epidemiology | EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

The scene that greets you after the mist of world hopping fades isn’t a pretty one. You may remember Oska from your first, brief trip here — it was a stately, serene place, a grand castle usually wreathed in low lying clouds or gently sunny. Not so today. The damage done to Chantes by the demons and chimeras pales in comparison to what has been done to Oska.

Only one tower of the formerly impressive castle stands upright, the others have been knocked down and torn to rubble, some of which is still smoldering or in flickering flames. Most of the castle has been flattened, entire rooms torn apart and laid to waste. No exterior wall is without gaping holes, as if some army and their immense battering ram had needed a whole collection of entrances to storm this castle. Nothing is untouched, and worst of all, the underground larder seems to have been completely buried in a fall of rocks from the kitchen’s exterior wall. Even if you were able to dig it up, it’s dubious much of the food is unspoiled or intact.

If there is any up side to all of this destruction, it’s that no bodies can be found amid the mess, human or otherwise. Even the livestock are missing. Personal effects can be dug out of the ruins, and it seems very clear that this castle was populated until recently. There remains not one soul to tell what happened, though.

Well, almost not one soul.

The network that usually connects the jewelry is completely nonfunctional. Attempting to access it only brings up one static message, repeating for as long as you care to listen to it:

Something [ SHHKT ] --rrible has happ-- [ The message cuts out frequently, replaced with static. ] The-- [ shhhhhhkt ] came, they destroyed everything and n--

[ The static fades slightly. ]

We’re trapped. You’re on your own. But please, we ne-- [ shhkt ] your help. They’re still here. There’s worse to come. But when you [ SHKT ] --ind them, you can’t kill them. They need to be questioned. We mus-- [ shhhhkt ] know their motivations.

Some of the new recruits… they’re in the dungeons. You need to he-- [ shkt ] them, please. They can still be saved.

SURVIVAL

The dungeons are, of course, the only part of the castle left intact enough to present a challenge to escape. Some newcomers will find themselves lost in a labyrinth of cell-lined corridors, able to wander for hours before stumbling across any hint of daylight. How that’s even possible with most of the castle destroyed is anyone’s guess. Other newcomers might even be locked into the cells, with keys left nearby but just out of reach — or not. Better hope some sort of escape artist happens across you, if you’re one of those unlucky arrivals.

Food isn’t going to be easy to come across. You might try digging out the larder, but not much food can be salvaged from it. Are you going to put in the work to dig up a single shelf of intact loaves of bread, a cold roast chicken locked in a wood stove, and one barrel of apples? Maybe you try scavenging in the small, abandoned village outside the castle. This will uncover some food, but not much. Most of the food out there is either rotted through or missing entirely. You might find enough to last one person two days on your own, but who knows how long you’ll need it to last?

Wherever you find your food, if you find your food, rationing is highly recommended. Water isn’t so simple to find, either. There is a lake not far outside the castle walls, but the water in it tastes rancid, a sign to any right-thinking person that it’s no good to drink. Anyone brave or stupid enough to push through the taste and drink it anyway will find there aren’t actually any adverse effects, but is it worth the risk? Water can otherwise be found in very small amounts, collected by rainfall in buckets, on indented stones, in mislaid pots. It won’t be much, but if you search diligently it’s enough to keep you going.

Shelter will be a little easier to find… at least, at first. No one is using any of the beds in the village, they’re free to pick from as long as you don’t mind the eerie silence. If your character is particularly awful at scavenging, please see the end of this post.

HELL WEEK

Survival aside, that still leaves the question: just what did happen here? Characters are welcome to dig through the ruins for hints at what fate may have befallen Oska. We have provided a thread here to sign up to find belongings or other little signs of life, and try to piece together the picture. But what about that culprit, mentioned in the broadcast? Some characters will be able to stumble across very, very specific clues — riddles and puzzles, purposefully laid to guide the finders toward… something. Who knows what lies at the end of this oddly deliberate trail? You can sign up to find and solve the puzzles here.

Day one in Oska is easy enough to survive, an almost peaceful acclimation to the dismal scene. Things get a little bit tougher from there, though.

On day two the ground begins to shake. It’s just little tremors at first, easy to miss if you’re not standing still. But by mid morning they’re large quakes, enough to break some structures further. The quakes continue through the night and into day three, when they are large and severe enough to throw someone off their feet, tear apart a house, and even open wide chasms in the ground. They come with unpredictable frequency, anything between five minutes to three hours, but they definitely come more closely together as time passes. The village is safer at this point, without quite so many stones to shift and crush you, although those chasms are still a concern.

Come the evening of day three, the quakes stop entirely. A soft rainfall begins to patter down instead — still thirsty? Now is your chance to find some battered coffee tin and gather your drink. The rainfall continues steadily overnight, and by the morning of the fourth day it is a torrential downpour. It never lets up, not even once, and soon the water is more than the ground can handle. Flooding begins at this point, just a few inches deep in some places, more formidable in others. This also lasts for two days, and by the end of the fifth day in Oska most of the village is washed out. You’ll have better luck among the sturdy stones of the castle. Remember that still-standing castle tower? It’s not exactly the most structurally sound thing, but it is definitely out of the water.

The water stops very suddenly at sundown on the fifth day, affording a pretty peaceful, clear night. Come dawn of the sixth day, however, heavy clouds move to obscure the sunrise. They seem to flame around the edges in the light of it, and then in the middles. That’s clearly not sunlight lighting up those clouds by this point. The clouds flash from within as they build more and more heavily, but no lightning has ever been that flickering golden color. At midmorning the first drops begin to fall: not rain this time, but liquid fire. By noon the firestorm is at full strength. It swings between sheets of fire pelting down, and clearing up only to pelt down great fireballs. The rain-drenched village and castle can only fend off the rain for so long. Eventually the water evaporates and anything that can burn will burn. Time your ventures out into the weather very carefully, because the firefall never lets up for long, and that’s the kind of downpour you don’t want to be caught in.

OOC INFO

Is your character awful at survival? Can’t scavenge to save their life, completely out of food and water and about to expire? Wherever they fall asleep, they’ll wake up with a small, inexplicable wrapped bundle left next to their head. Within will be a half an apple, a single leg of chicken, and a very small canteen of water.

~~This log will last for one week, and there will be new information available on the 17th~~. As per our informal poll, this log will last ICly for one week, and OOCly for two. There will be new information available on the 24th. What the setting will be from here will depend on characters' ability to work together to catch whoever is responsible for these events.

You can sign up to find hints about the people who lived here and what may have happened to them here, and puzzles left by the perpetrator leading to the discovery of them on this post. Please direct any questions here.

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[ the hands working on finn's back still, then resume their task.

for a long moment, he favors silence. tempted through anakin is to brand him a liar… a fool would know a better lie. the disconsonant parts of his story are not tinged so through the force. ( the jagged peaks are tied to the pulsing injuries to the phantom pain anakin would share if he focused. ) nothing fits. soldiers bred to fight — not clones, no accelerated growth so how…?

could this have been what master sifo-dyas had seen? it's the only option that makes sense, yet it feels wrong. something about where they are, their supposed purpose continues to intrude. ]

If he is here, [ it isn't likely, but the presence of the dark side is undeniable, ] you'll be safe from him. My name is Anakin. I'm a Jedi.

[ he voices the title as simple fact: he's a jedi with the promise that entails. having done as much as he could for finn's back, anakin comes around to do the same for his shoulder. he works faster now, the burn so much smaller yet as deep. he keeps quiet his almost grudging respect. either finn is that well-trained to still be stumbling around looking for his friends or he is just that stubborn. ]

Is she the girl you mentioned? The scavenger?

[To that he says nothing, but the look on his face (regardless of what his own thoughts might convey) is telling enough: eyes wide, mouth open for what few beats it takes before Anakin's fingers switch their focus to the untreated burn at his shoulder, prompting a vivid grimace that only briefly interrupts his awe. A jedi. They're still alive-- more than just Skywalker, others survived Ren's vicious agenda. It lifts his pulse for a half-beat; he thinks more than anything he should tell the Resistance, that they needed to hear it firsthand, only belatedly realizing he can't.

That ship's sailed an entire universe away.

So instead he settles for staring, nodding low and quiet beyond the heartache in his own chest that comes with switching focus back to Rey.] Yeah.

They came after me, found her instead. [The pain that bores down into bone feels warranted, fingers tensing:] It was my fault.

[ anakin's eyes flick to his face and back down. ] Thinking like that won't help you here. It won't help her wherever she is.

[ a piece of advice he has been repeating to himself if for different reasons. releasing a heavy sigh, anakin leans back, and considers the options they have. not many. only one, in fact. ]

I've done what I can, but I'm not a medic. [ he glances behind him, up to the dank ceiling. ] We have to get out. You need rest.

No-- no, I have to stay.

[Jedi or not, if Ren really is here the others could be, too. Hell, more than that, the Resistance might be here, and if they wander around blindly they might run themselves right into the end of Kylo Ren's blade. It's not a scenario he wants to think about.]

If there's even a chance they're here, then they need me.

[ anakin shakes his head. he can understand finn's response. he would do no less for his people. but removed ( for once ) from the situation at hand, he can also clearly see the flaws in the decision.

not that this breakthrough will carry over when someone he cares about is in danger. ]

If they have any sense, they'll be trying to find an exit same as us. Finding it is your best chance of finding them.

[Thinking about moving to his feet is like asking for an ice pick to the skull: it's easier to stay put, and he knows the numbing agent's the only thing keeping this bearable - but there's a limit to what it can do. If he stands up, it's going to be hell all over again.

So it takes him a second. Two. Just long enough to buckle down and tell himself he's ready for it, left palm against the wall as a brace for pulling himself upright again.] Okay.

Okay, I can do this. [ I can do this...]

Give me your arm.

[ if finn lets him, anakin will pull him over his shoulders. it's not ideal. anakin finds himself wishing for a stretcher. but it will be better than making him walk in circles until they find the exit. it will provide finn with more stability. leaving him behind while anakin searches is not an option. ]

[Giving him his arm? Fine. Doable. Nothing weird about that. The rest, though...

It makes him feel too much like Slip, getting hauled around. Uncomfortable in the sense that he feels useless and uneasy for it beyond the way his own wounds bite at him beneath the numbing medicine, but-- it's fine. It's all fine. He's alive, he's found a Jedi, he's got more hope in him than he has any right to given the circumstances. That has to count for something.]

Hey...thanks.

[It comes out as more of a grunt between steps than he means for it to.]

Don't thank me. [ breathing through his nose, anakin adopts a smooth, long stride. ] It's what we do.

[ this, more than anything, he believes.

the jedi way is to help. to protect. the war has twisted it all. made them soldiers when they are meant to keep the peace. tied their hands with light-years of bureaucratic red tape so that people suffer while the jedi are made to sit idly by. it's wrong, all of it. peace has been a far-off dream. order is an illusion. sometimes anakin cannot remember a time before the war. he can no longer remember himself before it.

his faith in the jedi has been shaken. ( with one request, it will break entirely. ) but his faith in what they should be remains. the thrill of piloting a starship into a hail of blasterfire is unmatched, but anakin finds he's happiest elbows deep in wires and servos. more at peace, fixing what needs fixing than destroying that which begs to be destroyed. the skill he has for technology, he will one day transfer to people. he'll be able to protect them too. from anything. there will be no fear of war. not of illness. not even death.

it's what a good jedi should. it's what a great jedi will. ]

No, it's really not.

[It's a correction made as gingerly as possible thanks to his own, divided attention (no disrespect, Anakin, but your dad bailed for like fifteen years). But the fact of the matter is that people-- probably even Jedi-- don't all work the same. He didn't, Rey didn't, even Poe was wildly different compared to Phasma, Nines or Hux.

So if Anakin's looking out for him, Finn figures it's because he wants to.]

You know what I was, and you don't care. Not a lot of people out there could say the same, Jedi included.

So I mean it-- thanks, man.

[ to that anakin has no answer. finn isn't wrong. that's what's damning. one thing for the jedi to recognize the deficiencies in themselves. it is entirely another for others to see it. it speaks to how far off the mark they've tread. it speaks to more he has neither the time nor the inclination to consider.

with a spoken warning, ] Tell me if at any point it gets too bad, [ anakin opts for silence. the eyes can play tricks. he guides himself by a different sense, finding the halls that rise oh so steadily, the dank stairs leading to more labyrinthine halls. anakin batters any sense of claustrophobia, finding promise in the force. they'll get out. once they are, they can decide what to do next. ]

Yeah, no problem.

[Keeping it together hasn't been easy - he figures if he's going to snap, it's going to hit him hard enough to be obvious. Until then, though, giving up isn't an option. Not with a Jedi at his side.

Which prompts a second glance-- his head twisting sharply in a blatant stare that might just be boring down under Anakin's skin: he spits it out a second later, incapable of tact.] So...if this is an alternate universe....

I guess that makes you the last Jedi, doesn't it? -- the only Jedi.

[ from his profile, all that can be seen is anakin's jaw setting. it should not be, yet there is something unnerving about being called the last. like a prophecy.

it cuts too close, he decides. too many jedi have been lost. that's all it is. he is the only in this place. the dark side maintains a heavy presence. ( all the more reason to have gotten moving and stay moving — facing a sith alone is very different to protecting an injured man. ) but the pockets of light that should be other jedi — ]

Feels like it. [ his adam's apple bobs when he swallows. after a pause, he clarifies, ] Jedi can sense one another. As we can sense dark side users.

That...sounds intense. [What else is he supposed to say? That it's cool, when Anakin's already practically wrought with tension? Every time Finn mulls it over it sounds like the kind of ability that'd make him...tired. Sick. Desensitized, maybe. He gets worn down by life enough as it is, so yeah.

He can't imagine it's easy.]

It's part of the Force. The Force… [ anakin allows himself a humorless smile. ] Is intense.

[ only padmé asked him about the force. only she had to. the jedi know it, can no more be rid of it than a human can stop breathing and hope to live.

they sat together, recently husband and wife, warm sunshine filtering through the tall windows, a crystal orb floating in the air between them, and the force a soothing melody as it always is in her presence. anakin tried to evoke the sensation that was the force for her, at once separate and part of him, listener and counselor. she, too, had easily discerned the intensity of it, as the life of a jedi itself was intense.

his smile fades. five months away. five months without seeing her except in dreams. without obi-wan, there is no one to remind not to dwell. he was almost home. instead, see where he has found himself. ]

Yeah.

Yeah, I did notice that. [Somewhere between mind-reading and lightsabers and stopping blaster bolts in midair. But he knows he's treading on Anakin's toes (he didn't mean to, in fact everything he's said so far was meant to be a compliment-- still, he can read into expressions enough to know when it isn't working. part of being a squad leader.) so instead he glances away, focusing on some far off point in the pathway ahead.] I'm sorry.

I can't say it's all new to me, but Jedi definitely are. I didn't mean to upset you or anything. It's uh, we can talk about something else if you want.

I'm not upset. [ an instinctive denial. disappointment has no place in a jedi. there is reason for censure if someone thinks he may be. ]

Believe me. If there's something I won't talk about, I'll tell you. [ but talking is a good distraction. for finn from his injuries. for anakin from where he isn't and with whom he's not. coming to a hall branching off from theirs, anakin stops, closes his eyes…and turns down it. ]

What do you want to know?

Is it fun?

[Not all the time, he knows that much-- nothing is. But that kind of freedom? That kind of power? That's the kind of thing people kill for, and he's seen enough of it on screen and outside to know they do without a second thought more often than not.

Finn doesn't want crazy abilities; what he wants is to be left alone, in the company of better people than the ones that thought he owed them anything for their cruel expectations. Maybe for the people he lost to come back, if he had to choose.

It's still cool to dream about, though.]

[ anakin thinks of flying, the hot air of tatooine in his face, sand pinging off his goggles while he guided a rickety pod racer over sand dunes and down canyons, at once the youngest and the only human racer.

thinks of the lightsabers he's built, lethal to his opponents and untrained users yet a sixth digit to him, guided by a knowledge deeper than him that tells him of what to expect before it does.

thinks of calling objects to him, floating them without effort in midair, earning a smile for his efforts and awed observations she pretends he does not notice just as he does.

he can't help the smile this time. ] Better.

[It's an expression Finn can appreciate, even in the dark-- even in spite of the way his steps feel thin and ragged and not entirely solid enough to be fair. It's the one he wore when he and Rey actually survived their escape from Jakku, real contentment stuck at the edges of his smile and the corner of his eyes.

And no matter how much the Force scares him, makes him feel like the only thing he needs in the entire universe is to get away from it and Kylo Ren's insanity-- away from the weight of a war too big to be real-- there's so much of that single-worded confession that stands appealing in a way.

He tightens his grip just to readjust, trying to hold more of his own weight for Anakin's sake, and adds, after a long beat:] Hey.

If I pull through this, would you--

Would you teach me how to fight with a lightsaber?

You will pull through. [ a slight inflection rests on "will." you don't get permission to die, finn.

turning his head, he regards finn with a hint of amusement. ]

Do you have a lightsaber?

I did. [It wasn't technically his, but-- yeah. Maz set it in his hands, trusted him with it in the hopes that he'd find Rey and bring her back safe. Part of him regrets dropping it when Kylo Ren cut him down (not that he could have helped it) it would have made him feel...

Safer somehow. More capable of handling himself if something terrible comes skulking out of the shadows.] That's how I fought Ren off. I mean-- at least for a little while.

It didn't get dragged in with me, though. [Another thoughtful pause and then:] Maybe whoever's in charge can bring it back.

[ doubtful and not only for the gross incompetence previously displayed. there doesn't seem to be anyone left of whom to make requests. ]

There's a reason lightsabers are weapons of the Jedi. [ beyond the jedi monopoly on kyber crystals. also: fuck the sith.

anakin isn't quite saying no, but even he, infamous for his recklessness, would think before giving a lightsaber to someone who wasn't a jedi. ]

They're dangerous to an untrained user. More dangerous to someone who cannot use the Force.

Yeah well I used one just fine. [Not to be an asshole, Anakin, but he's just saying.]

Two fights, and none of these burns are from me.

[His ability to block in hand to hand combat, though...well, he's always been an ace shot compared to a champion in the ring, and definitely not compared to Nines.]

[ watch out, we've got a badass over here. but two fights mean there will likely be a third and that is a sentiment anakin understands too well. the decision is easy to come to after that. ]

When you've recovered, [ a glance at finn, ] I'll look into finding you something to practice. But you should know: I won't go easy on you.

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reconditioning - 2016-03-09 07:42 (UTC) - Expand

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EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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aggressively warms Anakin's sad heart

please not too much fire bad :<

gently pan sears in goodness

excellent choice

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