epidemiology | EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't say crap like that. We'll get demons instead.
_{[ A lazy voice slurs out in the distance as he approaches Adrien. The tip of his pinky is stuck in his ear, and despite the catastrophic happenings around him, Gintoki seems unreasonably calm. Various wounds were seen on his arms and his clothing looked dirty, along with his silver hair, which carried more of a dull sheen to it. Poor guy needed another bath; he had been active during all of this.

Anyway, he also takes a peek out of the window— well, the hole in the wall— half lidded eyes treading over the terrain. A wooden sword with the engraving "洞爺湖" was held at his hip, and despite it being made of wood and looking a bit charbroiled, it hadn't caught fire from being in contact with the flames. ]}

What do ya wish for on falling fire instead of a falling star?
_{[ At this very moment, a piece of toast (????) raising from his other hand and he takes a bite out of it. ]}

How about a good ending?
Or.. or!.. A chocolate parfait.
Ahh, that sounds great about now.
_{[ GOD IT HAD BEEN TOO LONG SINCE HE HAD ONE OF THOSE. ]}

Edited 2016-02-11 07:11 (UTC)

[This guy was a new face, and his slurring causes Adrien to start like a spooked cat and sit up straighter. He looks Gintoki over, trying to decide if the silver of his hair was just an unusual color, or indicative of him being older than he looked. His eyes fell on the bokken, and stayed there for a while as he struggled to remember his Chinese instruction and apply it to the kanji engraved in the wood.]

Lake Toya?

[And then suddenly there is toast and the guy is rambling about parfaits, and Adrien is settling back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and a crooked smile tugging at his face.]

I feel like in the face of the potential famine with the lack of rations chocolate parfaits should not be high on the list of wants right now, but hey, dream big.

_{[ He doesn't expect somebody like this kid to recognize the writing on his bokken. A lot of people (lmao white people) that he bumped into here couldn't read it, so it takes him by surprise. Was this kid multilingual or a foreigner who lived in Japan? Maybe he was just weeb trash, who knows.

It's okay, Gintoki is weeb trash so it works out.

His munching slows down as he looks down at him. Huh. ]}

Oi. If you have hypoglycemia, it is.
What— do you usually not eat parfaits? What the hell is wrong with you?

_{[ YOU'RE A KID. PARFAITS ARE GREAT, YOU BASTARD. ]}

[How about a multilingual weeb. Though he's fluent in Mandarin, not Japanese, the kanji is still the same. He snickers and laughs, shaking his head and putting his hands up submissively.]

No, no I'm sure they're great! I don't get to eat many sweets though, my dad keeps me on a pretty restrictive diet.

Sounds like he just wants to keep you healthy. You know, for your benefit. Or something.
I hear the doctors say crap to me— like my b*lls will bust from eating too much sugar or I'll get cancer or something. It doesn't matter anymore.

Parfaits bring me joy. If I die young, _{[ but gin ur so old ]} so be it. At least I'll die happy.

_{[ another munch of toast. ]}

Not eating parfaits or sweets, hey— surely you're miserable.
You don't gotta live like that if you don't wanna.

Edited 2016-02-16 00:35 (UTC)

[He starts to respond-- Well of course his father was just trying to keep him healthy, there wasn't much other reason outside of his profession --and then Gintoki drops the balls comment and the words just die in his throat. It leaves him sitting there with a cross between horror and confusion on his face, and it's not until Gintoki munches on his bread again that he finds words.]

Miserable isn't the greatest word, but first chance I get I'm so getting a parfait.

_{[ Miserable is a fantastic word. It actually describes Gintoki on a semi-regular basis, not like anybody could really tell with how empty his gaze was. This kid really hadn't ever had a parfait? Does that mean he hasn't had ice cream or strawberry cake either? The absolute horror. ]}

Good luck.
There isn't any here.
There really won't be anything here is it continues to rain like this.
_{[ He pushes the rest of the toast in his mouth. ]}

You've been missing out. Should'a got one when you had the chance.

[Oh he's probably had a parfait. Just not often, and probably not in a long while. Ice cream and strawberry cake are also things he's likely had, but not in some time. Hard model life.]

[He laughs humorlessly.]

Well that works out, I haven't got much luck to begin with.

[He watches the toast disappear into Gintoki's mouth with a very slight grimace, and then raises an eyebrow.]

I dunno that I would have had the chance in the first place-- I woke up in the dungeons down below here a handful of days ago.

Mmmm. I see.
_{[ Gintoki rubs the back of his neck, looking like he is genuinely in thought about something. Huh. This stupid company keeps hiring kids for some reason. What a load of junk.
It's just giving him more and more backs to look after, he guesses. ]}

Blondie-kuuun, _{[ the hell kinda nickname is that. ]}
I can show you the ropes about this place. Been here long enough.
_{[ It feels longer to him than it really was. ]}

It's not always raining fire like this either.

[He opens his mouth to protest, a touch blindsided by the nickname.]

...my name is Adrien, [He offers, not quite tersely but definitely with a hint of frustration.] ...but I would appreciate that.

_{[ that's such a hassle to say for somebody as lazy as him.
it really isn't a hassle but???? ]}

Adri-kun—
_{[ sounds a little odd with his thick accent, but you know. People have been called worse. ]}

First thing you gotta know about is the people here.
Hey, you're here by yourself, right? From what you know?

[He looks mortified. Chloe called him Adrikins, Adri-kun was too similar for any measurable amount of comfort.]

--can you please not call me that. Blondie-kun is better.

[A beat, and he focuses on the words and questions. He nods, slowly. It wasn't just him, he had Plagg, but nobody else needed to know that.]

Adri-kun—
There's a lot of idiots here. _{[ you're talking to one of them. ]}
That's the first thing you gotta know.

Some of'em are alright, but some of'em smell like rotting yakisoba— they're as useless as that stray piece of chow mein stuck on the lid once you open it.

Like Keats-san, for example.

[Lord have mercy you were going to be one of those people. He scrunches his face slightly, but takes the information graciously anyway, biting his tongue to not comment on the bit about idiots.]

[And then he laughs a little at the noodles references. This guy likes food.]

Idiots, and people are like noodles. Okay. What should I call you?

_{[ Hmmm. ]}

My correct name is "Son Goku from Konohagakure." I was training to be the greatest Hokage there is, until I went on a quest to find the famous One Piece—
I carry a sword with me— a zanpakuto—

On the side, I protect those who are innocent to redeem myself of my assassin work against the bakufu.

THE SILVER SAMURAI!

_{[ cricket chirp. ]}

Edited 2016-02-17 06:48 (UTC)

[Squints, putting his Sassy Pants on.]

...That's so many things happening at once I don't even know what you're trying to do. Anyway Son Gokuto D. Luffy the Battousai of the Arrancar is way too long so you're gonna have to pick one thing or make some kind of amorphous blob of a nickname, here.

[A beat, and he nods.]

Gintoki... [He squints, thinking, deliberating for a moment, and then;] -san, then.

Edited 2016-02-17 06:53 (UTC)

_{[ wait... wait a second.. this kid? Got the references? He's used this introduction several times, and usually people believe him without a bat of the lash.
BUT THIS KID. THIS KID... HE'S GETTING..
WEEB VIBES FROM HIM.

Lake Toya? The references? The honorific? ]}

.. Oi.
Where are you from?

[He leans back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and a smug smile on his face while Gintoki processes that, and nearly preens when he's asked.]

Paris, but anime is very popular in France.

_{[ He'd come back with: anime is very popular in Japan, but that seems kind of a given. Though, Gintoki was more of a manga reader than watching anime, even if he was particularly fond of some of the childish things, such as Doraemon.

Probably because he didn't have the benefit of television when he was young and had to take it in as an adult. Oh well.
He has the heart of a boy, as he always claims (and tries to get a discount for it.) ]}

I see you are familiar with the virtues of life.
Friendship, effort, and victory..! A very grown up decision.
_{[ don't steal JUMP's motto like that and try to sound profound??? ]}

[A toothy grin accompanied by an enthused chuckle, and Adrien is shaking his head at him, waving a hand.]

Depends on who you ask, but be careful, you don't know if anyone from JUMP has been drafted by ALASTAIR. They might try to sue you.

_{[ What does this kid know about copyright anyway? Gintoki smiles, looking particularly smug. ]}

Aaa? Sue? That doesn't scare me. Hey, they can threaten all they want. Nothin' like that scares me anymore. Go on— threaten to sue. We're at over 300 episodes and counting and we have gotten by. All of our apologies to Eiichiro-san, Toriyama-san, and the rest have paid off. They are just words; it is nothing they can sue us over.

V*geta? Who is V*geta? It could be anyone. These words could be anything.

I have faith in our censorship abilities.
Nobody can ever sue us.

_{[ how did this turn into a shounen speech about copyright infringement.. ]}

I'm not afraid of that anymore.
_{[ the PTA, though. That's another story. ]}

[An unfortunate lot, given he's a model for his father's brand.]

[He opens his mouth, but Gintoki spirals off into another tirade, dropping names of creators and characters alike, and his mouth just slowly closes again. He lets him finish, and takes the first pause longer than a few seconds to raise his hands in a placating gesture.]

All right, all right, so you're not afraid of a power level over nine thousand, I get it. Can I revisit the fact that you mentioned demons? Is this kind of thing normal here?

[This had easily been one of the strangest conversations of his life and he regularly ran around the rooftops of Paris clad in leather and cat ears, but he managed to circle it back around to a hopefully original point. He needed to learn, and even if he wasn't sure he'd get any kind of a straight answer out of this guy, he could at least try.]

EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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