Day 1 | Night | Between the Rock and the Hard Place

[Kannon]

Their camp near the thopter by the cliffs became quickly functional with some collective effort, even with a bit of camouflage to obfuscate aerial identification. The gentle bluish glow of the deep jungle mixed with the silvery light of the Caladan's moon. The hums and roars and sqawks of the rainforest were like sharp notes against the monotone, rhythmic, stone giants' choir of the crashing waves beneath. If not for all the other pertinent circumstances, the setting could be considered melancholic, or romantic.

[Free RP for all in any configuration in this central thread, you can make side-threads in the same time slot for as much privacy as the situation allows. Strain is recovered. If you want my involvement, just wander off or apply the Sleep Rule. Bear in mind some important developments are still likely to happen in the previous thread.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

The adrenaline was finally working its way out of his system as Ambrose sat down taking a moment to collect himself. Starting with the abrupt wake up call this morning, through getting back in the pilot's seat, all the way to reconnecting with the rest of the task force, the day had been an unexpected and exhilarating return to his former life and more. He never thought he'd get a chance to serve again, wasn't sure he'd earned that privilege yet... He could really use something to take the edge off.

[Hadrian Martikova]

There had been no words to describe the relief Hadrian had felt when he saw team one safe and sound. Though he was a little amused by the fact that their pilot had managed to land perfectly. It went without saying that Thopter 2 would be the one stripped for parts in the morning. A task he found himself looking forward to doing.

And while it had been a rocky day, for the time being Hadrian could relax again. And he did so by the cliff overlooking the sea and the stars.

[Kannon]

snip

Mr. Bravo reminded of himself by mounting pressure on his arm, standing on one leg while using another to comb the feathers.

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran, meanwhile, found one of the few shafts of moonlight that managed to make its way uninterrupted through the canopy and grabbed a stick, drawing a circle in the dirt inside it with some script written in the same manner around the inside. Then they stand still at the center for a while, eyes closed, arms loose at their sides.

Their mind was less still.

They deliberately focused on their fingers, feeling everything in them. The slight movement of air against the skin. The sensation of each nerve impulse as it sent the signal of what they were feeling to the brain stem. They moved each finger slightly to feel the integration of the nerve action and muscle movement, the way the contraction of the muscle pulled on the bone just slightly through the ligament. They went through each part of their body slowly like this, appearing still as they practiced precise control of each part of their body. Slightly adjusting the pressure around the baroreceptors of the throat. Opening their eyes and slightly adjusting the subtle, tiny eye muscles until they could see into the dark forest outside of the moonlight as if it were daytime. Watching their own thoughts with deliberateness.

After about 10 minutes of seeming to just stand there silently, they began to move, somewhere between a dance and Tai Chi.

[Lydia Storm]

Ever since the two groups had joined back together Lydia had looked more annoyed. Eventually setting up camp, she made it clear that she was keeping some distance by setting herself up a little way from the others - a good point to keep watch, but there was clear discomfort or annoyance (or maybe both).

She was sat down now, cleaning her large rifle, and keeping a wary eye on the surroundings.

[Laila Bridger]

Laila, having established that she wasn't on watch, had, upon linking up and figuring out what was her gear and what was communal gear, promptly lay down on the ground with her pack as a pillow to grab what another era of human history would have called a power nap.

She had woken a short time later, and gone through the usual ritual of making sure her equipment was squared away and ready to roll- checking the edge of her knife, tightening the straps on her body armor, making a face as she checked over her borrowed carbine.

Goddamn fucking piece of shit ammo-hogging noisemaker...

But it was better than no gun. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

That seen to, she ambled over to Hadrian and sat down next to him without preamble, the carbine across her knees, and said nothing.

[Bernard Martikova]

~~snip~~

Bernard placed his gear down among the camp and stretched his arms wide before pressing his thumbs on his back and stretching it out some, letting out a gasp and his back popped. He needed to get with the other XO to report on what's happened and figure out a direction soon, but at least for the moment, he had a few moments to breathe, so he went to his brother. "Did good today, Hadrian. This isn't your normal sort of life, but you kept a cool head and didn't panic without having a Drill Instructor yelling at you until the fear goes away." He patted his shoulder. "Feeling alright, otherwise?"

[Laila Bridger]

Kiran's actions had caught Laila's attention, leading to the mercenary rather comically looking back over her shoulder.

What's that person doing... who are they, anyhow?

They'd been in the other thopter, the one Laila had been glad not to be assigned to, an opinion that broadly still held, even after a rough landing and stroll through the jungle.

[Kannon]

snip

They knew how - to turn the inner eye onto themselves, to see their own humanity measured in disciplined thought. But did they know what for? How this routine advanced anything, or was it even its purpose to? Did they understand their own motivations behind sticking to this self-conditioning beyond expedience of seeing when others couldn't? Religious maybe, but never purely so. After all, almost any other Muadh worshipped in much simpler ways. This particular reenactment, while moulded by the generational experience of her people, had deeper roots. Other ambitions. Were they but what the witches in their past wanted them to be? Their falling back onto the muscle-nerve discipline, here and now, was it their free expression, or part of an obscure plan?

Religion must be accepted as a source of energy. It can be directed for our purposes, but only within limits that experience reveals. Herein is the secret meaning of Free Will. They never heard this teaching being passed down verbatim, straight out of the textbooks of Missionaria Protectiva. They had not awakened the Other Memories to whisper it to them. But in their life, it was present. To seek the I in the wake of silencing the lizard brain. To keep their humanity tested, challenged, juxtaposed, to understand its boundary.

The universe didn't allow for calm moments, for moments of stillness. There was never a balance in digging heels deep in the ground. There was never a vantage point from which the universe wouldn't look straight back at them, with all its violent, unpredictable might. Their movement sought that fickle balance now, directed by minding the fluild boundaries among... life. They were in the midst of a melting pot of life. It was tempting to consider it inferior, subservient, irrelevant, to contract the universe to the size of their mind. But outside it was bright, and inside there were places of darkness, places where they ought not look, else...

And yet, to strive for what's beyond reach, what's more human? The non-human life around them was different, thicker, more resilient. They reached out and it whipped back, to the point of vertigo. It wasn't hostile per say, but it didn't respect human superiority, didn't yield to it. It didn't strive, but it persevered with efficiency and cunning that spoke of... intelligence? Why did the manta birds attack them? How did they know how? Why did they even have the capacity to stage this kind of a deliberate attack?

They wouldn't know that the Weirding Way they practiced was but a distinct reflection of much more destructive psychic forces which had been born in a place much like this one, with the apex nature driving humans to the point they couldn't hide from seeking the very edge they had over the mad universe. That place was called Rossak, and some of Kiran's mitochondrial genes remembered.

[Kiran Alsahar]

Snip

Kiran didn't have the context for much of this sense, but they could feel it, deep in their bones, as they mastered their training further.

Humans considered themselves special, but Kiran sometimes wondered about that. Creatures were self-aware. Certainly they didn't have higher intelligence, but how long until that changed? Were the rays influenced or acted on their own, thinking the thopters were predators? Were they prompted by the cartel from somewhere below the cliffs?

They moved slowly and deliberately as they let their mind explore itself and its deeper subconscious. How special were humans, really?

Even the people who espoused humans' capabilities often underestimated their own species capabilities. Training and the mind had become so strong, and yet somehow their species remained capable of reaching greater heights and yet still being the goofy idiots they had always been. They thought that sometimes people forgot that both aspects of human nature could be wonderful and terrible.

How far were they from nature, really? How far apart were their minds from animals, if they were honest with themselves? They were a human because of self-discipline, which animals were incapable of, and mastery of the self. Everything was made from the same stuff, though, so it could arise again, perhaps...

[Kannon]

As they rotated the question in their extended senses they caught on the notion that humanity was less about being and more about becoming. Just as they assumed, on average, there was little difference, same biological building blocks for all life, and there was a significant overlap between smart animals and stupid humans, both beholden to the same soup of primal instincts. But as they were proving to themselves just now, there was more, and capacity to learn, to self-coax the consciousness into difference, was a part of it. Were those mantas the same? Had they attacked because they had learnt to? On what precedent...?

[Cuyler Gray]

With the groups reunited, the chef was working on a meal for everyone.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"For honor, for duty. Too bad you're not red, or a hawk. Guess we could do something back in town about the color though. Make a proper Atreides out of you." Ambrose whispered quietly to Mr. Bravo. He'd spent some time talking with the bird and was repeating phrases to see if the he would catch on.

Watching the others unwind in their own ways, he stood from his resting spot, walked over to them, and addressed the group in general, "Anyone else still thinking about that blue glow in the trees? Makes me think of a spicer with the Eyes of Ibad." He took a few steps closer to where Cuyler was preparing food, "You spent time on Arrakis, right Lady Gray? You must've seen a lot of that?"

[Cuyler Gray]

"I wouldn't say a lot. But yes." She nodded. "Eyes blue within blue."

[Hadrian Martikova]

That seen to, she ambled over to Hadrian and sat down next to him without preamble, the carbine across her knees, and said nothing.

Once again Hadrian started to say something to Laila when Bernie popped in.

"Did good today, Hadrian. This isn't your normal sort of life, but you kept a cool head and didn't panic without having a Drill Instructor yelling at you until the fear goes away." He patted his shoulder. "Feeling alright, otherwise?"

"I... yeah Bern." He shook his head ruefully. "Just peachy." He looked back at the big bastard and smiled. "Matter of fact when you get a moment, you and I should talk tonight."

____________________________
OOC: Meaning a private thread.

[Kannon]

With the groups reunited, the chef was working on a meal for everyone.

For now, there were supplies they'd brought and the rubyberries the other group had collected. Disconnecting the kitchen from the thopter's power system made it unstable again though.

"For honor, for duty. Too bad you're not red, or a hawk. Guess we could do something back in town about the color though. Make a proper Atreides out of you." Ambrose whispered quietly to Mr. Bravo. He'd spent some time talking with the bird and was repeating phrases to see if the he would catch on.

After much educating, which Mr. Bravo weathered gracefully by turning head left and right, he gurgled something that had 'red' or 'reid' in it and flew off. What happened next was curious at the very least. He collected a small stone from the vicinity and waited with it over a moving line of carapace beetles... aimed... and dropped or even threw it with precision, smashing three. Then landed, flipped the stone, and enjoyed what soft flesh he'd smashed out of them.

She was sat down now, cleaning her large rifle, and keeping a wary eye on the surroundings.

The sea roared beneath with little variation, the junglefront glowed faintly with some intrinsic bluish light that was not bright enough to create an aura. A concoction of pungent smells of teeming plantlife were coming in wafts from that direction, but so far no predator was creeping out on them.

[Kiran Alsahar]

snip

Was someone just training them, perhaps? If so, who and why? Did they know about their shocks before they started training them or before they first encountered them?

Becoming...

Something jumped into their mind. Maybe it was something else their mother had told them. They weren't sure, but they observed as the thought unfurled in their head as they moved.

Becoming human. Maybe there was a step beyond becoming human that should be considered. The whole point of being human was for one's body to be at one's own command, those instincts and physicality serving the higher mind. There was a responsibility there to choose your path carefully, they thought, to think it through and question and decide what you want that to serve.

They had listened to their instincts and their own thoughts. They chose caring for their people over safety and quiet. They chose to trust these outsiders. This was the right path for themselves, for now.

They took a deep breath and stilled again, breathing slowly. Experiencing the environment deeply felt like the jungle was part of them and they were part of it.

[Cuyler Gray]

"Go we want a fire?" Cuyler asked as she checked the berries with her poison snooper. "We have dry rations and the berries are probably fine to eat as they are. But, I could put together a crisp or a cobbler if anyone wants something a bit more filling."

[Kannon]

snip

A step beyond becoming human... such a provocative thought! There lay infinite potentialities. Would it be possible to commit to just one? And for such a tunnel vision, perhaps cultivated, what would be the consequences for all the other humans?

The mantas were trained, or perhaps conditioned? If there was no instinctual difference between some homo and their animal counterparts, what was the line between cogent and mindless adaptation? Only of pace or also of kind? The relationship went back and forth, agency created environments just as well as rocks and water. Perhaps the mantas, if intelligent enough, experienced, drew the lesson, and then attacked thopters. What could their original experience be?

The adaptive resilience of the nature around them might have been more than gene lottery. Perhaps this is where the affinity was coming from, a knowing eye versus a knowing eye?