epidemiology | EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

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EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You--

[He flinches back from an attack only he can see and darts forward, firing off a barrage of sparking energy that, strangely to his eyes, seems to miss his target entirely, smacking harmlessly into another building. It has to be the effect on his magic, Meallan tells himself, focusing more on running to the young girl's side. She's younger than he thought up close, and he immediately regrets not realising that sooner.]

It's all right, you can do it. [Despite trying to be reassuring, his voice is slightly too fast, a rush of anxious assurances as he glances back and concentrates, drawing on dwindling mana to raise a flickering blue barrier around them both.]

I'll be right behind you, I promise.

[More magic- she hoped he had a better supply innate in him than she had, or he'd risk wasting it all on this... whatever it was. Which meant... she fell back on her weakness. Not something she liked doing normally- but.]

I cannot-

[She shook her head, hauling herself back up to hands and knees, but no further. The feet peeking out from her long skirts were a mere three inches long, almost pointed and tightly arched. Not meant for running- barely for walking.]

Can you assist me?

[Maybe that would keep him from firing off any further magic if his hands were busy.]

[Confused, he looks down as she moves and then it becomes rather abundantly clear what she means. Shock is the first expression on his face, followed by the pity that he's certain she doesn't want but can't quite manage to hide fast enough, although he does make an effort to.

But his initial reaction falls second to the hopeless look he gives his own left arm, missing from the elbow down though the loosely trailing sleeve makes it difficult to tell.]

I don't know if I can. [Lifting her would be difficult and awkward for them both at best, though he's more worried that he might inadvertently cause her harm.]

Maybe you can hide in a building, I can keep them away for as long as I can...

No-

[No- that complicated things... And then he would keep wasting his magic... Sieglinde felt a sudden surge of doubt, was this really the best plan?, but she had nothing else in the split second needed to decide, and the last thing a person convinced of an idea would believe was someone rationally trying to explain that what they were seeing wasn't real...]

It's just... It's just balance-

[Her gaze caught what she hadn't at a distance, the emptiness of the left sleeve, and instead she reached out to clasp a hand over the forearm of his right.]

Please-

[Would saying "please" help? Though she hated the reasons for it, those older than her tended to respond to such things, and if it were for something like this, she could keep a lid on her pride.]

[Creators, he'd give just about anything for someone else to turn up now, but all he can see are demons hurtling out of the hole in the sky, some darting off out into the rest of this strange place and others launching bolts of magic that eats at his barrier.

They haven't got any other options, and even covering her as she hides isn't much of one so Meallan swallows and nods.]

If I bend down, you could hold onto my neck and I might be able to lift you that way? I'll have to run though, since I can't cast at the same time then.

That's fine-

[Her agreement comes out before he even finished speaking. Her goal was to stop him wasting his magic and once that was complete, once he thought he was safe then perhaps she could get to the bottom of just what was happening to him. Until then-

She struggled up and got her legs shakily half under her, reaching for his neck.]

[Taking a moment to refresh the barrier with a gesture, Meallan tucks his staff away on his back and leans down, letting her arms catch around his neck. It's close contact he's not entirely comfortable with a stranger but he doesn't imagine she's enjoying it terribly either, particularly as getting his good arm under her legs enough to lift her up entirely isn't easy and he's certain he jostles her feet despite his attempts to avoid it.

He lifts her up as quickly as he can manage, mindful still of the demons around them, and shifts to accommodate the weight.]

Are you all right? Ready for me to move?

[He might be glad to know that despite her difficulties walking and balancing, the wounds inflicted to her feet, calculated, ritualistic ones, had long past damaged the nerves. A little jostling barely registered.

She was used to being carried, so she at least arranged herself to take up less space, clinging tight so he wouldn't have to work as hard to support her.]

Yes- !

[He doesn't answer, not seeing any reason to say anything when the danger is still pressing. Instead Meallan holds the girl as close as possible and runs, swift and sure from a lifetime of doing exactly that though all manner of terrain. After a few blocks he slows, listening carefully but not yet daring to set the girl down just yet.]

I don't hear anything, do you?

[It was not as difficult as she'd imagined it would be, acting somewhat scared by things she couldn't even see and somewhat doubted existed at all. The fact that these things were real to him made it easier, arms tight around his neck and peeking back over his shoulder, just in case.

... But it still revealed nothing to her. Would ALASTAIR recruit someone whose mind was unreliable? Had he stumbled upon some sort of... magic? Poison?

It still seemed best to go along with it for now, to let it play out until she could get to the bottom of it. When he stopped she made a show of looking around, of listening, before she shook her head.]

No... not a thing.

That's something at least.

[Picking out a building that seemed a bit more intact than the others, Meallan made his way towards it, checking the entrance and inside.]

We can take a moment here to figure out what's going on. [He explains, kneeling down and lowering her as carefully as he can manage.] I don't understand how a rift could be here, or demons, let alone what to do about it all. I thought this was a different world.

[Sieglinde, for her part, would definitely like to know what was going on. She had time to get her feet under her since he put her down slowly, surprised to find her heart pounding even though rationally she had determined that this might be all in this man's head.]

It is-

[She kept a hand on one of his, trying to feel if he was feverish at all.]

What were you doing before the demons came? Maybe it was related to that?

[Meallan shrugs, letting her keep a hold of his hand for now, imagining that she needs some measure of reassurance about what just happened.]

Nothing that comes to mind really. Just looking around and trying to find out more about this place, the same as anyone else here.

[His brow furrows in thought.] I don't know why the rift would have responded to me, I'm... not as I was before, so it shouldn't have done that. Although it shouldn't have been here at all in the first place so I suppose there's that as well.

[No fever, no irregularities in his pulse beyond the elevated rate you'd expect from fear or exertion... Sieglinde kept looking at his face as if she could find something in his expression...

But keeping him talking she could do at least. Maybe.]

- What is the rift?

A hole in the Veil between this world and that of magic. When the Veil tears and a rift forms, demons pour out into the world and attack any they find.

[He moves away from her to cautiously look outside their hiding place, though he doesn't feel much better at the lack of demons there.]

If they're spreading out here, they'll attack all that they can find. I should do what I can to warn others and protect them, since I can't stop them directly.

There are plenty of strong people here- maybe they'll attack those mantid creatures instead....

[The excuses sound flimsy even to her own ears, but Sieglinde was saying anything at that point to try and reassure him, at the same time trying to reach a more definitive judgement on if he was actually insane or if something had affected his vision.]

Do you see anything still... ?

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EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

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