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

i)

[hyperverbose]

[ what a precious little sight.

it's sure a contrast to what's happening about thirty feet away, where tony is looking down at his mewling little squidge, which is outfitted in its tiny iron man suit and trying hard to crawl away from the direction of the chasm. ]

Hey, whoa, where you going? [ he moves in front of it, holding up a hand as if it's going to just?? listen?? to reason?? ] Wellspring's thataway. How's it gonna look if we're the last ones to get there, huh? Don't listen to Aesop: slow and steady never won anything except a consolation prize.

C'mon. [ the little squidge shakes its armored head emphatically and tony rolls his eyes in frustration, before holding up a finger ] Got an idea. [ annnd he goes digging in his back, coming up with a wrapped chocolate bar, which he unwraps the top of and waggles over sparky's head, hitting a button on his watch that causes the squidge's helmet to disengage, leaving the little alien blinking in disorientation as it looks around ] Try it, you'll love it.

[predomination]

[urahara lifts one corner of his hat up to observe this... skillful demonstration of squidge parenting. on one hand, it is not his business to judge, considering his reputation with children (that reputation being, you know, giving them weapons and hollowfying them for great justice- wait you gave this guy a baby??).

on the other hand... yikes.

he's about to resign himself to not saying a word when his trembling squidge suddenly stops trembling and peers over at the other pair. she makes a few perplexed noises and then nearly rolls off onto the ground and only a swift grab courtesy of Urahara's great reflexes. he tuts at her gently.]

Distracted by candy. You're already more like me than you think, Osaki.

[well she's going to put up a fuss until she knows what the other squidge over there is getting, so Urahara gets to his feet, Osaki cupped against his chest.] That's a clever way of going about things. So long as it's not poisonous to them, that is.

[maybe they're like dogs, tony. you don't know.]

[hyperverbose]

Doesn't seem any more likely than random local plants being poisonous to them. [ just sayin'. sparky reaches up to take a big bite out of the chocolate bar, which smears all over his jelly-like membrane, but sure gives him anime-character happy eyes. ] And beats reading it Goodnight Moon for hours.

[predomination]

[Osaki approaches of her own volition, but surprisingly it's not the candy she's after when she waddles up to the other squidge. she pokes his little metal suit tentatively, which draws Urahara's attention to it.] Ah, now look at that. [he kneels down to get a better look.] That's not just ordinary scrap metal. Titanium alloy? You're either planning to keep him very safe or considering starting your own team of squidge superheroes, hm?

[Osaki has gone from intrigued to mildly distressed, like HOW?? DOES?? THIS?? HAPPEN?????? as she circles Sparky.]

[hyperverbose]

Someone's gonna have to protect this planet once they grow up. [ i mean, it could happen. ] It's my own invention. Worked in a few monitoring and surveillance systems. Kid stuff.

[predomination]

[yes. "kid stuff." oh tony you're his sort of people. he chuckles a bit, and Osaki plops down on the ground like she understands NOTHING anymore.]

I've been thinking of working on ways to increase Osaki's endurance and overall health. It's a bit hard without anything resembling a lab out here, of course, but...

[hyperverbose]

[ why hello there new best friend.

his eyes light up a bit at that, as he gives the man another look, suddenly more interested. ] What'd you have in mind?

[predomination]

[urahara waves a hand dismissively. well, it's all just "kid's stuff," anyway.] The plants, mostly. We were already meant to be gathering them for ALASTAIR, but I've taken my own samples for personal use. Some of them actually look like they can be combined well.

[did he really get all of that in, like, the last hour or so he's been hanging out at this chasm? probably.] Of course, biochemistry isn't my exact niche, but I've never poisoned anyone.

[that he did not mean to poison.

#ninjalife]

[hyperverbose]

Where would you define your niche then, exactly? [ he can appreciate a guy who wears flexible science hats. ]

[predomination]

[i mean why do you think his hat is so fucking floppy, tony.

also man saying I'm a fucking expert at spirit particle manipulation and spirit technology is going to really harsh this mysterious nobody groove he's got going on, soooo...

good thing he's spent a good hundred years in the living world learning Real People Science.] Particle physics, mostly. [he gets back to his feet with a bit of a flourish. congrats, tony. you're not the only person around who can science and also be unreasonably dramatic.] But I suppose I've never really limited myself to any one thing.

[hyperverbose]

No shit. [ oh my god, his spirit twin. only more japanese. and blonde. ] Tony Stark, built a particle accelerator in my basement once. [ he'll extend the hand not currently holding a candy bar. ]

[predomination]

Urahara Kisuke. [yeah, we're gonna shake hands. like men. like men who are gonna be the best of bros. science bros.] Pleased to make your acquaintance, Tony-san.

[he built a thunderdome in his basement, but admitting that begs so many questions about how the fuck man.] Now did you have a reason to go to all that trouble or was it just to see if you could do it?

[the question everyone loves. especially when you're dealing with potentially dangerous things.]

[hyperverbose]

I was inventing a new element. [ as you do ]

[predomination]

[

if you could see his eyes through the fucking hat shadows, you would know they were wide as fucking saucers. it takes a lot to genuinely impress him, but he'll be polite about being unimpressed until the end of time, but that is... actually really damn impressive.

that definitely makes biting his tongue and not running down a list of his own personal accomplishments like it's nothing really hard. shuuut uuuup, kisuke. different worlds, different rules. keep that hypersensitive ego of yours in check.]

You didn't. [did you?? dear god was it sentient.]

[hyperverbose]

I mean technically Dad discovered it, but I did the leg work of actually making it a thing.

[predomination]

[aww. following in his dad's footsteps. and here they are with their squidge children, inspiring tiny jelly baby alien minds to go and do a science. so tender. so pure. it would be terrible if someone were to say... precisely the wrong thing...]

Ah. He must've been very proud then. [LOOK HOW FUCKING CHEERFUL HE IS ABOUT IT. HE DOESN'T KNOW. SOULS CAN'T SMELL DEAD PARENTS ON PEOPLE.]

[hyperverbose]

[ you mean if he hadn't been muRDERED????????? ] Theoretically, maybe. [ he at least didn't have as many MY FATHER NEVER WAS PROUD OF MEEEE issues ever since that video message that led him to create said element. but dead parent issues persist. ] I guess we'll never know.

[predomination]

[well souls may not be able to smell DEAD PARENTS (TM), but at leas urahara is intuitive enough to figure out what THAT means.]

Sorry about that. [he's not going to press about that, either because he's too polite too or because Osaki has decided to stop having her crisis and has moved on to trying to shimmy up his cane in a desperate attempt to get cuddles.

sadly, she's... still terrified of heights so she only gets about halfway up before she realizes THE GROUND IS SO FAR WHY THIS WAS A MISTAKE and begins making keening noises. urahara kneels back down to get on her level without moving the cane, though when he speaks, he addresses Tony.] They learn so quickly, though Osaki's trying to be adaptable without having the wherewithal to follow through. It might get her into trouble if I don't keep an eye on her one of these days.

[that said, he pats the little clinging squidge lightly on the head to soothe her crying.]

[hyperverbose]

That's why I built in the surveillance cam. There's no satellites over this world to create a GPS tracker, but it at least should help me track him down if he goes AWOL.

[predomination]

[there's, like, 12% of a moment where urahara thinks about maybe saying something to the effect of "tony-san no," but then he thinks about it and looks down at little Sparky and his little suit and decides nah.]

Well, if anything that tries to harm him can get through the suit, we have much bigger problems...

[hyperverbose]

I've seen it happen firsthand. I'm not counting on it to solve every problem.

[predomination]

You must be making a lot of those suits. [inventing a new element, his hat. maybe as your side project (urahara that is not a side project ever), but nobody thinks of encasing a squishy thing in fully teched out titanium alloy in the amount of time this has been going on unless they've been doing this for awhile.]

[hyperverbose]

Do you consider forty-six "a lot"? [ i mean it's just double digits ]

[predomination]

Not if they're that size. [he totally knows that they're... not, though. he's a smart cookie. look you're not the only person in the world who has probably obsessively built a lot of a thing to cope with crippling trauma.

urahara apparently builds gigais. a metric fuckton of gigais.]

[hyperverbose]

And if they were a little larger?