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

She doesn't blame his reaction - she's fairly used to it, even if she doesn't often mention exactly where it is she lives and works - but she does still give him a meaningful look with a shake of her head. Because he misunderstands.

"It is my home. Us women are in charge of the town, so everythin's accordin' to our rules and laws." She lifts her gaze to the sky with a quiet sigh. "Got my family there. It's a bit lonely without 'em."

"I fail to see how that is different," Laedo replies, both ears back now. It isn't that he dislikes the people in charge of Sanctuary, or even the human nobles who ruled over their city-state... but he doesn't enjoy that meaningful look. It's reminiscent of those he's been given all his life.

He can, however, empathize with home-sickness. There is a terrible pall lurking under his stalwart mental walls. Home is not only where his heart is, it is where it had been ripped to shreds beneath the claws of a goddess he'd been reared to pour all of his faith into... and as much as he knows that he is doing good here with Ulale and the other squidges, with whatever may come next, it all feels like a holding pattern. "You need not be lonely," he finally tells her, resolving himself not to give in once again. Nalawi had nearly ruined him; he would not let that happen here. "You have your team. Audentes. We may not be blood siblings, but we are bound by circumstances graver than blood."

Well ... Laedo hadn't been there from the start. Perhaps it would have been different if the women there had ever known another life. Perhaps, the moment they were free of Housen they would have chosen to leave the city and let it fall to ruin. But they were raised for that life, and now that things are different ... They hardly despise it.

But she'll let the subject drop.

"Wasn't talkin' about blood family in the first place. I know," she says, with a soft smile. "Family without the blood ties is all I know."

There are some people here that she appreciates, and she's hardly looking for someone to replace Hinowa or Seita or Gintoki and his kids. But it's not quite the same, even so.

"And yet..." Laedo, hearing something in the tone she uses, but not knowing the context behind it, offers a lead. He can practically smell the wistfulness coming out of that pipe she'd lit a little while back.

She shakes her head.

"It ain't the same. But it's fine." She offers him a gentle smile. "Thanks anyway."

EVENT ★ ZETA-12 FINAL WEEK

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(let me know if anywhere's good to handwave; I'm trying to wind up my zeta-12 threads!)

I think about here is a pretty good end point, actually. C: