Hathaway. (
futurologists) wrote in
epidemiology2016-03-02 09:12 pm
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Entry tags:
- ! event log,
- ahad (the inheritance trilogy),
- alice liddell (american mcgee's alice),
- ana ramir (original),
- anakin skywalker (star wars),
- anduin wrynn (world of warcraft),
- aqua (kingdom hearts),
- daenerys targaryen (asoiaf),
- dick gumshoe (ace attorney),
- gilgamesh (fate/),
- graham humbert (once upon a time),
- hellboy (hellboy/bprd),
- jason todd (dc comics),
- julius visconti (god eater 2 rage burst),
- keats (folklore),
- khisanth (dragonlance),
- koltira deathweaver (world of warcraft),
- lancer (fate/),
- malia tate (teen wolf),
- masamune date (sengoku basara),
- melan blue (brigadoon),
- mikleo (tales of zestiria),
- nicholas st. north (rotg),
- olivia (fire emblem: awakening),
- papyrus (undertale),
- pearl (steven universe),
- peridot (steven universe),
- rey (star wars),
- sakura kinomoto (cardcaptor sakura),
- shadow (sonic),
- sieglinde sullivan (black butler),
- sorey (tales of zestiria),
- steven quartz universe (steven universe)
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, MikleoTRAINING 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:
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:
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. |
mechanical room!
What she spots as she turns a corner isn't a new victim — at least, not of the chores-doing sort — but is still enough to pique interest. She's got an amused smile in place before she's even five steps closer. ]
You got this whole place to explore, of course you go for the only locked door.
[ Well, sort of only locked door, all the personal quarters are locked except to the owners. That doesn't count. ]
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The audience doesn't much surprise him. Much as it goes against almost everything he'd been taught, secrecy can't really be the endgame, here. Just because he'd ditched the magic network gadget doesn't mean that the invisible ALASTAIR powers-that-be wouldn't have half a dozen other invisible ways to keep an eye on the only locked door in the complex, as clean as the corridor looks and as deserted as the hallway might seem between wanderers. No reason to get careless, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got.
So he raises his eyes briefly at Ramir's approach and then drops them again. He's concentrating.]
Just lucky, I guess.
[Actually, it had taken a lap of the castle, a dip into the dungeons, and a friendly warning from the ALASTAIR staff about the off-limits nature of the room—which, naturally, he'd taken in a way they had not exactly intended—to land him here. He shifts the pins in his hands minutely. Then, as if at a stopping point, he looks back up at his company.]
You sound pretty sure about that.
[The only locked door in the whole place. It's a pretty big place.]
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Super sure. I've had a lot of time to kill.
[ She pulls a mock-thoughtful look, turning her attention toward the opposite wall. ]
Actually, I guess not really the only locked door, there's some locked shit in the dungeons. But god, that's really not worth checking out, just a load of empty cells. [ She sighs dramatically. It's so hard being bored. Back to him again: ] Any progress?
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Getting chatty with the friendlier locals does have its immediate merits. "Locked shit in the dungeons" gets filed away on lower priority. The "worth a look but probably a dead end" kind. And even though the door right in front of him is actually probably not a dead end, he's no closer to cracking it than he was at the start. He hums under his breath and takes a second or two to suck at his teeth and admit—]
Doubt it. Not if it didn't give the first time.
[And he says it with a solid kind of confidence that may or may not be warranted, here. And yet here he is, giving it another go anyway. For determination's sake, maybe. Or a dislike of letting something go unfinished. (Or, y'know, boredom.) But really—]
I think we both know it's not really going to be a hairpin job.
[The only locked door in the whole place? Probably not going to be that easy. Still, he's gotten this far. He punctuates his answer with a twist of his fingers and a pull on the door handle. There's a quiet metallic noise that almost could have been the click of the lock disengaging. But the door doesn't move, and when he withdraws his makeshift picks, the metal pins have been snapped clear off a few millimeters shy of his fingers.]
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She laughs when he draws away and she spots the snapped-off remains, and turns more fully toward him. ]
Man, that beast fucked up your set! That's so sad. [ She steps forward, making a shooing motion with one hand. ] Okay, here, lemme try something.
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He frowns and spins the useless pins thoughtfully between his fingers before tossing them to the side so he can be shoo'd away from the door. Not exactly a project he's feeling possessive over, so he backsteps out of her way obligingly enough. Be his guest. After she takes his place at the lock—]
Don't tell me this is an "open sesame" kind of magic door.
[It's too huge and heavy to kick down, that's for sure. Besides, magic always does seem to go for the drama. Speak friend and enter." That kind of thing.]
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[ But it's probably not, as fun as guessing phrases to try on a door for a while sounds. She takes Jason's place at the door, eyes the lock for a moment, then just settles her whole hand around it and twists. Her body language says she doesn't anticipate having to put much force into it, and in fact she looks a little startled when it doesn't give easily. She ups the force behind it, even getting to gritting her teeth, and finally has to drop her grip on it with a hiss of breath between her teeth. ]
Wow. That usually works. [ She shakes her hand out, giving the palm a rub. Stupid lock kinda hurt. ] That's a seriously heavy-duty secret in there.
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No, keep going. I think you've got 'em on the ropes.
[We'll address the Serious Plot Stuff in a minute.]
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[ Hell no, she's not trying that again, looking stupid (unintentionally — intentionally is a whole different matter) once is enough for her. She takes a step back and looks over the door like she's sizing it up. ]
How about I just punch it in? I'm sure no one's tried that before.
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Can't imagine why.
[Because it would be stupid, that's why. He's foolishly at least like, 90 percent sure she isn't...actually going to try to punch the lock in, because he's only known Ramir for like, five minutes, and as familiar as he may actually be with the concept of powered people, it's the exception, not the rule. So he hasn't completely twigged to the Actual Superstrength deal yet. Well, she's a big girl, she can make her own bad life decisions.]
Maybe they couldn't afford the broken fingers.
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Sounds like a quitter's problem!
[ She spends a few more seconds studying the door, somehow having shifted from a joking proposition to a serious one. Maybe she could take it down... but, then again, no lock has resisted her like that in months, and if she could batter the door down, it probably wouldn't be easy. She doesn't particularly want someone else watching her attempts.
So she finally steps back with a dismissive wave of her hand before pocketing both of them. ]
Nah, fuck it, there can't be anything that good in there. I mean, have you seen the kitchens? Nothing tops that.
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That sounds like a real lack of imagination.
[It also sounds like something a quitter would say! He's not actually in this to egg her on into busting a knuckle open, but he's not giving up on it, either. So much for the direct route, just going to have to find a less obvious angle. There ought to be one somewhere. But the attempt is shelved for now, since he's got company, and if anyone upstairs is watching the door, maybe they can be placated a bit by his apparent backing off. He pockets his own hands in his jacket, as if joining Ramir in writing it off as a lost cause.]
No unbreakable locks on the cupboards, I assume.
[He's aware of the kitchens as a concept and a location. He hasn't actually been here long enough to bother making use of them.]
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Hey, question — what's your favorite food? If you could just pick one thing.
[ For real, man, the kitchen is her favorite place in Oska so far. She's not used to having fully enough to eat every day, let alone whatever she wants. She'll never get over this, never. ]
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Why? [He makes a show of considering it, when he's really mostly considering her. All wide smile and in-your-face and mildly personal questions now that the break-in's a bust. It's not really much of a deflection, he's just feeling her out.] Are you going to cook me dinner?
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Come on, easy question, no reason to dodge it. Pick something. [ And she does lean back a little again, but it comes with a pointed cross of both arms over her chest and eyebrow quirk, so it might not actually be any kind of improvement. ]
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Chili dogs. Real ones. Never got enough of 'em.
[Hadn't been a common sight in Wayne manor. Too many unhealthy nitrates, you know. And city-boy loyalty does go a ways. They just don't make them the same outside of Gotham.]
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Nice. Good choice. [ And she turns on her heel, nodding him along with as she starts down the hall. ] Come on, I'm gonna show you something beautiful.
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Well, that's encouraging. She leads the way enthusiastically, so he falls into step beside her before she can get too much of a lead. Keeping casual track of their route through the sketchy mental map he's got of the compound. As they wind through the halls toward their destination, he takes a stab at ruining the surprise.]
Kitchen?
[Educated guess. He used all his detective skills for this one.]
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No, no — the room with all the food and cooking stuff. What do they call that? Like bakery but more than just bread and dessert. [ that's what you get for ruining the surprise, which was not actually much of a surprise to begin with. ]
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Mess? Galley? Scullery?
[No? He can do this in like half a dozen other languages, too. Assuming they don't just get magically autotranslated the minute they leave his mouth, how does this work.]
Küche? Cucina? Am I getting warmer?
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Cucina, that's the one! [ And she glances over again, looking pleased. She wasn't gonna give away the big surprise that easily, but she has to make exceptions for Italian. Native language, and all. ] You speak any Italian? Or just that word?
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Conversationally. You'd probably have to go slow, I'm pretty rusty.
[This is a white(ish) lie. He could probably even read lips in Italian if he needed to. It's Russian he still has some periodic trouble with. Though, of course, this is assuming.]
Do you?
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Don't speak any, myself. But I hear it's a great language, maybe I should learn it some day. [ She speaks it comfortably and fluently, but the regional accent isn't from anywhere on Earth. ] Where'd you learn it?
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Gotham. [And he'll play along and continue in kind, switching over to Italian and speaking a little more deliberately from here on. Assuming she recognizes the city in the first place—and she should, if they're from the same neck of the universal woods, which is worth feeling out—his accent checks out, just the same as it does when he's speaking English. American, by way of New Jersey, by way of Gotham City. He could downplay it more if he tried, but he's rusty, so he doesn't bother.] Had a couple loud neighbors and some pretty thin walls, as a kid. Ended up filling in the gaps in my vocabulary later on.
[This is also, partly, a lie. If mostly by omission. Can't very well come out and claim he learned from the Batman and his butler, can he. Besides, he's not here to talk about himself.]
What about you?
[Clearly she's got a pretty good handle on it. But where does that accent come from?]
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Good way to learn it. [ Also, really impressive. This guy's gotta be pretty smart. ]
As for me — Italian's the primary language of most of the human sectors of Spodea. Grew up with it. [ She looks pleased for a few seconds, before remembering that might not mean anything to him. With a glance over: ] Are you pre- or post- getting the fuck off Earth?
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