epidemiology | OPEN PLOT POINT LOG ★ THE GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP

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OPEN PLOT POINT LOG ★ THE GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP

May 4th; REPAIRS GALORE

Maybe you responded to the post on the network about the big discovery, or maybe someone you know roped you into helping- either way, so far it seems like this ship might be the only feasible way off the island. If you can get it up and running again. The controls and internal systems seem to have been largely preserved intact, but they'll need a bit of maintenance- you know, repairing corroded wires, unsticking the buttons, cleaning the screens, reattaching the power... and that's not to mention the outside. There's a large hole in the hull that needs to be repaired with metal salvaged from other places on the island, barnacles and rust that need removing, breeches that need putty...

A few recruits take charge to direct work flow, but people are encouraged to work on what they can! Even if you're not super strong there's still work you can do, and of course the volunteers need to be fed! There's a job for everyone... but this is going to take a few days at least.

May 11th; A BREAK IN THE STORM

There's just one problem. Even once they get the ship in questionably operating order... how in the world are they going to clear that fierce storm? The ship might be ready to sail, but it's definitely not ready to take another beating.

Though surely some recruits are doing their best coming up with ways to either make the ship sturdy enough to sail through or find a way to banish the unnatural storm, it seems like they might be stuck in dry dock... until the clouds disperse and the sun begins to shine. Wait- what just happened?

May 12th; BON VOYAGE

Now the storm has cleared, it looks like you all might just be able to get home! ... Well, not home, but. Back to Pu'ulai at least. The journey might get off to a bit of a rocky start, since they need to figure out A) how to use the strange touch screen steering apparatus on the warship and B) which direction to sail in, but at least this thing has a good radar, so hopefully they can avoid any "I'll never let go, Jack!" conclusions.

Thankfully it's a large vessel so quarters aren't cramped for the nearly 2 days it will take to get back to the others. Be nice, share your food, take shifts so people don't fall asleep at the proverbial wheel, all that jazz.

Try not to freak out when the shore of the island approaches and everyone realizes no one replaced the brakes on this thing. Brace for impact?

May 14th; REUNION TOUR

The marooned crew is back! All those messages you were trying to send to people in the other group that never got through? Watch out, because your inbox is about to get flooded. (Or not, if you're a grump no one messages.) A giant Dakal warship crashing into the beach is bound to attract native and ALASTAIR attention alike... and the older generation of Nalawi actually go for their weapons and pitchforks in a panic, ready to defend the beach against a foe they never thought to see again... but find themselves confused upon realizing the passengers are ALASTAIR recruits. This is the place for your teary "I thought you might be dead!" reunions as well as the more bro-esque "glad you're still alive, loser" type greetings.

You all have a lot of information to trade. What happened on that risen island? Sacrifices flayed open? Ryba is huh? Nalanni is wha? Kidnapped?! Woah, slow down. Wouldn't it be great if ALASTAIR would get in touch? (Shh, that's May 15th).

OOC NOTE;

This is a mod-sponsored plot point driven log for those marooned (and later, those who were left behind). If you'd like to do some OOC organization/plotting, feel free to utilize this thread! Please direct any questions there or to the mod plurk. The disappearance of the storm on the 11th is relevant to another player plot point soon to be revealed, so that is left a bit vague for that reason. Feel free to play out reunion stuff here if you'd like, though because of a few plot points left to be revealed, you may want to bookmark this and come back for srs threads once those go public. Thank you! ♥

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[Ban picked the right spot to sit in, it seemed. He squinted blearily from his meager cover, looking to the shore as a ship struck land hard. He wasn't much of a sailor, but he was fairly sure that wasn't how one was meant to end an excursion. He watched as people left, leaning back in the shade. There was a soft pop as he turned the handle a music box rested on one of his knees. He set his hand back down as it began to play.

Music didn't come out. Instead, there was a young woman's voice. It was sporadic and she said a number of things over and over and over--Ban's name coming up several times in the midst of it all.

His head hung. His face had shaggy, somewhat thick hair growing to a beard. It had been weeks since he had a shave. His eyes set on Sieglinde as she appeared, since he heard his name in someone else's voice. As she approached, Ban reached over to his knee, shutting the music box. He stared at her, confused.]

Kid?

[The beach was the most difficult place for Sieglinde, all shifting sand and no purchase for her tiny feet and weak legs to balance and nothing to hang on to or use as a crutch... But she still stumbled forward unerringly once she caught sight of someone she thought might be Ban, taking a few tumbles to the knee along the way... But thankfully at least, sand was just as forgiving a surface to fall on as it was tricky to walk on.

Her gaze moved around somewhat in confusion at the lingering sound of what she thought was a woman's voice (where was that coming from?), until she got closer, face lighting up-]

Ba-

[Only to freeze, blinking somewhat rapidly.]

... What happened to your face?

Ah? [His hand had left the crank of the voice box. The voice was gone, but Ban was longing for it. His eyes had shifted to the box a few times before he noticed Sieglinde's pace. He stood up slowly, the box tumbling into the sand softly before he took steps to her. In her most recent tumble he caught her with his forearm, just under her arm.

He gave her a pause as she looked to his chin, likely puzzled.

The beard he had grown before burned off when they were fighting the volcano and its inhabitants. Since then, it healed--and in a short time, stubble shifted to a mess. He gave her an arch look. Had it been a week prior, Ban wouldn't have been able to even look at her.]

It's called a beard, Sig. I forgot to shave for awhile.

[She was grateful to be caught, because as soft as sand was opposed to dirt or volcanic rock... It still didn't mean she relished landing on it. Instead she sagged somewhat against his arm, stomach empty, tired, bags under her eyes and in dire need of a bath after two days at sea- let alone the days on that island with trouble making drinkable water let alone bathing in anything but salty ocean...

But at least they made it.

She reaches out and wonderingly... Tugged on his beard.]

Sieglinde.

[And it wasn't just a punishment, she was indeed genuinely curious... It was her first time being so close to a real beard and not an illustration. Wolfram was on the shaggy side and those muttonchops were impressive but his chin was clean, and Masamune kept things trim, so how-]

How do you forget to shave?

[It's on your face... And she knows she should be asking other things, doing other things... But she would much rather have a few minutes, just a few, to have the luxury of wondering over beards.]

[Ban felt his head get pulled a few inches lower as Sieglinde buried her fingers in and pulled at his beard. It was a little difficult to talk properly when her tugging manipulated his jaw a little, but he managed to make it work by speaking between tugs.]

It's not like it's sudden. Beards are slow enough that they can creep on you in a couple of weeks.

[At that, Ban lifted Sieglinde up to bear close to his shoulder--just close enough so she could keep tugging on his beard. She looked as if she'd been on that boat for a long while and, even if he had questions, he wasn't going to ask about it.]

You never seen a beard up close, before?

[After her tugging, Sieglinde extended her index finger, measuring the length of the scruffy beard with an estimate of the distance between each finger joint. If they had been gone X days, plus the Y time between the volcanic explosion and the storm, divided by the length of this beard hair-]

No- my manservant only kept facial hair here.

[Irreverent of personal space, she patted Ban's temples and down to about mid-cheek, a stoic and proper pair of German sideburns. Of course, she had seen countless depictions of beards in books and in portraits, but-]

Does this not itch your mouth? Is it sanitary?

[Sieglinde clearly seemed to have a vested interest in his beard that far surpassed his own interest. If anything, realizing it was there was enough to make him want to shave. He felt her finger trace where she was used to seeing facial hair and and he lifted a brow.]

When it's this short, I don't feel it unless I really think about it. I let it go for a few years a couple times. It got reaaaaally long, then. Down to my chest.

[He wanted a shave, but Ban felt just how light Sieglinde was.

Food, first.]

[Down to his chest? It could be comical how she looked abruptly between his chin and chest, measuring how long that would be with a wrinkle in her nose... That definitely wasn't sanitary... Surely... Would beard hair not become oily and dirty like the hair on the scalp? Her own hair, down to her hips, had taken her handmaidens time each day to maintain and clean... And now that she had none, it was beginning to look worse for wear. Right now, mostly salt-damaged.

But. Even if it was just a beard... Anything new was of interest to Sieglinde, at least for a short time.

Until she caught sight of some of the villagers who had gathered on the beach, and her expression grew taut, though she'd forgotten to take one hand out of his beard.]

- have any storms ravaged this island? Is there any sign of the goddess from the volcano?

What do you mean? You're askin' like you didn't know about any storm.

[Ban was in the middle of leaning down by his packs to lift them up as Sieglinde's eyes settled on the natives. His eyes followed hers and then trailed back to her.

It was a curious question to ask, given that everything went into a massive uproar. Ban was ignorant of how things had really gone. He offered Sieglinde a lifted brow as if to beckon the question, "Where have you been?"]

I mean beyond the storm that took us away-

[Sieglinde went digging into her own stuffed pack, getting her hands around a large sphere about eight inches in diameter, pulling it out to show Ban.

It was mostly transparent, but a little cloudy in the interior, the outside covered by some sort of film.]

I tried to use this to see what was happening over here, but my powers weren't strong enough- !

[Ban's eyes set on the orb. He didn't realize the storm had branched off the way it did. From their perspective, Pu'ulai had simply been surrounded by insurmountable winds off in the distance that made travel completely impossible. It was assumed to be a hurricane, though everyone essentially came to the conclusion that it was precisely timed and unnatural.

He stared at the interior of the orb.]

Is that why? We tried to reach a bunch of you and couldn't get through.

[He paused, scowling. Ban didn't like it, but he hadn't even realized Sieglinde had disappeared. He thought it best for her to recover and people rarely got a chance to rest around him.

To top it off, he had been so distracted by the box with Elaine's voice that he was essentially a waste of space for a week straight.]

[It's what Sieglinde had been doing on the island- staring into the orb and hoping for answers. But nothing was reflected in it, not while she had no powers and her she couldn't properly try out the spells from Merlin's grimoire she had been studying.

Within the orb, there was only a filmy reflection of Ban's face.]

Yes... the storm wasn't natural at all, and it kept us trapped there- it blocked all communications, and my magic as well...

[Ban frowned, looking over the orb. It was interesting, so it held his attention--visually speaking, anyway.]

Was it because we released those monsters? Or, was the timing just a coincidence?

[He didn't expect Sieglinde would know. Ban couldn't muster any clues on his own, after all--not that he had actually been putting effort into looking for them.]

I'm told that it was a Dakal... the last of them, revived by the sea goddess and seeking to revive her people in turn... and keep us out of things.

[Her fingers tightened on the orb, expression darkening.]

This kind of thing... Rin said she was half rot- How could she want to bring people back if they will not even be properly alive-

[Spoken, perhaps, truly as one who had never lost someone that precious to her... unable to comprehend wanting to bring them back no matter what, even if it meant they'd be rotting undead.]

...

[Ban didn't say anything for awhile. He felt an immense sympathy for his enemy that he didn't feel he needed to mention out loud. This Pomarr--all she wanted to do was revive her people? She had to have felt alone. She was desperate enough to imprison a goddess just to avoid being alone? Not that the reason mattered.

His eyes went elsewhere, far along the shore. Come to think of it--he had never told Sieglinde that Elaine was dead in the first place. She wouldn't have known what a terrible suggestion it was she was making around him.

And then, for only a moment, he wondered if he could steal that power from Pomarr.]

People are capable of wild things when they want something bad enough, missy.

[Sympathy Sieglinde had in spades. To have lost all of her people, to have been so desperate she even sold her soul to a goddess of the sea... it was tragic.

But she'd also been raised to never be able to desert logic. The logic that said you couldn't raise the dead after that long- not those who rotted and fell to skeletons and then to dust over the years. How did you bring those back? How could you even think they could be the same, that things would be alright if you did... ?

Couldn't shake it.]

I know that- but. I do not think we can let it happen.

[If the Dakal returned... even if by some miracle they were "alive", and "alright"... then it would just be bloody war again. All over again.]

You're right. From a reasonable perspective, the best thing to do would be to kill anybody upsetting checks and balances--

[Though, Ban knew that 'reason' seldom did anything but contradict emotionally driven motivation. He knew that much on an intimate basis. Sieglinde, though. He wasn't sure what drove Sieglinde to do anything, himself. Could she understand someone who had lost everyone they loved?]

But, she probably had a family, missy. She might be the type to fight us tooth and nail over them.

[Even if she agreed with it in this case, Sieglinde couldn't like how it sounded when Ban put it that way. It sounded like something someone cruel would do- crush opposition to the balance... But in this case... Wasn't it the right thing? Even though she had logically decided, and logic ruled her, her heart did still waver, expression darkening a bit further.

Family. Of course it was easy for her to say it was wrong, but what if she lost Wolfram? Would she ever give up, if a way to bring him back presented itself? She had tried her best to save him, when he had been bleeding out, shot on the floor in defense of her, chasing after her... But would she fight death itself?

She couldn't know. The only ones she'd lost in her short life had been ones who'd tried to kill her, and so the loving memories of years spent with them had withered before their deaths. ... She didn't know.]

I know. ... It is not fair to anyone. But for the sake of this world...

[As cold as it might sound... She was sure she would need to choose the greater number of lives.]

[It wasn't the sort of thing a kid was meant to say--not by a long shot. Ban didn't know what kids were supposed to live like until he arrived in Liones, though. It had taken time for him to tell that good kids deserved better than having immense moral dilemmas forced upon them.

He scowled lightly, simply recognizing it for what it was.]

If the goal is to fix this place, then that path is one of the right ones. Someone has to die to let this be fixed.

[Then, he flat out admitted--]

But, it isn't right that a kid could say something like that, after all.

[There it was again. Things children were supposed to do. Things it wasn't right for her to do. She was so tired of hearing it- it made it harder for her to be as she'd always had to be.

An adult.

Sieglinde averted her gaze, too tired to even argue, to assert that perhaps kids shouldn't say such things, but she was hardly a child. She could say what she wished...]

- Let us find my familiar, Ban.

[And do most anything but think about needing to kill the goddesses, or whether she was a child or not.]

... [Ban didn't press the topic any further. He stood up straight after hooking his free hand down to pick up the audio box he had left in the shade with his supplies. He looked it over once and tucked it into the pack before squaring it over his shoulder opposite to Sieglinde.

The topic was wearing itself thin, admittedly. Ban only cared about his immediate actions. Consequences could always be accepted and punishments would likely be due for trying to force death upon someone as a way to fix things, but he was already prepared for it.

People he liked had been hurt because of this one Dakal woman. If left as the only one with the choice, Ban wouldn't have to linger on his decision.]

Where to first?

... off this beach.

[After all that time spent on that dredged up island, Sieglinde was more than tired of sand and salt and the sight of the ocean.

And thinking about the dilemma they'd been presented with this world.]

- anywhere.

[Anywhere would do.]

[So, he followed her direction. Ban looked over the shoreline with brief indifference, noting just how clear the skies had become since the morning before she had returned. Everyone was alright, then? He'd have people to look for, but at the moment, he was fine. Ban decided the music box could go without being used for just awhile if that were the case.

Even so, he reached over and gave Sieglinde's cheek a little pinch as she clung to him.]

I know what you mean, but there's only so much time in the day~. What about the docks, first?

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OPEN PLOT POINT LOG ★ THE GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP

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