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

rey | ota

[scrounging]

DAY 3 (EARLY): something something ariadne red thread labyrinth

[Are her dreams as dark as this? As claustrophobic? That must be how this works; she can't think of any other reason for why she'd be here. She'd dozed off during her trip through hyperspace. The lightsaber in her bag had done something without her even touching it-- Something. This is a dream - Rey's as certain of that as she is of the rough stone wall under her hand.

She keeps her palm against it, scuffing along the harsh set of the stone as she paces down the corridor. Her stride is long, hurried like the thud of her pulse jammed up into her throat, but she's not running. She's not running; she's tells herself that once, twice, a hundred times. It's a dream. It's just a dream. If she chokes down the hot jolt of fear for long enough she'll even out and wake up.

But the longer the corridors go on - featureless and desperately dark -, the harder her heart beats. The leather satchel at her shoulder feels like a weight, the lightsaber in it dragging her down like a stone as she picks turns at random, runs into dead ends and through unmarked doors, passes featureless empty cells. It's only when she's sure she's been wandering for hours (or maybe it's just been a few minutes? how many times has she heard her heart thudding? how many times has she taken a breath?) that she eventually comes to an uneasy, anxious halt in yet another featureless hall.]

This isn't working. [Even whispered to herself, it sounds loud. Vulnerable. She takes her hand from the wall and, decided, opens the satchel and withdraws the lightsaber from it. Rey swallows and then extends the hilt up and forward. The plasma beam hisses to life under the tap of her thumb, throwing the corridor into harsh blue light.

It's a hell of a flashlight.]

DAY 3 (LATER): thrashes on guitar despite all my [magical girl powers] im still just a rat in a cage wails guitar more

[She has a gut feeling that's she's wandering in circles . It's not that there's anything in the way of features to confirm the suspicion and maybe it's just fear, but she's almost postive. Was that last row of dungeons familiar because they're all the same, or was it familiar because it was exactly the same as one she'd already seen? So eventually Rey does the only thing she can think of to mark her passage through the labyrinthine dungeon: slashing scorch marks and arrows into the faces of walls and on the stones of the floor with the blue blade. It snaps and pops with the impact, leaves a hot black scar in its wake, and then she moves: picks a direction and random and keeps going, steadily hashing out her path as she does.

Just get up a single level, she thinks. It smells like wet earth down here - she must be underground, right? If she can get up a single level then she'll be that much closer to the surface and whatever lies up there.

The downside to all of this? It makes her very easy to track.]

WILDCARD
[[ooc: Have something else in mind? Want to do something on a later day? Hit me up! Feel free to drop me a prompt or shoot me a PM. <3]]

day 3 (early)

[headlining]

[That's certainly quite a flashlight, indeed. Keats has nothing of the sort - he never carries any weapons on him, and certainly not any ones that can shed any light. As far as regular flashlights go, he doesn't have one either. And yet, he gets around easily in the dark.]

[When Rey activates her lightsaber, and Keats steps forward from a nearby corridor to investigate what made that noise, it should be evident at first glance what he uses to help get him around. His eyes are glowing unnaturally with a purple light bright enough to fill the lenses of his glasses.]

[He produces his own light.]

What's that? [He says casually, after a pause, his expression curious - he's never seen anything like her lightsaber before. Is it a laser of some sort? He doesn't know, and he wants to find out.]

A fancy torch, I suppose?

[scrounging]

[The shape at the edge of the dark earls forward into the blue haze thrown off by the beam and all the short hairs at the back of her neck stand on end with the appearance of the man. Rey lowers the lightsaber, angling it more directly between them. It isn't that the man seems overtly threatening - not even the flow of his eyes is odd enough to put her off (there are plenty of strange looking people who drift through Jakku; occular implants aren't really that bizarre) - but he's a stranger in a dream.

Is that supposed to happen? Is she supposed to imagine people she's never met before with such clarity?

Rey wraps her other hand around the hilt of the blade. She bares her teeth and grits her answer out through them:]

Who are you?

[So not much of an answer at all, really.]

[headlining]

[Pity, she won't answer the question. Keats gives her a "really, we're doing this now? look, but decides to relent - he has plenty of opportunity to find out what it is, as long as she doesn't go and run off out of fright or something.]

[He digs his hands into his coat pockets, his accent probably somewhat foreign to Rey's ears (though who knows if there's a Space Ireland out in the depths of the galaxy).]

Keats. The name's Keats. I'm a reporter. [He tilts his head slightly to the side, like a curious owl.]

And you are?

[scrounging]

[A...reporter? What was some HoloNet reporter doing here? The look that flashes across her face is pure confusion, the line of her mouth pulling and brow furrowing hard.]

Do you know where we are? [Her grip on the blade's hilt shifts and reasserts.] What this place is?

[She's a poor interview subject, apparently. Her name doesn't matter. What does is waking up - getting out of this dream or nightmare or whatever this is. The Falcon can't have much longer in hyperspace before they reach their jump end point. Once they reach it, she'll need to oversee R2-D2's new astronavigation calculations into the next system. Again and again until they reach Skywalker. She doesn't have time for...whatever this is.]

[headlining]

This is Oska. Used to be a nice place, I've been told, but since certain things went down, well...it's rather turned into a ruined mess.

[He never did get to see what it looked like before, which is a shame - he probably would've liked it in all it's fantasy-castle splendor.]

[He pushes his glasses up with a finger, not moving just yet - he can tell, just by her stance and her questions, that she doesn't quite understand what's going on. That's fine. He's patient.]

...You must be one of the new recruits for ALASTAIR, right? There's been some message telling us about saving some of you people from the ruins. You do know about ALASTAIR, don't you?

day 3; late

[respired]

[ Koltira hadn't meant to track anyone. He had already searched the dungeons earlier in the week, and considered himself done with them, but then the rain started up. It was in the 'trivial' stage as yet, and he planned to range out into the forest later, but perhaps the weather would clear up if he waited it out a bit. So he thought.

Standing idle in the ruined castle wasn't suiting, though, so he'd descended once more into the keep's belly. Perhaps there was something--or someone--the others had missed. He's actually about to turn back when he spots Rey ahead--or rather, the bright, burning light of the weapon in her hand. He's seen swords coated in eternal flame, but this is something else entirely. Interesting. The girl holding it wanders aimlessly; he watches her mark the wall and move on several times as he keeps a quiet pace behind her, unsure as yet of how to approach.

Koltira is no rogue, however, and certainly no master of stealth. After a time, he just calls out. ]

You are walking in circles.

[scrounging]

[The line of the glowing blade wavers at the roll of the voice coming from behind her. It doesn't flicker, just swings - coming around as she Rey turns on her heel toward the sound. The blue light casts the corridor in a harsh wash of light and makes the stranger (who is very, very large) look like some kind of ghost. But her hilt on the blade is sure, steady. He's not the first person she's run into down here, but the size and shape of him makes her positive that showing any kind of uncertainty is probably a mistake.

She sets her jaw and scowls at him. The lightsaber hums in her grip.]

You know better, do you?

[respired]

[ She's suspicious, sharp-edged. Koltira nods approvingly. It's a wise attitude to take. ]

Yes, I do. I came down here to find you.

[ He shrugs, adding: ]

Or anyone else in your situation.

[scrounging]

[Is that a relief? It doesn't really feel like it. Maybe this means working her way out of these horrible tunnels, but at least down here she knows where she is and what she's dealing with (spoilers: underground, rocks). Why would he be looking for her in the first place? What does he mean anyone else? Just how many people are trapped down here like she is?

There's something chilling in the fact that she has no idea where she is and yet this stranger knew to come look for her. Rey tightens her grip on the lightsaber's hilt.]

How did you know I'd be here?

[respired]

[ He taps the ring on his finger. ]

Did you not hear the message? New recruits in the dungeon.

[ He adds after a moment, helpfully: ]

That would be you.

day 3; early

[winces]

[ the heavy hum of the lightsaber isn't the only sound to fill the narrow corridor. almost a half-second later, a soft, sharp gasp cuts through the air, and it won't take rey too long to find the source of it.

there hadn't been any sound or evidence of her until just now, but olivia can't have been more than ten feet away from rey down the opposite end of the hall, hands thrown up to shield her eyes from the eerie blue light (like the fairy slime back in chantes, but not quite). slowly, she lowers her arms, wide eyes blinking owlishly at at the source of light like she'd never seen anything like it before.

—to be fair, she hadn't. but that seems par for the course around here, and so she recovers soon enough. the cloak she wears covers most of her, save for a heart-shaped, expressive face, lips slowly spreading into a sheepish smile. ]

Sorry — I was going to say something, but I thought it better to wait till I got a little closer...

[scrounging]

[The intake of breath has her attention flicking around and all the small hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Rey turns sharply toward the noise, the angle of the plasma blade held awkwardly but clearly ready for action if it's necessary. She finds herself facing down a human, slight and clearly more frightened than she is. Rey thinks that bolsters her confidence. Maybe. Does it really count as being brave if she's just scaring someone who looks defenseless?

Still, she doesn't power down the blade. The light's too valuable. Rey down, however, shift the angle of the lightsaber downward. It's not harmless - nothing could do that except maybe throwing the saber into a black hole or something - but at least it doesn't seem like Rey's on the verge of swinging it around. She's using it for it's giant glowstick powers and not much else.]

How long have you been following me?

[winces]

[ she certainly looks the furthest thing from threatening, though she seems mindful of the other girl's continued apprehension. it's why her smile doesn't fade, even if it does grow a touch sheepish. ]

Um, a couple of minutes, I guess? [ she laughs a little nervously, glancing about at their surroundings now that she can actually have a better look at it. ] I heard you coming down, but I wasn't sure if you were an enemy or not so I thought I'd keep quiet for a while.

[ technically, she still doesn't know if rey is an enemy, but. she figures if she were, olivia wouldn't really be unharmed as she is! ]

[scrounging]

[Well, that's as solid a reason as she's ever heard really - and sounds more honest than she was really expecting. It's frank in a way that's familiar, that feels a lot like what she knows of home. It goes a long way to relaxing the tension in Rey's arm and softening the scowl she's driven into the lines of her face.]

Oh. [So she's the scary one here.] Sorry.

[She could power the saber down, but it'd leave her vision awful in the darkness, so she instead opts to simply angle the blade into something as nonthreatening as she can make it.]

I won't hurt you. I'm just trying to get out of here.

[winces]

[ to be fair to rey, it doesn't really look like it would take much to frighten olivia. (and that isn't entirely untrue.) still, olivia seems to believe rey the moment she reassures her, if that small, relieved smile is of anything to go by. ]

Me too, [ she responds, referring to both statements. not that she even looks like she could hurt rey... but there is definitely a flash of metal hanging beside her thigh beneath the folds of her cloak. ]

Should we try finding a way out together?

Day 3 - Later

[ejecting]

[Not that he would know it.

As she makes her way down another seemingly identical hallway she will eventually pass a cell, not unlike the rest, the same size, the same shape, the same dark and stone and clinging cold and the still air. It would be identical, if it weren't for the bars- scorched through, stone scored- not by her blade, but by one similar.

And a scent, high in the air, the smell of burning plastic, burning fabric, burning flesh. It's silent, and it's dark, but near the back wall there is a puddle of darkness on the floor, a shadow resting in a darker shadow, stirring slight. Shallow, uneven breath, hair clung to a sweat-slick brow and the top half of his flight suit shredded. Skin beneath it parted too, a long cut, straight but ragged edged, cauterized instantly but no less painful for it. Right shoulder bent at an uncomfortable angle.

He's unconscious, for now. Luckily.]

[scrounging]

[The saber's throws the endless corridors and rows of cells in a sober, ghostly blue; it paints shadows in every corner and ghosts in every crossroads. But it's quiet, still, the only sound the low hum of the blade as the air moves around it and her own footfalls. It smells of wet earth, of cold stone, and eventually - minutes? hours?; how stomach is tight with hunger - her senses become endured to it. So when she turns down a new corridor, blessedly unmarked by some previous slash of the blade, and the smell of something burning finds her she-- well, notices, for one.

Rey stops, weight on the balls of her feet and heels light. She's still. For a second she thinks for a second about powering down the lightsaber and then changes her mind; if there's something here with her, seeing it is more valuable than not. Probably. When she moves again, her passage through the corridor is slow. Methodical. She peers in every cell as she passes, moving on only when she's sure it's clear.

One. Two. By the time she's level with the third, she's spotted the anomaly of a hole cut through the bars in a cell still further down the cell. She forces herself to check the third cell, the fourth, and then finds herself standing before the slashed out cell. Scorched stone. Seared metal. She didn't do this which means--

The rattle of breathing in the corner makes her jump. Every cell in her screams to run-- Kylo Ren, the rasp of his mask's filter, the glow of his saber -- but she directs the light of the saber in hand toward the sound instead. A nightmare. He'll come swimming out of the dark for her. He'll--

The man slumped against the wall isn't Kylo Ren, but in the blue light she can't make out the orange of the flight suit just the lines. Those are familiar enough even in monochrome - more familiar than his face s, honestly, and enough to have her rapidly closing distance to the unconscious man. The air around him reeks of blood and burning cloth and this close, it's easy enough to see why. The wound is grisly enough to make her recoil, her spare hand rising by reflex. It's only after she's gotten a good look at the wound that her attention flits high enough to the man's face and--

That's Poe Dameron.

She crouches down, angling the lightsaber without letting it go. She needs the light to-- what, exactly? She has nothing like bandages on her. She can't lift him even if she wanted to.]

[ejecting]

[It's the light that does it.

It filters through his eyelids, wakes him up with a jolt that is entirely agony, white hot pain just barely overwhelmed by the instant, gut fear. He gasps, curls in on himself instinctually, attempting to protect the soft spots that are already bleeding, shoulder grinding and pulling a low, thin whine from him. He doesn't even get his eyes open until that moment, can't bring himself to or isn't there enough until the pain hits him all at once.

His brain rabbits fast, all adrenalin and anxiety but he's used to that. Enough he can see though it and the pain well enough to register blue- not red. No dark robes. It's no guarantee of safety, but it's enough to have him tip his chin, look up, get his eyes on the person.]

Oh- no, no. You can't be here. You need to go-

[His voice is low and quiet and crackles at the edge but he manages the words anyway. There's a short list of people he doesn't want to see right now- half of them line up perfect with the people he wants to see most- and she makes the first list if not the second.

He puts his hand to the stone, tries to push himself back up. He needed to get her to go. Ren was here. She couldn't be. She had to find Skywalker. Bring him home to his sister. Whatever brought her here- it didn't matter. He grits his teeth. Ignores the taste of blood on his tongue. More important things to worry about.]

[scrounging]

[He jerks and she jumps, her pulse leaping straight up into her throat. But she manages to keep her balance, her free hand smacking down against the stone to keep herself upright instead of sitting back hard. He sounds as awful as he looks, brittle edged like a burn and for a split second she wishes she were alone again. Not that she hadn't come down this particular corridor, just that he wasn't here at all.

But it doesn't matter. What she wants or That she barely knows him. Poe Dameron starts to struggle up and she finds her hand in the ragged fabric of what remains of his flightsuit's shoulder. She locks her elbow. It isn't hard to keep him down.]

No. You need to stay. [She can hear her own voice. It sounds more sure than she is, unarguably firm.] You're hurt. Moving might make it worse. Stay put. I'll--

[Waste more time stumbling through the made of this place in the dark? Leave and never find her way back to him? He's practically a stranger but in a moment a wash of anxiety finds her where she's kneeled beside him. If she can't help him, what use is she? She can't save him and she's trapped wherever this is and she'll never reach Skywalker and Finn will be either dead or she'll have broken her promise to him or--]

Just don't move. I'll figure something out.

[fearward]

[ Anduin feels like he's been wandering for days. He managed to get out of the cell, somehow, but he was still deep within the belly of the dragon. He's frustrated, and almost certainly lost, but he hasn't given in to despair. Surely there would be answers around the next corner. A staircase he missed, or a hidden door, or -- voices? Yes, voices. Faint, distressed.

Anduin picks up his pace, heading towards them. He all but skids to a stop in front of Rey and Poe, and he assesses their situation immediately: not good.

His hands are bright and warm with Light, a weak spell he'd been casting just to help him find his way, but the brightness intensifies as he watches Poe struggle for breath. ]

Healing!

[ Wait, that's awkward. He pauses, and tries again, kneeling down. ]

Your friend--he needs healing, right? Let me help.

Day 3

[perma_banned]

[Damp, old stone burning--that was a smell that woke up one's senses. Ban followed the smell with a measure of curiosity hidden away behind a bored, indifferent expression. It wasn't something worth too much worry, but a fire was always something of import when it came to general misuse. If someone was spilling hot coals around, it could turn out badly for anyone still trapped. Fires tended to be better suited getting put out quickly rather than lingering.]

Someone buildin' a fiiire~? If you're cookin', you better not be doing it in here ♪.

[As little as he cared, he still cared just enough to look--maybe stomp out whatever fire there was. The musical tone to his voice seemed to betray that apathy, though.]

Put it out so I can get out of here.

[scrounging]

[Surprise: no fire here, just a girl with a giant glow stick. Rey goes still at the musical tone of the voice coming nearer, hefting the lightsaber up like some kind of ridiculous flashlight (the better to see by) instead of the weapon it actually is.]

No fire. [She calls back tentatively, her own tone stubbornly flat.] Just a light. [Really. Totally harmless. Nothing to see here, buddy.]

Do you know the way out or are you lost too?

[perma_banned]

Hmmm~? [With a hum in the back of his throat, Ban's eyes fell to the lightsaber. As far as torches went, it was awfully clean as far as lights went. There was no flicker--just a constant stream of blue. Enchanted weaponry didn't surprise him, but the style was something beyond his experience. He felt a deal of warmth, which seemed just fine.

Rey, herself, looked ordinary, but only to a certain extent. Someone with a proper enchantment like that couldn't really be engaged as purely orthodox. There was always something strange about magic-users.]

I know the way-- sorta ♪. [He raised one hand from his pockets, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder.]

You can follow the wind.

[scrounging]

The wind--?

[What wind, she wants to ask. They're who knows how deep down - if there's a noticeable breath of air passing through this place, she certainly hasn't noticed it.

But it's not important. If he 'sorta' knows the way, that's still better off than she is. Trusting a stranger isn't her first choice in the matter, but she doesn't exactly have a wealth of choices either now does she?]

Nevermind. If you have an idea, would you show me?