EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEKS 3 + 4

[futurologists]

ZETA-12: WEEKS 3 + 4 After making their way through the biting cold of the tundra and the forest's deadly chasm, team Audentes reaches the swamp. Once there, their squidges will begin to transform. For each choice your character has made, select one squidge evolution. Please note, you must have submitted your choice to the threads in the previous logs in order for your squidge to evolve. For those who crossed the ice, there are two options. If they succeeded, their squidge has taken on one of the following features: fluffy fur, the ability to freeze small things with their breath, or small foxlike ears. If they fell through the ice, their squidge has one of these: fins, minor hydrokinesis, or protective scales. Those who chose to walk around the ice, whether east or west, will have squidges with one of these attributes: faster speed, climbing ability, or goat-like hooves. As for week 2 choices, everyone who soothed their squidge will find them with one of the following: small wings (able to keep them about a foot off the ground at most), a calmer demeanor, or the ability to soothe fear by touch. For the grouping crew, one of these: the ability to heal small wounds on other squidges, long ape-like arms and hands (for hugging!), or a beautiful singing voice that can act as a beacon for other squidges. Squidges that were forced to cross will have one of: increased independence, clawed fingers, or sharp teeth. These evolutions may take place at a rate of your choice. Please note that apart from these changes, the squidges will not be undergoing any further physical development (size, etc) for now! THE SWAMP (WEEK 3) The swamp is damp and spooky, filled with rotting logs and large, spindly trees. The water level dips and rises, making traveling slow and difficult; at some points, there is no dry land at all, so recruits will either need to wade or find some other way to get through the murky water. Some of the fallen logs may create a series of interconnected bridges if you're nimble enough, but be wary not to put too much weight on the rotten parts of the wood. Because there are no animals on this planet, recruits won't need to worry about mosquitos or crocodiles, but still be wary of dermal vines, which continue on from the forest, as well as something lurking beneath the water: in deeper portions of the swamp, recruits may run into a gangly, humanoid creature with gnarled fingers and a body made entirely of vines and twisted roots. The creature makes no sound and does not breathe, but it moves quickly and can shoot a cloud of powerful neurotoxin out of its maw. Make your choice: You can attempt to fight the creature, but not all attacks will be effective and you risk injury to you or your squidge. Outsmarting is possible as well -- as the creature has no eyes or ears, it senses its victims through heat. Do with that what you will. Finally, you can choose to wait for someone else to do something and ride their coattails, as long as you’re okay with living with that. Please indicate your choice here. After a week, the scenery begins to shift, lightening up as trees become fewer. Welcome to the grasslands. THE GRASSLANDS (WEEK 4) As opposed to the swamps, there are few hazardous plants in the grasslands. The most dangerous are more annoying than anything else: fluffplasters, the hairs of which become sticky and eventually harden like cement if they’re disturbed. For the most parts, the grasslands are grass, grass, and grass, with little variation in appearance. In fact, it’s kind of hard to tell if you’re going the right way, or if you’ve been here before. Everything sort of looks the same. The other flora found are happygrass, which has a short-term calming effect on anyone who ingests it. On the other hand, beebulbs, long, spear-like stalks whose bulbs contain a delicious liquid which invigorates the drinker upon ingestion. Too much either way can lead to laziness or hyperactivity. A geared up squidge is a happy squidge most of the time, but there’s also the possibility of heightened anxiety. The weather is pleasant for most of the journey, but near the end, the wind picks up and a storm begins to brew. The wind whips around and, while it’s very difficult to travel through (and very frightening for squidges!) it’s still possible to walk through. The choices are these: Characters can keep going against the wind, although they’ll need to be wary of flying debris and their squidge’s fear. They can also choose to find shelter nearby -- there are several trees on the way that can be hidden under, a large cave many people can fit into a distance into the storm, and characters can also set up their own shelter. There’s less possibility for injury and squidge crying, but the tornado will put them back for hours; those who power through can talk their squidge through it, but they’ll still be a bit unhappy. Please select an option below to determine the future of your squidge. Whatever choices the team makes, they’ll eventually all reconvene as they set up camp for the last time before they hit the desert. 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.) New characters will find one of the unbonded squidges toddling after the group takes a shine to them. A squidge will imprint on them very quickly, then refuse to leave their side or rejoin their unbonded friends. Direct questions about the Zeta-12 mission here. And don't forget about the bounty board! Please remember to select your choices in the threads below! How you choose will determine how your squidge grows. Please choose before July 21st, 12:01 AM GMT!

Comments

III b

[heelies]

[Although Achilles knows well that none of the gods which strike awe in his breast can cast their gaze upon this far-flung land in which he finds himself, still he cannot easily let go of the superstitions by which his people live - and a tempest whipping to terrible life over the plain is a sure omen that only misfortune awaits he who dares to cross the plain before the wind has stilled. Thus, he seeks shelter in the cavern where crouch a large swath of the crew with the creatures they have adopted.

When the unfamiliar squidge toddles up to him and tugs at his arm with what Achilles has come to recognize as panic splashed across its countenance, he frowns down at it.]

What has happened to stir such distress in your little heart? Know you not that here we are sheltered from the storm which lashes these plains?

[From beside him, Leukos too has taken notice of its fellow squidge's distress. It chatters noisily and indistinguishably at the other, a habit it has acquired from its caretaker after all this time passed together. Then it looks from this squidge's face to Achilles', and as if knowing that it might more effectively sway the man, it sets to pushing its little hands against his side, urging him to stand. And stand he does, scooping Leukos into his arms.]

Very well - what is it that you wish to show me?

[It will not be long before the strange creature leads him with its trail of wailing to the place where a familiar figure lies with limbs sprawled across the floor of the cave. After a brief flutter of concern for Sigma, which ceases when he realizes that Sigma still breathes, he again frowns down at the squidge.]

For what do you panic so? The son of Klim here seems to peacefully sleep, and yet you fret and fuss as though he shall never again wake.

[Indeed, the likelihood that his slumber will last much longer drops now that another chattering squidge has entered the space.]

[12inches]

[ Predictably, as another squidge enters the fray--an even more verbose one at that--after some shoving around courtesy of Delta, Sigma's still and unconscious countenance quickly scrunches up into a pained scowl. And he lets out a frustrated sigh through his teeth, sucks in a breath, forces his eyes open... ]

Why are you the way that you are... [ Addled by sleep, barely coherent, but eventually he wrangles his gaze up at the persistent little squidges... And more importantly, the backdrop of a certain Greek beyond them. ]

[ And all at once, every primal defense mechanism seems to go off at once. ]

Achilles. [ The man doesn't even know what a gun is, but Sigma's eyes have gone wide in spite of exhaustion as if he had one pointed at his head. If the lighting were better, his face might have actually just blanched a shade whiter. ] You're a good man. Before you open your mouth, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to look me in the eye and ask yourself, "Is this the face of someone in desperate need of a long-winded conversation right now?"

[ Meanwhile, Delta takes the opportunity to squeak delightedly and half-climb back onto Sigma's chest in triumph, chattering gratefully to Leukos all the while. Please don't encourage it to be a chatterbox too, god... ]

[heelies]

[Despite the dimness of the cavern he can see plainly how haggard of countenance Sigma is, and he comes closer to crouch beside him, where gently he sets aside the squidge in his care. Leukos stares at the supine man with mild curiosity but soon turns its gaze up to Achilles, as if to see what its caretaker will do, and there it remains babbling indiscriminately at his side.

Incidentally, so too does Achilles.]

Sigma, what is this that you are saying? Are you so parched of tongue that your mind has become addled thus? I shall fetch you water if this is indeed the case, but tell me - what ails you so?

[Sigma may begin to think that he is indeed falling into delirium if he happens to catch a good look at Achilles: the warrior's hair now features an array of braids into which are woven wildflowers, a practice Olivia had insisted upon each day when they stopped to rest upon the plains, for which he looks all the more ostentatious.]

[12inches]

[ Oh god, he's speaking help. He needs an adult... Actually, Achilles is surprisingly to the point this time, and he's carelessly tired enough to make his sigh of relief an audible one. He probably sounds a little off in the speaking department, but there's no dry tongue to blame. Hell he wished there was, if he fell asleep with his mouth open at least he'd be asleep. ]

[ He gently shoves Delta's attempts to hug him round the throat down and props himself up on an elbow, still keeping the squidge close at least. ] I'm not addled, I'm not sick or anything [ He hopes. ] I'm... Dude I think I've gotten a night's worth of collective sleep this week, I'm wiped.

[ Delirium sounds about right though. Squinting up at the crouching man in the lowlight, there's something kind of off about how his hair falls, which is probably a borderline inebriated detail to fixate on; after taking a second to really focus in his definite addledness, Sigma frowns. Lets out a bleary but curious huh. ]

Didn't picture you being the type... [ Y'know. As exhausted as he is, the words aesthetic blog lumberjack are the only things coming to him, and that's a combination of words he's going to keep to himself in the face of the Ancient Greek so he'll leave it at "type". He gestures to his own hair though, miming pulling on a nonexistent longer lock of it. ]

ok buddy boy

[heelies]

[Achilles watches where the squidge tumbles back from Sigma's push, still hollering at the top of its little lungs, and quite suddenly, as when the sun appears from behind a cloud which lately cloaked it, he understands.]

Your charge has prevented the sweet shawl of sleep from draping your eyes, I see. How it wails like the most colicky of babes! Does it never sleep?

[Then Sigma will receive a most curious look as he tries to draw sense from his incomprehensible gesture. After a pause in which he first wonders at how delirious Sigma must truly be, and then mimics the gesture, thus brushing his fingers against his hair, he realizes what the man intends.]

You speak now of my hair, is that so? Such is the craft of fast-dancing Olivia, who delights in the flowers which hide among the grass of these plains. They wilt plucked thus from the soil and now kept from the sun, but she will likely as not find more tomorrow when for rest we pause.

[12inches]

Yeah, no curtains for me.

[ He puts an arm around the squidge now huddling up to him and presses its face against his chest, muffling its incessant little noises. There's nothing really intentionally harsh about the way he manhandles the thing around, he's just dog-tired and heavy-handed, and it doesn't seem to be too distressed over it. Just noisy now. He shakes his head a little. ]

Not since like last week. Thought it was because I was carrying him too much so he had energy, so he's been doing his own walking. But he does this thing now, like an hour before we usually stop he gets all up in arms and quits, he lies down... And like I'm not gonna leave him, so I pick him up, and of course he naps, and he gets this second wind right when everyone's trying to sleep...

[ Ironically, now he's the one that's ranting at the verbose gentleman he'd been so afraid of seconds before. He's probably one degree of tired away from drunk at this point, sorry dude. He waves it away. There's more interesting things here than his slow but inevitable demise; he blinks at the mention of the young woman, who's apparently been doing this guy's hair for at least more than a day now. ]

Olivia, huh? [ Now that he can picture... With Achilles is a stretch, but let's be real she could probably befriend a sea urchin by finding the right way to pet it. And the guy isn't even hard to get along with, just... mega different. Sigma grins a little. ] She really is a Disney princess isn't she? [ —wait, couple millennia off— ] A real angel.

[ Do Greeks have angels. Would it be blasphemous to call her a goddess. It Is A Mystery. ]

[heelies]

[Leukos, seeing now how Sigma plays with Delta, for that is what it discerns in the roughhousing, begins to clamber onto the man's stomach as if hoping to join in the fun: the shyness it once possessed has been shorn like wool from a sheep. Achilles is swift in scooping the creature up before it can bother Sigma further, and in his hands it begins to whine.]

Come now, Leukos - see already how troubled he is with but one of your kin to tend to. If it is a playmate you seek, then pounce instead upon Sapphire or Saffron, who would delight far more in your play than would the son of Klim who here lies tired of mind and body.

[Then with his hands full of the pouting squidge, he turns his attention upon Sigma.]

What mean you, a messenger? It is true that wing-footed Iris, the messenger of the gods, is said to be beautiful to behold - and such beauty is indeed reflected in lovely-haired Olivia's visage.

[I'm sorry, did you want to hear his freestyle love poetry?]

[12inches]

[ It's impressive how one face can flip from calmly uncomfortable to mortified to beyond relieved in the span it takes for Leukos to climb on him and be quickly peeled off again. Eventually Delta manages to squirm out from under Sigma's hold and peer over its shoulder at its whining counterpart... And whine some more. ]

Well she traveled with actors, I guess that's kind of like messenging. [ What's that got to do with anything... Also whoa, yeah, Olivia's slam-bangin', but this is the kind of stuff you put in a letter dude. Or you know, in a serenade. To the topic of discussion. Just call her hot, dude, he can appreciate the finer details himself. His eyebrows quirk up. ]

What, you got a thing for her? I don't blame you, I kinda did too for a while...

[ Granted single Sigma has a thing for anything that moves if it's got boobs so. ]

who let him out......

[heelies]

[Achilles' countenance hardens immediately to the craggy face of a sea cliff. He has long been rather fond of Sigma, for while he does not know him so well he finds in him the foundation for many of the qualities a man ought to bear - but such considerations are at present scattered to the winds as he speaks these winged words.]

Olivia I have taken for my lover - and indeed, although our union is recognized not in the eyes of the far-seeing gods, I love her as I would my wife. Therefore save your desires for your own woman, son of Klim, for to speak thus of my fair Olivia does so rudely offend my honor.

[Translation: that's my girlfriend you're talking about, so back off.

There are few men who could manage to look half so intimidating with a mane full of braids and wildflowers. Even Leukos at last ceases its chattering to stare with eyes wide up at its caretaker, sensing quite clearly that something has happened. It then seems to cast a tiny glare toward Sigma, for it reasons that if Achilles is upset then it cannot be without cause.]

who let the dogs out

[12inches]

[ Well that escalated quickly. Anything Sigma tries to interject immediately jumps back down his throat at the other man's tone, not to mention his suddenly severe countenance, and he switches over to raising his hands in a placating gesture instead. ]

Hey, hey, that came and went before I even met you, I'm just saying she's easy on the eyes no matter how you look at her... Really, though? Good for you, congratulations.

[ He never would've guessed... These two, huh... He'd probably even clap if the guy wouldn't take it for mockery, so he'll just leave his hands out, lowered slightly. Actually, some part of that barrage strikes a chord other than mild to moderate intimidation, and he settles on a bit of a scowl himself. ]

But maybe stop making passes at mine if you're gonna get up in arms about what I think of yours, huh?

[heelies]

[His temper which had swollen just moments before now ebbs beneath Sigma's reassurances: his brow no longer sits so low over his eyes, and the tension in his jaw eases. He is then caught unawares by the scowl which tugs at Sigma's lips and the warning issued thus. His illiteracy in modern slang hardly impedes his understanding. While he speaks plainly, he takes care to treat the matter delicately.]

It was the daughter of Jolanda who first invited such talk from my lips, but once she admitted that her heart shall remain loyal to you, I ceased presently. You are a good man, Sigma, and I would not wish to dishonor you so.

[At least in his mind it had been she who first laid down the suggestion - it is hard to remember, for all the layers of vagueness in which their flirting had been so modestly shrouded. It seems to him a harmless incident, for nothing came to pass.]

Thus, in this matter you speak fair. Neither of us has laid such insults upon the other's honor, and so too shall we keep it this way. Although I suppose I can hardly blame you for finding yourself enraptured by fast-dancing Olivia's beauty, for well do I know how hard it is to tear my gaze away.

[12inches]

Of course it was.

[ The response comes infinitely less delicately. As if Ramir ever shuts up about how badly she wants to horizontal tango it up with the fast-dancing enthusiast over here (she actually hasn't brought it up since that time in Oska, but coming approximately 100 seconds after agreeing to a relationship with him, it's admittedly a little burned into the forefront of his mind). It's by no means amused, but it isn't actually upset either. ]

[ Her heart shall remain loyal to you, huh... He'd be hard pressed to find any anger after hearing that. Even if it is probably way more flowery than she'd put it. ]

I mean, it's more her honor on the line if she was the one chatting you up y'know, but hey, cool. Nobody's honor's going anywhere.

[ He says innocently, waving his hands in a vague water under the bridge fashion, sweeping aside the thought that he'd definitely only mostly unintentionally motorboated Olivia not a week before this with an easy smile. She'd started it. They're still even. ]

Yeah, I can't really blame you either, can I? Ramir's a real force of nature, it's like trying to look away from a hurricane... [ He scrunches up his face briefly in thought before trying his hand at the whole poetic nickname thing. ] Heavy-lifting Ramir? That doesn't sound nearly as romantic, does it, but it's accurate...