EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

[futurologists]

BENDED TIME As outlined in the OOC post, things start to slow down and grow quiet in Oska for a few days as the bugs crawl away and slowly disappear. But then the cocoons hatch. Fully grown temporal insects claw their way out of them, each about the size and temperament of raging bulls. They come out far more aggressive and eager to fight, are are willing to take on anything that moves with jaws and claws alike. Except, of course, another insect — when two of them encounter each other, they enter into a mating dance and then slip away into another dimension, leaving behind only the temporary ghosts of years gone by. If you can’t find a way to pierce that thick shell to take one down, better find another one to pair it off with instead. Just try not to get bit while leading them around and find yourself suddenly 5 years old again. The insects aren’t the only thing going on in Oska, though. As it turns out, unicorns really hate this adult form of the temporal insects, and will start kicking their way out of their stalls in the stables to get at the insects in an attempt to impale or trample them. According to Uruz they’re gallant warriors, but not always quite cut out to take on a bug, and can easily get themselves hurt or killed. She would really appreciate recruits taking a moment to recapture any stray unicorns they may come across and leading them back to the stables. Try to avoid any insects on the way, or you’ll find yourself suddenly fighting insect and irate unicorn, which is no one’s idea of a good time. The lake is getting more active, too. All the fighting has woken up something in the depths of it. Dark red tentacles sometimes creep up onto shore — and don’t worry, this time they don’t belong to a sea goddess. The tentacles don’t attack unless attacked, and can in fact be quite agreeable. Nodes along the length of them act as primitive eyes, which see well enough to interact with anyone nearby. They’re also all a little peckish. Toss a tentacle a bit of food and watch it curl around and ingest it using tiny mouths on the underside. It might even be willing to play a few rounds of fetch or slap a bug into the sky for you if you put it in a good mood with a morsel of food. The senior ALASTAIR members can be seen out and about and doing their part, too. Uruz and Dagny fight as a team, centaur and elf, sometimes fighting back to back and sometimes as mount and rider. They’ll stop and lend a hand, but the cats are a little less generous. Cherenkov and Crowley fight inseparably and use magic and science in deadly combination to ward off and destroy the bugs, but can usually only be seen darting on their way from one place to another. They have a lot of magitek to repair in the destructive wake of the insects. Pomarr, neither as senior nor as invested in actively picking off the bugs, offers shelter near a tentacle-free portion of the lake, calling down storms to toss away bugs for her and anyone in the vicinity. OOC NOTES This log spans a week ICly. Characters will find themselves beginning to understand each other again as the bugs first vanish, as the effects of the cats’ work on the magitek pays off. The translation problem will be completely fixed by the time the cocoons hatch. All of the bugs will have been killed or shipped off by the sixth day, leaving the last day before their departure to the next mission blissfully relaxing. Any temporally misplaced recruits will be back to normal by the last day, as well. A reminder to anyone still texting: the texting feature of magitek jewelry operates based on thought! There are no physical keyboards, recruits merely think the message that they’d like to send to another recruit.

Comments

FOUR!

[prekindled]

[ How she carries herself is a bit like her sister and all at once, Alice is struck with how her poor sister must be fretting over her. Or, if not fretting, ready to scold her from running off from her lessons. Little Alice moves on from the thought and goes from peaking around the corner to approaching, carefully.

There're so many adults she runs into, she's getting a bit bored with it. She's no different than how she dresses as an adult. But Alice is healthier, happier, and brighter as a child, aside from the fact she's a bit bored at the moment. ]

Adults read very boring things, you can't help me.

[ Gosh, how many times does she get scolded by adults for not reading but looking at pictures? Too many. ]

[grunehexin]

[The familiar dress, the hair, the eyes... it is all Alice, no matter the age, and Sieglinde's recognition had come almost immediately. To think that the timelines were being distorted to this point...

Still, her smile softens slightly, even as she leans a cheek on her palm.]

That would depend on the adult, I think. Quite sure? I know this library like the back of my hand.

[A hand she stretched and curled the fingers of for good measure.]

[prekindled]

[ She's skeptical. Her family doesn't quite drill in strangers can be scary and harmful. There's no need -- the Liddells live on a big, private estate and Alice has no real playmates around her age. She's articulate and blunt for a seven-year-old, reflecting the fact that her playtime and interaction is usually with adults, rather than other children. ]

I find books to be very boring without good pictures. Every other adult tells me I ought to read them rather than look at pictures.

[ She's a little unsure about taking her hand, so Alice decides to fiddle with her apron, instead. ]

[grunehexin]

Hmmm... I benefited quite a lot from pictures in my youth.

[Well, most of those pictures had been the diagrams of "magic circles" she'd later learned were cell structures, but... pictures were technically what they were.]

How about an illuminated manuscript or two? I know I found some the other day...

[She began rifling through the books she'd gathered from around the library and placed by her chair for comfort's sake, pursing her lips in concentration. With her own childhood being how it was, she might not have a great idea of what "normal" children found fascinating, but...]

[prekindled]

What sort of manuscripts?

[ This is enough for Alice to approach, gaining her curiosity. She doesn't draw to Sieglinde's side, instead, she starts to circle around the area she's sitting in. ]

[grunehexin]

Hmm, one of them is a history of a world not our own... another is about the Earth crusades... Here you are-

[She found them, eventually, under Potions of Algean Swamp Witches and History of the Dune Runners. Both were heavy, handbound volumes in leather and parchment, but opening them up would reveal rather colorful pages.]

How is this for interesting?

[prekindled]

[ Alice doesn't answer Sieglinde right away; she's drawing her fingers over the lines of armor and swords. She's easily satisfied with tales of knights charging off to battles, either with enemies of their kings or dragons.

Even if it's a little bloody. She's not been spared from history lessons like the Hundred Years War or War of Roses. Alice is only drawn to those lessons on the account of how lovely the drawings are. ]

Are they knights?

[ Which is to say "yes, yes it is". ]

[grunehexin]

That is correct.

[Sieglinde leaned over, pursing her lips as she scanned the text quickly to make sure she supplied the right answer. Even if Alice was a child, truly one, at the moment... that was no reason for flippant vagueties or glossing over of facts others might consider inappropriate.]

The... failed Fifth Crusade, it seems. Which would make those knights of Hungary and Austria.

[prekindled]

[ That's something she vaguely recalls, the Crusades, only because it intertwined with her father's favorite folk stories regarding Arthur and his knights being a part of them. She's not entirely sure of the details. It goes in one ear and out the other. Alice is more focused on the illustration. The lines, color, and the scene unfolding. ]

The fifth! Why are there so many crusades?

[ Death at this age is unfortunately not a concept she entirely understands. It's never been apart of her life -- not until a few months from now. ]

[grunehexin]

To be honest, the root of that problem is that men in power are often fools.

[Sieglinde scoffed, quite content with that explanation herself, but this was a learning opportunity, and she oughtn't shirk it. After all, by the time she was this Alice's age, she was already formulating mustard gas compounds...

Though it seemed Alice was... an altogether more "normal" child. Perhaps the better thing to be. She'd heard much of this "childhood", and the benefits.

Let her have it as long as she could, then.]

- more specifically, they kept being called because the knights kept failing to take and hold Jerusalem, the Holy Land.

[prekindled]

[ While Alice has a limited understanding of death and violence, she does understand that things in history weren't successful. It didn't stop her from asking "why?".

Other than being shy time to time and being obstinant, Alice was a normal, happy child. ]

That's very sad.

[ She doesn't think too much of it after those words, she moves on. ]

But the knights have been the noblest and brave, they must have fought valiantly.

[grunehexin]

[This sort of parenting moment Sieglinde has never had to address... mainly because she'd had to put her heir production plans on hold once she'd been transferred away from her prime candidates, but.

Does one protect a child's innocence, or be honest with them? She thinks it ought to have been a longer deliberation, but... with as many lies as she'd been duped by as a child, even if the topic was fairly different...]

Both sides certainly fought valiently... but the knights were not all so noble, nor so brave.

[prekindled]

Why do you say that?

[ Since she's been told stories about knights, she hasn't been told anything contrary to being anything but noble. Lacking in bravery in some cases, yes, and eventually achieving bravery. Alice is so offended with the notion that she takes the book and holds it close to her chest. ]

Of course knights are noble, thats what they swear to be.

[grunehexin]

Of course- and most of them are like that, yes.

[Perhaps "most" was a bit generous, but she had that much consideration for childhood, apparently.]

But just as with any profession, some get in to it for the wrong reasons. Money, power, prestige, or the like.

[prekindled]

Well, not the knights in the stories I was told!

[ At this age, she can't tell there was an effort to protect her. Alice puffs up and adds a few in particular. ]

Such St. George or the knights of the round table!

[grunehexin]

Well, these knights here cannot at all compare to such noble knights as those.

[Said with a smile, because- well, that was a different matter than the knitty gritty Crusades.]

Have you a favored champion amongst those knights?