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

[gutpunching]

[He settles both feet back on the ground equally and cocks his head back at her. Not one for cat and mouse games or doublespeak, this one. But that too, she'd made apparent pretty quickly.]

And ruin my mysterious airs?

[Hah. Well, no point in beating around the bush, then, if she'd going to play that way. This ought to be interesting.]

Are you gonna tell me?

[defenceless]

[doesn't he appreciate it?

he deals with what she picked up on; he's aware of it already. how much must it hurt...?

her lips press together when he throws out his typical replies, but she supposes it's her making the leaps in logic if she expected him to be choked up about this. instead, rin hunches her shoulders. her blue eyes stare right at him.]

Listen. I don't care about it because the one person I trust most in this crew is basically in the same situation, but...

[at least her eyes are honest.]

... your soul left this world once, didn't it?

[for all she knows, it's not an exactly scientific account. it may not even be the reality, for jason—understanding how life and death work on his world, on her own, and on these islands is far beyond her. so she goes with words that convey her meaning well enough.]

[gutpunching]

[Sincerity is trickier to navigate than sarcasm, makes it harder to hold yourself at arms length. Just another defense to use, to cover your bases and your weaknesses, armor yourself against getting hurt.

He can't know what she thinks she's picked up on until she tells him so. And it's not at all what he'd been expecting. He does stop. Freezes dangerously, the lingering irreverence draining out of his posture and his expression, attention sharpened like a knife in her direction. She isn't the first person to call him out on it. Loki had noticed it, too. Turns out borrowed time can be a tangible thing on some radars.

He could dodge the question. (Wasn't this world, but that's not what she means and he knows it.) Instead, slow and sardonic—]

Sounds like we're a regular dead man's party.

[No elaboration, no explanation, not so fast. What's it to you?]

[defenceless]

[if he's sharpened like a knife, she's ready to be cut. this is no time for falling apart and looking weak, now. and despite how she might worry about him over his life-after-death experience, it would be foolhardy to extend another hand, only so it could be refused. maybe he isn't "over it", after all, but it's none of her business.

through archer, she's dreamed the pain of living years of a life someone may not have wanted—the grim, too genuine expression on her face when she remembers the gallows and the swords in his back doesn't fade. finally, she flips her loose hair behind her shoulder, and she whips to the door.]

... Like I said, it's nothing. It doesn't change how I think of you or how I would treat you. I simply thought you would appreciate being told, rather than me keeping it in the dark.

Take care, Jason. My username is "Tohsaka Rin" if you break something else.

[she will walk right out if he doesn't stop her. he has one last chance to say something if he wants, but she knows she's due no elaboration.]