epidemiology | EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

Entry tags:

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

[If not for the insect's timing, Sorey might have asked her more on such a reaction. Unfortunately there is no time for it, as the dock starts to tip down towards the water below.]

Wh--whoa!

[Sure, he probably should have anticipated that the dock wasn't the most sturdy. But it did the trick in keeping him safe from the deeper water initially. And he's never been scared of his inability to swim when he had Mikleo around. It's just he's still in the process of wandering and finding said water seraph.

Which means as the insect emerges and destroys the dock, Sorey is highly regretting his distraction of the lake, when he starts falling, fingers reaching out to Chihiro instinctively as she lunges for him.]

[ She latches on to his arms, dragged forward and hitting the deck with her elbows and the rest of her body, trying to haul him back toward her and prevent him from spilling right off the end of the leaning dock. She doesn't quite have the muscle strength to stop them from sliding, but she does manage to hold on at first, while the bug struggles and tries to clamber up on top of the decking alongside them.

Wood slides and cracks and lurches, sending them both tumbling toward the water with pieces of broken wood coming down with them, bobbing back to the surface with a vengeance. Chihiro tries to keep her hold on Sorey even as they hit the water, kicking desperately for the surface once she's been fully submerged. Tugging him along, too, if she can. Bug! They had to get away! ]

[It is a good thing that she holds to him and kicks, tugging him with her, because Sorey's only able to sort of instinctively fumble in his own attempts to reach the surface, barely managing to hold his breath as long as it might take. Usually, it's just some water dunked over his head if he does something to annoy Mikleo or the like. Nothing like this!

But he tries to help, tries to fight for air in the chaos of having fallen from the dock. Once he does reach the surface, he's spluttering, coughing and reaching for one of those pieces of wood.]

Where is it?

[ She likewise pulls his hand (and him) toward some of the floating wood, less because she's thinking about it, more because she locked on to him and hasn't convinced her hand to let go yet. Kicking with her feet, Chihiro cranes to look over her shoulder, seeing the bug still flailing to climb up on the disintegrating dock. ]

Behind us!

[ Getting away from the chaos and damage being caused seems key in her mind. She looks to Sorey, eyes wide, expression sliding from one of the ongoing surprise and shock into something mixing in determination. ]

We've got to get away. Can you make it over there?

[ Chihiro nods her head toward the shore. With the wood, she feels she has a chance of making it to the nearby shore. She doesn't trust her endurance to simply go swimming far across the lake, just like she wouldn't have swum in the darkness across the massive river that had — wait.

That had manifested where? She can see it in her mind's eye, replete with reflected lights and a glowing barge, but she doesn't have time to think about it right now. ]

B-behind?

[Sorey isn't focused on whatever might be happening behind them. He's more concerned with getting back to land. Out of this deep water, even as he attempts to imitate her kicks and splutters as the water splashes around them with the movement.]

I can't -- I can't swim.

[At least the wood planks from the dock help him keep his head above water]

[ He can't — Chihiro isn't sure what to do about that, other than be glad he hasn't slipped beneath the surface. It's that idea that has her reaching out for his plank, pulling it closer in spite of the splinters it drives into her palm. ]

Don't let go of the wood! Here, pull it close to your chest.

[ She deals with the water splashing overhead and the kicking she's probably getting underneath the surface of the water, trying to get the plank up against his chest and under his armpits. Well... as much as she can, anyway. Ignoring the insect and its struggles is difficult and makes the hairs at the base of her neck stand up, but she's near drowned before. If it weren't for Haku — ]

I'll pull us toward shore. Just hold on. Okay?

[ She'll start swimming backward, pulling on the plank and whatever grip she can get on one of his arms as well. She's relying on leg strength here, partly buoyed up by what she was telling him to use to stay above the water. Water invaded her mouth, her nose, her ears and eyes, but she wasn't sinking, and she could cough out the little that did manage to sneak its way down her throat as she pulled them away from the collapsing deck and dock, getting them away from the insect at the very least. ]

Edited 2016-09-11 01:15 (UTC)

I'm not gonna let go!

[He seems at least well aware this wood and Chihiro are all that is keeping him afloat and from drowning right now. That much is something to be grateful for. If she hadn't been here and he fell in alone, he'd have been a goner for sure.]

Hurry...

[The sooner they get out of this, the safer they will be. Or, out of the more immediate danger of drowning anyway. They could deal with the insect once they get there.]

[ he concentrates most her energy in kicking and swimming and pulling him and the wood along, thankful she can swim, frustrated that she's not a much stronger swimmer. She pushes the frustration to the side even as she feels it, focusing on achieving what she needs to get done: getting them both to the shore, away from the struggling insect. It's not a gracious or graceful process, but her dogged determination sees them both pulled onward and to the shore again, until both she and Sorey will find muddy ground underfoot, should they try to stand.

Chihiro doesn't try standing until she's in water that would have trouble making it to her waist. Even then, she keeps swimming, making sure to pull him along. She's more focused on him being okay and staying above the waterline up to the moment where her heel hits a rock on the bottom of the lake. She jolts up, scrambling to her feet and shedding water while lunging for a grip on his arm. (Sorry, Sorey??!) ]

Come on, let's get out of the water!

[ Which means wading up to the muddy shore, a slow process as always when it comes to moving through the water proper. ]

[Sorey's attempts are more clumsy and less efficient than Chihiro's but he does his best nonetheless to try imitate her and help. Help get them both to safety, to land. At the least, he knows not to try standing up until it is much more shallow, and manages to get upright fairly quickly when she grabs for his arm as they get closer to the land at the edges of the lake.

He stumbles a little in the mud, but moves as quickly as he can regardless of that and his heavy, drenched clothes and cloak.]

We.....we made it.

[ She's afraid she's going to lose a shoe in the mud here, but it's not quite that thick. Dripping wet in partial uniform, Chihiro nods, turning to both look over Sorey as reassurance to herself that he's okay, and to glance out over the waters. The bug is finally scrambling up on shore, the decking ruined and floating in the chaotic waters its left behind. ]

Here, we should wring ourselves out and get moving...

[ She finally lets go, using her hands to twist the material of her shirt up and squeeze water out, backing up further on the shoreline toward the trees. There's not limitless area to roam here. Even being more conservative in where she's explored, she knows Oska is a self-contained area, not a simple location on a greater world meant for exploration.

She's pretty sure they can't "walk around" the other side of the lake from this insect, which means figuring out how to sneak by while drenched. ]

They mostly go after what they see. If we keep out of sight, we should be able to get around to the castle side of the bug.

[ Shirt wrung out, now she starts on her hair. ]

Sorey is watching when she starts wringing out her hair and shirt, and gets the idea quickly enough, though he is more used to doing this sort of thing with Mikleo and his artes making this so much easier. He wrings out his cloak and shirt as best he can at least. But he still has dripping shorts and boots at this point.]

Like hide and seek? I can do that!

[ Not quite like hide and seek... but if that's what comes to mind for what she's saying, she'll work with it. She nods, glancing back to Sorey and gesturing toward his shorts. She works on wringing some of the water out of her own at the same time. ]

We can get water out of our shoes and some out of our shorts, too.

[ Sliding toward bossy because her brain is trying to get into practical mode. Less water in shoes means less noise from squishing and less probably hurt feet from all the water. Less water on their shorts probably just feels better... and helps them dry a little faster. She hopes they don't get stuck out here for too long. She doesn't fancy being cold and stuck in a small forest next to a castle and a broken down village, surrounded by angry unicorns and angrier bugs. ]

Ready?

[Sorey watches her, then gives a nod. And he....well, he tries to imitate her in wringing out his shorts and boots as best he can but he probably doesn't do so quite as effectively as Chihiro.

Regardless, he gives a nod, after he's at least attempted to wring out the worst of the water from his clothes and boots.]

I'm ready!

[ She nods, finding him acceptably ready enough. When she starts out, it's with water still falling off her in droplets as she stalks forward, walking softer than she usually does when outside. She ducks straight into the treeline, walking away from the shore and checking for Sorey and their line of sight to the water over her shoulder. All the while, she angles toward the castle-side of everything, carefully picking her way over the leaves and rocks and sticks and ground-level flora in front of them.

She pauses after a moment, gesturing for Sorey to come up by her side with a curl of her fingers up into her palm, hand held out with her palm parallel to the ground. Here here. ]

Mm, are you good at running?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject