EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

[futurologists]

MAROONED Three days after the eruptions wrecked their havoc, a storm begins. It's not so different from the storm the recruits first encountered upon arrival, but this storm seems oddly and peculiarly driven. In some places of the islands it's nothing but pattering rain, but in other places it's strong enough to lift a fully grown human off his or her feet. And that's just what it does. It sweeps up recruits here and there -- not all of them, and there is no apparent method to who it takes and who it leaves. Some stay on the Nalawi islands, some are simply swept up into the sky. Here and there the storm grabs a Nalawi as well, but these victims are always dropped again. Sometimes out over the water, sometimes crashing down into land. They do not generally survive this. The recruits stolen by the storm aren't aloft for long. They emerge eventually from the tumbling, buffeting, blinding winds, spewed out onto the beach of a strange new island. This island, to anyone paying any attention to their surroundings, is a recent addition to the surface of the ocean. In fact, flying in the face of physics and statistical likelihood (much in the way the storm had), it seems to have recently been on the seafloor. This island was clearly once inhabited, although it's been a long, long time since then. Uniform structures can be found arranged in streets and avenues, now all thoroughly caked in barnacles, coral, seaweed, and other assorted debris of the sea. Here and there can even be found dead fish, suffocated when the water began to drain away and turn to open air. Most of them are horrifying, the things that tend to keep to the dark depths of the water. Toward the center of this empty, silent, sea-claimed city a giant sea serpent threads around and through several buildings. It's just as dead as the rest of them, its huge, pale eyes staring at nothing. There are a few things here that aren't quite dead, though. Sometimes something armored, dull red, and hungry crawls out of some dark place. These creatures can't really be compared to anything on the surface, but they are each about the length of a human, with three sets of sharpened limbs held up off the ground, used for stabbing forward to pierce its prey, and one set of pinchers below that. The pinchers might anchor prey in place for easier stabbing, but they also create a tiny sonic boom when clacked. Standing too close to this can leave you dazed and momentarily helpless. These creatures aren't fazed by the lack of water around them, they're just hungry and ready to feed on anything nearby -- even each other. The danger they present to recruits is at least slightly mitigated by an unknown force, though. If a recruit finds themselves unable to handle one of the creatures or overwhelmed by it, the storm itself will lash out at the thing. This isn't a very precise defense, but it is generally enough to pick up one or both of the contestants and separate them. Nothing here looks anything like what can be found on the Nalawi islands, except perhaps the flora. It's difficult to tell. What trees have been left are waterlogged, petrified mockeries, it's unclear what they may have looked like while this island still lived. The buildings are all very inorganic, made of processed material and with the obvious aid of machinery. Whoever lived here was actually very proficient with machinery, it seems. Within the buildings, some residential and some commercial, can be found the rusted, now-useless remains of a technologically advanced society. Personal belongings can also be found, waterlogged and largely ruined, and all in an upset as if they had gone through frequent and destructive earthquakes. Still, they can tell the story of mundane, day-to-day lives here for anyone who cares to look. Food is going to be a little tricky to come by unless you're a fan of seafood; fishing will be possible for anyone who opts to brave the edge of the storm, and of course there are the bizarre delicacies so thoughtfully raised up from the seafloor, dead among the streets and buildings. Recruits would do well to be careful with those, though. There is a particular kind of seaweed that, while it looks perfectly innocuous, will cause vivid hallucinations an hour after ingesting, for 10 minutes to three hours, depending on how much was ingested. Above all else, though, is the eerie silence. The storm rages on, but although it completely surrounds the island, it keeps to the perimeter. Even the rain stays off of the island, though the sun is obscured by the heavy, ominous clouds. Thunder rumbles now and then, punctuated by lightning flashes, but there isn't a single sound on this gray, dreary, dead island that wasn't made by an ALASTAIR recruit. OOC INFO Recruits will ICly be here for one week, and OOCly the log will last for two. The storm will prevent any travel off of the island. Should anyone feel brave enough to try risking a trip into it, they will find it still possesses that ability to literally sweep recruits off their feet. It might also be due to this mysterious storm that no one on the island can seem to reach out to anyone on the Nalawi islands via jewelry network, nor to any of the NPC recruits they'd met at Oska. Players who signed up for plot slots will be receiving additional information, which we ask they share with the rest of the characters. You may sign up here for information that can be found while exploring the island, as well. Please direct any questions to the OOC write up.

Comments

[defenceless]

I'm not a drunk.

[rin retorts, and her eyes flash briefly in an anger that could only be irritation. obviously she's not if she doesn't make it a habit to get drunk, but it's the principle of the thing. with that, from her direction, the mood effectively lightens.

he doesn't "forgive" her and she notes that, although she wasn't expecting it. okay. that will do. she's not in the pattern of denying her gut feelings about something, what her instinct tells her—because it's never steered her wrong before. she saw something in his eyes, then, she thinks, even if she was drunk, but she can push it away and act like none of it matters.

it doesn't. when did she become so concerned about another person's sob story? (she's always too compassionate for it to fit with the attitude she shows off.)

rin pats her lap. second time's the charm.]

Anyway, let's try this again. Relax, and trust me. I'm your teammate. I'm not going to screw you over.

[gutpunching]

[Past Rin's blood alcohol content has something to say about that protest. Her indignation works out. Letting her work her mojo is still edging out of his preferred comfort zone, but needs must, so Jason's more than happy to let the conversation slip back into more neutral territory while she does it.

Eventually, he exhales, then rewards her with an exaggerated grimace before he obliges and lifts his foot back into her lap. He's paying for the back-and-forth and the stress he's put on it with a constant and crisp ache creeping further and sharper into his nerves. It doesn't do much for his mood, either.]

Yeah, we're one big happy family.

[Isn't that a joke. Jason's not much of a team player, nowadays. But anyone who thinks their little crew is much of a team in the first place just hasn't been paying attention.]

[defenceless]

[that's the whole point. they're not a team, not yet, but the only way they'll become a team is by people believing they're one.

jason is acting like the biggest whiny baby, to her. disgraceful. even so, rin holds her tongue, shaking her head to briefly shift her hair out of place—all his attitude means is she'll just have to make him eat his words. as soon as his foot is settled, her hands gently slip back into their former spots around his ankle, and she keeps her end of her promise when she warns him,]

... It will be the same as it was, to start. [sure enough, the same thrum of magic and energy rises to life with a dull tremor; her eyes adopt that swirling-watery quality to them. the glow is secondary, and right between her fingers wrapped around his leg.] All I'm doing is guiding everything to establish a better flow. That means I'm moving blood and any excess from the swelling—to be reabsorbed, or to help out more efficiently in easing the damage.

[she's no doctor, though.]

What I'm really looking for is just to feel your energy run smoothly.

[gutpunching]

[Good on her word, she explains what she's doing before she gets to doing it. It's interesting, in the way that superpowers are always kind of interesting, even after you've seen them again and again. Defying the usual definition of humanly possible. (Hell, if she's even human at all. He's not a xenophobe.) He actually liked that about the Titans, in his very short tenure. Watching the likes of Donna Troy or Raven do what he can't. Learning ways to match himself against it. Work with it. (Like a team. So much for that.) He doesn't deal in metas very often, these days. Until ALASTAIR picked him up.

Whatever she's doing, it doesn't hurt exactly, not in a way that can be any worse than the low-key agony it's set in with already. But it puts his teeth on edge. Like biting down on tin foil.]

Sounds real zen. [He closes his eyes for a few seconds while he tries to make sense of it. His blood is humming distractingly. The whole thing kind of kicks back at how wired and tense and on he still is, all the time. Smoothly is easier said than done, because nothing about Jason Todd runs smooth. He puts up a good front when he's trying, moves without a hitch in a fight, but it's not hard to poke holes in it once you know how to look. He is broken glass and bitter coals, feedback loops full of jagged edges and coiled knots.] Do I need to think happy thoughts? Find my center?

[Is he even serious, it's hard to tell.]

[defenceless]

[rin, in contrast, seems to loosen up the longer they linger here, just like this. her hands shift and at first it would appear there's no purpose to it, if not for the fact that the unnatural feeling follows along with them—it heightens, but his ankle is lighter—she's performing something delicate enough to be surgery beneath the surface, but with a skilled reassurance behind it that doesn't brook any doubt.]

You don't need to do anything. Sit back and relax. Don't guys eat up stuff like this? —I guess not you, you're a jerk.

[it's not a sharp reply. it's direct, but she's pretty clearly lost her fangs. could it be... a joke? maybe?]

I'm the one who has my work cut out for me. With someone like you, it's easier said than done.

[another matter-of-fact jab that almost, almost has a hint of good-natured sarcasm to it. she's not here to make him feel worse (regardless of what his opinion might be). surely if he can dish it out, he's able to take it.

a simple contact spell wouldn't reveal everything about him through this nebulous "energy" she's shaping, but it doesn't require genius to know jason's pent-up. rin pauses. her lips part and she thinks better on it, then a cooling rush like snowflakes drifting down on skin travels in time with her voice, dulling frayed nerves without leaving them absent the sensation anyone needs to get by.]

I'll numb it so you won't be in pain.

[gutpunching]

[Yeah, that's him. Grade A jerk material. He doesn't want to distract her, but letting things fall into silence doesn't sit as well, either. She's feeling chatty, anyway, it seems. He answers like a reflex.]

It is the first date. Wouldn't want a reputation of being easy.

[Second, if they count the aborted walk after the party. (The conversation at Oska probably doesn't count.) This is very clearly not a sincere answer. He lifts his eyes back to her hands when things get weird again, narrowed but a fraction less suspiciously. He stays put, this time, but—]

Don't go out of your way.

[This is partly ironic—she's gone out of her way by miles, at this point, and she's explained herself. (Sort of.) Partly a push to get on with it. He can deal, and the sooner it's over with the better. If she burns out trying to make him feel better instead of actually fixing him up it won't do either of them any good.]

[defenceless]

[she knows that. she's been working her magic on him all along with the understanding she would have to go about it slowly, carefully, and without an ounce of waste. her planning is directed so far ahead that even if her magical energy cut out on her completely, there's still enough of it shared between them for her to set the bones, the final step.

but he's right. logically, practically, rin has no reason to fix the break and add all the bells and whistles of the luxury of magical anesthesia. the numbing continues anyway. in the next minute or two, any remaining twinges of pain from his ankle will have disappeared, and stay disappeared.]

Can it. I told you before it's not something I can do, to just leave you like this. [she speaks distractedly, in a tone that's quiet and maybe out of place in how tender it is, and what could sound something like her scolding him is instead more a request for him to just accept it. please. at the end, though, she does make a soft "pfff" underneath her breath, like his ridiculousness never ceases to amaze.] If this is your idea of a date, I don't know whether to feel sorry for you or teach you better. Pickings are already terrible around here.

If you think I'm "going out of my way", take me out to a nice restaurant sometime.

[she's well aware all of it—asking him to let her do so much for him—is a weak argument. if they were ever really even to begin with, jason wouldn't be wrong to guess she's giving him far more than what his favor was due. but wasn't that true from the beginning, for a guy who stuck a gun in her face? she's just a nice girl. kind of. it's not sympathy, it's what she feels is right. she can "owe" him, but he'll never "owe" her, for this.]

[gutpunching]

[It's certainly been revealing, in some respects. She'd have to be a nice girl. To offer at all, let alone insist past him being difficult about it. Of course, telling him to "can it" only encourages him. (Regret going the extra mile, yet?) But given he's not at all comfortable with the whole magic process or the concept of letting her get too close or accepting (or needing) handouts from near-strangers with fuzzy motives, he's more than willing to drive the conversation a little farther away from the topic while they get it over with.]

I don't know, I hear a little danger really gets the blood pumping.

[But considering his shortlist of teenaged crushes involved Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon and Donna "Wonder Girl" Troy, he's probably not the best person to ask. He sort of missed out on prime high school dating window by virtue of missing most of high school.]

Besides, seems like all they're serving up around here are sushi plates and tetanus risks.

[Full up on rust and dead sealife here on Gilliagan's Island. Very romantic.]

[defenceless]

[she's happy to embrace that. rin's almost finished, by now, and it's only a matter of ensuring the groundwork she's laid is strong and defensible. this is taxing for a magus of her level with no real specialty in healing, but she grins and bears it. she's learning a lot about jason, too. despite how tense he is, her magic is causing things to run better.

it just goes to show her she's still amazing. jason todd will get what's coming to him. (by having his injury dramatically healed, but...)

her jaw is clenched tight, having worked through a difficult part, but her lips curl into a sly smirk at his quips. she's amused.]

You're always one step away from danger when you're dealing with me.

[at least she's honest???]

We'll be off of this island and finished with this godforsaken mission soon.

[her smirk smooths into more of a smile, then—and she could fuss about it, throw a mini-fit in her irritation and worry about a toss-up between being just plain forgetful or stupid, forgetting manners, but... she decides to go with it. turning to him,]

My name is Rin, by the way.

[gutpunching]

[He hadn't forgotten, and he isn't stupid. He's just cagey and not particularly concerned with making friends around the crew. Hasn't made pains to put up an alias, but doesn't go around introducing himself to everyone on the crew. Matters even less, now that ALASTIAR's gone and given them a handy magic directory that spills the beans anyway. Annoying, but manageable. No one here knows who Jason Todd is. (Was. Or that he's supposed to be six feet under in the Wayne Family plot back in Gotham.) Red Hood is a persona that he'd been picked up before he could put to use. (And Robin stopped being an option a long time ago.)

So, after a beat—]

Jason.

[defenceless]

Jason?

[rin raises her eyebrows. she was expecting a western name, but this one is interesting to her, for some reason.]

—Well, it does suit you.

[even if it was an alias, she would never think of him using that.]

[gutpunching]

[He cocks a brow. That's funny.]

Is that right?

[If you say so. Hadn't really thought about it. (Definitely not when he was growing up. "Jason" was no one. It wasn't until he started being Robin that he started feeling like he could really do something more than just get by for another day. Fix what was broken in Gotham. And what a load of lies all that turned out to be.)]

[defenceless]

Mmhmm. [she hums underneath her breath, and still smiling, allows her eyes to comb over the remainder of the room in front of her.] You have to know about it. The hero Jason, in Greek mythology. Leader of the Argonauts. I doubt it's really my place to say whether he was a good man or a bad one, but I'm sure he had his difficulties.

[she's not actually trying to insult him, or anything. it's making conversation. the "jason" of heroic spirits is probably sort of a jerk, too, but she doesn't know that for sure; she's never met him.

it's just the last little bit here, as far as the healing, and she's almost done. rin breathes out, shrugging her shoulders before letting them hang down as she relaxes.]

His jilted witch of a girlfriend is trying to murder everyone in my city, right now. What a story, huh? If I never get the chance to beat her senseless, I'll be mad.

[but she might never go home. she may willingly choose to stay with alastair... forever.]

[gutpunching]

[He knows it. He'd made the joke to Loki, since they were talking mythologies during introductions for obvious reasons. (Loki had opted for the slasher movie comparison instead.) But he wouldn't call his namesake a favorite. He huffs a breath out when he catches on to her meaning, rocking forward in his chair a little.]

Golden fleece aside, I'm not sure it's an example I'd like to live up to.

[(If anything, he's a little more of a Medea. Jason's an unlikely-looking fan of classic lit, and Euripides' tragedy is a pretty popular one. Medea's portrayal isn't entirely sympathetic, but the general themes aren't all that unfamiliar. Abandonment by someone you'd dedicated yourself to. Seeking out vengeance and justice in an unjust society.)

Of course, that's the same kind of bitter topic that had edged them into dangerous territory the last time they'd spoken. And this isn't book club. He skips right on past that to address the elephant in the announcement.]

Mind running that last part by me again?

[defenceless]

[what a coincidence that he could compare to medea. quietly, rin offers almost as an afterthought (don't worry, jason, it isn't entirely sincere) while she pats his ankle with both hands,]

Just a few more minutes. Thanks for being such a good patient.

[if asking about her home world is supposed to draw up some walls, he might be surprised by what he sees. there isn't a hint of hesitation at all in how she describes fuyuki city before she left it, fallen through a rift to become part of alastair. just thinking about caster sets a particular type of excitement flashing in her eyes—it's the thrill of fresh anger, the desire to challenge an enemy who took so much from her. the fire of revenge.]

The Princess of Colchis herself has staked out a claim to my city. She's an ancient sorceress with power unimaginable, just as the myths say. And a colossal thorn in my side. Back home, she's busy sucking the life energy—you heard me, souls—from defenseless people, all so she can do whatever she wants... I don't really care about what her goals are. She pisses me off.

[gutpunching]

[Don't patronize him, Rin!!!! His jaw locks again, and there's a beat where he has to wrestle back the disproportionally aggravated impulse to hackle or pull away out of spite. After all this song and dance, might as well see it through.

Better to concentrate on the elaboration. She gives it up without a fight, but that's not a big surprise—she's the one who brought it up in the first place. Not everyone has had distrust (from repeated and costly experience) or ridiculous caution (read: bat-paranoia) beaten into them from a young age. Some people actually like talking about home.

Even if it sounds like a whole lot of horseshit on the surface. It could very well be pulling his (metaphorical) leg. But considering the horseshit that goes on in his home universe, let alone the whole dimension hopping fun they're having— Well. These things happen.

He could spend time picking holes in the literary improbability of this. Instead—]

What's your game plan?

[Assuming, of course, that it's all true, and that she plans to do something about it. Her tone of voice implies she does.]

[defenceless]

[she's not patronizing him! there's only a few mostly-casualty-less ways she can ever reassure jason and at the same time, thank him for his restraint, and that was one of them. wouldn't it be worse if she looked at him with emotion—all that sappy, somber garbage?]

My game plan?

[her fingers fan back over him, and she proceeds with the magical "surgery". but talk of game plans obviously makes her something, if not even more thrilled. she faces jason with a smug half-grin paired with an almost surreptitious glance, as if to say she's very proud of herself and, yeah, she's kind of badass.

by varying definitions.

maybe.]

I'm glad you asked. I'll neutralize her magic with my gems, and then when there's an opening, break through and kick her ass. She won't even know what hit her. In a mage-on-mage battle, she won't be expecting me to use martial arts.

[confident, but this is the girl who suggested he fight with her at their first meeting. rin lifts a hand—it really is part of the procedure—and glowing energy runs up her arm to the dip of her wrist in straight-lined and jagged paths, an effect she deliberately shows off to him.]

With enough magical power enhancing your limbs, any strike can shatter bone and pop open organs.

[what a lovely visual...]

[gutpunching]

[Sometimes there's just no right answer with him, this is just how it is.

Anyway, all that and she wondered why he'd been wary of letting her screw around with his injuries. Still, even after that declaration and that demonstration, he regards her with little in the way of visible shock. She'd taken him off guard before, but his threshold for weird superpower bullshit is actually pretty damn high for a guy with none of his own, from experience. Still, you don't need magic to kill someone with your bare hands, he knows that intimately. Sure does make things easier, though. He drums his fingers against the side of this chair restlessly while she works.]

You'll have to get back there to do it.

[Off this rock and off this planet and out of ALASTAIR's little contract. Can't punch someone from a universe away. (Probably.)]

[defenceless]

[she doesn't quite shake her head, but rin turns her face a bit away from him and breathes out through her nose, in a slow huff of air that lifts her bangs. eerie lines of glowing magical energy climb up both arms; she positions one hand to either side of his ankle before she keeps speaking.]

... I know that...

[it's a somewhat gloomy admission, anyway. then again, with jason being the stunning conversation partner he is, she guesses she feels that much less worse about what she's about to do to him, here.]

This is going to hurt.

[too soon to really prepare for it, too soon to argue (and maybe she shot for that on purpose), rin slams her two hands into his ankle with force barely before she finishes warning him. it will be painful. but afterwards, the utter lack of pain will be proof enough of what she's just accomplished: setting the broken bones correctly.]

[gutpunching]

[Don't complain to him about conversational partners til you've had to sit on a rooftop with Batman all night.

Even with the warning, it's going from zero to painful pretty quick. He braces but blanches, spine gone stiff, knuckles whiting on the sides of his chair when he clamps down on the reflex to jerk away. It fades, but leaves behind a nice alarmed buzzing in his nerves while it does.

He sucks a breath in through his teeth and tests the waters, shifting the joint between her hands.]

Done, or was that one just for fun?

i'm glad he didn't punch her out 1/2

[defenceless]

[it should move smoothly, without aching or jumping the nerves even more. in fact, as he guides the joint to roll, he may notice it feels "normal"—exactly as it did before he injured it—minus the lingering pangs of having someone messing around in your body with magic.

rin gives him the freedom and especially the time to recover and test it out. she is direct with him, however, because they're just about finished completely; anything to hurry it along, seeing as he's the anxious type.] Done. I wouldn't waste your time with a second go on something like that. That's like asking for you to kill me.

[ha, ha. a fun joke with jason. but really, she's secretly thankful he didn't lash out at her, and she deflates of a little tension once she's in the clear.]

It's fun to give you exactly what you deserve every once in a while, but I won't let it go to my head. Only a little more. I'm going to anchor some of my magical energy in the fracture so that it doesn't split open again.

[it takes just a few fingers, the contact this time leading to a sensation like tough twine or thread wrapping over his bones underneath the skin—the benefit of added support, and his ankle is pretty much functional enough to stand on.

but that's when she notices what's so off about him.]

2/2

[defenceless]

[there's something strange about him to the core. if she had to compare it, it's like healing archer, or he touched a magical artifact on the scale of the fountain of eternal youth. but he's a normal human? she wouldn't be detecting such a weird incongruity unless—

he died once

—rin slowly twists her neck to stare at him, her face going pale before she tries to hide it by looking the other way.]

Um, now you're perfect. Don't be stupid with it.

he can be a gentleman

[gutpunching]

[Funny she should think of the fountain of youth.

Rin isn't particularly subtle with her reactions. He'd learned that about her about a minute after they first met. So when she freezes and pales, he spots it immediately—even if he can't know what's got her dander up without a better lead. She stares, and he waits it out. Hawklike and gauging, even after she turns away.

In contrast to his watchful attention, his answer is only mildly pointed.]

You're looking a little peaky all of a sudden. [He lifts his foot out of her lap to free it, eases it back down to the floor and test it out. Seems workable, which is great, actually. Mobility's important, for all he'd been wary of the treatment, he couldn't afford to turn it down.] Didn't overdo it on my account, did you?

[Looking a little faint, there, Rin. Like someone who'd overstretched herself. (Or someone who saw a ghost.)]

what a guy

[defenceless]

[of course, her goal had been for him not to notice. just like her true emotions are often too visible on her face, she has a bad habit of sometimes (most of the time?) reacting before she catches herself to dial it down. as he can probably guess, the shock was honest.

and she isn't stupid. jason isn't a guy who asks you if you're feeling faint because he's worried about you collapsing in this dirty little shack. he caught it. she messed up.

rin is apparently choosing to cover for her mistake, though. she swallows, tidies her leaf skirt, and rises to her feet, holding out one hand to jason like she isn't exactly innocent and she knows it, but she's not a coward, either. the first few words she says are almost engineered to prove that.]

This is more important. Let's see if you can stand. You don't have to worry about me. You won't pull me down.

[gutpunching]

[Hey now, he could be that guy. You don't know.

But no one's fooling anyone, right now. Jason doesn't call her out on it in so many words—it's a little premature. You don't go hanging around the heels of the World's Greatest Detective as a kid without picking up a few deductive habits, but all the deducting in the world still needs information to ease it along. And he's gotten better about biding his time, lately. He waits her out a little, then appears to drop it entirely.

Bracing himself against the sides of his chair, he opts to stand on his own steam, passing up the helping hand. He taps the toe of his boot against the floorboards, then puts his weight down on it. So far, so good.]

Not too shabby.

[He stoops to untie the old—now redundant—splint so he can regain his range of movement, tossing the scrap onto a table once it's freed.]

Any post-op advice I ought to know about, or should I just tell you where to send the bill?