riverview | Missions, readiness and you (@gladio; video)

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Missions, readiness and you (@gladio; video)

[ There's a video feed of a monster thrashing wildly, tramping over the ground and kicking up dirt and debris as it rushes toward the perimeter. It's joined by another, and another. They follow and stamp, snorting steam as they scream towards the fence. The video cuts away before the finale - where the Perimeter Guard make short work on the creatures. Instead, the camera focuses on a man with deep brown hair, amber eyes and wearing only a leather jacket and a large tattoo of a bird.

Hello, network. There's been enough reasons to warrant a public message about safety (particularly now that it's his job), as well as an advertisement for self improvement. He's a big guy and despite his casual appearance and tone, he speaks with a certain authority of one with a lot of experience giving inspirational instruction. ]

I'm sure you've seen the posts. Missions, a chance to do your part here. You might even be tempted to try it solo. Don't. If you think you're gonna be able to stand up against a swarm by yourself, don't bother - you won't stand a chance. [ Gladiolus drops his gaze down to his palm, then tightens it into a fist. ] But I ain't meetin' my end here, and I'm not about to let that happen to anyone on my watch. So be careful out there, team up. Train. Don't get caught in a bad situation unprepared.

[ The King's Shield's mouth pulls into a smile, hoisting a very massive greatsword nearly as tall as he is with a blade almost as wide as his waist and letting it rest on his shoulder. He doesn't seem to show any effort in doing so. ]

I'll be holding some combat training down by the barracks if you're interested in learning how to keep you and your loved ones safe. Survival skills, physical training, weapon skills... if you're interested, just ask for Gladio. That said, I got some missions that I'm opening up for interested parties. One is pretty routine - get our tech guy to the fence for repairs, then get out. The other? Well, let's just call it an extended seminar on living off the land... there are some pretty impressive beasts out there, some of which might even be tameable. Lemme know what you think.

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[ Okay. Doctor is a family friend-slash-father figure. Got it. Gladio nods along as she explains. What follows is an explanation only half of which Gladio understands. And then it gets weird.

Wait wait wait ]

Birthed you?

[ it was only natural for him to ask - the wombsys was one of those things that needed to be explained with more than just a voice over a communicator. So she reaches over to switch to the video function, a pale, clearly young face framed by dark hair and bright blue eyeshadow. Her device seems to be propped up so that she could talk without having to hold it, a notebook spread out in front of her that was more digital than paper. ]

I'll give you the short version. Earth in my home world was irradiated thousands of years ago, making humans physically unable to reproduce in... traditional ways. So instead doctors like Daedalus began to create human children through what was called a wombsys. Their genetic codes were built from the ground up with specific tasks - raison d'etras - in mind, and then the created children were left to grow in mechanical wombs as they would have a human one before.

So in that way, Daedalus birthed me from start to finish.

Earth?

[ Did she just mispronounce Eos? More importantly, the more she begins describing this strange, technological abomination that is her birth, the more Gladio feels that deep rooted hatred.

Is this lady a Niff? ]

That sounds suspiciously like Imperial Magitek.

[ There's a pause, her brows knit, trying to figure out exactly what the hell hes saying or what this technology he's talking about is, even. Sure she was used to this whole thing of being from different places in different time statuses before, but the differences in titling for technology were still the hardest eggs to crack so far as she was concerned.

Either way, she's shrugging her shoulders, flicking a hologram page in her notebook. ]

I don't even know what the hell that is, but no. Magic has absolutely no involvement in the scientific process of creating a fetus and making sure it grows as it should. [ Ah, science dead pan. As usual. ] I've seen it, there's nothing mystic about it. It's probably the most ... disconcerting thing I've ever seen.

[ Gladio reluctantly settles, reminding himself to remember orientation. Alternate universes are real. Hers might not even have Magitek, might not even be Eos. ]

Right. Different universes.

...Sounds it. [ Disconcerting, that is. Gladiolus is slow to offer a sympathetic glance, but he eventually gives it. ]

Is it as strange as finding yourself here?

Right. I'd say no one was really wounded by originating in places other than my home world. [ Either environment was very dog eat dog - Romdeau did so in more subtle ways with word games and verbal chess to gain notoriety one way or another, and the outside world - well, that was just cold and wild. Survival was an every day consideration.

At least for her and Vincent.

She shrugs when he asks if it's as strange as here, eventually moving her head in the motion of "no." ]

I was actually somewhere other than home before I was even here. A ship in space with questionable crew and motives and probably a security structure like Romdeau. That, I would say, set me a bit more on edge. If only because the hush-hush about what we were doing and why was too close to like home and set me on edge from the beginning.

[ That first part leaves Gladio feeling a bit lost, but he doesn't interrupt so much as grimace and scrub at the back of his neck. This is flying right over his head, probably one of those 'you had to have been there' kinds of things, but with the way she describes it? Maybe that's a good thing. ]

Hang on.

[ There was a lot going on in this explanation, but if there's one thing Gladio's going to latch on and take away from this conversation, it'll be the one thing that is utterly foreign from his world. ]

In space? [ Said in that incredulous tone of someone who has never heard of such a thing. He mistakenly thinks it's another way to describe air travel. ] Where I'm from that's called flight.

Yes, space. [ She's casual about it, but then again Re-L is casual and calm about almost everything. The wonder she'd felt on seeing stars and planetary systems for the first time had been something utterly and completely over taking at first. Hours had been spent just taking it all in, and her first night in Riverview had been the same. Night skies and daytime skies in her version of Earth were both the same : cloudy. Seeing stars and the lot was incredible so far as she was concerned.

Yes, she's 19 and hasn't seen stars before. ]

No, not flight. It's different than being in an air ship of any kind. You're above planetary atmosphere and in the free float of outer space. [ She pauses, and then : ] Stars are absolutely amazing outside of an atmosphere, on that note.

[ For some, looking at the stars brings to mind tales of deities and fortunes, for others it's balls of burning gas whose light has been long extinguished by the time it reaches them. For Gladio, they're something to look at, a helpful navigational tool, a vehicle for storytelling around a campfire. There are books he's read that range from the scientific mapping of these points of light to the cosmological.

Traveling out among the stars is a fantasy, nothing more. It doesn't even occur to him that this is what she means by 'space'. Gladio's blank stare says it all. Planetary atmosphere is like... air, right? ]

I'm not following. [ Why would you float? ]

[ Oh Gladio... She pauses to blink, kind of.. confused as to how the hell she could explain this in a way that didn't sound like she was lecturing an elementary schooler. It's the first time she's ever had to explain space, in a way, to someone who's clearly never been and clearly has never heard of space travel. Granted, she had never experienced it in her version of Earth, only in witnessing people dropping back to Earth's surface after the destruction of Romdeau.

Screw it - ]

If you were to launch off of Earth's surface, upwards toward the sky - you would pass through layers of atmosphere before breaking through and finding yourself in space. [ She's trying to not sound like she's talking to him like he's an idiot, truly - it's just the default way she speaks, most days, particularly when explaining things she found basic. ]

It's - traveling between planets and stars. Nebulas, those kinds of things. I'd thought seeing the Aurora Borealis was the top of what I'd see in my lifetime until I was on that ship.

[ It's a good thing he has his looks -- OKAY WAIT TO BE FAIR... the scholars of his time have not discovered this amazing thing known as 'space' to Re-L and how to travel in it. For him it's the heavens and only travelers and Astrals give a shit about what's going on up there. ]

Earth? I come from Eos.

There's nothing beyond the sky, only death. Mortals can't travel the realm of the Astrals. Or... something.

[ He was never much of a believer... until he saw Noctis summon Ramuh and spear the ground with a huge crack of lightning that scorched everything within the area. ]

...I don't know what your lands are -- Nebula, Aurora, Borealis -- they're foreign to me.

The name of whatever planet your from is the most arbitrary detail to this entire discussion. [ Oops - someone's temper seems to be getting the best of her a little bit here. If Donov Mayer was about he'd probably already be admonishing her about her fits of temper and how she ought to learn a little more control.

Thankfully for her - he isn't. ]

What kind of ridiculous prophet are you listening to, with that? [ Ah, the kind of distain that comes from a very scientific background where the idea of 'Gods' prior to learning of proxies was, (and still is), incredibly laughable for her. ]

A nebula is a cloud of dust and gas in space, not a land - [ Wait - why bother with science if he's listening to sky prophets - ]

I'll spare you the long explanations - aurora borealis is simply colors in the sky made by electromagnetic collision, if memory serves me right. I suppose I ought to just tell you 'colors in the sky' and keep it simple.

Listen, that's just what I've read, but there's some truth to those stories. I've seen the Astrals for myself. They're real alright.

[ Gladio shrugs. Hey, he's completely out of his element here. Sure, he knows there are stars and special lights and stuff but a lot of them fall under unfamiliar names, terms. Not all of them prophetical in nature. ]

I'm not exactly an expert on this kinda stuff -- I know there's stars and whatever, but all that other stuff goes over my head.

If you say so. [ She's a sort of see it to believe it girl - so unless Noctis brings down another one right in front of her, then she'll remain unconvinced. Thankfully it's not something she'll linger on if it's not pushed, so thankfully it'll most likely fade in to the background. ]

Well, some excel in different subjects. [ There's a flick of her fingers as if to say that she's not all that interested in giving lessons, at least, not in that very moment. ]

Though, being out here I'm curious to see if the stars are just as clear.. Probably better outside of the city without the rest of the lights.

When it's clear out, you can. You just gotta get far past the Perimeter, but I don't suggest you go it alone.

[ It's the whole purpose of this public announcement, after all. ]

Uh... if you see anything familiar, lemme know.

[ The night sky looked entirely different, unlike anything he recognized. It was a little unsettling. He'd have to get used to this if he wanted to use them to navigate by during survival training. ]

That seems to be the consensus around here.. but has anyone actually seen anything dangerous out there that isn't government personnel? [ Naturally a little distrusting on that end - two ruling bodies in her home world and the space ship before Riverview hadn't been completely transparent about their circumstances or what was happening 'outside.' Of course, her tune may rapidly change once she'd been beyond the walls, but until then.. ]

I'd be more shocked if I did see something familiar, considering I've only ever seen constellations from my own world through books. Nuclear winter doesn't provide the type of clear skies needed to see them in person.

You've never seen the sky?

[ This is the second person he's met who hasn't. ]

You're welcome to come with me the next time I'm heading out. You can see for yourself what you've been missing.

Can you handle yourself in a fight?

No. Not until here or when I visited other planets while I was on the Eluvio. Seeing stars for the first time in person without the filter of an atmosphere spoils you, too, I would say. [ Everything was so much more brilliant without the wafting atmosphere making the stars flicker and shiver, almost. And well.. colorful space gases and the rest. None of those were incredibly visible planet side, and she can see why people would want to live in space, if she's honest.

The idea of how many things can kill you in space, however, is not so entertaining. ]

I don't know if I'm missing much, but I'd appreciate a heads up. Jim Kirk is also keeping me posted on outings, so I might as well maximize my chances.

I can. Let's say I've had a lot of practice lately.

[ Living in the wastes herself has done a lot for her survival instincts at least. ]

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Missions, readiness and you (@gladio; video)

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Switching to video!

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sorry for the wait!

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