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

Useful, yet for Serene that isn't the most pressing question. She crosses her arms, tucking her spear into the crook of her arm as she does so.

"Before that, can you tell if passing through that area will have an affect on a human?"

"Not for certain until I have a better read on the energy signatures." She continues hitting buttons, only half paying attention. "But so far it doesn't seem overly dangerous."

She narrows her eyes and reaches into her coat pocket.

"See if the readings change when I do this." She pulls out a handful of almonds and chucks one through the anomaly. It vanishes entirely, then falls to the floor behind the anomaly half a minute later, withered as if it's been sitting around for months.

"Hm." Pidge's fingers fly over the screen. "Not from the anomaly, but..." She makes her way carefully closer and zooms in on the almond. "I'm getting very strange readings from the nut. Definitely some residual energy hanging around."

She crouches, keeping a safe distance from the rift, and extends her spear to prod the nut. The movement is awkward, for her weapon is constructed of solid wood and metal, but she manages to knock the nut nearer to Pidge, so that the other woman can pick it up if she wishes to.

She pulls back her spear quickly and examines the blade where it had touched the nut.

"There is no damage..." She tugs at it with her ALASTAIR-granted gift, feeling at whether its combustion point has changed. With that there's no difference, and so she assumes that the material has not changed state.

Pidge nods her thanks and picks it up, eye lighting up as she scans it.

"There wouldn't be. There's some sort of temporal anomaly going through, but your spear doesn't appear to be made of anything that would age recognizably. Unlike this nut."

"Can you tell how aged it is?" She asks before frowning. "But one result is not enough to form a firm decision, is it? Let me throw some more."

She's got a half dozen nuts left, intended to be her snack this afternoon, but she's willing to sacrifice her belly for the sake of her curiosity. She flicks one in and waits for it to drop out again before standing to flick another in at a different angle. Two emerge withered, one comes out seemingly unchanged, one does not come out at all. Serene scrunches back down to knock them all into reach.

"There's no pattern here! Urgh, at least not one I can see without throwing in three dozen more nuts.

"Temporal manipulation. That follows with some... other things I've seen." None of her team is how she remembers them. Or, well, Lance is how she remembers him... from a few years ago, but Keith's situation is.... disturbing as hell.

"That makes sense." She nods slowly. "They have matured, and so their powers are this much stronger. Those frayed edges of time they left before pupating were mere windows rather than doors..."

She snaps her gaze to Pidge, frowning.

"Were you here last week?"

EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

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