EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

[futurologists]

ZETA-12: FINAL WEEK After team Audentes makes it out of the desert in more or less one piece, they'll begin to notice the environment changing once again. After the sparseness of the sands and canyons, vegetation and water once again become more common; eventually, they've found a lush jungle with plants and rivers both plentiful. And like the changing environment, the squidges once again begin to transform. Please select an evolution according to your choice. Please note, you must have submitted your choice to the thread in the previous logs in order for your squidge to evolve. For those who encountered the cave: If they went into the cave, their squidge has taken on one of the following features: a fox-like tail, an armadillo snout (with tongue!), or enhanced sense of smell. However, if they stayed above, their squidge has one of these: a beak, a prehensile tail, or enhanced sense of hearing. THE JUNGLE (WEEK 6) The jungle air is thick with humidity, light barely filtering down past the dense canopy of leaves overhead. Unlike the forest back at the beginning of the journey here, the climate in the jungle is almost stifling, so recruits may want to look for refreshing Rainbow Berries to snack on and keep their energy up -- but keep an eye out for the Lucifer's Poppy, as its effects can cause the journey to reach an abrupt end. Rivers wind through the jungle, with waterfalls ending in relaxing pools where recruits can try to beat the heat and spend some extra time with their squidges as the journey's end approaches. Like the other biomes, there are no creatures here -- no birds, no bugs, no jungle cats -- but that doesn't mean that recruits can leave their guard down entirely. Apart from various poison plants (such as the Beezlebulb and the Malboro) other hazards to look out for include slippery, moss-covered ground cover that may cause a hapless recruit to lose their footing, and the dangers of heat exhaustion. Unlike the previous biomes, there is no major choice for recruits to make here. Instead, they must bathe their squidge in the Wellspring, a bubbling, faintly glowing pool of water in the depths of the jungle. The Wellspring is responsible for triggering the squidges' final transformation and allowing them to grow into adulthood. In order for squidges to evolve into an adult, squidge parents must have completed a certain amount of tasks during the Zeta-12 mission. If these tasks were not completed, the squidge will not evolve and will remain in its larval stage. The evolution form can be found on this post. Squidges who successfully evolve into adults will grow in size, anywhere between 122-183cm (4-6'). They will loosely retain their rounded shapes, their limbs and torsos elongating, and any physical transformations will also grow with their size. In adulthood, squidges are less needy and frightened than in their larval stage, and generally have a calm demeanor (with exceptions made if they happened to pick up an aggressive trait along the journey, of course). Their language remains a wordless burbling, but they can communicate with their caregivers through gestures. After bathing their squidges in the Wellspring, regardless of the success of evolutions, recruits should prepare to depart Zeta-12 with the knowledge that their alien children are better, stronger, and smarter for the time they spent together. OOC NOTES This log lasts ICly for one week, and OOCly for 1.5 weeks. Once the mission is completed and the squidges are bathed in the Wellspring, recruits will have until August 20th to say goodbye and let their alien wards leave the metaphorical nest. Direct questions about the Zeta-12 mission here. And don't forget about the bounty board! After August 20th, Zeta-12 bounties will no longer be completable. Please remember to fill out your squidge success form! Participation is required to pass AC this month. If you have any questions about the form, please direct them here. Forms must be completed by August 31th, 23:59 UTC.

Comments

2 as well

[asscan]

There's not much for it but to let the things you love grow and change, it would seem: from behind the pair, another chirp sounds, but much deeper and more melodious. Laedo is nowhere to be seen at the moment, but Ulale, having managed to break away from the askan, has been wandering around the springs... saying goodbye? Or saying hello?

She's a tall, lithe creature on extended sparkling limbs, her long tail serving to wrap around her as she curls up into a seated position next to the human and his charge. Her back, arms and tail are covered by golden plates, and her ears are pointed forward expectantly. She chirps again, greeting Evan directly, then hums consolation for the recovering squidge beside him.

[evantuality]

Imber recognizes its friend before Evan does, startled as he continually is by the grown squidges' sizes. Imber burbles and shrieks a hello, as if Ulale's hearing will be dulled for being so much further up, and he waves his own stumpy limbs at his clutch-mate.

Evan stares. And then, not knowing whether she'll even understand that it's a query for her, he asks, "Ulale?"

[asscan]

The full-grown squidge ducks her head 'yes', patting her hands together in delight as though she had thought that Evan might not recognize her. Blinking her pitch black eyes and burbling again, she pats her hands together once more and then offers them to Imber to pat, recreating their earlier interactions, only much more coordinated, more calm.

[evantuality]

Imber, though he has not himself grown, seems to pick up on some of the gravitas. The pattycakes he plays with Ulale are comically somber things, careful pats of little squidge paws on longer squidge limbs, and Evan finds himself aching with the knowledge of Imber's imminent change as he watches.

But there are more things he wants to know, first. "You recognize your name?" he asks Ulale quietly. "You.. you recognize me? How much... Do you remember everything that happened when you were, were little?" How odd, to ask that with the still-little Imber in his arms.

[asscan]

Though she doesn't speak, Ulale turns her head and chirps, looking between Evan and Imber. She sings the oldest song she knows, a flute tune picked up back in the tundra. It's more regal, now, more refined, almost as though she's able to create her own harmony.

Then she toots the flight song Laedo had tried to distract them with over the bridge. The burble she gives afterwards is almost a laugh.

[evantuality]

Evan's face squinches up entirely as he laughs at that, eyes squeezing shut against a prickle he feels there. He hugs Imber, who protests, though not seriously, at the interruption in the squidge's social time.

"Thanks, Ulale. That's, uh... that's comforting." When he loosens his arms at Imber's wriggled demand, the squidge seems more intent than ever on the spring. It looks to Ulale, chirrups something, looks at the spring, as if asking a question.

[asscan]

The burble that Imber gets back is delighted, a rolling reply that Ulale accompanies with a gesture of widening arms, stretched to their full new length. She turns coquettishly and looks over her shoulder, blurping another word. Clearly, she's showing off.

[evantuality]

Imber squeals in appropriately impressed glee. The last time they'd gotten to romp around a bit, the furry squidge had been so fascinated by those plates -- now, writ large, they're even more interesting to him. He reaches out, but Evan doesn't let him go yet.

He's watching Ulale and wondering, thinking. "Do you... want to be here when I... I mean, when Imber goes in the spring?" he offers quietly. "Would that help him? To have someone of his kind there too?"

[asscan]

Ulale gave a sonorous hum, eyes closing as she flicked both ears again. Then she leaned down low to nuzzle Imber, nose to hypothetical nose. She had the audacity to pat Evan's head, ruffling his orange hair with the end of her digitless hand, then nodded.

[evantuality]

Evan huffs something that can't quite summon the mirth to be a laugh when Ulale ruffles his hair. "Are you going to start using me as an armrest too?"

But he stands, sass regardless, pushing himself to his feet slowly and without letting go of Imber. He aches: the moment is coming and he can do nothing about it, and he knows in his heart that he should do nothing about it. This is what every step of the journey has been for, this is what every hair-tearing frustration over screaming squidges, every moment spent foraging for bits and pieces of food has been for. The little creature in his arms, at once both a stranger and a beloved companion, squirms and complains at the confinement.

"Hold on," he whispers to it, finding his throat is closing up. "Soon enough, I promise." This only mollifies the squidge somewhat, and though Evan cannot fault him for his restlessness, he does rather wish he could convey the gravity of the moment to Imber. This is the last moment he'll be able to carry the squidge in his arms. This is the last moment of their association that he's going to be relevant.

He turns to the glowing water, casting one last glance at Ulale, who has so kindly agreed to ease this process. He shuffles up to the edge of the spring, kneels, and for the last time slips Imber out of his sling.

In a moment of whim, he leans down and kisses the soft fur of the squidge's brow. Imber squeals, and reaches his little shapeless hands up to Evan's face, and for a moment he buries his face in that hug. But soon enough Imber is caught by the glow of the spring again, and he's squirming, and Evan can't put it off any longer. He opens his mouth for a final parting word, finds his throat too clogged to get any out, and simply holds Imber carefully towards the spring's edge. The aqua squidge squeals, and with not a bad approximation of a cannonball he jumps into the sacred pool.

Evan stands back as Imber squeals again, a sound of surprise and what he can't help but imagine as glee. The squidge begins to grow, and Evan finds himself wiping his eyes fiercely as the change takes place. "Bye," he finally manages to force out, thick with feeling.

[asscan]

At least as Imber faffs about in the pool, enjoying the next stage of his life taking place all in one go, Ulale is standing at the edge beside his human. She puts a hand on Evan's shoulder, patting him in the same soothing approximation that she's felt so many times in her own, short life.

To think that this is the same human who had been trying to run experiments on his charge from the beginning; Ulale has hopped from one squidge to the next in her efforts to ease the rest of her peers into their adult lives, but to see this kind of dedication and remorse is touching. She's well aware that he's not happy to see Imber change, but then she'd had to let Laedo have space for that very same reason. Whistling, leaning over to look at him, she pats at his face as though she could wipe the dregs of tears left over that Evan had tried to rub away on his own.

Then she trills down at the pool, taking a step back, waiting in expectant silence for Imber to finish absorbing the light that would put him on her level.

[evantuality]

Evan breaks his stare at Imber for a moment when Ulale pats his cheek, and sends a wet smile up at the squidge. God, she acts so differently now -- the change from child to adult is so rapid, so complete that it throws him and humbles him and then he has to look back at Imber again, has to witness this change himself.

Imber balloons and it's the strangest sight. From his cannonball he surges bigger and bigger until he can't stay curled over anymore and with one deep, loud burble he stands, still glowing, in the middle of the spring. For the little thing he was, Imber has gotten big -- he's broad and rotund and covered in shimmering fur, thick arms open to the world, ears up and flicking about as he announces his adult self to the pair watching in a joyful rumble.

When the strange light fades, finishes soaking in and his form slowly cools back to mundane flesh, Imber begins to wade out of the pool. His fur is damp, soaked only from the waist down where he was submerged, and the moment he's perched on the edge of the spring he shakes himself like a dog.

Evan exclaims surprise, and then laughs long and wetly, splattered by apparently magical water. As he's wiping his face, his clothes, his eyes, Imber trundles over to Ulale to greet her first.

[asscan]

The sparkling squidge has watched these transformations a few times before, but either she's implacably cheerful by nature or else she really does have a special place in her alien heart for Imber, because she seems perfectly happy to trill back in congratulations, even to clap her hands together. Like she's learned over the course of her childhood, she gives the big, blue, furry squidge a great hug, though she parps a few critical noises at his wet hair. After a moment passes, she opens one arm up and gestures for Evan to get in there. She's not clear as to why, but perhaps she has an inkling about the coming exeunt of her makeshift family.

[evantuality]

Imber bugles and throws broad arms around Ulale, relishing in his new, improved reach. He chuffs and burbles, squeezing, and Evan watches the pair of them. It's touching, it's sweet, it's sad, and it's undeniably an odd sight as their jelly bodies distort with the pressure.

When Ulale sweeps an arm out to usher him in, he pauses, hesitates -- and then Imber swoops an arm out too and scoops him up, into the hug, in a way Evan has to admit isn't all that dissimilar from ways he's scooped Imber up in turn. Laughing, tearing up, he squeezes the two weird gelatinous bodies, buried against hair and sparkles and glad enough of it to stay.

[asscan]

Once he's had a chance to get a bit of that pent up emotion out, it's Ulale who first pulls away. She burbles, gentle, thumping Evan on the back once or twice, and then croons to Imber before bowing her head. As far as she can tell here, her work is done. Best to allow the pair to move along with their own farewells... all of this open honest emotion is making her wish to return to her own caretaker, though she can only whistle a few bars of some of her favourite Laedo-music to hint at the point.

[evantuality]

The point communicates, and Evan pulls away too, a little hurriedly. Imber burbles again, good-natured as he always has been, and reaches out to pat Ulale, still a little clumsy with his newly big limbs.

Evan reaches a hand out to the sparkling squidge himself, touching the little digits at the end of her long arm. "Yeah," he says, voice scratchy, "yeah, of course, um..." He looks down, smiles. There is a shakiness inside him for boundaries crossed, for a journey ended, but it's the shakiness after getting blood drawn, when the ordeal is over but the fear hasn't worn off yet. "Thank you, Ulale. It's... it's been good knowing you."

Imber grabs his caretaker around the shoulders again and pulls him in, waving to Ulale, blorping noises that seem appreciative themselves.