#x starters

[sirens-wrath]

★ Starter for @cobotalt​

    There comes a point, after an hour of watching a large robot attempt to befriend every small creature that runs past your living arrangement, that a woman has to step in. It was starting to get a bit concerning, and if left unchecked, they might wear an indent in the pavement.

      Maya shifted from where she was sat on her front stoop, and where she’d been watching this past hour. She wasn’t perturbed, far from it actually, but she was curious. Curious, and bored of endlessly flipping through her ECHO. Honestly, she should probably be getting started on that early morning jog, but this seemed just a bit more important.

      ❝ Pardon me. ❞ She said, gently, as she approached the figure, ❝ Do you need help, or something? Those squirrels aren’t going to let you get too close unless you’ve got a gameplan. ❞

[cloud-kill]

★ Starter for @numericalassassin

    90 hours.

    That’s how long it took for Pandora to complete a single rotation; 45 hours of day, and 45 hours of night. It was probably the most difficult thing to adjust to, even moreso than the lifestyle the planet demanded. Two non-Pandoran years had passed since Maya first arrived on the planet, and she was still fighting with the challenges that extended rotation presented.

    As it were, those challenges liked to manifest in very cruel ways, such as in today’s case.

    Crossing The Dust was never an easy feat, but having a Technical and a little bit of company made it easier. Her and Zer0 were tasked with locating a very rural testing facility for experimental supplies, ones that would keep Sanctuary in the sky for longer. Without a fast travel, they’d unfortunately just have to leg it in the vague direction of the co-ords and pray. It was a boring job, but one that they’d thought would be easy... Until the Technical ran out of gas.

    So now, here they were, stranded in the middle of the desert with no way to get moving. When nightfall hit, they’d be able to go search for some new wheels, but that wouldn’t be for another 15 hours at least. 15 hours of having to sit around and try to not die to heat exhaustion...

    Maya took to poking around underneath the hood of the vehicle, double and triple checking to make sure nothing else was the problem. Turns out that learning some basic mechanics from Ellie was a worthwhile effort. The sun beating down on her back eventually got to be a bit too much, so with a sigh, she shut the hood and stepped back.

   ❝ Everything else seems alright but... God, why didn’t I bring that extra gas can. I feel so stupid. ❞ Another sigh, and a wipe of the brow, she steps around the vehicle and into the relative shade it casts on that side.

   ❝ Zer0, are you still alive? ❞ She asks, lifting up the tarp that was covering up the flatbed, ❝ Don’t tell me you’ve gone and cooked to death under there. I really don’t need another thing going wrong out here. ❞

[sirens-wrath-archive]

🌩️ NO REST

★ Starter for @killerjawline​

    Bar crawling was a form of escapism, one Maya knew well. She didn’t always drink when she did this. Normally, back on Pandora, she’d hop from place to place with one of her friends and see what the locale had to offer, usually getting into some kind of interesting trouble. It let you focus on something smaller than the overbearing dread looming over your head. It was just you, some nearly medical grade alcohol, and drunk bar patrons picking a bone with you over your ‘glowy tattoos’.

    This wasn’t Pandora, this wasn’t a desert town, and she didn’t have her friends, but it’d have to do. Waking up in this place a second time was infuriating, exhausting, and flat out scary the more she thought about it. So a drink and some eavesdropping was her answer. Hopefully here she wouldn’t get in a bar fight.

    The place she’d scouted out was definitely more upscale than anything on her planet. Bright lights, booming music, eccentric clothes, expensive drinks... There, among the neon, she’d stick out less. Old habits died hard, and she still hated being recognized in a crowd. Slipping past people way too out of it to be dancing, Maya pulled a seat up at the bar and resigned to her fate of drinking strawberry vodka shots for the next two hours.

    Unfortunately, she hardly had three shots in her system when the doors behind her swung open. There was a commotion that she barely kept an ear on, one that she chalked up to someone simply being upset that the club was at capacity. That was, until, she heard a voice loud and ostentatious over the music. A very specific voice that made her face twinge with rage.

    ❝ You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. ❞

[wrathofthelvhen-blog]

🌼 culture shock!

✧ Starter for @laesocorde

    What if he wasn’t home? What if this wasn’t even the right place and whoever gave her directions was just trying to make a fool of herself? Merrill had been pacing around the floor of some Cotes brownstone for about 10 minutes now, worriedly wringing her hands and going over the possible ways she could humiliate herself by knocking on this door.

    It was no secret at this point that she was lost and confused, anyone could see that. Disoriented from all the new assaults on her senses, she could hardly even tell which way was up sometimes! She needed help, and who better to get it from than someone who didn’t like her. Seeking out Fenris and bothering him was certainly less scary than putting her trust in humans she didn’t know.

    ❝ The worst he’ll do is give you an earful. He’s done it before, you can handle that! Come on, Merrill, stone up! ❞  She said aloud to herself, face scrunched up with determination.

    Clutching her satchel tight, she finally put her foot down (literally) and turned on her heel to face the door. She could do this! She had to do this, or else she’d―

    As her hand was about to make contact, the door to the apartment she’d been stomping around outside of swung open with quite the force. Well, so much for knocking!

[sirens-wrath]

★ Non-event starter for @strwbrrysweetheart

    Maya is no stranger to 3AM snack runs, just as the Mini Mart near her home isn’t a stranger to her shuffling inside, in her pajamas, at the crack of dawn. Shopping earlier in the day means less people she has to deal with, and when you’re a tall glowing lady, sometimes less is better.

    Her slippers thwap against the linoleum as she moves through the aisles, tiredly picking over the endless amount of candy bars like some kind of zombie. The headphones in her ears are blaring music from her ECHO loud enough that anyone walking past her could probably hear it, so it’s safe to say that she is thoroughly not here.

   ❝ Fuck it. ❞ is all she thinks to herself as she grabs a fist full of Slim Jims and puts them into the basket on her arm, among the three Twix bars and a box of cereal. It’s not healthy eating, but it’s fine.

   It’s only when she turns to drag herself over to check out with a yawn that she notices the stranger down the aisle, staring at her. Immediately, she stops, straightening up her posture and staring right back. This is exactly why she shops early in the morning, to not have people gawking at her. She can’t always blame them, though; She knows she looks strange.

   ❝ Can I... help you? ❞ She asks, only half accusingly, as she takes a headphone out.

[sirens-wrath]

★ Starter for @anarchydotexe

    In all honesty, Maya didn’t really pay much attention to her phone. She was too used to having her ECHO do everything for her, and though it was clunkier, it was that same clunky interface that she loved so much. Still, whenever new people joined the project, she was always sure to at least look over the new additions. You never knew if any interesting faces could crop up!

    She’d been lounging around, reading some random cheesy novel in her pajamas, when she heard the distinct ping of her phone updating with a flood of new contacts. Per the routine, she stretched over to snatch it up off her coffee table, and started to idly flick through all the names. Nothing, nothing, nothing—

    Wait.

    There, in plain letters, was the name ‘Gaige’. No picture yet, only a name. She couldn’t guess that that specific spelling was very common, so she found herself sitting up in excitement; If this was Gaige, the Gaige she knew, then this vacation was going to go from alright to fantastic quick. And if it wasn’t, well, she’d have a formal apology to draft after she sends out the text she's stamping out. Way to act without thinking, Maya.

★ FROM: Maya ★ TO: Gaige

{ TEXT } : NO WAY. { TEXT } : HI GAIGE, IT’S MAYA! DID YOU JUST GET HERE? WHERE ARE YOU?

[sirens-wrath]

★ Non-event starter for @wildberryoras​

    The last trip she’d made into the Bordshire, Maya nearly ended up crushed beneath a ton of falling rubble. With that kind of a start, you’d imagine that going back would be the last thing on her mind, but Maya was never one to take defeat easily.

    She’d set out early in the day with the plan to map out some of the more structurally sound quarters, and to see if she could find anything else that was of interest. She was sure to be more cautious then she’d been before, lest she get an earful from her friends again, so she was at the very least taking it slow. She hadn’t found anything just yet, but climbing around forgotten architecture was good exercise at least!

    Up until that point, she’d honestly thought she’d been alone in this part of the city. As she understood it, the general consensus of the Bordshire was that it was mostly just... uninteresting rubble, so why would anyone else be caught dead out here? It seems, though, that she wasn’t the only person that seen it more as a playground than a death trap.

    Maya was slow to round corners, which was probably the only reason she didn’t crash right into this previously unaware stranger. She stumbled back a bit as they came into view of each other, reflexively holding onto the straps of her backpack.

   ❝ Oh, uh... Hey. ❞ Had she not been so lost in thought before, she might not have sounded half as awkward as she did there.

    Pausing, she looked this stranger over, and as it turns out, they weren’t any stranger at all. She’d seen him around quite a few times, and with how... unique of an appearance he had, it was pretty hard to forget him. She shifted the bag on her back, trying her best to put a more approachable look on her face.

   ❝ You’re name’s Star, right? I think we’ve talked a few times. What’re you doing out here, if you don’t mind me asking? ❞

[sirens-wrath]

★ Starter for @riteofdawn​

    ❝ God, how long has it been since i’ve had a cup of coffee... ❞

    With her morning jog coming to a wind down, Maya was on her way back to the canals. But, when you spend a few hours exerting yourself, you’re bound to get some cravings, and not even a super powerful Siren warrior can resist that.

    The place that’d caught her eye seemed quaint, the door giving a nice little jingle as she came inside. There were scarce people sitting at different tables, and a couple standing in front of her, obviously also trying to decide on what they wanted. God, it’d REALLY been a long time since she’d seen a cafe. She was starting to feel out of place.

    Looking up at the board, she shifted anxiously on her feet, fingers threaded together. So many options, so many things that she had no idea what they meant. Glancing at the tall purple stranger in line beside her, she grimaced slightly at the idea of asking for help, but...

    ❝ Uh― Excuse me. ❞ She spoke up, stepping more within ear shot.

    ❝ Do you have any recommendations on what to get? I’m sure it’s obvious, but I haven’t been to one of these places in years and i’m kind of at a loss. ❞