EVENT ★ WELCOME TO ZETA-12

[futurologists]

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.

Comments

01 but also like 04; week 1, cartography

[expatriates]

[ After hours of hiking, they come up on the expansive field of starbursts with understandably great chagrin, and while Natasha scoops Bart up to keep him from wandering into the unfamiliar flora, in Tony goes. She sighs and shakes her head at his outburst, her hands slowly covering the spots on Bart's head where she suspects he picks up on sound. ]

Be careful. [ She warns, voice too dry to think she'd preempting anything. ] We don't know what the plants here will do. [ She makes a note of the field in the map they've been working on, and searches the horizon to the east. ] We should head around it. See how far out it goes; it can't add on that much time.

[hyperverbose]

[ at least she didn't say language.

tony is still wincing as he backs out of the flowers, but he's also listening. probably. ] I think it's safe to mark this one down as a "hazard".

[expatriates]

Let me know if you start experiencing any strange symptoms. Rash. Swelling. [ She looks over at him. ] Only where you were pricked by the plants.

[ She doesn't need to know about any of his other rashes. But she will crouch down to help pick some of the starbursts free of the joints of the armor that Sparky wears, luckily thick enough to keep any of them from reaching the tender squidge. ]

[hyperverbose]

Lucky for you the big pain in my ass vanished around about when we struck east. I'll let you know if it comes back later.

[ he loves you Steve ]

[expatriates]

The team-building exercises that you and Rogers choose to focus on are your business. By the sound of it, it's in my best interest to stay out of them.

[ Enjoy taking one for the team, that is to say. She wears a pleasant enough smile while she says it, keeping her attention on Sparky instead of his dad. ]

[hyperverbose]

[ but who would he grouse at ]

Now you see why the armor was a good call, at least.

[expatriates]

I guess I hadn't factored in your standard tactical approach.

[ The dry edge of her voice seemed to imply a lack of tactics in that particular approach, and with it, an air of smugness. ]

[hyperverbose]

There's method in the madness. Come on, he'll be fine.

[expatriates]

If you treat him like he's indestructible in there, you're going to traumatize him.

[hyperverbose]

I call it "building confidence".

[expatriates]

How about you help me build this map, instead? [ She points further east. ] Come on. Let's see how far out it goes.

[hyperverbose]

This would be a lot faster if I could just do a fly-by. [ but w/e he will pick up the squidge b/c otherwise it's going to slow them down. ]

[expatriates]

If you wanted it here, you should have worked faster.

[ No sympathy whatsoever. Mostly because she knows what feats he's capable of. Blah blah box of scraps. ]

[hyperverbose]

If I have the option to make a fully functioning model, I'm going to take it. They said it might take a couple months to get all the parts, but it wasn't a no.

[expatriates]

If it takes a few months to get the parts, you won't be able to make a new one every two months like you have been.

[ Is that an insult? Is she teasing him? It's hard to tell, especially with team tensions the way they are. She keeps walking, so she must not be ... aggressive ... right ?? ]

[hyperverbose]

Hey, the rate of production has considerably... slowed... is that a cactus? [ SUBJECT CHANGE ]

[expatriates]

A squirrel, maybe.

[ At least, that's what his attention span leads her to believe. But she tags along after all the same, smirking the smirk of someone who has won a great victory. ]

Those are mushrooms. [ But then it's her turn to get distracted, resting one hand on Tony's elbow and pointing up above the fungi. ] Check it out. [ Enormous grapes, the size of watermelons, drooped from a vine that navigated through the treetop far above them. For those looking to scavenge food for squidges and squige arents alike, it looked pretty tempting. ]

[hyperverbose]

So do we map this as a buffet, or find a volunteer taste tester to see if they keel over first?

[expatriates]

[ Her lips purse, eyebrows arch, and Natasha tilts her head slightly to the side—why not? the expression seems to ask. She reaches out for one of the sturdier vines that hang down, testing it for its ability to bear weight as though she plans to ... climb up there and find out. Or at least cut them down so they can make this suicide pact together. ]

[hyperverbose]

[ to himself, down below: ] That was not... entirely serious.

[expatriates]

[ She made quick work of the tree, springing off the trunk to grasp one of the lower branches, and swinging herself up by one arm to then monkey along with long limbs to the swaying end of a bough above Tony, where one of the grape-melons sagged. ]

Heads up. [ She nudged it with her boot. ] Feels like maybe ten pounds tops.

[ She kept her thighs fixed around the branch and flipped around to the underside, then cut the melon free and let it fall. ]

[hyperverbose]

[ it is far from the world's most graceful catch, despite the warning, and there's a bit of hand-scrabbling that goes into it, to keep it from rolling out of his hands, but he winds up triumphant and tries to recover his composure quickly. ] No problem.

[expatriates]

Hang on a second.

[ She spared little attention to his precarious catch—her general approach to showing concern for Tony when he was looking, frankly—and instead clambered up higher into the tree, just out of sight. Up ahead, the forest broke and made way for rock faces, narrow and steep. She glanced back down and shouted through the cover. ]

Bring it with us! I think I see something worth mapping up ahead!

[hyperverbose]

I'm guessing it's not Vegas.

[expatriates]

Not yet.

[ She dropped down branch by branch, swinging with the ease of a trapeze artist until she landed squarely on her feet in front of him. ]

But you're ambitious; I have faith in you. [ She took the winefruit and looked it over, nose crinkling as she considered it. They'd all be lucky if there was food to gather here. ] Rock formations, actually. Looks like we might be hitting a canyon of some kind.