EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

[futurologists]

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!

Comments

B

[ninmu]

[ this is the kind of mission he's more suited for. Diplomacy and fixing social relations are far, far outside of his abilities. Destruction and killing, however, are just the thing he was made for. Melan hovers a few inches above the ground, unwilling to stand when the crashing waves threaten to knock him over every few seconds; the air from his feet sprays a bit of saltwater, but considering how wet everyone already is, it's hardly noticeable. ]

Understood.

[ that's the only response he gives before cocking his left arm. A left arm that's a cannon. The rifle fires a few quick blasts of energy into Undyne's current prey; they don't pierce that tough exoskeleton, but it's enough to knock it off balance for a precious few seconds. ]

[aspearation]

[ That's... well, actually it's not new at all. She's still thrown a little off guard, expecting something more human, but she recovers quickly, and focuses back on the task at hand. She's way more invested in kicking butts first, asking questions later.

While the crab is off balance, she leaps in and jabs her spear into roughly where its face is. The look on her face is a grimace of pain almost like she's mimicking what the crab might be feeling, though she's not especially injured herself, outside of a few small cuts.

She doesn't pull the spear out; instead it dissipates with a soft hum, and she turns towards her impromptu partner. ]

Thanks for the save, That thing must come in pretty handy. If I could have a gun for an arm--!

[ninmu]

[ That was just the sort of followup he was hoping for; once the crab falls, he lowers his gun, their enemy defeated for the moment. More will be coming in a matter of seconds, without a doubt. The panicked deer are easy pickings for predators like these. Good thing that he and the others are here, he thinks. Before, he didn't care much about protecting the weak, but there's a certain honor in it, he's finding now.

He turns to her when she addresses him, one red eye regarding her rather unreadably. ]

It is useful for combat situations. [ he admits, but he'd rather have hands, at this point. ] You're welcome. Helping my teammates is part of my duty. Are you injured?

[aspearation]

Me? Nah, it's nothing.

[ She pauses a moment, looking him over briefly, before completely changing gears. ]

Hey. Are you a robot??

[ninmu]

[ people keep asking him this... and it's hard to answer!! Melan makes a small noise of surprise, then shakes his head, though it's an uncertain movement. ]

No. I'm a Monomakia. A synthetic organism comprised of both mechanical and organic parts. "Robot" describes an entirely mechanical being.

[aspearation]

Uh.

[ That all went right over her head. This was why she liked hanging around Alphys; she always knew how to explain things in ways that Undyne would either understand, or accept as something she would never understand, letting her move on with her day.

But Alphys isn't here, and she's still giving a funny look. ]

So you're... part robot?!

[ninmu]

[ he had to explain things to Papyrus before, he can work with this... probably. ]

Um. [ a pause. After a few seconds: ] Yes. That is not... inaccurate.

[ he's never thought of it that way, but he supposes it's true enough. ]

What are you?

[aspearation]

What??

[ She's still not used to getting that question, so it catches her off guard at first, until it registers what she's actually being asked. ]

Oh, yeah. I'm a monster. [ To which she adds a nonchalant shrug. ] You know, not human, made of magic. We come in a lot of different shapes. Have you met Papyrus or Sans? 'Cause they're monsters, too.

[ Note to self: she really has to practice this speech in the mirror when they get back to Oska. She's starting to get a feel for the questions that people tend to ask anything non-human, and she might as well get it out of the way. ]

[ninmu]

[ there's a flicker of recognition in his one visible eye when she mentions Papyrus and Sans, and he nods. She looks radically different from them; he would never have guessed they were all members of the same clade. They must be similar to Monomakia like himself - coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, with all different skills. ]

Yes. Papyrus is my friend. You do not look very much like him, though.

[ astute observation melan. ]

[aspearation]

Well yeah, it would be weird if I looked like a skeleton, wouldn't it?!

[ She seems to think the question, completely unqualified and without context, makes sense. It makes sense to her, anyway. She's not a skeleton monster, so why would she look like one? ]

[ninmu]

... Yes. [ it's weird that he looks like a skeleton, but papyrus says it's fine and normal for his internal bone structure to be on the outside, and what does melan know... not enough, apparently.

Moving on from her being not a skeleton. ]

Did you evacuate the locals in this area?

[aspearation]

Oh. Uh.

[ She did not consciously do anything towards evacuating the locals, but a cursory glance around her reveals that there aren't any small deer people in sight, so she gives a shrug. ]

Yeah. I guess that means I'm done here. I'll probably head back now. --hey, if you're Papyrus' friend, what's your name?

[ He would have told her if he'd met a robot, right?! ]

[ninmu]

[ he doesn't see any, either... clearly, that means Undyne responsibly rescued them all, right?? Right. Melan nods once towards her in acknowledgement. ]

My name is Melan Blue. Living weapon Monomakia. [ a pause. ] Can you make it back safely in this weather? I can carry you.

[ although flying in a hurricane is hardly much safer. ]

[aspearation]

Are you kidding?! Of course I can make it back in this weather!

[ As if on cue, a gust of wind knocks her off kilter, but she does recover pretty quickly. The slippery rocks underfoot don't seem to bother her much. ]

--it's practically my element!

[ninmu]

[ when she looks like she's going to fall for a moment there, he jerks forward instinctively to start catching her - fortunately, she catches herself instead. With that mask on, his expression is even harder to read than usual, but one gets the feeling that he's a little skeptical.

Only a little bit, though. ]

You do look like a fish.

[ thanks melan. ]

Understood. Then I will leave you. Good luck, comrade.