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

[ofobedience]

[Well that's...a request in keeping with her obvious attachment to her little charge, and perhaps the sudden change in her demeanor is one that he doesn't fully comprehend - she'd been crying and clinging and then sharped tongued, only to move on to something nearly cheerful, it's not a pattern he really understands but then he never has known many people outside of the Below, who is he to say how they ought to behave? - but he can see no harm in granting her request.

He moves to take the camera from her outstretched hands, and it's not as though he has a lot of experience with them either, but he does understand how they work. Isn't a complete stranger to this kind of device.]

Fine. Though I don't need any pictures, myself.

[Would it make it better or worse to have a reminder? He's never owned any photographs - has never owned much of anything, really - and can't say with any certainty how it would make him feel. He'll do his best to shut out the small part of him that would like something to remember this Lily by, given that he has nothing but precarious memories of her namesake.]

[winces]

Oh, no, please, [ says olivia, perhaps too quickly, perhaps too eagerly, and so she hastens to calm her tone and seem a little less insistent. ] I wouldn't feel right, not returning the favor somehow.

[ don't you see, giovanni? it's not for you, of course not.

but before he can argue some more, olivia steps back to step beside sapphire, who has grown used to the meaning of that camera now, and puffs up a bit so that he is at his full height (which isn't, sad to say, much). he slings his arms around olivia, who does the same to him, and both smile wide and tearful.

and, because this is what they've been taught: ]

Cheese..!

[ofobedience]

If you insist.

[His voice is light, a little dry, as though her insistence means nothing much to him beside a formality to be endured, and if there's anything beneath that tone it remains carefully concealed, out of sight. For now, at least, he won't dwell on his own feelings, refusing to look at or examine them.

Instead, he takes the picture, clickety-click, then steps towards her with the camera extended for her to take.]

[winces]

[ she steps forward to take it from giovanni without hesitation, though she does spare a moment to pluck out the developing film so that she and sapphire can watch their images appear together. she stifles a tearful smile, remembering her purpose here, and turns back to giovanni himself. ]

Your turn. You and um...?

[ she gestures towards him and his squidge, brows lifting in question. ]

[ofobedience]

Lily.

[The name comes out softer than he'd intended for it to be, almost reverent, and at the sound of her name the newly-evolved squidge comes scurrying over, looks up at him with her round dark eyes full of something that makes his heart lurch.

He recovers himself though, shrugs like none of this means anything to him at all.]

[winces]

[ the softness of his voice brings a tender smile to olivia's lips. quite unconsciously, she finds herself turning to her own squidge, reaching for his hand to give it a squeeze as if in reminder of his presence. the heaviness in her heart is one she thinks she can recognize in giovanni, even if he doesn't quite show it like she does. (or, perhaps, because of this.) ]

Lily's a lovely name.

[ she lifts the camera then, taking aim. ]

On the count of three, okay? Say cheese...

One... Two... Three...!

[ofobedience]

[It makes something twist up sharply in him, to hear her name on Olivia's lips and yes it refers to the squidge who's now clinging cheerily to his side but it still brings up images of the girl her name had belonged to, the one dead and gone and turned to dust with him left behind like some skulking shadow, a pale ghost.

It's still rattling in him when the picture is taken, so that when it comes out he's captured there in image-form with a look on his face that's more real and raw than he thought himself capable of.]

[winces]

[ when the film is released, and the image begins to set it, olivia steals a moment to take a peek at it herself. she is shocked by what she finds there, clear as day on his face, and for a moment she can do nothing else but stare.

it is sapphire to rouse her from this reverie, his gently shifting beside her brushing against her arm, causing her to jump and glance about guiltily. she bites down on a lip, finally stepping forward to hand the photo to giovanni, avoiding his eyes.

she cannot help but feel she has witnessed something incredibly private. ]

[ofobedience]

[Her reactions go unnoticed by him, lost in thought as he is, and it isn't until she holds out the picture for him to take that he looks up, grasps it carefully between two fingers before sliding it into the pocket of his uniform without casting it so much as a glance. He'll leave that until later, once alone and unobserved.

Instead, he pastes a sharp little smile onto his face, one hand reaching out to idly pat the top of Lily's head, so casual that it seems an automatic reaction rather than an attempt to cling to her proximity whilst he still has the chance.]

Here we are, then. Time to let them go.