epidemiology | EVENT ★ GONE FISHIN'

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EVENT ★ GONE FISHIN'

Thanks to your help, repairs to the flood wall are complete. The Nalawi are still largely without their Gifts, so they are thankful -- without the aid of ALASTAIR recruits, they would have surely drowned or been eaten by sea monsters.

Despite the barely averted disaster, the residents of Komo have decided to go along with their lives as planned, perhaps to bolster morale instead of giving into despair. By chance, their annual fishing contest is scheduled for today! As honored guests, recruits are invited to participate.

FISHING CONTEST

Dugout canoes are provided for all participants, patterns that suggest fish scales burned into the wooden sides. Curiously, no fishing rods are offered; if a recruit requests one, they will be given a strange look, but the harbormaster will acquiesce.

Due to the rough seas, the passage between Komo and the other islands is still inaccessible. Contestants are reminded to stay behind the reefs or venture east toward open ocean for their quarry. It’s only when the contest begins that the quarry in question is actually announced . . .

Sharks.

You are fishing sharks. And, judging by the lack of equipment (or the puny fishing rod you requested), you’re expected to do this by hand.

The tiny deer people don’t seem bothered by this predicament at all: the goal is to catch the biggest shark, by length and poundage. Better not embarrass yourself in front of the locals.

GET PUMPED

Mettaton has announced over the jewelry that he will be hosting a celebration in tandem with the fishing contest, in order to help the native Nalawi and the ALASTAIR recruits get to know each other better. This includes singing, dancing, and all sorts of different performances -- and, of course, reporting on the actual fishing.

If you aren’t the fishing type or maybe you just need a break from chasing sharks around, this is a good chance to bust a move and show your teammates how you can get down -- or just sit back and watch! It’s bound to be entertaining one way or another.

Plot for the stage here!

Olivia will be the final performer in the showcase. Anyone who witnesses her dancing may feel themselves super-charged by the spectacle . . . with possibly unexpected results! Characters may feel even more determined to win the fishing contest, or perhaps they’ll take this surge of optimism to help rebuild some of Komo’s destroyed buildings before the day winds down into night.

THE FEAST

After the fishing contest, the sharks will be collected and prepared. Grilled shark, fried shark, shark caviar, and shark jerky from the results of last year’s contest. There are fruits and vegetables and breads available as well, but if you want some protein, you’d better go native.

During the feast, some of the Nalawi perform dances and song. The subjects range from their goddess Nalanni to love songs. Want to show off your talents again? Now’s the time! Or, if you’d prefer to step away from the excitement, the beach is quiet and empty, and the baths are unoccupied since the whole of Komo is at the gathering.

As the feast winds down, the Nalawi will pass around their very potent alcohol for a toast to Komo’s health. Someone shouts, interrupting, wondering what good that will do if Nalanni has abandoned them. Concerned murmuring fills the gathering, spoiling the mood. ALASTAIR recruits may attempt to put them at ease -- otherwise, the feast will disperse on a sour note.

OOC INFO

If you would like your character to win the fishing contest, please sign up below. You must thread out fishing in order to participate in the drawing. There will be only one winner, decided by RNG. The winner will be contacted on April 1st. The prize is a necklace of shark’s teeth, which has a one-use spell that will make all sharks in a one mile radius sleep for 30 seconds.

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[It's like stealing candy from a drunk baby. He'd feel bad if it didn't make this so easy. He very casually neglects to answer those questions, backstepping smoothly when she reaches for her cup to lead her out of the circle of doomsday fearing deer. You heard him.]

Little late to start spooking the locals. Where'd you leave your designated driver?

[Surely she has one.]

[nope, she doesn't. go figure.]

Designated driver...? I—

[dazed by the question (but at least she's occupied), rin shakes her head.]

Listen, no one's driving here. No one's supervising me, either, if that's what you're asking. [a beat.] I don't need someone to watch over me. I'm mature enough. I'm celebrating with the Nalawi.

[If you say so. Luckily, he's not here to watch over her. He lets Rin go once they're far enough from the circle of deerfolk. Drops his hands down from her arm and from over her head but doesn't seem inclined to hand her back her cup.]

Looks to me like the celebrating's over.

[And indeed, even from a distance, it's clear that party's gone pretty grim after invoking the name of their apparently missing goddess. Cheerful chatter gone to hushed mutters and subdued sadness.]

Guess a few doomsday predictions really spoil the mood.

[she moves to snatch it again, once she sees the cup lowered, but likely her reflexes are so misdirected it won't result in victory. rin scowls at him anyway, before it dawns on her that more important concerns are afoot, and she glances off to the nalawi, visibly troubled.

for a moment, she appears willing to stumble off towards the party they just left. she takes a clumsy step forward. he might have to stop her—but she stops herself.]

Why are they so pessimistic? It's not enough to say their goddess has abandoned them.

[Yeah, tough luck with that. His reflexes are ridiculous as a rule, and he's the sober party, here. He dodges the grab out of reflex as much as an actual conscious decision. He'd corral her back away from the natives, but she stops again without him needing to intervene. Good girl.]

They're running scared because something's screwing with the whole foundation of their lives. It's pretty normal to try to find someone to blame for that.

[Whether or not they're right about it is up in the air. But at least laying the blame on a metaphorical missing goddess is better than hunting down arbitrary scapegoats. As callous an answer as this might seem, he's not disaffected, just unsurprised. He gestures over toward the circle with Rin's stolen cup.]

There's no point in riling them up about it, yet. Public panic tends to be a lot more trouble than it's worth.

[her eyes flit over to jason only for a moment, at her wavering cup, before she's hooked on staring at the flagging celebration again.]

Is it normal...?

[partially inebriated as she is, rin's still not so sure. there's no aggression in her, but her voice is strong. fierce. determined, even.]

They shouldn't be running scared. [she says, like she knows their entire lives. but she has some wise conviction in her words.

rin is someone who has dealt with a life shaken at its very foundations.]

They shouldn't be blaming anyone, they should be working to find a definitive cause and take care of it. Seems like they're riling themselves up well enough, and all for pointless reasons.

[Don't talk to him about rattling life at its foundations. He huffs a scornful breath out, setting Rin's cup down on a fence post to free his hands.]

Oh, yeah. And they shouldn't have to worry about something screwing things up in the first place. Should's an easy word.

[Said with the ease of the most jaded of Gothamites. Just because things should be one way or another sure as hell doesn't mean it'll pan out like that just because you want it to. The world doesn't work like that. People just aren't that altruistic in numbers. Most of the time they're not even that altruistic one-on-one.]

They're going to do it whether you like it or not. You overestimate the critical thinking of the general public.

[Which is, ostensibly, why they've been deployed here in the first place. Because the local attitude won't be enough. (But then, he's biased. Maybe he's just bad at being a team player.)]

[she struggles to make herself clear, to decide what point of some importance she wants to explain to him. visibly, rin pauses to collect her thoughts, absently worrying her bottom lip. he's not right. he's got it all wrong.]

No, I'm not saying that. [critical thinking is difficult for someone so drunk. but she tries.] There are always going to be problems in life that we can't control. Living is equivalent to suffering. And so— If things are now screwed up for them, that's also the way it is, and they will have to accept it.

But they won't know if it's something they can do something about unless they try.

[not riling themselves up. but thinking smarter.]

[He lifts a shoulder in a loose shrug. He won't argue that. That's not why he pulled her away. He raps his knuckles against the cup he'd stolen from her before leading her out of the circle. She'd been trying to argue they didn't know that Nalanni had forsaken them. But what's the point?]

Convincing them their goddess might just come back to solve their problems for them isn't going to help them learn to deal.

[Hope's a nice thing to have. Sure. It's also a dangerous one. It chews you up and spits you out and leaves you with nothing at all when you realize it's all a load of lies.]

They're feeling like they've been abandoned. [And that's terrible. (He knows. There's a bitter edge on it that he doesn't bother biting back. She's likely too tipsy to care to catch on, and even if she wasn't, he's not all that concerned.) But shit happens. Sometimes that's just what it takes to stop fooling yourself and start moving forward on your own terms.] Maybe they ought to.

[Maybe they have been. Maybe it's all just smoke and mirrors in the first place and their goddess has nothing to do with it at all. It doesn't change the end result, right now. Waiting around on Nalanni isn't going to do anything but set them up to be let down.]

[she disagrees. she disagrees, but even here she realizes they're echoing virtually the same ideas. it's just how they choose to look at life from the conclusions they've drawn that's different.

she does want to defend herself: to continue to tell him that she didn't speak up in support of putting them on some magical easy street, nor was she ignoring their understandable pangs of abandonment; she's in favor of action, not surrender. hope and power in misfortune, not curling up and dying... or falling to harsh realism.

instead, rin gazes at him with blue eyes that appear far too steely and focused—not to mention serious—to fit her blood alcohol level.

she caught that trace of bitterness.]

Who hurt you?

[because there must be a story there. that explains the difference.]

What happened to you?

[That's a hell of a question to ask out of nowhere. (It's a hell of a question, period. That's more conclusions than she has any right to draw or any reason to think she should care to.) He wasn't concerned about coming across as callous about the situation, or harsh. But against all the odds, she's blown past idle professional speculation and stumbled her way into very dangerous and very personal territory real damn fast.

It pulls him up short and sparks alarms through his nerves, and it only takes a beat for him to steel himself back to a more neutral face. His reaction is remarkably constrained for what it's caging down. A tense tic in his jaw, eyes narrowed and attention gone sharp. The pause isn't any longer than someone would usually need to adjust to such a sudden shift in topic, but he's already changed gears entirely. Time to nip this in the bud.

He lifts his eyes back to her and cocks a brow. Hands pocketed in fists, shoulders squared, body language very carefully closed down.]

Sounds like you've really had a little too much party.

[Losing track of the conversation like that. (Hah.) His voice is even, measured out in deliberate and casual tread. But there's a solid finality to it that doesn't invite further prodding. He's not here to spill his guts to tipsy teenaged girls he barely knows. He backsteps, turning on a heel to leave in the opposite direction of the party and the inn, picking her abandoned drink off the fencepost and raising it by way of a goodbye. Thanks for the deer booze, bud.]

You're a tough girl, I'm sure you can find your room on your own.

[If not, you're on your own, anyway.]

[she can only watch him as he leaves.

and really, she does watch him until he's disappeared in the darkness and she can no longer see him. the blurriness of her vision reentering her sights makes that occur sooner rather than later.

she isn't angry, though. she isn't upset, or scared—though she would have reason to feel all of those emotions, and perhaps she'll be more worked up later, when she remembers. for now, what she feels is normally what she would keep hidden away. a little alcohol has done away with her normal inhibition, which works just as well for delivering pointed questions to other recruits as it does to fail to conceal the expression of utter worry on her face.

unfortunately, she hasn't been fooled enough to think she was mistaken about him. call it luck. call it chance. call it the result of a life lived with all the cruelty surrounding magi. even if rin tries to write it off as a drunken figment of her imagination later, some part of her will recall it and she's going to have to bring it up again.

because if she was wrong, she needs to apologize. if she was right, maybe he needs someone.

it's not entirely sweet. she's seen too many men like jason throw away their lives, make mistakes, and, in general, exist as a walking, almost-about-to-collapse trainwreck that can and will crash down on those around them. you could ask why she cares, but her answer would be she doesn't—she just cares, anyway, somewhere inside her. she's a caring person. it's a weakness.

she'll sigh.

she probably shakes it off and stumbles back to her room in a clumsy haze at one point or another, using magecraft to force herself to stay focused.]

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EVENT ★ GONE FISHIN'

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i wanted to put in one last tag!