epidemiology | 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

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.

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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