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

A

[heelies]

[Indeed he does hear the cacophony of splintering wood and furniture crashing against the flagstones, and so Achilles quickens his pace along the corridor. When he sees the hideous beast scuttling backwards out of the doorway he presently poises the spear whose haft his hand holds fast: this he had acquired earlier in the day and he keeps it close by his side while the castle remains under siege by these insidious insects. With a shrill cry that matches the furious pitch of Shizuo's shouts, he lets fly his spear. Its pitiless bronze pierces the throat of the monster, whose scream is thick for the lifeblood which fills its terrible maw. While the creature flails its scythe-like limbs, Achilles leaps forward to pull his spear from its flesh. At all of thirteen years of age, already Achilles wields his weapon with terrifying precision and effortless elegance, both of which seem in him as inherent as the blood which flows through his veins. Never before has he slain anything but game from which he might make his supper, yet this deed comes so easily to him.]

[smalltempered]

[A third cry fills the air that isn't the bug's or his own, startlingly loud enough that it actually pierces the focus of Shizuo's anger just enough to have him recoiling a little. Combined with his strength, the movement is sharp enough to promptly split the table in half, and the bug reels back itself simply from the force of the break with a chunk of table still stuck to a claw....just in time to be stabbed through the neck by a spear.

--A spear?

The sight of the bug being effectively skewered in this fashion has Shizuo momentarily frozen in the doorway, his temper almost immediately flagging considerably as it's brought up hard against complete and utter surprise. But--no, there's definitely another boy here now, older, and stabbing things with a spear...where did he even get a spear?

The bug's gurgling scream sharpens and then peters out with the spear's withdrawal; it twitches a few more staggering steps in the newcomer's direction before finally collapsing. Still more than a little stunned, Shizuo drops the upraised arm still carrying his remaining half-a-table--he lets it go, and it promptly crashes to the floor, breaking the brief silence filling the hall.]

...It's dead? [Just as quickly as it'd flared up earlier, his temper has just about dissipated entirely now, with the threat of the bug out of the way and this utterly baffling turn of events now at hand. Shizuo finally begins to shift from the doorway, trailing forward with uncertain steps and eyeing the pile of oozing bug now on the floor.]

[heelies]

[His gaze lingers over the beast which lies at his feet collapsed of strength in a thickening pool of its own blood. Years later, when he would at last raise his spear against men, burying in their flesh the pitiless bronze head and spilling forth a glut of blood the very color of his own, he would learn to lift his eyes as soon as the deed was done - for he cannot allow his swift feet to be weighed down. To be a warrior one must learn to sever himself from his humanity, his compassion, while his spear rages. Upon the noise of the rent table clattering to the stone, Achilles turns to look at the boy who stands there in the doorway. The butt of the spear he sets upon the floor, its haft tucked in the crook of his arm and leaning against his shoulder in resting position. Its glinting head stands tall over Achilles' head, drenched still in the insidious insect's blood. His words march forth seriously.] Indeed it is dead - no more shall this beast threaten you.

[smalltempered]

[The bug's certainly a rather nasty sight, with all the blood everywhere and everything. It's like an alien movie or something, Shizuo thinks, the sorts he and Kasuka aren't supposed to watch late at night (though Kasuka likes to sneak in with the remote under a blanket anyway, and Shizuo would always follow despite himself). But these musings are cut short when the boy speaks, and he looks back up to this new stranger instead.]

Oh. okay. ...Thank you? [That answer pretty much confirms things, anyway--even if the phrasing is all odd. This is what has Shizuo's bemused expression forming at first, though it only deepens as he properly takes in everything else about the boy besides his speech and his very long spear. Shizuo rubs at his arms absentmindedly, where bruises are starting to form and scrapes are already beginning to bleed a little--a familiar residual ache from lifting the table earlier is beginning to set in, now that his anger has worn away. But for once, Shizuo finds there's more than enough here to distract himself from the pain for a moment.

Firstly, and most importantly:] Hey, where's your shirt?

[heelies]

[He gives the boy a curious look for this question that seems so out of place while they stand surrounded by the mess of slaughter and the debris of battle.] What mean you by this? Why, right here is my tunic. [So speaking, he tugs at the fabric which hangs from his waist.] Moreover, you are injured. We ought to find water with which I might clean your scrapes ere I bandage them. Come now, let us leave from here. [For this is what concerns him far more than the boy's peculiar appearance or his astounding strength, of which he had caught only a glimpse but he is quite sure that he saw him lifting the table with apparent ease, as an ordinary boy might lift a stick which he imagines to be a weapon the same caliber as his father's.]