epidemiology | EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEK 5

ZETA-12: WEEK 5

As the journey wears on, the land underfoot dries out. Team Audiences has reached the highland desert… and of course, once again the squidges 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 encountered the swamp creature:

If they stood and fought, their squidge has taken on one of the following features: hardened pangolin-like plates of armor, higher tolerance of loud noises, sharp(er) teeth.

If they outsmarted it, their squidge has one of these: slow color-changing to match the environment, catlike eyes with enhanced vision, long ears.

Those who made someone else do the work, will have squidges with one of these attributes: small horns, spines along the back, mildly toxic skin.

As for dealing with the tornado:

Everyone who found shelter will find them with a greater tolerance for enclosed spaces as well as giving off their own very slight heat.

For those who powered through, their squidges will no longer be afraid of heights and be able to float several feet off the ground, regardless of whether or not they previously received wings.

THE DESERT (WEEK 5)

The desert has a little more to look at than the grasslands offered, as the grass begins to yellow and thin. Some stretches are just wide, empty swaths of dust and dirt, with not much more than the occasional rock or low, desperate scrub brush to color the horizon. Here and there are impressive outcroppings of rock, thrust up from the parched ground. Plateaus and mesas make the scenery, and overhead the sky is a wide, clear blue. The sun is merciless. Hopefully you filled your canteens in the swamp and the grassland, because water is going to become a pretty valuable resource out here.

There are a few helpful flora to be found, though. Those Beachwoods will be pretty handy if you run out of water, just so long as you keep an eye out for the Red Stellas that tend to grow nearby. The Scarlet Oasis can even send you on your way with a meal, if you play your cards right. Have a care if you’re gathering any bristlegrass, though.

While scenic in its way, the view doesn’t offer much clue as to what progress has been made so far. Three days pass in this way. On the fourth day, however, the recruits encounter their first choice.

The ground has cracked open in their path. It yawns into a wide and dark cave, wonderfully cool after the scorching sun and heat of the desert. A breeze can be felt in the mouth of the cave, and their maps will indicate that any exploration into it is sending them in the right direction. It provides an alternative route to walking over the surface of the ground, a much cooler route. There might even be hidden streams of groundwater down there, who knows? It could be a refreshing jaunt. Of course, recruits can also choose to play it safe, and continue overhead as they’d been doing so far, where they can trust they won't run into any dead ends or have to backtrack.

The going goes well for those who chose the caves. The cave system is apparently pretty extensive, because they manage to walk along in generally the right direction for a good half a day. Around dusk, though, this little dwarf planet hits a run of bad luck.

Meteoroids. Those who chose to walk above ground will find the darkening sky suddenly growing brighter again as a meteor shower begins to burn in the atmosphere. Some of them don’t burn up entirely, though — meteorites begin to pelt the desert not far from the procession. Some of them might even be scattering into the procession. Heads up!

But while those above ground only have to worry about dodging, those below ground will have much more serious concerns. This planet isn’t quite as sturdy as recruits may be used to, and the impact of the meteorites is enough to trigger a small earthquake. An underground cave is really not where you want to be during an earthquake, because even this small one is enough to cause a cave-in.

Players of recruits who choose to take the cave route can opt to be trapped by this cave in, or can have their characters in the right place at the right time, to have their way to the exit unimpeded. Characters trapped may be freed at whatever speed players find realistic, but to find and free everyone will take no less than three days. Hopefully you brought a flashlight. Communication between those trapped and those above may be difficult, as the meteorites will cause interference and make the jewelry flicker in and out. We ask that you indicate the length of time your character is trapped along with your sign up.

After the cave in ordeal is passed, though, the recruits aren’t quite in the clear as they finally reach the end of the desert. It seems the impact of the meteorites and the resulting earthquake released a few gases that had been held under the surface of Zeta-12. They’re invisible and odorless, and harmless to the squidge’s caretakers. The squidges, however, may begin to react to them. Squidges exposed to the post cave-in gasses will begin to get aggressive toward their caretakers and other squidges alike. The level of aggression can range from grumpy to murderous and last from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on the size of the dose. If anyone has been training their squidges to fight, they may regret it.

Tuomas Korpi

OOC NOTES

We decided to split things up a little! This log lasts ICly for one week, and OOCly for 1.5 weeks. Our next log will encompass the last biome and the final event, and will go up on August 11th. 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 choice in the thread below! Late choices will not be accepted. How you choose will determine how your squidge grows. Please choose before August 8th, 11:59 PM GMT!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Stiles's efforts aren't in vain -- after he moves enough cracked pieces of stone, something explodes from within. A gigantic red fist made of stone itself busts through the rubble, then withdraws back inside the cave-in.

Shortly after, a black squidge with hooves and scales gets shoved through the hole. It rolls down the mound of rubble, apparently not too bothered by what's going on.]

[ Okay, dude, that's all nice and cool and fine, except maybe don't explode the rubble in his face?? Maybe??

He yells and jumps back, arm raised to cover his face, coughing when said yell makes him inhale a nice cloud of dusty sand. When he lowers his arm, it's to the sight of a small, black squidge sitting at the foot of the rubble pile, completely unconcerned with everything. ]

... Right. Okay then. [ At least the red fist and the decidedly hellish look of the squidge makes the identity of the person still behind the rubble pile easy to guess. ]

Hey, man, can you punch your way out, or should I move more rubble? Just, if it's the former, I'm gonna, you know, give you some space. A lot of space, actually.

[LOOK... desperate times, dude. Being trapped under a big pile of rubble counts as desperate.

Hellboy can't really hear anything because there is a bunch of rock between him and the surface, but just in case somebody is up there, he hollers up.]

Get out of the way! This might get dangerous.

[Also dangerous: the possibility of punching through rock only to have it collapse on him, but. He's not good at thinking ahead. He gives it a few long seconds, enough for someone to scramble away, then just starts pummeling at the underground ceiling.]

[ ... well. Yes. It would count as pretty desperate, that is. true.

In the meantime, Stiles is completely under the impression that this is an actual two-way conversation, and so yells back, ]

Okay, I'm taking that to mean "a lot of space"!

[ The possibility of the cave collapsing entirely does occur to him, but given how he is up here with absolutely nothing to lower into the tunnel for help, if Hellboy can actually punch his way to the surface... well. It's kind of their best bet.

And so he backs away, mentally preparing himself for a lot of noise; though the rumbling the ceiling gives as it starts to crumble away makes him jump and scramble back even more, reaching out to grab Hell-Squidge out of the way of the second stone collapse. ]

[Punching a hole through a ceiling that is continually falling back on top of you makes for slow going, but eventually Hellboy manages to pound the rubble into smaller rubble to the point where he can start to climb out. It's a little awkward and he's covered in dust, but he's been in worse situations.]

Okay. That wasn't fun. [He could maybe use a little help pulling himself out of the ground, but he's also like 400 pounds so Stiles might have his work cut out for him.]

Yeeeaaaah, that. Did not seem fun.

[ He's wincing, half in sympathy for Hellboy after the whole ordeal, half in sympathy for the rubble because that sure was some punching.... ]

Dude, you okay? [ To his credit, Stiles actually does try to help him out, reaching out to him and pulling as hard as he can manage... only to nearly topple over. ]

[It's like the Three Stooges up in here. Well, two of them. Hellboy watches Stiles try... just super valiantly to help, making a face that is as close to chagrined as he can get. His expressions don't tend to be very expressive.]

I guess I need to start watching my weight. [JUST KIDDING, he just happens to be huge. Sorry.] Hold on, I got it --

[It takes a little more finagling, but he finally manages to get out, his hooves clacking a little uneasily on all the rubble. He sets to dusting himself off, sort of glancing around for where his squidge got off to.]

Wow, this is a much bigger mess than I thought.

Sorry to break it to you, man, [ a pause as he huffs, less as an expression of anything and more simply because he's... trying to breathe here exercise was invented by Satan ] but I'm pretty sure a diet is not the answer, I mean, you know all the stuff about being beautiful as you are--

[ -- his words come to an abrupt stop as Hellboy finally makes it out of the hole with enough force that Stiles, having leaned back in his pitiful attempts to use his mass to pull Hellboy out... topples backwards and falls. on the ground. on his back. with a nice, punched-out oof! ]

Uuuughhh.... yeah, you could say that. [ Whether that "this" refers to the rubble or Stiles himself at this moment in time, it is absolutely 1000% accurate. ]

[Hellboy is super beautiful, yes, thank you, he's aware --]

Oh. [More important than his alien goop baby: people falling on the ground that hard who have actual bones. His footing is a little unsteady, but he manages not to trip on top of Stiles (which would just make a bad situation, like... astronomically bad), instead holding his flesh hand out.]

Here. This might go a little better.

[ Oh indeed.

Stiles almost, almost thanks him for not falling on top of him, because for a moment there it looked all too likely to happen and he was inwardly bracing himself for his last moments on Ea- wait, Zeta-12, but.

But thank god Hellboy's balance is better than his. ]

Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don't you? [ He grumbles but does take the offered hand, thanks ur a bro... ]

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEK 5

outside; waves hands and assumes they met in person already

that works c:

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