Atrophy

Beyond the Storms

@SkepicI'm a bit tied up at the moment so feel free to go ahead.

Carvings of the Galaxy

Won't be getting a post up until the weekend because I'm terrible.

Beyond the Storms

Main Deck --> Aircraft Hangar

Her smile wavered but did not break as the reporter corrected her, and she was about to explain to him that even if it already did have a name a new one that evoked a sense of ownership was better than a bland, neutral one created by UINC when a voice cracked over the PA system. Once again she found herself jumping at the unseen voice, it reminding her so much of the emotionless, disembodied foremen that signalled the beginning and the end of their mandated lunch breaks back in her warehouse days. Edward was already beating feet towards the hangar by the time she parsed the message, the old feelings of dread invoked by memories of factories quickly smothered by the exciting realization that she’d be taking a flight in the VTOL earlier than she anticipated (and with a significantly less amount of pleading).

She chased after Edward, slightly annoyed that he had left her behind and with full intention of beating him aboard the plane regardless. Although she was no longer dripping wet thanks to the sun starting to dry her, she did find herself still somewhat exhausted from the earlier storm and dropped further and further behind in the race that only she knew she was in. She caught up to Edward by the time a scarred man called Krauss introduced himself as the pilot of the blue, bizarre aircraft behind him. His name was vaguely familiar, although she tended to pretend that all names were vaguely familiar to her, as if her social circles spread so far and wide that it encompassed the entirety of the Isles and that none of its citizens couldn’t be a friend of a friend. Her eyes narrowed onto his outstretched hand like a hawk as she slowed her pace into a cool, confident stroll. Despite knowing that the handshake was intended for Edward, she seized it greedily with both hands as she sided past the reporter.

“It’s truly wonderful to finally meet you, Krauss. That was you flying earlier today? It was an absolutely fantastic display, I must say. Truly marvelous,” she said, not letting go of his hand. “I’m Constance Holloway.” She paused, as if to let the gravity of her name sink in. “I have a handful of crashes under my belt as well,” she added with a smile, finally forfeiting his hand. It was unclear, but it almost seemed as if she was actually bragging about crashing instead of attempting to be playful.

She brushed past Krauss and began to make a loop around the plane, as if she was performing her own safety inspection. However, despite owning aviation companies and taking flight lessons, let alone being involved in manufacturing airplane parts in her youth, Constance knew very little about airplanes. The times she had flown were with a copilot, whose job was to get the bird off of the ground and to make sure that she was ejected with a parachute when she inevitably tried a maneuver that was not only beyond her skill level but absolutely impossible to pull off in the first place. Her companies had been run by actual people in the know, she had just thrown money at them. And tightening bolts as a hunk of metal came down a conveyor belt taught her nothing except for how she could hardly deal with tedium. Yet, she still made approving nods and noises as she circled the VTOL.

“Not bad, not bad. A few questionable aesthetic choices, if anything, but she seems solid enough,” she said as she made her way around, a hint of eagerness seeping into her voice as she poked her head inside of the interior. She looked back at the two with a grin and then hopped inside, determined to take the seat with the clearest view. The craft was small, maybe able to fit three or four with some shoulder rubbing. She took what she assumed to be the co-pilot seat, the meters and buttons of the control panel begging to be fiddled with, and plopped herself down in the chair. Excitement flooded through her body as she twisted around in the seat and climbed over the headrest, allowing for her to peek out through the doorway at Edward and Krauss.

“What’s the hold up, lads? If you two bum around any longer, I might just take this baby for a joyride,” she said, her head disappearing back into the plane.

Beyond the Storms

Eating yogurt and making coffee alone because somebody picked up all of the hipster chicks.

_{Also working on a post. Should have it up tomorrow.}

Beyond the Storms

I think it'd be a cool idea to get some new blood aboard.

Beyond the Storms

@LexiconAw man, that stinks! Good job on the promotion though, boss.

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

@The Darklight Project

I read the post

I...I don't trust you anymore, and I think that somehow makes me like you more. I don't know what that necessarily says about me, but good job jerk. Hit me up with a PM whenever so we can start axing the rest of the cast the next transition to a much happier place.

Carvings of the Galaxy

@beyond visions@SheriffLlamaYo dudes! How's that collab going?

Heck, how's everything going all?

Beyond the Storms

Lower Deck 1

It had taken just a few seconds—to breath, to think, to right herself—but already Constance had fallen back into her old, comfortable self, her head held high as if she hadn’t just finished burying it into the chest of the Captain like a scared child. One hand worked her wet, matted hair out of her face while another reached for the compact mirror in her pocket, ready to find and fix anything that had been damaged by the seawater. Yet there was nothing in her pockets to fix the fact that she was soaked to the bone by seawater, nor anything to remove the stench of smoke that had seemingly become one with her clothing. Even with her plastic, carefree attitude, she was prepared to retreat to her room, partially to change into dry clothes and partially to assure that her possessions were still in tact. However, she was stopped when an excited Ed called her to come join him, saying something about how they had made it. Her eyebrow lifted, perplexed. Made what?

“We made it?” she echoed like a parrot, her eyes growing wide as she recognized what he meant. Her hands clapped together over her mouth. “We made it!”

Any thoughts of changing into dry clothes or fixing her face was stripped from her mind as she stumbled after the reporter. Constance was a bit sadden that she wasn’t the first one to see what laid beyond the storms, but she took a small, bittersweet solace in knowing that she was certainly the first Holloway to make it there—there was no way that the Devil Divers ever survived anything like what she had just experienced. She clambered up the steps to the main deck, struggling to keep herself from breathing too heavily after having sucked so much smoke into her lungs. She choked back a cough as she emerged from innards of the ship, refusing to let anything hold her back.

Main Deck - Fore

For a moment she was nearly blinded by the brightness before everything began to adjust, her eyes shielded behind a raised hand. Slowly, her hand sunk to cover her agape mouth as she saw the strange, blue world before her. It’s absolutely fantastic, she thought. The sea stretched further than it had seemed to from the dock, and the sky was just as she, no, better than she had imagined it would be. Even the white, fluffy clouds seemed more wonderful than the ones that she could sometimes spot above the ring, and were a hundred times more beautiful than the gray mess that swirled behind (she took another look to verify that, yes, it was behind) her.

She brayed with laughter and rushed past Ed, nearly throwing herself off the ship as she perched against the railing. Behind her was the Ring of Thunder, the Isles, and all of the problems that were connected with them; ahead of her was an endless world full of indescribable possibility. There were no other cutthroat tycoons for her to tread the line with, no old money socialites gossiping behind her back, no private investigators sneaking onto her property, no scam artists claiming that she owed them money, no debt collectors that she actually owed money, no...she smiled. Those things didn’t matter anymore; if they were so desperate to hold onto their old world that they actively sought to ruin any interlopers with schemes and slander, fine, then they could have their world up there. She’d just take everything that was new. As a foul member of the nouveau riche, it’d only be fitting.

“Oh, Eddy!” A ‘gleeful squeal’ could be the only words that described the noise that came out of Constance as she flung from the railing and, basically, skipped across the deck towards Ed, twisting and turning to look out all around her, visceral squishing sounds coming from her still soaked boots. “Everything we’ve ever seen before has already been named, right? Somebody had to make them up, right? Well then, don’t we get to name this, right?” She may have phrased it as a question, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to wait for an answer. Constance knew that others had made it this far before and have probably begun naming even the clouds, but she also knew that it was the loudest people, and not the most deserving, that left behind a legacy. Or rather, perhaps she thought that the loudest were the most deserving.

“A name, a name, mm,” she hummed as she put a finger to her chin, as if to show that she was thinking, and then she snapped her fingers. “I know! The Samick Sea,” she said, her hand waving across the air as if to paint the name over the sky like a street sign, “named after its discoverer. Pretty good, right?” she asked, smiling and clearly too proud of herself for creating such a clever name, as if she did not realize that perhaps some people would not want their names to be immortalized or, at the very least, not by her. “Right? You can say that you thought it up when you write about it, even!”

That was assuming, of course, that he also reported all of the places and landmarks that would be named after of by Constance, which would obviously be the rest of them.

Beyond the Storms

@Mercenary Lord A few touch ups, should post tomorrow at the latest.