COME ON AND SLAM

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

WHO: Everyone! Especially YOU!
WHERE: The International Moon Research Base, Mare Nubium, THE MOON
WHEN: April 18th, all day
WHAT: Aegis Force, the government-funded imPort peacekeeping team, is hosting this month's Swear-In to promote their ideals of teamwork and cooperation! Come compete and spectate in the SPACE SLAM, the sporting event that's out of this world! Also featuring a LUNAR DISCO, a DIPLOMATIC EVENT, and a BATTLE AGAINST ATTACKING ROBOTS! Wait, what was that last one?
WARNINGS: Violence, awkward locker rooms. Any questions or issues, hit up the OOC post!

PART I: THE SWEAR-IN

Welcome to the Moon, imPorts! You arrive through the Porter in the base's atrium dome, designed in a futuristic style that emphasizes sleek, spotless white surfaces. You will immediately notice how much less you weigh here in the Moon's low-gravity environment- be careful jumping, or you may hit the ceiling!

Before you can get to the main event, you'll have to pass through strict security comparable to an airport experience (if the airport was surrounded by merciless vacuum and filled with flammable oxygen). Any weapons will have to be surrendered and locked up by base personnel during the event, unless you can convince officials to make an exception. Once past security, airlock tunnels will lead to the Base's other domes, where the main body of the Swear-In will be today.

The RESIDENCE dome is the largest of the interlinked habitable bubbles that make up the main Moon Base, holding tourist hotels, staff apartments, restaurants, and even a grassy park beneath a glass dome offering a view of the Earth above. Crowds are thick today, as plenty of people have flocked to the Moon to behold the heavily-advertised SPACE SLAM. The Slam is an Aegis-sponsored live-streamed sporting event, game show and fundraiser where imPorts assemble themselves into teams of 2 - 6 characters and compete in different challenges, held in hotel gyms and in the park. Giant screens and bright holo-displays notify of the different causes benefiting from today’s event, including the Endeavor Centre, SELF, and HOPE. Participating characters can choose any or all of:

1. Basketball - but of course. A court has been set up, and the stands are packed with cheering fans. Two teams face off and try to get the ball through each other’s hoops!
2. Battle Royale - the obligatory superhero sparring fight, available in free-for-all and team-vs.-team editions. Square off against with your rivals in an open arena and show the world who’s the toughest- just don’t kill or seriously maim anybody in the fray, or you’ll be disqualified!
3. Low-gravity laser tag - the less violent alternative to the Battle Royale, again in free-for-all or team-vs-team options. Grab your vest and plastic light gun and bounce your way into the neon-lit Zap Zone for a match!
4. Irritation Lane - a particularly challenging event, part demolition derby, part go-karting race. Your team must choose and customize their own ground vehicle(s) in a garage with sixty minutes to spare, working from pre-existing chassis like rugged old-fashioned moon buggies, light and fast hover cycles, and the massive heavy-footed Lunar Construction Mech. Decorate and modify your creations as you please and outfit them with nonlethal weapons like glue-foam missiles, EMP mines, net launchers, and smoke screens. Then put on a space suit and face your rivals in a thrilling race around the track that’s been constructed outside the base, complete with soaring low-gravity jumps and daring shortcuts through twisty, narrow canyons!
5. Charades - livestreamed to the entire planet so EVERYONE can see you choking as you try to think of how to mime a banana without looking like a pervert.
6. Competitive karaoke - livestreamed to the entire planet so EVERYONE can see you choking as you try to hit those high notes on ‘Don’t Stop Believing.’
7. Cooking contest - hop into a futuristic, well-stocked kitchen in one of the hotels with your team and roll up your sleeves. You’ve got an hour to whip up a dish that will impress, after which you’ll share your creation with other Swear-In attendees. The more delicious your cooking, the more votes you’ll get when it comes time for judging!
8. Dance-off - does your team have the moves to win over the audience? Put together a killer routine and show what you’ve got!
9. Bouncy castle endurance contest - A massive bouncy castle awaits in a huge room on one of the lower floors of the dome, with protective pads covering the walls and floors and ceilings. Get on the castle with your teammates and jump, jump, jump sky-high in the lowered gravity! Keep jumping no matter what, even if the opposing team tries to knock you off the castle. The team with the last people still bouncing wins this contest!
10. Lunar volleyball - the moondust on the moon’s surface is kind of like sand, isn’t it? At any rate, someone has set up a net outside the Residence dome and space suits are available for those who want to see how hard they can spike a ball in low-gravity.

Holographic and force field technology is in play during these events to ensure everyone's safety in the fragile environment of the Moon Base. Teams of metahumans are also competing, if you want to play out your team playing against NPCs. Before and after your matches, you may want to huddle with your team to discuss strategy and get psyched, engage in some trash talk with your rivals to get in their heads, and give interviews to clustering reporters about how you and your teammates are going to play hard, you know, just give it your very best. Locker rooms are also available for you and your teammates to get changed and shower in, which may or may not be excruciatingly awkward for you. Good luck and have fun, imPorts!

Once you’ve had your fill of the adrenaline of the Space Slam, why not move into the Embassy Dome for a more relaxing and mingle-friendly time? A LUNAR DISCO is happening in the gorgeous Grand Ballroom at the dome’s top level, with huge windows offering a gorgeous view of the cosmos, music to groove to across the marble floor, and a spread of free appropriately-themed snacks and drinks. Among the refreshments is finger food from The Nickel, and Abigail Hobbs will be playing the harpsichord. If you feel like you need to get outside for some (lack of) air, you can also step away for a moonwalk tour, ambling across the desolate gray lunar landscape in a space suit or a clear sealed 'hamster ball' under the supervision of base staff.

You may also find yourself on the Earth Viewing Deck, an elegant lounge dominated by a vast window view of the Earth, with soft music, low lighting, and private alcoves for personal conversation. Here is where the political aspect of the Swear-In comes into play. Not only is there a desk staffed by a government official where you can declare yourself Registered or Unsettled, but there are also optional conversation-starting name tags available with prompts like ‘I’m (INSERT FACTION/ALLEGIANCE HERE), ask me why’ or ‘I am a (INSERT SPECIES/PROFESSION/OTHER RELEVANT IDENTITY HERE), ask me anything’ or ‘I’m (REGISTERED/UNSETTLED), change my mind!’ The goal of this event is encouraging imPorts to talk to each other and resolve issues within their community peacefully and proactively, easing possible disputes before they end up making more work for Aegis.


PART II: ROBOT ATTACK!!
Things run smoothly until late in the evening of the event, when the buzz is immediately killed by a shrill siren, cutting through conversation and competition alike. A hushed silence falls over the gathering, broken by nervous murmuring. Those with experience in these things already know what’s happening: a Swear-In is about to go to hell again.

An eerily calm announcement sounds over the base’s PA system: ”Red Alert. Red Alert. Hostile forces closing on base perimeter. Lockdown protocol now in effect. All civilians are directed to proceed in a calm and orderly manner to the Atrium Porter for evacuation to Earth. All security staff and heroes to your emergency stations. This is not a drill.”

The announcement repeats once, and then the siren resumes. Time to make a decision, imPorts. Are you a civilian who will be evacuating with other noncombatants? Or are you a hero who will stay behind and defend the Moon Base from the oncoming assault?

If you’re evacuating, you can still help to guide and assist the streams of civilians- scientists, VIPs, reporters, tourists, some of them panicking- back to the overcrowded Porter. Once you’re safely back on Earth via the Porter base of your choosing, there’ll be little left to do but huddle with others and wait for news of the crisis unfolding far above the sky, as bits and pieces of information trickle in from the news and social media.

Those of you who choose to buy time for the evacuation by staying to defend the base will find yourselves in a dire situation. Because the Moon Base was built for tourism, science, and diplomacy as a symbol of peace, and thus has no real defenses. It has sensors though, and base staff report at least fifty contacts approaching from all around the base, most of them headed for the Science Dome, home of the base’s labs, lecture hall, and archives, with maybe ten minutes before they arrive. Barely enough time to retrieve your gear (if any) from security and come up with a plan!

First, you’ll have to decide where to make your stand. Will you don a space suit and venture onto the lunar surface in unarmed buggies and shuttles, trying to intercept the enemies before they reach the base itself? Your daring may spare damage to the base and its inhabitants, but out there on the bleak grey dust of the Moon most of you will be only one suit rupture away from a terrible death! You’ll be safer defending from within the base itself, where at least there’s shelter.

The oncoming robots come in two varieties: beefy KILLER ROBOT SPACE LIZARDs, and more subtle COPYCAT DROIDS. The lizards are seven feet long, tough and armoured, equipped with razor teeth and claws, an electric tail, and laser-beam eyes. They also lay ACID-BOMB EGGS that characters will have to disable or dispose of before they burst, corroding the Moon Base still further and causing structural damage. But they're really just the demolition crew for the base, and not that dangerous to imPorts compared to the smaller cats.

These bad kitties are prowling for imPorts, and will fire energy beams at them from their heads, attempting to steal their talent powers. If the beam strikes true, not only is the imPort de-powered until the Copycat is destroyed, but the Copycat will also morph into liquid metal and shift into a metallic copy of the imPort in question, complete with their powers and any specialized gear they may have, which they'll immediately use to wreak havoc on imPorts and natives alike. Get ready to experience firsthand what it’s like to be powerless in the face of a superpowered attacker!

As lasers flash, heroes smash, and robots explode, the Moon Base will begin taking damage despite the best efforts of characters. Injured staff will cry out for assistance and rescue, falling debris will threaten to pin people to the floor, hull breaches will threaten to drain the base’s oxygen and blow people out into space, and fires and explosions will wrack the Science Dome in particular as the robots try to detonate its volatile experiments and power sources to wipe out the entire base!

By the end of the fray everyone at the Moon Base will have been evacuated alive if not necessarily uninjured while all robots are disabled. However, there will have been heavy damage to the Science Dome in particular. Your characters can get started on repair and recovery if they want to stick around. Either way, the bravery shown by imPorts defending the Swear-In will result in EVERYONE being declared a winner at the Space Slam!

In the aftermath, characters will be able to glean more information about what just happened and why. It appears the robots ‘hatched’ from pods buried around the perimeter of the base in response to an activation signal. Apparently these pods have been lying in wait for over a year, while the Moon Base itself was still under construction as a highly-public imPort-led project! Those who are familiar with the history of the Otherworld Technologies Organization (OTO) may find familiarity in the design of the robots and pods. It would hardly be the first time the more extreme OTO elements were alleged to have pitted their killer machines against imPorts and civilians alike…

Comments

rupert hentzau | registered

[leatherboots]

Viewing Deck

[ Well, that's certainly something.

Nobody really warned Rupert just how overwhelming it is to see your own planet at a distance, surrounded by darkness like that. The reality of space - actual space with real stars and everything - overwhelming and dwarfing Earth in a boundless horizon with absolutely no end in sight. Infinite, staggeringly beautiful. Terrifying, yes, but so bloody exciting too.

But the dashing young Rupert von Hentzau, nobleman of Ruritania, doesn't show fear. He doesn't do overwhelming and he certainly doesn't do humility either. His hand doesn't so much as shake as he lifts his drink to his lip and takes a meditative sip, his gaze (wide, yes, and perhaps, okay, a little overwhelmed) trained firmly on the sight below them. And what a beautiful sight it is. ]

Fuck me, [ He remarks eventually, not caring for who might overhear him. ] Makes one feel lucky to be alive, doesn't it?

Grand Ballroom

[ The one thing that really helps with being confronted with the fragility of your own existence is alcohol, and luckily young Rupert can handle quite a lot of it. And so Hentzau is holding court in the grand ballroom, four drinks in and not so much as slurring even a tiny bit, as he leans elegantly against the bar as he drains the last of his fifth glass of ruby red wine in hand. Come and buy him a drink, looks like he'll need another one soon... ]

Something Else

( wildcard me up!! Rupert will not be sticking around for the fighting because SOMEHOW a sword isn't gonna cut it (haha) with killer robots. But anything up until the attack is fair game! Hit me up on plurk or shaz#0911 on discord for plotting. )

[cannotrest]

[Ashley nods, and directs one of her lizards to follow up on the one he's just knifed. So far the robots she indirectly attacks have shown little interest in the ones she controls, more focused on targeting imPorts and wrecking the base. It means she doesn't have to switch out to take over different robots too often but it also means they're still getting attacked.]

Copycat, 10 o'clock!

[Her lizards can't get a good angle on it, she doesn't want to risk losing technopathic control by sniping it, and she also does not want one of those robots getting its own Ghost.

[Fussing over the Copycat, she doesn't catch a lizard advancing on them from the opposite side.]

[mostlyprofessional]

She chuckles. "Oh, if I were you, I wouldn't underestimate it. But it should be fun."

ii

[mostlyprofessional]

[Huddling behind a wall with a gun pointed at the ground but held with familiarity, Chloe gives the kid a withering look.]

Do I look metal to you? Go on, poke me.

[She offers her left hand, her right still holding the gun.]

II

[mostlyprofessional]

Chloe's phone is in her hand, her browser tabs open to photos of .45 Defenders, as she slips through the crowds, easily finding the gaps in the panic and confusion. Similarly to Nate, she doesn't pause to answer him.

"I'm leaving," she says, as if it should be obvious. "It's been fun and all, but even with all the weird crap we've seen, I didn't sign up for this robot rubbish."

[fource]

[A similar wavelength, but still vastly different experiences. Quatre smiles reflexively and wonders for a moment how different he would be, as a person, if he'd seen it all the other way around: first from living on the planet's surface, and then as just a ball in the rest of outer space, one more spot like the rest of them. Still humbling, but for a different reason. But then again, if his family had lived on the planet, everything else would have been different too, and maybe he wouldn't need humbling in the first place.]

They should see it both ways. I grew up on a colony in Earth's orbit. [He points with the pen, a perfect 60 degrees left of the planet.] The Earth looks the same from here, but I couldn't imagine how beautiful it was on the surface until I actually saw it. I could appreciate it more, after that... This could be the best thing imPorts did for this universe. Giving all the people of this world a chance to see it for themselves, not just the scientists. [The but is unspoken, but there's still a twinge of regret, or things not yet achieved, in his tone.] It could really make a difference here.

[knaval]

You'd be surprised how close to actual tactics I've used before that is.

[his hands slam into it and he seems to be having some trouble keeping it down, but he's holding onto it! for now.]

Nope! If I die out here, make sure you tell people to avoid floating into the pink stuff! Whoof, it'll look like a snowglobe!

[with the robot in his hands, riptide pushes it into the ground of the moon, leaving big scars on the surface.]

[hampire]

[Personally, Eccarius would have crossed out the 'why' and written in 'at your peril' because he's extra like that. Not that he's actually wearing a label himself, but that's more of an 'it would clash with his outfit' aesthetic than any sort of anti-government rebelliousness.]

A common sentiment, I think. While they might not be directly responsible for the imPorts presence, they certainly try to control it as much as they can, don't they?

Actually, I'm not. Didn't feel the need.

[loyal_soldier]

He hadn't grown up to fight droids, but there'd been enough of them left over from the war that retrofitted B-series were something just about every stormtrooper had gone up against. Some of them were good as new, others held all sorts of strange and nasty additions. This barely felt any different than that, and it was all the more comfortably familiar with Rex there.

"Copy that." He's gotten the rhythm of working with his powers down to muscle memory by now. Under normal conditions, there'd always been a moment's extra pause when lining up a tricky shot. ID the target, inhale and get the lead on their movements, fire on the exhale. That kept you steady. But now, he could shave off extra fractions of a second, find a tempo that kept him loose enough to take any small adjustments the power made up until the moment he pulled the trigger.

Today he was aiming for necks when he could. They were big, lightly-armored joints, and kept droid databanks intact for the techs to mess with. Hell, the lizards even had some bundles of exposed wires in there to burn holes through. A couple shots was all it took. "Looks like the civvies are cleared out. It's just our side and targets now."

Luther & Allison ☂ Of a stolen place, caught in silence

[numberthree]

It's weird. It's definitely weird. But weird is rather the ley line of this place, and it doesn't stop her from politely finishing her conversation and then sliding away from the crowd with a quick, definitive step clicking her heels as she goes. Allison knows where she's going before she leaves the room, who she's looking for as she scans above crowds more than through them. Passes rooms easily in her search.

Until she finds Luther.

Head and shoulders above anyone in a room she'd least expect to find him in. This one most filled with loud music, boisterous people, and dancing. She can't help judging the room, even if she tries to remind herself she supposed to not-be. But she can't check the helplessly almost-pitying smile at how out of place he looks on closer focus. Impossible to miss and yet pinned to a wall as if he'd rather sink into it than leave it.

That's the Luther she knows.

(That's the one she's more relieved to see than any phantom of a completely different, completely changed person she has no real clue how to begin to pretend she could adjust to him suddenly being.)

Her hands come together and clasp a little, mouth pressing, everything catching up in her shoulders with a breath in, the tap of one set of toes. It wasn't like she came with a plan. Just the absolute impulse that he's the one she wanted to tell -- show? -- first.

Even if he hasn't at all lately,

Allison can't think of anyone else she would.

1/somethin

[h2no]

[archie's about to shout after her as she dives in, and when she's finished and looking back, his arm is still outstretched.]

[h2no]

[why has he never seen this before]

[h2no]

[he has so many questions. how does it work? how often can she use it? does it hurt? does it drain her?]

[h2no]

[why were there sparkles]

ok done

[h2no]

[he just blinks once.

twice.

opens his mouth.

closes it.

blinks.]

That's... cool. [his tone is flat but there's an inflection in it that suggests he's feeling many, many things at once.]

[rebelhealer]

"Just don't go easy on me," The voice over the speaker announces that players should get into position. Anders steps up to the line.

[mycrosstobear]

"Yeah. The main problems on terrain like this-" he waves a hand out towards the lunar surface, "would be the uneven ground and dust clogging everything up. Since this hovers..." His smile broadens on one side, showing his teeth. "Things should be easy."

He takes a step back, looking speculatively between the bike and the other vehicles. "Wonder how you'd jump, though." That could be an important advantage.

[lootsnshoots]

[Cayde's starting to run low on ammo, so he powerslides to the closest enemy lizard, gamely dodges its attempts to melee him, commandeers one of those acid eggs, takes a leap into the air and slams the egg at the Copycat with a twirl. As the acid begins to eat into the robot, he readies his aim with a spin.]

Bad kitty!

[Blam blam, what other lizard?]

[by_candlelight]

"Is there some way to make it release a large amount of power? Or is that not how hovering works?" She goes to get into a position to look between the bike and the other vehicles like he is, hoping to be able to tell what he's seeing in them all.

(She fails.)

Catra | Unsettled

[plentystrong]

Fun and Games // open

[ Catra said she'd come, and so she did. The chance to be on the moon is just too damn cool to miss, okay? And if they get attacked, so what. She's made for combat. It'll be fine.

She dives into the games with enthusiasm, alternating between trying to lead and organize her team and abandoning all teamwork to throw herself in the fray. The latter is mostly the case during Laser Tag because listen... those lasers are very enticing, okay. She can also be seen living it up in Battle Royale and Irritation Lane and having a great and very dignified time, thank you in the Bouncy Castel, and finally, showing off her moves at the Dance-Off.

Before the matches, she definitely trash talks her opponents with the best of them, and after, she can be seen hovering around the snack bar and marveling at the view on the Earth Viewing Deck. Walking around here, she eventually takes a tag and scribbles on it I'm a graffiti artist, ask me anything. ]


Show You The Moon And The Stars // locked to Adora

[ Of course, a good thing can never just be nice and uncomplicated with Adora around. And Adora very much is around, as Catra notices about 0.5 seconds into the event. She mostly avoids her, but after having seen the Earth Viewing Deck, there's a moment when she re-enters the dome proper... and there she sees her.

And somehow, something within her just knows that this is a moment that may never come again, so her feet carry her toward Adora almost on her own, until she's in speaking distance, where she leans against a convenient column, because of course there's a convenient column, and peeks out at Adora from behind it. ]

Psst! Adora!


Attack of the Bots

[ When hell does eventually beak loose, Catra is momentarily surprised, but not long. She throws herself into the battle, adrenaline pumping, and not even really caring why and for whom she's doing it -- there's just one thing that's clear, and that's that she doesn't back down from a fight once the ball is in her court. ]

[finnality]

[Finn had gotten a little ahead of himself in fighting through those robots and didn't quite know what he was in store for. This was the result of that: now, one of them had ended up taking his form, while Finn was left without access to his powers. Though he was used to working without powers, his mechanical arm was one of those powers. It was now lifeless, but still attached to him; that made it even worse than removing it entirely, as now it was like a hunk of metal weighing him down. He had no counter prepared for the enemy... when someone placed himself between them.

He looked up hopefully at Fern.]

Fern!! [He exclaims. Then he frantically answers his question.] When it's an evil robot me, that's a good exception to make! A very good exception!!

[The copycat had already gotten the hang of Finn's powers and was wielding several swords of varying quality. With those in hand, it advanced upon Fern, ready to indiscriminately tear apart any target in its path.]

[bookkeeper]

Nate isn't sure he's seen this guy around, maybe he's new, who knows. Unfortunately now isn't the time for an hour long get to know one another session. That time has come and gone, seeing as Nate's name tag reads I'M A TREASURE HUNTER, ASK ME ANYTHING.

"I think I'm good, for now. Just can't be too sure who's staying and who's heading off, that's all." Same goes for who's an Import like him and who's a civilian. "What are your abilities?"

[bookkeeper]

Nate's in the same boat— fuck the politics. Politics to him include stiff collars, rich dudes spouting nonsense they know nothing about, pretending to be scientists and know everything. He would rather get his hands dirty than hide behind a desk.

In the middle of doing a quick sketch of the view, he pauses to glance over. Smirks at the nametag. His own reads "I'm a Treasure Hunter, Ask Me Anything".

"This is my first time. Any other time it's through movies or whatever's on the news."

[finnality]

[This guy does look like the guy in charge. What an honor! And kinda amazing that he can do this in that armor without puncturing anything. Of course, Finn will take the match just as seriously. He tries his best to stare him down while bouncing up and down.]

Are you talking to yourself? [Bounce!] Cause that's the only way that makes - [Bounce!] - sense. I'll outbounce you any day and anywhere, and especially right - [Bounce!] here and now!

Hero of the Day Award goes to....

[bookkeeper]

"Seriously?" He's staring at her, and then he's making a face. "Seriously? And do you think they signed up for this 'robot rubbish'?" Nate's referring to the civilians running past them.

"Yeah, okay, none of us signed up for this, Chloe, but we have something that they don't. We should be helping them."