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

Her reward is a tickled giggle, and Laedo pulls back sharply for a moment, before leaning in to the touch and putting up a rumble as to befit someone his size. It makes his voice a little husky, but he seems content to speak through the uncontrolled purring. "I would never use my claws! We don't harm your kind, you're too smart and clever!" Questing forth, he attempted to settled his entire weight in her lap, curled tail and all. ...He's not had much direct affection in his life, but the occasional times he's got it, he's very much appreciated it.

She has to lean back and stretch out her legs to make room for all of him on her, but she's delighted to have him so openly affectionate. She lets him settle before resting her hands on him, cooing with a force she hadn't thought she'd be able to muster when he first appeared.

"You are such a beautiful child, aren't you? Look at this beautiful tail!" She strokes the long and lustrous golden hair at the end of his tail, grinning broadly at finally being able to indulge her curiosity. "Do Askans ever plait or decorate this hair or do you leave it loose to the wind?"

Laedo is much too busy being distracted by attention to at first answer her question, but finally it registers, and he whisks his tail by accident out of her hand--then plaps it back down atop her hands as though in apology. "Sometimes we use little lights, but I'm not very good at keeping them in," he admits, only a little sheepish as he goes on, "Do you do your own hair? It is very pretty!"

"Do you think so?" She's chuffed. "Yes I do, for styling myself is my delight. Here!"

She leans over him and pulls out the comb holding the front of her hair away from her face, sending with a shake of her head a cascade of curls onto him. Laughing, she shifts a long hank of hair so that it drapes between his ears.

"And you look just as beautiful with curls as you do without. It is only my lack of pearlescence that spoils the picture."

Laedo pulls back for a moment with a startled noise, then gives a laugh as he realizes what Serene is doing. Poking his muzzle up between the hair she's draped on him, he blows the rest out from his nose and grins at her, the expression lost a bit when most of it is composed of tilted ears and lifted cheeks. "Look, I'll fix it," he tells her, before squirming hugely in her lap and clapping his hands around the proffered hair. In a few moments several little globs of glowing dew appear where he's fiddled, presumably the decoration he's told her about a moment ago...

And true to form, if she gives any of them a tug, they come free without much issue. They're almost like little pearls of light itself, lighting up the space between them as he grins proudly at her.

He startles her with his wriggles and she wraps her arms about him to make sure he doesn't roll himself completely off of her lap. She has a flash of alarm at his offer to fix her hair- whatever he's doing, she'd better be able to hide it with a clever hairstyle- but she doesn't shake him off.

And the lights he leaves on her make her so very glad she let him play. She laughs in delight, letting go of him to gently poke one of the globules with the tip of her finger, fearing almost that it will pop like a drop of water.

"These are beautiful, you beautiful child!" She shakes her curls and laughs again at how she shines. "I look like a flower at dawn when the first light of dawn hits me." And for that she leans in and kisses the tip of his nose. "Ahh, you are so sweet! Who would have thought you could be this sweet?"

"I am?" Laedo asks, face going red at the kiss. His tail is thumping her leg and the ground beside it hard enough to make its own noise. "I mean, I am the agent of Aska, who is sweetness and light; they say children are her purest instruments because we play so well," though to be honest, Laedo doesn't sound as though he's sure about that. He tries to grab more of her hair, hopeful that clapping more beads of light to her will garner more kisses and praise.

She huffs as he drags her head down in his enthusiasm, but the pain in her scalp doesn't dull her grin as he keeps on decorating her.

"Sweetness and light, that's exactly what you are!" She kisses his nose again, for he really is the sweetness right now, and if she can recognise any motivation it's the motivation to win more praise. "You're sweeter than honey and your lights are the most beautiful I have ever seen."

But for all that he's got a human personality he's shaped more like her camel than her, so she strokes his neck like he's a calf, scratching up under his jaw as she nuzzles him. She indulges her curiosity by feeling up further and stroking his neck horns, testing their firmness and sharpness with her fingertips.

"What are these for? Are they decorations, beautiful child?"

At least Laedo's attempts to bedazzle her entire head are dulled when she scritches his chin and neck. The contact is unfamiliar but very welcome to one who has had very little physical contact. It might be a bit like being babied, but since his sister is nowhere near to sneer at him and use him as an example of her maturity, he'll indulge. His eyes have sunk fully closed by the time she gets to his horns, and Laedo arches his neck back in hopes for more scratching. "No, they're part of me! We all have them, didn't you know?"

"I did not! You are the only Askan I have ever met." She slides her fingers between the horns to feel at how they join to his neck before taking his unsubtle hint and going back to scritching him. "And let me tell you, shimmering one, you are the most excellent ambassador for your people."

That honestly has Laedo looking up at her with open adoration. Ambassadors are looked up to somewhere among the ranks of fida'venae as the gentle shepherds for a wayward species, and Laedo has always himself been considered somewhat of a wayward dragonet, or at least among his family. To be called so highly by a member of the species his have always been said to protect is almost too over the sun for him to grasp. After a moment or two, he tries to stammer out some gratitude, but it's too overwhelming.

The askan struggles out of her lap and gives a wings-spread bow, nose resting on his paw. Prostration is a more extreme response to the sort of hierarchy he's been steeped in since birth, but at this point it's all he can think to do to show his appreciation.

She knows she's gone too far when he prostrates himself like that. It's an embarrassingly obscient gesture, especially given that she's half sure he'll remember this day...

She strokes his muzzle with her fingertips. "Sweetness, you don't ever need to bow to me. Come on, look me in the eye, what I want more than anything else is for you to see me as an equal." She hopes he's young enough not to notice the discomfort in her voice.

When he looks she smiles sweetly for him. "Shall I show you where I live? I am sure that a human castle is nothing like an Asandus home."

Luckily, at his age it is easy to bounce back now and again, and it is very easy for Laedo to believe he is on an equal footing with a human, even a very pretty one who has been terrifically kind. The final nail in the coffin of his nerves is her offer to show him around. It reminds him he has no idea where he is... but seeing a human castle is so outside of his expectations that he can't help but cheer up.

"I would love to see it!" He is on all fours again, bouncing a little in his exuberance until he forcefully restrains himself and folds his wings back into a polite position.

That enthusiasm makes her laugh brightly as she stands. She pushes her dew drop shimmering hair back over her shoulders, taking a moment to primp her curls before settling her hand on Laedo's head.

"When we look around, will you tell me about your Askan homes and how different they are to mine?" She can't resist stroking his ears as she sets off through the forest towards the road to the castle.

"Of course I can," Laedo replies. He's already leaning into the stroking again, only a little sheepish now that he know what lengths she is willing to go, even as a child with a child's mind. He's still not sure how he feels about being called an ambassador, but he is taking it very seriously... and that seems to be translating back into his little ego puffing up.

"Our entire city is built into the side of Ansaras Prime, the root of the mountains! It is a perfect dome, you know, so that when you fly over it you can contemplate the manner of space." This, he's learned from banter rather than personal experience, yet he's as puffed up as ever as he spouts it off.

"That sounds beautiful!" She looks down at the bracelet he'd crafted her years ago when she had last known him and tried imagine what sort of shimmering architecture such magic could create. "This castle isn't built so perfectly, but perhaps that is because we humans are smaller and must shape all the bricks by hand rather than by magic."

The trees are thinning before them, revealing the uneven, well trodden path. She points over his shoulder in the direction they'll need to go.

"This way, beautiful child! We will soon be out of the woods and you will have your first view of the castle!"

"Bricks!" Laedo both exclaims and asks. "Hand-made castles!" Once they round the corner and the castle comes into view, he pauses in the middle of the path, both underwhelmed and a little awed. "How many humans fit inside of it? Did all of them make a part of the building?"

It's.... it's very grey. Laedo's not sure he can bring himself to compliment it, even from a distance.

"Many thousands can fit in there if we share rooms, but right now there are perhaps several hundred people living inside." The castle is a pleasant sight on a pleasant day, she feels, but from her glance down she can see that this is no match for whatever rainbow shimmering air castle he must have lived in before arriving here.

"This was built long ago, long before any humans you see now were born, but I am sure this took hundreds of humans to build." She strokes the top of his head, caught once again by curiosity. "How long do Asandus live? I am twenty-two and if I am a lucky woman I will live to be a hundred."

"We're almost the same age!" Laedo replies, spirits lifted again. Then he falters, for she's the same age?! That's a confusing thought. "But you look so grown-up! How do you know so much?"

Alas, his answer to her question has been entirely derailed, at least for now.

That surprises her. "We are? Then how old are-" She cuts herself off before she can ask a question that will confuse him, instead plastering a smile back on. "I have been an adult for years. Humans aren't like Askans, we don't need to spend so many years growing. Why, if I had had children as soon as I was able, they would be as tall as you."

The path is widening now as they approach the archway into the castle courtyard. Serene pauses to let him take a look if he wishes before running through.

Going quite for a time--the revelation has blown his small mind--Laedo eventually attempts to straighten himself up, to draw abreast of her as though he, too, is a fully grown adult and has been for years. The effect is not too convincing, but he realizes without understanding the details that all of the praise and the strange quickness with which human's age has heaped more expectations on him than any askan ever has. If his society has done one thing that isn't steeped in rigid morals and traditions, it's been to allow its children to play and age at a much slower rate.

"Well... I'm not a child either," he postures a little, trying to redeem himself. "My mother is in the second seat on the council and my teacher says I'll be a fida'venae one day, even without her reference. I'm second soprano in my chorus so I'm very important!" Never mind if he's had to repeat himself; it's important that he isn't seen as like to Serene's hypothetical children when she's already called him an ambassador!

Now this is the Laedo she recognises. She scritches his ear as they pass through the arch into the grassy courtyard, where the tall stone walls rise high to surround them.

"Don't be so quick to reject your childhood, Laedo Ledo. You will have a very long time to be an adult, but you will never be able to return to childhood again once you leave." She scritches his neck again to show she's not upset even as she's correcting them.

"Ahh, there are times when I wish I could go back to that first innocence. But shall we head to the kitchens? I am in the mood for a peach."

"I'm not innocent!" Laedo replies, even as he trots along receiving scritches, "if I was I would already be close to Aska, but it takes decades of training!" But now he's distracted, by grassy flagstones--letting anything grow between architecture is as alien to him as the concept of building things by hand--by the archway, so crude and simple by comparison to the mathematical feats vaunted in every doorway back home, by the other two-legged people lounging out here under trees, grooming absolutely fantastic beasts.

What follows is a stream of "what's that?" and "who's that?" and other such questions. Laedo may be trying to act the adult, but he clearly has no grasp on what that entails when it comes time to be curious.

Serene's happy to indulge answering those questions as they trot along together, pointing out more interesting people and architecture as they go along.

"And here are the kitchens!" She pushes the door open, blasting them both with the scent of buttery pastries and cooking meat and gestures him through, coming in behind him. "This is where we are all fed. Ahh, I can tell that they are preparing lunch."

Urgh, that meat scent. It dries her saliva completely, but she knows that her hunger will quickly return once they're out of this corpse factory. She draws him to a table with bowls stacked high with fruit, caught on the whim to have a little fun.

"Do you want to sit on a human seat? I can teach you to eat the human way." He's small enough she's sure he'll manage to get onto a chair while she quickly grabs him cutlery and a plate.

She might turn her her nose up, but Laedo's is pointing up as well and his attention is thoroughly piqued. He's not sure why, but his stomach is growling for food in a most demanding way, more badly than when he hit his first growth spurt. Before she can even reach the table with the chairs, he's already turning back to the kitchens and their charred corpse smell, which to him is... idyllic, really. He's having a hard time keeping his mouth from watering. "Can you show me where they make the food some more?" he asks, having clearly seen the peaches, having clearly dismissed them as a strange-scented mess of vegetable matter.

EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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