Futuristic Beyond The Stars

[sleepyginkgo]

Beyond The Stars

A space adventure roleplay by Sanya & sleepyginkgo ​

 

[sleepyginkgo]

T H E A
‘A slew of constellation names fell from her lips.’​

Deep earthy browns against sterile metallic grey. A chaotic arrangement of charcoal sketches and torn illustrations of plants and animals past extinction covered almost every inch across the white walls. A robust jar containing sand a vibrant shade of burnt orange sat on the desk at the center of the room. Rows upon rows of rocks of all textures and sizes neatly lined up along tall shelves. The usual state of her workspace was by definition a violation against the university’s high standards of order and uniformity, but Thea paid no heed to the complaints and warnings addressed to her on a regular basis.

A brash beeping accompanied a display screen that materialized in front of her, informing her of the current hour. Oh, stars! As usual, Thea had lost track of time and she was now behind schedule. Briskly, she gathered her belongings in a wide sweep of her arms and shoved them unceremoniously into her bag before rushing out. Moving farther away from university grounds, her surroundings took a more somber, nearly dilapidated tone. The streets were crowded as people shuffled by, and automobiles whirred and zoomed above ground and into the air. Thea would take the fastest route to her destination.

It was the tallest structure in the city within a reasonable distance from the university. Thea had often visited it during the early hours of the evenings when the sun had begun to set right before the horizon changed from deep golden hues to cool whispers of indigo. The young woman passed hastily through an alleyway between buildings; her bright auburn hair, messily wavy and barely grazing her shoulders, bounced as she moved along. The path was well-memorized but her uncoordinated feet could not be helped. Thea lost her footing as she clambered over a particular fence, tumbling forward and snagging the already worn corner of her bag resulting in its contents spilling at her feet.

A slew of constellation names fell from her lips, all muttered distractedly under her breath. Standing on the other side of the fence, she was at a much lower ground-level where her bag was now far out of her reach. Thea directed her gaze upwards towards a sky that grew darker; grey clouds promising of eventual rain hung thinly in the near distance. “I still have time,” Thea murmured in self-assurance as her eyes fell upon her bag once more. Before she attempted to kick the fence and give it a good hard shake, crunching footsteps approached from behind and a voice spoke.

“My, my.” The stranger’s patchy coat dragged along the dirt as a lazy grin spread across his face. “That’s a nice gadget you got there.” His beady eyes stared pointedly upon a device among many of her other knickknacks that had fallen out of her ripped bag just minutes ago.

“It really is,” Thea replied steadily though her eyes were trained upon him warily. “But it’s very fragile...and it belongs to me, so please don’t touch it.” Her words barely left her when the man stepped forward to pick up the flat round object, turning it over between his hands in scrutiny.

“I bet this’ll be worth a pretty penny.”

 

[Sanya]

“Go North,” that provident barmaid said, puffing cigarette smoke like an old train back in the mechanical age. That’s probably why he liked her so much. He’s always been more into mechanics than electronics. “There’s no chance you can miss that building,” that old wrinkly merchant kept repeating while trying to sell a weird-looking pyramid-shaped green fruit with pink stripes. He bought two and ate one, but didn’t really like the sour taste, preferring sweets. “Just go North and you’ll be fine,” the child with freckled face and ginger hair squeaked, probably scared a bit, but more than that just curious about the eight-feet tall metal creature that looks like a robot and talks like a human. He loved children. Sadly, they tend to loose their adorable excitement more and more while growing up. The one with freckles was especially nice, so he gave him the remaining green-pink weird fruit.

They couldn’t all be lying. He was used to traps and schemes to catch “the precious piece of steel”, but three different people said to go North, and there was no chance they could connive with each other. North he went. And messed up big time.

Turned out North wasn’t where he thought it was. Who could’ve guessed that just running to the coldest place in town wasn’t the most logical thing to do? A powerful thunderstorm was approaching, and he froze with fear when realised he was rushing towards it. Apparently, navigating with his build in compass broken wasn’t one of his strenghts.

So he hurried back to safety, hoping to find a shelter before the first drops of water hit the ground. And he messed up again, taking a couple of wrong turns and ending up in the area he didn’t know at all. It was somewhat too industrial for his taste, too crowded and too open. Rare cozy alleys where one could hide from unwanted attention were either already occupied by other outlaws or too well-known to local citizens as shortcuts. The roads were grey and suited for different kinds of transport unlike the obscure scorched paths he was used to in the outskirts and dumps. The buildings were tall and wide, sometimes with glass walls, sometimes covered in antennas, sometimes bright and shining with different shades of colorful neon. He wasn’t surprised. He’s seen the cities. It was only that today, in this thunderstorm, in this pretty damn bad state of some of his systems, the city was where he least wanted to be.

The police tried to approach him a couple of times, but the main advantage of being tall is than he could run really fast, faster than anyone else. Though he was no longer sure where to run, being frightened by both the storm and the mere idea of getting to safety through the whole narrow and dangerous city.

Soon he found himself in front of a fence which he probably should have intended to clamber over but wasn’t sure of anything anymore. All kinds of thoughts swept in his head like a hurricane, as he stood there, confused, frowning and accidentally overhearing a short dispute over some gadgets.

“Well,” he said to himself, “if you don’t know what to do, do the right thing!”. So he grabbed the top of the fence and pulled down with all of his strenght and weight. It creaked, rattled and fell, and so did the girl's bag she was trying to reach so desperately. She and her offender probably became aware of his presence instantly, so he didn’t hesitate to come closer and take a more attentive look at what was going on. It was at this moment when the man started to freak out noticing the easily distinguishable metal parts of the cyborg’s body.

“Hello there!” the cyborg said calmly, as if he didn’t care how dangerous it might have been. True. He didn’t. “Is this man troubling you?” he asked the girl, smiling and scratching his metal nose – the only artificial part of his human face – with his steel fingers.

 

[sleepyginkgo]

“What could have changed his mind, I wonder.”​

A creaking sound of metal reached her ears as her old brown leather bag plopped onto the ground in a soft thump. Thea watched the stranger’s expression flit from confusion to a slow recognition of alarm as his eyes shifted and focused to something behind her instead.

“Tch, you’re not worth my time,” the man stammered in an unconvincing bravado as he tossed the silver disc-like object aside before he turned his heels in a fluster. The young woman let out a small yelp as she shot her arms forward in an attempt to catch the device, resulting in her falling face forward in a dusty puff of dirt that smudged her chin and cheek.

The object, cool and smooth in her hands, remained undamaged. Thea let out a breath of relief before she directed her gaze upwards towards the tall figure. Even as she scrambled up onto her feet, she had to tilt her head far back to meet his eyes. With his question still lingering in the air, Thea glanced over her shoulder only to see a speck of the man fleeing into the distance. “Not anymore, he isn’t,” Thea said with a quick shake of her head as she looked down at her device. “He wasn’t wrong about its worth.” A small knowing smile bloomed across her expression as she brought her eyes upwards to the cyborg once more. “What could have changed his mind, I wonder.”

Her dark brown eyes wandered all over his features in growing fascination. Her belongings were still scattered about and her bag was limply splayed on the ground, waiting to be retrieved. Thea, however, was more interested in the cyborg in front of her. “Thank you for your help,” she managed to say after a moment of unabashed staring. Numerous questions rose in crashing tides in her mind. She had never seen a cyborg up close before, let alone speak with one.

Unlike the man’s reaction towards the cyborg, Thea showed no sign of trepidation. Anyone who was willing to help another stranger seemed like a safe indication of good character. “I’m Dorothea. Dorothea Finch,” she said brightly. “I prefer Thea, though. You can call me Thea.” It was a nervous habit of hers - often repeating herself to redundancy - as if, at times, her uncontainable excitement overflowed and inhibited her ability of speech.

A low rumble cut through the dark sky above them, tearing her attention away for a moment. “Stay away clouds,” she spoke, though mainly to herself as her thoughts returned to her initial objective. “Stay away. Don’t rain on me just yet.” Thea began collecting her things, haphazardly piling them into her arms, while slinging her now useless bag over her shoulder.

Thea paused in her step. Her mind danced between the prospect of getting to her intended destination and her strong curiosity that gravitated towards the cyborg at present. He had shown her kindness and, as she wanted to return the favor, Thea was gripped with an idea. Another smile settled upon her face.

“Do you like stars?”