epidemiology | 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

[At 28 years old, Shimada Hanzo was tasked with a difficult action: to either place Genji under his control, or eliminate him. A tale he has not shared with many, the truth known to those from the same world as he, or a choice few he's talked to.

Here and now, as he is, the duel took place just moments ago. His breaths come in shudders, his hands clutching two items: a bloodied orange scarf, and an elegantly made katana with its blade chipped midway down. From the looks of it, most of his clothes soaked in the blood from his brother.

Hanzo chokes on a sob, burying his face in the scarf.]

Genji...

[ Oh, shit. Here, coming around the corner through a sheet of drooping willow leaves, is not quite the sight Ramir expected to find in the greenhouse. Her eyes go wide and she steps forward, spear dropping to her side— ]

Holy shit, Hanz— [ She bites down on the name partway through; he looks younger. Too young, this version won't know her, and that's a whole thing she doesn't feel like getting into. She forgoes a name. ] Jesus, are you alright? What happened?

[Normally, his ability to detect people approaching from some distance is a keen skill, but at the moment he is distraught, distracted; when he hears Ramir's voice, his eyes widen and he clutches the scarf to himself, tears still drying on his face.

Hanzo looks around, frantic.]

How did you--

[This place. This place again.]

Oska. Not Hanamura...

What convenient timing. [The words are spat out, angry and his voice wrenched in sorrow.]

[ Well, he knows where he is, that's one less thing to have to explain. She presses forward, hovering, wanting to put an arm around his shoulder but not quite sure if she should get close enough. ]

Hey, c'mon, sit down. We got a bench right over here, take a seat. [ That's a little behind him, but she doesn't push him toward it for the same reason she doesn't put an arm around his shoulders just yet. ]

[There is a moment in which he wants to bitterly refuse her help, just to be spiteful. The bout of anger rises so quickly that it burns out just as fast; he's too weary to keep up the anger.

Because there's no one to be angry at, except at himself.

Once upon a time, he'd have snapped at anyone for treating their sword poorly, but he barely as the strength to hold on as he drags it along the ground before he sits heavily on the bench.]

He's gone. He's gone.

[His voice trembles. Genji is gone, and I am the one who took him away.]

[ Ramir sits herself down right next to him, and chances a hand at his lower back. That's safe, right? That's the kind of touch it's way easier to pull away from than an arm around the shoulders. ]

Who?

[ Genji? That's the name he'd been mumbling when she first saw him, right? Genji's definitely not gone, though, he's running around and leaping off bookcases. ]

Genji. My brother. I killed him.

[It isn't spoken like a confession. It's a brutal fact, one that's hardly a secret. As if the truth needs to be stated for him to fully realize it.

He doesn't pull away, but doesn't invite the contact further either. As if he isn't sure he has the strength to do much else but stare at his blood-covered hands and know what he has done.]

[ There are a few words that she never expected to hear together in that order, and that's probably somewhere toward the top of the list. Her eyes drop down to Hanzo's hands, and she feels a little sick. Yeah, those definitely look like hands that just killed someone. She's still for a few seconds, feeling a deep sort of horror. She doesn't have any siblings, but that's — that's family. The thought of killing family...

Her eyes find Hanzo's face again, wide in a slightly paled face. ]

Why?

[Why. That is a good question. Why indeed.]

I was told-- [He doesn't know her, he doesn't think he does. Yet, he knows that the clan is not here, so the words just tumble free.]

The elders, they said to get him under control or he had to be eliminated, I had to.

[But Hanzo doesn't sound convinced, either.]

[ This is some intense family shit. Ramir feels a little sick just listening to it. Her hand has gone still from rubbing his back, and slowly falls away to be drawn back in to her side. ]

Yeah, I... yeah, you did.

[ This is not a very reassuring utterance. The fact that he's been kind to her before is the only thing that her trying at all. This is fucked up, man. ]

[For a moment, he doesn't know how to feel. She affirms him, this perfect stranger, that he had to. Maybe because she doesn't know what else to say. How could he blame her?

Hanzo presses the scarf to his forehead, and he quivers. No, there is only one way to feel. His heart is utterly shattered for what he has done.]

Genji...

[A miserable sob escapes him, even as he struggles to not express himself -- but he can't not, even as fat tears start to roll down his face.]

EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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500 years later

EVEN LATER STILL

one day we'll both catch up