EVENT ★ ZETA-12 WEEK 5

[futurologists]

ZETA-12: WEEK 5 As the journey wears on, the land underfoot dries out. Team Audiences has reached the highland desert… and of course, once again the squidges 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 encountered the swamp creature: If they stood and fought, their squidge has taken on one of the following features: hardened pangolin-like plates of armor, higher tolerance of loud noises, sharp(er) teeth. If they outsmarted it, their squidge has one of these: slow color-changing to match the environment, catlike eyes with enhanced vision, long ears. Those who made someone else do the work, will have squidges with one of these attributes: small horns, spines along the back, mildly toxic skin. As for dealing with the tornado: Everyone who found shelter will find them with a greater tolerance for enclosed spaces as well as giving off their own very slight heat. For those who powered through, their squidges will no longer be afraid of heights and be able to float several feet off the ground, regardless of whether or not they previously received wings. THE DESERT (WEEK 5) The desert has a little more to look at than the grasslands offered, as the grass begins to yellow and thin. Some stretches are just wide, empty swaths of dust and dirt, with not much more than the occasional rock or low, desperate scrub brush to color the horizon. Here and there are impressive outcroppings of rock, thrust up from the parched ground. Plateaus and mesas make the scenery, and overhead the sky is a wide, clear blue. The sun is merciless. Hopefully you filled your canteens in the swamp and the grassland, because water is going to become a pretty valuable resource out here. There are a few helpful flora to be found, though. Those Beachwoods will be pretty handy if you run out of water, just so long as you keep an eye out for the Red Stellas that tend to grow nearby. The Scarlet Oasis can even send you on your way with a meal, if you play your cards right. Have a care if you’re gathering any bristlegrass, though. While scenic in its way, the view doesn’t offer much clue as to what progress has been made so far. Three days pass in this way. On the fourth day, however, the recruits encounter their first choice. The ground has cracked open in their path. It yawns into a wide and dark cave, wonderfully cool after the scorching sun and heat of the desert. A breeze can be felt in the mouth of the cave, and their maps will indicate that any exploration into it is sending them in the right direction. It provides an alternative route to walking over the surface of the ground, a much cooler route. There might even be hidden streams of groundwater down there, who knows? It could be a refreshing jaunt. Of course, recruits can also choose to play it safe, and continue overhead as they’d been doing so far, where they can trust they won't run into any dead ends or have to backtrack. The going goes well for those who chose the caves. The cave system is apparently pretty extensive, because they manage to walk along in generally the right direction for a good half a day. Around dusk, though, this little dwarf planet hits a run of bad luck. Meteoroids. Those who chose to walk above ground will find the darkening sky suddenly growing brighter again as a meteor shower begins to burn in the atmosphere. Some of them don’t burn up entirely, though — meteorites begin to pelt the desert not far from the procession. Some of them might even be scattering into the procession. Heads up! But while those above ground only have to worry about dodging, those below ground will have much more serious concerns. This planet isn’t quite as sturdy as recruits may be used to, and the impact of the meteorites is enough to trigger a small earthquake. An underground cave is really not where you want to be during an earthquake, because even this small one is enough to cause a cave-in. Players of recruits who choose to take the cave route can opt to be trapped by this cave in, or can have their characters in the right place at the right time, to have their way to the exit unimpeded. Characters trapped may be freed at whatever speed players find realistic, but to find and free everyone will take no less than three days. Hopefully you brought a flashlight. Communication between those trapped and those above may be difficult, as the meteorites will cause interference and make the jewelry flicker in and out. We ask that you indicate the length of time your character is trapped along with your sign up. After the cave in ordeal is passed, though, the recruits aren’t quite in the clear as they finally reach the end of the desert. It seems the impact of the meteorites and the resulting earthquake released a few gases that had been held under the surface of Zeta-12. They’re invisible and odorless, and harmless to the squidge’s caretakers. The squidges, however, may begin to react to them. Squidges exposed to the post cave-in gasses will begin to get aggressive toward their caretakers and other squidges alike. The level of aggression can range from grumpy to murderous and last from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on the size of the dose. If anyone has been training their squidges to fight, they may regret it. OOC NOTES We decided to split things up a little! This log lasts ICly for one week, and OOCly for 1.5 weeks. Our next log will encompass the last biome and the final event, and will go up on August 11th. 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 choice in the thread below! Late choices will not be accepted. How you choose will determine how your squidge grows. Please choose before August 8th, 11:59 PM GMT!

Comments

[evantuality]

[The cavern refracts voices strangely, and Achilles's aggressive tone sounds downright eerie echoing up to Evan. He shivers: he can't quite help it, the cave-in has him entirely rattled and his system is pumped more full of adrenaline than he ever prefers to deal with.

Imber, who he had hunched around and over when the quake had begun and who's come out the other end apparently fine, squeaks in an empathetic echo of Evan's own shivers. The young man brings a hand to his squidge, looking to soothe it with a petting, but Imber burbles unhappily. He's a sensitive squidge.

Evan takes a deep breath and manages to calm his shakes most of the way, but he's far from calm. ]

It's -- ahh, it's Evan, I'm -- hold on, I, I'm up here, I think I can find my way to you.

[He sends his light down before him. He's right: the depression in the stone is a slanted descent, thankfully not a sheer wall but one he should be able to navigate.

In short order the pair below get the flickering light of Evan's hanging flame indirectly, and then directly as he presses it out before him down a curve in the rockface. He descends moments later, very gingerly picking his way backwards down an uneven sixty-degree slope.]

[longtempered]

[Aki edges a little closer to Leukos at the sound of a close fellow squidge's distress with a concerned burble of its own, still rather weepy but offering a small hand to Leukos all the same. It's more inclined to approach other squidges lately, even in these trying times, mostly out of some innate obligation to check for injuries and maybe heal them now. Since Shizuo has shrugged off its concern with obliviousness, Leukos becomes the next best option...

Meanwhile, the disembodied voice becomes significantly less disembodied soon enough, even if there's an odd bit of delay to start with. That flickering light certainly becomes visible first, though the silhouette carefully picking its way down the rocks starts edging into visibility through the dust fairly quickly. At the sight of it Shizuo draws away from the rocks and in Evan's direction, frowning a little, squinting in an effort to make out any defining features in the low light.]

Evan, huh? Welcome to the party, then. [This is more flatly deadpan than anything; honestly, out of the three of them, Shizuo's probably actually the calmest at the moment. (Hah, and isn't that something?) Having no potential loss of a significant other to worry over, and frazzled nerves from the earlier quake having already completely settled down, he can't really find anything to be angry or particularly concerned about here just yet. Sure, being trapped underground isn't great, but it's already lucky enough that they've gotten together a group like this. They'll probably find a way out, too. Eventually...

Right now, though, getting any closer isn't really helping with linking a face to this name. Apparently Achilles might already know whoever this is. But 'Evan'...he's heard this name somewhere before though, hasn't he? The voice sounds vaguely familiar, too, but for the life of him Shizuo can't place it just yet. Ah, it'll probably come back to him at some point...instead--] You alright, though? If you are, maybe you can help us out with this. ...Ah, and neat light there. [Squinting up at the light now...this sure is some floating fire here. Huh.]

[heelies]

[Having been plunged into darkness blacker than the dead of night when the downpour of dust from crumbling rock doused his torch, Achilles now squints into the flickering light thrown suddenly by Evan. There is no room in his heart, however, for relief that his acquaintances are unharmed, not when his heart is so heavy with cares, not when his worry has metastasized into this fury that overtakes his senses.]

Evan, we require your flame that we might discover the way out. I cannot wait a moment more, languishing here in this cave while knowing not if my dear Olivia too is safe or if she lies beneath a grave of cruel stone.

[Speaking thus, he abandons the unyielding stones and rises to his feet. His gaze he casts about the dimly lit cavern but it seems no more promising than the darkness from moments before.

The squidges, at least, begin to calm now that the darkness is dispelled and they can see their caretakers rather than having to rely on sound and touch as before. Leukos' whimpers soften from the anxious pitch to which they had risen before, but while it holds fast to Aki's arm its gaze remains fixed on Achilles.]

[evantuality]

I'm fine, yeah, I'm okay. [For all that he's shaken, it's true. He regains his footing, brushes himself and Imber free of dust.

Even as he responds to Shizuo, Evan's squinting at the man, sure he's heard this voice before... but there's little time for rumination before Achilles makes his demands, and Evan exclaims dismay as he turns towards the statuesque man.]

Oh, good lord. Olivia's on the other side of that? [His dismay doesn't hold a candle to Achilles's epic fury, but alongside his rattled nerves it's enough. The rockfall seems an impassable blockage to him, and he brings his flame closer to throw its light over the piles. Brow furrowed with concern, he looks at his new companions.] We're going to have to find a way around, aren't we?

[longtempered]

[It's true, Achilles' anger is getting to the point where it's veritably almost sucking the metaphorical air out of the room here--as bad with reading an atmosphere as Shizuo tends to be, even he's starting to notice it too. Altogether, it doesn't leave a lot of room for figuring out vaguely familiar voices and names...but well, that can always be saved for later anyway. Figuring out if Olivia's okay and getting out of here, that's probably best taken care of first and foremost...

Though, yeah, the prospects are currently looking rather meager here. Evan brings his fire closer to the rocks, illuminating the cave in general as he goes, and Shizuo can't say he's spotting any particularly clear ways out of here either.]

That's what we're figuring, yeah. Achilles said she was with him right up until that earthquake just now, so she's probably not far away from here. [He huffs a short sigh, drifting back over to the pile of boulders in question and kicking lightly at the base of one of them. (The boulder jolts rather disproportionately for such a light kick, even--)] Ah, it'd be a lot faster if we could get through these, probably...I still say maybe we should give moving these rocks a shot. If we hit them hard enough they've got to start budging eventually, right? [Shizuo looks up at the two of them.] It'll be easier now we have some light too. Find weak spots or something?

[He has no idea if getting through a pile of rocks in a cave-in actually works this way, but. As far as he's concerned, surely there's no harm in trying.....?]

sorry for the wait friends

[heelies]

[There is something frightening about the singularity with which his heart operates in moments such as this, the way his vision narrows to a tunnel and his rage sharpens to the precise point of an arrow head. On the night ere he returned to battle, bent on spilling from Hector a glut of blood enough to sate Ares, craving revenge whilst he crouched by Patroclus' side, he had refused food and sleep so salient was his grief. It is with this same hollow intensity that he turns again to the buckled wall of earth at present.]

Until I can make certain that she has still the life in her limbs I shall not rest - I cannot rest.

[Whereas before he had groped through the darkness like a blind man who must use his hands in clumsy imitation of his eyes, he can now approach the task far more decisively with the aid of Evan's flickering light, which reveals the shape of the stones that loom before him. He seizes one that appears loose and with ease hurls it behind him. The rock sails high over the heads of Saffron and the now cowering squidges, and when it strikes the cavern floor the whole chamber echoes with the sound.

Yet Achilles does not stop to comfort his charge, whose worries again swell just as embers might be stoked once more to flames by the wind. It is the lion cub who curls around the whimpering squidge and tries to soothe it with his broad tongue, while Achilles refuses to pry himself from the rubble that severs him from the woman he loves.]

[evantuality]

[Mounting alarm colors Evan's expression as the two express their combined enthusiasm for just wailing on rocks willy-nilly. That comes to a head when Achilles decides to play rock-toss and Evan instinctively hops backwards, making a noise of alarm. Imber in his sling echoes that noise, louder and higher, a short shriek.]

Ahh -- I don't think that's such a good idea, can we just, take a step back here and think about this?

[They're both so tall, and even if the guy dressed in a collared shirt isn't beefy in the way that Achilles undeniably is, Evan knows he is wholly outclassed. But he can't be the only one who knows some basic safety about cave-ins, can he? He looks between the two, round-eyed.]

If we move these rocks without taking care we are really likely to cause another cave-in, or an avalanche, and then where will we be? We don't even know if there are going to be aftershocks -- listen, we'll get to Olivia, but we can't just start throwing rocks around, okay?

im so sorry for all of this evan

[longtempered]

[Well...admittedly. Evan might indeed actually be the only one with proper cave-in etiquette in mind, here, because it's certainly not an idea occurring to Shizuo either just yet. He's already moving to properly join Achilles at the rocks by the time Evan speaks up, having half a mind to try his hand at a few loose-looking boulders himself now that the lighting in here's good enough to actually pick them out. Achilles' impromptu rock-tossing is pretty hard not to notice, though, which is enough to give Shizuo a bit of pause as he straightens to look over and frown in Achilles' direction.]

...Yeah, we could probably go without the throwing bit, at least. [The unhappy noises on the squidge end of things kind of punctuates this; Aki manages to squeeze its way out of Saffron's embrace before the cub's curling around Leukos, but lingers close and uncertain with a startled burble of its own as the rock goes sailing. Shizuo shifts his attention from Achilles to the squidges, and then to Evan.] 'Course we should be careful, though...have you got experience with this sort of thing? Wouldn't mind starting at the least riskiest spot here, so...

[Shizuo bends forward a little, mostly intending to tug at a rock immediately in front of him and test its give even as he speaks. But in the process this ends up having him trail off mid-sentence, pausing in his movement and then frowning down at his left arm, which is only...raising half as much as his right. ...Huh. In a tone closer to mild surprise than anything:]

Ah, hold on, something's going on with my arm. [Straightening and turning towards the other two, Shizuo tries to bend the odd arm further but finds that he can't--or well. Rather, it probably isn't supposed to bend like that...] Damn, think I might have broken it, actually?

[heelies]

[He whirls around to face Evan in the way that a storm would turn upon a sea, looming suddenly with its rain-bruised clouds louring down.]

Then what would you have me do? How am I to patiently wait while I know not whether my dear Olivia is safe there beyond these stones, or wounded where none can help her? While I know not whether she lives, or lies there beneath the burial mound of stone collapsed of strength and with her last breath taken from her lips?

[Just as the clouds split open to pour forth the rain they hold, so too does his voice break open to let spill his anguish. The tears which make damp his cheeks shine dully in the flickering light of Evan's blame. It is at the zenith of this outburst that Shizuo straightens and discovers that his arm has broken. Achilles inhales slowly and audibly, and out through his lips it rushes as a weary gust. For a moment he appears torn, his eyes persistent upon the upheaval of rocks and then shifting to Shizuo's arm. With one last glance toward the wall which forms their prison, he tugs his attention toward the other man.]

A man has no hope of escape while the arm of his companion is mangled so. Come, let me see. I am trained in the art of medicine by Chiron, the most noble of centaurs, and although our supplies are limited in this cavern I shall do my best to make right your arm, Shizuo.

!! shame on me I missed this

[evantuality]

[It's good that Shizuo makes his injury known when he does, because for all that Evan would usually be cowed by the force of the gale issuing forth from Achilles's wordy, wordy self, his survival instincts are winning out. He'd been gathering himself to argue back to the bereft man, but when Shizuo speaks and Evan turns, the sight of that very wrong arm jolts him right out of it. In fact he feels a little sick to his stomach for the sight of it.

When Achilles steps up to that plate Evan can only feel relief.]

Holy hell. Uh. here. [He summons up a second flame, brightening the little room they're in and giving illumination for Achilles to get a better look at Shizuo's injury. He also takes a moment to crouch and drop his pack, reaching around his bundled-up squidge to prop it up against the cave wall.

There are tent-poles; they all have some to go with their little pup tents, but better to offer his up if Achilles is busy examining the damage and Shizuo's the one hurt. He tugs them out of the bundle of tent strapped to the bottom of his bag. The poles are collapsible, and at their shortest length, are a little longer than a forearm.] Here. If you need splints.

wow hdu, never tags you again!!! (i say as i tag you)

[longtempered]

[Ah, man...yeah, this is definitely a pretty tense moment. Shizuo eyes Achilles a little warily at the initial outburst in Evan's direction, prepared to intervene if things get a little too nasty--or maybe even violent, or something? He's not sure. If he were this angry he'd probably be pretty violent about now, though...and for a brief moment Shizuo has to wonder if this is the sort of atmosphere he creates every time he gets pissed off about something too. ...It's rather surreal being on the other side. He's not sure if this has ever actually happened before.

But it would seem that the state of his arm has gotten them all on more or less even footing again. Contrary to the clear concern of the other two, Shizuo remains visibly unaffected by his arm's current state, regarding it much the same way someone might a papercut they only just realize they've gotten. Achilles relents, and Shizuo nods shortly in turn, pacing his way over and offering the arm in question.]

Yeah, sorry for the holdup. Didn't notice this until just now... [This is directed to both Achilles and Evan, as the latter moves to fetch--oh, tent bits. Splints, right...Shizuo nods a short thanks to him.] I don't think it's too bad, at least? [He says, as if there isn't a partial break in his forearm near the elbow (there is, please don't listen to him). But he's also focusing more on Achilles now with a slight frown; his distress for Olivia's welfare isn't exactly forgotten here, either.] Hey, but also--about Olivia. We're not sitting around for long, right? After this we'll definitely get moving soon...if we can't get through these rocks there's probably another way around. And in the meantime, ah--

[Shizuo blinks as the thought finally occurs to him, actually, straightening slightly.] Wait, we do have a way to contact people who aren't around anyway, don't we? With the jewelry phone stuff?