epidemiology | EVENT ★ MAT GATHERING

EVENT ★ MAT GATHERING

http://www.joemichael.co.nz/photography/#/luminosity/

The investigations in the sungazing log have lead to a number of discoveries, including trace amounts of solar radiation and seemingly temporary lights in the sky that match no known star charts currently in Chantes. On the 15th, Rick will announce via the verdict over the network: the sun isn’t gone.

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Those of you who actually did your job instead of screwing off (and breaking my shit! Yes, I know all about it), congrats. We've made headway on our dumbass situation.

The sun isn't gone (obviously). There are radiation levels suggesting that it's still there somewhere, but it's weirdly faint. Concerning item number one. Concerning item number two: there are lights in the sky but they're not native stars. They're red in the west in the morning, and in the east in the evening. This suggests a solar cycle that we just can't observe (with a western sunrise apparently). There are no moons visible; supposedly there should be two. Go figure.

The most interesting observations came from the storm, during which the "star" readings went off the charts, dawg. All lit up like Christmas and shit.

Hypothesis: the darkness is not because homeboy made anything "vanish with magic," but because he stuck a big "blanket" between the planet and the sky. The "stars" are likely just holes in his dumb bullshit. So let's get this solution rolling so we can get off this godforsaken rock. This is where you losers come in. I need things . . .

The mystery of the disappearing sun might be clear, but that doesn’t mean the problem’s solved. Now’s the hard part: creating something that will dispel the darkness.

Fortunately, with the right ingredients, science might be able to win the daylight back. All recruits will be encouraged to help with some good, old-fashioned teamwork and fetch quests.

SCAVENGER HUNT

The list is as follows:

Iron ore. Collecting it seems easy enough, but a dangerous serpentine creature capable of breathing electricity known as a Behir lairs nearby. If hungry, it will ambush characters and will not stop unless it succeeds or is slain.
Following the rich iron supply, characters will also find a series of winding underground caves and caverns.

Inside are items such as glowing cave mushrooms that are likely radioactive. Blue mushrooms maintain their coloring due to a rare solute in the cave water, helpful for optimizing fuel. Green mushrooms are useless and if you collect them you should feel bad.
Bat guano. Bats indigenous to the caves also seem to be affected by the contaminated cave water, however -- they’re enormous, blood-sucking, and have developed a mild venom. While one bite won’t kill anyone, the bats have numbers, ultrasonic screeches, and bad tempers.
Plutonic rocks. The source of the odd cave life, an ancient scattering of some massive meteorite resides deep inside the cave. They’ve got rich veins and chunks of crystal, the bigger the better. (We’d tell you what these space oddities are for, but we think it’d blow your minds.)
Cave Minnows. The fish inside the cave lakes are easy to spot since they’re bioluminescent, but only the small, quick ones metabolize the correct oils for this project. The large ones will simply try to drag you into a death roll the -- surprisingly deep -- waters.
Glowworms. See those lights hanging overhead? They’re not bulbs, but bundles of strange, glowing cave worms. Reaching and handling them might be tricky, and keep careful watch of them. They’ll burrow into anything, including your packs, your collected materials, or worst of all, you.
Rock salt. Delicious!
Potassium nitrate. This one is easier to find in Chantes itself: an old woman in town has a giant jar of it that she uses for pickling. Recruits may attempt to wile her out of a cup, or steal from the elderly.
Wildcard. If you don't mind volatile reactions, go ahead and science on your own. Or see anything else that might be useful? Grab it and go.

As a side-mission for the cave items, it seems the 15th is also the only day of the year that the night-blooming cereus plants are open around the cavern entrances. These flowers must be handled very delicately or they’ll wither and die, and local insects of all shapes, sizes, and aggressiveness will be drawn to them, so collectors beware. These flowers will have no bearing on the sun solution, but the goblin church will ask outgoing adventurers to bring some back with them. These items may come into play in February depending on IC actions, but otherwise they make for some pretty decorations!

And finally, a big thanks to

ricksybusiness for submitting their player plot and working with us. You go, Rick Sanchez.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ his talents were probably put to better use fighting the behir, but collecting iron ore is only part one of this multi-part mission, and, of course, Melan intends to complete every part. He's never one to shirk his duties. So here he is, looking for fish. If the large fish were the ones they needed, this would be easy - he's quick and accurate enough with his blade that he could probably spearfish them. Tiny minnows, though? He's out of luck. Melan's been walking along the winding lake shore, following a school of the little ones while brainstorming ways he might be able to catch them without hands.

No luck so far.

Eventually, he comes upon Riza sitting there in the water - but his first thought isn't the markings on her back, nor whatever state of undress she may or may not be in (honestly, he doesn't even notice...) ]

Lieutenant Hawkeye. You should get away from there. It's dangerous.

[Bless robots from a different world, she can always count on Melan for being gentlemanly (....gentlerobotly...?) in questionable times such as these. But no worries, she's got a shirt and pants on still, this is a perfectly acceptable scene should any third party unknowingly walk in on them.]

Melan?

[The voice it might take her a moment to place, but the shape and size are enough of a giveaway that she doesn't startle overly much in the water. She does leave her hair be, lowering her hands into cautiously defensive posture — at whatever danger might be out there, not Melan himself.]

Why do you say that?

[Surely there's nothing harmful about fish the size of her hand...]

[ you can't catch us today tropey anime bullshit!! ]

There are aquatic lifeforms in the water that are very large and aggressive. They may attack you if you go in too deep.

[ he knows this because one bit his foot earlier and tried to make off with him. Fortunately, jet propulsion is a decent method of getting out of a death roll. ]

[Ah.....

She takes a reflexive step back at that cautionary warning, eyes darting back towards the water in search of any of those aforementioned aquatic lifeforms. None leap out at her from underneath the water just yet but she feels a shiver run down her spine all the same.]

Are those different from the smaller fish we were told to collect?

[Why did this have to get more difficult...]

[ he seems to look just slightly more at ease when she backs away from the water, too, though it's not terribly perceptible. Melan shakes his head. ]

Their genetic information is very similar, and they appear to be the same species. The ones we're catching might be juveniles.

[ he doesn't know a lot about fish, but... maybe?! ]

[She knows that they make for tasty meals when they're fresh....does that count.

But she'll take that new information into account and slowly slosh her way out of the water entirely - without incurring any injury, to boot. His mention of the word 'genetics' has her frowning a bit, but out of curiosity rather than dismay.]

Are you able to scan them or something along those lines?

[Or is he just a fish enthusiast...]

[ it will count if she shares some with him...

He watches her exit the water in his usual blank way. Though he doesn't look it, seeing as he's not carrying anything with him, he's been as busy collecting as anyone else. The fish are the one item on this scavenger hunt that are eluding him at the moment. There are still a few beads of water clinging to his body and armor from his last few attempts at grabbing them. ]

Yes. Reading biological wavelengths is my primary method of identifying other living entities.

[ ok it's a date

But first, they need to catch the fish. Placing her now-soaking jacket off to the side - it'll have to dry at some point for her to be able to wear it - she crouches down by the edge of the lake, peering into the murky depths below.]

Can you sense if there's anything else down there other than the fish?

[How prepared do they have to be for this?]

If there is something, it's too far away for me to detect, [ he answers, stepping beside her to peer into the water, too. It's not like he has an x-ray scanner as much as he can "see" additional information when he looks at something, unfortunately.

After a moment, his gaze drops down to her, instead. ]

Your back is injured. Are you okay?

[That's a relief. After far too many run-ins with the local bat population, she's happy enough to stray from further dangerous incidents, at least for the time being.

Whatever further suggestion she might have been about to make regarding the capture of the fish in the lake for their unnamed scientific friend gets cut off early, his concern over her back catching her off guard.]

My back?

[One hand reaches over her shouldn't automatically, searching for a fresh wound or a newly-earned bruise. Instead, her fingers settle on familiar welts of skin.]

You mean the burns? Those were from long ago. They don't hurt anymore.

[ Seeing as he heals from most injuries fairly quickly, he's not super familiar with scars. All he sees is a rather impressive injury. It's no surprise, seeing as she's apparently a lieutenant of some kind - but even so, he knows firsthand how delicate humans are. ]

Oh... I see. Sorry. [ if it's not serious, then it's fine. His eyes linger on the burns for another moment before going to meet her gaze again. ] The damaged area appears quite large. You must be a strong warrior to survive such an injury with no regenerative function.

[Humans are indeed frail and delicate....as a human, she can agree with that statement wholeheartedly. His compliment, on the other hand, has her mentally stumbling, though it's better contained on the outside and only revealed by a brief widening of her eyes.

Then it's gone, replaced by a disparaging smile.]

Actually, I brought it upon myself. [It's a surprisingly candid reveal, given how little she's spoken of it in the past.] It wouldn't be very fair to ask someone else to injure me and then not survive.

[Also not very kind.]

[ that response - and the tone that comes with it - is unexpected. He doesn't have an immediate response. After a second or two, he blinks, deep red eyes troubled. ]

Why would you ask to be injured?

[ that doesn't make sense. Maybe she was hopeless, or lonely...? He'd seen humans that way before. If they're emotionally compromised enough, they can lose the will to survive. But he'd never heard of anyone voluntarily asking to be burned. ]

[Because she's lacking in common sense, obviously.

Riza stays crouched at the side of the lake, though by now her gaze has drifted away from the fish lurking underneath the surface and towards a crack running down the far wall. It's been a long time since she's felt the weight of her tattoo pressing down on her but it returns now for a fleeting moment.]

It was either injure myself or risk countless others being injured.

[—Which is vague as fuck and she knows it, so she pushes herself back up into a standing position, turning until she can see Melan once more.]

Have you ever heard of alchemy?

[ she still probably has more than melan...

oblivious to her discomfort, Melan listens quietly, watching her with the same neutral gaze as ever; he takes a step back when she gets to her feet again, not wanting to infringe on her space. He's nothing more than innocently curious. Her explanation might be vague, but it answers his question, at least somewhat - sacrificing oneself for a greater just cause is nothing new to him. He'd been more than ready to do the same. ]

Alchemy, [ he repeats, then appears to think. Unfortunately, that ancient history is super-ancient history by the time his era rolls around. ] No. What is it?

[Is she comparable to a walking corpse for him then.....

Ancient as alchemy, on which her father and a good number of her friends had made their living on. It's not a particularly difficult subject for her to broach, so long as she keeps the details vague and general.]

It's a technically a scientific art, but to those who are unfamiliar with it can seem like magic or the impossible. It relies on three basic concepts: comprehension of a given material at hand, deconstruction of said material, and reconstruction of that material into something completely different.

[But no one cares about the scientific aspects of anything - except for maybe Dipper and Rick - so she's quick to move on and tie back her brief science lesson to the matter previously at hand.]

In essence, you could use alchemy to transform the cavern floor [she raps on a nearby lump of rock twice with her knuckles] into an earthenware pot—or a deadly weapon used to kill people.

[There's a bit left to her impromptu lecture but she pauses for now, checking to see if Melan's even still following her.]

[ more like an undiscovered dinosaur because he doesn't even know humans ever existed on his world...

he is indeed still following her - to the best of his ability, anyway. The basic tenets are reasonable enough, but he's not sure he understands what differentiates "making one thing into another" from "alchemy."

To say nothing of the extreme leap in comparisons from "sculpture" to "deadly weapon." Riza??? ]

Is it a construction technique? [ clearly a little confused. ]

[Good thing she went into military and not teaching....she really sucks at this. IF ONLY SHE COULD DEMONSTRATE but alas, she's useless in this regard. Where's an actual alchemist when you need one?

(Bless Melan's little robot heart for trying to keep up though.)]

In a way, yes. Very rapid construction on a very large scale.

[She thinks about trying to outline some of it with her hands, then thinks better of it and lowers her hands again with a small laugh.]

I'm sorry, this must all be very confusing for you.

[ he does his best... alas. most things are very confusing for him, so, really, she doesn't need to be apologizing. Melan bows his head slightly. Ashamed, maybe...? ]

It's fine. There are many things I'm unfamiliar with. [ at least he's honest about it. Normally, he wouldn't think that, but by now, he's noticed that he really knows almost nothing. Fighting was the only skill necessary for a Monomakia like him to learn in his youth. ]

Were you injured during construction?

[Honestly, she's really not doing much better in the knowledge department. Yeah, maybe she's got human relationships down pat but the whole supernatural beings from another world still boggles her mind more than it should.

Other things that boggle her mind at the current moment: that question. She echoes his question, not quite sure how to comprehend it.]

During construction....?

[The construction of her body? Some in-between alchemy step?? She just doesn't know.]

Sorry. You brought up alchemy after I asked about your injury, so I thought it may be the cause.

[ and alchemy is a construction technique, so clearly, there was some kind of massive construction accident that happened where she took the fall for her fellow construction workers...

... is something like what Melan is imagining, probably. God help him. At least he's apologetic. ]

[Incredible.....

....is probably what Riza would think of the explanation running through Melan's mind if she could bear witness to it. Or at the very least, she'd think it incredibly off the mark. Despite that, his verba; explanation isn't all inaccurate. She smiles faintly.]

You're not completely wrong. The person who caused the injury used alchemy.

[But enough about all this, she's probably making his poor brain go in circles.]

It doesn't hurt anymore so there's no point in worrying over it. We should probably worry over these fish some more, if we're supposed to catch them.

[ see!! he's not wrong!! just tragically misinformed. which, incidentally, is the story of his life. He still seems somewhat puzzled, but he can at least recognize that she seems done talking about it, responding with a stiff nod to her statement about the fish instead. ]

I have been having difficulty. They're very... small, and slippery.

[That seems as accurate a description of fish as she's ever heard, though she can't help but wonder how he's been attempting to catch said fish up until now. With his bare robo-arms? That seems highly inefficient.

She hums, taps at her chin with one finger.]

If we could find some way to make a net, it would make catching them easier.

[ very carefully, that's how. ]

I also thought a net would be useful. But I'm not sure where to get one. Perhaps there is a way to contact ALASTAIR and ask for one.

[ there's no way he can make one with his weapon arms, anyway... his claspers aren't delicate enough for that kind of work. ]

EVENT ★ MAT GATHERING

2a... gonna say they exchanged names at some point

works for me! o7

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sorry for the delay!

not a problem!

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wtf that's such a cute icon

:3c melan is cute

the cutest....

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