forum Out in Space (classic lit and sci fi!) (CLOSED, stalkers welcome)

Started August 14, 2020 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

((oh that's right! i swear i can read lmao. do you have any specifics for what the space station is like, so i, a chronic dumbass, don't do something wrong while describing or sending a character somewhere?))

(lmao. It's…in space?? Idk. I'll put more detail in the starter, tho I won't get that up until this afternoon sometime, a friend has her bday party today)

(Back! Let's go~)
(also: please make sure your characters have a good reason to be on Soul, especially if they weren't born there. If they were, then no problem, but if they weren't, make sure you've worked out how they got there, since I want to start with them all on Soul already)

The space station was one of the largest out there, capable of holding the same amount of people as your average city. Ships orbited it, and it itself orbited Jupiter, in the Sol system. The original system, the system that still held Earth. Of course, by now humanity had spread far beyond the confines of Sol, but they all still remembered Earth as their original birthplace. As the place they came from. Soul had begun as just a small station orbiting a large planet, but now rivaled some of the planet's moons in size and gravitational pull, having been built up and up and up over the years until it was a floating city. It belonged to no one and everyone, with it's own government, but still in the end answerable to the Earthen councils.

Soul was being used as a playground by a man known only as The Clay Man. He wreaked havoc in the large station, and no one had any idea who he was.

A message appeared on six different devices, to six different people.

Hello,
I am James Moriarty. You've heard of the Clay Man? Would you like to stop him? Yes? Good. Then meet at the Lanis Building at 5:00 sharp next Friday evening. Don't be late!

When Sherlock Holmes received the message, they had been hard at work on a new experiment. They cocked their head faintly, frowning as they read through it. "Intriguing." they murmured under their breath, setting a reminder for the date.

When the day came, they stood before the Lanis building and waited to see who else would arrive. They wore their usual garments; dark pants, a white shirt, suspenders, and a dark trench coat with the collar flipped up around their throat. Their unruly, curly hair framed their face in a soft mess.

Alek had been staying in a rundown hotel down in the bowels of the station; the further down you went, the seedier and less enforced it became, and he had been, well…hiding. He knew Claudius had sent people to find him, if only to check on him, but he didn't want to be found. He didn't want to be brought back to Danmar, surrounded by reminders of his mother, his father, of Ophelia. Surrounded by reminders of everything his uncle had done. So when he received the alert, he had immediately been suspicious, wondering if this was a trap meant to bring him back.

But he had gone, hiding in the shadows and watching to see who else would show up.

Victor was tired. He got up from bed, still tired. He dressed himself, growing ever weary. He checked the mirror. Another grey hair, just great. Looks like the genetics that had allowed him to age so well were wearing out.

Eden stepped out of the apartment, looking around for hidden cameras. Unlikely, but the message they'd gotten was… concerning. It was concerning they and Victor had received a message at all. To the world, the pair of them were dead.

Victor walked into the kitchen, missing the message displayed on the monitor. He poured himself a cup of coffee, graciously brewed by his creation, and set to work on his newest project. He'd been experimenting with AI. Not to play God, he'd learned that lesson before. But to create something good, pure, that would actually listen.

"Hello," they said, coming back in the doorway once the perimeter was secured to their standards. "We have a message. Did you read it?" they asked, voice flat and devoid of emotion. As usual.

Victor turned, pale. Paler than usual, certainly, despite ready access to light there was always a sick quality to the man's complexion. "No, not yet. Who sent it?" he asked.

"I would not know. Some Moriarty. About the Clay Man, whoever they are. Stopping them." they said.

"Well, what about stopping the Clay Man? It isn't any of our business, is it? We're comfortable here."

"You haven't found work in weeks, and neither have I. Rent is due. If there is payment, we should at least hear this person out. Even if it is dangerous," they decided.

Victor nodded, and packed up the drone he'd been working on. "Fine. Fine, we'll go, but I'm not happy about this. You know our-"

"Arrangements, yes, quite well. Get your coat, we're leaving now. It's a long way across from here, to our destination at least."

The two of them gathered their things, Eden taking a cheap plasma blaster with them just in case. It was useful to be able to fight back, and bare hands could only do so much however strong they may be.

They arrived, two minutes early, at the Lanis Building. The Monster had their hood pulled up tightly around their head, sitting down on the metal ground. Victor, however, stood tall, awaiting the mysterious Moriarty and whatever Moriarty had planned for them both.

When Lo received a text from a number she had never seen, her first order of business was taking it to her boss, a Mrs. Loise Velander.

A few phone calls were made, and Lo was told that if she wanted to go, then she was completely free to. That option, being told it was up to her, set a glow in her chest that may have led to her deciding to go. But whatever had really been the cause, didn't matter. Because Lo had packed her favorite drawstring bag, touched up her makeup, and set off to the designated spot as early as she could, in her favorite pair of heels and with a gun holstered underneath her skirt.

As early as she had arrived, she wasn't the first person there. Unfortunate, as she had hoped to scope out the area and judge whether or not it was some sort of ruse to lure her into something. However, the people there seemed either fairly unassuming, or like people she could take on evenly in a fight.

Seemed, being the key word.

"Hello!" She greeted cheerfully, tossing her hair over her shoulder with one hand and adjusting her bag with the other.

"Did you all get the text too?" Maybe it wasn't smart to be so friendly and open with people waiting at a place that had been sent to her in a mysterious text, but Lo sure found it to be. It was a test. A judgement of the type of people they were, and how she would have to go about everything following.

"Yes," said Eden simply, not willing to elaborate. They held out a huge scarred hand for a handshake, hood slipping a little with only one hand to hold it closed. "You aren't like most, I can tell. You're… kind," they nodded, smiling a sharp, sharp toothy grin.

"Don't be strange, I can't handle strange from you." Victor sighed. "The tall one is Eden, and my name is Victor. Victor Frankenstein." he said, cocking his head without looking at the newcomer. He was studying the building, looking to see if this was a trap.

Lo's smile was friendly, bearing no hint of malice or any of the calculation in her mind. She accepted the hand without more than a simple glance, her grip just firm enough to make it a decent hand shake. "I would hope to be kind. The world seems to be too full of the opposite." She looked over to the man, lifting a hand in a small wave. "Call me Lo. Everyone does. Now, not everyone sends out a suspiciously mysterious text like that, so I'm very curious to meet this 'Moriarty' man."

(Character quirk: Eden tends to avoid using people's names unless he knows them well enough to trust them, or at least tolerate them. So expect some weirdness.)

The Monster shook her hand, gratefully. "Surprising, too. Most don't attempt to reach Victor and I. We will see if this Moriarty is a good man, however. We certainly will see." they said.

"Yes, most don't attempt to reach us. Strange… I wonder how this Moriarty fellow knows us, and why he even wants us here at all. Any hypothesis, Miss Lo?" he asked. "Or do I have to do all the sleuthing myself?"

"The text message mentioned stopping someone, did it not?" Lo asked, tilting her head slightly. Her blue eyes flickered around the space with curiosity, but only a minimal amount of wariness. "I'd call that a job opportunity, but maybe it means something different to you." She stated simply, not bothering to explain much on that particular statement. Instead, she lowered her bag to riffle through it, pulling out a bag of brightly colored wrapped candies.

"I'd offer you all cookies, but I'm pretty sure that would come off as a bit sketchy. So, candy instead?" She was already unwrapping one, popping the candy into her mouth and crumpling the wrapper before placing it somewhere in her drawstring bag. "If this is a job, I wonder if we're getting paid. That is, if it's legit at all. Seems like a lot of work to gather people who don't know each other, simply for a trap, though."

"That follows. And no, I don't particularly like sugar. So if it isn't a trap, if it really is a job opportunity, it certainly is a strange one. And a strange way of gathering us all. Do you know about the Clay Man? I certainly haven't heard much." he rambled, barely pausing for breath.

"Perhaps we should ask? When this James Moriarty arrives. Or is that beyond even as scientific a mind as yours?" Eden deadpanned.

Lo arched a brow at the comment from Eden, biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling. After a moment of making sure she wouldn't laugh at all, she spoke again. "My…boss, calls them 'one of those newfangled criminals, who think they're the shit and don't understand the politics of crime', so I don't know too much that isn't biased. Maybe her bias is warranted, though, if someone else is also annoyed enough with them to take direct action." She mused, putting away the bag of candy.

As she looked around, puzzling over the circumstance of their meeting and the place, she couldn't help but feel…calm. Any criminal worth their salt, especially one with an end goal, would have never gone about this the way this Moriarty had. At least, any criminal intending to harm any of the people gathered. They would have been called, to different locations. Told a loved one was being held captive, promised money or something if they showed. So unless this Moriarty had some sort of bomb planted here, and a way to keep them all there, there was no reason to be afraid yet.

Eden had no reason to worry. They could easily fight their way out of here if needed, create some sort of escape, whatever was required for a fast getaway. What they were worried about was the Clay Man. They only knew their criminal history, from rumors and public records, but that wasn't much to go on. "I don't believe Moriarty is the one we should be worried about, for now at least."

Sherlock had listened silently for a while, before stepping forward to introduce himself. "I am Sherlock Holmes." They introduced, holding out a hand to be shaken. "And the Clay Man is one of the most notorious crime bosses here on Soul. I would guess by your words that you're new here; I grew up here, so it would stand to reason that I have some more clear ideas of who the Clay Man is. James Moriarty I don't know, though his name sounds familiar." Sherlock reasoned, not seeming to realize that they were, perhaps, talking too much. "I do not know why he would bring us all here, though. That I am still trying to deduce."

Lo brightened at being addressed by someone else, taking the man's hand and giving it her trademark shake. She listened to him speak, nodding along. "I wouldn't say new, personally, just somehow simultaneously sheltered and not. I understand what he his, just not much about what he does. I'm a bit more wrapped up in following other criminal's activity." A weird way to say 'I'm a criminal who works with other criminals and is a bit more focused on that', but to each their own.

"I think I've heard of you somewhere." She said suddenly, furrowing her brows just slightly as she studied him for a moment. "Ah! Detective work, right? I can't remember if you were specifically working for the police force or not, but I do remember hearing about an escapade of yours. The Hounds, I heard about it on some radio station." Clapping her hands together excitedly, she smiled brightly. "If we get the chance, you'll have to tell me about how exactly you piece together clues in such an efficient way."

"Good to meet you, Mx. Holmes. Victor Frankenstein, at your service, and this is my Mon- associate, Eden." Victor introduced. "So, detective work, eh? What's it like, seeing the lowest of humanity day in and day out?" he asked.

Eden was uncomfortable. That's all they could say. Too many people in too little time. But something about Sherlock made it easier to tolerate, at least more than usual.

Sherlock cocked their head a little. "Yes, detective work. I am affiliated with the police force here, though I am not strictly on their payroll. They pay me per case." they replied, looking between the other three people near them. "As for that…I do not quite know that, well…" they trailed off, squinting faintly in thought. "It is not necessarily the lowest of the low. And…I do not quite know how to answer your question."