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.

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[ A nap.

Well, Alice knew all too well how exhausting a situation like that could be. As she looks up at him, she doesn't hide the worry and fear on her face, where she is so prone to bottling her own emotions. She couldn't really see what he was seeing; judging from his reaction, it had to be terrible. Alice said nothing as she gave him a pitiful look, feeling like a small child as she gazed up at him, holding his hand. She hated touch, she recoiled from it, but she would bare it just a little longer, holding his hand to give him something physical as well as her voice to remind him to stay in reality. ]

Of course.

[ Being in the state that he was in, Alice would fret over him and ensure that he would rest properly. Hallucinations were unfortunately not without nightmares, as she recalled. She gave a small tug on his hand, just another reminder to remain in the moment. ]

Then let's go find a place for you to rest.

[ It remained on her lips, as she waited for him to move along -- "It happens to me, too." ]

_{[ It's alright. He usually doesn't have peaceful dreams anyway. Eyelids are halfway opened, his eyes looking lifeless as he tries to numb himself to the illusions around him.
He heard the clashing of swords in his ears, the screaming of death soon following. It was all the same thing he would dream about. Gintoki was apathetic to what was happening around him, which was probably the saddest part instead of reacting to it.

He was so used to it.
And Alice understood this too. ]}

It's exhausting.
_{[ You know. To think about all of this everyday and dream about it every night. ]}

I know.

[ She understood all too well. She watched him and his expression, searching for any worsening symptoms. When it didn't come, Alice would lead him along, through her own hallucinations. She took it up on herself to find a safe, warm spot for him and vowed to watch over Gintoki until he settled. ]

It happens to me, too.

[ She winced. She only ever vaguely confessed to walking in nightmares to Sion, when he was here. Her grip around his hand tightened. Maybe he would understand that this was an all too common problem for her and that she knew what to do. She became apathetic as well, almost a professional in terms of dealing and working her way through the hallucinations. ]

You don't have to worry, I will walk you out of it. It can be done, it takes time.

_{[ Gintoki didn't know what kind of horrors that Alice has gone through, but he'll be upset if it was anything like what he experienced.
His hand shifts, enough that he is holding her hand less awkwardly and more.. like a normal person. This is fine.

Funny how close Alice had gotten to Gintoki. He's her first friend here, and he's allowed her through so many walls that he had built up around himself.

He registers her words, though he's distracted by the mess around him, having trouble walking. It happens to her too, she says. Does that mean all the time? Because for Gintoki, this as a first.

He doesn't say anything and instead just squeezes her hand in a comforting way. ]}

[ She notices his movements, how he struggles to walk and Alice's pace slows. Once more, Alice turns around to look at him, to see if there's anymore signs of stress. It's difficult, she doesn't want to ask him about it; she hated when she was asked about these things, poked and prodded. It only seemed logical that it was best to refrain from asking Gintoki about it or if he saw anymore. She would be able to tell if he acted irrationally again.

As for her, it was the longest she'd maintained any sort of physical contact with anyone, in eleven years. It wasn't something Alice thought of, she would continue to guide him until she found a nice little spot, with plants for shelter nothing too terribly in the sand. ]

Just a moment.

[ She lets go, taking out her knife and hopping over pieces, ignoring any oddities she may see, because her ears will tell her if it's real or not.

Most times, today is a good day to know how real things sound. Once she deems it clear, Alice breaks back out into a jog and this time, gives a bit of a more forceful tug on Gintoki's hand. ]

Sit right here, Mr. Gin, before you lose your footing.

[ Or before he's completely overtaken by his visions. Or worse. Either way, Alice moves behind him, nudging him along. She does mean now. ]

_{[ Either way, Gintoki is at her mercy now for being a beacon in the madness that is falling apart before him. The shouts and cries of comrades, drowning in their own gurgling blood. He saw visions of people he knows— people he misses..
People like his friends from the war; his family from now. He even seemed mesmerized by the specter of what seemed to be his teacher, whom he saw decapitated on that sorrowful day by his own hands which were already tainted by the blood of hundreds.

Before he knows it, his body seems limp, but willing to do whatever Alice wants.
He sits on the floor and in a soft voice he speaks: ]}

Thank you, Alice. I—
_{[ He rubs his eyes because he feels them beginning to mist. ]}

I'm sick.
_{[ He has no idea what the hell is going on, but he doesn't want to be here anymore. ]}

[ He's far from the lively, nonsensical Gintoki she's used to. His reactions and demeanor indicate whatever he's seeing and dealing with, it's terrible. She worries for him that moment, how it will wear down on him and hopes that it doesn't continue. Quietly, Alice sits there, gazing at him, listening to everything he says to her. This omission will be kept close, she'll never utter a word of it to anyone. But comforting by means of affection is so limited with Alice; she dares not to reach out and hold his hand again. She'll remain by his side, as long as he needs it.

She knows resting will help, somewhat. It works for her, sometimes, why not with him? ]

You're not sick all the time.

[ She thinks she knows what he's referring to. He's not well right now, that would be defined as sick. ]

I wish I could do more than this, to push it all a way so that you cannot see it.

[ Whatever it is. ]

It will pass. [ No matter how dreadful and horrible visions are, they don't last long, even for Alice. ] Think about what is happening right now, what you see, feel, and hear. It will keep you here before you find yourself falling into a rabbit hole.

_{[ Stay with me, he almost says, but he's a little too arrogant to say something like that to her, so he keeps quiet.
Alice is somebody who just kind of wormed her way into Gintoki's heart and she's arguably one of the people he cares about most, but it's difficult for him to open himself up completely to her.

Fortunately, though, she has seen little inklings of what actually makes him tick— a feat in and of itself.

You're not sick all the time, she says. Not in this way, he isn't, at least.

Gintoki sinks down and down and down until he's lying on the dirty ground, closing his eyes. ]}

I.. don't know what this is.. other than a nightmare that's a reality.

[ She listens to him, all the while fighting off the urge to curl up beside him. Instead, Alice drops a bit of her guard, pulling her legs to her knees. ]

It's a hallucination.

[ Simple as that, a nightmare that is reality is something that she knows all to the well. Alice picks up a small rock beside her and tosses it to her side. Licking her lips, she debates it once again, telling him a bit more about those problems she suffers from, just so that he wouldn't feel alone in the matter.

He won't think any less of her, that much is clear. ]

It happens to me all the time.

[ She glances at him, waiting for some revulsion, something that would earn scorn. ]

If you rest as much as you can now, it will go away after a while.

[ But he is just as prone to nightmares, too, another commonality that they share. Telling him to rest doesn't dismiss that fact, Alice knows this. ]

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EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

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spends 84 years tagging this... sobs

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