EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

[futurologists]

RETURN TO OSKA Upon arrival in Oska, new and returning recruits alike will find that something strange is going on. Any attempts to communicate with someone who doesn't speak the same language as you will be just that -- like you don't speak the same language. Let's hope everyone is good at charades, because you're going to be out of luck for a full day. On the second day, a text comes across -- surprisingly intelligible to everyone. Is it over? Well . . . crowley: Hello, Audentes. We are currently experiencing magitek difficulties, as you may have guessed already. Temporal insects have arrived with our latest arrivals, and as you may imagine, we have had our paws full. cherenkov: We are working out how to mitigate the pest problem for good. For now, please put your unpleasantly huge feet to use and stomp them out. Or other such methods. crowley: We have created a quick patch to facilitate text-based communications, but verbal translation will continue to be down until the insects are exterminated. Thank you for your patience. It's not over. TEMPORAL INSECTS This invasive species has worked its way in through the rifts along with the newest batch of arrivals, and information on them is available in the library (provided you can read the language it's written in!). It seems they behave like locusts, living quietly within the space between rifts for many years until their numbers suddenly balloon and they begin to swarm in search of food. These bugs move fast and pack a nasty bite, but are unarmored and easily squished. Each one is about the size of a football, and leaves a little tell-tale slime trail that makes it easy to track. They can cling to any surface, and won't hesitate to leap onto attackers and bite if they feel threatened. One can take a decently sized but non-lethal bite out of someone, but a number of them together will pose a real danger. If punctured or squished they tend to explode into moderately acidic goo that can cause caustic burns if not immediately washed off. They are attracted to any area of high temporal energy, which can be literally any surface, corner, or point on or within the castle and its grounds. As they begin to feed they cause temporal distortion in the area. This manifests as the immediate area seeming to flicker backwards and forwards through time. An insect gnawing at a table leg in the dining area, for example, might cause the area to stutter between years and years of dinner parties, ghostly attendants of all fashions and species appearing and disappearing as they enter and leave the affected area. An onlooker can't interact with temporal distortions directly, but if the insect is left to its own devices, it will eventually eat through all of the temporal energy and render the immediate area gray, frozen, and completely inert. It's highly recommended you kill or otherwise chase off an insect before it manages this, as it can do irreversible damage to a world. For affected Oska locations, please see this post. OOC NOTES The translation errors will continue through the rest of the month. For more information or to ask questions, please check the plotting post here! New bounties are available in Oska! Please remember to fill out your squidge success form before August 31, 23:59 UTC! Filling the form out is mandatory, even if you do not have the 3 squidge threads. You will not pass AC if you do not fill out the form. Characters who have been accepted on August 20th are exempt. Please direct questions relating to the success form here.

Comments

[competing]

[ answers: young enough, and not long at all. ]

Yeah...

[ his voice trails off, his own gaze drifting down to that hand. he is reminded of shiro's own prosthetic — it's sleek and shiny and slightly ominous-looking in design — but he has to wonder what the odds were of running into two guys with alien prosthetics. ]

Thanks.

[ the man was a good shooter though. had a sharp eye, and a flair for it that bordered on natural. lance, in turn, gives the rifle in his hands a somewhat absent-minded glance, and then a second later it reverts back to its bayard form, which he then hooks onto his belt. ]

Hope you got extra ammo for that thing.

[ it's a pretty old-fashioned looking pistol, but then again, he's a pretty old-fashioned looking guy. except for that hand, of course. ]

[flashbanging]

[ That's some fancy tech, of a kind even impressive to McCree. It reminds him of the shifting hard-light techniques of the Vishkar, but he suspects it's far more advanced than that.

He spins the gun by its trigger with his good hand, while pointing both to his revolver belt and the circle of shells on his Stetson with the other, more bionic one. ]

Partner, I don't go nowhere unprepared.

[ He gestures at the bayard. ]

And neither do you, looks like. So I expect we can take whatever wiggles on over.

[competing]

[ if mccree asks, lance would chalk the bayard up to space magic. he doesn't know how or why it works, it just does, and it seems to function much like his sentient robot lion does in that it syncs up to him and pretty much does what he wants it to, with very little trial and error. it's handy, but man does it spoil him. ]

Well — I won't argue with you there. [ he hefts the rifle, letting it come to rest on his shoulder as he poses. ] I'm pretty awesome.

[flashbanging]

[ McCree gestures to the rifle as he starts to walk, heading back towards the castle. ]

You got a lot of experience with that thing? Pretty interestin' piece of tech.

[competing]

Sure does look like it, huh?

[ he grins a little, puffing up even more. ]

Believe it or not, I've only been at this a month! I was training to be a fighter pilot, see, but then Destiny was like, "Yo, we need you to save the universe, do you mind?" and I was like, "Take this, Galra trash!"

[ insert various sound effects of rifle-shooting and lasers-blasting. ]

[flashbanging]

[ He understood some of that. He glances back at Lance, half-grinning in any case, lifting up the brim of his hat slightly. ]

Sounds like real hero stuff. What's your name?

[competing]

Oh, it's total hero stuff. I mean, not to brag [ he's bragging ] but my team and I are known as Defenders of the Universe.

[ they're kind of a big deal. ]

But it's Lance. [ he grins. ] What's yours? You're a pretty great shot yourself.

[flashbanging]

[ There's a little wriggler gnawing on a tree trunk ahead of them, distorting its immediate space, making the air around it soft and blurry. McCree frowns and shoots; the bug, struck dead center, bursts against the tree. McCree screws up his nose as he spins the gun in one hand and keeps ambling forward. ]

The whole universe. Mighty big territory there.

[ Spin, spin. He's more than a great shot, and he knows it. ]

I do all right. Name's McCree. Pleasure to meetcha, hero.

[competing]

Yeah, [ lance gives a hollow little laugh at that, not-so-subtly giving their surroundings a rueful look. ] And it just keeps getting bigger...

Good to meet you too, though. [ despite how jumbled he was earlier, he can appreciate a great help when it's given. ] What about you, though? [ he eyes that pistol, and how mccree handles it. ]

What do you do?

[flashbanging]

[ Ah, poor kid. It's no surprise that he's unsettled; even sad. Whatever memory he'd been stuck in looked like something to long for. McCree feels for him.

His strategy, of course, is to distract. He thumbs his belt buckle, grinning wide. ]

Vigilante justice. Wherever I can, whenever I can.

[ He holsters the gun with a final, showy spin, then makes a gun with his metallic thumb and forefinger. He shuts one eye. ]

Annnd huntin' bounties. So long as they're for the bad sort, 'a course.

[competing]

Whoa — like the Lone Ranger?

[ because... cowboy... and vigilante justice... and let's say that lance's world has those characters, idk ]

[flashbanging]

You got it, partner.

[ He walks on, his tattered serape fluttering over his back. ]

Just exactly like that. Ain't got no steadfast friend helping me out, though.

[ He taps his gun. ]

Just this little missy.

[competing]

[ look at the grin that splits this face, you did this ]

Whoa! I grew up on that stuff, man!

[ he then holds a hand out like a gun, apparently forgetting he has an actual one available to him. ]

Hunk and I used to pretend we were cowboys all the time!