THE GOTTALA XES THER

[capemods]

WHO: ImPorts.
WHERE: Gottala Xes Ther of TíraFórsae.
WHEN: April 21st 2013 noon to April 25th 11:59 PM.
WARNINGS: Possible violence, gore. Possible invasion of privacy.
SUMMARY: Off-world adventure on EARTH KLADSUO834LKSFDLKJ8718=LAJD
FORMAT: Whatever.



[It translates roughly into the "storm lover", something you might pick up on if you're exposed to lower cant. And that's a fairly accurate description of this Gottala: the Xes Ther is smaller and swifter than your average city-ship, keeping never more than 374 individuals aboard. Its housing is clean but minimalistic, its gardens have no decorative value: only essential nutrients are grown. There is a heavier reliance on fishing upon this Gottala, and no sight of field-fed livestock that is common on others. No beef, no poultry, no pork.

Just fish.

And sprawls of laboratories.

Laboratories that connect like honeycombs: they octagon sprawl into each other, forming larger segments of the same structure. And in these labs? Storms are made. Or, more precisely: the effects of weather patterns are mimicked and induced. Xes Ther is a craftsman city-ship, and all of its members contribute to creating, controlling and selling weather-born energy.]

Comments

OPEN

[hackeralastair]

Despite his distinct lack of fighting instincts, when things started attacking Alastair knew one thing - get out of the way. Get underground. Of course, being a ship, there was no ground, but there was something underneath the surface deck and he was going to go into it. Finding a way in wasn't so much an issue; finding his way to a safe space on the other hand...

He wandered for what felt like hours, shying away from any hatch or stairwell opening upwards from which the sounds of battle drifted down. At this rate, if someone caught him and tried to probe him, he would let them, because the alternative seemed to be being ripped to shreds by killer mermaids or whatever those were. At least it didn't take more than an overheard shout from a distance for his power to trigger, making it easy for him to communicate. "Baich'feeuh'gell'epee~!" he called out into the corridors ahead. Even if it was one of the locals, he could beg for someone to protect him.

It only brought him more trouble. Someone found him, all right, but it was someone just as scared as he was, if not more so. The Tirisean raced up to him and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat, clinging to him and babbling in his face. Alastair tried to shove him off to no avail, and then became conscious of what he was rambling about. It wasn't hard for any native to ping Alastair for an Import, but this was a reaction he wasn't expecting. What did he know about that? Alastair gestured to try to calm the crazy fuck down and vaguely agreed to protect him, although how he was going to do that, he didn't know. His Oricalchos cards didn't come with him, he didn't even know if the power worked without them or if anything on this crazy world had a soul he could take. But the guy seemed to think his Import status meant he had a way of saving them, so Alastair shrugged and went for it. He asked where they could go to find a safe hiding place, and followed the Tirisean's lead.

[incywincyhero]

Marooned on an alien planet or not, Spider-Man was still a superhero, so when he saw the commotion erupting on one of the smaller gottalas he wasted no time in jumping into the water and swimming over. By some miracle -- or maybe, the single-minded focus of the ape-fish on their goal -- he went unmolested right up until he pulled himself on board and threw himself into the fight.

For long minutes it was nothing but chaos, as Spidey pummelled, kicked, and webbed his way through the fray, bodily throwing Tiriseans out of harm's way when necessary. The ape-fish weren't as fast as he was, but they were meaner and not at all concerned about collateral damage. One scored a gash on his arm; another lunged for his leg, and without Peter's spider-sense it would've ripped into his femoral artery.

Finally, he found a clear space and a momentary absence of opponents to catch a breather and patch his wounds. But he'd only just finished applying the last of his slap-dash web-bandages when he saw one of the creatures slip down a hatch belowdecks.

Cursing to himself, he bounded after, slapping new cartridges into his web-shooters as he went.

[hackeralastair]

The stranger was leading them through the lower decks with practiced ease, gesturing for Alastair to come along. Wherever they were going to hide, it sure was taking them time to get there. He wasn't at all expecting that who or whatever was attacking this ship (gottala, to them) would manage to get down a hatch, nor that it would sniff out life and go straight for them. The ape-fish emerged from the shadows in a flash of limbs and teeth, setting on Alastair bringing up the rear. Fortunately, the first swipe raked through the excess volume of his coat, shredding the tails but leaving him temporarily unscathed. The surprise of it made him yelp, though, and start swearing in Swoshu cant, English, and Croatian in a rather colorful mix of sounds and words he almost couldn't control.

For a moment, he was braver than he ever expected. Maybe it was something Hiruma drilled into him years ago that actually stuck. He lashed out with a kick, connecting in the creature's gut and sending it reeling back a few feet. It bought them a second or two in which to start running, but then the thing was going to be right behind them. Some protector he was.

[incywincyhero]

Spidey skittered along the wall, following the slap of running feet and the grunt of impact between two bodies. He charged around the corner just as the ape-fish made a lunge for an imPort wearing a coat that was clearly not having a good day. Space was tight enough that he only had to stick out his arms and grab, slamming the creature up against the ceiling.

"Take it easy, big guy," he said easily, only now using his webbing to secure the ape-fish in place. "Phwoar! You know, people might not run away from you so fast if it weren't for the halitosis. Okay, and the giant needle teeth, sure, but don't they have breath mints where you come from? Talk about an untapped market."

He jumped down to the floor, brushing off his hands. "You two all right?" He craned his neck to look around his fellow imPort at the shaking Tirisean man, and reached out to steady him. "I dunno if you can understand me, Mister, but you're safe now."

[hackeralastair]

The sudden flurry of activity threw Alastair for a moment, but he realized very quickly that somebody was there to save them. He reeled into the far wall, opposite where the now-captive creature was frothing at all of them, and tried to catch his breath. "He...no, he can't understand you," he said shakily, glancing at the Tirisean with them. "Gimme a sec, I can..."

He gestured beckoningly at the third person, unable to pick up the language again unless he said something. Fortunately, the Tirisean recovered enough to babble something, to which Alastair replied fluently. Whatever he said seemed to put the guy at ease, at least temporarily, though he kept shooting wary glances both at the thing webbed to the wall and the guy who had done the webbing.

As for Alastair, he took a moment to right his own language again and then shook his head slowly. Even though he was usually behind on a lot of pop culture references, who didn't know about certain superheroes? "So. I get 'ported somewhere weird with elfy people who live on the ocean, then I get attacked by evil mermaids, and then I'm rescued by Spider-man. This officially can't get any weirder."

[incywincyhero]

"Friendly multiverse webhead, at your service," Spidey said with a bow and a flourish. "But listen, if you two are all right we should keep moving -- I dunno what's up with those fishy... monkey things, but they seem pret-ty intent on pushing their way in as far as possible. Can you ask him if there's somewhere safe nearby? I can guard you on the way there, at least."

[hackeralastair]

"Yeah, yeah," Alastair nodded enthusiastically. "I was trying to get this guy to take me somewhere safe, he'll feel better with two of us I think. Especially since I'm bluffing and I don't have any powers that can help." His lips twisted wryly. "Unless you want me to blow the place up around us. I'm sure that'd stop the attack."

He turned to the Tirisean and gestured for him to continue leading, as he had been. It was going to give him a headache, listening to first one and then the other and switching back and forth between languages, but he much preferred it to being killed in another world where there was no Porter to resurrect him. "Thanks," he added under his breath to Spider-man.

[incywincyhero]

"Not a problem," he said, even as he hopped back onto the ceiling. When the Tirisean stopped in his track to stare, Spidey gestured him onwards with a soft noise of impatience, then followed after in a half-crabwise crawl that let him keep an eye out ahead and behind.

"So, does our guy know anything about the defenses on this place? What's it called... Xes ther, is that right?"

[hackeralastair]

"I haven't talked to him much," Alastair admitted as he kept pace, trying to keep from being last in the pack any more. "He seems to get that we're the people with the powers, though, and right now that's more important than where we came from or what we're doing. He just keeps asking for someone to protect him, he won't say how or why." He glanced over his shoulder at the spider on the wall. "The last couple days, though, I've gotten the feeling this is some kind of laboratory ship. Scientists and such. They probably don't have any defenses." Just like me, he kept to himself.

[incywincyhero]

"You sure picked up quick on the local lingo," Spider-Man observed, looking back the way they'd come. Funny how an underground passageway on another planet didn't look markedly different from anything he'd see back home.

[hackeralastair]

"Oh..." Alastair kept his eyes forward, lips twitching awkwardly. "...it's, uh. It's one my powers. One word from him and I can pick up his language."

As if on cue, the Tirisean leading them spoke up enthusiastically, pointing ahead. There were doors in the passage ahead, leading off to storage rooms that could be barricaded or locked. Alastair answered him in his own tongue and then took a moment to shake the cant out of his head. "Apparently we're heading into a storage area. I don't know what's down here but he seems to think this is a safe area."

[incywincyhero]

"Bet that's come in pretty handy, these past few days." Spidey's tone was admiring, but casual. Some imPorts might be startled by the range of powers their fellows display, but he wasn't one of them.

Spidey let the Tirisean lead the way into a room, then shut the door and looked around. "Sounds good enough for me. We should find a way to arm you two -- hopefully that one ape-thing I stopped was just a straggler, but we need to be prepared."

[hackeralastair]

"Yeah, it's about the only thing saving my ass right about now," Alastair sighed. Being able to communicate was more valuable than even he expected, for the last few days he had come to no longer take his otherwise useless power for granted.

The Tirisean seemed to want to say a few words of praise and thanks to his rescuers, but Alastair held up a hand to get him to shut up while he dealt with the matter at hand. "What do you mean, arm us? I don't do weapons. No, nu-uh."