STF

SideSIM: Somewhere in the Deep, Dark Woods (tag: Storyteller)

Posted June 1, 2023, 3:17 p.m. by Captain Chris Taggart (Captain) (Travis Good)

Posted by Commander T’Aria (XO / Navigation Officer) in SideSIM: Somewhere in the Deep, Dark Woods (tag: Storyteller)

Posted by Captain Chris Taggart (Captain) in SideSIM: Somewhere in the Deep, Dark Woods (tag: Storyteller)

Posted by Commander T’Aria (XO / Navigation Officer) in SideSIM: Somewhere in the Deep, Dark Woods (tag: Storyteller)
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
“We’ll contact you on the surface, sir.” T’Aria assured Taggart, sensing a familiar pull as the transporter disassembled her atoms and engulfed the away team in a swirl of yellow-white beams.

T’Aria soon materialized in a small clearing with a dull throb in her temples. She rubbed the area and blinked the yellowish haze from her eyes, assuming it was a side effect of the transporter. A prickling sensation disrupted her thoughts and drew her attention to a tuft of thin, dry grass emerging from low-lying fog. Upon closer inspection, the fog seemed to obscure the entire forest floor, giving way to a dense tangle of twisted trees and thorny foliage that surrounded them on all sides.

“Lt Dawson, Lt Hawkins,” T’Aria untangled her tricorder from her hip and calibrated it for a short-distance scan, “we need a route out of the forest. Scan for holes in the foliage. Dr Symar, Dr Kastarak. We are unaccustomed to this environment and its dangers. Scan for possible threats.”

“Cmdr Grey…” she turned, lifting her gaze from her tricorder to find her orders fell not to her team, but plumes of whispy fog that dissipated as soon as she touched them, “…fascinating.”

T’Aria didn’t give herself time to process the surprise, immediately throwing the tricorder over her shoulder and whipping out her communicator to adjust the frequency to contact the rest of the team.

“Commander T’Aria to Away Team,” she adjusted the dial, “do you copy?”

— T’Aria

“No need to get upset Commander. I am right here and the others are just up head.” He said coming out into the clearing. “Commander Grey told them to fan out and explore and then meet back up here.” Lt. Quentin “Q” Dawson said. “Are you ok ma’am? You didn’t fully come out of the transporter like everyone else did?”

Storyteller

T’Aria snapped her attention to what appeared to be Lt Dawnson, confusion flickering across her face in a raised eyebrow, but she swiftly regained her composure and nodded.

“Affirmative, Lieutenant.” She studied him, certain he wasn’t there before. Had the transporter impaired her senses? Her fingers hovered over her her temples where the throbbing had eased.

She suspected the transporter encountered interference in from the planet’s magnetosphere, scattering the annular confinement beam and delaying materialisation on the planet’s surface. It wasn’t unusual for transporter delays to result in temporary disorientation… but enough to miss him entirely? Strange. And why would Cmdr Grey decide to proceed with the mission if a member of the team hadn’t transported? Had Taggart given him orders – better, could they contact Chernov if there was interference? T’Aria fiddled with her tricorder to a brief, furtive scan of the Lieutenant and their surroundings just to be sure. She didn’t disbelieve him; but, if she had missed him, she wasn’t sure she could rely on her senses to tell her what was right in front of her.

“I am experiencing some disorientation,” she wavered a moment to check the scan results, “but it will resolve with time.”

“I assume you elected to inspect the local area,” she said, making note to check in with Cmdr Grey in a few moments, “what have you found?”

— T’Aria

Lt. Dawson made a show of concern. “Tsk. Tsk Commander. You know you should sit down until you have regained all of your faculties. I am here as the Weapons Officer and Chief of Security and I have enough on my plate without adding in a drunken Vulcan to the mix where you will pose a problem to everyone because you can’t see, hear or even walk straight. Now sit down.” The last sentence was a command and his voice matched.

‘Drunken’? ‘Problem’? His sudden shift in demeanour did not go unnoticed. T’Aria found it unusual that he, a generally even-tempered and thoughtful man, would submit to condescension. Why was it so important to him that she sit down? Her vestibular system was unharmed. She wasn’t dizzy or uncoordinated, and her senses were evidently sharp enough to keep her alert. So, why did he feel her movement would endanger their crewmates? Something was off. T’Aria wanted to know what.

Sooner than to aggravate him further, T’Aria settled onto the grass, which seemed thick enough to conceal her tricorder. Her previous scan had come back inconclusive. So, she narrowed the scanning parameters to biomolecular readings. She then, quietly and with her gaze trained on “Lt Dawson”, angled the device to initiate a scan. Was he sick or injured? Were there environmental factors – chemicals, fungi, bacteria – provoking these behaviours? Or was it something entirely different?

He let out a long sigh. “But to answer your second question. We are in a very thick old forest called the Everfree Forest. We have picked up signals on the tricorders of many different animal life forms. Most are small and some are really, really big. Some we cannot even decipher. One looks really big like a dire wolf but it is made up of sticks from a tree and moving around us. Others are bears and the like and besides the literal timber wolf, most species are that of Earth. We did notice a small creature with the head of a chicken and the body of a serpent with wings. But that did not make any sense either. So it is best to just stay here and regain your composure before we move along to find the others. Speaking strictly as a security expert Commander.” He said all of that like it was common knowledge.

Storyteller

T’Aria perked up when he identified the clearing as belonging to the ‘Everfree Forest’. Tricorders were powerful investigative tools. They could assess relative age from old growth, cross-reference strange lifeforms with known species, and extract pertinent information from Federation databases to aid their analyses. Local names weren’t in their databases. So, how did he know? T’Aria brushed her fingers over her phaser to ensure it was still there before slowly rising to her feet.

The scan came back unreadable.

T’Aria was not sure of “Dawson“‘s power, but his familiarity with the Everfree forest and its residents gave him an undeniable advantage. There was good reason not to provoke him – not yet.

“Understood,” she said. “The Everfree Forest seemed to be home to unusual lifeforms, and I suspect they could be dangerous, especially alone. We should regroup before resuming our exploration.”

T’Aria flicked open her communicator to attempt raising the away team again.

“Commander T’Aria to away team,” she paused, “come in away team.”

– T’Aria

“Oh. I am afraid that no one or should I say, nopony will hear you.....” He made an eerie and devilish smile before snaping his fingers. The phaser turned into a snake and wrapped itself around her waist and started to squeeze her.

No-po—? A sharp, breath-stealing squeeze interrupted her thoughts and yanked her attention to the reptile tightening its grip around her abdomen. She felt the burn of panic rise in her chest but stopped, relaxed and forced everything away. Her struggle would provoke the creature to constrict quicker. She needed to act quick without alarming the creature… and without alarming herself.

Coming up close to her and with red eyes now. “....Even if you scream…” He then started to laugh maniacally.

Storyteller

T’Aria narrowed her eyes at him, clenched her jaw and dug her fingers between the snake and her tunic. Though unrestrained, the snake reminded her of the carnivorous, fast-striking sucker vines that inhabited the desert plains. They were vicious. And they had a weak spot.

Snakes were weaker in their tails, correct? Was this creature even comparable to Earth snakes?

T’Aria didn’t have time to double check. She focused her strength to try and pry the snake’s tail from its coil and pull it from her body, hoping the disturbance would distract the snake into loosening its hold enough to fling it away. She had no intention of harming the snake.

Not unless absolutely necessary.

– T’Aria

“Ohhh. Ha ha ha ! You should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless!” The creature said while laughing at T’Aria. He snapped his fingers again and the snake was gone and her phaser was back and then snapped them again to reveal his true form. It was a serpent like creature with fur instead of scales, two different horns, one like a rams and the other like a deer. Its arms were the same way as one was a bird or griffin like arm and the other was a paw like a lions and this legs were the same way.

“Oh. That was fun. I haven’t had that much fun in eons.” Then he put his finger to his chin. “Nope. That was only a few years ago when I tricked Twighlight Sparkle and friends. In any case, I should get you back to your team Commander. I wasn’t kidding about the vicious animals in the forest.” He snapped his fingers again and they were standing in Princess Twilights castle with the other members of her away team and the other ponys.

Storyteller


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