open to: m
connection: boyfriend, fiancé, husband - Kyle is taking your muse on a dinner date on their anniversary. as a surprise, he’s made a reservation to a very special restaurant..
“You look great tonight, hun. But no matter how much you’d try to butter me up, i won’t tell you where we’re going for dinner, until we get there.” Kyle grinned, driving in downtown LA. He was excited and had always wanted to go to this restaurant and now he finally booked a table for the two and luckily -- For their anniversary. “But it’s going to be amazing.. and epic.” He grinned. On the inside, Kyle was dying to tell him, where he was taking them, but kept himself from ruining the surprise.
A down on her luck airship pilot, Mordred Harvey is the winning contestant of a competition to see who could be the first to cross the Atlantic solo in an airship. She was successful, but she’d failed to prepare for a problem: going against the trade winds going back. As such, she is now stuck in Europe and plies her trade doing cargo and passenger transport contracts. She hopes to eventually scrounge up enough money to return home.
Mordred’s airship is the Spirit of St. Louis, a heavily modified and customized airship that originally saw as a mail carrier. Her father, a railroad magnate, became one of the early pioneers of commercializing airship travel by offering courier and transport services to remote isolated towns and camps. The Spirit of St. Louis is one of the most capable airships in the world, able to fly faster and farther than most others. Exhaust can be rerouted from the steam boiler to special gas bags, allowing flight higher or with heavier loads than many other ships of its size.
NPC Headcanon: Colonel Arnold J. Danforth/The Pilot
Arnold J. Danforth, a United States Air Force test-pilot holding the rank of Colonel, was a natural choice to pilot the USS Dyer on its maiden voyage. His career as a combat pilot spoke for itself, having flown many dangerous missions where his quick thinking had proven to be his saving grace - and with a Master's degree in Astrophysics and Aeronautics, he was a natural fit for NASA.
Although there were many other pilots with similar qualities, Danforth proved himself an exception during a routine isolation test - a staple of spaceflight training for nearly a century. Each potential crew member had to prove themselves capable of surviving a week in isolation without suffering any serious psychological ramifications, relying on automated food deliveries and no human contact.
During the final day of Danforth's test, it was discovered that there had been a massive malfunction, a recording of his first day had somehow started to loop perfectly, none of his meals having been provided beyond that and his 'panic' button having been disconnected. Immediately, the monitoring staff panicked and set about rebooting the system, hoping against all odds that Danforth had not been severely traumatized by the dangerous deprivation.
Upon opening the isolation tank, the staff were surprised to find Danforth merely sitting on the edge of his cot, reading a book and casually chewing on the leather from his boots - a little malnourished, a little dehydrated, but apparently no worse for wear. By his account, he didn't even think anything had gone wrong - he merely assumed it was an extreme survival test, not unlike certain harsh ones he had been put through in his military training.
This great show of self preservation set Danforth aside from his competitors - and with a little help from his agreement not to sue the Administration, Danforth was selected as the USS Dyer's Primary Pilot. Some individuals noticed a change in Danforth following his isolation, but this was chalked up to a heightened seriousness on his part, now that he had an important job to focus on. All concern was set aside as the crew began to get to know each other, training together and forming a close bond.
The day of the mission came, the crew finding themselves in position for the hyperspace jump to the nearest star system. At the last minute, Danforth claimed to have spotted an error in the guidance system, claiming it needed a minor course correction. Although Ground Control noticed no fault, they allowed Danforth to make the change, as it did not appear to be significant - a mere .334 degree alteration.
Upon activation of the engine, the crew were pulled into the domain of the Overlords, the horrifying Strange Place, and subjected to nightmarish torment - the Overlords informing them that only by surrendering completely to their power would their suffering be ended. Only Dr. Lore was able to resist, eventually figuring out enough of the workings of the Strange Place to escape the Overlords and taking shelter with a group of human survivors in similar predicaments.
Centuries later, during one of Lore's passages through the open Strange Place, he came across Danforth, and found out how much of a part Danforth played in his current predicament. While the other crew members had surrendered to the Overlords during their torments, Danforth had been reached out to early on - the isolation malfunction at NASA was no accident.
Having been driven close to madness during the experiment, a Messenger was dispatched to Danforth, showing him two visions of the future: one where the Overlords entered the human realm and reigned brutally, the other where Danforth would wind up dying alone in a mental asylum as a result of the trauma inflicted by his isolation.
Danforth chose the former option, submitting his will to the Overlords and allowing them to turn him into one of their Heralds. In return, he was provided with enough sustenance to get him through to the end of the test, and a guaranteed place at the right hand of the Overlords. Under the command of the Overlords, Danforth continued with training as if nothing had changed, giving NASA no reason to suspect he had been compromised, his only deviation in behavior being when he made the last minute course alteration of the ship - had it not been for Danforth's course alteration, they would not have passed through a point of the Overlord's grasp.
His true nature revealed, Danforth informed Lore that the Overlords needed all six of the astronauts for their "true purpose", and Lore was the last holdout. Danforth was there to make Lore a one-time-only deal: if Lore submitted to the Overlords, agreed to become one of their Heralds as Danforth had done, Lore's family would be spared during their eventual invasion of the human universe.
Lore vocally declined the offer, and proceeded to attack Danforth with everything he had - not just for what Danforth had put him through, but what he had done to the other crew members, and for having the gall to bring up Lore's family. While Danforth possessed the powers of an Overlord by extension, Lore's grasp of the mystic arts, aided by backup from other human survivors, forced Danforth to flee, but not before he gave a dire warning that Lore had not seen the last of him.
open to: m
connection: Kyle’s home from a work trip and is taking his long term boyfriend out for a romantic dinner.
“You look amazing, honey.. Very handsome.” Kyle said in awe, as he watched his boyfriend come down the stairs in a suit. He was wearing one himself, yet keeping it a bit casual without wearing a tie. When the other male came to him, he leaned in to kiss him softly. “Are you ready to go?” Kyle asked smiling. He grabbed his coat and stepped out, walking to his car. He opened the door for the other male, before going around to the driver’s seat. He drove off, heading downtown to the restaurant.
