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

[expatriates]

Black Widow. [ There's something unnerving in her eyes, but she smiles with something close to genuine happiness—it just seems as if that happiness maybe comes from the wrong place. ] Maybe it's fate, meeting like this. I can be a superhero too.

[ Though her abilities were neither super nor heroic, she nonetheless found some entertainment value in the coincidence of their names. Normally, she might give a passing name—Anya, Natalie, Dunia. But this seemed a better approach in the context of a masked hero. ]

Isn't your job as a hero to cause bodily harm to the bad people?

[construing]

[ o…kay.

what is happening to this generation's teenagers. never mind that she belongs to the latest generation. it gives her the right to ask what is happening to teenagers.

creepy smile aside, at least she has an answer not that it means all that much to her. it sounds like a name she should know. like there was a "the" black widow somewhere. gwen can't place from where, however, and lets the matter drop. with so many alternate universe shenanigans in play, it wouldn't be all that helpful, anyway. ]

Only when they refuse to respond to asking nicely. And then it's not permanent. I round them up, and leave them for the police. Or I round them up and try to get them a date.

[ LOOKS AT ALIEN BUG LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA ]

[expatriates]

[ She turned her attention to the bug. Somewhere in the back of her mind, for some reason, she had a strong sense of why Gwen would be doing that. Like it made sense, somehow, and she could picture the solution. They would leave if they found one another, but she knew she'd never really seen it.

Natasha shook her head. She didn't like thoughts that didn't feel like her own being there. ]

You'd have less work to do if you tried more permanent methods. [ But she turned away from the spider then and headed down the hall. ] Wait here. I'll bring the one from the kitchen.

[construing]

[ ಠ_ಠ

gwen watches the girl walk away, head tilted, eyes of the mask wide in an exaggerated puzzled expression. even buggy next to her stares after the retreating form. gwen looks at it. ]

That was all super weird to you too, right?

[ the bug does the bug version of gnashing its mouth. ]

Yep. Thought so. Don't worry, [ she continues as she proceeds down the hall in pursuit of the kid, ] you're not getting exterminated. You'd get goo everywhere, then we'd have to get a cleaning crew down here, not to mention this costume is strictly dry clean only, and…it'd just be mess.

Let's go see what our trigger-happy new friend found.

[ she punches it on the head when it tries to snap at her arm.

[expatriates]

[ The kitchen doors are closed from all sides when Gwen and Natasha arrive. The redhead peers through the crack of the nearest door, slight and small enough that she barely fills the space before she shuts it and turns around to look at Gwen, unsurprised to find her following. ]

It's still here.

[ Which is reassuring and, well, not. Who knows who it's run out of the kitchen so far. Natasha, though, doesn't seem fazed either way. ]

We can funnel it out this way, or you can bring yours inside.

[construing]

Oh, no. [ hands in front of her, emphatically shaking her head. ] I'm not supervising them. I'm shoving this guy in and letting them do whatever it is they do.

[ with a few more mutters — "okay, here we go," "god, buggy what have you been eating," "don't get in my face, I'll go mib on your ass" — gwen hauls the bug upside down over her head. the feet and claws snap and wriggle uselessly at the air. ]

Okay. [ not even breathing hard. ] When I tell you, you open the door, I'll spike him in like a football, close the door and we're home free. Ready? …Hike!

[expatriates]

[ She's … strange.

High energy. Earnest. Authentic. The fact that she is doing this for no reason other than a commitment to trying to get rid of it doesn't escape Natasha. She narrows her gaze and simply watches for a while, takes it in.

But she reacts on the turn of a dime when Gwen gives the alert, throwing the door open just long enough for the insect to stumble through before she yanks it back shut, keeping her body in the path of it lest they break through. She turns to look over her shoulder at the closed portal, brow furrowed.

And she waits. Listens. Nothing comes of it, so she glances back at Gwen and shakes her head, a clear indication that she's not sure what they're looking for here. ]

[construing]

We're done. They'll spin themselves a tango into another dimension, and we get to live the Twilight Zone for twenty minutes. Not exactly what I'd call fair, but.

[ gwen shrugs. walking closer, she holds out her hand to shake. ]

Give yourself a pat on the back, Spider-Girl. You did good.

[expatriates]

[ Just in time, Natasha realizes that Spider-Girl is meant to be an affectionate nickname, not a bastardization of Black Widow. She bites her tongue, scrutinizes Gwen for a moment, then lets out a breathy laugh of relief. ]

That easy?

[ The ease she projects sounds odd: stilted and stiff. There's something girlish about it, ready to greet the bonding efforts now with renewed vigor, but it doesn't come naturally to her. ]

[construing]

Yep. That easy.

[ that's the first normal reaction she sees. not normal. whoever black widow is and what happened to her isn't normal to get her to be like this. gwen thinks about jess told her of her upbringing — of cindy's — and she decides, odd though she is, widow's not a bad kid.

normally, here's the part where she'd swing away. but spiders gotta stick together, and she figures widow could use a friend. so she jabs a thumb over her shoulder. ]

Want to hunt down another pair? I'll let you drag it around if you like.

[expatriates]

[ She has to consider it for a moment, not because she isn't sure that she wants to continue wrapping up the spiders and hauling them off to parts unknown, or because she isn't sure that she wants to be around Gwen, but because she needs to be sure that if she had to, this would not interfere with her ability to kill Gwen.

Only when she decides herself still capable, sufficiently steady that she wouldn't lose track of what was necessary and let feelings and relationships get away, does she smile and nod. ]

Sure! It'll give me a good opportunity to look around the place. [ Then, jokingly, ] This was only my second time to the kitchen.

[construing]

You're not a missing out on a whole lot. Okay, the hot chocolate is sinfully good, but it'll also have you singing show tunes for two hours so.

[ or maybe the hot chocolate has a happy buzz effect and singing show tunes is something only you do, gwen. maybe that.

and then the spider girls set up a lot of bugs on dates. the end. ]