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]

[ now that lance is actually seeing loki, truly seeing him and digesting what he's seeing, he can't say he's any more receptive than he had been when he hadn't known what was going on. maybe it's the tone, maybe it's the hair, maybe it's the cool as heck jacket that somehow isn't completely ruined by the rain like seriously how does it do that.

either way, his expression merely flattens, and he hoists up the rifle once more to take a handful of those bugs out with once shot each. ]

I don't see you doing anything about them.

[selfimage]

I just washed my hands.

[ he says easily, tipping back his head to watch him with an irritating little smile that pulls at the corners of his lips. he tactlessly looks him up and down, from the top of his helm to his toes and then holds out his shoulders in a casual shrug. ]

Besides, why herd them if you're not going to exterminate them? [ a pause, and he looks at his nails. ] Were you waiting for me?

[competing]

Dude, I don't even know you.

[ lance didn't bother to try and think if he did. loki's starting to seem like the kind of guy that wants to be known, or has grown used to that kind of renown all his life, and there is a petulant side of lance that wants to shoot it down as easily as he does another bug. ]

But if you're that fussy about getting a little messy, then maybe you should have avoided the slime trail in the first place.

[selfimage]

[ Loki's little smile says that's the point because it was a joke, but he doesn't voice it. instead he seems to take the slight with minimal care, brushing it off as the rain rolls off of his shoulders. ]

Oh? Well, I have the convenience of a little shower, [ bright green eyes glance up at the clouds, the only bit of him that hasn't turned grey from the falling rain. ] so if you'd like to give me the honors, who am I to say no?

[competing]

[ man, this guy was weird with a capital W. lance decides he doesn't like that smile, because it seems to convey everything but actual happiness or mirth, and so he doesn't hesitate to step back, waving a hand in the air. ]

Whatever, man. Go wild.

[ lance can't see a weapon on the guy, but he seems eager to show something off. he can't help but be a little curious. ]

[selfimage]

[ testy, isn't he?

in all honesty, he hadn't expected Lance to give up his lot. when he backs up Loki cants his head to the side. ]

That was easier than I thought. I'll try not to stare at them too long.

[ his arms cross over his chest, and he waves one, glowing briefly with green tendrils. for the barest of moments, the ground beneath the insects, soaked with rain, glows green. it twists and flares with a burst, incinerating the bugs with a shrill scream of gasses releasing, but it sounds inhuman. ]

There, all done. Hardly a mess.

[competing]

[ he can't say loki found him in the best of moods, but that has less to do with loki and more to do with the situation itself. while it's true he hadn't appreciated the interruption (unappreciated, but definitely warranted, even needed), the true source of his ire can be found in the timeworm's ability themselves. that such a simple illusion (was it, though? his hair still hangs wet against his forehead) could knock him off his senses so easily.

thank god it hadn't happened around keith.

upon seeing loki's display of power, lance finds himself humbled it. it brings another sort of frown to his lips, a begrudging sort of acknowledgement that he punctuates with a tip of his head. ]

Not bad, [ he concedes, in a tone that is more playful than petulant. whatever it had been that bothered him just earlier, he seems determined to get over it. ]

We didn't yet get to fancy hand-waving in paladin training.

[selfimage]

I'm not a paladin.

[ but there's something in his voice that doesn't seem to find the concept foreign. aside from knowing Keith, anyway. Loki dismisses the ashen bugs with a wave of his hand, canting his head back at Lance. ]

But I know of another one that managed to trip through a multiversal tear before you.

[ it comes out easy as the temporal tides begin to shift, and the weather slowly fades back into what it was. the rain only leaves remnants that it was there, including soaked armor. Loki takes the lapels of his jacket and begins to shake it out. ]

Are you familiar?

[competing]

[ lance's attention had momentarily shifted back towards their surroundings, watching first as loki makes easy work of the clean up, and again when the environment around them shifts back into what it's supposed to be. he spares a moment to glance down at a puddle of water by his feet, his own reflection muddled by the rivulets caused by one last, errant raindrop.

by the time he's looking back at loki, he's still slightly distracted. ]

Black, green, or red?

[ at this point, he's caught up with the others. he naturally assumes that's how loki seems so knowledgeable of them. ]

[selfimage]

Red.

[ the rain didn't seem to bother him much, when you had a brother who's duty it was to conjure storms, the weather became like the waxing and waning of the mood, rather than variable atmospheric conditions. the change is a reminder enough of how fragile reality and time really were, not the stringent thing dictated by permanent rules. ]

Keith, I believe his name is—thinks everything may bite him? Ring any bells?

[ but that wasn't the least of it. Loki had heard of them even in the world that he had hailed, even if they were far different there than they were here. it's to be expected when dallying in the thralls of the multiverse. ]

[competing]

[ despite the solemnity hanging over him just a couple seconds ago, lance can't help but laugh at that description. ]

Yep — that sounds like him.

[ he grins a little, pleased over the fact that keith is making such a strange impression on people... that keith is still keith. it's annoying, but there's some comfort in that too, he thinks. ]

There's five of us in total, actually. But right now only four of us are here. Did Keith tell you what we do?

[selfimage]

I believe I can recall what he said: aggressive blah blah blah cosmic defenders blah blah space blah?

[ the tone is less condescending and more light, somewhat teasing. he recalls whatever conversations he had with Keith with stunning accuracy and a look of grave concentration on his face that looks borderline ridiculous due to the circumstances.

when he finishes, he waves his hand. ]

You must be blue. [ he wiggles a dark nailed finger at him. ] Does blue have a name?

[competing]

[ maybe he's just tired, or maybe that time bug thing has finally gotten to him, but lance can't help but find that comment the funniest thing he's heard all week. he bursts out into laughter, the kind that shakes his entire body, and by the time he's done with it, he's even got to wipe a few tears from his eyes. ]

Oh man... Yeah, that sounds like him. [ keith u suck. ]

You forgot the part about the robot lions, though. [ he grins a little. he knows how ridiculous it all sounds, but tbh? lance kind of revels in that. ]

My lion's name is Blue. But me? The name's Lance.

[selfimage]

Lance. [ he repeats the word, as if he's tasting it. there's a certain way that he says it, as if it were something far more sensual. ] Like the weapon.

[ robot lions are ridiculous, but you know? Loki seems to take the whole thing in stride. he is the one wearing the golden horns, after all, not much seemed to be in the way of surprising him. ]

You said that there were others besides you two?

[ lions shortly. ]

so it begins...

[competing]

[ lance blinks once, then twice. there is something oddly familiar about loki's tone, in a way that makes it actually quite strange... as if he's heard that tone somewhere else... perhaps in his own voice... but never really from anyone else, directed at him.

it takes him a moment to actually get it processed.

but by then he realizes he'd taken too long to respond, and so his mind hastens to catch up. ]

Uh — yeah. Yeah, there's five of us in total. Well — seven, I guess, if you count Coran and the princess. But of the lion pilots there's me, Keith, Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk.

the endless saga

[selfimage]

[ Keith he knows: the red one.

why are they always color coded? ]

I meant those here? I suppose the multiverse gets it in its little head to do the whole like pulls like thing.

[ he says it so casually, it's as if it happens every day. while Loki had his own means of inter-dimensional travel, he didn't really like it. he liked being away from Asgard, but that was a little bit different. ]

[competing]

[ because otherwise how do you know whose lion is whose? ]

As far as I know? Just me, Pidge, Keith, and Shiro. [ poor hunk... he misses ya, buddy...!

but yeah. about that... ]

What d'you gotta say to get this multiverse to push like back?

[selfimage]

[ the question causes him pause, and he taps a long, black nailed finger against his cheek as if he's mulling it over. he's had his own adventures through the multiverse, dancing here and there from one dimension to the next: the ones that had formed in ruin, and those that never had a chance at all. he had traveled the outliers, or mayflies, searching for someone like finding a pin in a needle stack. ]

It doesn't really work that way. That's like asking how you get purple back, it's about ideas rather than people.

Though it may be entirely possible that all four of you managed to trip the same inter-dimensional curb. [ it sounds like the idea amuses him. ]

the absurdity of how solemn he looks in that icon + his actual words is killing me

[competing]

[ lance makes a noise of disappointment, though he looks as if he had expected an answer like that. of course it wouldn't be that easy. when is it ever? ]

How do you know so much about this stuff?

his daft punk ringtone is v important to him

[selfimage]

This isn't my first inter-dimensional jaunt.

[ and it isn't. there were those in a prior life, and those in the current. the current one had been a year in the dimensional outliers—the mayflies—or unstable possibilities. it had been as horrifying as it was exhausting, even for someone like him. ]

at least he has priorities

[competing]

[ lance spares a moment to check if he is even surprised by that...

and finds that not a lot would probably surprise him at this point. ]

By choice?

[ from what he understands, none of them have a choice in this. ]

[selfimage]

Sorta. I was with others, we were looking for something. [ someone, actually, but Loki doesn't specify. ]

So we traveled through the mayflies—terrifying, really. At least ALASTAIR reaping what they sow comes from a stronger base of stability, rather than flitting ideas and fancies formed by alternate choices.

[competing]

[ lance slumps a little, knowing well enough when he's out of his element. where's pidge when you need her. ]

Did you ever find the thing? I mean — you're here now, right? Were you just — ripped from one timeline to another? [ timeline-ception??? ] How much would that suck.

[selfimage]

Well, it found us. [ at a party instead of in the chaotic turbulence of the multiverse. he says it as if it's bittersweet, not because of Tommy's return, but because it was something he left behind.

sometimes he tries not to think about how he misses them, but it sneaks up on him at the most inopportune moments. ]

Surprisingly and unsurprisingly, this—[ he waves off, signally everything. ]—isn't so foreign to me. I'm a child of Asgard, there are Ten Realms to travel through, not to mention countless dimensions. The timeline comes in somewhere else ...

[ that earns Lance a shrug; Loki doesn't want his brain to swing from the Young Avengers to his existential trauma. ]

Ah—but you needn't concern yourself. [ he seems charmed that he has, though. Loki's not used to the open regard of strangers. ] I'm always looking for new starts, and this isn't so different.

[competing]

[ in truth, lance could probably use a little more experience being not so open with his concern and trust... but that is perhaps a lesson better left for another, more poignant time in his life.

as it is, he merely acknowledges loki's attempts at refocusing with the same kind of easy acceptance as he has most everything else. ]

Whatever makes you happy, man.

[ and, because lance also needs to learn that not every thought of his needs to be voiced— ]

Sounds pretty lonely to me, though.