epidemiology | EVENT ★ RECOLLECTION DAY

EVENT ★ RECOLLECTION DAY

WELCOME HOME

Audentes fights its way through the maze, bests the portal guard, and finally, the portal activates. Audentes is faced with a choice, and after some debate, the following conclusions are reached: the correctional officers, annoying as they were to have to deal with, were only doing their jobs. They're to be allowed through the portal with Audentes, and returned to their native planets. The prisoners, most of them murderers or worse, will be given the choice of being conscripted into ALASTAIR to do some good, or left behind in the maze. And, finally, Mavahari. It's agreed that it would be too dangerous to let her go, but she had been helpful through their struggles in the maze. She's taken prisoner to be brought back with them, a decision she clearly doesn't appreciate. She glowers, but doesn't resist.

With these things decided, Audentes, the correctional officers, nearly all of the prisoners, and Mavahari step through the portal . . . and it's quite a festive scene they'll arrive on.

Audentes is the talk of the castle today -- all the teams currently in Oska had been following the drama as best they could and rooting for Audentes to return home safely. They're delighted to have them back, and Audentes is showered with jovial appreciation and celebratory drinks as soon as they arrive. In fact, the Recollection Day festival technically ended already, but they kept the party going just so that Audentes wouldn't miss it. And yes, technically they did fail the mission on Leramzen and another team had to pick up the slack . . . but you can't win them all, right? The general opinion is that they did their best, surely. And ALASTAIR's biggest team of newbies survived, which is the important part! Anyone still injured from the ordeal will be ushered straight to the medical center to be cared for, no excuses. The (former) prisoners are taken away to be shown their new jobs and posts, the correctional officers are guided toward the outbound transportation, and Mavahari is shown to a holding cell.

If there is any shadow on the party, though, it's an undercurrent of muttering: Audentes isn't the only one that's had run-ins with Zymandis. More and more teams are beginning to see signs of them, and some teams present have even run into them directly. Some fought their way out, some snuck out . . . and some didn't survive it at all.

There will be memorial services held for George on the second day, as well as Team Kuran, who didn't survive their encounter with Zymandis last week. Friends speak up solemnly, fondly remembering good times had with the fallen recruits. But the somber mood doesn't last long, as recruits pay their dues and then return to the party to celebrate ALASTAIR's cause, how far it's come, and its successes so far.

The other teams head out after three days of celebration, leaving Oska to Audentes. They'll have three full weeks to recover from their ordeal and rest up for the next mission -- better make the most of your time!

RECOLLECTION DAY FEAST

The entire castle is draped festively in ALASTAIR purple and silver once again. In one of the studies the traditional feast has been set up, with the kitchen porting food directly into this room, where it's set out along long tables at the edges of the room. You can find anything here, food to suit any kind of diet from any kind of planet at all. There are no promises that all food will suit all diets, though. But still, if you want to try the bubbling pot of orange with the little worms that keep trying to struggle out of it, no one's going to stop you.

Oska's designated storyteller, a gently green lady who seems to have recently burst into large pink blossoms, stands at the center of the room, nursing a wineglass full of something silvery and addressing the room at large. She seems to be going over the history of Oska, to anyone who will listen.

The gist of it is that Oska was once an entire world, densely populated and well known for its music and carefully bred hunting companion animals. However, its energy was severely unbalanced, and the world was swiftly coming undone. ALASTAIR recruits of the time realized it was the very animals the natives so loved that were the focus of all of the planet's energy, but by the time they had finally figured it out and began to cull the animals, it was too late. This little scrap is all they managed to save. What locals remained eventually died out, being too few to repopulate by themselves, and ALASTAIR opted to move in and reclaim the space, so as not to let this world go entirely forgotten. With their very base of operations as a reminder of what can happen to any world at any time, ALASTAIR of today is not likely to forget the necessity of their mission any time soon.

Come for the food, stay for the slightly depressing story, and leave again fuller and maybe a little more somber than you were before.

THE OBSERVATORY

This room is usually home to a large telescope, a ceiling that slides open, and a lot of gauzy, ethereal decoration. Today it's been cleared out for what seems to be a room-wide, three dimensional documentary, playing on repeat throughout the festival. Images of a vast star system are projected into this room from no identifiable source, floating holograms the viewer can walk between and admire from any angle. A deep, soothing, presumably male voice speaks over the moving images, describing the action as it unfolds.

In the beginning, there was one universe. It was vast and eternal, and most importantly, self-sustaining. There was no reason to doubt it would go on forever. The images at this point are on a cosmic scale, an impossible number of tiny stars swirling in silent patterns. We don't know what shattered the harmony, we only know that shatter it, it did. We call this the Cataclysm.

This part is clearly an artist's interpretation. Slivers of light snake across the universe like the cracks in a broken window, shaking apart the entire scene. Some of the broken sections implode onto themselves in beautiful colors; some of them spread out and consume their neighbors. It's beautiful in a way, and probably completely visually inaccurate to whatever the real event looked like. The voice continues:

The Universe became the Multiverse. The harmony is broken, and the energy no longer balances out. Worlds are thrown into disarray and chaos, some burning out immediately while others struggle on as they are able. There are even dozens of iterations of the same reality existing in some places, just barely splintered from one another and overlapping in impossible ways. The shards of our formerly united reality are nearly limitless.

There are flashes of worlds as the narrator's voice continues. Each one lasts no longer than five seconds, filling the room and then flashing into the next scene. These are flashes of real worlds, broadcast up from the mysterious Viewing Hall and all of its mirrors down in the dungeons. Recruits watching diligently enough may even catch sight of familiar scenes.

This is ALASTAIR's duty. We travel from reality to reality, doing what we must to equalize the energy. The necessary tasks can vary wildly, as wildly as the realities themselves do. In some worlds we find great success, snatching them from the brink of destruction and allowing them to continue on, rebalanced. Some worlds cannot be saved.

The images shift, this time replaying old, completed missions. The variety is huge here, too. One team of blue humanoids dressed in ALASTAIR purple struggles to pull a mammoth out of a tar pit. Two small, doglike recruits dash through a dark alleyway, dodging laser fire. A team of something human-shaped but bundled up in spacesuits climb carefully through the weightlessness of space along the outside edge of an enormous spaceship.

The narrator has just one more line to add: Ours is no easy task, but if not us. . . who?

The informational recording fades out, and five minutes later, plays again from the beginning.

TRAINING ROOM

The training room has been repurposed for the festival, and anyone looking to actually sharpen combat skills will probably go away unsatisfied. A tropical beach has been simulated, complete with simulated drinks and hors d'oeuvres and simulated staff to serve them. It's the picture of luxury and relaxation, and even the heat of the sun feels real as it beats down on palm fronds and thatched rooftops, the breeze soothing in just the right way.

The water is the perfect temperature, with the waves mild and gentle, perfect for lazy pontoon sailing or fishing off the pier. Unless, of course, anyone takes up a surfboard from the waiting row of them -- like magic the waves rise up into impressive swells, ideal for riding.

The simulation has been coded to reflect the time of day in realtime, meaning that as the sun sinks down outside in Oska, it does the same here in the training room. A bonfire is lit and gentle music is piped in for the evening, with the simulation continuing through the night and to the next morning.

So pick out some beachwear (there are racks and racks of provided sizes and styles near the shift from sand to jungle, and even several changing rooms tucked between trees), grab some sunglasses, and enjoy the beach trip!

COURTYARD

If anyone remembers the mounts brought to Oska by Uruz and Dagny last Recollection Day celebration, they're back again -- it's an entire menagerie of strange and exotic animals from all sorts of planets, each of them large enough to ride. From horses to horselike, from lizard to avian, there are creatures of all shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Last year the game was taming them, but this year they've all adjusted to their new roles in ALASTAIR with varying degrees of complacence.

Now, trainers are finishing up the mounts' schooling, and other teams are welcome to give it a whirl as well. An obstacle course has been set up, complete with tunnels, hurdles, water obstacles, and more. Anyone who manages to ride their mount around, over, and under each challenge successfully will be given a prize: a delectable, sugary treat with a commemorative gold coin inside (so don't eat too fast). Extra points to anyone who picks one of the ornery or dangerous mounts!

Also present in the courtyard is a new addition to Oska, but despite appearances, it's not intended to be ridden -- a gigantic, steel dragon lies peacefully in the grass, purple light visible between the metal girders that construct its body. Say hello to Oska's new guard: Hector Elmonor Iskander I, a dragon soul that Team Ambrosia rescued on a recent mission, who has been given a magitek body in exchange for keeping Oska safe. Although it may look frightening, rest assured that the dragon is patient and friendly -- still, though, it's not advised to try to use it in the race. Those metal spines are sharp.

OOC NOTES

Welcome to back to Oska! This event will ICly last for 3 days, at the end of which the other teams visiting the party will ship out to their missions and leave the PC team to unwind with Oska all to themselves. Don't feel obligated to stick to just this log -- this period of downtime lasts for 5 weeks OOCly, and we encourage players to make their own plots and logs for the duration of it! If you have any suggestions for gamewide mini plots during this period (or in general!), feel free to suggest them.

For information about ALASTAIR's HQ in Oska and what to expect there, please see here. You may also want to review the IC info pages, as there have been some additions!

For characters who were present during the Asterion Prison ship, their forehead tattoos are still present. They can be removed via nanobot at Oska's medical center.

If you haven't yet, please also make sure to review the mod announcement post about the future of the game for the next few months and beyond.

If you have any questions about this log, please direct them to the calendar page. Questions about the game in general should be directed to the FAQ.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

０１ ↣ 魔法お断り ↣ MAGIC HEALING NOT WELCOME

[Like many of their returning recruits, Hayame is ushered off to the medical center when Audentes arrives back in Oska... But unlike most of the others, this centaur has certain strong beliefs regarding things she doesn't understand touching and affecting her body... And that includes magic and magitech both.]

As if I would let such a "machine" touch me- !

[There's even more choice words there, but that much is clearly audible even from outside the room, Hayame's voice raised and strained before she comes bursting out the door and into the castle corridor, almost bowling you over. She's hardly dying, just sporting a cut across the cheek and a few deeper cuts along her flanks from rock shrapnel hits amidst the chaos of the Minotaur fight, but-

There's still a "0" glowing blue and shameful on her forehead. ... Do you want to be the one to tell her, or?]

０２ ↣ 幻なのに ↣ TO THINK THE OCEAN WAS THIS WIDE

[There are things Hayame has only heard tale of and never seen. Things she'd never had the imagination nor inclination to really daydream about or long for, far too busy with the daily toil of survival, of pleasing, of becoming stronger for such frivolous things. She had come here to actually train, dressed in leathers and human waist wrapped in deer hide from which hangs quiver and blade, and instead... she is confronted with a lot of water.

Struck by the sight, Hayame can only stand there, large bow held limply in one hand as she stares out at the false sight that is somehow so real she can smell and taste the salt in the air, feel the warm sand shift beneath her hooves. It is beautiful... in a way different from the woods and mountains, sparkling and so bright that she has to squint against the sun and raise her free hand to shade her face.]

What a lake...

[Mostly muttered to herself, because she's heard of the sea, mind, but surely even ALASTAIR couldn't fit an entire false sea in... here?]

０２.５ ↣ 馬らしく ↣ HORSEPLAY

[Lake or sea or whatever it was... the wide open space and warmth is welcome after the cramped and dangerous labyrinth, and once she distances herself a bit from the place where people are drinking and sunning, Hayame allows herself to relax a bit, thinking herself alone.

Curious, she trots through the frothy waves kicking up water, buries her hooves in the wet sand and pulls them out to hear the odd sound of suction and watch the grains shift in their wake, and even strips off her hides and weapons to lower herself down to the warm sand and indulge in a rather more bestial behavior than she usually allows herself, rolling in the sand like a horse in pasture- if those horses had human halves that stretched arms out above its head and arched another section of spine.

But whatever she's doing at the time... she freezes immediately as if caught doing something wrong the minute anyone makes their presence known.]

０３ ↣ 乗馬禁止 ↣ THIS HORSE IS NOT FOR RIDING

[You surely didn't mean any harm. Whether your motivation to participate in the mounted obstacle course is for glory or sugary treats doesn't matter... what matters is that the mount you just tried to select... has an opinion about it.

Hayame backs out of the stable she'd been inspecting, revealing the human half that goes with the dun mare's rear you'd seen sticking from the stall. The very indignant and sneering human half.]

You intend to ride?

[Sai has no particular fascination with the concept of the ocean; water is water, after all. It holds no special value or awe to him. But the area is peaceful, and much as he has been trying to learn more about people over the near-year he's been with Audentes, he's not an extrovert by nature--generally quiet and reserved even with those he considers friends, and the extra layer of difficulty he has in relating to others who aren't shinobi doesn't help, either.

He intends to merely sit on the sand and maybe sketch a little bit, when he happens to make eye contact with a familiar horse-woman. Luckily for her, he's not about to judge any horseish behavior she was in the process of. Instead, he simply sits down a few feet away, legs crossed. It might seem as though he's going to ignore her presence outright, but some moments later, he remarks--]

So you chose to live, after all.

[Leave it to a self-professed ninja to sneak up on her as she curiously trots through the ocean waves, staring down at the frothy white her hocks kick up, looking for some sort of proof that it was illusion. But it feels cool, the water laps against her hooves, and the air still smells of salt.

But Sai's arrival brings her movement to a standstill after an initial snort of surprise, defensive turn that has her face his direction more properly, lips thinning into a frown at his words.

At another who presumed to make such comments, remind her that she had not been allowed to follow through with the only thing she knew could restore her honor and remove her shame. (Remind her that even knowing that, a part of her didn't want to.)]

Though it is no more business of yours now than it was then.

Perhaps not.

[But look, he's a ninja. He's served the role of spy, assassin, infiltrator...it's generally his business to make others' business his business.

Plus, his understanding of social norms is still extremely limited, so he doesn't feel self-conscious just barreling on ahead with another question that's not his business--]

Do you still wish not to? I do have a blade now.

[What? He did say he'd let her know if he came upon one, and now he has all his weapons back.]

Edited (wording nitpick) 2017-08-13 08:52 (UTC)

[Her frown twists into a slight sneer at his rudeness, that he would presume even further, push to ask such an indelicate thing as that. Like so many things in this place, his bluntness is foreign to her- at least, from humans, raised as she'd been in an age where those in power or of wealth, (like the Master, who had owned and overseen the stables), strove for doublespeak and subtle layers

Did she regret it? She regretted so much.]

My lord forbids it.

[Surely that ends the conversation.]

[At last, there is perhaps something of common ground here. While the power structure of Sai's world means that there are several levels of authority between him and the Fire Daimyo, obedience is something he understands perfectly well. If something is forbidden, it's forbidden, simple as that. Sometimes it was taken a step further, even--like the seal which still darkens Sai's tongue, with the threat to render him immobile and mute should he ever consider spilling the secrets locked inside him.]

Ah. A new recruit, then? [He thinks about that for a moment, then amends--]

No, perhaps not. You certainly would've starved in the labyrinth if the order had not already come.

[More...bluntness....sorry, Hayame. But honestly, it's not just her. Sai's complete lack of understanding of social norms throws a lot of people tbh.]

Who is your lord?

[It'll be useful to know, for the future--especially if a circumstance should arise in which he'll need to cross Hayame; he wants to know who else he'd be crossing by association.]

hayame | ota

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