EVENT ★ BACK TO THE FUTURE

[futurologists]

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.

Comments

[prodigism]

I don't think a bunch of people brought here like us, and stuck here would all tell the same lie. [ Unless they're all in on it? But what would they have to gain from that? ]

Is it really so strange...given what back home is like? I met someone who thought ghouls were fantasy creatures in his world. Thinking something like this is fake...is just being closed minded.

[ex_oblige932]

A lot of things can be fabricated. Which parts are true and which aren't comes down to discernment.

[They're of very different stances on this, and Kaneki finds himself unsurprised. He can't have blind faith in something this bizarre, especially when the answers are few and far between. What they are given is scarcely enough to act on.

Not to mention how far beyond the scope of their own reality it falls]

Believing all of it would be naive.

[prodigism]

Then which parts do you believe then? [ He looks back at Kaneki with a curious sort of look now. Nothing suggesting he's teasing or trying to get a rile up out of the other. ]

[ex_oblige932]

That's what I'm deciding.

[Because there's so much around them that is clearly absurd. So much that's impossible, and so much that does not make sense.

And yet for all that, here they are.

Some must be true. But all? He's not about to buy into that so simply]

[prodigism]

You'll be stuck deciding for quite awhile then. [ Sometimes it's better to just accept things as they are and work through them as best you can. Or maybe that's just Arima's way of doing things ingrained into him. Never ask questions that didn't need to be asked. ]

[ex_oblige932]

According to people here, you're stuck either way.

[So if the choice is to believe people here, present company is no better off, so far as Kaneki can see. But he maintains there's something to be said for looking into the situation rather than accepting everything he's told.

But that's because he's seen the result of simple acceptance for himself]