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

[Meallan nods in acceptance, then motions for a place nearby for Evan to sit and watch properly. Tarasylin remains silent the entire time and he gives the squidge an affectionate smile, waiting until Evan is situated - either where Meallan suggested or elsewhere - before continuing.]

As Dalish, we take the vallaslin when we come of age. [It's said more for Evan's benefit than Tarasylin's, though his focus is on his grown charge.]

As young elves we strive to prove that we're ready to be accepted to adults in our clan and then, under our Keeper's guidance, we choose one of the Creators to dedicate ourselves to and wear their mark on our faces, tattooed in ink and our own blood.

[His fingers collect a little more of the charcoal and delicately trace the pattern on Tarasylin's face.] It is a ritual that must be borne in silence, to show that we're ready to take our place as adults.

This isn't exactly the same. [He admits after a moment.] But Tarasylin has come far and proven it is time in my eyes.

[The pattern of the marks, even blunted as they are by being done with a finger in charcoal rather than as whatever tattoo method was used on Meallan, is hypnotic. He watches the markmaking as Meallan explains the process.

It's really something, compared to the banal growing-up rituals of his people. Forget getting drunk on one's eighteenth; there's something solemn to this that he quite likes. He listens for a little longer in silence, watching Mel sketch out the shape, turning over the ideas he's put forth.]

Are there other parts to the ritual? [he asks, arms loose around a sedate Imber in his sling.] Or is it primarily the... the vallaslin? [He carefully pronounces the unfamiliar term.]

The first part is proving you've earned the vallaslin. [Meallan explains, his focus still on the wide, simple marks he's working on.] Then you choose which of the Creators you wish to show your dedication to. The marks may vary, but there are parts that are the same that link them to one of our... our gods.

[He hesitates for just a moment but presses on, not wanting those new doubts to affect this moment.]

Then the design needs to be tattooed in front of the clan without you making a sound or showing signs of pain. If you don't, then you're considered not ready and need to wait and prove yourself further. Once it's complete, you're an adult in the eyes of the clan.

My own vallaslin is for Mythal, the protector. I still remember the day I earned it.

[With Mel's eyes so very on the task at hand, Evan finds himself watching the elf in a way he doesn't often let himself do when the other man's attention is free. Meallan has such a keen gaze, and it does tend to fluster Evan when the elf turns it on him. It's quite something to see it trained on someone else.

He's been taking in Mel's words, although the motions of his hand are hypnotic enough that Evan hmm's thoughtfully and is silent for a long moment after the elf finishes explaining that. Imber squirms, and Evan looks down at him, and then picks his way forward. He'll sit for this; he picks out a tall tree-boll and settles to watch, close enough to see the action but what he hopes is still a respectful distance away.]

Mythal. [As he tends to, he repeats the word, looking to fix it in his memory.] Protector. That's... the same one you're giving Tara?

Well, I can't really ask which he'd prefer and I think she'd suit best.

[Particularly after some of the things he'd learned more recently of the others. At least Mythal had tried to be better, even if he still isn't entirely certain of how her story had ended.]

She's most often depicted as a tree, deep roots to keep us grounded and spreading branches to provide protection for us all. The vallaslin can be like mine, a whole tree, or parts, like the branches or roots or whatever sections feel the most relevant to the person.

[His eyes trace the patterns Mel is drawing on his squidge's face again, this time for patterns that are the same as the ones on the other redhead's forehead and cheeks. There are echoes, aren't there?

He smiles at a thought.]

Why'd you get the whole tree?

[He hesitates a moment, glancing back towards Evan briefly before returning to what he's doing. Tarasylin's design is far more simplistic than Meallan's own vallaslin, a simple branching pattern against its forehead and around the eyes, and as it's done, he stops and steps back.]

There. You'd be an adult of my people now, Tarasylin.

[Meallan bows then, a more human gesture that feels appropriate all the same, and smile as his former charge mirrors it before moving to investigate the marks in the relatively still water of the river. Then Meallan turns back to Evan.]

Because I was to be First to my clan, one day to perhaps be my clan's Keeper, our leader. Because I wanted to prove that I could accept however long it took or any pain it inflicted on me to achieve that goal.

And... because I didn't know then what I do now.

[Well, that's a hell of a statement to finish on. Evan's not especially surprised by the rationale for the full tree -- it had to have implied rank, didn't it? -- but the way Mel pulls back from the unequivocal positive of the answer makes Evan peer at him, still solemn, now concerned.]

Your perspective on the marks has changed?

[He thinks he might know, even; he's heard about Mel's gods, after all, in the broad strokes.]

Yes and no. [Meallan says hesitantly, moving to sit by Evan and reach out absently to brush against Imber's head.]

I'm still proud of mine, and I think that their meaning has changed over the years. My people see them as marks of pride as well as proof of adulthood, and I still mostly think of them that way.

But... one of the other things I learned more recently is that they weren't always just a way to show our dedication to one of the Creators. They used to be marks given to slaves, other elves enslaved by the so-called gods of my people, not something born willingly or with pride at all. So while I still think that they're different now, that it matters that the meaning has changed... they also remind me what the meaning has changed from and I don't know how I feel about that.

[As Evan digests that deeply conflicted history, Imber squeaks and reaches his little hands up to Mel's, saying hello to his big friend. Time travelled together, and camps near one another, have left Imber familiar with Mel and fond of him.]

That... that sounds like a complicated kind of reclamation to be making.

[In all honesty Evan doesn't think himself equipped to advise, knowing in the dim kind of way of the privileged that he's never had to grapple with something like that. Still, this is Mel; he can't just shrug and say 'that's rough' and leave it at that.]

At least you've brought a little of the good of it here, I guess. Tarasylin will only know of it as a ritual of growth from his caretaker, won't he? No gods, none of that ambiguity.

You're telling me. [He agrees with a laugh, not really expecting an answer from Evan about the matter. It's something he believes he'll have to deal with himself, one way or another, but it's surprisingly good to be able to tell someone else. It helps more than he'd have thought possible.]

And that's... something I hadn't thought about. [His gaze goes back to Tarasylin, the grown squidge picking up the stone and remainder of the charcoal Meallan had left behind.]

It's nice to think of it that way. [He falls silent again as Tarasylin turns and comes towards them with the stone, stopping in front of Evan and burbling softly, gesturing down to Imber and then back to the stone.]

[Evan smiles a little more brightly, feeling buoyed for having apparently done some good. That smile drifts to Tarasylin thoughtfully, and he opens his mouth to speak, but trails off when the squidge approaches with the tools of the ceremony. Evan cocks his head quizzically, and when Tarasylin indicates Imber he smiles with that same curious air.]

You just answered a question I hadn't even gotten around to asking yet. [He addresses the squidge, although it feels strange to speak directly to one of the aliens, even grown as he is.]

Um, sure. Imber? [He looks down at his own small friend, who squeals, who has straightened in the gentle hold Evan has him in.

Permission so granted, Evan pulls the squidge from his sling and gently puts him down, stepping back. Imber stands, wavering a little as he looks up, waaay up, at its grown sibling.]

[Meallan looks between Imber and Tarasylin then, a little proud at how his charge has grown, but it occurs to him as well that Evan mightn't realise exactly what it is that Tarasylin is asking.]

The ritual is only performed when they're grown, Evan. Are you sure?

[Tarasylin is already reaching out gently for Imber's arm to lead the younger one towards the spring if it can.]

[Evan hadn't realized, not exactly, and the realization jolts him straight down to his toes. He gets wide eyed and for a moment almost swoops in to pick up Imber again. He's not ready, not ready to say goodbye yet, and Imber growing up will be the last hurdle before those goodbyes need to be said...

But he looks at the tableau of Imber holding onto Tarasylin's big arm, ready and even eager to make the change... guided, maybe appropriately, by a member of his own species who's already been through it. Evan wavers, watches, laces his hands together and nods, anxious and sad and hopeful all at once.]

I, I mean, it has to happen eventually, doesn't it?

[Understanding something of what Evan must be feeling, Meallan reaches out gently to take his hand, lacing their fingers together in a reassuring gesture.]

For all of us, sooner or later. [He says quietly.] But if you want a little longer to say goodbye, no one would fault you for it. We can come back once you've had a little more time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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