epidemiology | EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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.

Fyletto

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's at the moment that Serene delves deeper into the pool to help Ulale that Laedo half turns to look over his shoulder to respond in annoyance. What he sees causes him to firmly return his gaze dead ahead. She might be long-haired, but with layers resting on the water's surface, there's more skin to show than there had been when she was resting on the rock. "I take it you've had a change of heart about caring for the weak?" he snaps instead, changing the topic. "You'll look out for Ulale for a few hours while I find somewhere to rest?"

"Hours?!" She squawks, pausing with her hands wrapped round Ulale. The little squidge is overexcited by the water and by her floating hair and the thought of fielding him and Lilac on her own is a tiring one, but she's grimacing at herself for protesting at all after he'd rescued her from that horrific cave in.

"I do owe you that much at the very least," she acknowledges, bowing her head to his turned away face, "but tell me where you'll be so I will be able to find you if I need to." She pulls Ulale to her chest in the hopes that hugging him will stop him pulling her hair.

"Hmph," Laedo replied, eloquent as always. "I'll be near the center of the camp, up hill and away from the crux of the river and the last stream we crossed. Be certain that Ulale survives until then, and returns with the same smile with which she left." For all that he had been magnanimous in the past about Serene, at this very moment he very much was flustered, and it had a way of driving his imperious attitude right back to the foreground. Disappearing back into the verdure of the jungle almost as quickly as he'd arrived, the askan made himself as abrupt as could be considered vaguely polite until he could find space to return to his normal form.

There, in the single beam of light that had managed to penetrate the canopy, he made an indentation for himself in the heavy loam of the forest floor and balled up in a frump of self-centered annoyance. There was no logical reason to get worked up about the situation, he knew, but trying to find a half-way point with Serene was even more difficult than with Achilles, and he did not want to open himself to particularly agonizing banter once again. He had slipped once and he wished not to do so again, not with team-mates he could not otherwise relate to by species or experience.

Now that order made Serene's brows raise, so very unimpressed is she by the assumption of incompetence, but she doesn't call out after him for he's obviously in a mood and she doesn't want to find out what an angry Askan looks like. She marks the direction he heads in and the instructions he gives her and paddles Ulale back to Lilac so they can play.

Serene doesn't hurry her afternoon, as irritating as dealing with the two squidges was, for he'd said hours and so she assumes he meant hours, for if he changes his mind he knows where to find her. She comes to find him only once she's tied up her wet hair, dressed, and packed away her dry garments into her newly dried pack. The squidges are heavy in her arms as she follows his directions, for they've tired themselves out chasing each other.

She stills when she comes to the clearing he's in, once again awed by his size and beauty as he rests. She pads in closer, knowing better this time than to pat his beautiful fur without permission, and follows the line of his massive body around to his head to see how deeply he's slumbering.

It would turn out that the askan is not a very heavy sleeper: his long, velveteen ear sways in a twitch as Serene enters the clearing, but more importantly, as soon as the freshly sparkly Ulale sees him, she puts up a series of excited chirps. She'd been enjoying the last few hours, even if they had tuckered her out significantly, and she wanted to curl up with Laedo to burble contentedly at him.

Laedo lifted his head a few feet from the loam to snuff at Serene, noting her dignity firmly wrapped about her again. He still felt strongly conflicted; was he a prude? Achilles had made him feel such... but if it was a deathly error to share intimate space with a human man, even worse a woman, no? Even without Aska's imperitives, that was a clearly correct moral to have, was it not? He therefore gave the human a glancing nod before focusing his attention upon his charge, rumbling as she leapt from Serene's arms and curled up, ball-like, bouncing with a water-heavy jiggle before she toddled over to him and sat possessively upon the top of his hand. Even if Serene was not a natural care-taker, surely seeing the tiny squidge butt her head against Laedo's soft nose ought to be a relief.

Similarly, at least Laedo's attitude was no longer spittingly acerbic. "She's better than ever," he acknowledged by way of thanks, "and you no longer smell like dust and terror. I suppose... I can see my way to understanding your plight. Thank you."

She grimaces at that comment. "For the sake of my pride I hope that nobody else in the group has nostrils as sensitive as yours."

Lilac wiggles out of her arm and plops to the floor, squeaking brightly. She toddles to Laedo's paw and clambers on too, wanting to butt Laedo's nose as well, for she's learnt that Serene's friends are often sweeter caretakers than she.

Serene presses her lips together for a moment, wishing she could get away with scrambling on there too. But no, she's sure he's going to demand she pick off Lilac any moment and if she jumps on too she'll be asked to leave entirely.

"May I lay down for a nap as well, if you are not leaving? Seeing you here makes me realise that I could benefit from a rest."

Likely to her surprise, Laedo puffs a nose-full of air on Lilac and then sticks the tip of his tongue out to groom her, making peace with her after the toe-biting incident, though carefully. He'll take her head-butting as an apology, given he knows that her kind have no words, but as to Serene's request...

Well, he's had some time to unwind, and he sees no specific reason to be worried, so long as she does not try to leverage his kindness to her advantage... and the better he is about playing down his earlier horror, the less likely she is to seize his weakness and exploit it, is that not the way that this worked?

Without a word, he lifted one wide wing and hooked the nail-ends of his fingers into the moss, creating an instant shelter. He'd done this for others in the past, for warmth, or as shade from the sun, so at least the gesture was more one of care than of intimacy.

"If you wish to sleep, we may fall to the back of the line all over again," he warned, not nearly as clipped as when they'd first met, but still piqued by the thought. "I'd rather carry you all than be forced to trail the tail end of our troupe once again.

When he licks Lilac her eyes widen abruptly, for it looks as if he's taking a taste before biting... but no, she realises she misread his intentions, for his manner and Lilac's trilling wiggle of delight make it clear that this is not any sort of predator aggression. Lilac licks his muzzle in return with her little tongue while Serene smiles sheepishly.

"You say that as if I would protest to such a turn of events. But no, I will rest as long as you rest and set off when you decide. I am sure we are not the slowest by a long shot."

She crouches under his wing then, looking to lie down before he changes his mind. She'd expected him to do no more than give her permission to slump on the floor with him, but presented with this opportunity she intends to take full advantage. She sits on the floor beside his ribs and leans into his densely-furred side, pillowing her cheek against him. He's as soft as she remembered the first time she stroked him, soft enough she has to resist stroking him again with the hand she's resting upon him. She grins at how his breaths sway her.

For what it's worth, Laedo seems more taken with the two squidges piled between his forearms, so when Serene presses against his side, he only flicks his ears and then settles his wing-elbow down, the better to tuck her in close. There is a small part of him that is waiting to feel a sword in his side, but he can't say why, entirely. Serene's attitude sometimes echoes those of women past he'd known, human or not, and Laedo is doing his best to put her imperious chuckling at his expense out of mind. It helps that, at this time of the day, their charges are not as active as at other times. When Ulale curls up in his hand and Lilac joins her, Laedo has to admit that it's about as adorable as one can get...

And having a hand pressed to his side is more soothing than he'd admit. Without quite meaning to, he begins to rumble, arcing his long neck to rest around his paws and provide a further barrier between the squidges and the world. It puts him in view of Serene again, so he gets a chance to see her grinning. "You are not as hard-edged as your prickles make you seem," he finally admits aloud.

His rumbling is loud in her ear yet it's deeply soothing, especially now she's tucked in under his wing like a little chick. Her eyes have fallen closed but when he rumbles his comment at her she blinks her eyes open and giggles.

"Aren't I? Or perhaps I trust you enough that I am splitting my prickly hide open to show the soft fruit that's hiding inside." She pats his soft side, breathing his unmammalian scent. "And you are not the terrifying predator I was sure you were when we first met. I'm glad we are friends, Laedo Ledo."

The particular wording of her statement makes Laedo narrow his eyes, the only thing covering his blush remotely being the gold and iridescent pale fur over his cheekbones. Never the less, with ears as long as his it's quite clear that when they skew askance that the asandus is reading double entendres. The comparison to a predator in this case makes him huff a breath in under his wing at her, haughty. "I would never; I am a guard of the people, not some perpetrator of violence!"

She giggles even harder at those ear twitches, pressing her face into his fur for a moment to muffle herself. Mercy, she's got to remember that he takes her words the same way a human man would take them, for all their differences. When she peeks at him again her cheeks are pink and her eyes are bright with laughter.

"And a good guard you are, my rescuer. I admit, I feel far safer on this planet knowing that you and I are on the same side."

"It would be a shame to waste you after having spend so much time sullying my claws to dig you out of the ground," Laedo acquiesced, twitching his muzzle to one side so that he could look at her askance. He was getting the distinct impression that she was flirting, though he could not be entirely certain if, all this time, Serene was being facetious or not. He decided he would have to keep a more cautious eye on her, which ironically meant closing his to settle more thoroughly.

"Such a shame indeed! And what could be more important than your claws?" She pats his side again, taking full advantage of her position to get a little stroke in. "And thank you once more for saving me. I shudder to think what would have befallen me if you were not with us. I fully meant that I am at your command, whatever task you wish of me."

She lets her eyes sink closed as she relaxes into his purring.

"I know I can offer such an open-ended boon, for you are a good and stalwart man."

His fur twitches, as though her snuggling and patting are ticklish, almost, though at first he does not speak in response. He does, however, let out a deep-seated hum. "You should know better than to put your life into the hands of another. It is not worth it."

He may, however, be thinking of other claims he had offered to those he deeply regrets having ever met, however.

"No, I won't." Her tone is mellowing as she grows laxer against his side, completely lulled by him. "I won't regret living my life as I see best, even if it leads me into tight predicaments in the future. What is there to regret about today? I am brimming with content. If you betray me in the future then I will still have this happy afternoon as a bright spot in whatever our friendship will become."

"Memories dull with time, and the future is split not only into the fragments of our own choosing, but further, mote upon mote and speck upon speck, by the uncertainty of the duty that has been thrust upon us. You cannot rely on the future to bring joy." Laedo was speaking lowly, head down among the moss as he closed his eyes. Usually easily provoked, this he said as though it was a dying inevitability... but then Serene was a human, or a subset thereof. Of course she could see no further than her little nose, and as he thought back and back to the many times he had done the same and been mishandled... well, it was impossible not to see a shaky path ahead.

"Mmmm, maybe you're right, but I'm too comfortable to believe in any sort of pessimism right now." She's as content as a nesting chick under his wing, lazily resting in his warmth. With one last sigh she snuggles in closer to his ribs, giving herself over to being rocked by his breathing.

Soon enough her breathing is slowing and deepening as she sinks into true sleep.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject