epidemiology | EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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.

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[That reminds him he's neglected a detail, and he nods as they pick their way among. Haise makes sure to wait until Chihiro passes by before dispatching any of the insects they come upon this time around, movements swift.

No need to cause them unnecessary suffering when he can be precise]

Yes, water as well. Human foods, and other beverages, both smell and taste unpleasant, on top of making them ill. It has to do with the digestive enzymes ghouls have.

[So he's been taught, and he's seen no reason to doubt as much with his own personal experiences]

Even water...

[ She holds her own water tight, waiting for him to finish off another set of insects that trundle across the ceiling their way. When he does, she looks up at him, pausing to move around a different pile of yet to be eaten entrails. ]

How do they stay hydrated?

[ She's not biologist enough (or experienced enough) to think that they could get their water needs met through their feeding needs, or to think that, like a fish, maybe they don't need to take in water the same way that most species she knows do, to an extent. ]

Oh, I'm sorry. I must have been unclear; ghouls can drink water and coffee, just not things like milk for instance.

[Sometimes his inclination to keep things vague on some level, while still attempting to elaborate, doesn't go over so well. Haise supposes it's what comes of being used to having those around him who know precisely what he is and what he can't do, with some approximation of what he can.

He turns when they reach a fork in the hall, surveying the stretch of corridor ahead as he presses on]

So hydration isn't an issue unless there's no access to water.

[Which in Tokyo seems rather unlikely to Haise, but then, he doesn't think it entirely impossible]

[ Her expression clears up; she'd been confused on that point, but hearing that it was just her confusing things made it all make much more sense. Coffee and water. ... And, um. Each other, or humans.

She won't pretend that doesn't make her shiver. ]

Like it is for most people and animals.

[ She confirms. No access to water kills most things not adapted to extreme environments. She's not sure which animals can survive anyway, but she suspects there must be some out there somewhere. ]

Do they call themselves ghouls, too?

[It's a question Haise can't recall ever having been asked before. He's not even sure he asked, back in his days as nothing more than a number. Many questions had crowded his mind, but not that one in particular]

Yes, they do. I don't know how far back that name goes, but that's how it is.

[Having spent the brief span of his memory around the CCG, Haise doubts that he'd know if it had ever been any different. At least he can speak for present conditions though]

I guess that's kind of mutually respectful in that case.

[ They're using proper names, not slurs, is what she means. Though she's not sure so much about the extent of how that would go.

She near slips on some entrails and slime, catching herself and slopping water up onto her shirt. She blinks, shaking her head and pressing on. ]

It doesn't sound like a very restive world for anyone.

[Haise has had the word 'ghoul' thrown in his face like a verbal slap, so he's not quite sure he can say it's mutually respectful. At the very least, any word can be said with enough contempt to make it feel like an insult, or something to be shamed by...but that falls firmly within the category of things he will not say.

When Chihiro slips, he's quick to pause and stick a hand out to support her back, but she's recovered quickly enough even without it]

There are often conflicts, because naturally... People don't like feeling that they might be preyed on. And unfortunately some ghouls are excessive in their activities.

[ If she were better aware of what it felt like to be an outsider for more than the handful of days she has yet to remember at the bath house... oh, but even if she remembered that, she wouldn't have said the same about using the same words being respectful.

Remembering how being called human was an active, belittling insult, the implication of being something more worth destroying than tolerating... but she doesn't remember, and in her ignorance, does not see what it could be like. She simply doesn't think about it. ]

Mm... Killing to kill?

[ She sounds unsure when she asks that, as if she's watching a trainwreck she's not sure how to look away from. "Excessive" could mean being greedy, but in appetites of the body or something else? She shivers. The ideas of those greed mean something to her, nebulous and changing.

She wants to understand why, but she can't ask him that. An insect lazily crawls across the hall they turn into, lifting a tentacle in their direction before resuming its activities. Chihiro stops, giving Haise his room to move. ]

Yes...some are that way. Needless predation is unfortunately something I've seen a number of times.

[Including ghouls that behaved along the lines of serial killers. Torso fell rather squarely into that category. Granted, CCG policy was that ghouls were intolerable and should be disposed of, but things didn't always play out that way. They were often kept for information or...other resources.

It's a reality he does his best not to ponder too deeply.

Spotting the insect moving through the hall, Haise once more maneuvers so that he's between Chihiro and the bug itself. It's better that she doesn't have to see, even if she knows what he's doing. Even if she sees the aftermath, and he knows she will.

He's swift to dispatch the insect with a quick thrust of his quinque]

... Some people — no. Some humans are that way too.

[ Which is nothing she knows how to deal with. It's just what the television has told her, and it is apparently one of those parts of life that ends up being true. Not the most important parts, on the other hand.

Her most important parts rely on the kindness and better choices made by people to work together. More like what they're doing here. Even the way he moves to try and keep her from seeing directly what he does now, when they both know what it going on. That's a kindness.

It's why Chihiro doesn't edge around him to see. He's offering a kindness.

She accepts. ]

Ah, Haise-san, is there anyplace here with a nurse? Or things for first aid, like band-aids?

[Haise hums as he weighs that thought]

...Like an infirmary? [Now that she mentions it, that would be the sensible thing, especially with an organization of this size] Not that I'm aware of, though some people around here have medical experience or healing magic.

[And in a few cases, people have both. Haise is of the understanding that Sieglinde is the acknowledged resident expert, since he's observed her knowledge and skills for himself. There may be others, with their number of members fluctuating to some degree.

With the insect dispatched, Haise gestures for Chihiro to proceed. He'll follow her once she's past the insect's remains. If he can keep her from having to look at them, he'll do just that]

I think Sieglinde has supplies and knowledge of medicine, for example.

... There isn't?

[ That pulls her up short. Chihiro can't imagine anyplace that is, essentially, self-sufficient not having a place for healing and curing. A place for rest? For monitoring? Not a hospital, it makes sense nothing so grand is here, but not even a sick room? ]

No doctors or nurses other than Sieglinde-san? Um, I mean... magic is really interesting, but that just seems strange. Doesn't it have a chance of not working? Like how people can't understand each other right now.

[ Being perturbed at this reality keeps her moving onward once she reminds herself they're trying to find people to help. It also keeps her from focusing and lingering over the unsatisfactory, sad deaths of the invading pests. ]

I have to imagine there are more than a few people around with the ability to heal others... If I remember right, Olivia is among those numbers too.

[Now that it's come up, Haise supposes it would be good for them to have a more accurate idea of just how many healers there are. Medics as well, since he knows several of them at least have experience with first aid if not heavier injuries]

The first mission I was on, abilities were suppressed because of the conditions on that world. At that time, we had to rely on first aid and field medicine.

[Haise follows closely after her for a short while, and once they're well past the insect, he moves to take point]

[ She frowns, slow and deliberate as she walks. There's a sudden sense of a lack of safety net she hadn't known she'd presumed existed. Magic? No, she has little ideas on that beyond what she's grasped in her two days here. Magic isn't what she believes one should rely on by instinct or socialisation. For that, she'd expect technical expertise, and that's not something this place has.

Chihiro glances up at Haise's back once he's taken point, studying the splattering of holes present even there. ]

Then is everyone trained in those things? Like... studying them, just in case?

Some people pursue that, and others don't. I think it depends on the individual.

[Rounding another corner, Haise looks for any of their associates. It seems they must simply be looking in the wrong places, and once more there are none to be found. Curious, that, although he can guess that some would stay in their rooms rather than deal with the havoc or risk getting in the way of those who could act on the situation.

Or they may just be looking in the wrong places]

I started investigating because it was so foreign to me.

... First aid was?

[ She doesn't equate his role as protector as one that would be so divorced from knowing how to address injuries that may occur on the smaller scales. It's a practicality concern, but she supposes that in most organisations, such things were left to the professionals. In the end, she nods to herself, answering her own question. ]

It's not been your job. Plus, you... [ she glances toward him, toward the state of his jumpsuit ] ... have a different relationship to healing than most anyone I've known.

Ah, no. Magic was foreign to me, and I was first exposed to it on that mission, but I did know first aid beforehand. I learned more from Sieglinde, however.

[Haise is far from a medical expert, and he'd never claim otherwise, but it was necessary to know at least the basics. It could be the difference between stabilizing an associate until help arrived and seeing someone die because no one could, say, staunch some bleeding.

Of course, Haise had always been treated as a weapon first and foremost]

I'm not the only durable guy around here, I think.

Mm. She sounds very smart.

[ People being treated like tools is something she'll only remember in the weeks to come. Right now, she wouldn't truly understand. She hasn't had to see living examples, or come to terms with the various ways people viewed each other. Here in Oska, everything is too new and foreign and disturbing.

Here, she has to find any footing stable enough to keep her from falling through before she can tackle the nuances of the people who make up this team she's been unceremoniously dropped into. ]

Are there many who are able to heal like you do? I wouldn't have imagined anything like it before. ... You're still careful, aren't you?

She's very intelligent. I'm amazed someone as young as her knows so much.

[Haise can't ever speak well enough of Sieglinde, really. He holds her in very high esteem, both for what she does for others and for her intellect. People twice her age weren't as knowledgeable, so that respect is well-earned so far as he's concerned.

Thoughts of his associates are so much more pleasant than insects filled with acid...

But the question comes as a surprise to him. How often had anyone been concerned with him being careful? He can't really think of many occasions in the past, but then, those above him often put him in perilous situations. Haise was expendable]

I've heard there are a few, at least. There may be more, but I've never formally inquired... But I try to look out for others.

[That's careful, right?]

[ A hum and a nod for Sieglinde is Chihiro's own appreciation of such a person being part of their team. It's good to know that even the younger members (while still older than she is, in all likelihood) are able to contribute to and help the group as a whole. It leaves her feeling warm somewhere deep down in her heart.

She continues to make her careful way after him, listening to his words, and not quite hearing what she was asking after. She's trying to decide if that's deliberate or not. ]

It's admirable to look out for others. Mm, but you're careful with yourself too, right?

[ Rude to be pressing this point, and she knows it; still, as one who acknowledges that she needs looking out for, it's important to her to know that those who do are also watching out to make sure they don't need to rely on healing in order to get through what comes after them. ]

[The question is more pointed this time, and the concern is something that will never cease to stand out in Haise's mind. Back home, he's accustomed to being thrown in highly dangerous situations, treated both as a living weapon and something by its very nature expendable. He only lives because he's useful.

After all, as a ghoul among CCG operatives, every moment was borrowed time granted to him because he could come in handy. No more, and no less]

...There are people I'd trouble if I were reckless.

[He could tell her a pretty lie about the fact that he's careful. Could even say that he understands he can't take care of anyone else if he can't take care of himself, but his short life has been all about not taking care of himself.

And so, he gives the answer that he thinks most true. There are people here who would be upset if he were thoughtlessly reckless. Not to mention, he can't very well return to his squad back home if he's dead, and what good would he be to them then?]

[ She makes a noise of assent, not to accept his answer so much as recognise he's given one. She can even understand it, to an extent. ]

Those people... I'm glad you have them.

[ If he won't care for himself, then she's going to be glad he has friends who do. As long as trouble isn't code for inconvenience. If it is...

If it is, and she is here for days that stretch into weeks, she resolves that in her ways, she will try to remind him that it is not for the inconvenience of his departure or injuring that people should want him to be careful. It's for himself.

Even while she thinks that, surrounded by this strangeness, all the foreign motions associated with this place, she can only think to herself: I hope that's not the case.

If she meant the length of her stay here, or the meaning behind his words, even Chihiro isn't quite sure. ]

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EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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