epidemiology | EVENT ★ WELCOME TO ZETA-12

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EVENT ★ WELCOME TO ZETA-12

WELCOME TO ZETA-12

Recruits arrive on a relatively calm, placid afternoon on the tundra. The snow is sparkling white and completely untouched, the sky overhead is a dazzling blue that seems to go on forever. The new arrivals have hopefully dressed warmly, though, because the temperature isn't nearly as nice as the weather. It's well below freezing today, helped not at all by a nippy breeze that stirs to life now and then.

THE TUNDRA (WEEK 1)

Not far off, the scene grows a little less tranquil. Here the ground is raw, ripped up and shredded by the recent, skidding passage of an asteroid on its way to a violent stop. Snow has already begun to fall and soften the torn up earth, but it's a long way from looking whole again. The asteroid itself sits huge, the size of an office building, half buried in the ground and cracked open. The interior of it is a silent labyrinth of stone, and here and there basketball-sized clear, jellylike balls can be found: the squidge eggs. There are no adults in sight, although there are many pools of spilled liquid here and there, presumably from eggs that didn't quite make it.

The eggs nearest to the outside air are cold, some of them even starting to solidify. They'll need to be warmed up if they're going to pull through. All eggs should be kept warm, but some of them are strong enough to pull through anyway if neglected — while some of them are going to need a lot of attention to make it through. Those eggs that do make it will eventually begin to soften, and 24 hours after the recruits arrive, will finally blink open their black, beady eyes and unfold into the squidge shape everyone will come to know and (hopefully) love. A small handful of squidges that hatch won't seem to imprint on anyone. These squidges are standoffish and sullen, but follow the group at some distance.

Any time after that, the journey begins. Recruits' jewelry will pull up a compass when needed, with a blinking red light urging them on south. The journey begins whenever you start walking.

The weather stays fair as the recruits head south, and the snowy plain is fairly uneventful, but eventually an impasse is reached: an enormous lake. Its shore is studded with beautiful snow stars, and may as well be an inland sea, for all that it seems to extend before them; that flashing red light asks that they cross straight over it. The water is iced over, but not thoroughly and not reliably. Even now, before any attempts to cross it have been made, there are cracks in the ice, great floating chunks that have broken free of the crust and would give a nasty surprise to anyone attempting to step onto them.

The first choice is a simple one: take your chances with the ice and attempt a crossing? Or do you venture east or west and hope it has some sort of end that won't take you weeks out of the way? Please choose one of these options to determine how your character fares.

As the journey takes them on, plantlife makes a slow return to the scenery. First it's the water cactae, proving a welcome relief to anyone tired of melting snow for water, if you can get into them. But eventually the temperature drops even further, and a forest begins to spring up around them. The first few days of it are chilly, sometimes even still snowy, but further on the plants are beginning to get a little more colorful.

THE FOREST (WEEK 2)

The second week of the journey is entirely under the leafy canopy of the forest. There's green all around, and the sun is warm whenever it breaks through the leaves. There is much more food to be scavenged here, although you couldn't possibly have made it too far through your food rations, right? Meals can be supplemented by berries, roots, or edible leaves, although it's suggested you find some way of quickly telling what's poisonous and what's nutritious. Here and there are plants trying to bite back, too. Do you hack these apart, or just give them a wide berth? The learning eyes of your squidge are on you, whichever option you pick.

Eventually comes another obstacle, not unlike the earlier frozen lake. This one, though, is a sheer drop. A deep, seemingly bottomless chasm has been slashed through the forest. The good news is that you won't have to find your way around it this time! There's a thin spit of land joining the two sides, only wide enough for two people to walk abreast, provided they don't mind getting cozy. You could walk right across… but you'd be leaving your squidge behind.

It turns out that squidges are terrified of heights. They want nothing to do with this, and would much prefer they just live out the rest of their natural lives on the near side of the chasm. The choices are these: A squidge must be sweet talked into crossing, calmed and comforted for several hours, or, if you must, forced into it. The squidges collectively are doing a lot of nervous wailing just at the suggestion of crossing, but a forced squidge will do a lot of screaming, even for days afterward. Recruits will find that they have an easier time of it in a group with at least one other person and their squidge. Although they still clearly hate it, they can handle it better in groups. But take heart: on the other side of the chasm will be a grove of large winefruits , a reward for the haggard parents. Just make sure your squidges don't partake as well, that wouldn't go well.

Please select an option below to determine how your squidge will be gotten across the chasm.

The forest begins to thin out again after the challenge of the chasm, and finally begins to warm up. In fact, it's getting a little muggy. It's easy to feel drowsy in the sunlight dappling through the leaves… or maybe that's the magical poppies. Seemingly innocent little red, purple, and yellow flowers begin to line the way. They're generally harmless on their own — but they're rarely on their own. Any recruits who lie down in the vicinity of a batch of magical poppies may find themselves slowly overtaken by dermal vines. Discretion is most definitely advised, as recruits finally make it to the swamp.

OOC NOTES

This log ICly and OOCly covers two weeks! Characters may proceed at whatever pace they'd like, but going too quickly or too slowly will mean they travel alone. (And those going too quickly will probably have to contend with screaming squidges, who prefer to travel at the speed of an easy plod.)

The unbonded squidges mentioned at the beginning of the log will be determinedly trailing after the group. They refuse to interact with much of anyone currently around... but may be convinced to take a liking to someone as we get new characters apping in.

Characters have been provided with large backpacks containing basic necessities -- food and water rations, shampoo, soap, etc -- and whatever they decided to pack. They will not be receiving another official supply drop, so it's up to them to make the rations last.

We are also introducing a Bounty Board for Zeta-12! It is entirely optional, but gives you some ideas to spark threads and rewards you for playing them out.

Please remember to select your choices in the threads below! How you choose will determine how your squidge grows.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Serene had indeed been contemplating that walk across the ice, gazing at the powerful and magical people heading out that way. That direction seemed like a fool's choice, but the compass was prompting her that way...

And then the man beside her speaks. She peers at him from under the blanket she's tossed over her head and backpack like an oversized cape]

Sensible words. [She turns to face him, giving him the glance over. He's got a soldier's build and a sturdy air. Her blanket hides her own bulk, though her sword lifts the ]

Let the immortals and magic beings take the dangerous route. We humen can use use the legs we were born with.

[She glances over his shoulder to the east and then turns to look behind her to the west. When she turns back she nods] West looks like the best choice; I do not like mountains.

My thoughts exactly. If I had something to propel me, I might've given it another chance, but as it stands... well. (it's just him, his gear, and the squidge shyly standing behind his leg.

finally, shiro relents, shoulders sinking out of their instinctual hitch.)

We can head across flat land and give the squidges who haven't imprinted an alternate route to follow. I can't see any of these guys climbing rocky slopes. How about it?

[]

I agree, in this cold we shouldn't tax ourselves or the creatures with unnecessary climbing.

[She squats to pick up Lilac and perch her behind her head on top of the backpack, shifting her blanket to wrap back over it. The squidge wobbles under the fabric but manages to stay on. When she rises she offers out her hand, encased in a useless satin glove]

I'm Lady Serene Charlord, and I'm glad to meet someone with a sensible head. Shall we walk?

I'm Takashi Shirogane. (an immediate reach for her hand, metallic fingers cold and unfeeling meeting soft satin—but shiro smiles all the same, polite in the nod he directs at her.

he's met a princess before; never a lady. yet another title he'll abide by and respect. this "sensible head" agrees wholeheartedly with charlord, which means they're off to a good enough start, by the quick gather of his supplies as they prepare to set out west. it's only a moment or two into the actual walk before his face turns and he addresses her again:)

I should ask you what you've brought, Lady Serene, so we can take inventory.

Bandages and medication, supplies to manage menstruation, [He looks more than old enough to be as matter of fact as her on that subject] spare clothing, enough soap to wash a regiment, a substantial supply of food...

[She looks sharply at him, frowning, for she has learnt by now that humen from other worlds have some disgusting habits]

I will say this now: I do not eat corpse flesh nor will I eat with those who do, for that is the greatest taboo in my land. Do not offer me your food if it has been in the same bag as dead meat and do not prepare a corpse for consumption without giving me enough warning so that I can leave the area.

(the list of supplies is mentally noted. she's come well-prepared and so has he. this shouldn't be a difficult journey, if they're wise enough with their resources.)

Thanks, it's— ("good to know someone else is ready to tackle this place"... he's cut off, however, by the pinning stare, immediately pausing in stride in order to listen well to her words.) No meat. Gotcha. Let me know if I'm doing anything that makes you uncomfortable; I don't mind the call-outs.

(that said, when shiro begins to walk again:) Can I ask why it's taboo? Many cultures on Earth have certain dietary restrictions like that, if not altogether refusing to kill animals; I find it interesting.

[She gives him a wary look, for she's had this conversation a dozen times and it almost always ends in her companion attempting to convince her that earth is different. She's sick of listening to people justify what they realise is unconscionable]

It's not the killing that's the problem, it's the eating. No matter if the corpse belongs to a friend, an enemy or a stranger you find on the road, you give them a honourable send off on a pyre, not butcher their flesh for your belly.

[Her disgust is creeping into her tone. She pauses to rein herself in, to restart.]

Are you from Earth? Most humans here are from earth. I am from Callirhoe where the humen live and where we are not the only people with sentience. [That little grammatical difference is something she clings to now]

There are many animals on my world, both sentient and yet to gain sentience, and we come from all parts of the food chain. Once, many centuries ago, the humen ate meat farmed from unsentient animals, for we are omnivores, but we foolishly traded with the catmen and the dogmen who would hunt sentient herbivores to supplement their agriculture. We struggled with the ethics of our lifestyle for generations until we were sure that there was no justifiable way to eat the flesh of a being born with a beating heart or breathing lungs. Flesh looks like flesh when prepared, and how can we be sure of its source unless we slaughter the animal ourselves? Moreover, even if we believe an animal to be unsentient how can we be certain? The Mercy might enter their spirits and raise them to sentience just as so many of us were raised in the past. We are Omnivores and we can survive without meat.

[She's growing more passionate as she speaks, hoping to get through to this human, just this one for now, to make him understand where his stinking predator fellows refuse to]

The dogmen were won over by our arguments and are now our staunchest allies. The catmen refuse to give up their ways. To this day they will pass over our borders to try steal any child small enough to be taken away. Only the Omnivore Alliance protects the Herbivore races from being murdered wholescale. We have a duty to the world to use our predator instincts to protect, not to desecrate for the sake of our bellies.

(she makes some pretty solid points, enough to make him feel like a sheepish outlier in the one-sided conversation. the more he listens, the more he can understand where the lady serene's point of view and opinion comes from—and it's the desire to be better to all living creatures. which shiro agrees wholeheartedly with.

as a defender of the universe, he tries to remain openminded to the suffering of all planets. hers included.)

Political and ethical struggles like that are difficult to fight against, I hope you find a way to sway the catmen. (hesitating, but looking over with a empathetic smile.) Humans on Earth are just starting to realize that what we're doing is cruel, but big corporations who have a monopoly on the markets aren't budging. As well as everyone else who finds it inconvenient to give up what they've known for so long.

(that said, shiro comes clean:)

I'm guilty of that, too. I won't walk around with you and agree mindlessly like a total hypocrite, that'd be lying—which I can't do. Must be hard when you can't find anyone to sympathize with; all I've done is stopped eating red meat because it's just a package of slime, ammonia, and cholesterol. (RUBBING THE BACK OF HIS NECK...)

I won't eat around you, though, Lady Serene. That'd be disrespectful to you and your beliefs.

[Rub that neck Shiro, because that description leaves her looking decidedly queasy. She's ignorant of what red meat means, having never seen an opened fish or birdman]

Thank you for that consideration [But what meat isn't red? Brains and viscera? ... She doesn't want to think about that too closely] I am making my peace with your culture by pretending that what I don't see doesn't happen.

[Saying that, he's pricked her curiosity]

You are the first Carnivore who has confessed that your world is cruel. What sort of cruelty do you mean?

That's... Probably for the best. (PLEASE IGNORE EARTH COMPLETELY...)

Surprising that no one's admitted it; it's no secret. It's a beautiful planet, an explorer's dream; there are plenty of wonderful people and places. But it's impossible to sanely deny the fact that there are societal problems—like anywhere. Especially when it comes to animals and the Earth itself.

(a hand raising conversationally, fingers folding down as he explains.)

Species are hunted to endangerment, wild ones are made into attractions, people domesticate animals that were never intended to be and can't take care of them... And then there's the meat industry. The abuse there, before they actually kill the livestock, is shocking. (giving up on buying into it all is something to consider, but shiro never has—and he likely never will, the problems on his plate now far greater in his mind.)

For your sake I won't go into detail. If anyone tells you that Earth is a perfect paradise, they're wrong. It's as simple as that.

(a distracted look up at the sky.)

It's home, though.

I thank you for your honesty. You are the first person from earth who has not become defensive when I have defined my boundaries.

[Her own attitude doesn't help, for she puts people on the defensive with her intensity and her sudden declaration of disgust, but she doesn't see that at all. She nods as she walks, following his final thought rather than prodding him for details on that cruelty]

I understand what you mean. There is a pain to being in an alien environment, is there not?

[She glances up at the sky to see what he might be staring at. The blue has that clear quality only found in the coldest environments, as if the air is crystal]

Have you been away from Earth for long? I was recruited by ALASTAIR only last month.

Hey, judging people on the dietary choices they make is not reasonable thing to be doing when there's a mission to focus on. If I can make one life a little easier by giving warnings, I'm doing my job properly.

(his tone had switched to something merrier, but it's quick to dissolve at the next line of questioning.)

With ALASTAIR—? I must have arrived a bit later than you did. Fresh off the presses.

...

But I haven't been home in over a year. The longer you stay away, the harder going back seems, let me tell you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ WELCOME TO ZETA-12

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