EVENT ★ LABYRINTH II

[futurologists]

DEEPER Following the marked path near the lake leads Audentes (and George) further into the maze, closer to the goal found at the center. Some other inmates (including Zymandis agent Mavahari) and correctional officers follow along, having picked up on the organized manner of Audentes and figuring it’s their best bet on getting out of here alive. Unlike the dry stone and sand in the outer ring of the maze, this next section is overflowing with flora. Jungle vines cling to the walls to the point where seeing the stone underneath is a difficult task; trees sprout from between cracked tiles, bearing alien-looking fruit; branches and brambles cross certain parts of the maze, and will need to be hacked through unless you want to find another way around. Water is more plentiful now as well, since obviously the plants need it to flourish. For the first time since setting foot in the labyrinth, a rain begins to fall, drizzling and gentle. This can be a respite or an annoyance, depending on how you look at it: while it’s soothing and can make collection of fresh, clean water easier, walking around in wet clothes is probably not that pleasant. Your fellow ALASTAIR recruit George has inexplicably struck up a friendship with the Zymandis agent Mavahari, and they can often be found exploring the maze together, with Mavahari helping him due to his broken arm. They seem to be getting along well enough, but maybe checking in with George is in order. Otherwise, survival is the name of the game; though the center of the labyrinth is closer, it’s impossible to tell how close, and how long to expect to be here. Collecting water is simple enough, but food is growing scarce. The tree fruits may be a good solution, but it seems as though some have unfortunate reactions to them, ranging from stomach cramps to rashes to fever and temporary blindness. But an allergic reaction may just be the least of your worries. LOVE ME LIKE A REPTILE The monsters seen so infrequently in the outer ring of the maze are now a common nuisance. Giant insects and rats scurry about, hungry for whatever flesh they can find, but they’re easily defeated, particularly if encountered as a group. But with new terrain comes new, adaptive animals, and the labyrinth is no different. Lizards are now the main threat: enormous and camouflaged, they stalk their prey and take their time, looking for the perfect opportunity to ambush. The lizards are three-headed, with each head containing fangs dripping with venom, capable of rendering its victims paralyzed within five seconds flat. Their blood is also poisonous, capable of burning through metal, not to mention flesh. If a head is severed, the lizard will retreat back into the jungle, presumably to nurse its wounds but possibly to grow another head -- no lizard will ever be encountered with less than three heads, so it’s possible they have regenerative abilities. The best way to defeat one is to remove all three heads at once, or simply kill it in whatever way possible. The lizards are quick and mean, but not invincible. Now more than ever, it’s important to take care in exploring the maze. Stray too far from the group or try to make it alone, and you might not survive. OOC NOTES Once again, we have a plotting post here and search requests for the next ring of the maze. Please note: during the labyrinth event, all drops are ICly delayed. What this means is that characters who drop will be handwaved to still be around on auto-pilot until connection with Oska is resumed, at which point they will be transferred to a different team as usual. If you have any questions about the labyrinth that aren't answered here, please direct them to the Leramzen dossier. If you have questions for any NPCs, please direct them there as well! Questions about the game in general should be directed to the FAQ and you may submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

Comments

ODINSON / welcome to the jungle

[deemed]

>> it's all fun and games (closed to Hayame)

[There's the sound of water dripping into a pool somewhere closeby. When Odinson musters the strength he'll go find it and dip his head in the cool water. Washing off some of the blood might be a good idea.

A fly buzzes around his head and he leaves it, too exhausted to swat it away. Eventually it decides the dead lizards are a better prospect and the sound fades, leaving Odinson alone in the jungle with the steady drip drip drip.

He can feel the blood burning him, he knows he needs to get up and move before another pack of lizards are drawn by the smell of blood (most of it isn't his own).

In another minute, maybe.]

>>we've got everything you want, honey

[He makes it back to camp in one piece and ends up say by the fire for two days, recovering and grumbling about how he'd be more use out in the jungle rather than sitting here roasting a giant rat.

He's roasting it excellently, because he'd bring some kind of eternal shame on his family if he couldn't make the most succulent roast you've ever eaten outside of Vahalla.

Anyone trying to eat it before it's ready will get snapped at-] It'll be done when it's done! Were you raised by wolves?

[But when it's done he'll carve it up so there's enough to go around. Even if you don't think you're ready to eat rat.] If you'd rather I roast you a pheasant, you've only to bring one back. Until then, this is all there is.

>>we know the names

[As he rests at camp over the three or so days, it becomes apparent that Odinson doesn't sleep. At all. He's up all night tending to the fire, keeping it stoked despite the drizzle when it comes (the drizzle never seems to last long around Odinson), talking to whoever can't sleep...

One night the sky clears and the stars come out, so bright against the indigo. They're unfamiliar but he sets about naming them all the same. He picks out names and shapes.

If you're awake and you've nothing better to do, he'll point out a section directly above the campsite.] There, you see those ones? They look just like the World Tree.

Until someone burns their skin off

[kisha]

[Hayame had learned rather quickly that the blood of these beasts was poisonous- evidenced in a few scattered burn scars beginning to form on her right flank in the shape of a splatter arc. Which means that when she comes across what looks like at a distance a large lump of surely dissolving flesh, she plans to give it a wide berth, more interested in the corpse itself. Poison was not the weapon of a warrior, but perhaps...

But the lump moves. Seems to breathe.

Cautiously, mindful of what she's sure will be a grotesque, barely alive sight... she dances closer on muffled hooves- only to be confronted with what is most certainly an alive and not really dissolving son of Odin.

It's not like she feels anything like comraderie, (surely not). But she has her grudges and her debts, and gritting her teeth she approaches even closer- but still not close enough to touch in case he lurched or grasped.

ODINSON. ARE YOU CONSCIOUS?

[Poison doesn't affect ears, does it...]

[deemed]

[He can feel that the poison is trying to dissolve him. It burns like Hel.


Hooves approach, and then a shout rings through his ears, startling him into the present moment. He sits bolt upright, intending to swear at her for her poor manners-

the pain has him doubling over instead. He calls down curses on the labyrinth and all it's goat-loving, ass-licking, godless, forsaken, impotent beasts. Notably, he calls on Odin to piss in their every source of fresh water and for a legion of trolls to come and make eunuchs of them all.

It takes a minute or two before he feels sufficiently avenged on the labyrinth for his pain. He turns his attention to-]

Oh, it's you.

[kisha]

[See, this is why she kept her distance.

She almost starts when he bolts upright, small droplets of acidic blood flying off him, knees locking up in shock and tail raised, but she stands her ground and the momentary shock passes and allows her actually observe him more critically while he is... colorfully swearing.

It's almost praiseworthy, those creative insults. Certainly more impressive than some of the outpost men who fancied themselves elite enough to compose poetry. If he's healthy enough to be doing this, though.]

Can you stand?

[Had he... simply been resting? Was he truly so powerful?

She's having trouble telling now.]

we know the names

[selfimage]

They do not.

[ it comes deadpan and deliberate, in Loki's haughty, smug tone. for the time being, Thor isn't the only one who doesn't sleep. while they're in the maze, Loki dozes when he sees fit, but never truly sleeps. there's still too much to do, and far too much information to gather. ]

They look like a boner.

[ take that. ]

[deemed]

[The tone at first sets Odinson's back up. He's trying to be polite, to find something to talk about as they find themselves both the only ones awake. Having his brother reply so smugly really doesn't help-




If they were sitting closer, Odinson would reach over and smack Loki upside the head. He lobs a stick at his direction instead, not really minding if it hits or not.]

You're looking at it upside down. [He will not conceed, despite his grin revealing that he does agree and that Loki has already won.]

[selfimage]

There's hardly a difference between a boner and a reverse boner.

[ Loki leans back as the stick grazes him, and looks lazily over at Thor as if he found that last exchange offensive. his lips purse down into something of an exaggerated frown. ]

If you're upside down it's the same thing.

we know the names

[feytality]

[Maya's awake (and she's noticed that Odinson doesn't sleep), but she's been strangely quiet the last couple of days so it's a wonder he's noticed her at all. She definitely seems surprised that he's speaking to her, in any case. She's been hugging her knees and hiding her face in them in lieu of sleeping, but a few seconds where she realizes that yeah, it's her he's speaking to, she lifts her head to glance his way]

Oh.... um... what's the World Tree?

[Her hometown's way up in the mountains so she's gotten to stare at stars quite a lot, but that doesn't necessarily means she knows much about them]

[deemed]

[Once he'd stopped moping about because he had to stay at camp, Odinson had actually begun to pay attention to the other Audentes. Even so, it had taken the last few days to realise that Maya was not the boisterous young woman she usually was.

It had been a relief at first, he was in no mood to talk about pointless trivialities. Then he'd become concerned.]

Yggdrasil, as we call it in Asgard. It is the tree in whose roots and branches all the realms are connected and held in place.

[He keeps his eyes up on the stars.]

[feytality]

[Her demeanor is so different when she's quiet like this she probably seems like a completely different person. A Maya who keeps her head down, is withdrawn and rarely speaks unless spoken to, what an unfathomable creature]

[Too bad she can't be like this all the time]

That's pretty neat. Is that how Asgard connects to everything else...?

the rat cook.

[conqueress]

[ One by one, the slices of roasted rat disappear into the mouths of the daring, or the hungry. When the stars have come out, a pair of delicate hands joins the feast and plucks away a slice in thin fingers, heedless of the crackling fire.

Dany does not look toward the rat's face, nor its tail, choosing instead to remember only the gnawing hunger that overtakes her belly and her dwindling senses. Her arms have grown thinner with each passing day, and though this is the first meat she has eaten since Woodhurst, she knows that she shall starve without it. Starve, or risk her health with the fruits that she has seen people sicken from eating.

She has already begun eating when she sits across the fire from Odinson, her stick falling beside her in the earth. Her hair is silver, the orange embers from the fire bringing out strands of gold in her braid, and her remaining clothing is torn and stained in blood, her legs bare. The way she devours her slice between her hands is greedy, fervent, and utterly indelicate. Grease collects on her fingers and mouth as she eats, feeling more a ravening dragon than a queen. ]

[deemed]

[It's good to see her eat with enthusiasm; there isn't a trace of judgement in Odinson's expression as he watches her eat.

In fact, as soon as she's finished the first he has a second hunk ready, one of the best cuts (if any cut from a rat monster can be considered good).]

Do not fear to eat your fill. I feel you could grow old and wrinkled before we run short of beasts to eat in this place.

[conqueress]

[ He does not begrudge her her hunger, and there are none left lingering about the fire to see her cast away her queenly mannerisms.

She accepts the offering, and decides that she does not care. She has heard tales enough of Asgard to know that there is little elegance to be found in their own feasting halls. ]

Only one thing frightens me, [ she confesses sweetly, the hunger and dehydration threatening to bring a giggle to the surface, ] if even that much remains to me at all. Still, I thank you.

[ His roast will taste as good to her as a rat ever will, she's certain. ]

we know the names

[fourscores]

[It's difficult to get any decent amount of sleep in this place. Worse still when you don't trust anyone, the vulnerability of sleep is a risk and one not to be taken too long. Jhin's gotten in as much sleep as his body will allow, when he finally sets to wandering around seeing if there's anything he can help with around the camp.]

The World Tree?

[He looks to the stars, brow raised. There's many trees of importance where he's from, but the World Tree is not something he's heard of before.]

Sounds important.

[deemed]

My people believe there is a tree which holds all the realms of the universe in it's branches. [It sounds dumb and perhaps that why there's a faint smile on his face.] Yggdrasil, we call it.

[fourscores]

That's quite the tree. Must be beautiful.

[He keeps his gaze on the stars, trying to get a better idea as to just how the tree looks. Perhaps use it as inspiration for some art later down the line.]

Do the realms not clash because of it? Or at least have some escape from one realm to another.

ratty rat rat

[mistruths]

I was raised by--

[ He cuts himself off sharply, not quite ready to get into the topic of family and parents with Thor of all people. Even if this Thor isn't the one who had once known him better than all the rest. Loki continues on, sulkily: ]

I was simply checking to see you weren't burning it past the point of being edible.

[ But he's reasonably patient, waiting until the meat is properly cooked so he can delicately take a slice. ]

[deemed]

[Odinson hmphs in amusement, assuming that this Loki is simply impatient and incapable of admitting it.]

Can your brother not cook? It is a poor Asgardian who cannot roast a hunk of meat on an open fire.

[mistruths]

If you are speaking of Thor, he is one, not my brother, and two, far too impatient to take much care in womanly arts such as cooking.

3

[heroforhobby]

[Presumably Odison didn't notice it was Saitama, else he probably wouldn't have pointed out such a thing so politely.

Saitama, standing a bit behind him like an accidental creep, leans in to get his head closer to Odinson's to make sure he's looking at the same angle as him as if that would help. He squints.]

I dunno. It just looks like a bunch of stars.

[deemed]

[He's aware it's Saitama, but he's in a much better mood than their last interaction that he's willing to try being civil. Prison hadn't brought out the best in him.

Sigh.] The angle will not change what you see.

[heroforhobby]

I guess so.

[He muses, tapping a finger on his chin, cocking his head a little just to make sure.]

Maybe I just don't know what this tree you're talking about looks like.

[Though, he would imagine it would look like a tree.]

[controlling]

[ the smell of roasting meat makes for a welcome change. the animal it comes from less of one, though at this point they cannot be afford to be choosy. when itit is declared done, bruce removes not one, but two slices, and leaves as soon as he has secured both.

he returns a couple hours later, hands empty, the top half of the orange prison garb tied around his waist leaving him clad in a white undershirt. firelight glints off his watch when he lifts his hand in short greeting to the man he had earlier seen cooking. ]

Any left over?

[deemed]

[Odinson inclines his head in greeting as the man approaches again.]

There's some, but if your hunger isn't sated by it there's a whole other rat waiting for it's turn.

[He indicates over his shoulder at a dead rat, waiting to be skinned and gutted.]

Come, rest a while. These days have been long.

[controlling]

I'll let you know once I try it.

[ bruce didn't plan to linger. but he takes the offer, sitting down nearby. he drapes an arm loosely around a raised knee. ]

A few more meats, we could have a barbecue.