EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

[futurologists]

The scene that greets you after the mist of world hopping fades isn’t a pretty one. You may remember Oska from your first, brief trip here — it was a stately, serene place, a grand castle usually wreathed in low lying clouds or gently sunny. Not so today. The damage done to Chantes by the demons and chimeras pales in comparison to what has been done to Oska. Only one tower of the formerly impressive castle stands upright, the others have been knocked down and torn to rubble, some of which is still smoldering or in flickering flames. Most of the castle has been flattened, entire rooms torn apart and laid to waste. No exterior wall is without gaping holes, as if some army and their immense battering ram had needed a whole collection of entrances to storm this castle. Nothing is untouched, and worst of all, the underground larder seems to have been completely buried in a fall of rocks from the kitchen’s exterior wall. Even if you were able to dig it up, it’s dubious much of the food is unspoiled or intact. If there is any up side to all of this destruction, it’s that no bodies can be found amid the mess, human or otherwise. Even the livestock are missing. Personal effects can be dug out of the ruins, and it seems very clear that this castle was populated until recently. There remains not one soul to tell what happened, though. Well, almost not one soul. The network that usually connects the jewelry is completely nonfunctional. Attempting to access it only brings up one static message, repeating for as long as you care to listen to it: Something [ SHHKT ] --rrible has happ-- [ The message cuts out frequently, replaced with static. ] The-- [ shhhhhhkt ] came, they destroyed everything and n-- [ The static fades slightly. ] We’re trapped. You’re on your own. But please, we ne-- [ shhkt ] your help. They’re still here. There’s worse to come. But when you [ SHKT ] --ind them, you can’t kill them. They need to be questioned. We mus-- [ shhhhkt ] know their motivations. Some of the new recruits… they’re in the dungeons. You need to he-- [ shkt ] them, please. They can still be saved. SURVIVAL The dungeons are, of course, the only part of the castle left intact enough to present a challenge to escape. Some newcomers will find themselves lost in a labyrinth of cell-lined corridors, able to wander for hours before stumbling across any hint of daylight. How that’s even possible with most of the castle destroyed is anyone’s guess. Other newcomers might even be locked into the cells, with keys left nearby but just out of reach — or not. Better hope some sort of escape artist happens across you, if you’re one of those unlucky arrivals. Food isn’t going to be easy to come across. You might try digging out the larder, but not much food can be salvaged from it. Are you going to put in the work to dig up a single shelf of intact loaves of bread, a cold roast chicken locked in a wood stove, and one barrel of apples? Maybe you try scavenging in the small, abandoned village outside the castle. This will uncover some food, but not much. Most of the food out there is either rotted through or missing entirely. You might find enough to last one person two days on your own, but who knows how long you’ll need it to last? Wherever you find your food, if you find your food, rationing is highly recommended. Water isn’t so simple to find, either. There is a lake not far outside the castle walls, but the water in it tastes rancid, a sign to any right-thinking person that it’s no good to drink. Anyone brave or stupid enough to push through the taste and drink it anyway will find there aren’t actually any adverse effects, but is it worth the risk? Water can otherwise be found in very small amounts, collected by rainfall in buckets, on indented stones, in mislaid pots. It won’t be much, but if you search diligently it’s enough to keep you going. Shelter will be a little easier to find… at least, at first. No one is using any of the beds in the village, they’re free to pick from as long as you don’t mind the eerie silence. If your character is particularly awful at scavenging, please see the end of this post. HELL WEEK Survival aside, that still leaves the question: just what did happen here? Characters are welcome to dig through the ruins for hints at what fate may have befallen Oska. We have provided a thread here to sign up to find belongings or other little signs of life, and try to piece together the picture. But what about that culprit, mentioned in the broadcast? Some characters will be able to stumble across very, very specific clues — riddles and puzzles, purposefully laid to guide the finders toward… something. Who knows what lies at the end of this oddly deliberate trail? You can sign up to find and solve the puzzles here. Day one in Oska is easy enough to survive, an almost peaceful acclimation to the dismal scene. Things get a little bit tougher from there, though. On day two the ground begins to shake. It’s just little tremors at first, easy to miss if you’re not standing still. But by mid morning they’re large quakes, enough to break some structures further. The quakes continue through the night and into day three, when they are large and severe enough to throw someone off their feet, tear apart a house, and even open wide chasms in the ground. They come with unpredictable frequency, anything between five minutes to three hours, but they definitely come more closely together as time passes. The village is safer at this point, without quite so many stones to shift and crush you, although those chasms are still a concern. Come the evening of day three, the quakes stop entirely. A soft rainfall begins to patter down instead — still thirsty? Now is your chance to find some battered coffee tin and gather your drink. The rainfall continues steadily overnight, and by the morning of the fourth day it is a torrential downpour. It never lets up, not even once, and soon the water is more than the ground can handle. Flooding begins at this point, just a few inches deep in some places, more formidable in others. This also lasts for two days, and by the end of the fifth day in Oska most of the village is washed out. You’ll have better luck among the sturdy stones of the castle. Remember that still-standing castle tower? It’s not exactly the most structurally sound thing, but it is definitely out of the water. The water stops very suddenly at sundown on the fifth day, affording a pretty peaceful, clear night. Come dawn of the sixth day, however, heavy clouds move to obscure the sunrise. They seem to flame around the edges in the light of it, and then in the middles. That’s clearly not sunlight lighting up those clouds by this point. The clouds flash from within as they build more and more heavily, but no lightning has ever been that flickering golden color. At midmorning the first drops begin to fall: not rain this time, but liquid fire. By noon the firestorm is at full strength. It swings between sheets of fire pelting down, and clearing up only to pelt down great fireballs. The rain-drenched village and castle can only fend off the rain for so long. Eventually the water evaporates and anything that can burn will burn. Time your ventures out into the weather very carefully, because the firefall never lets up for long, and that’s the kind of downpour you don’t want to be caught in. OOC INFO Is your character awful at survival? Can’t scavenge to save their life, completely out of food and water and about to expire? Wherever they fall asleep, they’ll wake up with a small, inexplicable wrapped bundle left next to their head. Within will be a half an apple, a single leg of chicken, and a very small canteen of water. This log will last for one week, and there will be new information available on the 17th. As per our informal poll, this log will last ICly for one week, and OOCly for two. There will be new information available on the 24th. What the setting will be from here will depend on characters' ability to work together to catch whoever is responsible for these events. You can sign up to find hints about the people who lived here and what may have happened to them here, and puzzles left by the perpetrator leading to the discovery of them on this post. Please direct any questions here.

Comments

day 1

[strictdiscipline]

[This is not at all what Riza expects upon their return to Oska, and she can't help but be inclined to agree with the sentiment in Undyne's voice, her own face the perfect picture of weary annoyance. First demons, then chimeras, now an entire castle burned to the ground. What she wouldn't give for her desk job back right about now.

Her movements freeze for a second as she glances over at Undyne - there might be a whole host of strange-looking recruits within ALASTAIR, but that doesn't make the noticeably fishy appearance any less jarring - but ultimately she sighs, gaze dropping to the questionable rock-that-might-be-bread-but-is-probably-rock.]

Apparently so. ALASTAIR must really enjoy pushing us to our limits.

[aspearation]

You're telling me!

[ She tosses the rock, and it goes flying. Hopefully, it won't actually hit anyone, wherever it lands. Otherwise, they might be in for a bit of a surprised. ]

I wonder how long they're going to string us along like this. Wanna make a bet?

[strictdiscipline]

[If there were any lingering creatures around, likely the carelessly thrown rock would've hit on, but as things stand, it clatters sadly to the ground and stumbles to a stop next to a rather molded over citrus fruit many feet away, only a hint of orange peeking out from under layers of green and gray fuzz.

Riza, on her part, crouches down to inspect a questionable-looking apple, mostly solid still save for the dark bruise spreading over one side.]

I don't have anything to bet with. Besides, I doubt it'll be anything less than the rest of the time we're conscripted to work for them.

[Who needs optimism after demons and burned down castles?]

[aspearation]

Yeah...

[ She's silent for a moment, eyeing the apple warily, but otherwise disinterested. Finders, keepers. Remembering something someone else said, she finally looks back up at Riza, momentarily pensive. ]

Do you think they're even human?

[strictdiscipline]

[That's—not something she'd even considered - blame her rather narrow-minded viewpoint about these things, and the fact that she'd never met anything or anyone even remotely non-human until a few scant months ago. She's still, body tense until she sighs, a short exhale of breath.]

Does it matter either way? Though I suppose they might be easier to kill if they're human

[It's an offhand comment, not one she intends to follow through on any time soon. But she's done nothing for the past several years but wait and plan; preparing for the worst long before it arrives is a skill buried deep in her now.]

[aspearation]

Yes, it matters.

[ But she's not really sure why, not just yet. She's still figuring out the spaces between and around human and monster and what that all means to her. ]

I'm not killing any humans. You don't know how difficult to kill you all are. But maybe if they weren't human...

[strictdiscipline]

[Now there's a conflicting opinion if she ever heard one, different enough from what she's heard - and experienced - to pull her attention away from surveying her surroundings and back towards Undyne, head cocked to one side.]

What makes you say that?

[She gestures towards herself, one hand sweeping over her simple frame.]

Most of us have no magic to protect us, no reinforced skin or invulnerability of any sort. You could snap my neck with little effort.

[It's all said factually, like she's some object of examination rather than a person.]

[aspearation]

[ Undyne just scoffs. She's learning, but it comes and goes, and in moments like this, it's easy to revert to everything that she used to know about humans. ]

You don't need magic, that's the whole point. If magic mattered, monsters wouldn't have to worry about humans at all.

[ The discussion around monster versus human biology has become surprisingly common here. She only wishes she'd read a little more about it back home, so she could explain it better. All she knows is what she's heard from Asgore and Gerson, and the singular human she met before coming here. ]

Maybe it's different where you're from, but where I'm from, humans are definitely stronger by a lot.

[strictdiscipline]

[That's certainly a theory she can't discount, even if the thought seems strange to her. (But then again, so had the concept of other worlds beyond her own just a few months ago, and look at where she is now.) She lets the thought process, face contemplative as she digests what she's been told, though she starts up her search for any edible foodstuffs left behind as she thinks.]

Did you fight against humans in your world then?

[She doesn't think it an unreasonable assumption to make, from the way Undyne speaks.]

[aspearation]

Yeah. Or, well... I trained to fight against humans! The first human I ever fought turned out to be a huge softie, but they were tough in spirit! They didn't even fight back and I still couldn't take them down!

[ And she's sort of glad she didn't, in retrospect, but that is neither here nor there. Joining in the searching again, Undyne starts tossing aside rubble again. For all that effort, she's mostly just moving the piles, but she has some vague hope of finding something. ]

Maybe it's different in other worlds. I don't really understand all that universe-travel stuff, but you're not the first human to have that reaction.

[strictdiscipline]

[She'd be surprised if she were the first human to have that reaction, honestly. Much as she defends the few virtues her race has, there's no denying the fact that the large majority of them are sheep, capable only of echoing one another.

Regardless, her interests don't lie in what her own kind can or cannot do but rather in Undyne. What's the point of going on wild adventures across the unknown universe if one doesn't learn and pick up a few new tidbits along the way?]

Are you some sort of soldier, then?

[aspearation]

Sorta. Captain of the Royal Guard! The king's elite guard and protectors of the underground. I guess we would have been on the front lines if we ever waged war against the humans.

[ After a beat, she looks up and adds, ]

Not that we will? Or... would?

[ She tries so hard to remember what Sans told her about timelines, and about how Papyrus made it out of the Underground, all thanks to one human. She still hasn't absorbed it yet, but she tries. ]

[strictdiscipline]

[The mention of military has Riza standing up a bit straighter out of reflex.

That said the name Royal Guard, coupled with the brief description, sparks a brief flicker of recognition that has her pausing to chase down that particular line of thought. A few seconds later:]

Do you know Papyrus? He mentioned almost joining the Royal Guard where he came from.

[Were they speaking of the same Royal Guard...? (The war against humans she'll ask about later, once she confirms this.)]

[aspearation]

Papyrus? Yeah, he's my best friend. He always wanted to join the Royal Guard, but...

[ She shakes her head, but smiles fondly for it. ]

I mean, you've met him, right? He'd rather fight a thumb war than an actual one. Don't get me wrong, he's pretty tough. He's just not a soldier.

[strictdiscipline]

[Best friend....how cute. Her preliminary respect for Undyne softens into something a bit warmer, even if it's difficult to imagine anyone not at least a little charmed by Papyrus and his eager friendliness. Which also makes it difficult to imagine Papyrus as a stoic member of the Royal Guard, and thus easy to understand Undyne's sentiments. A nod of her head and a brief smile's enough to signal her agreement.]

I can't imagine that the life of a soldier would be an easy one for him.

[It reminds her a bit of Major Armstrong, easily the strongest of all of them but held back from promotion due to his oversized heart.]

But I also can't imagine anyone wanting to fight him, with how friendly he is.

[There's that, at the very least.]

[aspearation]

Heh, yeah! I can't either.

[ She seems unsure of that for a moment, then goes on. ]

But if there was a war, they'd have to, wouldn't they? It sounds like that won't actually happen though. At least not when he's from. Here, though...

[ Chantes had been relatively peaceful, outside of a few altercations. But who knows where they'll be sent from here? ]

[strictdiscipline]

[Here, everything is different, and Riza can see partly where Undyne is coming from. Nothing is predictable or intimately familiar to either of them here, and there's no telling what their next mission might entail. If it's another all-out mission like Chantes or something lighter and more easy-going. (The latter she can't quite imagine, coming from a background of war and ceaseless fighting, but she's been surprised before.)

Still, she quirks a smile, faint though it is.]

He's lucky to have you for a friend then. You seem more no-nonsense about things than he is.

[aspearation]

Huh. Yeah, I guess he is.

[ Which is really her way of saying that she's the lucky one to have him around. Despite how they might bicker sometimes, they're good for each other in a lot of ways. There's a reason he's her best friend, though.

Diverging from the topic, not intentionally but out of frustration for the literally fruitless search for food, she kicks a rock in an arbitrary direction, and takes a moment to look around. ]

This is boring, there's nothing here. I'm gonna go see if I can find Papyrus now, but I'll tell him I talked to you... what did you say your name was again??