EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

[futurologists]

Recruits leave Oska at midday, with about 10 minutes of final warning given from the jewelry. Then the white mist rises as rifts open, and Oska is left behind. The transition into Nalawi is not a peaceful one. When the mist fades, recruits are immediately hit with a face full of lashing rain and driving wind. The recruits have arrived in the middle of a nasty storm, but that’s not all that greets them. Seawater surges all around, breaking against -- houses? It’s a little hard to tell at first, in the chaos of the storm. Half of these buildings are made of rock, not carved, but shaped, and the other half seem to be living trees, thin wood and thatch, and a handful of more ornate (and more fragile) material, including clouded glass or obsidian. The stone houses are standing up best to this onslaught of waves, but even they weren’t made for this, and they shudder and crumble in the thrashing storm. Thin screams can be heard over the wind and water, too. The locals are having some trouble not being washed away. The people here are small bipedal deer, and those hooves were not meant for swimming. They struggle in the water, some of them trying to snag a few precious belongings from drowning houses, some of them not even able to do much more than hang onto some jutting stone or tree. There are a few heroes among them, putting superhuman powers to good use: here a young man hovers in the air, dragging others out of the water and toward safety; there a girl parts the water with careful gestures of her hands, enabling a whole family to dart from their ruined home and run for higher ground. These feats are rare, though, and on the whole most of these natives are in trouble. They don’t look too stunned to see the new arrivals -- they don’t have time to, and will push roughly past a new arrival to deal with some crisis sooner than stop and stare. They’re mostly just grateful for any offered help, generally seeming terrified and shellshocked by all of this. If any of them are asked what happened, they’ll point with varying degrees of wordlessness toward a high stone wall between the village and the sea, with an enormous gap broken through the middle of it where the sea rushes in. Like many of the houses, this dike was clearly shaped from living stone. But whatever shaped it apparently has no power to maintain it, and this is the storm that had finally taken advantage of that. This long, dark afternoon provides plenty of tasks: help the Nalawi people evacuate from their ruined village, try to find material to rebuild their shattered (and still crumbling) dike, or take care of the hungry sea creatures that have taken notice that the deer, usually safe on land, are suddenly in easy reach. They look like crabs with too many legs, but each of them is nearly the size of one of the villagers. They’re more than capable of seizing a struggling villager and scuttling back toward the break in the dike to drag their prize into the sea. Their shells are difficult to get through, their pincers terrible and sharp, but their joints and eyes are unprotected and tender. The storm won’t last forever, though. It blows itself out in a few hours, just in time for a truly beautiful tropical sunset over the western edge of the island. Exhausted locals will finally begin to talk a little more. They’ll explain to their rescuers that the Stone Shapers have all had their Gifts faded out: there’s not a single one left. Without these abilities, the dike was left defenseless against the storm and the water rushed in. Their despondency and resignation suggests this kind of disaster is not new to them. They are, however, very grateful for the help: anyone who lends a hand over the new few days (thankfully sunny and clear) sorting through the wreckage, rebuilding, and setting up new dikes will be given food and shown to the inn for free lodgings. Welcome to Komo, Nalawi. OOC INFO ICly this log will cover the day of arrival and the following few days of recuperating and rebuilding, if you would like to include that in your top level prompts. OOCly it will last until the 26th. New information will be available at that time. As some quick refreshers, we have our Mission Overview here, which also includes a questions subthread for general questions. For intro event-specific inquiries, please see the comments below. Additionally, be sure to have read the Chantes epilogue as well as the Nalawi: Locations page. Note that we will also have new characters arriving during the event, so be sure to give them a hand!

Comments

[sengetsu]

[He's painstakingly gentle as he lays the woman down - not too hard for him, given her size. He can haul Masamune around, so this is nothing. When he's done, he shifts to kneel by her side.]

I don't know - she was already unconcious when I found her. [and it was a small miracle she hadn't ended up with her face in the water.] The storm is throwing a lot of debris around, though.

[grunehexe]

[Sieglinde nodded her acknowledgement of his answer, moving from checking the eye, (rolled back), to the female native's ear, carefully using her thumbs to try and move the soft white hair aside to see within the canal- revealing traces of crimson blood.]

Damn-

[Internal bleeding- and this wasn't her laboratory, she didn't have all the equipment she wanted or needed to determine how bad it might be, then moving to run her fingers over the back of the skull, trying to determine swelling but without a control case she couldn't know the normal situation- it would be safer to use magic.]

I shall be using magic, do not be alarmed.

[Masamune had never seemed to want to discuss or acknowledge magic, and so she took the moment to mention it in case Kojuro's sentiments ran along the same vein, taking a moment to breathe deeply and settle herself on her knees behind the native's head, laying hands on her temples, eyes dropping to nearly closed, voice dropping to nearly a whisper.]

As I see thee weltering in thine blood, I call upon the goddess who governs, who I beseech to aid thee now...

[Some of the words were lost in translation, a mix of long dead languages of her own world, before she moved her hands over the gash, over the delicately boned face and skull, injuries disappearing along with the motion of her hand until Sieglinde sagged back a bit, sighing and pulling her hands back to her lap. She had a limited supply of magic, and there was no telling how many patients there would be, but- head injuries were risky. It was the better choice.]

[sengetsu]

[Kojuro has the self-control not to start when he sees the injuries fade as if they were never there, but his eyes widen in obvious surprise. When Sieglinde takes her hands away, he reaches out to carefully feel for a pulse at the woman's neck. It's steady, and stronger than it was before. Pulling away again, he shifts his weight back on his heels.]

Damn. That certainly comes in handy.

[grunehexe]

[Healing like this, with true magic, wasn't a gift she had been born blessed with, and it took directly from her own energy to use it- an act that had grown more tiring since ALASTAIR had gifted her with her own font of magic energy. It took her a moment to reply, breathing deeply, before she finally nodded.]

It is a blessing in times like these.

[When they didn't have the luxury of a safe place to treat wounds, didn't have enough skilled hands, or the right tools. Dumped into a world in the midst of disaster, there was little time for natural recoveries- it was that or death.]

But I can only do so much- I can treat those without life threatening injuries with physical means, but...

[How many more patients would there be before the storm broke? In its aftermath?]

[sengetsu]

...But you're only one person. [And while true magic is new to him, he can guess that like every other skill, it takes energy and focus to use it.] We will all do everything we can, but we have to accept that sometimes, it won't be enough. [A fact he knows all too well from the battlefield: it's impossible to save everyone, no matter how hard you try]

Take care of yourself, too, though. Masamune-sama would never forgive himself [or Kojuro for that matter] if something happened to you.

[grunehexe]

[But she's only one person. But physical means only did so well at healing those close to death- the likelihood of performing miracles went down when you were using bandages and ointments and not magic, after all.

But the mention of Masamune makes her expression darken with a strange mix of worry, shame, and anger. She hasn't spoken to the man in person since their fight shortly after Kojuro arrived... if Kojuro's relationship was anything like the one she had with her own manservant, she did not doubt he would have heard of the circumstances, but.]

... Perhaps not.

[Before, she would have answered such a comment entirely different.]

[sengetsu]

I've known him for most of his life. He may be reckless [read: stupid] but he'd never stop caring.

[grunehexe]

Caring enough to disregard a sacred trust, I'm sure.

[She hadn't meant to sound so bitter when she said it, aiming for a more reserved, removed sort of comment, but. The hurt she felt over the incident won out in the end, trying to occupy herself tidying her patient, moving potion bottles... A little too forcefully, but.]

[sengetsu]

[he resists the urge to defend Masamune - it'll only make Sieglinde more unhappy about the situation, and he's learned that Masamune doesn't always need his defense.]

Regardless. [He knows first-hand - even on the occasions they quarrelled - thankfully rare these days - he never doubted Masamune's feelings.]

[grunehexe]

Caring regardless.

[She parroted it, as if saying it out loud might make it more sensible. But it still wasn't something she was fully ready for forgive, nor forget, and instead, she focused on her potions.]

Thank you, Kojuro.

[It was both what it seemed to be and a dismissal. His skills would be far better served helping the natives down below, while hers were of use there.]

[sengetsu]

[He knows that tone of voice - it's the one that says trying to argue more will just make her more entrenched in her own position. So he doesn't even try, and simply nods in acknowledgement of what she's said.]

If I find any more seriously injured, I'll bring them over.

[And with that, he stands, and heads back down towards the flooded beach]