00.001 [VOICE] - Meet the Turtle

[tic_tech_turtle]

[there's a harsh sound, like a thumb being dragged over a mouthpiece, and then a pause before there are sounds of the communicator being shuffled around.]

Oops. Uh, well, hello then. This is...interesting. I guess. I can't really say I've ever been given a communication's device when taken captive before, though I suppose that being unable to pick

Comments

Hey can you turn off custom comment pages please?

[weifengyiyu]

Welcome t'the M.S. Elegante.

Y'need anything, ask crew and we'll get it for you. Enjoy your digs.

Sorry about that

[tic_tech_turtle]

Hello. Thanks.

Can you tell me why I'm here, at least?

No worries, thank you!

[weifengyiyu]

Y're here 'cause the Capn found y'in the water.

He's a great man.

[tic_tech_turtle]

[that gets a quirk of an eye ridge]

But I wasn't in any water.

[shadesofeco]

You'll get used to it.

You might be here for a while.

[tic_tech_turtle]

I've been hearing that.

How long have you been here?

[shadesofeco]

Over a year.

[tic_tech_turtle]

...I see. And thanks.

Are there many who have been here over a year?

[tldriving]

Unfortunately, despite being allowed to move freely about the ship our situation isn't much different than if we were actually behind locked doors. In fact, in a way, we still are, given that there doesn't seem to be any way to leave this vessel or return to our own worlds even if we could, though of course there could be a way that we simply haven't found yet.

As for information, this ship is called the MS Elegante and it is apparently heading for some place called the Golden Shore, according to the crew, although it has been traveling for the past year without reaching any real destination and it's hard to say whether or not the crew's words can be trusted. The communication device is unusual in that the Captain, a man named Redd who I highly doubt is actually human, apparently wishes to see his passengers communicating with one another, and unless you open the lines of communication once every deca-cycle, or rather fourteen solar cycles which seems to be a unit of human measurement called two weeks or a fortnight, you will receive

[tic_tech_turtle]

[o-okay Don. This isn't that difficult. Just think of Mikey after five bags of candy and you're good to go.]

Uh...Yes.

What sort of penalty? And, uh, did you say death was only temporary?

[tldriving]

[He's not asking Blurr to repeat himself multiple times, so he's doing better than most 'bots back home!]

Nothing serious at all, actually; it simply squirts water to remind you that you should be talking, although it does seem to have a sense of humor about where and when it aims. [Like getting him in the mouth in the middle of talking. Or getting Shockwave right in the optic, which is much funnier.]

And that is correct! While it is fully possible to injure another, although as I mentioned the Captain isn't very happy about that, death is a highly temporary state though apparently no less traumatizing for that, from what I've seen among the passengers who have been killed on occasion.

[tic_tech_turtle]

[even if he only vaguely understood the two parts he mentioned?]

Wait, people have been killed?

[that's the only thing he fully catches out of that chunk of information, too. And it's unsettling.]

[triplethecrazy]

...Vell, I vill assume zhat ozzer people haff already given jou a summary of vhere jou are.
If not-
-jou are on a boat zhat is heading to the Golden Shore. Jou cannot go back home unless ze Captain lets jou, apparently death is not permanent, fighting is discouraged, und vatch out for Carnival.
Und zhat's all~!

[ oh hey sudden voice change. ]

[tic_tech_turtle]

[oh, well, okay, that wasn't weird at all]

Thank you? [all? Should he add an 'all' to that?] The Carnival has once already but no one has told me where it is or why I should avoid it...aside from the fact that it's dangerous.

And no one has mentioned the Golden Shore. [well, Blurr did. But Donatello didn't catch that]

[triplethecrazy]

[ Blitzwing is used to that reaction. :/ ]

People die in Carnival, or zo I've heard. I haff not been zhere personally. Yet.

Ze Golden Shore is zhis ship's final destination, alzhough I haff also heard zhat zhis ship has been afloat long enough to circle ze vorld twice. Ze Captain is also a little...eccentric.

[tic_tech_turtle]

Noted.

And it is possible, if it's been afloat for as long as some are saying it has...

Eccentric how? Aside from pulling seemingly random people from their worlds on what appears to be a whim.

[medicalofficer]

As you may have noticed, this is not a typical hostage situation. The captain does like to offer the illusion of free will, so that he might claim greatness.

However, it is not entirely without benefit - There are several opportunities to learn about other species and worlds, so long as you are aboard.

[tic_tech_turtle]

Megalomania...?

Yes, that is true. You take an interest in that, then?

[medicalofficer]

Based on the... disjointed conversations I have witnessed, I believe there is far more issues with the Captain's interal thought processes than simple megalomania.

I find the study of life fascinating, no matter what planet it may originate from. In fact, it does not have to be living at all - Soil and mineral deposits, chemical reaction...

I was once an archeologist, however, scientist would have been a more fitting title.

[tic_tech_turtle]

Of course.

[and you have Don's attention]

Would you mind if I asked you what you'd discovered about this place so far? Assuming, of course, that you have studied it.