epidemiology | EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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.

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[There are two things that are immediately apparent to Keith, The Galra Edition when Chihiro falls not far from him. First: he remembers her. Second: he knows that he can't be mean to her. Unlike a lot of people where he's relying on his recent arrival (compared to some) to be a jerk and act as if he's a Good Galra Soldier, he finds himself extremely reluctant to do the same with her. Their moment with awkward hand motions and failed communication was a while ago for him, but it's still something. It made him feel connected to another person, which is something that he often fails at even now.

He glances over toward her, yellow eyes examining her from where he stands.]

Why'd you do that? [He doesn't even bother to project irritation into his voice. There's a solid chance she won't recognize him by voice, having just met him once with an extreme language barrier. Though it occurs to him that it's strange that he only remembers the one meeting. This whole ... situation is just weird.]

[ Chihiro blinks up at the person addressing her, rolling over onto her stomach to push up to her hands and knees. She has hay sticking out of her hair and the collar of her uniform, an outfit she adopted once she'd been told about the regenerative closet properties they offered. (Acid bleeding bugs seemed like a problem for her one outfit from home.)

She glances back up toward the window ledge she'd taken her flying leap from, half expecting to see the bug she'd been escaping from peering back down at her. ]

One of the big bugs was blocking the hall. I couldn't get around, so...

[ She pushes up to her feet, brushing off her knees and adjusting her uniform. Hay still sticking out of her hair for the time being. ]

... I looked, and I leaped. Have you been having trouble with the big ones?

[ She turns to fully face who she's speaking with, not recognising his voice as Keith's. Definitely not recognising him in full Galra, but with no association there, and plenty of stranger people being part of her landscape, there's nothing behind her expression other than her question and its implied concern. ]

They've been really angry.

Yeah, honestly, it's almost not worth trying to fight them. [From what he's heard and seen, they're all having that problem. Like this, he's a great deal stronger than he had been before, but it still doesn't help much. He's still armed with a sword, and he's grasped that those giant bugs are likely why he's even here.

Then again, he's been worried about taking his chances on that one.

He tilts his head up toward where she jumped from, lips falling into their natural scowl easily enough.]

Good thing you got away. I heard they get excited to see other bugs, but I don't like how that might go. [What if "excited" doesn't mean what the euphemism was when he first heard that? What if it means "doubly violent and ferocious"?]

[ When any of the adults (congratulations, Keith, even in your teen years you qualified, now you definitely qualify as Adult) agree that what they're facing is difficult, she feels like that's a good sign that it really is. The smaller bugs seemed to be easier to handle in their own way. These big ones?

Chihiro runs a hand over her hair, startled when she feels the poke of a piece of dried hay against her palm. She plucks it out, looking at it and then tossing it back toward the pile of loose hay. Really, she can't be surprised. She'd just gone rolling through the stuff. ]

Excited like happy, or excited like ready to fight?

[ She sounds dubious, having not yet run into this phenomena. She also sets her shoulders, still looking up at the window. ]

If we don't fight them, do you think we could lure them where they won't hurt people? Or the furniture...

[ Or was that really just the other residents destroying the furniture. It might be. ]

I don't know if I can run fast enough for that, though. I really don't feel like ending up bug lunch.

[ Paired with a shudder, since that's been her problem since the bugs were football sized and hungry. Now they're bigger. This has been no more reassuring. ... And of course, the bug that had been after her sticks a claw out the window, flailing around and scraping trails against the stone. There's nothing lurking there, so even if they choose to juts watch, after a few more flailing grabs at air and stone, the limb will retreat, and the bug will seemingly move on to examine other halls. ]

Is there even anyplace safe to stay right now?

[ She turns to look at Keith-the-Galra, actually asking him if he knows. Trusting that, somehow, he does. He seems much better informed about things than she is. ]

Edited 2016-09-05 08:32 (UTC)

[Somewhere safe? Oddly enough, the first place that comes to mind is the mechanical room. Can anyone get in there? No, but that's why Keith thinks it's undoubtedly safe. He frowns heavily, arms coming to across over his chest as he thinks of places to hide. See, hiding isn't the first thing on his agenda when it comes to dangerous monsters. In fact, it's so far from a priority that it regularly fails to make his list, so he can't help but have to pause.]

I know this is gonna sound strange, but there are dungeons, right? [Once upon a time (for him), he had tried to get into them. He doesn't know if it'll work now, but it's worth a shot: and if there's anything safe, it's a bunch of cages. Sticking her in one feels particularly cruel, but he could always get her out later.

If she's up for it.]

If we can get in them and keep it locked up, you probably won't have to run too far. [It's better than forcing her to jump out windows and avoid feral unicorns.]

Barring that—[barring—bar—accidental pun that he is in no way aware of!]—anything with metal doors might door. They, uh, you haven't seen them rend metal, have you? [In sliding around and getting away from them, it hadn't occurred to him to throw metal at the suckers.]

[ Locking people in cages is usually saved for the yandere route??? ~~So I've been told.~~

Chihiro's first response appears to be "run and distract." She glances up at her companion, brow furrowing as she considers what he's saying. She then takes it in another direction. ]

We could also lock them up, maybe. I haven't seen them eat through metal, but...

[ She glances upward toward the window set in stone, still expecting to see the strange face and mandibles of the giant insect gaping out. It's chilling, seeing no expression she can recognise on something so large. ]

It's worth figuring it out.

[ The dungeons may be out of easy reach, but along the way they can test his theory. Chihiro doesn't appear to have reservations, for all her counter suggestion was more proactive. Being trapped and hemmed in isn't a feeling she likes. At the same time, she's trusting Keith's intentions. ]

If you see a large hunk of metal along the way, we can test it. I'm not sure we'll be good at rounding all of them up, but maybe if we're fast enough. [The dungeon plan may be out, but trying to cage them is still a very good idea, especially if he's able to slip by them. As long as they don't take on too many, they may be able to do some real good.

Good.

Which he's not supposed to be doing, but if he only lets her know about it, then it won't be a problem, right? He doesn't know about her thoughts about being caged in, but he'd understand. Being a sitting duck sucks.]

If we can't find a room, we can make a room, too. Something with two sets of doors, just so we can lead them to the safer set. [Keith is clearly deep in thought right now, his brain working for him. The dungeons really would be ideal for this either way. He wonders why they keep them blocked off, and why they can't be used again for a mess like this.]

[ Chihiro listens, nodding once, making noises of acknowledgement the rest of the time. She feels like she has a sense of what he's saying. Make their own rooms. Lay their own traps. Make sure not to take on too many.

Why does it feel so familiar to be leading something dangerous away from the rest, to where it can better be handled? (No, she has to ask herself other questions, at another time. Right now she needs to focus.) ]

Where do you have in mind?

[ Tense, but in the way that shows she's ready for action. Ready to spring forward and run and let her own inertia keep her moving, but looking up to Keith, waiting for a sense of the how and where and how far. If it's the dungeons (of which she knows nothing, not even that they were kept blocked off), so be it. She's ready to help. ]

Lead the way.

[ She'll follow. Between the both of them, he's the one who has an idea of what it is they can do, in her opinion. ]

[After a long thought, an idea comes to him, and he starts strutting in that direction. She said to lead, so he's leading—though it occurs to him that maybe he should tell her where they're going. Keith realizes that she might have some insight on the matter. She may be young, but he was young once, and she knew exactly how to get away from the bugs.]

I'm thinking the training center, [he offers, slowing so that she can catch up with him.] If nothing else, I doubt a whole lot of people are spending time there. [If there's a risk of bugs, it's not the place anyone wants to get caught with their pants down, so to speak. Well, actually, that would be the hot springs, but Keith is not leading dangerous bugs to a hot spring.

Besides:] I don't think it'll make the bugs stronger. If anything, it might prove to be just the obstacle they need right now.

[ She knows the place he's talking about; it's where she arrived the week (or more) before, when she'd first found herself here and hadn't been able to talk to anyone who didn't understand Japanese, or basic English. She remembers how her first friend, Kojuro-san (did he agree to being your friend young girl, did he), had destroyed the small bug with his ball of lightning.

The wall had withstood that. The whole of the room seemed liable to withstand what they're considering. She glances up to not!Keith, nodding once. ]

Even if they bleed, the walls can take it. It's not like some of the places in the castle.

[ She claims this with such certainty as she trots along after him, sometimes a half step behind, sometimes right at his side. Keeping up is usually a matter of adjusting her shorter stride to the adults (or teenagers) in the area. She's so used to it she doesn't give it a second thought, so she finds it almost strange that he slows down. Maybe it's easier for him to talk at that speed? ]

It's a training room, right? So the bugs would have to train for it to matter. I don't think they're training. [ As an afterthought: ] It's more like they're angry without understanding why.

[ Which seems to strike a chord with Chihiro. ]

There are images you can make in the training rooms, right? Can those help confuse the bugs once we get them in there? They're going after anything that moves. Does it have to be real?

[ Can they sense or smell or taste the difference, and does the training room do away with such sundry details? ]

[The good thing is that her thinking seems to complement his fairly well. She's grounded and rational, but sees the thought behind his impulsive strategy. Working with her comes naturally, and he realizes that just as quickly.]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. If we project a bunch of people from past missions and see if we can make them more ... solid? We might be able to make it work. [He says these things while glancing at her, but looks straightforward moments after. Being a part of the Galra has made his body language a bit stiffer and more formal. They might let him be a hot shot around their ships, but there's only so much leeway they'll give to an overly casual former paladin.

(Or guy who's still a paladin but insists he's a bad paladin, whatever that means.)]

If not, there are the more extreme obstacles. You don't get out without looking like a mess. And if you're all emotion—well, take it from me. If you're right about that, then they don't really have a direction in mind. Kinda makes you wonder if there's a queen making them do all this.

[ She's also been the young girl to decide "if the elevator won't work, I'll look for a way to scale the outside of the building when I need to get to the top." Rational grounding can lead to making intuitive leaps... when one feels the pressing need for action.

It just helps having someone she figures is more experienced toss out and snowball the possibilities. If anything, precisely that gives her confidence to follow through. ]

A queen?

[ Her mind's eye conjures up a well dressed insect with long black hair and an improbably crown set on top of her head. There may or may not be a scepter in her long curved forearm: she gives a literal shake of her head to be rid of the mental image. It takes her about that long to catch on to what he means in truth. ]

Like with bees?

[ Or ants, or termites, or any other colony of creatures. That would almost make sense, but she hasn't seen any evidence of such. Not even evidence of things being dragged away or stockpiled: it's all just attacks. ]

Maybe... I don't know, and I guess we won't unless we see her. I think your idea with the projected people is a better distraction for now.

[ Which is good, because the sim rooms are what lay closest now that they've made it around to this part of the castle. It's also a tangible focus. Unless there's a good reason to believe there's a queen, the focus in her mind has to be on confronting what they do have.

Lots and lots of extremely angry bugs. ]

I think ants have them, too. [Emphasis on "think." What he knows about the lives of insects is very minimal, and diminished because, in truth, he never thought he'd run into a problem like this. Then again, he never thought he'd be a) a Voltron paladin flying a red robotic lion through space or b) working with a multiversal, multidimensional organization that is seeking to help restore or set right or whatever with the timeline.

There's also c) pretending to be an evil alien. But he's not really pretending to be evil at the moment.]

I think you're right about my plan. If we knew where to look, it'd be a place to start, but I think we'd need some of the tech around here to find her. These bugs seem like they can go anywhere. [He just hopes they can distract them for a while.]

[ If they need the tech, she's out of her depth. Getting the simulator to run had been an on the fly work in progress last week at most, and figuring out the necklace and thought-to-text is a whole other issue. Finding technology to track biological signs? She wouldn't know how to word that thought, if she'd think something like it.

She nods, absently agreeing that ants may indeed also have queens, but the details of the insect world aren't part of her focus. That's the sight of the doors to the training complex, and she darts forward, resting her hands on the handle and listening with the intentness of someone expecting any noise to be bad news. ]

It doesn't sound like this one's in use.

[ Does it push or slide inside? It doesn't seem to matter; either way, Chihiro heads into the dim-lit room in its neutral state. She looks back up to Keith, trusting her yellow eyed friend knows how to manage this technology. ]

You'll set the scenario?

[He offers her a quick smile, which is meant to be reassuring, but it's pretty obvious that Galra don't smile a lot. It's also obvious that Keith doesn't smile a lot.]

Yeah, I got it. I just hope that once it gets going, it won't keep more of the bugs away. And be careful where you stand—it might be a bit of a wild ride if you start running through it.

[Keith knows how to hit the exact buttons to get the more extreme training session set up. He figures that anything with lots of mud and slickness will keep any wandering bugs busy. The biggest thing is setting it up to keep going ... Well, he doubts that ALASTAIR really has an electricity bill, and even if they do, they have bigger things to worry about.

Once the machines begin to work, he offers her a thumbs up.]

[ Stilted smiles are okay with Chihiro. In a way, her own can be as stilted and unsure. She's actually relaxing some in the wake of his efforts at reassurance, listening to his recommendation and staying close to the walls as he works the controls. Having little concept of the cost of electricity bills, she's entirely unconcerned about the energy cost of their current gambit.

She gives him a thumbs up in turn, shifting so she better faces the door. ]

We might need to go bug fishing. I mean... they get territorial, and they like to chase people. Maybe that's the best way of making this work, or at least testing out how metal holds up.

[ She's volunteering herself without having gotten around to the actual volunteering part yet, only turning to face Keith again after making the suggestion. It's not one that makes her happy, but it does give her another concrete goal. Chihiro thrives with concrete goals to pursue. ]

["We." He frowns after a moment, looking down at her with consideration. If, again, he were doing things like an evil Galra, he wouldn't really worry about her safety, and it's the contradiction and care for her that actually feels a lot more comfortable. Being a part of an oppressive regime can do a number on anyone, especially if they want to do good and they have to pretend that they don't want to do good.

Which is Keith's fault, but anyway—

Anyway—that whole "we" part.]

What if you find the bugs and I act as a lure? You seem like you can get away from them fast enough. [It means they work as a team, and he doesn't ... get her killed ... which, well, protecting her from bugs had really been a goal at the start of this.]

[ She listens, having been waiting for his response. She won't pretend it isn't a relief to hear him say he'd be willing to play the part of a lure, but that neither of them are doing so on their own. Sighting bugs and getting him to pull them in along with her, and keeping them confused and fighting the simulation instead of actual teammates sounds like a really good, and achievable, plan.

With a firm nod, she gives Keith another thumbs up. ]

I can work with that. If any bug gets too close to you, too, I can help distract it until you're in a better place to keep it running toward this place. It's going to work.

[ She states, rolling up her sleeves... and plucking out a strand of hay she finds in the process. Eugh, that stuff gets everywhere! ]

I guess it's time to go find our first bug then, huh?

[ She smiles, a short lived affair, before she settles on a determined expression and heads for the open door. She stops there to check that the door is properly kept open. Listening for the sounds of anything fighting or banging around, she waits for Keith to be out in the open before trotting forward, searching for the first of their buggy targets. ]

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EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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