EVENT ★ RECOLLECTION DAY

[futurologists]

RECOLLECTION DAY On the recruits' return to Oska, they will find some dreary weather, plus the entire castle and town decorated in purple and silver. Ribbons, streamers, and lights in ALASTAIR's colors fill every populated space, and there are more people milling about than before: humanoids and others in equal measure, all of them dressed in ALASTAIR uniforms of some degree. Dagny, Uruz, Cherenkov, and Crowley can be found among the others, as can recent recruit Pomarr, the undead Dakal from the last mission. The weather seems to be due to Pomarr. It's generally overcast around Oska, but the in area nearest to their newest recruit it will always be softly raining to some degree. THE FEAST Inside the castle, one of the many studies is decorated lavishly in the same purple-and-silver scheme as the rest of Oska. Today the kitchen is porting food directly into this room, where it's set out along long tables at the edges of the room. You can find anything here, food to suit any kind of diet from any kind of planet at all. There are no promises that all food will suit all diets, though. But still, if you want to try the bubbling pot of orange with the little worms that keep trying to struggle out of it, no one's going to stop you. A well-dressed, gently green lady stands at the center of the room, nursing a wineglass full of something silvery and addressing the room at large. She seems to be going over the history of Oska, to anyone who will listen. The gist of it is that Oska was once an entire world, densely populated and well known for its music and carefully bred hunting companion animals. However, its energy was severely unbalanced, and the world was swiftly coming undone. ALASTAIR recruits of the time realized it was the very animals the natives so loved that were the focus of all of the planet's energy, but by the time they had finally figured it out and began to cull the animals, it was too late. This little scrap is all they managed to save. What locals remained eventually died out, being too few to repopulate by themselves, and ALASTAIR opted to move in and reclaim the space, so as not to let this world go entirely forgotten. With their very base of operations as a reminder of what can happen to any world at any time, ALASTAIR of today is not likely to forget the necessity of their mission any time soon. Come for the food, stay for the slightly depressing story, and leave again fuller and maybe a little more somber than you were before. THE OBSERVATORY This room is usually home to a large telescope, a ceiling that slides open, and a lot of gauzy, ethereal decoration. Today it's been cleared out for what seems to be a room-wide, three dimensional documentary, playing on repeat throughout the festival. Images of a vast star system are projected into this room from no identifiable source, floating holograms the viewer can walk between and admire from any angle. A deep, soothing, presumably male voice speaks over the moving images, describing the action as it unfolds. In the beginning, there was one universe. It was vast and eternal, and most importantly, self-sustaining. There was no reason to doubt it would go on forever. The images at this point are on a cosmic scale, an impossible number of tiny stars swirling in silent patterns. We don't know what shattered the harmony, we only know that shatter it, it did. We call this the Cataclysm. This part is clearly an artist's interpretation. Slivers of light snake across the universe like the cracks in a broken window, shaking apart the entire scene. Some of the broken sections implode onto themselves in beautiful colors; some of them spread out and consume their neighbors. It's beautiful in a way, and probably completely visually inaccurate to whatever the real event looked like. The voice continues: The Universe became the Multiverse. The harmony is broken, and the energy no longer balances out. Worlds are thrown into disarray and chaos, some burning out immediately while others struggle on as they are able. There are even dozens of iterations of the same reality existing in some places, just barely splintered from one another and overlapping in impossible ways. The shards of our formerly united reality are nearly limitless. There are flashes of worlds as the narrator's voice continues. Each one lasts no longer than five seconds, filling the room and then flashing into the next scene. These are flashes of real worlds, broadcast up from the mysterious Viewing Hall and all of its mirrors down in the dungeons. Recruits watching diligently enough may even catch sight of familiar scenes. This is ALASTAIR's duty. We travel from reality to reality, doing what we must to equalize the energy. The necessary tasks can vary wildly, as wildly as the realities themselves do. In some worlds we find great success, snatching them from the brink of destruction and allowing them to continue on, rebalanced. Some worlds cannot be saved. The images shift, this time replaying old, completed missions. The variety is huge here, too. One team of blue humanoids dressed in ALASTAIR purple struggles to pull a mammoth out of a tar pit. Two small, doglike recruits dash through a dark alleyway, dodging laser fire. A team of something human-shaped but bundled up in spacesuits climb carefully through the weightlessness of space along the outside edge of an enormous spaceship. The narrator has just one more line to add: Ours is no easy task, but if not us. . . who? The informational recording fades out, and five minutes later, plays again from the beginning. THE COURTYARD Down in the courtyard, the festivities continue, this time led by Dagny and Uruz. They have a great number of temporary pens set up in the middle of the area, each one holding a strange, fantastical animal, which doesn't seem at all happy to be there. These are new mounts, Uruz will explain. Each one of them was personally rescued from a dying world by Dagny and herself. They're not quite tame yet, though, and so they've made a competition of it: anyone who can convince a creature to let them sit astride its back and then guide it into a pen in the stables proper will win a prize. Dagny would like to request that you be really careful, please! Those tusks and spikes can get really sharp. The prize given to any winning recruit will be a small, silvery musicbox. Opening it plays a soothing tune that will calm anything within the area for about 30 minutes. It can only be used once. Feel free to make up what kind of creature your character runs into. The stables of ALASTAIR are well known for their variety! LOST ORBS Have you ever wondered how Oska is powered? Well, obviously it's plasma orbs, how else? Oska's resident cats have been hard at work creating more of these, to the point that those not yet in use need somewhere to be contained. The problem is, these things are mobile. They'll float anywhere they please with some kind of debatable mind of their own, and lately it's not been uncommon to see two or three of them floating idly down the hallway together. Crowley and Cherenkov have requested recruit assistance in corralling these things and bringing them to a room set up to keep them in on the third floor. They're a bit like slowly deflating helium balloons, and can be guided with gentle taps to get them floating along in the right direction. Touching one of them is a strange experience that tends to leave hair standing on end. Touching more than one of them at the same time, however, is not recommended. Simultaneous contact with two or more plasma orbs has been known to have strange effects on people, including but not limited to developing the power to fly, sudden weightlessness, animal shapeshifting, ice breath, teleportation, and creating a protective and impenetrable bubble around oneself. None of these effects lasts longer than two minutes, and in each case, the following magitek hangover will make any orb-toucher feel awful for at least half an hour. HOTSPRINGS There's a new addition to Oska, down by the lake. It seems another team recently extracted an enormous, very hot core from a sentient and murderous AI. The core's power source isn't expected to run out for at least another thousand years, and unsure what else to do with it, the team dug it a pit not far from the lake. They failed to realize that this would accidentally have a very, very pleasant outcome. There are now hotsprings by the lake, nestled into the small grove of trees that grow around it. The water bubbles softly up from the ground in a new (technically man-made) pool, and some enterprising recruits have built wooden decks and stairs around and through the whole affair. It's a little bit of a hike to get there from the castle, but anyone who has visited can agree: it's worth it. OOC INFO Welcome to the festival! This will ICly last for 3 days (and OOCly for 2 weeks), at the end of which the other teams visiting the party will ship out to other missions and leave the PC team to unwind with Oska all to themselves. Through the duration of the festival, recruits will find themselves asked one question repeatedly: do you new guys have a team name yet? It seems everyone else has a team name! Really, it's just sort of sad that a team this big doesn't have a name, isn't it? We'll be including a section for characters to ICly suggest team names, and later on will be hosting an IC vote to pick a team name. Characters who signed up to remain in Nalawi for three months will arrive late to the party, but how late is up to players.

Comments

B. you give me no choice...one life, no clothes, final destination

[heelies]

[Olivia shall not long sit submerged in the water before a familiar figure wades into view. Achilles is on his way out of the bath: he had until now occupied the far end of the hotspring, but had soaked long enough and wished now to cool in the crisp forest air. Had Olivia eschewed eye contact while she sought a spot into which to sink, she must have missed him - but his eyes land on her sure enough.

For all the irreverence he appears to possess in regard to matters of modesty, he does now consider propriety: in his culture men and women do not bathe together, and ought not spy one another's bared bodies except for when together they lie as men and women will do. Here, however, it seems that there are no such rules to be followed. Any other woman he would leave be, but Olivia has found purchase in his heart. Furthermore, he reasons that no longer can she be startled by his nudity.

Thus does he approach. The water covers his knees, but the rest of his bronze body is bared to the air and clad only in the droplets which dew his skin and run along the contours of his muscles. Still does he maintain his proud posture despite this, and his voice carries the same confidence when he speaks his greeting.]

Fair-haired Olivia - forgive me my immodesty in approaching you thus, but I could not help but let your lovely visage lure me in. Tell me, how comes it that you've left the land of the Nalawi so soon? Had you not intended to stay behind and help our cloven-footed friends find roots again in this new era?

[While he speaks, he studies her and is swift to catch the darker tint to her skin, which tells of long days under the guidance of the sun, and the silky hive of hair perched atop her head, the length of which tells more generally of the passage of time.]

ah

[winces]

[ she hadn't seen him at all, and in retrospect she will wish she had. maybe then it would have better prepared her for seeing him again, after all these months, in all his naked glory, standing no more than a few feet away from her as he wades his way through the water.

her eyes open first, getting a good look at all of him, and then her mouth opens second, choking on both her breath and the water that immediately rushes in because she'd forgotten she'd been submerged. rather than provide achilles with a graceful vision of his "fair-haired olivia," she winds up sitting upright with a jerk, coughing up spring water while a hand grasps at her throat.

how embarrassing........................... ]

[heelies]

[Quickly does he come to her aid, hovering at her side and slapping his hand across her back that the force might shake out the water lodged in her windpipe. The image she now presents is cast far from radiance with which she is imbued when held in the passionate embrace of dance, but he finds that this side of her too has its own charm, and so it is with concern and amusement both that he regards her.]

I meant not to startle you so. Had you truly time enough to forget my appearance? Indeed, you see nothing now that you've not seen before.

[The teasing lilt that colors his words is easy enough to discern.]

[winces]

[ she spares a few more seconds to cough loudly into her palm, though admittedly by this point it is less of a physical necessity as it is a mental one. she needs just a few more seconds to collect herself, especially now that he is suddenly so close and still standing, which brings her face roughly level with his— ]

You don't have to tease...

[ she sends him a rather sullen look but the burning of her cheeks and the pouting of her lips let him know she is not angry, but merely incredibly embarrassed. shyly, she half-turns away from him, careful not to let her eyes linger on any one part of his person. ]

A-Anyway, I did stay behind. [ ahem. yes. going to looking over there now... ] I was gone for three whole months!

[heelies]

[He respects her boundaries enough that once she has collected herself, he wades back several paces to bolster the space between them. For a woman to be shy is only natural, and he minds not: it would be cause for greater concern if she were so bold.]

Three months you say? Indeed! Why, unless my memory deceives me it was hardly more than two days ago that I saw you last. Yet still the honeyed freckles upon your cheeks could not have formed in so short a time, and so perhaps you lie not. Is it the sons of Alastair who make a liar of the passage of time?

[winces]

[ the day olivia grows bold is the day hell freezes over and invites jesus for a nice ski. ]

If they can bring us back to the exact moment we left, I'm not surprised they can make time pass differently between worlds...

[ tentatively, she touches a hand to her cheek, realizing only in that moment that she might look different from what everyone else has remembered of her. of course, the change had happened so gradually for her, she never noticed it herself. she feels almost self-conscious about it, actually, wondering if it makes her look strange at all. ]

Besides.

[ she draws her hand away, plunking it back into the water. she sits up a little straighter too, bearing more of her shoulders and just a slight hint of the towel she keeps wrapped tight around her peeking out over the surface of the water. ]

I wouldn't lie to you.

[heelies]

I did not think that you would, Olivia. You are a woman of good virtue, and I trust that in all matters you will speak true. You must forgive me, for since finding myself a part of this crew I have seen and heard a great many things which fly in the face of reason, but still do I find myself bemused each time.

[His voice has softened in a way that so few are privileged to hear, and his eyes are warm upon her as he imbibes her appearance: when she sits up straighter he can detect the shift from creamy white to sun-caressed brown across her collar bone and above her breasts. He wonders if perhaps another time he might see where these lines begin and end.]

Mind you if I join in your company? Should you wish to bathe in peace I shall take my leave and request only that you spare the time later that we might talk. But should you welcome me, I assure you that I shall move no closer than this spot upon which I now stand.

[Or you know he can just keep standing here for her viewing pleasure.]

[winces]

[ surely he knows what he does. that when he speaks so kindly, so blatantly, she cannot help but bend to his whims, like a reed to the gentle breeze that humors it. there is nothing to protest, because he gives nothing to protest over, and in the end she can only see the logic and sensibility in his words, however kind and full of warmth they are. ]

I'd like it if you stayed, my Lord, [ she says, feeling a bit of the nervous tension begin to ebb from between her shoulders. sure, he's still standing there naked before her, but (as he said) it is not a sight she is unfamiliar with, and the more he smiles and speaks, the more she feels lulled by the very presence of him. ]

After all, it might have only been a few days for you, but it'd been three whole months for me — I'd like to catch up, if that's alright with you.

[heelies]

Then it shall be my pleasure.

[It is Odysseus who spins golden words which make others' hearts and minds so malleable, but even so Achilles' tongue is not barren of persuasive fruits - he would argue, however, that unlike Odysseus he speaks only true.

At Olivia's behest, he settles down into the water once more. The chill breath of the air upon his damp skin had cooled him some, and so the bath's heated embrace he welcomes again. He takes care to sit so that his chest rises from the water, to lessen the cloying grasp of the heat which surrounds his limbs. Then he again turns his grin on her, sensing that the tension she holds is melting and the layers of shyness peeling away.]

I suspect you have far more stories to tell, such that would fill the space of these three months you have been gone, which is far greater than the paltry days I've passed away from you. Indeed, the time you have been gone is greater than the time I've known you. It is no wonder therefore that you must reacquaint yourself with me. But first I must tell you that your soft cheeks have only become lovelier under the watchful eye of the sun, and so too is your hair a wonder to behold, so long has it grown.

[These are not empty compliments tossed out carelessly: he had noticed the way her hand had strayed to her cheek when he mentioned the change in her appearance, as if surprised or uncertain. He wishes only to reassure her that she is no less lovely now than when they parted ways.]

[winces]

[ perhaps if she had been a little less preoccupied with her own nerves, her own thoughts, she would have noticed the high flush on achilles' cheeks already present as he settles in. as it is, she can only consider the familiar shape of his smile, the way his lashes seem to lower as they drink her image in. ]

It's probably in need of some cutting, [ she admits, absently reaching up to prod gently at the pile of her on top of her head. how it manages to stay all up and not spill over into the water is a wonder of the world. ]

But, really, there isn't much else to say. [ she would not assume he caught her video feed from earlier, but at the same time she would not want to repeat anything lest she bore him. ] We've managed to help the Nalawi get on steadier feet. Three months is a long time to work so closely with them, but I don't think it was really enough considering how far they'd fallen.

[ it hadn't just been teaching them skills, after all. for a good long while, so many of them were still in mourning, still so spiritually lost that it made their work difficult. it's hard to reach someone who has drifted so far away, after all... but she still believes they made some impact... she has to. ]

It's really all up to them now.

[heelies]

[Nor does Achilles himself pay heed to the warmth rising in his skin and prickling at his cheeks, for he is glad to entertain Olivia's fair company and does not wish to leave the bath quite yet.]

It soothes my heart to learn that our friends who for so long hosted us in their land are indeed at peace, despite the great sorrow that has befallen their nation. I who have received the blessing of the gods finds it difficult indeed to believe that prosperity can be found with the immortals gone from the land, but I am beginning to learn of the myriad earths which adhere not to the laws which so firmly hold governance over mine own native earth.

Why, until quite recently I hadn't any idea that there lay more earths beyond the dark between the stars. When first I arrived in Nalawi I believed that I must have been brought to a strange land that lay across Oceanus.

[winces]

[ olivia can't help but find solace in achilles' words, signaled by the heavy sigh she releases when he quiets. it's a silly thing to be grateful for, really, but for so long she had felt extremely inadequate (added unto her already debilitating lack of self-esteem) with regards to her place here among the alastair recruits... somehow, hearing that someone as strong and brave and seemingly invincible as achilles might also struggle, even with something as benign as the idea of multiple worlds, is just really comforting to her.

it certainly helps to relax the tension that has lingered in her shoulders, their mutual states of undress now just a mere afterthought in her mind. ]

I know how you feel... As a dancer, my troupe has visited many lands, performed for many different types of people. Even still, I knew I had only visited a fraction of the world. But I never once thought there might have been more than just that.

[ she gives him a mildly bashful look now. ]

Despite the struggles... I am glad for it. It's allowed me to meet so many interesting people.

[heelies]

I cannot say that I am glad to have had these trials forced upon my shoulders, but to know those whose company might soothe my chapped breast has indeed made it more endurable.

[He returns her look of bashfulness with one of steadiness, impressing upon her that she is one such person. Where he gazes into the gaunt shadows and lets grow his grievances, she sees the gauzy ribbons of sunlight which break the shadows apart: this he finds both foolish and endearing, and he would not ask her to do otherwise.]

Already you have traveled to many nations and met people whose customs are strange to you, as have I - numerous were the islands which dotted the route I sailed to Troy and from which I won great treasures. Here in the custody of the sons of Alastair shall we see many more strange lands and meet the people of countless distant nations, but in all of this what I most wish for is the familiarity of my dear native land and those I have left behind.

[winces]

[ it doesn't take long before her mood drops, but it is not something she would hold against achilles. she's reminded of gintoki, whose own loneliness has often affected her to the point where it nearly physically hurt, and she realizes with a pang that it has indeed been nearly ten months since she's seen anyone she'd known from home.

still, right now it is for achilles that she aches for. her hand surfaces from the water so that it might lay over his shoulder, one of the few areas of his body not concealed by the springs. it always hurts to see someone she cares for have such a heavy heart... if she knew of a way to lighten it, she would. ]

I hope you can see them again one day...

[heelies]

So too do I wish. Already you know of how I miss my dear father, whom I've scarcely seen but for a short time since the days of my youth, and of whom I've received little news as he ebbs into old age. But so too do I miss my son, mine own Neoptolemus, whom I've not seen since he was little more than an infant, and who by now must be entering manhood's first bloom. I pray that he shall grow into a fine warrior like myself, even if I should never lay eyes upon his spear throw. Even if I were to be freed from this wretched place, I doubt I should ever see them again - for Fate has denied me my homecoming, the hopes for which lie slain upon the Dardanian plains.

[He soon sees how her smile has fallen, and this gives him pause. For as self-involved as he may seem, an attitude borne from the special attention he had been nursed on from birth, he does learn to decipher the unique languages of those he pulls into his circle. Thus, he clasps his hand over Olvia's where it perches wet upon his shoulder.]

But perhaps this is not the place for such melancholy ruminations. Here we are meant to enjoy ourselves, are we not?

[winces]

[ ah, but see, now she only feels guilty for making him feel bad that he's made her feel bad! (don't try to win — it's a vicious cycle.) and so she shakes her head, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze. ]

If you can't express your worries to the people who care about you, then to whom can you? I hope you know you can tell me anything... okay?

[heelies]

Well have you treated me, dear Olivia, and so generous have you been in lavishing your kindness upon me. For this I am grateful. Since my cherished companion Patroclus was sent through death's gate and left me with only his ashes, I did not think I should find one who might bear the burden of these sorrows I hold. But if you say your ears are open, then so too shall be my heart with all its cares.

[It is something no woman before has offered to him: while their bodies had always been open for solace, he had found that certain matters could not be shaped into words in their embrace.]

[winces]

[ the smile she gives him is a touch helpless, punctuated by a shrug that seems heavy with weight. ]

It's the best I can offer, really, [ she says around a sigh, light enough to be just shy of self-deprecating. were she to think more on it, she would find that it is only during these downtimes in which she flourishes — only then is she able to be of much use. where any other time a warrior, or healer, or leader might be needed, of which she is a mere shadow to so many others among their crew... at these times, she finds she can at least be a good friend. sometimes that's good enough, right? ]

[heelies]

You are more capable than you may believe, although your strength is of course different from that which I possess.

[Her strength is in how he cannot help but give a shadow of a smile too when she shines her warm countenance upon him.

Then quite suddenly, the heat of the bath is clawing at his throat, constricting him in its heavy coils. He shifts in the water to try to rise further from its grip, and he pushes strands of hair from his temples where to his damp skin they have stuck.]

[winces]

[ it's such a lovely, touching moment too...

and then suddenly he moves as if to stand again, and her hands instinctively come up to slap over her eyes.

only for a second, though, because he seems to still a moment later, and she is forced to peek through a crack of fingers. ]

...My Lord? Are you alright?

laughs

[heelies]

Worry not, I am quite all right.

[But the heat seems only to thicken, and the far reaches of his vision begin to darken. His hand stays at his temple where he cradles his head. His voice now sounds far more distant than these few feet between them.]

No...perhaps I should lie down... I am sure it shall pass soon...

[He makes to stand, and this shall be his downfall: vertigo overtakes him and sends him into a swoon. A most manly swoon. He topples forward, and what should be there to break his fall but the soft cushion of Olivia's body?]

cries

[winces]

Achil—?

[ that's about as far as she gets in voicing her concern before there is suddenly 200 pounds of grade A grecian prime cut meat falling on top of her. with a sharp yelp, they both go down, olivia soon with her back on the floor of the hot springs, her mouth suddenly full of the very water that had caused achilles his manly fainting spell.

sos pls halp ]

shameless

[defenceless]

[it isn't that rin didn't put it past some people to... have relations... in the hot springs, but alastair, she was expecting so much more out of you??

maybe olivia wasn't taking her previous advice about sex magic literally, though. the fall of the hulking hero looked a little too limp (sorry, achilles) to be on purpose. and poor olivia probably doesn't want to drown.

ready to scold them for their irresponsible actions already, rin flies into rescue mode, reaching underwater, praying her hands don't brush certain parts of the male anatomy, and pulling achilles back with a grunt of effort, mana glowing through her strengthened limbs.]

Wh-What's going on here?! Are you okay?!

[are both of them ok]

weeps... there is no excuse

[winces]

[ rin it's not what it looks like...! this is actually... innocent... for once

but the moment the heavy weight is lifted off of her, olivia hastens to scramble back up to the water's surface. her skin is a bright pink on top of the nalawi tan, and the struggle and water had caused a bit of her towel to unravel around her bust. but at the moment she is more concerned with sucking in as much air as possible, while simultaneously coughing out all the water she'd choked down.

it doesn't make for the most graceful of resurfaces.

but once she gets her bearings, she is reaching for them both, eyes wide. ]

R-Rin..! Oh my gosh, thank goodness you were around! It's Achilles — he just fainted!!

[defenceless]

Damn it...! Why does he have to be... so... heavy?!

[while she moves a huge naked man with all the power she can summon, rin doesn't sound too happy. imagine that. but she isn't giving up! she watches olivia to make sure she's able to breathe on her own, doing her best to keep the grecian hero of legend afloat.

it's definitely an awkward sight, with a petite 5'2'' girl who couldn't weigh more than around a hundred pounds somehow hoisting achilles up, her arms looped underneath his. rin is just thankful she's wearing a towel. the sooner olivia joins in, the better!]

Obviously he isn't okay, I guess... How did he faint? Did he spend a little too long in the water, or did you tire him out?