epidemiology | EVENT ★ TEAM BONDING

TEAMBONDING TASKS

Early in the morning, all characters will receive a message in their personal inboxes encouraging them to help with various tasks around the castle. Characters may either volunteer or be randomly shuffled into a group by accident; once assigned, they’ll be expected to show up and harangued by the castle’s animated suits of armor until they cooperate. The teams are as follows, though all groups besides the Training Center are open to sign-ups until the caps are reached. This OOC post may also be used for questions and plotting!

LIBRARY: Anduin, Sigma, Rin, Keats, Papyrus, Adrien, Gumshoe, Sorey, Archer, Rosalind, Mikleo
GREENHOUSE: Koltira, Julius, Sieglinde, Alice, Hellboy, Aqua, Dipper, Edna, Rodimus, King, Jekyll
STABLES: Undyne, Khisanth, Mabel, Rey, Graham, Dezel, Olivia, Steven, Yata, Saber, Anakin
TRAINING CENTER
REDS: Shadow, Gintoki, Luciola, Gilgamesh, Ban, Melan
BLUES: Kylo Ren, Pearl, Masamune, Poe, Barry, Lancer

The Training Center will have a catch-all subthread below, but anyone in any of the other groups (or not in a group at all) is encouraged to make a top level and tag into whichever area you'd like to play in.

TRAINING CENTER

Once recruits step foot into the Training Center, they’ll find themselves suddenly outside. A voice coming from their jewelry informs them that this is a simulation of the world Asharion. There’s swamp for as far as the eye can see, and it’s dark and… sort of squishy in here.

The two teams arrive at opposite ends of the swamp, where their respective “base camps” are located. Each of them will find themselves dressed head-to-toe in the color of their team, red or blue, and will see that a flag of their team color flies above their heads at base camp. There’s no concealing what team you’re on. If you look down, there’s also a HP bar plastered across the front of your shirt. Each time you’re hit, your HP goes down. (Remember, no one is actually getting hurt -- this is just a simulation. Once you run out of hit points, you’ll be kicked out of the simulation and offered a piece of cake from the kitchen as a consolation prize.)

All powers are still around, but use anything too powerful, and the game will view it as a “cheat” and detract from your HP bar.

A timer, floating in front of your eyes, starts counting down and the voice speaks again:

”There are three artifacts hidden within the swamp, and we’d really appreciate getting them back. The objective is simple: be the team with the most artifacts when the game is over. The game is over when all of a team is kicked out of the game or when the timer runs out. Good luck! Oh, and be careful with the artifacts. They have some… interesting magical properties.

The aforementioned artifacts:

THE STAFF OF INVIGORATION
The staff is very plain and easy to miss. When you touch it, however, you’ll know. You’re suddenly filled with energy, flowing through your entire body. At least, for a little bit. It runs out of charge in about five minutes, and if you’re still holding it, you’ll find it actually starts draining you of energy until you’re too tired to walk.

VENKAN STATUE
A small, very delicate statue from the world of Venka, made of crystal. Try not to drop it. Whoever holds it will find themselves easily irritated, however, even by their teammates. The longer it’s held, the stronger the effect -- it starts out with mere annoyance, making you almost comedically ornery over small things, but if you hold onto it, you’ll find yourself becoming paranoid and aggravated. The statue is actually of the Goddess of War, and it turns out it might have started a few wars itself.

THE RING OF… PUPPY LOVE?
A beautiful sapphire ring in the shape of a heart. Once held or put on, the wearer will get an extremely awkward crush on the anyone they see, and be unable to do anything but giggle like a schoolgirl in their presence. The effect will only fade if they drop the ring. How embarrassing.

The artifacts can be found anywhere in the swamp -- almost like they’re moving around on their own. Knowing ALASTAIR, they just might be.

The countdown hits 0. From this moment forward, the voice tells you, you have exactly two hours. The blue team will end up the victors, but only by a hair. Cherenkov will be available for any questions and feedback afterwards (see subthread below), provided she's not napping.

REWARDS: Both teams will receive a pocket watch, with very specific instructions attached. Both are capable of a one-time spell. The blue team’s pocket watches will administer a shock to stun the target when opened for the first time and the first time only, so don’t waste it. The red team’s pocket watches will create a barrier around the character that will shield them from any incoming attacks for three minutes.

LIBRARY

The library is enormous, with stacks that rise nearly to the vaulted ceiling. Rolling ladders lean up against the sides of the stacks, ready to be climbed, but the burly librarians that usually frequent the library are not found today. They have left only a single note behind, in neat, cramped script: Please clean up after yourselves. Thank you.

There is a long wooden table in the middle of the library. Two closed books rest upon it: Escarpan Gardening And You and A History of the Hurricane of 62.516-18 A.

Opening the first book will cause vines and flowers and other greenery to sprout up from nowhere, blocking the shelves and making traversing the library quite a difficulty. Opening the second will cause the entire library to be engulfed in wild winds, throwing books off the shelves and perhaps each other across the room. Opening them both will cause both things to happen, simultaneously.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the rest of the books do the same sort of thing. Open a book about medieval weaponry? Suddenly there are swords flying through the air. That murder mystery novella? Everything is now black and white with deep shadows. The encyclopedia? Nothing happens. Encyclopedias are safe, for some reason.

How do you make these book effects stop? Shelve them in the proper place. But beware -- every misshelved book will cause another to pop out of place. Try to catch it before it hits the ground and opens, or you just may have a disaster on your hands.

HINT: The solution is to shelve the books in order by size, large to small.

REWARD: All participants will receive a fountain pen, with instructions: write a character’s name on any surface and you will be able to see through their eyes for thirty seconds. After using it once, it will become an ordinary (but fancy!) pen.

Crowley will be available to contact for any general inquiries, though responses may be tardy since the cat NPCs are likely to be asleep on a high shelf together.

GREENHOUSE

The greenhouse and surrounding courtyard should be tranquil, but more often than not it ends up just as absurd as the rest of Oska. Recruits will be tasked with cleaning one of the giant glass domes that houses a massive, archaic tree at its core. Surrounding it is an entire biosphere teeming with life, but the fauna is limited -- that shift in the corner of your eye? Probably a slithering vine. The snapdragons here will take off a finger if you’re not careful, and the stinging nettles will leave worse than a rash. Some examples of the more fantastical plants are listed below, though players are welcome to create their own:

Noxious Nightweed: the bright, glowing flowers of the nightweed are beautiful and full of nectar that smells of berries -- catching scent of it will cause drowsiness, lethargy, and thirst. As enticing as the flower sap may be to drink, it’s deeply corrosive and will burn on contact. Don’t fall asleep handling one!
Kukichas: These large, puffy, red fungi are harmless to other plants and tend to grow on just about any other flora. However, they’ll stick to anything that brushes up against them and detonate some time later. Once they explode, characters will be plagued with itchiness, tickling sensations, and sneezing fits. Characters can remove these by quickly finding another person to stick them to. Beware though: kukichas reproduce by budding. Quickly.
Mandrake: these plants appear to be normal, tiny shrubs, but when pulled out of the earth will become animate and let out a horrible, piercing wail that only increases in volume over time. They will cease when fed a drop of blood.

But none of the compost should go to waste! After gathering trimmings and various plants, herbs, and flowers, recruits will be shuffled off to the greenhouse labs to make use of them. There are gargantuan, dusty grimoires full of recipes for various potions and all the necessary cauldrons and equipment to brew them. The directions are laid out thoroughly, but are quite complex -- one character may have to read an incantation while the other stirs, others might require careful handling of volatile substances, and so forth. The only thing they have in common is that none of them can be properly made without a little aid from someone else, so work together!

Worse still, the books are old. Text in some places is washed out and requires quick, smart improvising. Or guesswork. ALASTAIR is not responsible for any toxic fumes, poisonous bubbles, or other strange side effects that may arise from randomly throwing ingredients together.

Dagny will be available within both the greenhouse and the labs to offer assistance, feel free to snag her with any questions! There will be a thread below where you may drop links to threads you’d like her to briefly appear in.

REWARD: All characters that participate may keep a single, one-use potion of their choice: mandrake potions are essentially magical molotov cocktails, kukicha potions cause euphoria and ease mental status effects (hallucinations, berserker rage, etc.), and nightweed potions will instantly evaporate into fumes that force anyone who breathes them in to tell the truth.

STABLES

The stables are a mess. It seems like all the stalls have been left open, and there’s animals of every sort everywhere, through courtyard, grounds, and castle. Most of them can be seized by the halter and led back into their stalls easily enough, but there are a few species that are a little trickier than that. Lucky for you, Uruz has a checklist of exactly what’s missing. On it, you will find:

Spiked Horkles: These things are enormous, it’s unclear how people are even meant to ride them. They’re giant, bipedal, white-furred monstrosities, with spiked ridges all down their back, intimidating tusks, giant horns, and one single, central eye. The tallest of them are almost fifteen feet high, they look like they could snap you over one knee with their massive hands. They don’t seem to be inclined to violence, but they’re also utterly uninterested in following you anywhere, and impossible to budge. That is, unless you’ve got an instrument or a good singing voice. They’ll happily and docilely follow anyone putting on a musical performance, straight back into their stalls (sized accordingly), if that’s where the route takes them.
Sixers: A sixer isn’t really all that different from a horse… except for the fact that it has six legs, and each of its hooves strikes sparks whenever it lands. This is fine if it’s taking a stroll in the wake of a light rain, or over stone, but entire fields have been lost to a herd of sixers. And unfortunately the whole lot of them seems determined to go sightseeing into the castle itself. They’re relatively easy to lead around, all it takes is any sort of food a horse would be inclined to eat, but the route you lead them on is the important part. Try not to cause any more property damage than necessary, please.
Boxing Peters: This creature looks like its closest relation might be a giant anteater, although this version is several times larger. Also, nearly hidden along the long, hanging hair of its stomach is several more pairs of legs, tucked neatly into its body as it walks. They’re content to snuffle about in the courtyard, but will resist tugs at their halters, and utterly ignore any attempts at herding. The only way to catch the attention of a Boxing Peter is to challenge it. Drop into a fighting stance in front of it, take a swing at its side (not too hard, Uruz would remind you), shout insults -- whatever it takes. Upon being challenged a Boxing Peter rises up onto its hind legs and unfolds all ten of its hidden limbs, each of which ends in a large, padded hand, ready to fight. You don’t actually have to fight, but it’ll pursue a challenger wherever it might lead, until mutual bows signify the end of the match.
Webbed Gliders: These are ALASTAIR’s aquatic environment mounts. And, oddly enough, they’re just tiny frogs with webbed limbs like a flying squirrel. They don’t need to be very large to be useful, as it turns out -- each one secretes a special slime which, when touched, shrinks whoever has done the touching to a size small enough to comfortably ride it. You’ll have to get these little guys back into the tank inside the stables without touching them, and they can be found anywhere outside where it’s damp. Any shrinking will wear off after 5 minutes without contact with the frog-slime.
Ferrets: That’s it, they’re just ferrets. They’re enormous rideable ferrets, but still just ferrets. They’re just as energetic and playful as their smaller counterparts, and they have way too much energy to want to go back into their stalls. You’ll have to wear them out first, and it’s suggested you do so by playing with them. Did you know most of these ferrets are trained to fetch? Uruz is very proud of that.

Uruz is happy to give pointers for the trickier species, but she’ll have to be found before she can be asked. She’s off wrangling some of the more volatile mounts, and can be spotted throughout the grounds madly galloping after something or another. If you have any interest in snagging Uruz for part of your thread, feel free to drop a link in her thread below for a tag-in!

REWARD: As thanks for their assistance, each recruit will be sent away with a small, silver whistle. Blowing it will entrance all animals within hearing range, putting them into a placid trance for about a minute. This whistle will work for about two months before its effect begins to wear out.

OTHER

If your character isn’t signed up for any of these tasks, you are still welcome to tag into other characters carrying them out! The Training Center will be locked for the duration of its event, but the Library, Stables, and Greenhouse are all open to visitors. Characters are free to stop in and help (or mock) their friends, but they will not be receiving the same rewards as characters specifically contacted for help. You are also free to create open prompts within Oska at large, or your own logs. This log covers the next 2 weeks, so feel free to set them at any time within that timeframe!

UNIFORMS: Every character will also find their official uniforms when they return to their rooms, accompanied by a note from Dagny: A reward for being you! :) - Love, Dagny. There is a gold star sticker by her name. The uniforms are instantly respawning, no matter how damaged they get. Whenever a character opens their closet, they will find a brand new one.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[They've secured an artifact by now... and another had been pillaged by the blue team. And Shadow? Well...]

Stuck.

["Stuck"?]

[ melan's voice is the one that responds to the chatter this time - along with the sound of rushing wind. Sounds like he's flying around. ]

This is Melan Blue. Do you require assistance?

[ they can pretend there's some actual teamwork going on here. ]

[Oh thank chaos the only person he kind of maybe likes a little. Robots... hooray.]

Hnrrrrgh... Yes... I'm stuck in some sort of muck and I can't get enough leverage to get out.

[he hates to admit weakness but... well.]

Understood. I'll come pull you out.

[ shadow is small, he understands... if it makes him feel better, there's absolutely no judgement in Melan's tone. There's not much of anything. As usual. ]

Please tell me if there are any landmarks I can use to locate you.

If only. Do you know what I see around me? Swamp. Trees. More swamp. Everything looks the same in this damned pit!

[grumble grumble]

You fly, yes? I can send up a beacon of sorts.

[ fortunately, the grouchiness doesn't seem to faze Melan. It was worth a try, okay... ]

Yes. That would also be helpful. I'm already in the air.

[ as long as nobody shoots him down. ]

Ok. I am sending up a signal. Be on the look out for a golden-yellow bolt.

[Shadow frowns and manages to free up a hand and shoulder from the quicksand. He forms a ball of brilliant light in his palm (light, not power. Light, not power, he says to himself), then he throws it as far into the air as he can. Due to his positioning, the ball of Chaos Energy barely makes it over the tops of the trees.

But then it explodes, knocking the topmost leaves and branches with a powerful concussive force, spherical and ten feet in radius.

So much for just light and no power. But hey, a big crater in the treetops was probably as good a marker as any, right? But there was no way that everyone in a five mile radius didn't hear that. Melan needed to get there before the other team did.]

[ "nobody shooting him down" inclues you, Shadow. Fortunately, he's well outside the blast radius, and the chaos bolt certainly makes his location evident. Melan is going to assume that's the beacon and not someone trying to attack. He makes an impressively sharp turn in the air to angle himself towards his teammate's position instead, cutting through the wind like a small blue jet. Shadow won't be waiting long at all.

His black and red fur makes him easy enough to pick out, even if most of said fur is covered in mud. Slowly descending, Melan stops just short of landing on the ground to avoid getting himself stuck along with him. ]

Stay still. [ his pawlike claspers snake out of his chest where he hovers, stretching down to try and grab Shadow under the arms before clapping down and trying to tug him out of the muck like a stuck cat. ]

[look he never uses his powers for anything other than raw destruction, ok. Tempering and controlling them is hard. They don't call them "chaos" energies for nothing.

Brilliant. His metallic blue angel has arrived. Shadow looks visibly relieved. It seemed that no matter what universe one found themselves in, you could always count on a robot. Shadow does as told, and holds on to the claspers for extra support. It takes some doing, but finally, the hedgehog is pulled free of the mire with a wet sounding "slurp" sound.

... Sans one shoe. He wiggles the bare, clawed toes of his left foot and curses viciously at the mud hole. The gold inhibitor ring that had formerly been around the cuff of his shoe now hangs loosely around his ankle, having done absolutely nothing to keep the footwear on his paw]

Dammit! You have to be KIDDING me!

Edited 2016-03-26 04:27 (UTC)

Sorry.

[ is his first response, thinking that he hurt Shadow somehow; he swiftly places him down on dry land beside himself, claspers snapping back into his body quickly. It's only after a second or two that he notices the missing shoe.

Well. Shadow resembles one of the Committee, but he didn't usually see them wearing shoes. Melan's eyes drift back to the mud hole, then to Shadow again. ]

Is it important? I can retrieve it.

... Yes. Those shoes are one of a kind.

[there might be extras somewhere in storage, back in his OWN world... But they definitely weren't here!

He shifts uncomfortably, as if unwilling to put his bare foot on the ground. He holds it up, stands on his toes, stands on his other foot... anything to keep his foot from potentially touching the damp ground.]

But don't get yourself stuck. I'll never be able to get you out.

[ he'd have to make an emergency visit to the ARK's Payless Shoes...

he notices Shadow looking uncomfortable on the ground, and feels the instinct to offer his shoulder to sit on - Lolo had done it before - but if he's going to retrieve this shoe, he'd probably better not. Melan shakes his head. ]

Teammate Shadow. Don't worry about me.

[ he doesn't know his proper title, so teammate it is! Finally landing on the ground, he kneels down, then proceeds to stick his sword arm straight into the mud without hesitation. Apparently, he's going fishing for shoes. ]

[shit and that's a whole universe away!! AND IN SPACE!! Shit shit shit.

He will happily accept that shoulder later, Melan. He enjoys sitting on robot shoulders. It makes him feel tall.

Even though he SAYS not to worry, Shadow worries anyway. Sorry, not sorry. Melan is in a compromising situation, and if the other team were to sneak up on them, they'd both be shit out of luck. Perhaps Shadow could stop time long enough for them to get away....

Which just means Shadow is on the lookout, ears perked for any sound in the dense swamp thickets]

[Exactly.]

Please elaborate.

I am up to my chest in mud.

I am _stuck_.

[ :( ]

Your sector location?

I have no fucking idea! The sector with the QUICKSAND!

EVENT ★ TEAM BONDING

D

pops in here...

his savior...

poses

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sorry for the delay! I was on vacation

how dare

:CCC

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