone needs some help after pulling a stupid stunt fighting the giant seagull. God knows, people pulled some stupid stunts fighting that seagull.

After a few hours, though, she decides that probably most people with the sense to seek out medical attention have already (and that Strange is more than capable of handling any stragglers) and disappears back into her room for the rest of the day.

The next evening, she stops by the kitchen and... spends a long moment contemplating the curry, or at least what's left of it after everyone else has had all day to get at it. Mostly she's kept to her own cooking over the past month, but she's pretty sure there's no major biochemical incompatibilities that should prevent her from safely digesting most human dishes. In the end, the lure of pre-made hot food overcomes her caution, and she takes a modest portion of rice and the mild curry.]

[photoshooter]

Jetshard! Good mornevening!

[Prompto bounds over like an excitable young barkbeast, missing only cute pawpads and a furiously wagging tail.]

You'll never guess what I found on the mission the other day!

Kitchen

[newlawtolight]

I.

[Yeah, ya'll are such silly humans. Except for the ones who aren't. But still, they are very human-like.

She's in the kitchen, now, getting a nice big bowl of the "the fire of a thousand suns" curry. On top of that, she seems to be getting making hot sauce to put on her food after taking a quick bite of it. Said hot sauce looks...really, really hot. As in, its basically ghost pepper-levels of hot, even though the curry is already that hot.]

If you wish to help, of course you can!


II

[The hot sauce is finally done. It's probably off the Scoville scale at this point.

It will serve her purpose. Slowly, she puts the sauce on, murmuring something beneath her breath. Both are in some kind of pattern, and soon enough the pattern starts to glow upon completion. Smokes, even. She looks quite satisfied with it as she watched the rice start combusting into tiny little flames along with the hot sauce.]

Perfect, perfect! Would you like to try some of this before I have it?

...

Don't look directly at the sauce, dear. Just a precaution.

[riderofcharlemagne]

[He made the mistake of looking directly at the sauce.

He knows some of you are monsters when it comes to spice, but this is something else]

[founderinglight]

[If you're quick on the uptake, you can catch Izunia hanging around the kitchens (serving himself some of the thousand suns curry) or the common room, but after things settle down, he's mostly to be found out on the viewing deck.

Your local grandpa comes with one of two settings;

-> Eating his curry in one of the lounge chairs, watching the sunset as is his usual habit.
-> Napping in said chair, a blanket pulled over him from shoulders to ankles, completely unconcerned by the breeze or potential for people messing with him.

It's not until sometime around midnight that he rises again, blinking away sleep. However, if there are nighttime stragglers about, this seems like the ideal time to say hello or introduce himself.]

[newlawtolight]

[There is a young woman - who Izunia may or may not have seen beforehand during the battle - who is on the viewing deck, watching the moon rise. She is, on occasion, looking over at Izunia as she continues her moon watching.

When he finally wakes, she smiles.]

Awake, now?

[A brilliant soul, bordering on coruscating. A...strange looking one, but quality souls are quality souls.]

[foolishjustice]

[Fighting a giant bird monster is fun and all, but it's also tiring and works up an appetite. After talking to Up about Akira's disappearance, Goro - now wingless and in his normal outfit - he's making a beeline for where he smells food in the kitchen. Seeing curry just reminds him of his worry for Akira, but...Up said there was a chance he'd be back, right?

After getting his hands on a bowl with a lid, he spoons some rice and 'fire of a thousand suns' curry into it, holding it a bit at a distance as he does so, before tucking the prepared dish into his hammerspace bag. After that, he gets his own food from the mild pot, along with a slice of strawberry cake from his bag and a bottle of Dr. Salt NEO from...nowhere.

After dinner, he can be found in the common area messing around with a tablet, or the magic lab looking for something to read. The latter, some might have noted, is a common place to find him when he isn't socializing.]

Common area

[rhododendronhoney]

Hey, I heard you yelling at Astolfo about him deafening your ears? [Cori approaches from the front so that he'll see her coming, hopefully.]

[byanyother_name]

[After how busy the past few days, let alone the past hour, have been, Kurama is certainly not about to complain about having food already waiting. So like nearly everyone else, his first stop is the kitchen where he mixes a bit from the first two pots and takes some rice before settling somewhere to eat with a can of 1Up he pulls from the fridge. He needs a little extra life.

Later on, he's most likely found in the common area staying near Goro while he sifts through a collection of labelled glass vials with far too intense interest, or out on the new viewing deck with a distant expression.]

[bulletnews]

[Aya is sticking to just "spicy", since even from far away the heat of one sun was a bit too much, thank you.]

This is surprisingly good for beings that presumably don't need to eat, isn't it?

bc i don't feel like making an entirely new post after all oidsjfhkljh

[beguiledcard]

[ It's some time (a day or two) after everyone - who could make it back - has made it back, Akira will be finding Goro and Kurama. What the ever living hell even happened... Did he really just lose literal days? Guess he shouldn't be surprised, but still. It's annoying and a bit... unnerving.

Anyway, after the reunion, he can be found hanging around on the rooftop, and then hanging out in the latest addition to the station. He'll be fidgeting with his phone or writing in some book.

Then, he can be found in the kitchen. There is a plate of eight burgers that are covered in nacho cheese... Only just kidding. Make it seven, since he's going to start eating one of them not long after they are put onto that plate. If somebody walks in, he'll point to the plate. ]

Want one?

[matchmakes]

[It's one of the newcomers that's come in and he's going to just stare at the burgers like he doesn't know what they are.

(Well, because he doesn't, but that's besides the point.)

He glances from the plate to Akira, then raises an eyebrow.]

Err, what are those?

[matchmakes]

[It actually takes a bit for Robin to actually settle down into one spot in the station, spending a long while busying himself with acquainting himself with the surroundings.

Eventually, however, he can be found contemplating the curry. He's never seen curry before, but whatever it is, it certainly smells good--the rice he only recognizes because of conversations he's had in the past with another member of the army back home. He's helped himself to some of that at least...

Later on, however, he's in the common area with a very nice-looking chess set. It's mostly set up except for one of the black knights, plus there's three extra white pawns set off to one side. The missing black knight is actually in Robin's hand, the tactician turning the dragon(?)-headed piece over in his hand.]

Chess

[photoshooter]

Oh! Hey, I know this game. ...Never any good at it, though.

[Prompto leans over to take a look, then leans back again, light and easy.]

Hi! You... huh. [His head tilts.] Sorry, you look familiar. Like, your clothes and stuff. Have we met already?

[thoroff]

[Here's another new face! Who looks quite a lot like one of the other new faces. As soon as she's got a certain matter settled with the androids, Wren takes to exploring the station, and the fact that she's from a pretty low-tech world is clearly evident by the way she examines many of the station's features with unmasked fascination. She settles down for a short while in the common area, where she can be found toying with an unlabeled CD. ...She has no idea what it is.

As night begins to fall, she drops into one of the seats on the viewing deck, and gazes out in contemplative silence. Unlike one particular other inhabitant of the area, she remains very much awake, thoughts of home and her friends running a mile a minute. Still, it's not until the biting chill of the night well and truly sets in that she rouses from her reverie and retires to her room.

There are also times when she's not on the station at all; instead she can be found at the Keystone Lighthouse, tending to her pegasus.]

lighthouse

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Astolfo can't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy at the fact this person has their flying mount and he doesn't, but he's far from the kind of person to let that become anything more than a fleeting feeling- besides, his excitement over it far, far outweighs that.]

So beautiful-! Can I pet it?