epidemiology | EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEKS 3 + 4

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EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEKS 3 + 4

ZETA-12: WEEKS 3 + 4

After making their way through the biting cold of the tundra and the forest's deadly chasm, team Audentes reaches the swamp. Once there, their squidges will begin to transform.

For each choice your character has made, select one squidge evolution. Please note, you must have submitted your choice to the threads in the previous logs in order for your squidge to evolve.

For those who crossed the ice, there are two options. If they succeeded, their squidge has taken on one of the following features: fluffy fur, the ability to freeze small things with their breath, or small foxlike ears. If they fell through the ice, their squidge has one of these: fins, minor hydrokinesis, or protective scales.

Those who chose to walk around the ice, whether east or west, will have squidges with one of these attributes: faster speed, climbing ability, or goat-like hooves.

As for week 2 choices, everyone who soothed their squidge will find them with one of the following: small wings (able to keep them about a foot off the ground at most), a calmer demeanor, or the ability to soothe fear by touch.

For the grouping crew, one of these: the ability to heal small wounds on other squidges, long ape-like arms and hands (for hugging!), or a beautiful singing voice that can act as a beacon for other squidges.

Squidges that were forced to cross will have one of: increased independence, clawed fingers, or sharp teeth.

These evolutions may take place at a rate of your choice. Please note that apart from these changes, the squidges will not be undergoing any further physical development (size, etc) for now!

THE SWAMP (WEEK 3)

The swamp is damp and spooky, filled with rotting logs and large, spindly trees. The water level dips and rises, making traveling slow and difficult; at some points, there is no dry land at all, so recruits will either need to wade or find some other way to get through the murky water. Some of the fallen logs may create a series of interconnected bridges if you're nimble enough, but be wary not to put too much weight on the rotten parts of the wood.

Because there are no animals on this planet, recruits won't need to worry about mosquitos or crocodiles, but still be wary of dermal vines, which continue on from the forest, as well as something lurking beneath the water: in deeper portions of the swamp, recruits may run into a gangly, humanoid creature with gnarled fingers and a body made entirely of vines and twisted roots. The creature makes no sound and does not breathe, but it moves quickly and can shoot a cloud of powerful neurotoxin out of its maw.

Make your choice: You can attempt to fight the creature, but not all attacks will be effective and you risk injury to you or your squidge. Outsmarting is possible as well -- as the creature has no eyes or ears, it senses its victims through heat. Do with that what you will. Finally, you can choose to wait for someone else to do something and ride their coattails, as long as you’re okay with living with that. Please indicate your choice here.

After a week, the scenery begins to shift, lightening up as trees become fewer. Welcome to the grasslands.

THE GRASSLANDS (WEEK 4)

As opposed to the swamps, there are few hazardous plants in the grasslands. The most dangerous are more annoying than anything else: fluffplasters, the hairs of which become sticky and eventually harden like cement if they’re disturbed. For the most parts, the grasslands are grass, grass, and grass, with little variation in appearance. In fact, it’s kind of hard to tell if you’re going the right way, or if you’ve been here before. Everything sort of looks the same.

The other flora found are happygrass, which has a short-term calming effect on anyone who ingests it. On the other hand, beebulbs, long, spear-like stalks whose bulbs contain a delicious liquid which invigorates the drinker upon ingestion. Too much either way can lead to laziness or hyperactivity. A geared up squidge is a happy squidge most of the time, but there’s also the possibility of heightened anxiety.

The weather is pleasant for most of the journey, but near the end, the wind picks up and a storm begins to brew. The wind whips around and, while it’s very difficult to travel through (and very frightening for squidges!) it’s still possible to walk through.

The choices are these: Characters can keep going against the wind, although they’ll need to be wary of flying debris and their squidge’s fear. They can also choose to find shelter nearby -- there are several trees on the way that can be hidden under, a large cave many people can fit into a distance into the storm, and characters can also set up their own shelter. There’s less possibility for injury and squidge crying, but the tornado will put them back for hours; those who power through can talk their squidge through it, but they’ll still be a bit unhappy. Please select an option below to determine the future of your squidge.

Whatever choices the team makes, they’ll eventually all reconvene as they set up camp for the last time before they hit the desert.

OOC NOTES

This log ICly and OOCly covers two weeks! Characters may proceed at whatever pace they'd like, but going too quickly or too slowly will mean they travel alone. (And those going too quickly will probably have to contend with screaming squidges, who prefer to travel at the speed of an easy plod.)

New characters will find one of the unbonded squidges toddling after the group takes a shine to them. A squidge will imprint on them very quickly, then refuse to leave their side or rejoin their unbonded friends.

Direct questions about the Zeta-12 mission here. And don't forget about the bounty board!

Please remember to select your choices in the threads below! How you choose will determine how your squidge grows. Please choose before July 21st, 12:01 AM GMT!

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[Ever since McCree had been bitten by the plants in the forest, Hanzo had decided to keep up creating the disinfectant paste until there was a better solution.

The smell of berries and sap come into the air when he unravels a leaf-bundled package and carefully applies the paste to Luffy's hands.]

I do not doubt your skill and strength, Captain. Your crew speaks highly of you, and I have seen your speed.

[Luffy is a bit of a dolt, but certainly far from weak. A pirate with a good heart, apparently.]

[What he expected Hanzo to do was probably the same thing his pre-doctor crew to do when there were bruises and cuts to take care of. Clean with water and wrap in cloth. When Hanzo brings out that paste, however, he's now leaning over in interest.

Now that was cool.] Nihi, you have. [Hanzo called him 'Captain' again.] A Captain's gotta' be strong enough to be able to support his crew.

[And he glances up, giving his fingers a little wiggle.]

Try to stay still. [Hanzo attempts to sound as if he isn't scolding Luffy, but probably fails.

When the paste is done, he starts wrapping his fingers individually to make sure he still has some movement in them. He expects them to be torn off by the end of the day, but he'll have down his own part.]

And that is true. They believe in you, so you must be doing something right. [It's spoken a little wryly.]

There. You are done. No matter how strong you are, you are not invincible. Bear that in mind.

[He'll do his absolute best to stay still, even if he wants to shift his feet. The longer he stayed idle in the swamp water, the more jelly-kneed he felt.

At least Hanzo will be able to wrap his fingers without much of a struggle--a small victory for him, in the very least.]

Yeah, I know that. Which is why I have so many nakama. [The more people to support each other, the safer you were. His shoulders hunch up, and he grins.]

Hey, Hanzo.

Wanna join my crew?

[There are two things that startle him.

First, Luffy uses his name without any prompting from him. Hanzo had resigned himself to the idea that this silly, good-natured pirate was going to call him Okami for the rest of the time they knew each other. But apparently not so.

Second, it's the offer. He's gotten a better understanding of how important Luffy's crew is to him. It is more than that; they are his friends. A family. They are closely knit.

How stupid of him to ask Hanzo to join. But then, he made the decision to not announce his greatest dishonor to everyone, out of respect for Genji.

Hanzo is still for a moment, then frowns and jerks his hands away sharply from Luffy.]

You do not want someone like me on your crew.

[From what he could see, Hanzo was a good addition to his crew. Not only was he smart but he's strong, too--capable with that bow and competent with all the obstacles they've faced so far.

And besides that, Luffy liked him. Even if he was grumpy and ornery, Hanzo did know how to have fun--all it took was a little pushing. He's spent more than enough time with the man to decide he'd be a good fit to his nakama--the 'family he chose'.]

Yeah, I do. If I didn't, I'd not have asked you. [What kind of answer is that, Hanzo. Yeah, he really does.]

Stop it.

[It takes Hanzo a moment to gather himself; it would be easy to snap at Luffy, call him a fool, and walk away.

But he's spent a few weeks with him. For how short-sighted Luffy is, the pirate makes up for heart and strength. In his own right, there is a cleverness. And it's not his fault for simply not knowing better.

Hanzo takes in a deep breath, then steels himself.]

You will know why.

You spoke to my brother, Genji. You know of him now. You will know that parts of him are no longer human, but machine. It was not on purpose.

I tried to kill him. I thought I had, until a few weeks ago. For ten years, I thought I murdered Genji, only to find that I took away his ability to touch, to walk on normal feet. To eat or sleep normally. To rely on implants in order to live. I did worse than kill him, I maimed him.

It was no accident. I attacked him, with the intent to destroy. You deserve to know this about the man you invite to your nakama.

[Hanzo wasn't the first to reject his offer outright. He doubted the man would be the last. Those who said no so often had a reason, and of course, Luffy expects now to be shut down entirely, or perhaps an explanation.

It's better to get the latter before the former, because he's not entirely unreasonable--he can understand a refusal if there's something they need to do first. A dream to fulfill, or an obligation to another cause.

Perhaps part of him expects this of Hanzo, too. And He's quiet in order to listen to it, too. And what he hears isn't actually expected. He'd gotten from Genji that he and the dragon-tattooed samurai had a rough past--and he didn't need the extreme details to understand that there was some bridge there in need of being repaired.

'I did worse than kill him, I maimed him.' He was a cyborg. Franky in his crew was a cyborg too. It was a life he couldn't understand. But...

It's this sentence that makes his gaze solidify, zone in on.]

He's not dead. He's alive. An' even if you hurt him bad--bad enough to be considered a killer, murderer, untrustworthy... he lived. [Cyborg or no cyborg.]

And he wants to find a way to get along with you, too. He said to me himself. [The man you killed, the man you have hurt so badly wants to give you a second chance.]

I know the guy I'm invitin' to be my nakama's done some pretty bad stuff now, sure. But I also know that the guy's also being considered worthy of a second chance.

That speaks for itself.

I know what Genji says he thinks he wants. That he thinks I deserve forgiveness and redemption.

[And clearly, so do so many others. They are not approving of the act of trying to kill his brother, but welcoming the opportunity of another chance.

To be better. Hanzo cannot imagine himself as doing better, to be a good man. He dishonored himself, and destroyed the future he and Genji could have had.

That was your dream, not mine.]

And what do you think makes me worthy? Because I decided to have a race with you, or was it went I sewed your uniform? Those acts are not of a man deserving forgiveness for attempting to murder his own brother.

Acts are how a man proves himself in life, you know.

You go through life and do something horrible like kill your own brother, and yeah, that's pretty bad. Really bad. It's downright scummy of you. [He's not going to be gentle about it, he won't hide how he feels about that.]

If you owned that fact, and went through life as the guy who killed his brother and used it as fuel to be a real evil guy, then I think I'd want to kick the crap out of you right now. [And the way he says this--it's entirely confident that he'd win.]

But ya don't. The way you talked to me about Ace, how you reassured me about him when you asked before. The way Genji thinks you're still his brother, his family.
You didn't own that evil at all. And you're living every day in memory of your failure as a brother.

I asked a guy capable of redemption and strength into my crew.
And I ain't taking it back.

[Life is not so simple as to define it under the nature of good or evil. That, he knows too well; his upbringing mixed the notion, defining good as the task of upholding what was right for the Shimada clan. After thinking he had killed Genji, that understanding was destroyed.

No, he couldn't revel in that, cruelly using the act to empower to himself. The choice broke his heart, and he lived in misery for years. Lives in it now, knowing what he'd done, or nearly had done.

Strength and redemption. Hanzo doesn't know that he truly has either in him, but everyone seems to see something.

Hanzo frowns as he contemplates.]

What would you have me do if I joined you?

[It isn't a yes.

But it isn't a no.]

[The past always affected the future, Luffy wasn't so stupid as to ignore something like that. But the past also, in his opinion, shouldn't drag down what you do in the future.

What drives you is in the past.
What matters most is in the now.]

Well, you probably won't be coming back with us, so you won't be a ship pirate here or anything. [Even if it'd be cool if Hanzo COULD come back to the Big Blue with them.] But you'd be our nakama. We take care of each other, and we protect each other.

And oh yeah, most importantly, we go on adventures together. Share the work, share the rewards! [Honestly... there's not much difference to what they're doing now, except you'll be named as an offical Straw Hat pirate.]

[Nothing would truly be different, except that it is an important word. Nakama. It would be inclusive. Not unlike how he was invited to Overwatch, as Genji wants him to.

Hanzo looks away, frowning in thought. They're already working together, but...]

Let me think about it, Captain.

[Of all things... it wasn't a no. In his head--sorry Hanzo--it's as good as a Yes.

He's going to meet that single ~~damning~~ sentence with a bright--but genuine smile.]

I'll wait for you to make up your mind, then! [He'll ask you about it again soon, I'm sorry.]

Thanks, Hanzo!

[Such a strange pirate. Hanzo shakes his head at being thanked; if anything, it should be the other way around, considering Luffy was the one who invited him to join.

He snorts and turns his head away.]

I will let you know what I've decided, soon.

For now, we should continue on.

[Maybe it was a bit backwards--but he was a bit backwards as a pirate anyway. So it all seems to fit in when you really take a moment to think about it.

Hands on his hips, and looking back out at the smoking mess Sanji left behind... he nods his head.]

Yeah. Coby took my stuff and booked it, so we should go catch up to him. [He feels so naked without his straw hat.]

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