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.

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[Urahara glances up and gives a suprisingly jovial wave of greeting for someone in his present situation. His quarry is less than enthused about being flanked, however, and moves to try and take advantage of his distraction to lunge at him, but Urahara proves too fast and light on his feet. He dodges the strike with an almost too fast too follow movement and presses close to the wall.]

Now that's just fighting dirty! [he sounds... almost delighted, but then again, he rarely sounds displeased about anything when he has the situation under control, and he truly believes he has this one under control.] It might make shorter work of it if we deal with it together. I had other things I'd like to get done today.

Don't we all.

[Where Evan's younger self might have been utterly confused by Urahara's breezy approach to his situation, old Evan understands. There is a power in that mask of diffidence; it is, in its own way, a sort of ambient dominance play. It draws a half-grin from him. The pattern to this, of course, is that if he responds in kind they are establishing themselves as equals. Luckily for Evan the bugs hold no terror for him.]

I can flush him in a direction if you want to strike the final blow. I'm afraid my method of dispatch tends to result in collateral damage, so if you've got something tidier up your sleeve...

[He makes that offer, even as he holds up his hands, gathering fires in them. That's for show more than functionality, giving Urahara an idea of how exactly Evan intends to herd the bug.]

[Urahara resists the urge to laugh, though Benihime's melodic sing-song giggling that belies her nature fills the back of his mind. She's not even supposed to be awake, much less taking delight in these things, but he can't count on her to do anything she's supposed to.]

I'm avoiding too much of that myself, actually. I'd rather not be seen as a poor investment on ALASTAIR's part. [the humor never leaves his tone, even as the humor takes on a bit of a gallows edge to it. he notes the fire and a playful grin tugs at the edges of his lips. oh this will be fun.] I'll keep it clean.

[the bug shuffles, concerned about the fire and annoyed that Urahara doesn't seem to be taking it seriously as a threat. as the shinigami moves, it tries to use the opening to get an attack in, but it misses again and Urahara moves into position. If Evan's using fire, then he'll rely on swordsmanship.

Which means revealing the blade hidden in his cane, and more besides... Well, if she's already prepared...] Awaken, Benihime.

[The blade transforms from a simple swordcane into an elegant blade, tasseled and unsuspecting in its beauty, much like the spirit who resides in it.]

[One sword turning into another sword isn't the strangest thing Evan's seen in his not inconsiderable lifespan, although it's worth a pause and an interested look. He earmarks the occurrence as something to ask this man about later, provided they do alright dispatching their mark.

With the way they're both shaping up, he can't imagine how they wouldn't.]

I'll keep him from running, [he calls.] Don't worry about the fire; I'll keep it from touching you.

[It's an extra bit of focus but he's certain he can manage it. What fun, to get to use his fires again. When he begins to bear into the problem in earnest he dismisses the fires from his palms, focusing on bringing up flame around behind the bug in a horseshoe shape that corners it towards Urahara, that leaves it no open escape route. Whenever the bug gets too close to one of the walls of fire he flares it, warning the unpleasant creature back, although in reality if the bug charged the flame wall it could probably make it through. He's relying on the instinctive fear of the intense heat, as so far has worked alright.

The blaze and crackle light up the hallway with ferocious ruddy glow, and though he's careful to keep his fires from lighting upon the carpeted floor or any of the wall tapestries, in places they begin to smoke where the heat draws too close. It's less collateral damage than he'd been worried about, at least.]

[oh that's precious, but, modest as always, and eager to keep his remaining cards close to his chest, he only looks grateful and a bit sheepish.] I appreciate it. Getting lit on fire accidentally after all this would just be embarrassing.

[with the bug successfully corralled, there is one problem- not much room to flash-step, which wouldn't really be an issue, but he'd rather avoid charring his gigai and his haori, if he can help it. close quarters fighting it is then. if he steadies his hand and keeps what he needs to do to the minimum..

Asking Benihime to 'sing' is out of the question- that's asking for a wall and half the floor to be taken out. Most of her other techniques would be similar.

...Getting in close it is.

With nowhere else to go, the beast charges and Urahara steels himself, waiting for it to get close, anticipating a movement, but for all his careful planning, he never expected that the damned thing might just be frightened enough to be confused. It veers away from him, stumbles back and when Urahara goes to adjust his stance, it swings around, knocking him to the ground with its heavy torso. Urahara puts Benihime between his face and the insect's maw as it tries to take advantage of his quarry being prone.

it might be time to take a calculated risk and apologize for the damage later.] Evan-san... Stay back.

[Alarm spikes in Evan when the bug knocks Urahara over, and he takes a step forward, considering quickly what he'll do if the man seems in serious distress. Lighting the bug on fire might send it berserk or it might make it retreat, but that's a risk he might have to take: keeping the flame from catching on the other man's clothes would be detail work of the worst kind, but he can manage it, or at least to put him out in short order afterwards...

But Urahara is still put-together enough to speak and though Evan does not relax, that inclines him to trust the man's composure. There's a sense of line-of-fire to the request and Evan raises his hands a little, skittering backwards and pulling himself to the far wall, his gaze and his focus still hard on the human and the insect.

He isn't sure if Urahara can see from where he is, so he calls out once more.]

I'm out of the way!

[It doesn't occur to him in the heat of the moment to wonder why this man knows his name.]

[He's never actually attempted this without the associated strokes or... This close to his own face, but the power behind Benihime's shikai is all his own reiatsu, so he sincerely doubts it will do any harm to him.

not like it's going to do to this poor creature at this range.

he barely notices it, but the insect latches its maw onto his bare wrist in an attempt to get him to drop the sword that's protecting his otherwise vulnerable throat. it'll occur to him later, but he won't really worry about it until it's already too late. right now, all of his focus is on killing the damn thing.]

Sing, Benihime. [the pulse of dark red energy wells up across the sword's blade like bloody fire. it splits the insect in half and blows the bisected bits against the wall with heavy impact, leaving two sizable dents where its two halves hit, each one coated in the disgusting remains of the creature. that's going to be an unfortunate mess to clean up.

Urahara sits up and stares at the wall and the bug gore, and sighs drearily.] What a mess.

[Lucky for Evan and his not-inexpensive slacks, he has pressed himself up against a wall. The spatter catches him, but only along one side; he turns his head when the glow begins and avoids the worst of the spatter getting across his face.

It's just as disgusting as it seems.

Hissing a breath of disgust, he quickly scrapes the worst of it clean, peeling himself from the wall to stride forward and check on his battle compatriot.]

You're alright? [He's no-nonsense as he calls, about sixty percent sure the man managed to get out the other end of that unharmed, given.]

Oh I'm fine. I'd hate to be the wall, though. [he raises a hand to adjust the hat on his head, which brings his attention to the bite marks on his arm that he hadn't been thinking about at the time, too focused on concentrating on his fight to worry about it. It's not much of a bite, all things considering, but it's not too pleasant looking either.] Hmm...

[he might as well be examining a pebble he found in his shoe with the way he's examining that.]

[He may be able to afford nonchalance via ignorance, but Evan's expression gets serious the moment he sees that the bite has breached the skin. There's no guarantee that that's the telling factor, of course, but... but a bite it was, and here is Urahara, with a bite indeed.

He comes quickly to crouch by the injured man's side, his expression grave. Quickly, he tries to think of questions that might help him help the man through the upcoming change.]

What's your name? And are you likely to get violent if disoriented?

[There's no telling whether forward or back will be the key, so he focuses on the present.]

[Urahara makes it a habit to never be caught off-guard, but for once he's a bit flummoxed by the question, wondering what about the bite prompted it... And then it hits him. Ah yes, there have been some unusual occurances regarding these bites, haven't there?]

That's a good question. ["Isn't it, though?" Benihime chortles. He gives her a mental shush, because the last thing he needs in this situation is her reminding them that he can become very violent if he believes he's lost control of a situation. Or if it looks like it'd be fun to let loose a little.] You might want to leave.

[he can think of several points in his past where this would not end well for anyone. and that's not even counting what could lurk in his future- perish the thought. it's best to think that the worst thing that could happen is a Squad Two seated officer being very cross about a perceived abduction and reacting the way the stealth force usually acts- with violence.]

[Evan makes an annoyed, dismissive noise for the half answer.]

It's got to be no better to leave you to the tender mercies of the next person to wander by, is it? Or rather, to leave them at yours. No, I'll back off, but I won't leave.

Now, what is your name? [he asks again, less patient. Time is of the essence, he thinks -- the time between his bite and his transformation is a fuzzy blur, but couldn't have been longer than minutes, could have?] And any advice you may have about your past selves at least would be welcome.

Urahara Kisuke. [it finally hits him that he's been talking to someone who has already been bitten and suffered the consequences, and he smiles wryly, a small chuckle escaping him.] I didn't realize you didn't remember me, Evan-san, but I suppose you will.

[which is why he's hesitant to give too much away, but he doesn't have much of a choice now does he?] I won't really look much different, for one thing. [unless he's very young and, well, no worries there aside from shin kicking and demanding to know where Yoruichi is.] But if I turn up in all black, it would be in your best interests to strike very hard and very fast. A member of the stealth force wouldn't take well to being in this position. [he chuckles] But try not to kill me, please.

[Evan's eyes narrow -- the name briefly rings a bell... but the memory's too far gone to do more than tickle him while there are such pressing other matters to attend to. He nods, terse and thankful for the intelligence. Urahara's last note nets a very dry response from the redhead.]

Rest assured, that's a goal I can aspire to.

Hmm. In the meantime...

[He stands finally, pushing himself to his feet from his crouch, and then offering Urahara an arm. The man probably doesn't need the help, but hell, why not.]

You haven't gone yet. Let's perhaps leave the bug splatter behind.

[well, it would only be polite to accept the help. he accepts the arm with his uninjured one and gets to his feet, his geta clacking on the floor as he steadies himself.]

Maybe it'll just pass me by, entirely. [it's not a terribly foolish thought- he is, after all, not exactly a mortal, and this body is artificial at best.

he bends down to retrieve the discarded sheath as Benihime returns to her sealed blade-cane form.]

[Intent and pert, Evan responds,] Would that we would be so lucky. But no, I've seen them chew on table legs and send them flying back and forth through time. If you're impervious... well. You'll be a scientific curiosity worth studying.

[Covering his state of high alert with humor, he smirks at Urahara. He does sober a moment later, and beckons the other man to come along with him.]

I'm going to see about taking you to Laedo, if I can. I think I remember where his room is... and perhaps in the meantime you can refresh my memory on how we know each other. It has been, ah, a few years for me.

[Urahara chuckles under his breath, glancing down so that the shadows provided by the brim of his hat serve to hide his eyes even more than normal. a scientific curiosity- now there's something he's never been called, though he imagines those not accustomed to shinigami would probably think so if they could even see him outside of this fake body.] I don't know if you'd like what you'd find.

[but he doesn't let it linger on that statement for too long- the subject being changed at all, and him not being willing to elaborate on such a cryptic statement. to further that point home, his tone goes back to being light and airy.] Ah, well it's not as if we know each other well, of course. We only met over the network once before.

[Oh, the tilt and the mutter of the chronically mysterious. Evan, from a world where most nonhumans are nothing more than the dregs of cultures that used to thrive, is more than used to the air of mystery, the little dire murmurs that aren't meant to be chased. He lets Urahara keep that one, scoffing rather than following the man's tone directly.] Science isn't about liking what you find, it's about accepting it. Maybe learning from it.

Or about blowing things up, depending on your major.

[Enjoy the in-humor of the scientific community. At Urahara's description of their association, Evan shakes his head in apology.] That would do it, then, ahh. I'm afraid a hundred and fifty years is enough time to wipe away anyone I didn't meet in person.

Mmm. [he nods sagely- that's true enough. probably a little too close to where he lives, given his experience with poking too hard and accidentally creating the thing that made Aizen a literal god. or helped. since he insists he made one first. whatever, aizen.

but at least he appreciates the humor.] A hundred and fifty years? You must age pretty well, then, Evan-san.

[he says like he isn't a few hundred years old himself and doesn't look much older.]

I age cyclically. [They rattle up the stairs, Evan taking them past landings that would lead to lower residential floors. Urahara seems well able to keep up, but the redhead keeps a hawk's eye on him regardless. Those bites... it won't do any good for him to fall on the stairs and crack his head along with shifting to a different version of himself.

There's no reason not to talk about it with these people, so he shrugs and goes on. He grins, a sharpness to it.]

This is the third time I've been twenty-five. I might even get a fourth, if I'm lucky.

How are you feeling?

Cyclically. [he hums a bit, thoughtfully, though his mind's starting to cloud over a bit and as they reach the landing, he has to pause to grip the railing to keep from faceplanting onto it. he's not used to this. he should be able to fight through anything or at least figure out a way to keep the process at bay for a little while longer.

his expression's a bit wry, despite everything.] If I'm being honest... Rather poorly.

You don't say.

[After that stumble, Evan is not surprised by the answer he gets. He'd surged forward and then stopped himself when Urahara had gained his own footing again, but now he's on alert like a hawk for further warnings of an impending fall.]

Hnnn. [He waffles, and then decides.] Sit down, Urahara. We're not going to get you to anyone in time, I don't think.

[He turns, raises the wrist that's got his jeweled network band on it, tapping into the system.] If there are any healers around... maybe they can make it to us.

I don't think this is something that can be healed. Not without a proper antidote. [the wound perhaps could be closed, but the poison or what-have-you would still be present. without the slightest bit of defeat, he sits- somehow making it look like it was his own choice and not done because standing has become a bit impossible.] My fault for not looking into one sooner. I got caught up in trying to get rid of the things. [he chuckles dryly] It isn't like me to be so careless.

I had supposed maybe little Sieglinde, with her particular areas of expertise -- but I suspect you're not wrong.

[And this is serious. Evan doesn't remember his own transformation, just coming to sitting on the stairs with a terrified child version of one of his other teammates, but judging from the look on the youngster's face the change had been an unpleasant one. He watches Urahara carefully, but for all that the man seems woozy he's quite cogent.]

It does rather feel like cheating when we can kill them and yet they continue to cause trouble, doesn't it. [There's a drawl of wry humor there, bouncing off of Urahara's dry amusement.] Well, nothing for it now. You can join the ranks of those of us hoping it simply wears off on its own.

I don't operate that way. [another dry chuckle, this one with an edge of barely suppressed pain as he wraps one arm around himself as if staving off cold. upon closer examination, however, he seems to be holding his own sword arm pinned to his side- just in case he does come back into consciousness with the urge to start swinging.] But that's fine. Unless I come back very young, that won't change. I'll be just as determined to fix this, even if I'm not aware of how close to home it hits.

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