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

[competing]

[ the hand to his face has the desired effect, shoving his head far back enough that the angle puts an immediate strain on his neck. his arms loosen out of reflex, and it's all the leverage keith needs to effectively push lance back, despite his earlier advantage.

the younger boy falls back with a grunt, managing to catch himself from falling completely over with hands the ground, though his legs remain mildly tangled with the other's. there is a scowl on his face, lips already twisted around something disdainful. ]

Is that supposed to mean something to me, Keith?

[ he scoffs, even as he does feel a bit of a pang at those words. they aren't friends, not really... certainly not the best of friends... but he'd been hoping — he'd been certain for sure they were nearly there.

his lips twist into something of a sneer, one hand coming up to brush the back of it against his chin, as if to rub away the strange feeling of fur there. ]

You know — for some happy Galra lackey, you sure suck at being bad.

[secondnature]

[Keith lets out a derisive snort as he scrambles to his feet, carefully putting some space between him and Lance. He could hurt him more, but he's decided it isn't worth it. Plus, he doesn't want to do it, even if there have been a few times when he felt like giving him a black eye might do ... something ...

Maybe increase his face care routine.

Yeah, the worst kind of something.]

Heh, you think I'm a lackey? Zarkon's recognized me himself. I don't have to bother with someone like you. Besides, it'll be much better when we capture all you paladins and put you in our arena to fight. No need to get the job done here. [His bayard disappears and he begins to turn away, raising a hand up to dismiss him.]

See you later, Lance. [Said in as much of a maniacal tone as he can muster, so he mostly sounds angry.

And he is, for what it's worth: he hopes he can stop Zarkon sooner rather than later so that he doesn't have to do this anymore.]

[competing]

[ and that's it. that's all.

it happens so quickly that lance isn't even sure it happens at all until all he's left with is the sight of keith's turned back, a hand raised as if to wave him away.

stupid. what an idiot.

what kind of zarkon-acknowledged lackey — because that's all any of them are to a guy like zarkon! lackeys doing the grunt work for him! — exposes his back to his supposed enemy? an enemy who can summon a rifle at his fingertips within seconds? and who can let out a high-powered laser beam in even less that time??

he grits his teeth, and slams a fist against the ground. what the heck was even going on???? nothing made sense!! what is he supposed to do with all this? when their team is already fractured enough—

oh. ]

—oh crap.

[ he has to find pidge—! ]