MountainLynx

Homestead

To Emma, the rush of fresh air through the hatch, heavy with a blend of floral aromas and loam, did much to force out the feeling of impending doom. Though she had been tightly clutching the straps of her bag with her eyes forced shut, she knew that the others were perfectly justified in crying out, or praying, or whatever other actions they had defaulted to during the drop. An emergency atmospheric landing, she knew, was the single most dangerous prospect of space travel. To her sister's credit, Ayla had also managed to keep her panic contained. Or perhaps there was a whimper that could not be heard over the roaring air, and the engines. Ayla was not about to admit it, either way.

But now that the stale, sour air was quickly being replaced by the atmosphere on the ground, both women found their peace. Emma waited a moment, still weak from three decades of cryostasis, and unaccustomed to forcing any part of her body to move against its will, unlike her sister. Ayla was up first, slowly and deliberately, and Emma guessed that even she was having a difficult time with her stasis-shocked muscles. Emma watched her sister stretch; first her natural arm, then both legs, and made note to do the same as soon as she felt up to moving around. For the time being, all she focused on was the air, and how it cleared more and more of the stench death and nausea from her nostrils with each breath. Under the unidentified flowers was a faint salty smell. The must have landed reasonably close to the coastline, she thought. At the very least, they would have fish.

Next, her nose singled out something sweet, like nectar... No, more like honey from a cherry orchard, she thought, though it could also have been some fruit tree in bloom. Despite knowing that there were no honey bees on Spera, Emma could not help but find herself wishing for some similar creature. After all, how could there be flowers with no pollinators?

She was about to identify yet another subtlety in the air, or at least imagine wildly to its origin, when Ayla's head peeked in around the door, interrupting her thoughts.

"I have the first bit of good news," the woman announced a little dryly, still clearly physically drained and supporting herself against the door with her metallic left arm, an exotic-looking blue flower already tucked behind her ear, "Not only is our landing site beautiful, but my maps are showing a fresh water tributary, about a twenty-minute hike north of here."

Kingdom Guild: Golden City

I'm still keeping an eye on this.

Homestead

@Tigre: Yes, it's quite possible that they would at least know of eachother, and perhaps even crossed paths at some point.

Homestead

Emma's head spun. Every inch of her body was stiff, protesting as she commanded her muscles, and she suddenly had a new-found respect for her sister, who often complained of such a feeling in her prosthetic arm when its power cell was getting low. She tried stretch as best she could in the confined stasis chamber, just as she had been briefed, but the whole process was made all the more complicated by the flashing lights and god-awful buzzing. There was a voice, loud enough to be made out through the glass... Her own voice.

"Fatal Error No. 2048."

Emma's eyes went wide as the adrenaline kicked in. She knew she was lucky, but she still had to act fast. How long had the alarm been going? It didn't matter now; she was still alive, and she could check Ayla's stasis chamber on the way out. Her hand fought its way to the emergency release and pulled. Nothing. She tried again, with no better results, and fear began to take over. She was frantically pounding on the glass when the sound of her own voice came over her again. No, not her own this time.

"Emma, hurry! We've got to get out of here!"

Ayla had been one of the lucky ones as well, and the reassurance from the most familiar face in her life brought back some of her composure.

"The release is stuck!" she hollered back, pointing at the edge, the shout echoing loudly in her ears. Her twin sister fought with her options for a moment as the ship suddenly rocked again.

"Curl up in the foot of the chamber!"

Emma, in no place to argue, did as she was instructed, while Ayla threw her entire body into a huge, circular swing with her artificial arm, and the glass gave way under the force of the alloy knuckles with a loud crash. She had helped her sister out of the chamber to her feet, and was about to escort her to the escape pods, when Emma turned away, toward a terminal on the wall nearby.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ayla demanded, "We need to get out of here, now!"

"I'm sending a message back to Earth." Now free from the claustrophobic environment, Emma found herself capable of forcing some bravado. She could accept dying a hero, but not helpless, trapped in some glass box, forced to watch as flames engulfed her surroundings before being ripped apart and exposed to the vacuum of space.

"Dammit, Emma, we don't have time for this!" Ayla protested, picking up her sister's bag and slung it over her shoulder, resting the bulk of it on top of her own. She took half a step toward the escape pods, trying to back up her case with action, but the truth of the situation, she knew, was that she wasn't leaving without her sister. Her sister who dictated her actions in defiance.

"Admin override... Send message... Target home... Priority Alpha... Error 2048, send help ASAP... Sent!"

Emma practically marched back into the aisle, quite pleased with herself, until the ship rocked again, while that digitized version of her own voice once again reminded her to evacuate. The two hurried through the aisles, avoiding looking at the other chambers at Emma's recommendation, making their way to the nearest available escape pod - a few had already left, then noted - and took their seats.

Homestead

Sorry about being fashionably late with this :P

---

Name: Ayla von Dahl
Age: 28
Gender: Female

Appearance:
Medium-dark skin, black hair, round, amber eyes. Approximately 5'8" with a build that could be athletic with more physical activity. Ayla's father was from Austria, her mother was from India, and she grew up in East Coast Canada, along with her twin sister, Emma. A vehicular accident as a teenager destroyed her left arm, and she now has a cybernetic prosthesis. The base of the prosthesis can get signals from the nerves in her shoulder, and the arm moves with reasonable dexterity (both twins were left-handed before the accident; Ayla now has better dexterity in her right), but it essentially runs on specialized batteries, and the contacts between the arm and the base need to be cleaned regularly.

Pack contents:
A few changes of clothes including decent hiking boots, personal hygiene items, her left arm with cleaning kit, several spare rechargeable power cells for the arm, solar charger, tablet (with cartography-specific apps, as well as the guidebooks for Spera in digital format, some sparse entertainment media, etc.).

Did you store anything in the cargo bay?
Telescope and surveying equipment, additional clothing.

Skills:
Cartography, both satellite and ground.

Education:
Master's Degree, dual major in Digital Media and Xenogeography

What was your reason for joining the colonists?
Officially, to continue work in mapping the planet's surface in detail. Unofficially, she's been the geekier sister since they were children (though not by much), always into sci-fi.

How did you get get accepted?
Emma, who had already been accepted, pulled a few strings to get her sister's employment application accepted.

What did you do before this?
She helped piece together the satellite images that became the map of the planet featured in the guidebooks.

---

Name: Emma von Dahl
Age: 28
Gender: Female

Appearance:
Except for the artificial arm, Ayla and Emma are identical twins.

Pack contents:
A few changes of clothes (including the hiking boots her sister convinced her to pack), personal hygiene items, tablet, solar charger, portable networking and file storage equipment, basic electronics repair tools.

Did you store anything in the cargo bay?
Collapsable solar panels, high-gain antennas, portable radio equipment, the remainder of her clothing, the remainder of ger electronics repair tools.

Skills: Network and communication specialist

Education: Master's Degree in Computer Science, Bachelor's degree in electronics engineering.

What was your reason for joining the colonists?
Even a technician can have a thirst for exploration. Also, like her sister, she has always been a bit of a sci-fi geek.

How did you get get accepted?
As someone who had helped design many of the networking and communications systems currently being used on their transport ship, Emma was a natural choice for the crew's electronics technician.

What did you do before this?
Assisted in designing the communications equipment on the ship.

Homestead

Give me some time to cook up a character. Might do a little recycling from other locations and such.

Kingdom Guild: Golden City

European style draw, you point the bow downward to notch the arrow, draw upward, then level your aim. Asian style draw, you hold the bow above your head to notch the arrow, and draw back as you level your aim. Most comfortable way to carry is with the string at your chest, unless you're using a compound bow. The wheels would get in the way, and you would be better off carrying it by hand. Firing is simply a release. The action has almost a Zen property to it.

Also, I'm not sure if it's true for all Asian bows, but Japanese bows have a longer curve above the grip than below it.

Kingdom Guild: Golden City

Kenichi had looked back quickly enough to see the knowing look on Beast's face before the transformation. Had he not, he would have immediately drawn his sword. The fact that the hulking creature that now stood before him made no hostile movement was also cause to stay his hand. He glanced around the tavern for a moment. There were a few patrons who were surprised, but none seemed truly terrified. This was clearly not the first time this had happened here. Still keeping an eye on Beast, he glanced back to address Snow once more.

"You are correct. This is much more convincing," He replied, slowly easing back on his seat. "So not only do you hunt monsters, you employ the more agreeable of them. I am reminded of the Oni, back in Japan. According to folklore, which it seems may in fact be true, demons in Japan are not necessarily evil, though they rarely make considerations for humans unless it is in their personal interests."

Again, he nodded deeply, this time to Beast as he returned to his business, throwing in a quick "Arigato- gozaimasu" before turning back to the bar.

"What would you have me do?" He asked.

Kingdom Guild: Golden City

"Monsters... Bakemono..."

He took a heavy mouthful of the sweet whiskey, letting the word echo in his mind. The memories it stirred were not pleasant ones, but mercifully, they were cut short by a much more objective question.

"I am from Kyoto," He replied, taking a quick mental note of the red-haired girl who had taken the stool a few places down, "In Japan. My family has lived there since before the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which would have officially started in 1603." He had done the math a few times during his trek across Europe. He had heard the question often from the more curious of his fellow travelers, and by this point, he had memorized the answer.

"I had been traveling across Japan for several years," He continued, "Training and performing odd jobs. I have worked as a weapon smith, a carpenter, a fisherman... Anything to help pay for martial arts training and books. And then this letter found me." He motioned to the parchment on the table. "I do not know how, and truly I should have been skeptical, but I believe my wanderlust overcame me, and I started heading West."

Letting his own words settle now, he finished the last mouthful that had remained in his glass, and considered his next point.

"And now you say you wish me to hunt monsters with you. Perhaps I would have been right in being skeptical. Little girls can fly using wires, and men can disappear using trap doors, but coming face-to-face with a monster would be a much more convincing feat."

Finally, he leaned over the bar, directing his question to the redhead. He had been speaking loudly enough that she would have overheard his story, had she been inclined to listen.

"Speaking of which, what exactly was in the cage?"

Kingdom Guild: Golden City

"Yoroshiku okudasai. My name is Kenichi Mizumoto."

Kenichi nodded deeply to the woman; it was as much of a bow as he could manage while remaining on the bar stool. He had gotten some strange looks in his travels for dismounting in order to perform a proper bow, and as he traveled further west, he eventually learned it best to simplify the expression. Grabbing the whiskey bottle and pouring for both of them, he replied with a smile.

"He had not yet had the opportunity to become bothersome."

He took a sip of the potent beverage before getting to business. It was sweeter than he was expecting, and Kenichi guessed that it must have been distilled from the corn that, he had read, was apparently a popular grain crop on this continent. Not quite the same as the Scottish and Irish varieties he had sampled between Rome and Paris. Those, he remembered, were distilled from barley, and tended to have a more smokey flavor. After a moment to appreciate the liquor, he drew the letter and handed it to the woman.

"Your bartender informs me that you would be the one I should speak with regarding this," He said, pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, "Although I cannot imagine why. I see you already have a guard, and my talents are... not exactly suited for the type of work that seems to be happening here. However, little girls who fly, and old men who vanish before our eyes are uncommon enough on their own, let alone together. This leads me to believe that there may be something else..."