commencing countdown...

[statusreport]

Characters: All passengers!
Stardate: 58575.3
Location: Hoitu’yunia
Summary: The passengers land on their first planet.
Warnings: Please warn for anything graphic in subject lines.


Planet: Hoitu’yunia, Class M planet
People: Hoitu

Welcome to your first planet, space explorers. The Illyria lands, somewhat roughly, on the planet, though considering what the ship has been through, things really go about as well as can be expected. Anyone who steps off the ship will find themselves on a seemingly endless beach, greeted by the smell of the sea and a warm breeze. Here, they will find the Hoitu people, and an interesting environment and with exciting locations to explore.

[The People]

The Hoitu people are hospitable and friendly, willing to lend a hand to passengers with problems or trades. They are an amphibious lifeform bearing some resemblance to frogs. It is as unadvisable and inaccurate to call them “frog people,” however, as it would be to call a human a “hairless ape.” Although they may have similar creatures in their remote evolutionary ancestry, they are biologically different organisms.

Like the frogs of earth, they have long, strong back legs with exceedingly stretchy tendons, allowing them to jump seemingly impossible distances with ease. Their webbed hands and feet have distinct and defined fingers, allowing them to manipulate their environment in a more sophisticated way. Their skin is smooth, slick, and coated in mucus, and their eyes are large- taking up about two- thirds of their face.

[Social]

Within their villages, the Hoitu see no need for clothing and have no nudity taboo. When hunting or traveling in the forests, however, they are known to don special suits to protect them from the sun and heat.

Their food is heavily meat-based and they consider several forms of insects a delicacy. Discussions with the elders of the coastal community reveal that they are members of a nontraditional group, created in response to political strife. As a result of their departure from their traditional environments, they have been cut off from many of their previous primary food source. Now, they experiment with new forms of seafood, and hunt. Some attempts have also been made to establish trade relations with the parent population, with limited success.


[Locations]

I. The beach

The beaches are spotted with large outcroppings of limestone, sometimes along the coast itself and sometimes jutting out from the ocean. These have been known to take a variety of strange shapes and local lore has sprung up around them, linking them with mythological-historical events and cultural heroes. This place, frankly, is a travel agent's dream.

In fact, you might want to come back later, after you've explored a bit. There's plenty to see, after all, from the stunning limestone formations along the coast, to the bioluminescent algae in the tide that the Hoitu rave about.

II. The coastal village

Some distance down the beach from the landing site is the village of Kalia'yunia, a coastal settlement built in the shallows themselves, its buildings sitting on posts to keep them from flooding.

The Hoitu are a welcoming and friendly people, placing a high value on hospitality. While this particular settlement is far from wealthy, they are quick to offer their guests anything they may need (I hope you like seafood).

The water in the center of the village seems to the center of everyday life, and it is there that you can find the market, the place of honor of the village elders, the playgrounds of the youngest villagers, and just about every other aspect of public life. There are a few wooden platforms for the Hoitu to rest upon, of course, but you will likely make much more use of them than they do.

III. Limestone coastal caves

In some areas along the coast, the limestone in the local bedrock has been worn away by the tides, creating caves and underground rivers which extend far into the mainland. Some of these cave systems are certainly accessible, but be careful! Getting lost in them is dangerous and drowning in the process of reaching is a real possibility, particularly around high tide.

IV. Exploring inland- the rainforest

The truly adventurous may even wish to travel a ways inland, to explore the tropical rainforest; it is a tempting destination, teeming with life as it is. But both the Hoitu and your concerned commanding officers will advise you not to venture too far in, especially without a guide. It is far too easy to get lost and far too dangerous to do so.

Comments

[snapturtle]

Despite the ship having landed on a planet, B'Elanna is predictably spending a lot of time on the ship continuing with repairs. Though having landed on the surface gives a rare opportunity to inspect the hull of the vessel as well. Thus sometimes she can actually be found walking around ontop of the Illyria.

There's a nice view up there too.

However, she is getting more rest and does venture out once in awhile. One might actually catch her out on the beach in a bathing suit or in the village wearing a cute sundress. It's been awhile since she's had a chance for some R&R, even before she came to the Illyria, so she's taking advantage of it.

[senkan_yamato]

I.a. Beach Times
Let it never be said that Yamato has a figure she is shy about showing off. Anyone looking for a good time on the beach might find her around as well-and she's brought a picnic lunch with her umbrella today. Bother her for some delicious treats?

I.b. Night Battle Something big is out there tonight. A huge shape cuts through the water at high speed, judging by the enormous wake it leaves behind. At first, it just moves up and down the coast, looping out to sea before turning back in towards shore, slaloming around islands and invisible obstacles.

And then it turns in towards shore, as if it is going to beach itself-but at the apex of the wake is Yamato, sliding across the surface of the water even as her wake turns into a bow wave as she comes ashore again. She walks up the beach cheerfully and then stops when she sees you. The moment is only broken when her stomach growls like a bear.

the village

[nevermindtherunning]

Not one to want to linger on the beach, given certain memories on beaches were still recent enough it bothered him, the Doctor casually walked through town. He didn't have anything to do specifically in mind other than simply explore.

He watched the children play for a moment before walking around the center where the water was towards the market. There he hoped to find something to eat or speak to more people along his way.

The beach

[aes_thetic]

Wow. An actual alien planet. And he didn't even have to fly through a wormhole with a nuclear missile on his back to get here. Amazing. The air smelled different, more marshy even here at the beach, and the light was just that much different as the atmosphere filtered it soft and golden, tinged with green.

He did manage to get permission to get a tricorder, because like hell was he not playing with one of those, and was torn - between trying to figure out if this was a carbon-based planet, or what - and lounging on the beach with a mai tai and wondering if any of the natives knew anything about basic massage.

Because if he was going to lounge around on an alien planet, he was doing it old school pulp sci-fi style. Buck Rogers, eat your heart out.

He wound up splitting the difference, casually propped up against one of the limestone outcroppings, wondering exactly how corrosive the sea-water was and if there was a banth or thoat or Jaws or something in the water. A swim would be nice. So he had the tricorder aimed at the sea, searching for venomous or predacious critters.

[spoiledegg]

A - On The Ship

Disaché is not a big nature person. He spent his childhood as a city boy, alternating mostly between the cool sterility of labs and the comfortable indoor luxury that he received as the Enlightened's wunderkind. The second half of his life was mostly spent aboard space stations and space craft.

So it's not exactly a great surprise that he spends much of his time on the ship. He can be found all over the public areas of the ship - and sometimes in the labs, with appropriate supervision - almost always accompanied by a datapad.

He has a lot of information to absorb about this universe. And a careful selection of his own research data to upload into the Illyria's databanks.

B - The Coastal Village
[Warning for eating bugs?]

Disaché spends most of his - very brief - visits to the village looking like someone smeared something unpleasant under his nose. The hospitality is fine. The utter disregard for proper dress he can deal with - his Shumel foster family had always been very lax about nudity. But by the Goddess and God that slimy skin and those bulbous eyes are disgusting. He absolutely refuses to touch any of them. This is way worse than humans and their sweating.

He's also unimpressed by most of the local diet. Seafood is for the poor and desperate and he won't touch that either. But there is one sign that these Hoitu are actually civilized.

Disaché can feel the saliva gathering in his mouth as he watches a local slowly roast a skewer of fat insects. Expressing his interest, he receives a skewer once it's done cooking, actually saying 'thank you' for once.

But before he can dig in, he needs to make sure it's safe to eat, so out comes his borrowed tricorder. Useful devices, these. Safety ensured, he snaps the tricorder closed and takes a bite.

Crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside, and simply delicious. It almost reminds him of home. Licking away the thick yellow paste oozing from the bitten carapace, he goes in for more.

C - Rainforest

If there's one bit of ecological continuity between habitable planets, it's that rainforests are a treasure trove of biological diversity and unique compounds.

While neither an adventurer nor a field biologist, Disaché feels like this is too good an opportunity to pass up. How better to prove his medical and research capabilities than to discover new life-saving (or at least life-improving) compounds? Maybe then he can convince the captain to give him his own lab...

Still, he looks out of place tromping through the greenery after his Hoitu guide, with his ears pressed low against his head and his arms crossed tight over his chest - except for when he's swatting at persistent bugs. Ugh, insects should be on his dinner plate, not trying to make dinner of him.

Pausing, he turns to whichever poor shipmate decided to join this expedition. "Hurry up, I don't want to be out here all day."

[fist_of_hydra]

Sun was something Bucky didn't tend to get a lot of, anymore. It wasn't like he was some kind of vampire; he went out in the daytime, it was easiest to blend into the crowds when there were the most people around. But he was always wrapped up in two or three layers to hide the arm, a cap pulled low over his face, and frankly, he was probably pale enough to pass for the ghost some called him.

Or a vampire, for that matter.

Either way, the planet was far too hot and sunny for him. At the same time, he wanted free of the confines of the ship, even if it was just for a while. Not being able to leave had been starting to itch at him, and getting a breath of fresh air was exactly what he needed.

Finally, Bucky got to see what he couldn't help thinking of as his first 'real' aliens. The first ones that didn't look like someone had spray-painted a human, but instead like something that couldn't possibly exist on Earth.

Fascinated, he spent quite a bit of time in the village, loitering on the docks and watching the locals more than talking to them. He fussed with the comm badge until he figured out how to turn off the translator for a while, so he could hear the strange croaking and bubbling noises that the creatures used as speech.

He even tried ribbiting a few words back at them, much to their entertainment and hilarity. Bucky was a fast learner when it came to languages, having had so many implanted in him that he had a broad base to draw on. But it turned out human throats just couldn't make the kinds of sounds required.

Also, he was pretty sure from the bubbles of laughter that they were actually teaching him to say 'Hi, I'm a hairless ape', not 'Hi, nice to meet you'.

It didn't long before he was forced to strip down to his last top layer, a sleeveless undershirt that unfortunately showed off his metal arm and the scars where it joined to his body, but it was too God damned hot for anything else.

[farmboyjedi]

As a desert boy, Luke was always fascinated and somehow excited by big bodies of water. There was still some deep-rooted awe that surfaced, even though it was mostly internal these days. Back home, water was a precious commodity, every drop had to be used carefully. His aunt and uncle would have been awed by the beaches and lakes and rivers he'd seen, although this being salt, it still wouldn't be extremely useful without purification.

The heat wasn't anything new to him, between growing up on Tattooine and spending so much time in the jungles of Yavin IV. He was glad that he'd been wearing his Jedi robe when he arrived on the ship. It looked warm, but sheltered his head from the sun even so.

Still, he was pleased he could strip down and take a swim, although he wished he had a swimsuit. He made sure his dip was secluded, not wanting to have any unintended exposure, since he'd always been pretty modest.

The village:

Luke wandered into the village later on, after his swim. He wasn't phased by the aquatic inhabitants, given that so many races existed in the galaxy alone, let alone outside it. Gungans, Mon Calamari, and many others were semi-aquatic. There was actually a bit of similarity to Cilgal's species, except that Mon Cal were more cephalapod-like and not really jumpers like these. And not all species wore much in the way of clothing, so that wasn't unusual either. Chewie only wore his ammo belt, and the Ewoks only wore head coverings at times and various accessories, not much human-like clothing.

He couldn't help concentrating on their Force essences, wondering if they were a Force-sensitive species or not. THings might be very different outside the galaxy, but then, the Yuzhaan Vong were outsiders and had been open to the Force at one time in their history.

He was mostly happy to look and learn, wondering if perhaps he might be able to take back information he discovered here to increase knowledge back home.