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

[headlining]

[Unlike Loki, this isn't the first time he's seen or felt this effect, though it still makes him shudder - he doesn't believe in ghosts, no, but the effect is still chilling.]

It happens sometimes. [He says, tone a bit curt.] They must have something to do with those creatures, but...ugh, I don't know what it means.

[He shoots a glare at Loki.] If you start making obnoxious noises, I swear I'll knock that thing out of your hands.

[selfimage]

You couldn't knock a book out of my hands, remember?

[ the reminder comes out like a petulant child who's reveling in a small victory. he puts the straw to his lips to add insult to injury, before his eyes travel back to their pesky little friends. ]

I suppose this is just a jarring reminder of how fragile reality is. [ it's said with a sort of uncaring tone from around the straw, the ghosts walking around him, about their own business in the kitchen, unknowing of them. ] Or the timeline, perhaps. Everyone always seems to see the lines that make the hard barriers.

[headlining]

[Oh, that's a bit of a low blow - Keats scowls.]

Don't remind me. [The whole thing was embarrassing enough, he hardly needs it dragged up like this. He coughs awkwardly, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. MOVING ON.]

What, you think this is all some kind of...problem with time? Like echoes of time in the forms of these things? [He...actually seems kind of accepting of that idea, even as he shifts the way out of the path of an oncoming ghost.] You make it sound like it's some kind of leak, like things aren't being kept in their right place.

[selfimage]

[ it was a little barb, Loki seems rather good at those. ]

Most likely. Nothing is ever like the straight line of mortal perception—time, most of all. [ he's moved through time in all sorts of ways, usually by Hela's hand, but he knew that there were others. he knew that it was dangerous. it had wrought a ripple, one that he remembered feeling as everything reached a point of stress so great, that it meant to crack and break. ] Leak may be a good way of putting it.

[headlining]

[It's an embarrassing memory. Keats likes to keep his own mental image of himself unblemished.]

If it's a leak...what caused it? And how can it be fixed? I mean, I don't suppose there's some kind of needle and string that can sew up the fabric of time that exists out there.

[selfimage]

If you think metaphorically you may be able to conjure something up.

[ time was as transient as everything else to him. ]

Those seem to be the only things that work nowadays.

[ he waves away one of the ghosts, even though it seems disinclined to listen, being from another time and all. ]