epidemiology | EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

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EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

Recruits leave Oska at midday, with about 10 minutes of final warning given from the jewelry. Then the white mist rises as rifts open, and Oska is left behind. The transition into Nalawi is not a peaceful one. When the mist fades, recruits are immediately hit with a face full of lashing rain and driving wind.

The recruits have arrived in the middle of a nasty storm, but that’s not all that greets them. Seawater surges all around, breaking against -- houses? It’s a little hard to tell at first, in the chaos of the storm. Half of these buildings are made of rock, not carved, but shaped, and the other half seem to be living trees, thin wood and thatch, and a handful of more ornate (and more fragile) material, including clouded glass or obsidian. The stone houses are standing up best to this onslaught of waves, but even they weren’t made for this, and they shudder and crumble in the thrashing storm.

Thin screams can be heard over the wind and water, too. The locals are having some trouble not being washed away. The people here are small bipedal deer, and those hooves were not meant for swimming. They struggle in the water, some of them trying to snag a few precious belongings from drowning houses, some of them not even able to do much more than hang onto some jutting stone or tree. There are a few heroes among them, putting superhuman powers to good use: here a young man hovers in the air, dragging others out of the water and toward safety; there a girl parts the water with careful gestures of her hands, enabling a whole family to dart from their ruined home and run for higher ground. These feats are rare, though, and on the whole most of these natives are in trouble.

They don’t look too stunned to see the new arrivals -- they don’t have time to, and will push roughly past a new arrival to deal with some crisis sooner than stop and stare. They’re mostly just grateful for any offered help, generally seeming terrified and shellshocked by all of this. If any of them are asked what happened, they’ll point with varying degrees of wordlessness toward a high stone wall between the village and the sea, with an enormous gap broken through the middle of it where the sea rushes in. Like many of the houses, this dike was clearly shaped from living stone. But whatever shaped it apparently has no power to maintain it, and this is the storm that had finally taken advantage of that.

This long, dark afternoon provides plenty of tasks: help the Nalawi people evacuate from their ruined village, try to find material to rebuild their shattered (and still crumbling) dike, or take care of the hungry sea creatures that have taken notice that the deer, usually safe on land, are suddenly in easy reach. They look like crabs with too many legs, but each of them is nearly the size of one of the villagers. They’re more than capable of seizing a struggling villager and scuttling back toward the break in the dike to drag their prize into the sea. Their shells are difficult to get through, their pincers terrible and sharp, but their joints and eyes are unprotected and tender.

The storm won’t last forever, though. It blows itself out in a few hours, just in time for a truly beautiful tropical sunset over the western edge of the island. Exhausted locals will finally begin to talk a little more. They’ll explain to their rescuers that the Stone Shapers have all had their Gifts faded out: there’s not a single one left. Without these abilities, the dike was left defenseless against the storm and the water rushed in. Their despondency and resignation suggests this kind of disaster is not new to them. They are, however, very grateful for the help: anyone who lends a hand over the new few days (thankfully sunny and clear) sorting through the wreckage, rebuilding, and setting up new dikes will be given food and shown to the inn for free lodgings.

Welcome to Komo, Nalawi.

OOC INFO

ICly this log will cover the day of arrival and the following few days of recuperating and rebuilding, if you would like to include that in your top level prompts. OOCly it will last until the 26th. New information will be available at that time.

As some quick refreshers, we have our Mission Overview here, which also includes a questions subthread for general questions. For intro event-specific inquiries, please see the comments below. Additionally, be sure to have read the Chantes epilogue as well as the Nalawi: Locations page. Note that we will also have new characters arriving during the event, so be sure to give them a hand!

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[The lake in Oska was the largest body of water Sieglinde had ever seen. Of course she knew about oceans, she had read about them... but the sight of them was different. So was the sight of one in a raging squall from beneath the waves because you do not know how to swim.

She can barely see, but she knows it's Masamune who fished her from the waves, saw glimpses of him between the water and her own hair in her face, the coughing, and she tried to say something, tell him something-

But before she knew it, he was gone and there was solid ground beneath her, fingers curling on wood- No. It wasn't ground... this she'd read about as well. A ship. But she's still dangerously close to the railings' edge in a heavy, soaked gown with pack, her hair a mess of black tendrils slick to skull, coughing salt water from her lungs.

Whose ship was this- What was even happening at all?]

["Girl overboard!" they call, and immediately Gilgamesh comes rushing over, fearing the worst.

It's only confirmed when he sees her, and he's quick to usher the others away, taking Sieglinde into his arms and sheltering her from the storm, from everything. He hollers something or another regarding the state of the ship, to keep it afloat or to man the sails or whatever, even he's not quite sure he says, before he takes her below deck to the captain's quarters and lays her on warm, dry sheets. Fussing over her hair, the state of her clothes.]

Sieglinde! Speak, Sieglinde. I would hear that you are well.

[He cannot help himself here; he cannot hide it. He looks worried, and for once his ego's not getting in the way of showing it.]

[Things keep moving, and she tries to pay attention, keep up, take it in, but every time she coughs her eyes close despite her desire to keep them open, until she catches her breath and finds herself out of the storm. A rather normal seeming room if if weren't for the roll of the sea, warm, and safe-]

Gilgamesh-

[She tries to reach out to him but her grip on her satchel, her potions and herbs, was so tight that she'd locked her knuckles and couldn't quite shake the hold just yet.]

Is this Nalawi? An ocean? A ship- ?

[She's never seen any of them, nothing more than words and illustrations, and this- it's one hell of an introduction.]

[She's held close. Eventually her breathing will calm; for being such a physically frail child, she's strong of spirit, and therefore he knows she'll recover within time. But until that happens, Gilgamesh hovers protectively as if to say to death itself you can have anyone in the world but her.]

Yes, it is me, Gilgamesh. We are adrift at Nalawi, thrown into a terrible storm; I rescued you aboard this ship.

[Or rather, someone else did that he didn't get the quickest glance of. She was here now, that's all that mattered.]

I'd like you to take several deep breaths. Look around, reorient yourself, slowly. Then speak again.

[Even if others had warned her, if she acknowledged the potential of it changing in the future- Gilgamesh had saved her, protected her in the past. She felt safe, and his presence was calming, and eventually the shallow, frantic drags of breath became slower, deeper.]

The storm is so fierce-

[She felt she had never seen its like, though that was likely just the mistake of seeing one this strong for the first time on open seas as opposed to the depths of the forest. Finally she managed to pry her grip off the leather strap of her satchel, instead transferring it to Gilgamesh's arm. Grounding.]

Masamune...

[That was who it was who fished her from the waves. Had he gone back for others on purpose, since he was able to swim, or had he been swept away?]

Did Masamune come aboard?

[Masamune? So it had been him... but then why did he dump her here without so much as a word? It takes a moment for him to put the pieces together, yet when he does it becomes much clearer—if she lectured Gilgamesh about the circle, she must've positively chewed out Masamune.

But there's no time for that now. Gilgamesh lies her flat so he can wrap some sheets around her, so she won't want for warmth. Hypothermia, even in a tropical climate, was still very much a possibility when exposed to the cold, harsh sea. She holds onto him and of course he lets her; he could not refuse.]

He did not, though surely, he is safe.

[He cannot tell her anything else, doesn't dare. They'd have to sort that particular situation out for themselves.]

[It's a funny thing, how a single moment can provide such clarity. She regretted so much so suddenly- the things she had said, the anger she'd been unwilling and unable to let die. The sense of betrayal that had ached in her breast as sharp as any knife.

If she could see him right then, she could say she was sorry- and try to forgive him-]

Can he swim?

[Was it even normal, to know how? She didn't even know that, having never seen it done. The biggest body of water she'd ever entered was a bathtub, and the women of her village hardly the type for carefree dips in the forest pond.]

Can people normally swim?

[She had to amend that statement. People who didn't live off the ocean.]

[Gilgamesh has to laugh at her hurried inquiries, her rushed need to know the truth. She has her natural curiosity back; this assures him she will be fine. He runs fingers through her hair to shake out the seawater, smooths the strands straight again. He has no doubt Masamune will be forgiven in time, too, because Sieglinde didn't strike him as the sort to hold grudges.]

Yes, dear Sieglinde. People can swim.

[It went without saying that neither of them knew how. Ironic, given that he was captain of his own ship.]

A storm like this one... I believe it will pass within a few days. You are most welcome to stay until it does so, so I might look after you.

[So it is normal. Masamune could swim. He would be fine- she had to believe that. If she didn't... It would mean wanting to do something to save him, when in reality... She was powerless to do so. Just like she'd been powerless to save herself from the waves. The ones he'd still gone to find her in, after the fight they'd had.

She sniffs, wiping at her face to make sure there were no tears, the tips of her hair and sleeves and hem of gown and gold and scarlet ribbons dripping forlornly onto the warm sheets and the cabin floor.]

Then I will stay here-

[She hasn't quite realized she's shivering yet, still riding an adrenaline high and only mentally begun to come down from it, trying to focus. She couldn't save people from the storm, or man a ship, but. This was a mission, and even if she had no love for ALASTAIR's methods... She cared about her fellow recruits, and was indebted to their organization for the magic she had been given, another way to explore to find the cure she sought after.]

What can I do?

[So grown up in so many ways, yet so childlike in so many others. Gilgamesh lets the proud girl have a chance to clean herself up. He wishes he had dry clothes to offer her, but even his Gate had limitations at times. She has him, at least, and his arms are as comforting as anything. Which was almost funny given the damage they could do in an effortless instant.]

Mm... did your herbs survive the water?

[Gilgamesh gives her satchel a glance over. It looked fairly secure, but...]

You can assist me with something. We've a lot of crab to cook for the crew, and a little seasoning might go a long way.

[His question pulls her attention to the very important answer, and she hauls the satchel slung over her chest up into her lap, unbuckling the latches holding it closed and beginning to pull out contents- vials of powders and liquids, bottles filled with metal shavings, questionable dessicated items, black tar, a broken vial that seemed to contain bones, all manner of things, until she pulls out a leather roll of pouches, untying it and unrolling it to reveal her herb stores... Wet, but largely intact.]

They shall need to be dried, but-

[It finally registered what he meant to use them for, and she suddenly looked up rather shocked.]

Cooking?

[To think the illustrious Green Witch would be using her skills in the kitchen- at least it distracted her from worrying about Masamune?]

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EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

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