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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[ it does take her a moment, but the memories of alastair come much more smoothly to her now than they had her future self. so it's only after a few seconds of staring that it strikes her — ]

Sieglinde?

[ looking more like a master than she ever had... though perhaps not while she is still on the ground, sprawled. belatedly, olivia steps forward to offer the young woman a hand, though she cannot help but continue to stare. ]

It is I, yes-

[She belatedly took the hand, staggering to her feet and readjusting her stance without feeling, almost a smooth gesture just from how many years she's been walking. Almost.

Still, it's good enough that she manages to change that help up in to a hug, able to embrace the other woman as an equal, (perhaps even the same age, now), voice warm with nostalgia.]

It has been so long... It is good to see your face.

[ she cannot help but glance down as the young woman before her stands to her full height. she cannot help that burst of curiosity again, flooding her senses enough that she forgets all about tact, though she is quick enough to reign herself back in when pulled in for a hug. her hands flutter up to return it instinctively, but she finds her mind stalling on a proper response. ]

It's — yes.

[ except not really. it hasn't been long for her at all, not in that sense, when the face and body so close to hers now is not one she has ever met, ever had the chance to miss. ]

[Though Sieglinde indulges herself in the embrace a moment longer, glad to see her disciple (perhaps her best disciple- or, had been), even if it was the disciple of the past who did not know her in this form... she does have enough tact to realize that it's a bit much, even though it has been days of these timeline shenanigans.

It did not make it less odd, to most.

So she pulls away finally, despite her reluctance, smiling warmly.]

I apologize- it has not been a long time for you, has it.

[ quite suddenly, she feels like crying — the full weight of it all hitting her, all at once. she doesn't know if it has been long at all, or if it has been too short, or any sense of time in general. who does she know who is still as she knew them? and who among them even know her in turn? ]

No, I'm sorry — [ she hiccups once, a sharp sound, and hastily reaches up to wipe at her eyes. ] It's — I've only just returned...

[ though has she actually even left? she doesn't know, which is part of what troubles her so much.

she endeavors to smile for sieglinde, though, knowing the other girl has only ever meant to help her. ]

You — You look great.

[Sieglinde's expression softens in time with Olivia's tears, though she does not reach again- she is a grown woman, her disciple, and so is she... but time was never something easily understood, it's workings mysterious and confusing.

Overwhelming, at times. She, too, had needed to take herself away when she realized what had happened, gather herself... she did not know what her past self would do if she returned to this timeline. If she even recalled what had occurred at all.]

I told you I would become an impossible charming witch, did I not?

[She gives a slow, careful twirl, skirts raising and lowering in a ripple of fabric, feet still dainty, small for her size, but no longer the warped and twisted mockeries they'd once been.]

You look just as I remember- I mean that in the best of ways.

[ there is a flare of guilt in her eyes when sieglinde finally looks upon her again, so much so that olivia glances away out of reflex. she finds herself relieved that sieglinde would see her as she is now, as she remembers her, and not the hardened, hollow woman she had witnessed herself become.

unconsciously, her hand lifts to clench a fist over her heart, feeling a ghost of an ache. ]

Your memory continues to be amazing, then, [ she says, quite distractedly. ] You must be... at least a decade older than what I remember of you.

[Even knowing that something was distracting Olivia, weighing on her mind, Sieglinde wasn't quite sure if it was her place to raise the issue, or inquire. Instead, she merely answered, nodding along.]

A decade is about right, I think. ... It's been three years since I last spoke with you. Well... my "you".

[She smiled a bit painfully, brushing a long strand of hair behind her ear.]

I was transferred from Audentes, unfortunately.

[ olivia listens to sieglinde speak with a growing sense of dread, each word like a drop of cold water down her spine. ]

Don't—

[ her voice is sharp, but desperate. a hand reaching out, finding nothing in the air and so falls limp at her side, perhaps ashamed. ]

Please don't... tell me anything about me...

[ she has had enough of her future. enough of others' past. ]

I... was not going to.

[Her own answer felt lame in her head as well as out in the world in words, but she truly hadn't planned on discussing much further- only offering an explanation for why she had reacted to see Olivia as she had, explain the reason she'd used words on how long it had been. She hadn't expected quite that reaction, but.

Perhaps she had forgotten- no, she never forgot but. Perhaps her memory has dulled, in those years of absence.]

In fact... I am not sure if or when or how I will return to my proper place in this time- but there is something I wished to ask of you before I go.

[Whether that "go" meant a return to consciousness in her own time, or dissolution into nothingness, a mere construct of a possible future, she did not know.]

[ no more, she wants to say. her mind is spinning, and her heart is tired.

but sieglinde has never been anything but kind and generous to her. and olivia would be lying if she said she could not hear the urgency in the other woman's voice. ]

What is it, Master..?

It is the title of a book.

[She could not place Olivia in her mind precisely enough to remember exactly how much her younger self had told her disciple about the Ultimate Magic, and so she did not say it now. That "spell", (that poison gas that stole air from lungs, blistered skin, burned people alive from the inside out), was a chain around her neck, weighing her down and marking her for eternity as a sinner, who had created such a destructive thing from ignorance and genius.

She spoke of it rarely, and only in times most dire, or necessary. She, a decade older, had been freed by the revelation of the cure... But her younger self was not. If it would not change the outcome, merely bring it about slightly quicker...]

I wrote down its location in the library. If you could perhaps... Wait for a moment when it seems natural to mention it to her- to me, I would be most grateful.

[From the pocket of her jacket came a folded piece of parchment, held out in offer. Hesitant as she was to do it... Was it so wrong, to wish to bring some measure of relief to her own mind?]

[ olivia's hand reaches for the paper without much thought, more of a knee-jerk, mechanical reaction in response to sieglinde's own gesture. it is only belatedly that she seems aware of what she is doing, or the implication of it. the gravity of the situation begins to gradually dawn on her, and where olivia had been so resolved not to know anything else of the future just minutes ago, now she cannot help herself from glancing at the other woman, brows drawn in her own disastrous curiosity.

her hand hovers over the slip of parchment, inches away from taking it. ]

How would I know when that is?

[ she needs context, sieglinde. she needs a reason for this purpose. ]

[Sieglinde's own hand does not waver, steeled now, convincing herself that it was a choice that could not be wrong. If she could bring her younger self even slightly closer to the cure without directly interacting with her and risking endangering the timelines...

Even if it was slightly selfish, to seek relief from the demons of her own mind that plagued her each moment the ultimate magic remained without a cure...]

The book is about poisons... If you recommended it as a byproduct of your own studies, or produced it when I mention such a topic... I believe that would not raise any suspicion.

[Not like it would if she awoke back in this time a mere twelve years old to find a strange book mysteriously in her room, or a note from the future addressed to her.]

[ poisons.

it has not been a topic she and sieglinde have discussed much, as their lessons tended to lean towards the opposite of that. as healers, they had discussed a variety of them, but only in seeking a solution. olivia can't help but wonder, now, if perhaps there is much more to that than sieglinde had revealed.

rather suddenly, she finds herself regretting her discipleship... as much as olivia had needed a mentor, perhaps, instead, sieglinde had needed a friend more.

carefully, she takes the paper in her hand. ]

This will help her...? [ you. ] You're sure?

["I" sounded awkward and wrong on her tongue, as if she were lying. The her of a decade past was so foreign to her and yet an unarguable fact, divorced as she felt from it. Of course she had changed, and she had grown up... But most importantly she'd found the cure.

Found friends. Found a home.

"Her" felt better, somehow.]

I am loathe to do anything more direct, but... It should set her on the right path to the answers she needs.

[To nerve agents, to fluoride regeneration, to atropines and oximes and less sleepless nights and guilt she'd never fully explained to anyone.]

[ carefully, olivia closes her hand around the paper. later, she will take a look, and sink herself further into her own questions regarding this...

but for now, she is willing to meet an opportunity when it presents itself.

she hadn't wanted to know, before. but now, she just has to ask— ]

Are you happy, Sieglinde?

That is quite the complicated question, is it not?

[Sieglinde tries to smile, even if it does not quite reach her eyes. Was she happy? She was happy to see Olivia, even briefly, happy for the chance to see some she hadn't laid eyes on for years... She was happy that she'd been able to find the cure for the Ultimate Magic she'd created, and happy for some other things as well, but did that cancel out the misery her youth had turned into? The pain of being ripped from her own time and still being employed by ALASTAIR even a decade later?

Was she happy?]

I take what happiness can be found... It is easier to allow it, these days.

[To allow herself to be happy. To not feel only stabbing guilt like when she'd unbound her feet so many missions ago, anytime she realized she'd been having fun while the ultimate magic remained without a cure. So perhaps she was unsure if she was truly "happy", but.

She knew that she'd at least grown to allow herself to feel it without feeling like she didnt deserve it.]

[ olivia glances down at the parchment in her hand. it will be kept safe, as all others things entrusted to her will be, but she does so with the knowledge that she had let something far more delicate and important slip away.

perhaps there is still time, though. if the past few days have taught her anything, it is that time itself cannot so easily be contained. ]

...I'll do myself to make sure she finds out about this. I promise.

... I do appreciate it.

[That was the extent of what she could allow herself to do, knowing firsthand the consequences of meddling in time. Work with ALASTAIR had given her almost as much as it had taken from her, but she has to hope that just this small thing could be achieved without consequence.

Even if it was potentially selfish, and foolish, and naive.

But she has to say something, something to linger after she's gone, from this corridor and from this time, smiling softly, proudly.]

Do not tell the others, but- you always were my greatest disciple.

[Olivia had always tried harder than anyone, and wished more than any of her other students to be of use and to heal. Even now... she thought of her that way. Her favorite student, even after all these years.]

[ olivia's smile is faint, but grateful. she does not know how much of that favoritism is deserved — for olivia will always feel herself inadequate, and always striving to be what she cannot be — but dimly, she is aware of another part of her (a faint, distant memory) that remembers what was like to tip her chin up and be worthy.

and so... she does so, right now. a mimicry of what her future self had managed, but she manages, all the same. ]

Thank you for always believing in me, Master. I... don't know if you ever knew how much that means to me.

[Sieglinde can only smile a bit wider, expression breaking into something a bit too complex to be easily identified, even as she reluctantly starts to break away, to retreat down the hall. In the beginning, she hadn't known- how could she?

But over the years...]

I had something of an idea.

[Leaving a clue for her younger self wasn't the only small little impression she hoped to leave on this timeline.]

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EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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