epidemiology | EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

BENDED TIME

As outlined in the OOC post, things start to slow down and grow quiet in Oska for a few days as the bugs crawl away and slowly disappear. But then the cocoons hatch. Fully grown temporal insects claw their way out of them, each about the size and temperament of raging bulls.

They come out far more aggressive and eager to fight, are are willing to take on anything that moves with jaws and claws alike. Except, of course, another insect — when two of them encounter each other, they enter into a mating dance and then slip away into another dimension, leaving behind only the temporary ghosts of years gone by. If you can’t find a way to pierce that thick shell to take one down, better find another one to pair it off with instead. Just try not to get bit while leading them around and find yourself suddenly 5 years old again.

The insects aren’t the only thing going on in Oska, though. As it turns out, unicorns really hate this adult form of the temporal insects, and will start kicking their way out of their stalls in the stables to get at the insects in an attempt to impale or trample them. According to Uruz they’re gallant warriors, but not always quite cut out to take on a bug, and can easily get themselves hurt or killed. She would really appreciate recruits taking a moment to recapture any stray unicorns they may come across and leading them back to the stables. Try to avoid any insects on the way, or you’ll find yourself suddenly fighting insect and irate unicorn, which is no one’s idea of a good time.

The lake is getting more active, too. All the fighting has woken up something in the depths of it. Dark red tentacles sometimes creep up onto shore — and don’t worry, this time they don’t belong to a sea goddess. The tentacles don’t attack unless attacked, and can in fact be quite agreeable. Nodes along the length of them act as primitive eyes, which see well enough to interact with anyone nearby. They’re also all a little peckish. Toss a tentacle a bit of food and watch it curl around and ingest it using tiny mouths on the underside. It might even be willing to play a few rounds of fetch or slap a bug into the sky for you if you put it in a good mood with a morsel of food.

The senior ALASTAIR members can be seen out and about and doing their part, too. Uruz and Dagny fight as a team, centaur and elf, sometimes fighting back to back and sometimes as mount and rider. They’ll stop and lend a hand, but the cats are a little less generous. Cherenkov and Crowley fight inseparably and use magic and science in deadly combination to ward off and destroy the bugs, but can usually only be seen darting on their way from one place to another. They have a lot of magitek to repair in the destructive wake of the insects. Pomarr, neither as senior nor as invested in actively picking off the bugs, offers shelter near a tentacle-free portion of the lake, calling down storms to toss away bugs for her and anyone in the vicinity.

OOC NOTES

This log spans a week ICly. Characters will find themselves beginning to understand each other again as the bugs first vanish, as the effects of the cats’ work on the magitek pays off. The translation problem will be completely fixed by the time the cocoons hatch. All of the bugs will have been killed or shipped off by the sixth day, leaving the last day before their departure to the next mission blissfully relaxing. Any temporally misplaced recruits will be back to normal by the last day, as well.

A reminder to anyone still texting: the texting feature of magitek jewelry operates based on thought! There are no physical keyboards, recruits merely think the message that they’d like to send to another recruit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My wife?

[And that actually does give Evan pause, his train of thought skipping over that question like a bumped CD player -- anachronism as the metaphor might be to his adult self. He looks askance at the young woman, having no clue how he's given that impression.

On the other hand, he suddenly understands her hasty withdraw from the flirting she'd been piling on at first. He flashes her a puzzled grin, glad for at least that answer.]

I'm afraid if I'm given you the impression that I'm married, I've inadvertently misled you.

[Evan, you cad??? Since when did you become a "gentleman about town"???]

A- ah, you mean to say there is no Madam Arceneau?

[She realizes a bit too late that it could be interpreted as having some prior knowledge, so she quickly flailed to recover, blushing fitfully and waving a gloved hand frantically as if to stave off embarrassment.]

You said "Née" so I simply thought perhaps your wife's father had no sons-

Ah.

[She makes the save, although he's giving her an amused, thoughtful look for that blush. He shakes his head.]

Not at all. Really, I only mention Friave-Goodlace at all because it's the name that anyone who knew me during my first tenure here would remember me under. I haven't had reason to actually use it in, oh, about eighty years.

[As he admits that he grins. It's easy enough to come clean here, where at home admitting to being the age that he is would get him in true trouble, and he's tickled to be able to take advantage. Flustering her further won't hurt either; she seems a sharp enough cookie that there's a fun in teasing a little.]

[Evan, you??? Since when did you become Methuselan??

The stakes aren't nearly high enough for her to manage to keep a straight face or continue her act through this. No ones life is at stake, not even injury, or a planet, and her attempts at remaining aloof are unraveling with each bit of revelation.]

You are... Over a hundred years old?

[A normal girl might be a bit upset to realize she'd been about to come onto a centenarian, so it could possibly pass at that, but. This is growing more and personal, and she cannot help be deathly curious.]

Closer to two hundred, actually.

[Her growing dismay is at the same time something completely understandable, and something that for once he's allowed to be amused about. There's the buzz of awareness in the back of his brain that that disbelief and alarm would itself be cause for alarm if he were back home, but here...

Here he can grin brightly at her for it.]

Surely amongst all of these different people from all of these different worlds it's not so shocking. I recall there being literal gods here; really, what's a very old man to that?

[Evan, how had you kept such a thing secret? To think she could have had him in her list ages ago...]

Gods are one thing, people who seem otherwise altogether human are another...

[She could often detect the grossly magical or the power of a god but biology... Science was a strange mix of things, and categorizing between the two was an entirely different matter, but.]

Are all people in your world so long lived?

Not at all.

[He recognizes ferocious curiosity when he sees it, and it feels familiar in a way that he appreciates. If the conversation has now shifted entirely away from flirting he does not so much mind; inquiring minds want to know, and he's never one to turn down inquiring minds. His demeanour shifts slightly, from teasing to informing.]

In honesty I'm less human than I look. My father was human, but I get my lifespan from my mother's side, apparently. Hence, ah, the necessity of changing names -- it doesn't do to carry the same moniker for too long when you're only expected to live eighty years or so.

And your mother was... ?

[Oh, things have most definitely shifted away from flirting. For now. Sieglinde could not believe she had passed her years without knowing such a thing, and even though she had been transferred, that was still no excuse! She had to get to the bottom of this, even if the intensity of her curiosity might seem off for someone who was supposedly a stranger.]

[Evan cocks his head, considering. He has spoken very little about his mother to anyone since Kay went AWOL.]

An elemental.

[She'll have questions. Anyone sharp enough to be staring at him with that serious look would. He goes for the distraction, then, flipping a palm upright, summoning a flame to lace between his extended fingers. If elementals are known to this young woman, the trick should answer the question of what kind of elemental Kay was; if not it'll still provide context. He inclines his head, watching her intently, reading her reactions. He has yet to talk to someone among ALASTAIR's ranks who has been from a world to which elementals are endemic, and he can't resist the question that always used to tickle at him when these conversations would come up.]

Are you familiar with the species?

[Well, the obvious next question, what element, was answered quite handily by the flames that wreathe about his palm and fingers, flickering bright in her curious emerald eyes.]

As a concept in my world, yes, but very little first-hand...

[She held out her hand, feeling the heat and testing the safe distance from his flame even as she spoke.]

What are they like in your own world... ?

[Firelight flatters most people, and this young woman is no exception. He cocks his head, watching her as she admires the fires he's summoned up, though he sighs under his breath when she has no specific knowledge of elementals. No one ever does, and he keeps hoping. He subtly extends his hand, allowing her a better look as he lets the little flames weave between his fingers.]

I'm afraid I don't have as comprehensive a description as it seems like I should, given. I have only met three elementals other than my mother, and they have all been very different.

What I remember of my mother, she appeared human in every respect, even when using her particular skillset. The others were similar only in that their disguises were as seamless, and none of them seemed inclined to speak much of their origins or others of their kind. All told, I've little more than an impression of age and impressive malleability.

[He shrugs, though there's a wry pull to his lips.]

I suppose it would be too much to hope the lore on your world is more specific.

[Sieglinde hummed along with his explanation, satisfied that the flames he'd conjured weren't illusions. They gave off the proper heat for their size and the intensity of the temperature as told by the colors in the licking tendrils of fire...]

My world speaks most commonly of djinn... beings of smokeless flame who can appear in human form and interact with the world as flames ought not...

[She spares a glance up at his face again, curious.]

They are said to have a society like our own, with kings and nobility... but they are a mysterious race, who only rarely show themselves before humans.

[With an air of mild regret, Evan shakes his head.] We have djinni legends back home, too. Almost certainly a different thing. They have very different tells; castes, particular appearances... all the elementals I've personally met have looked seamlessly human.

[He closes his hand up with a minor flourish, drops it back to tuck into his pocket. Demonstration's over. He offers the young woman a quirked grin, deflecting back away from the likely-fruitless track.]

And yet I suppose I haven't picked these libraries clean for references to my mother's kind. Do your library guru skills extend in the direction of pointing a man towards potential leads?

Paracelsus spoke of four elemental beasts in his alchemical works... but I do not believe gnomes, sylphs, undines... or particularly salamanders were well known for their flawless human disguises... Though if you interpret them as nypmhs, then at least females of the species would be present...

[Mixing lore and consulting those of other worlds occasionally proved tricky... but she couldn't say she ever found it annoying enough to stop, to stop looking for answers or letting her curiosity run free.

As for the question, though...

She pointed to the left with a single finger.]

Alchemical texts are two shelves down and three to the left, though, if you wished to try for yourself... ?

[He nods and glances to the left, marking in his mind where the books she's pointed out should be living, but she's raised an interesting idea and frankly he's more interested in the people here than in the library. (Barely, but he is.)]

Now that's a point. In truth, all of the elementals I've met have presented themselves as human women, although I am almost certain I've heard my mother refer to male elementals... ahh, but to be fair, it's been eighty years at least since then.

[He's still leaning against the bookcase, in an odd limbo between nonchalant lounging, perusing the stacks, and speaking to this young woman. He waffles and then pushes back to standing, looking to claim a second armchair, one she hasn't piled high with books and her skinny self.]

I wonder if the classifications overlap, or if it's a case of two names for the same thing. Nature spirits, after all. The nymph legends from my world do seem to share some congruity with the water and earth elemental I've met, although they certainly haven't seemed inclined to run about the woods giggling for the benefit of old gods. [He settles back, looking thoughtfully across at her. Their flirting seems to be over, but his interest is still sharp even with that fun put aside. She's young enough he won't initiate a repeat of the performance.]

It does seem to be considered overtly female to be associated with the raw elements- except the realm of lust, of course, since that would usually be men. Satyrs and incubi and the like...

[It may be... difficult to tell if that was an attempt to restart the flirting or not, as she re-situates back into her chair, a scandalously half-bare stockinged leg, (knee-length skirts!), hung over the chair arm.]

But it seems likely they'd overlap... different cultures all seeing the same things and interpreting them their own way... assigning labels they may not understand.

[Like dinosaurs and dragons.]

[She makes an interesting point, but it's the first that has him grinning from the seat he's taken.]

And what about succubi? You're not entirely right. [He points this out in amusement.] Mythology addresses female lust, though granted it does in a very different way to the behind-the-hand admiration that even creatures like incubi seem to get. Your sex sadly does seem to get more of the scandalized pearls-clutching, even in mythology. Witches riding broomsticks, hmm?

Ah, ah, ah-

[Oh, it's on, Evan.]

Is there not a difference between lusts, such as the uncontrollable desire exhibited by men, and seduction? The incubus lays himself upon an unsuspecting woman with hardly a greeting, but the succubus tempts and it is human men who are weak enough to succumb to their lusts.

[Sieglinde tuts, wagging a finger.]

Besides, I have never met a witch who actually rode upon a broomstick. Men spread those rumors and others of their ilk, I am most sure of it, and shall count it less.

[Evan's grinning, outright enjoying this. In small part because it has undercurrents of the flirting they'd been doing earlier, but with the much more exciting overlay of debate to spice things up.]

I'll come back to your point about the incubus versus the succubus shortly. But the origins of the idea that witches ride broomsticks being based in rumors started by men is exactly my point. Hallucinogenic ointments rubbed on broomsticks, taken vaginally to facilitate visions and other "magic"? How is that anything but the whisperings of nervous men speculating maliciously about something that they would see as a purely female lust?

But will we consider the legends born of men unable to grasp women's sexual needs in the same category as what we were discussing? Which I believe to have been "raw elements"?

[Sieglinde, for all she could get worked up in a debate about something that truly mattered, was really only playing at the moment- likely obvious by the smirk on her face. Whether she "won" or "lost" didn't matter as much as the quality of banter...

And apparently Evan had become able to talk about vaginas without blushing, which was an interesting sight to see.]

[A hundred and fifty years, two rounds of being old, and a plethora of opportunities to become familiar with the fantastic buffet of human genitalia out there, do that to a man. He laughs and points at her an accusing finger not far off from the one she'd tutted him with earlier.]

I wasn't the one who brought up the subject of women's lust as addressed by human mythology. I'm just saying it's there, to your point about lust in mythology mostly being the purview of men.

As for incubi versus succubi, I'd still assign the motivation of lust to the latter. It's another malappropriation of female lust to pander to male uncertainty: the lust being in the temptation as much as in the act. Women seen as temptress. Anyways, that's a mythology that goes all the way back to Eve versus Lilith, and certainly has to do with female lust, as told by men who can't bear for that lust not to center around them.

So really, you're only wrong in the details. Lust seen as a benefit or positive trait in mythology is usually the purview of men.

And yet here we are, no more closer to the truth of why elementals more often or not present as female. What a shame that you st-

[Sieglinde has to stop herself from just giving herself away, from still have, from implying as if something hasn't changed since she'd known him in their pasts...

Awkwardly blinking, she abruptly reached for a book from her pile.]

Still have yet to find the answer.

[Smooth.]

What a shame.

[He repeats that in teasing agreement, although he's already distracted. That stumble piqued his interest and he peers sharply at her, still grinning a little. Something about the way she looks back to her book, some shape of the face--

He scoffs and shakes his head.]

Really, who are you? You're not the first to whip out the flirt card since I superseded my younger self, but at least I remember the other two. Am I forgetting a mission? Did the Audentes and Aurvandil work together at some point? Are you somebody who changed teams..?

[But his eyes are narrowing and the wheels are turning. With ALASTAIR for ten years, huh...]

I did not "whip out the flirt card", excuse you, sir.

[She answers with a whip of her hair, huffing a bit, but... even she knows the jig is up. And that somewhat flustered expression might begin to look a bit familiar if he had the memory for it.]

To think that after all we shared that your years of debauchery would erase the memory of a witch such as I...

[And there's that final piece. Evan pulls back a little, obviously surprised as her identity clicks into place, and for a moment he's very much a reflection of his young self -- round-eyed shock and bright interest warring for ascendency. And then the corners of his eyes crinkle in a grin, and he starts to laugh.

Still chortling merrily, he pushes himself more upright in his seat, leaning forward to prop his elbows on his knees and peer at her with an eye for all the details he'd missed on his first pass. His grin has not abated.]

No. Sieglinde? Little, serious Sieglinde? Well, don't you grow up into something!

Then you knew who I was the whole time. Hah!

EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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