epidemiology | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, we've had it for a while. Though I've done a bit more of it than most people on Earth. [Please don't ask about the space program in Voltron, Rhys, we just don't know.

He's never heard of Helios, though.]

Do you have space travel? [Like they can somehow be at odds with one another over it!]

If I didn't have space travel, how would I have known to ask if you have space travel? [ Get your head out of your ass, Keith. A little boastingly, ] Of course we've got space travel. What are you gonna do, stay on one planet your whole life? [ It's exactly what people like Fiona and Sasha do, he supposes, but they're lower class, they don't count. ]

The gang was actually working— uh, we were working, anyway, on getting a spaceship together. [ He sounds very proud of this, but in actuality, he's not even a little bit. Being held at gunpoint (rocket-launcher-point?) and forced to find a way to get back to Helios or die is not really impressive. Also, they'd probably kill him if they ever heard him refer to them as 'the gang'. ] So, yeah, I'm pretty familiar with the concept.

[Look, space travel is really confusing in his world (or universe). Not everyone has it! But they know it exists! Keith has had to adjust to this pretty quickly. All he offers is a look of contempt. Of course, Keith agrees with the bit about not staying in one place. It sounds ... purposeless.

It sounds utterly close to what nearly happened to him.

He's pretty lucky nothing stayed that way.]

The gang? Like, a gang here?

...Yeah, I'm in a gang. [ They're called the Broken Glass Kids. 'Cause they'll cut you!!! But he shakes his head; even if he didn't mean a gang gang, Rhys still doesn't have a gang here. Not even a fun, Scooby Doo-esque, mystery-solving gang. ]

My— I meant my gang. Of people. Friends. You know, my posse. Back home, not here, nine out of ten people here don't even know what a spaceship is.

[Okay, after not getting the peanut butter whatever joke, Keith figures he deserved that. He knows what he meant about that usage of gang, at least.]

I know what you meant. [Just to clarify that he isn't that bad, okay? He just doesn't understand stupid candy puns that make no sense.]

I just wanted to know if there was one here, but I guess not. I get the feeling a lot of us could use a spaceship right about now.

[Or rather: after the tornado?]

[ I know what you meant, don't be so sullen, Keith. He raises his eyebrows a little bit patronizingly. After he finishes talking, Rhys shrugs noncommittally. It's not like he knows anything that's going on ever. ] I don't know, there might be. This whole deal is run by a computer program, maybe they know how to make ships, too? That would be awesome. [ It would be fun! He's only been in space a few times if you don't count Helios. If you do count Helios, he technically lives in space, but it's not the same. It's a moon base, totally different from a spaceship. ]

...But Acquisitions [ He means Lloyd with HR. He doesn't even know if there's anyone else who deals with getting them things, but probably not considering how disorganized they are. ] probably wouldn't give it to us if they did have one, because. Like I said. We're, like, two out of three people who know what one is, probably.

Wait, hold on. [Rhys said something that's more important than whatever Acquisitions is because right now, it doesn't matter if people know what a space ship is. What matters is that they can use it. Keith definitely would like to use it so that they can get this stupid mission over with.] What do you mean by a "computer program"? You aren't just messing around, are you?

[As if Rhys is the type to mess around.

Keith's opinion of him is finally revealed ... again.]

Nnn...nnnooo...? [ He squints a little, confused. That would be the dumbest lie ever. ] If I was messing around, I would have come up with something way better. Like, that we're run by a giant two-headed bullymong named Melinda, or something. —I don't know, I had to come up with that one on the spot, just. It would be better.

Anyway. Yeah. Computer program. By which I mean... computer program. As in... a program on a computer. [ What is he even asking??? It's a computer program. ]

[Actually, the Melinda thing sounds believable because it doesn't sound like a computer program that people are listening to. Cynicism is Keith's middle name only he doesn't have a canonical last name, so imagine that somewhere in there cynicism fits in.

Or maybe it is his last name.

Well, anyway.]

Do you think it's a good idea to just listen to some kind of program?

Uh, I don't recall saying anything was a good idea. I just said it was a thing that was happening. [ He shrugs a little, leaning back against the cavern wall. It doesn't actually sound like that bad of an idea to him, honestly; he's been listening to an AI computer program in his head for months now, and there is no way that will turn out any way but great. ] It just tells us where we're going next, pretty sure what happens after that is up to you.

Well ... have you been listening after the fact? [He recalls the discomfort that Haise expressed about the previous missions they had, as well as how the fallout went. Keith is basically asking in a "general you" sense, but Rhys has decided to make it about him.

So, he goes with it.

Thanks, Rhys.]

Me?

[ He snorts a little; Rhys barely contributes to anything, mostly because he's incompetent at things that involve punching and/or stabbing people. But if they ever need to pull a Nigerian prince scam or win a game of Tetris, hoo boy, have you got your guy. ]

It doesn't really matter if I do, everyone else is gonna do it, anyway. They straight-up killed a god. [ While he hid inside doing nothing, obvi. ]

I heard about that. I thought it was kind of strange that everyone just went for it, but obviously, I wasn't there. [The problem with this statement is this: it's not clear, but his quibbles with it aren't necessarily morality. No, it's not like he's a teenager with a bloodlust (though he kind of is in some ways), but he knows there are limits to what he can do.

Sometimes.

And sometimes, his knowledge of those limits only rears its head when he's judging other people.]

I'm not sure why they need so many of us when they've got the people following their every order, anyway.

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEKS 3 + 4

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject