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

[dailydouble]

[ Ahad glances away, amused after witnessing her reaction to the sudden appearance of juice to answer her thirst. He does not wish her to think he laughs at her, even if what he does is close enough.

Talk of rightful kings and giving sisters away does sober him slightly. ]

I find that there is little to be said about rightful anything. What makes it a right?

[thereddoor]

[ Dany looks faintly astonished. It's clear no one has ever asked her such a question before. ]

Blood, [ she says at last, as though there could not possibly be another answer. She pauses to sip at the juice, savoring the fresh taste. Oranges grow in gardens of the wealthy in the warmer cities; for her, they have always seemed a luxury. ] By succession. By law. [ How could it be otherwise? Though--Aegon the Conqueror did not take Westeros by any right, she thought. Even Viserys could half-admit that much.

He had taken seven kingdoms and made them into one, because they were ripe for conquering. After that had come peace, and prosperity. ]

Our allies bring him kind tidings, [ she says, the words sounding queer on her tongue. The sentiment is more practiced than said out of true belief, and Ahad knows her elder self well enough to parse the difference: She is young, but already a good deal cleverer than her brother is. ] They tell him the people long for the return of their true king.

[dailydouble]

Blood. [ He drawls the word out, as if tasting it. ] There is no dramatic difference between the blood of kings and common folk. It all spills just as easily. What are law, beyond the dictates of the victors?

[ He pauses a moment, both to give that weight and to consider the idea of "kind tidings". He knows that he is a cynic, but it's easy enough for even the most gullible to be suspicious of people longing for the return of kings. ]

The people spend their time caring about where their next meal will come from. They often have little time for kings.

[thereddoor]

[ Another notion she disagrees with, but she is silent. If Viserys has successfully instilled anything into her, it is that her blood renders her someone important. I am the blood of the dragon. If she does not have her pride, then what does she have?

Nothing at all, at this stage. Some years into the future, Tyrion Lannister will infer that much about her, without ever having met her. ]

But do they not want for a righteous king over a brute? [ She sounds the words out carefully, with the tentative steps of someone who has not given an idea much thought. Hunger, she has long known herself, but she has scarce spared a thought for her father's people across the sea. It is less out of selfishness, and more because she's had little cause to imagine more than a child's tale of abstract grand castles. Her life is fear, and fleeing, and dreams of a kingdom she has doubts she will ever see. ] What if the usurping king is unjust?

[ Despite the query, she has no grand impressions that Viserys will reclaim his throne, as he intends. It is curiosity to hear answers from someone who does not patronize or lie to her, nothing more. ]

[dailydouble]

I have never met a just king.

[ There's a certain amount of finality in his words. The Arameri could never be just, not when they used fear and enslaved gods to keep their power. Even those who ruled their own kingdoms were less concerned with justice than consolidating and keeping their own power.

Power was nothing but a corrupting influence. ]

[thereddoor]

[ Then he has met kings. Kings as a slave. She looks startled. ]

Kings should not have slaves.

[ It comes out as a blurt, and immediately, her face colors in embarrassment. ]

That--that is not how it should be.

[ She wishes for a piece of bread to silence herself, and an entire loaf appears instead. Kings should not sell their sisters, either, comes a whisper, but she does not voice it. ]

[dailydouble]

I wonder at how many kings you have met.

[ It is not said unkindly, but it's clearly not a question he expects a real response to. The reality is often very different from the ideal of kingship. ]

[thereddoor]

[ For a moment, something changes in her face. It's there and gone in an instant, a shadow flickering over her eyes, something that does not belong in so soft-spoken and furtive a girl. But she has always possessed something in her, however suppressed and beaten down by her brother. Her spine seems to straighten, and for a moment, she likely seems closer to the woman he knows. ]

It is so in your world, [ she says, fiercely. ] But that is not how it should be.

[ So saying, she reaches for the bread and tears away a slice, as though in punctuation. It is frightening to argue, to contest someone who seems as casually powerful as he is, but she finds she cannot let it pass, for all that the ferocity is beginning to flee her almost as quickly as it had appeared. ]

[dailydouble]

[ Seeing that spark in her was reassuring. While he did not mind speaking with the girl, it was the woman who he considered a friend. To see signs of who she would become was nearly comforting. ]

No, it is not, but that changes nothing. Change must come from action.

[thereddoor]

[ She doesn't argue. Words are wind, Viserys used to say. The Westerosi oft repeat it, and she has no power to prove anyone's doubts wrong. ]

I shall try to remember, [ she says, quieter this time, knowing it means even less than what she had said before. ] I am being made to marry a warrior king. If--if my husband is a kind man, perhaps there is much I might do.

[ If is revealing, a word that she'd have no need to speak if Viserys had loved her enough to ensure that the man he sold her to wasn't a brute. But he had pushed her into an alcove to hiss precisely what her worth to him was, and if her own brother did not care for her life, then the Dothraki would value her even less. Would their khal prove any different?

There is a way she doesn't meet his gaze that says she has little faith in any of those things, but strangely, she does not wilt. She takes a bite out of the bread, savoring the freshness on her tongue. ]

How long will I remain here?

[ It is safer here. ]

[dailydouble]

[ After a few moments taken to consider her words, Ahad leans forward. With a very delicate touch (designed to avoid frightening her), he'll reach out to tip her chin up. ]

Rely on your own abilities, not simply the kindness of others.

[ He'll let her go rather quickly. It borders on interfering and he finds such earnestness exhausting. ]

I don't know. It could be anything from hours to months.

[thereddoor]

[ She freezes as he nears, uncertain. But when all that comes is a touch upon her chin--kind, by the standards she knows--she stares, wondering what might have inspired him to speak the encouragement.

For a moment, her skin prickles where he touched it. There is an eerily familiar feeling it leaves behind, some echo of herself lingering across time, but Dany knows that is folly. She has never met him before now. ]

I am grateful.

[ Another softspoken sentiment, though it is another rare show of defiance. She presses her lips together. Here, Viserys cannot put his hands on her. Here, she needn't wed a man twice her size who has not spoken a single word to her in one of her own tongues. ]

You owe me nothing, but ... if you would be so kind ... [ she looks hesitant. ] Will you stay until I've finished?

[ I don't wish to be alone. ]

[dailydouble]

There is little enough to be grateful for.

[ A kind word is a small thing, but he knows what impact that can have on someone little used to kindness. At her request, he glances away as if continuing to look at her has become difficult. ]

I will stay.

[conqueress]

[ I have pained him. Dany thinks she sees that much, though she does not know why. Strange violet eyes fixate upon him, at once searching and curious in their jewel tones.

Then, in a girlish movement, she slides a leg beneath herself, leaving the other to dangle freely from the bench, and reaches for another sausage. In a month's time, men who have followed her movements in Essos will dismiss her for dead, too weak to have survived among the Dothraki. In a year's time, she will bring dragons into the world in place of a son, and there will be very little left that is girlish about her. ]

Thank you.

[ There's a beat of hesitation before the words come, but the sentiment is genuine. Girl or woman, with Ahad, she has never felt she could be anything else. ]