revivalproject | [Event] Of Stowaways and Strife

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[Event] Of Stowaways and Strife

WHO: The Wanderer, The Agrii Leaders, The Ship AI, You!
WHERE: All Across The Agrii Ship
WHAT: A Mingle Log For Developing Situations
WHEN: January 15th Onward
WARNINGS: Violence, Bloodshed
NOTES: Please see the New Tick Part Two FAQ

Day 1 – January 15th – The Stowaway Revealed | Open to up to three He Rows in one thread with NPC involvement

Those who happen to be present in the Shuttle Bay of the Agrii Ship early in the afternoon would be the first to be treated to an unexpected sight. Perhaps even a familiar one if they were present at the correct time back in September. Which means it begins with a large bundle of what looks like twigs and sticks curled up not unlike a tumbleweed rolling out of a He Row ship shuttle and across the large bay. Thankfully its timing is not one where a large number of Agrii are present in the Shuttle Bay. There are just enough to look curiously at the image presented.

Until, of course, the tumbleweed stops suddenly. Because then it unfolds. Uncurls. Rises up. The Wanderer untangles until the three legged plantkin stands tall. Well, tall for itself. Next to the height and bulk of an Agrii it looks frightfully fragile. Perhaps especially so with the way that the few Agrii present look at it with clear fear in their eyes. Maybe that even makes sense, given the fact that other than the He Rows they have deliberately invited, the last time a non-Agrii was present on their ship, it was an attack.

So, of course, all metaphorical hell breaks loose. One Agrii faints dead away in shock. Another shrieks some high pitched note of fear and runs out into the halls. That’s definitely going to go well. Yet another, of course wearing a faction token in a specific shade of orange, gives an ululating sounds that is undeniably a warcry, grabs his ‘weapon’ (if you can call a heavy cooking spoon a weapon) and charges at the plantkin.

Needless to say, it’s an interspecies incident in the making. One that has the Ship’s AI letting out an alarm and requesting He Row intervention in the Shuttle Bay.

Strangely enough, the Wanderer seems unmoved by the display of pending violence rushing toward it. It did get through the zombie storm after all. Or maybe it just doesn’t understand the concept of true violence being visited upon it by another sentient being.

Maybe someone, or someones, should step in anyway.

Day 2 – January 16th – A Council Session Gone Wrong | Open to up to three He Rows in one thread with NPC involvement, preference for at least one He Row with Medical or those with first aid/medic training. Thread likely to split into medical and containment focuses.

Timely intervention by the He Rows was decidedly a saving grace in the situation. Thankfully the combination of quick thinking, willing hands, and their powerful reputation managed to defuse a situation before it got too destructive. Of course from there the question had to be what to do with the Wanderer, whom the Agrii overwhelmingly seemed to react to with fear or distrust. The Wanderer, to its credit, seemed to meet everything it had encountered thus far with a benign interest. And, thankfully, it had its own supplies on hand for any damages that would be dealt to its own person, seeing as it was unlikely the medical facilities here were suited to tending to a plantkin.

From there the decision for how to proceed seemed obvious. The Wanderer wished to observe. The Agrii leaders needed to discuss the situation and how to handle the reaction of their people to it. Interviews and interrogations needed to be had. All four Agrii leaders, Te Mi included, insisted that this initial discussion must take place without He Row involvement. The Ship’s AI promised to oversee these discussions and report back to He Rows immediately on all relevant information once conclusions were drawn.

So when it comes down to it the intercomm kicking on the next morning at the same time that He Row devices relayed the announcement isn’t at first a shock. No, it’s the content that is the concern.

Help! He Rows help! He has hurt my friend! Mu Ly is hurting him! Help! Urgent help! Mu Ly is hurting him!

Overwrought emotions are not the normal purview of the ship’s AI. This outburst is… Well, it is as emotional as the synthesized voice can manage. It’s clearly upsetting the Agrii in the corridors as well, though the ship seems to be dealing with that. Any time an Agrii flees into a room or hall that no He Rows would need to access to get to the Gathering place, the AI shuts the door and seals it. Is it protecting its crew, trying to prevent something worse, or just desperate to get help for whoever their ‘friend’ is? Either way the summons is clearly urgent and there is a desperate need to reach the Gathering place.

Which only makes more sense when the first He Row arrives on the scene and sees the chaos. Seeay, Te Ra, and Ga Re are doing their best to hold Mu Ly back while avoiding the pair of bloody butter knives in two of the angry, snarling Agrii’s hands. Meanwhile An Nu is holding a fallen Ny Ak in her arms, Ny Ak’s already typically pale purple skin shades lighter than normal. Te Mi is busy with his hands bundled up in his blue sash, pulled from his body to be pressed firmly against multiple parts of Ny Ak’s torso. The youth’s hands and sash, as well as Ny Ak’s goggles and Te Ra’s face, are colored by spots and smears of a dark purple-pink fluid that is clearly Agrii blood.

And across from Te Mi rests The Wanderer, which has in its hands a large woven satchel (where could it have hidden this) and is taking out some faintly glowing moss.

“Come help,” The Wanderer calls out. “This One knows not how to heal Speaking Animals and has no strength to restrain.”

The Agrii themselves, save for An Nu, are not talking. There are noises of struggle in the battle to restrain the still snarling Mu Ly, scared noises from Te Mi, and pained whimpers from Ny Ak. An Nu merely repeats something over and over again in the Agrii language, with pain and desperation in her voice.

Day 3 Forward – January 17th Onward – Social Strife | A general prompt for all He Rows to possibly build their own prompts off of.

Something was triggered in that moment yesterday. Maybe it was the Ship AI’s desperate plea. Maybe it was the fact that no attempt by the Ship to isolate the Agrii actually succeeded in keeping all Agrii out of the halls when Ny Ak was transported to the Medical Wing, or the other Agrii leaders shown to appropriate places of safety or confinement in apparent states of shock or rage. Or perhaps it is just that word travels quickly, and things were read between lines. What is clear is that a catalyst was introduced into a closed system, and the orange faction Agrii clearly saw a signal in the snap that occurred.

The posturing and almost fights He Rows saw from New Tick until the 15th have changed. It’s no longer just implication, there’s action behind it. Purple and unaffiliated Agrii move in groups, trying to avoid isolation. Orange-faction Agrii find ways to prowl the corridors and of course, start conflict with any isolated Agrii or groups they feel they can take. Sometimes it’s one on one. Sometimes it’s two on one. Sometimes it’s one or two on seven. Either way it’s clear that each time Orange is the aggressor. And it’s just as clear that the other Agrii don’t know how to handle this change or properly defend themselves, leaving it to the He Rows to intervene.

Thankfully the Ship’s AI is still trying to do its best to protect its crew even though it is clearly still distraught over Ny Ak’s status. Alerts go out regularly to Security rated He Rows or any He Rows who have shown competence and willingness to break up the fights. It does its best to isolate any Orange-Faction caught starting violence in their rooms, but it seems like they keep getting out to start more trouble. Some Agrii even seem to be switching to orange bands just to protect themselves, even if they don’t seem as eager to commit violence.

It’s often worse with the rare instances of uncommon green-banded Agrii that frequent the Under Engineering area getting cornered. They seem driven to continue their work to protect the Ship’s AI and preserve and repair areas. To learn, as it were, in the image of their leader. The leader they also have taken to holding a vigil for outside of the Medical Wing. These are the attacks that can become the most brutal, and send the Ship AI screaming the loudest and most urgent summons for help to.

The only Agrii group that does not get directly touched by the violence are those Blue-Faction that are clearly still young. Older members of Blue, and there are more of them now, are not immune to violent Orange outbursts. The youths, though, still seem sacred and protected from all sides, and walk the halls unharrassed. They serve to deliver meals to restrained Oranges or hiding adults of other factions. They do their best to walk with He Rows to help them find sources of trouble faster. They assist in every way they can imagine, even though Te Mi is not seen among them, as like An Nu he never leaves Ny Ak’s side.

Oh, and then there is The Wanderer. Because of course there is. The non-orange Agrii still seem not to know what to do with it, and the Oranges posture aggressively toward it. Thankfully the Agrii have proven time and time again to not be able to catch up with the Wanderer when it chooses to ball up and roll away at speed. So that particular prey is rather elusive, especially as it does not risk going into the water. So it lives up to its name, walking the halls, exploring, touching things, making notes, and leaving an air of unease in its wake. Not that it seems to notice. The Wanderer seems to be having the time of its life, stopping Agrii and He Rows both at random to ask them questions.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, they are watching the He Row as he approaches, considering. The group of them look him up and down, and one even starts to bare their teeth a little before another, smaller one lays hands on arms to calm them. But more or less they stand and listen.

"Is He Row whip on," one of the Agrii says, speaking up for the others. "No know how use."

Stu slowed to a stop, tilting his head, neck comically contorted so it was almost on his shoulder in a slide downward that pulled his grin wider. "It's easy," he invited, tilting the gun side to side for the aliens to see how straightforward the mechanism was. One button to worry about, kinda. Point and shoot. "You wanna see?"

Again the Agrii converse a little over the explanation before they turn back to Stu and nod. Of course they want to see. They had seen He Rows with guns before, clearly, but surely they were not easy to use. They were He Row tools after all.

In the time it took the aliens to interpret between each other what Stu had said, he slunk closer, inviting himself into their group, though not with the kind of enthusiasm that he might have to throw himself over the shoulders of a student in the halls of the school that had never spoken to him. Not without Billy there. Alone, he had to search these aliens' faces, looking for the one who was clearly in charge, maybe the one that spoke for them, to begin, "First, man, you're gonna need a target. Someone to put a bullet into." His lips pressed together, pressure in his chest eager to burst into a wild motion, BANG POW BLAM, but could only shyly let it out as an exhale, pop, flicking the gun for recoil. With it, he give an inquisitive shrug. These aliens must have been planning their next target already.

A target. One Agrii nods. This one must be the leader.

"Place where green Agrii. Go there," the big male suggests.

That sounded like more of an instruction than a suggestion, leaving Stu's mouth hanging open as he tried and failed to figure it out. Eventually, he had to admit, "I don't know anybody green. Like Donnie?" If the aliens wanted to see Donnie shot, he couldn't blame them. "Is there, like, an annoying room?"

Oh. The Agrii shrug and then start walking. The others followed immediately.

"Come. Show you place of green Agrii. Very annoy. Like talk metal boxes. Very bad Agrii. Mu Ly say so."

Obediently, Stu fell into line with the group. Mostly. He did the following part fine, and had good enough sense to tuck the gun back into his waistband, hidden under his sweater while they made their way through the halls. Their collective progress had him doing an exaggerated march, shoulders push back enough to drop his arms behind him and lifting his knees higher the further they went without incident.

Good thing they were in front of him, as they may not have been amused by his manner of walking. Or perhaps extra amused by it. For now they moved through the ship until they entered engineering. Once the doors were opened the Agrii present shrank back from them, fear flashing through some eyes.

The Agrii, meanwhile, went as a group to the hole that now had a ladder down into it.

"This way."

Being part of the group made it feel like some of that fear was in response to Stu, that shrinking and wary stare that he'd only seen a couple times in his life, with Billy standing in front of him. He lingered when they crossed into the engineering room, watching those other aliens, smiling openly at them with a rare stillness that was only broken by his leaders' voice.

Stu went bouncing after the instruction immediately, only to pause reluctantly at the weird hole, glancing at the leader alien anxiously. "Is this some kind of prank, dude?"

"What is prank?"

Another Agrii answers in low tones and then the leader shakes his head.

"No prank. This where core of talking box is. Greens tend like garden. Very strange. Clearly bad."

Right, uh huh, the garden core of the bad talking box, Stu could nod along to anything. Before any of them could get the wrong idea from his questioning, Stu announced, "I'm not pussying out," then swung an accusatory finger around at the group, twirling, searching for the coward among them that was clearly hoping someone else would call off the drop into the hole. It wasn't going to be Stu. The spun around, launching himself down the ladder where he only actually stepped down a few rungs once he touched them, then was sliding the rest of the way excitably.

The Agrii share a look between them over the word 'pussying' before following him down. The feet of the first barely touch the floor before there are sounds of bare feet running.

Fleeing. Green sashed Agrii running from the arrival of oranges.

"Hey, hey, hey, where's everybody goin'?" Stu asked after those retreating feet, though he fell back behind the aliens that accompanied him again, trying to get in the middle of them. "The party just got here." He glanced up and around at the aliens, looking for the next thing they were supposed to do--they were the ones chasing these guys down, after all. "They really are just like Donnie," he offered. "Starting bad stuff, then running away so they don't have to admit it."

"Seems like you're the one always running away once you start bad stuff."

Donnie sidestepped the fleeing Greens as he placed himself in the middle of the corridor, maybe not terrible imposing in his hoodie and a purple-handled gardening hoe balanced over the back of his shoulders as he draped his wrists over each end, but he clearly isn't going to let these guys through.

"A classic pot and kettle argument. Found new friends, Stewart? Guess I'm not surprised."

"What're you accusing me of now? Making friends?" Stu asked with a laugh, though he had gone tense with irritation. "You guys see what I'm dealing with? He just says shit. He's been causing problems for us for months."

The Agrii watch the interaction and then look between each other. Was Donnie creating problems? Yes. That seems likely. The nod to each other and the lead Agrii leans down to speak to Stu a bit closer.

"That He Row is of Blue. It is known."

The others nod, because it is known. No one questioned that while the turtle wore purple, he was Te Mi's.

"I'm causing problems? Hah!" Donnie snorts.

"Anyway, what're you doing here? Really can't be anything good, especially with your entourage there. Sorry, this area's off limits," he says, waving a hand at them as though to shoo them off.

"Yeah, blue, yuck," Stu was ready to agree, letting his tongue loll out, lip still raised as Donnie tried to play the big man. Instead of answering the kid, Stu splayed both hands out at him, looking between his alien friends with exasperation. "He just gets to decide you're a bad person, and tells you where you're allowed to go? Little green dude thinks he's in charge, or something. That He-Row stuff really goes to some people's heads. Title role, we're just here to make him look good," Stu complained, hands flapping generously and shoulders swinging, so when he reached behind himself to produce the gun, it was a fast, liquid movement, just another gesture in his speech to offer the weapon to the leader-alien. "You point the hole at him," he said, tapping the barrel, "and put your finger on the trigger."

Edited 2025-02-08 20:01 (UTC)

"Blue yuck," more than one Agrii in Stu's little trio entourage agrees. Clearly they're already charmed by this encouraging He Row.

It probably doesn't help that there is no question that Donnie was not in their corner. That he likes the machine voice and Te Mi and all those stupid things. He doesn't want Agrii stronger. Clearly. So when the leader is offered the weapon it takes it. Stu is clearly very wise for a He Row.

It takes the weapon, lifts it, and then frowns. Something that hadn't been accounted for at first... The Agrii's hands were not quite suited to a firearm such as Stu was handing over. Like Donnie they only had two fingers and a thumb, and each finger terminated in a sharp claw. The claws would be great for tearing into things, but the lack of surface sensation made the way it held the gun very awkward. And the way it fed its large fingers into the narrow trigger guard difficult too. Sure, it managed to point the gun at Donnie, but given the failures of understanding grip or stabilization, the barrel sagged. This caused the Agrii to squeeze the trigger reflexively, and sent a bullet into the floor somewhere between Donnie and the gang of Agrii

Thankfully there was minimal ricochet, though shards of metal from the bullet and floor did fly through the air, cutting any skin they came across. And, in shock from the loud noise, the Agrii dropped the gun almost immediately.

Donnie records everything. His eyes narrow as Stu addresses the Orange crew, and then widen once the guy produces a weapon.

"You idiots actually gave him a gun?!"

He tenses, and then as the Agrii takes the weapon he reaches to tap the screen on his bracer, bringing up the hardlight shield just as the thing goes off. Which...was in his range of expectations but still is a bit unsettling when you find yourself on the other end of a firearm. Fragments bounce off the shield, and once the gun is dropped, Donnie disables it, glaring.

"I'd advise that you not try that again. I also advise that you leave that where it is, and you all vacate the premises, immediately."

There was no possible way for Stu to have anticipated that the aliens would actually start shooting. At the loud pop, he yelped and sprang into the air in surprise, knee and hands up to squeeze himself behind defensively as he shook with giggles that he couldn't even hear over the ringing in his ears. As it subsided, of course he could hear Donnie's haughty whining again.

"Oh, yeah, okay, you advise, you advise, because you're the big man in charge, the one who gets to have a weapon and tell everyone what to do. Because we're all idiots, huh?" Stu replied, unfolding out of his cringe to swing his arms again. "Do you guys know what that means? 'Idiots'? He's calling you dumb. Stupid. He thinks you're too stupid to go around on your own ship."

Idiots. Yes, they have heard that word before. And now it is being used against them, by a He Row. One that was clearly turned against them by other forces. By the box down here. Stu was right. This was wrong.

"Our ship," the lead orange agrees. "You will move now."

And then it moves forward, making to grab at Donnie. The other two, seeming to understand the plan, move forward as well. But not to help their partner.

No, they move to stand in front of Stu protectively. Clearly they have found a He Row who is sensible for once and they are going to defend him.

"I won't rescind what I said, but I won't stand for you twisting my reasoning around!" Donnie huffs. "And you all shouldn't be figuring he'll be on your side just because he's offered to help you!"

He blinks as it's the Agrii that advances suddenly, something he had somehow not factored into his calculations. The turtle brings his garden hoe around to hold defensively, if somewhat hesitant because he doesn't really want to hurt these guys. Of course, Agrii are a lot taller and have more arms to account.

"Let go! Your ship, in case you forgot, had to be fixed by us! I'm not letting you break it again!"

Stu brought up both hands to puppet ever-flapping mouths back at Donnie, his own mouth drawn in mockery, up until the aliens were crowding around him and he had to shrink back in surprise at that coordination. That did bring them in close for a nudge to get their attention, so Stu could jerk his chin toward the gun on the ground for one of them to help their good buddy out with.

"Don't let him convince you that you're not even smart enough to understand when he's calling you stupid. He's got everybody else convinced, he's got people popping out of the woodwork to repeat whatever he tells them, he's so confident that he thought he could tell me that there's no way I could have been stabbed when I was stabbed, and then later he's got a whole story about how I'm stabbing people. Who knows what he believes? Which one is it, little dude? Does it even matter?"

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Bless you Stu.

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