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

Once he's waded round the corner she considers the clothes she's draped out to dry. She's spread her belongings widely and if he decides to wash his blankets as well then there will be no room to drape them in the sunshine through the trees.

She'll be helpful, she decides, and dry some of her clothing to clear a space for him. She pulls on her still-wet uniform vest, thinking that she's disturbed him enough by being too bare, and sets about assembling a little fire to toast her undergarments to dryness. As much as she enjoys frolicking in the water it is perhaps time for her to put away playing in favour of continuing their mission.

Lilac and Imber's splashing masks his approach; her ears are cocked for him calling out to her, and so she's knelt down on the shore with her back to him, building a little circle of pebbled to contain the fire she plans to set.

He's lost in his own thoughts, which are eddying down far less dark paths but still demand attention. It's enough to keep him distracted as he slogs around the corner, as he gets far enough out from the safety of cover that he can't back off quickly when he looks up and spots her.

The small boon of the shirt she's put on is entirely wiped away by the way she's bending. Evan does not look away nearly in time to avoid seeing much more than he ever meant to of her backside -- more than just her backside.

He turns in the water quickly, straight-backed, and immediately feeling the heavy heat of a blush rise on his cheeks, fit to steam himself dry. Whether she'd strictly meant to or not, Serene has managed to entirely derail him from his heavy thoughts.

As addled with embarrassment as he is, all he can think to do is press out a tense, "er, I'm, uh, coming back around." As if she won't spot immediately that he's done more than that already.

She jerks up to a straight back kneel, for his voice is in completely the wrong spot. A glance over her shoulder confirms that he's far nearer than he ought to be, and she blushes as she realises what sight must have made him blush if he'd approached her from his direction.

"Did you just look at my flower?" She jumps back into the water, crouching to cover her lower half, her knees pressed tightly together. "That's your fault entirely for walking round without warning!"

"Your fl--" but as he's asking the metaphor clarifies and he feels the red on his cheeks deepening all the way through crimson. The fact that his back is turned to her is small consolation: he's sure even his back is red.

Oh, god, and she sounds mortified herself. "I thought you'd hear me coming," he justifies urgently. "I'm sorry!"

"As long as you know that wasn't deliberate." Her embarrassment pales in comparison to his. Mercy, she didn't know a human could turn that colour of scarlet so far along their skin. Frowning, she wades out to him and touches his shoulder, gentling her tone.

"I want to dry some of my clothes to make room for your blankets. Will you come and supervise my fire? I do not want to set my clothes alight." In truth, she's more worried about getting distracted and moved by her fire enough that she'll deliberately let go of control, but framing her fear as that of a new apprentice feels less provocative and more like an offer of forgiveness.

She lets go before he can answer and begins her wade back, letting him have a little space to recover. "It is safe to turn!" She calls over her shoulder, as she's keeping her knees bent to cover herself below her waist.

Her consoling touch sends further mortification crawling along his skin, startled as he is by it, and he ferociously tamps down that reaction. He grabs for the forgiveness in the offer she extends, taking deep breaths and allowing for the fact that she's not running him off, that she doesn't even sound truly angry.

"Alright," he offers, and then takes the moment he needs to continue cooling down as she wades away. By the time she's at the shore he's... well, he's still crimson, but he's cooling rather than heating up. He turns, looking chagrined, but approaches the shore with a willingness that true mortification wouldn't have allowed for.

"Yeah," he reiterates, looking at her with apology still in his eyes. Is she not wearing underwear still? Hell, though, he isn't going to look too hard. Wading from the water, he drips as he approaches the fire, glad in the heat of the jungle for once to only be clad in his soaked shorts.

He resolves, even, to do what he can to dry her clothes faster. It's the least he can do after causing the both of them such a terribly embarrassing moment, and violating her privacy in such a way. He huffs again, glancing at her as he hunkers down by the fire. "Uh... thanks."

She sits in the water by the shore, looking at his face and not any of the rest of him. She's still a smidge pink on the cheeks but her embarrassment is fading into amusement at his reaction.

"There's nothing to thank me for. We are helping each other equally."

As much as she's tempted to tease she bites down on the urge, for what they have right now is a delicate friendship and she's exerting effort into being gentle so as not to send him back into his shell after so delicately drawing him out. With one last eye-crinkling smile she turns her attention to her little fire circle and lights up a flame.

This way at least they can sink into a rhythm of mentor and acolyte and find peace concentrating on a task together. No matter how they unbalance or embarrass each other, they have proven capable of working side by side. For Serene, that's a good sign that one day they may reach more solid ground together.

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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