epidemiology | EVENT ★ PREPARE FOR TROUBLE

EVENT ★ PREPARE FOR TROUBLE

READY

After two weeks en route, the Mothership (maybe you should come up with a new name for it?) arrives at the rendezvous point. ALASTAIR technicians rift aboard and get to work, scurrying about the captured vessel to fiddle with controls and levers and buttons. After roughly a half hour, there's a flash of light --

And the Mothership is moored to Oska, tethered to the fragmented universe by strands of magitek and now safely encapsulated in the cloaking barrier keeping Oska hidden from prying eyes. Though Zymandis at large is no longer a problem, there must be teams still out there who are undoubtedly angry about losing their home base, so keeping the barrier up is a matter of safety.

Once they're ready, Audentes can disembark the Mothership via teleportation pads, beaming them directly to Oska's courtyard. There is already a line forming here of curious ALASTAIR recruits looking to teleport up to the Mothership and look around, and in fact, if you think Oska is a little more crowded than usual . . . you'd be right.

Usually only occupied by support staff and the occasional off-duty team or two, Oska is bustling with activity, similar to the sort of crowds seen at the Nondenominational Winter Celebration or Recollection Day. Except now, there is no revelry nor merriment, only a lot of people preparing for something very big on the horizon.

SET

While Audentes was off capturing the Mothership, it seems as though the TIMELINE.exe has calculated the most likely location of its twin, Zymandis's Timeline machine. Rift technicians are double-checking his work to ensure it's somewhere that recruits can safely rift to, but they're hopeful that they'll be able to deploy teams shortly to make short work of Zymandis's mechanical heart.

In the meantime, the technologically gifted are requested to help ALASTAIR scientists and engineers devise an upgrade for the TIMELINE.exe; if his calculations are correct and Zymandis's machine is where he says it is, it's important that its operating system is overridden with the new TIMELINE.exe 1.0.03 file. Otherwise there will be a chance that the universe-purging operating system that Zymandis follows will survive and all the efforts ALASTAIR has made through the centuries will be for naught.

For those who don't know their way around a motherboard, there's plenty of things to do -- with how many teams are in Oska, preparing for what is hopefully the final battle against Zymandis, you're likely to run into a familiar face or two. If socializing isn't in your wheelhouse, hone your skills in the courtyard or, for a bigger challenge, in the training room.

ALASTAIR support staff could also use assistance in the medical center or greenhouse, preparing vials, potions, and tinctures for use in the battle ahead. And if you're feeling really altruistic, stop by the kitchens to prepare some food for the one thousand Zymandis prisoners now filling the dungeons.

You didn't forget about the prisoners, did you? Of the captured Zymandis agents, only a small portion of them have agreed to join ALASTAIR. The rest are either too deadset in their belief in the Zymandis Timeline machine, or they're too distrusting of ALASTAIR to even consider joining up. The dungeons of Oska castle have not been used for their intended purpose in centuries -- prisoners are usually given a simple, heavily-guarded room somewhere in the castle -- but with this many prisoners, there's really nowhere else to put them all. Perhaps if someone were to be kind to them, they might change their mind about joining ALASTAIR's cause.

There's a lot to do and a lot to prepare for, so don't forget the relaxing opportunities that Oska has to offer: the baby squidges are due back on Zeta-12 soon for their maturation ceremony, so give them a warm goodbye while you can; the hotsprings is always a good place to relax one's muscles after a warm day; and the library is available for those who like to settle in with a good book in a dimly-lit room.

Most importantly, take advantage of this time in Oska. You'll need all the preparation you can get.

OOC NOTES

Welcome back to Oska! If you have any questions about this log, please direct them to the game FAQ. You may also submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

Guest characters will be admitted to the comms until 14 October 23:59 UTC, so there's still time to sign up! We're excited to see some familiar faces and can't wait for you to be a part of the season finale.

We're in the home stretch now, so if you haven't taken the time to review our updated schedule, please do!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, despite their last disagreement, there were some things she could still agree with him on.]

... That is true.

[She disliked it, the crowds and the chaos, being surrounded even worse by people she felt no connection to or trust. Even the stables where she slept were overrun.

But she does not look up from her distractions, curling at the waist to reach down and wipe lather from her forelegs, dark hair slipping over her shoulder.]

Someone released beasts upon the ship.

[She had survived, yes, but the scarring forming on her shoulder was in the shape of a three claw swipe, a pair to marks on her equine flank in a scattering of circles that had come from a bite. Most people here seemed to rely on magical or technical healing... but Hayame prefers bandages.]

[It's not difficult to recall the creatures that were running around. He ran into more than a few of them, and it was difficult to focus on finishing his mission when they kept being in the way.]

They were tough to deal with. [Keith considers asking her if she's used to beasts. Would that somehow be acceptable within her worldview? But it's unfair.]

Is that why you're here? Because you're—because you had to deal with them? [Keith refrains from what he was originally going to ask, as it was more to do with "being mad at the beasts for existing." He's decided to be less rude. Maybe he can keep it up.]

[Some people might have had missions to attend to, things they could do aboard that ship such as... apparently steer it, but Hayame had lacked that drive. There had been monsters, and she was a warrior... so she had made that her mission.]

I hunted as many as I could.

[But she had eventually had to retire to tend her wounds as best she was able.

As for why she was here, though-]

If you do not continue training once able while injured, the muscles may stiffen.

[(Or maybe that was just what her masters had told them, to keep them fighting.)]

With a battle to come, it must be avoided.

Does that mean you've decided what you're going to do about what's ahead of us? [he asks, knowing that the question is only leading them back to the sore territory they had before. Keith understands wanting to fight to keep loose. He understands that part of why she's here. He just doesn't know if the intensity behind it is just because of the fight ahead or just< because of the beasts.]

When you go to take out the head of something, you tend to be more invested. Personally.

[Her answer might be clear, when the minute he says that her lips thin, a twitch in the corners revealing her instinctual urge to frown only barely held back.

After their last talk, she assumes she knows how he will react to her answer.]

My lord asked me to do what I was able to keep this "team" safe.

[And what else was she supposed to do? Pilot the ship? Stop chemical attacks she didn't understand?

What she could do was fight. And that was all.]

So—it's just like that. [That she can't seem to think for herself bothers him a lot. To Keith, it seems as if she's limiting herself. It's not just about having a leader. Keith knows the importance of leaders. But he also knows that there are times when those leaders just can't be listened to.]

Look. Something got you out here. Drove you to train like this. And I don't think it's just an injury.

There is no just about it.

[As far as Hayame was concerned, she'd had more choice in the matter than any jinba ever likely had. She did not serve the man whose stables she was born in, nor the man who purchased her at auction.

She had chosen who to pledge herself to.

In between the words, she flicks out her rag and refolds it, exchanges it for a water gourd. Takes a drink.]

My lord forbids me the honor of death, so what remains is only glory in battle.

[There's far more there beyond what she is willing to say out loud. How he has wrested the knife from her hands when she had been ready to plunge it in to her belly. How he had pleaded with her not to leave him.

And in order to do that... she must be strong.]

I—what do you mean by that? [Self-sacrifice is one thing. Ulaz. Thace. And many others. Keith recognizes the value of giving up your life so that someone else may live. The problem is, she doesn't seem to want to claim that honor in battle ... or does she?] He wants to keep you from doing something reckless?

[With what's ahead for them, it may be impossible for her to maintain that promise.

Then again, maybe she'll die for her lord. Keith can't fault her for wanting to do that. If it's her life versus someone else's—he can see where he'd make a choice.]

[What did she mean? What a question that was.

Hayame hesitates. Stalls, and tries to disguise it as nothing to be noted by taking another drink, by inspecting a hoof she coincidentally glances down towards. After all, proper filing was difficult when one was in the field as much as they were, perhaps it seemed genuine.

But really, she just dreads the new font of misunderstanding. No one but her lord had understood her. Had seemed to accept what to her was culturally accepted- nay, encouraged. It isn't as if she's blind to the fact that speech is not her strength, when almost everything she says seems to end up twisted or received unlike she intended with most of these people.]

Once lost, there is some honor that may only be restored... by one's own hand, with one's own life.

[Eventually she makes the effort, though it makes her fingers curl too tightly, her jaw to grit at the indignity of needing to explain. Of even needing to hint at the depths she had fallen to, the attempt she had made in the Leramzan prison to kill herself rather than suffer the shame of capture and execution- or worse, slavery.]

But my lord denied me this, and so for a warrior there remains only death in battle.

[Even if they don't want to die.]

[It sounds like the Galra. The Blade aren't so different from the Galra in that it's about either fighting and dying to ensure victory, or living on with the understanding that no life is more valuable than the entire cause. Keith recognized that his drive for answers was nothing more than selfish. He knew what that meant. But taking a life ... giving it away to reclaim honor? Or being turned into a robeast, like it might be done by Zarkon's witch? He has a hard time seeing how that's ... honorable. It feels like a way to make someone feel bad.

But dying so that others can succeed is something he gets. Something he respects. Sometimes, a life has to be handed over. What she's describing has no value. It doesn't lead to anything ... except for nothingness.

Keith looks down, as it's clear their ideas of sacrifice don't align.]

Well ... I'm glad he stopped you. There are better ways to devote your life to something. Ways that mean getting back your honor. Those are the ways I get. What you're describing ... it doesn't sound like anyone learns anything. Like anyone gains anything.

[How can she be so disappointed when he does not understand, when she had known that surely he would not? What a hopeful fool she had become in this place, so desperate as to attempt such a useless thing like "hope".]

It is not about learning, nor gaining.

[Why must it be, to be honorable? To be courageous, and preferable? She struggles for the words as if she could suddenly become well-spoken, wishing she held her bow so as to give her fingers something to curl around naturally rather than make impotent fists.]

At the Battle of Uji, Minamoto no Yorimasa had his retainer cut his head from his body and sink it into the river rather than allow it to be taken by the enemy.

[Stories she had been raised on, taught to idealize and view as right.]

When the fourth Deputy of Kamakura lost nearly all his lord's forces in battle, he restored the honor of those soldiers with his own death.

[But he wouldn't know those stories, would he. And so they meant-]

... but I suppose that means little to you.

[And despite her towering size, her obvious physical strength... she feels damnably small.]

I'm fighting a war back home. I don't need to know those stories to know what they mean. [Keith thinks about Alfor sending away all the lions and taking Zarkon on by himself. The choice had been reasonable at the time, but it allowed the Galra to come to reign over the universe. He knows that a version of Allura had led an assault against the Galra and had ended up with a similar outcome, but he knows that's only just two ways things could go.

It frustrates him that people seem to dismiss what he's gone through, as if there isn't a foundation or reason for why he comes to his decisions. Kagari does it a lot, and it seems like she wants to do the same thing.

But then ... he isn't used to caring about what people think about his actions. His decisions. His choices.]

One of the leaders of Voltron did exactly what you're describing. All it did was take out a leader. It sucks to be the one who survives while other people fall around you. You feel like you've gotta give up your life to make it right. But that's just—stopping. That's doing nothing. I can never agree with that.

[Could he? Hayame is not sure. Through both fault of her own, (even she knew that), and her worldview, she has become somewhat... isolated. Kept hoping, but kept failing to truly connect. And how weak, to even crave such things as that. To not be above it all, to wish for companionship or succor.

In order to hide her own turmoil, these days she has not often turned her face to others- but she looks him in the eye, searching for something.]

... And if a warrior fails in their duty? If they bring shame upon their lord, upon their bloodline, and upon their comrades. If they bring pain and death to innocents.

[Like she had.]

You think they ought live? That they deserve to?

I'd say ... it depends. [Keith thinks of his conversation with Lance after he nearly got the team killed. He rushed everyone in to a place where they were due to die. Their lions couldn't react properly. They were essentially shut down. And he had to face that. Even if he got his act together afterward, he can't really say that he feels right about the mantle of leadership.

Isn't it hypocritical to want to run away from a duty, but call someone wrong for wanting to die for failing to fulfill theirs? He doesn't know.

His head tilts toward the ground, breaking eye contact. Being looked at that intently can really make him uncomfortable.]

I'd say ... if they're willing to die to make up for their mistake, then they should have a chance at living to do the same. [He looks up then, meeting her eyes once more. His stomach still twists in discomfort, but he knows it's important.] Living and dealing with what that person did will probably be even harder than dying. It's not ... easy to deal with other people.

[But maybe that's just him. Dying ... seems a little like running away. It seems a little like the relief he felt in knowing that he could take whatever burgeoning leadership he had to present to others at his own pace, that he might not have to deal with all the consequences.

It's just even more final.]

... to demand them live is cruel, surely.

[At least, that is what Hayame thinks. Living is harder, and even if you didn't truly wish to die... it was so tempting, sometimes. Even she knows that beneath the stories, beneath honor and loyalty and proof of conviction... it's running away. And oh, has she wanted to run away from so many things.

From ALASTAIR. From the madness of all she has seen here. From the shame of being captured in Leramzan. From the truth of what she had done in her own world- betrayed her stablemaster for the free jinba, only to doom that village full of children to death. Or worse, to slavery, to armlessness, to life as a "horse".

From the deer hide wrap about her waist, Hayame pulls a sheathed dagger, less than a foot long including hilt, and holds it between them. She knows she is not eloquent, but would something like this convey what she is trying to say?]

The warriors of my land carry always a dagger, knowing that at any moment they might need cut open their own belly. ... This is the proof of dedication. This is why I train.

[Yet, her fingers tremble just a single moment, remembering all too well how close she had come in that prison cell.]

[In response, he pulls out his knife from his back sheath. It's a smaller version of the one he used when they first trained. Keith doesn't bother explaining that it can get bigger.]

I didn't know who or what I was my entire life. All I had was this dagger to show me. It turned out ... that it's associated with a special group, one that's doing everything they can to bring down an evil empire in my universe. They made the mistake of supporting that empire at first, but things changed. They realized the harm done, and started fighting in secrecy to bring them down.

[Keith lowers his arm holding the dagger down to his side. It points straight down before he continues.]

You see, they were complicit in hundreds of planets being taken over before they realized their mistake. But instead of dying out of shame, they've decided to dedicate their lives to reversing that change. A dagger like this can be used on yourself, but it's better if it's used moving forward.

[Hayame stares at the dagger for a long while without answering, her gaze pensive. Her own was so familiar, battered lacquer sheath holding steel neither fine nor crude, hilt wrapped in leather and tied with cord. His was a sleek metal she could not identify, colored and shaped so differently, bladed on both sides...

It allows her for a moment to not focus on the things that disturb her yet. Planets. Things so vast and beyond what she wishes to comprehend.]

... how different our blades are.

[Worlds are. Cultures are. Thoughts are.

But here they both were. Holding blades.

And here she was, unable to even say what she wished, for knowing it to be false witness. Even if the stories exalted it, even if she truly felt she deserved it-

She didn't want to die. The idea of plunging that dagger into her own flesh was terrifying in a way that crossing blades in battle was not. At least if she trained, she might grow stronger. Might at least die gloriously at the hands of another less cowardly than she.]

Well ... yeah. [All his time on Earth wasn't exactly spent trying to figure out why his dagger was different. He just knew that it was. He kept it a secret. Joining the Garrison, he made certain that no one could find it on him. He didn't want to risk anyone asking any questions. So, he hid it. It wasn't exactly hard. Keith wasn't very good at people, and he didn't want to risk Shiro rejecting him because he had a weird ... knife of some sort on hand.

But he's changed since those days.]

But that's not all you mean, right? To unlock the power in this Blade, you have to be willing to be selfless. To ... fight for something bigger than who you are. But even like this, they can still be used to hurt yourself. You just ... you can't be limited. I was once. I can't do that anymore.

[Keith had given up learning everything about himself, all for the sake of the universe, for the sake of ending the oppression in it. He hadn't been at fault for any of it, but he still ... knew that's what was right.]

[... yeah.

But that was the problem, perhaps. Part of it. Selfless, he said, but in her mind, death by one's own hand wasn't selfish. Wasn't limiting. It was the honorable thing to do, it was a sacifice for the better of those around you.

What but her death would make up for her crimes? What but her death would remove the shame of her defection from her brother, who had done nothing to deserve the dishonor of her actions?]

My blade is not enchanted in such a way.

[She tucks the small dagger back into the folds of the deer hide she wears wrapped about her waist, searching for the right words to speak her mind. To make herself understood.]

What are you, then? Are humans rare in your world?

[But she can't find them, and so she latches on to "who or what I am".]

No ... they aren't. I grew up on Earth. Everyone is a human. Except—well, me. I'm only part human. [It's an odd shift in conversation. Keith peers are her curiously, as if he's trying to determine what she's getting at. He's evaded tough discussions before. Is that what she's doing? It's hard for him to tell. He knows what he'd be doing here. It would be that. It might not be fair to say that they're the same, when their overall views are so drastically different.]

Anyway ... the blade doesn't have to be enchanted to mean anything. It's all a weapon that you use in the end.

[Keith can't figure out the deviation in the conversation, but he can at least point out the faulty logic there. That's—good, right?]

[Part human? That certainly gets her attention, and her eyes narrow slightly- not in disdain, but in attempt to figure out what part of him was something inhuman. For all that she knew jinba were considered part horse and part man... for her, she was not part anything.

Was it his ears? His eyes? His innards? Which part was deceiving her so completely? His smell was... mostly human. Human enough, but perhaps only because she couldn't identify that other scent.]

Part what? Some spirit whose women conceal their true forms and marry human men?

[Foxes and raccoon dogs and the like... it's the only base she has to think of for actual crossbreeding. Didn't they say that the famous onmyoji was part fox?

Steering her back to blades and what they mean... she seems intent on making it difficult. She's already spoken more about herself than she was used to.]

Uh—what? [Keith realizes all too suddenly that trying to explain aliens to her is going to give him a headache. It might give her a headache, too. And beyond that, he hasn't liked trying to figure out Galra ... genetics or whatever. That sounds like a lot of misery.]

I don't think my mom was hiding anything. [Except that she left. So.

He's going to cut her off if she presses the matter.]

[Nevermind the fact that Hayame somewhat suspiciously takes a step to the left and cranes her head, allowing her, with her height, to take a quick look at... Keith's rear.

Well, she certainly hadn't noticed a tail there earlier, but.

Just in case. One last sniff, but he doesn't seem terribly forthcoming.]

... well, you look human enough, I suppose.

[Close enough to be counted as one. To not be treated poorly by that race, as long as he kept his mouth shut.]

Of course I look human. I didn't have any idea that I wasn't until recently.

[Keith has actually thought pretty hard about it, even if he hates that he has. His thinking hadn't been able to move him past the obsession with his past.]

Not that it matters. You're not human.

Not here it does not.

[No, it wouldn't matter here. To the point that it baffled her, one's species didn't seem to bring much in the way of discrimination. Of course, she occasionally had trouble in places like the castle, but. She preferred not to go in there anyway.]

I merely mean that I know well how humans treat those not shaped as they are.

[Jinba might share the same faces, the same arms, the same hearts... but it wasn't enough to be human. She'd always known that.]

EVENT ★ PREPARE FOR TROUBLE

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