EVENT ★ THE BOOM

[futurologists]

EVACUATION Under Undyne’s supervision, recruits will be directed to begin evacuation procedures on the islands closest to Nalalona, where the volcano resides. Nalalona itself is unpopulated, so there’s no need to spend time searching for Nalawi here, but the closest islands may be in danger from errant debris following the forced eruption. It’s up to you if you want to tell the Nalawi the details about what’s going on. The older, more religious may have a problem with the sacrilege of forcing an eruption, and may become belligerent and aggressive. The younger ones may agree with the idea and ask what they can do to help. You have two weeks until the bomb is ready to be launched, but don’t be fooled -- it’s not a lot of time to waste arguing with some stubborn deer. Either way, the Nalawi should be moved southward, away from Nalalona. The southern islands are well beyond any danger, but getting there will be difficult without powers at full strength. Better hope you know how to sail a boat. SCAVENGER HUNT: NALAWI EDITION The following items will need to be scavenged by recruits in order to assemble the bomb: METALS: Metal ore can be found and harvested along the more rugged terrain of Nalawi, but there's also the strange, more refined metal scraps and sheets in the depths of the water, remnants of an old war. OBSIDIAN: Also known as volcanic glass, obsidian is easy to find and useful for makeshift weapons, should the recruits have any extra. Fragile, but sharp. FISH HEARTS: The local fish use a strange chemical compound that helps oxygenate their blood, most highly concentrated within their hearts. The Nalawi also share this trait, but will not take kindly to people trying to kill them. SEA URCHINS: Plentiful, but prickly. The toxins in their needles can cause severe fever and hallucinations, so handle with caution. NALAWI WILDFLOWERS: Red flowers with black stems that need to be ground into a powder. Breathing in the pollen or the powder will induce strange allergies in any recruit, causing one of their senses to go haywire for fifteen minutes -- they might lose it completely, or perhaps they’ll find themselves seeing things that aren’t there or hearing their companions talk about them behind their back. Effects can continue into the second part of the event, if players wish. COCONUTS: The coconuts on Nalawi look more or less the same as regular coconuts. However, the coconut water here is also highly flammable and volatile -- raittling or handling them indelicately may cause them to explode. On the bright side, they're extra delicious. WOOD: Trees are made of it. CONSTRUCTION The blueprints provided by the ALASTAIR NPCs are detailed and well-drawn, with thorough enough instructions that even laymen could put it together with enough time and effort. However, local, monkey-like creatures will be drawn to the commotion and ingredients. Expect them to sneak around, pulling wires in their curiosity, knocking over coconuts, and otherwise causing trouble. What happens when fish hearts are mixed prematurely with wildflower powder? Let's hope no one finds out. There is one difference between them and normal Earth monkeys -- the Nalawi monkeys have fins. They seem to be a strange cross between fish and monkey; try not to think too hard about how that happened. The monkeys are largely nonaggressive, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t annoying. They’ve never seen anybody who looks like the recruits before, and will be understandably curious. At best, they’ll crawl all over you while you attempt to combine highly reactive ingredients. At worst, they’ll be curious about what happens when they throw said ingredients at you. At the end of the day, they’re just cute, sociopathic little fish-monkey toddlers. NOTE: When all the scavenger hunt ingredients are prepared properly as per instructions, they will create a stable compound with no ill side effects. Incorrect combinations and accidents may result in whatever problems that players would enjoy playing out. DEMOLITION With the bomb and catapult complete, the risky plan to restore the magical flow to the land can commence. Under Pearl's direction, the bomb will be launched from the base of the volcano, landing and detonating exactly as planned. The blast is so powerful it can be felt in the ground below, reverberating through the heart of the volcano. The plug of ash and steam is burst, lava spewing forth in a violent eruption. The effects can be felt immediately -- the air turns muggy and hot, and characters that have lost their powers will feel them return in a rush. Some will find their powers uncontrollable and unpredictable, and will need to get out of range before they accidentally start shooting lightning bolts into the sky. In this state, powers are likely more of a hindrance than a boon. And those without powers will want to get out of the way, since things are about to get… interesting. There's another resounding bang. A second explosion, clearly not linked to the first. Something blasts outward from the inside of the volcano, sending lava, ash, and rock spewing out for miles. It's difficult to see exactly what is escaping from the new opening in the side of Nalalona, but you'll find out soon enough. Countless impish creatures made of flame crawl their way out of the hole. If you listen closely, you might hear them laughing. They’re actually quite intelligent and seem to understand what characters say. They’re hot to the touch and will burn any flesh that comes into contact with them, so all attacks will need to be at a range. A non-violent way to defeat them is to lure them into the water, although some are smarter than others and may start luring characters towards them, compelling them to follow like moths to a flame. Anyone who lets their defenses down will find themselves more and more hypnotized until they’re following the fire imps back into the volcano; the only things that can break the spell over them are their fellow recruits, whether it’s through defeating the imp, knocking the victim out, showing them reason, or any other alternative. There are also larger, more menacing fire golems that lumber forth. Despite their hulking size and molten rock pouring from their mouths, they're quite a bit faster than they look, and near unstoppable once they sense body heat. They will chase relentlessly, plowing or scorching through any obstacles to get to their prey. Each one has a glowing, vulnerable core, but it's not easy to reach -- they're only exposed while attacking, or after its sharp, obsidian exoskeleton is shattered away from it. This can be done via rockslides, cleverness, or brute force, but be careful not to get slashed up too badly in the process. Golems will also not follow into bodies of water or approach active geysers. The major threat, however, is lava. Contrary to popular media, it's not safe to stand around it in any capacity. It pours quickly down the side of the volcano in a wave towards the recruits. Characters will need to escape the lava's path as well as the creatures that have been set upon them, while helping any of their comrades who may need an extra hand. AFTERMATH Once the eruption ends and the lava cools, characters may investigate Nalalona itself. There is a temple nestled inside of it, where the second explosion occurred. It seems the shrine there has been converted into some sort of prison, wrought iron bars raised all along the sacred grounds to keep something penned in. Whatever was being kept there has been whisked away, though it must've been recent: there are signs of life such as freshly scuffed earth and maps with scrawled notes that don't seem to match any Nalawi handwriting. Each one has an area of westward, open ocean circled fervently. Strangely, there are no remnants of food or water to be found. Whoever was holed up in here simply didn’t need it. For characters capable of studying the volcano (or asking the ALASTAIR NPCs), the strange energy readings are now gone. For magical or otherwise supernatural characters, the power surge will only last for the duration of this log. After that, players have one of two options. POWER BURNOUT: After the sudden spike of powers, players may opt for characters to completely lose their abilities for the time being. For magical characters, this means they can retain non-human characteristics, but will be reduced to a physical, mortal form. This means they will no longer require magical energy or similar substances to survive, but will no longer have any supernatural abilities. POWER REDUCTION: Similar to what's already happened, characters can continue to coast on nerfed abilities. This will remain in play until otherwise noted, so please pick whatever option is most sustainable for you. Please note this is not optional: magical characters will be affected in one way or the other, and all powers (including AC Rewards) will need to be removed or severely toned down. OOC INFO The actions in this log will take two IC weeks. Gathering, construction, and evacuation will take up the bulk of this time. REMINDER: we always take player plot suggestions! Please see the suggestion page here. If you have a question about the Nalawi mission in general, please use the mission overview page to help keep questions in one location for easy player reference. The questions thread below should only be for questions that pertain to this specific log.

Comments

[gutpunching]

I'll let you know if I start feeling all swoony.

[To think this was a very serious life or death situation a few minutes ago. He ought to be feeling kind of objectified right about now. Is this how Grayson feels all the time. (Now there is a train of thought he's not actually going to entertain at all for about a thousand different reasons.) He's not particularly shy, so she wins a crooked grin out of him for her efforts, but he pulls a knife from his belt—a peculiar thing with a long, waved blade—and gestures back at her with the tip before bothering to put it to work on the prospect of bandages.]

We could use yours for this instead, if it'll help you concentrate. I'm not picky.

[heavyhitter]

[ She snorts, glancing down at her clothes. What remains of her clothes, anyway. They're pretty much shredded, she'd be surprised if it exceeds decency in some places. Whatever, good thing she brought her usual clothes and stashed them in the inn. ]

Nah, this is fine, I'd rather take a donation from you.

[ She pushes a little closer to shore, specifically so she can give up on standing altogether and sit in the surf. She has the uncomfortable feeling that she's going to start dwelling on her missing powers soon, with the danger passed.

So, instead, with a more serious glance up at Jason: ] Hey, seriously though-- thank you.

[gutpunching]

[Don't worry, he's got a few options. Even assuming the infinitely spawning ALASTAIR uniform engine doesn't apply here. He'd be less shirtless if it wasn't mostly way too warm to dress in layers out here. That settled, he goes about cutting a couple notches in the thing so he can tear it into wide strips while Ramir sits herself down a little closer to shore. The bloodstained bit at the neck gets pocketed for scrap before he stows his knife again.

He's in the process of dropping down in front of her in the surf when she thanks him, and he stops to raise his eyes back to her. There's an odd break of awkwardness when the flippancy goes out of the conversation. Like he's got an easy response for everything but earnestness. Still, after a beat—]

Sure.

[He can try telling himself it's not because he gives a damn. That he's not falling back into old habits. Definitely not doing anything because of anything Batman would or wouldn't do. It's not even really because he's got an angle on her, anymore. (Not entirely, anyway.) It's been a while since he'd spent so much time around the same bunch of people without the caveat of them being professional dirtbags, or without a very particular endgame in mind. He's a little rusty at sincerity.

He gestures for her to lift one of her feet out of the water so he can get on wrapping it up. Don't look if you're gonna get queasy on him.]

Keep some tabs on being breakable til this clears up. I have a feeling you'll run out of feet before I run out of shirts.

[No point in avoiding the elephant in the room.]

[heavyhitter]

[ She can tell he's not all that comfortable with genuine thanks, which would make her laugh some other time. But she opts not to mock him for anything just now, and just settles into a quiet smile. She seems to run into a lot of people afraid of being genuine with actual feelings. It seems exhausting. Ramir tends to offer out trust a whole lot sooner than many, but because she knows she needs the support. One person alone can't do much, can't even survive that well in the wrong places. She's not afraid to initiate a connection, nor to prove she gives a shit. And Jason, he's definitely proved himself firmly in the category of someone she can give a shit about and rely on, just when she'd really needed it -- it's an immense relief.

That quiet smile lasts right up until he motions for one of her feet, then dips into a huff. ]

Come on, I'm breakable, not useless. [ She reaches to bat his hands away and snatch the shirt-shreds for herself. Elephant: acknowledged and once again put off. ] I got this.

[gutpunching]

[Turns out being raised by Batman after a hard knock childhood does not, in fact, an emotionally stable person make, what a shocker. Not even counting the whole resurrection complication. It's not even that he doesn't miss that kind of thing—hell, just the opposite, he's sort of starved for it—but he's so shattered on the matter of trust that somewhere along the line, he'd stopped letting himself believe in it very easily. Too bad, too. Fifteen year old Jason Todd would have definitely preened at the attention of a pretty girl who could probably punch his lights out.

So much for chivalry. He holds his hands up as if in surrender, then rocks back on his heels so she can take care of the nitty gritty herself.]

My mistake. You sounded a little rusty.

[On the acquiring injuries front. Though he does recall, now, that she hasn't always been bulletproof. Either way, he can understand wanting a little control over a situation, so he's not particularly offended. They're far enough from the eruption to take their time regrouping.]

[heavyhitter]

[ She shifts as soon as she's got the work to herself, propping her heel up on her thigh. ]

Just like riding a bike.

[ Which... could be true. But in her case it's really only been a few months since she was getting hurt and fixing it herself, so she hasn't had time to find out. She works pretty proficiently, wrapping the cloth around the arch of her foot, winding it carefully to double as bandage and shitty, makeshift shoe. She winces a little whenever it presses against a gash. She might not forget how to bandage something, but she'd definitely forgotten how sharp pain like this could be.

She pauses after she's tied it off, ready for round two but suddenly backed into a corner with the whole sitting-in-water thing. She glances up at Jason. ]

Okay. So I didn't think this through.

[ Does she switch feet and get the bandages wet? Does she actually get to demand a ride?? ]

[gutpunching]

[It takes him half a second to catch on. He raises his brows once it pings in. Ah. Whoops.

Alright, looks like she gets a ride anyway. Well played, if...accidentally so. Or maybe she's just that good. He braces his hands against his knees and pushes himself upright so he can get a little closer and stoop down to scoop her up.]

Come on, princess. We'll do this damsel-style.

[Keep her foot out of the water and the sand until he can find somewhere dry to put her so she can finish up. There are some battered rocks by the treeline that'll probably do.]

[heavyhitter]

[ She pushes herself up with one leg, feeling a little weirdly bird-like as she keeps the other out of the water, already with a hand out to steady herself on Jason. That would be really embarrassing to topple over and ruin it anyway. She reaches up to wrap the non-burned arm around his neck, timing it with the scoop up. ]

Nice. [ She's soaked, unhappy, tired, and sore, but you gotta appreciate the little things in life. For example, a totally built, shirtless hot guy carrying her out of the sea on a beach. This is gonna be a great memory. ] This is what romance novel covers are made of.

[gutpunching]

[Jason waits til she's got an anchor hooked around his neck before pulling straight again so he can slog through the surf. Still hurting some from getting knocked around, but she's not heavy enough for it to be much problem over the short stretch of beach. He does exhale in a sharp scoff when she finds her silver lining. That's one way to look at it.]

Oh yeah, the whole fire and brimstone vibe in particular. I hear a few near death experiences can really set the mood.

[He's usually more of a classic lit kind of guy, to be honest. Finally free of the waves, he makes for the treeline so he can set her down somewhere a little less watery. Even better, it gives them a little cover in the process. The chaos from the peak of the explosion doesn't seem to have reached this far down, and the ocean's in bolting distance in case of emergency, but he's inclined to keep a low profile as a rule.]

[heavyhitter]

[ This is, she has to admit, kind of weird. She's not usually a being-carried kind of lady. But Jason's tall and, as previously noted, totally built, so she's not too worried that she'll be much of a strain. She just leans in to make herself comfortable, and settles carefully as a rock along the treeline gets picked out. That'll do.

Minorly irritating is the fact that now she wants to steal a kiss even more — but now she probably shouldn't. People she's in the business of thoroughly trusting deserve a little more respect than that. It's really annoying. So she just purses her lips and pretends she hasn't noticed how physically close to him all this has gotten her. ]

Yeah, there, here's way better for open foot surgery.

[gutpunching]

[Look, you literally asked for this a few minutes ago, now live with it. They can both ease a little out of their comfort zones, today.

If they were going any further he probably wouldn't have opted for the princess carry. As is, she gets a little heavier once they're out of the water, but he does okay on the way over to the relative shelter of the treeline. Ignorant to Ramir's very serious crisis of boundaries, he sets her down on her chosen operating table so she can finish up, then rakes the water out of his hair and looks up in the direction of the volcano. Even down here and dripping with seawater, the air is still way too hot, choked with ash.]

If you don't need me scrubbing in, doc, I might get the lay of the land.

[He won't leave shouting distance, but it couldn't hurt to get their bearings and figure out what they're doing next.]

[heavyhitter]

[ She settles with her bandaged foot carefully laid out on the sand and the other propped up on her thigh again. That lasts just a short while before she winces and turns it into a balancing act, sitting cross-legged on her stone with no feet on the ground. Slightly better.

With a distracted wave as she sets to work: ] Yeah, go for it. Let's make sure there's no more big rocky guys, I'm not feeling up to round 4 or whatever.

[ At least they're close to water, though. If any of them do show up it won't be hard to hobble back out into the waves, as undignified as that kind of a plan is. ]

[gutpunching]

[That's the plan. The water's a good fallback to have on their side, but better to know the coast (hah.) is clear before they have to risk picking up and moving out blindly. More than that, now that their plans have gone belly up and their big guns are either sputtering out or supercharged, the crew's probably gonna need a bit of a regroup so they can figure out where they hell they stand. He's already on his way out while she gives him the go ahead.]

I'll keep a low profile. [Round 4 doesn't sound like a lot of fun to him, either.] Five minutes.

[If he's not back by then, please feel free to assume the worst.]