EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

[futurologists]

MAROONED Three days after the eruptions wrecked their havoc, a storm begins. It's not so different from the storm the recruits first encountered upon arrival, but this storm seems oddly and peculiarly driven. In some places of the islands it's nothing but pattering rain, but in other places it's strong enough to lift a fully grown human off his or her feet. And that's just what it does. It sweeps up recruits here and there -- not all of them, and there is no apparent method to who it takes and who it leaves. Some stay on the Nalawi islands, some are simply swept up into the sky. Here and there the storm grabs a Nalawi as well, but these victims are always dropped again. Sometimes out over the water, sometimes crashing down into land. They do not generally survive this. The recruits stolen by the storm aren't aloft for long. They emerge eventually from the tumbling, buffeting, blinding winds, spewed out onto the beach of a strange new island. This island, to anyone paying any attention to their surroundings, is a recent addition to the surface of the ocean. In fact, flying in the face of physics and statistical likelihood (much in the way the storm had), it seems to have recently been on the seafloor. This island was clearly once inhabited, although it's been a long, long time since then. Uniform structures can be found arranged in streets and avenues, now all thoroughly caked in barnacles, coral, seaweed, and other assorted debris of the sea. Here and there can even be found dead fish, suffocated when the water began to drain away and turn to open air. Most of them are horrifying, the things that tend to keep to the dark depths of the water. Toward the center of this empty, silent, sea-claimed city a giant sea serpent threads around and through several buildings. It's just as dead as the rest of them, its huge, pale eyes staring at nothing. There are a few things here that aren't quite dead, though. Sometimes something armored, dull red, and hungry crawls out of some dark place. These creatures can't really be compared to anything on the surface, but they are each about the length of a human, with three sets of sharpened limbs held up off the ground, used for stabbing forward to pierce its prey, and one set of pinchers below that. The pinchers might anchor prey in place for easier stabbing, but they also create a tiny sonic boom when clacked. Standing too close to this can leave you dazed and momentarily helpless. These creatures aren't fazed by the lack of water around them, they're just hungry and ready to feed on anything nearby -- even each other. The danger they present to recruits is at least slightly mitigated by an unknown force, though. If a recruit finds themselves unable to handle one of the creatures or overwhelmed by it, the storm itself will lash out at the thing. This isn't a very precise defense, but it is generally enough to pick up one or both of the contestants and separate them. Nothing here looks anything like what can be found on the Nalawi islands, except perhaps the flora. It's difficult to tell. What trees have been left are waterlogged, petrified mockeries, it's unclear what they may have looked like while this island still lived. The buildings are all very inorganic, made of processed material and with the obvious aid of machinery. Whoever lived here was actually very proficient with machinery, it seems. Within the buildings, some residential and some commercial, can be found the rusted, now-useless remains of a technologically advanced society. Personal belongings can also be found, waterlogged and largely ruined, and all in an upset as if they had gone through frequent and destructive earthquakes. Still, they can tell the story of mundane, day-to-day lives here for anyone who cares to look. Food is going to be a little tricky to come by unless you're a fan of seafood; fishing will be possible for anyone who opts to brave the edge of the storm, and of course there are the bizarre delicacies so thoughtfully raised up from the seafloor, dead among the streets and buildings. Recruits would do well to be careful with those, though. There is a particular kind of seaweed that, while it looks perfectly innocuous, will cause vivid hallucinations an hour after ingesting, for 10 minutes to three hours, depending on how much was ingested. Above all else, though, is the eerie silence. The storm rages on, but although it completely surrounds the island, it keeps to the perimeter. Even the rain stays off of the island, though the sun is obscured by the heavy, ominous clouds. Thunder rumbles now and then, punctuated by lightning flashes, but there isn't a single sound on this gray, dreary, dead island that wasn't made by an ALASTAIR recruit. OOC INFO Recruits will ICly be here for one week, and OOCly the log will last for two. The storm will prevent any travel off of the island. Should anyone feel brave enough to try risking a trip into it, they will find it still possesses that ability to literally sweep recruits off their feet. It might also be due to this mysterious storm that no one on the island can seem to reach out to anyone on the Nalawi islands via jewelry network, nor to any of the NPC recruits they'd met at Oska. Players who signed up for plot slots will be receiving additional information, which we ask they share with the rest of the characters. You may sign up here for information that can be found while exploring the island, as well. Please direct any questions to the OOC write up.

Comments

[grunehexe]

[Sieglinde knew exactly how to create a powder that would stop bleeding on contact, and how to extract vitriol from the earth and pull liquids from metals. She could formulate the deadliest poison gas known to man...

But she'd never cooked a meal in her life. Raised by handmaidens and a manservant who handled everything in the kitchen and left her only responsible for the eating part, and largely cared for once she'd arrived in ALASTAIR's care by Masamune (who was a surprisingly decent cook), by Sebastian (who was one hell of a chef)... and by the many others she mooched off... it just hadn't quite happened.

It. Seemed to be happening now, though, even though she'd much rather be cleaning her newest acquisition, the semi-transparent orb that occupied her entire lap. Which she leaned on now to squint at the meat she'd admittedly like to be eating.]

Yes...

[Doubtful as she sounded, it was... probably good to know.]

[defenceless]

[nuh-uh. there'll be no bored students here.

when she leans back the way she does, with a knife clutched in one hand and her free hand at her hip, rin could make quite the imposing figure. that isn't even adding in her face! the look on it threatens to freeze the burning fire into icicles in seconds, and that's without her magic.]

Sieglinde. Cooking and survival is just as important as other pursuits for a woman, perhaps even more important. Sit up straight and look alive!

[grunehexe]

[When you asked to be someone's disciple, you were sort of required to respect them at least a certain amount- and it would be a lie to say Sieglinde didn't look up to the older Mage. As much as she found more use in other pursuits...

She sat up straighter. Squared her shoulders. Tried to focus on the actual steps instead of the meat she'd like to be eating.

Important for women...]

Important... For marriage?

[defenceless]

[that's more like it. rin loosens up her shoulders, shakes her head, and begins attending to the meat, adding another piece of seafood to the sizzling platter.]

You have to have some way to feed all those little mouths, of your heirs.

[she's beginning to suspect sieglinde is best taught in a particular way: referring to what interests her...]

And yes, for marriage. A woman who knows how to cook is attractive to a man. After all, they're not thinking about their next meal. They're concerned with pointless things like looking "macho" and pretending they aren't really hurt when they're barely hanging on—especially here. It's to attract women. Or to prove they hold up to some stupid male standard, I don't know.

[don't doubt her older!wisdom, sieglinde.]

[grunehexe]

All of them? Only one will do fine... two at most...

[After all, the more pupils she had the less time she had to dedicate to each one... and what if there came sibling rivalry, or a splitting of the tradition if one didn't accept the other as the next Green Witch? It didn't seem a good idea to have more than one heir, two at most to be safe...

Sieglinde shook her head to clear those thoughts, trying to instead focus on the sizzling meat, brow furrowed with the assault of advice.]

Men are quite primitive when it comes to what drives them, I understand that... they desire sustenance and physical satisfaction...

[That sounded about right to her, actually, though, so she couldn't disagree with Rin's statements on that one...]

I suppose if one can offer both that is more desirable...

[defenceless]

That's right. They're animals.

[she hmphs underneath her breath as more and more fresh fish join the rest, as if the male recruits surrounding them are no better than the common creatures (read: weird death beasts) roaming the island. rin should probably be sure not to speak within hearing distance of any of them. unfortunately, she doesn't care.]

They might not realize they want you at first, but as soon as they taste the delicious food you've made, you'll be beating them off with a stick.

[grunehexe]

[That was the thing about primitives... you got to speak about them right around them and it didn't even matter!

... But Rin's tactics were definitely winning out, as Sieglinde leaned forward to pay closer attention.]

That does make this cooking of yours sound a formidable weapon to wield against them...

[No, boys are not the enemy??? Or are they???]

[defenceless]

[they always are.

finally, it's time to flip some of the makeshift fillets, and rin uses the edge of her newly-cleaned knife to do it; she lifts and turns the meat over in slow, exaggerated steps, so sieglinde will be able to grasp the purpose of it—and the method.]

I was never wrong about them, before. [oh, sure.] Men are predictable. Besides, when you're on your own, you need to take care of yourself. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather eat good food than anything else.

[perhaps this is more about stuffing her own face...]

[grunehexe]

["When you're on your own".

Sieglinde didn't like the sound of that, even if could be taken positively. She had never been alone from the moment she was born, and she couldn't imagine it. Didn't want to, either.]

... does good food need seasoning? Is just fish enough for attraction?

[Wolfram's had always had it in spades, but there's little on this island to season their food with- oh, but she did have some herbs from her pack that had uses for medical as well as culinary... she wriggled in her seat to grab said pack, beginning to open it and look for her herbs.]

What goes well with fish?

[Good enough to catch men with, at least?]

[defenceless]

[the desire to turn this into a magic lesson is amazingly strong. rin peeks over at sieglinde fiddling with her pack of herbs out of narrowed eyes. but something tells her it's not the best moment to test aphrodisiac-laced fish against an unwitting recruit in real time...]

It does need seasoning, as it happens. Nothing too fancy. Just enough to suffice. When you're on your own, you might not be rolling in the cash, either, unless you're rich or together with some wealthy man.

[if she almost sounds like she's speaking from serious personal experience, that's the case. welcome to a young woman who grew up alone far too often.]

I do have some things with me. We'll glaze with honey and sprinkle them with salt I swindled out of Gilgamesh. It would help me to see what you have, though.

[grunehexe]

[The practical things Sieglinde could be learning... !

But, she didn't like to continue to think on that topic, "on your own". ALASTAIR had taken her just as she managed to flee from her village, but what would come after? Ciel had promised her that the queen of his country would take her in, support her work...

Would she ever find out the answer to that question?]

I used all the salt I had to make a rust acid, so that is good...

[Honey and salt sounded tasty... She had no idea what else would compliment that herself, far more used to consuming food than cooking it, but she did know which of her medicinal herbs also doubled as edible ones. Rosemary, thyme, clove, mint... she pulled them out for inspection, sniffing the frying fish hungrily.]

[defenceless]

[scanning the assortment of herbs, rin points a finger at the rosemary while she supervises the browning of the seafood.]

—That will do, Sieglinde. Rosemary will add a nice aroma.

[she could ask what value "nice smells" add to a desperate dinner on an island like this, but her mentor has her reasons. pleasant aromas associated with food lift up one's spirits. anything to improve the atmosphere for all of them is a boon.]

[grunehexe]

[It did have a nice aroma, so it seemed like a good enough choice for her. Hadn't Wolfram told her he used it on the roasts? They didn't eat much fish in her village beyond the occasional pond trout, but...

Obediently, she began separating out some of the rosemary.]

... Say, Rin?

[Mumbled a little bit, talking more to the herbs and fish than to Rin herself, but,]

When did you first begin... cooking?

[Though the way she said it though, didn't seem to be about... actually cooking...]

[defenceless]

[no kidding.

she stops. above the sizzling pan, rin's brow furrows and her eyes thin perceptively. she isn't so dumb she'd miss an obvious lead like that, from sieglinde... the insinuation.

naturally, "cooking" must be code word for something entirely different from actual cooking. her blue eyes put her on the spot.]

I don't mind being direct with you, but you're going to have to be specific.

[it isn't like there's much to share in any case. oops.]

[grunehexe]

[Well... at least she said she wouldn't mind being direct.

Sieglinde looked first at the sizzling food, then back at Rin, then the corner of the room... then back to Rin.]

With men, I mean.

["Cooking" with them. She's... seen her in bed almost fully unclothed with Archer on his way out and that had seemed indication enough that the older girl had some experience, but... was she experienced enough to impart some wisdom?]