EVENT #01 —

[raiamods]

WHO: All PCs
WHAT: Guests arrive at the basecamp
WHEN: June 10 - June 17
WHERE: Basecamp Leviathan
NOTES/WARNINGS: None currently (let us know if we should update this because we missed something)

EVENT LOG 001 — JUNE ❀

CONTENT WARNINGS: None currently (let us know if we missed something and should update this!)

Please note that several of these sections have deadlines, so it's a good idea to prioritize your plotting for the earlier section of the event first.

A calendar of events and deadlines is as follows:

IC:
June 10 - The thessyx arrive with the shell.
June 11 - Dinner with the thessyx, gifts distributed.
June 12 - Scrimmage interrupted by the formation of a sinkhole.
June 14 - Critters emerge from the sinkhole in the gymnasium.
June 13-17 - Two more sinkholes open up, with more critters emerging within the day.

OOC:
June 13 - Last day to ask about your character interfering with the shell.
June 16 - Last day to ask about your character joining the closed-door meeting with Childe and the thessyx.
June 30 - Last day to register the way your character engages with the thessyx and the critters directly. (Mods do not anticipate replying to these comments.)

❀ UNEXPECTED VISITORS

At noon on June 10, a dozen visitors arrive. The Thessyx carry themselves quietly, moving through the base as if they were attempting to enter a body of water without disturbing it. Lightweight robes of some native skein cover their green-grey amphibian skin, but do not obscure the fact that each of them possesses four arms. Once inside the base and in the leviathan’s embrace, they will lower their hoods and additionally reveal fins of varying colors along the back of their scalps. These creatures have slit noses; wide-set, irisless eyes; and mouths that stretch the full width of their skull. With them, they bring a great shell about three meters long and as tall as a small adult human.

The security force of the Adamant greets the visitors on their entry to camp. These strange amphibious creatures inform the security force that they are the Thessyx, and that the shell is full of gifts. The security force is ordered by Chief Security Officer Rémi to lock the shell away until Captain Childe has had the opportunity to decide what will be done with the contents. If you intend for your character to interfere with the shell in some way, please reach out in the QUESTIONS thread below BEFORE JUNE 13TH — this includes if your character would try to stop others from interfering with it.

Three of their number with blue fins on their head go to speak in a closed-door meeting with Captain Childe. If your character would like to attempt to get access to this meeting, please reach out in the QUESTIONS thread below with an explanation of how they would attempt to do so BEFORE JUNE 16TH.

The next day, more Thessyx arrive, and they will remain on the base for about one week. They move around the camp fairly casually, mingling with the Adamant’s crew. They are particularly interested in the hatchlings. If your character would like to ask specific questions of the Thessyx they encounter, please direct them to the QUESTIONS thread below.

Just before dinner the next evening (June 11), Captain Childe announces that there will be a special celebration in the mess hall, courtesy of their guests — all of their guests. The announcement is as follows, and goes out on the communication devices camp-wide:

I'm sure some of you have noticed the Thessyx walking among us. In light of their arrival and the gifts they've brought with them, we've decided to have a joint celebration in the mess. They have agreed to have guards from their city patrol our perimeter, so everyone has twelve hours off. Attendance isn't mandatory, but it's strongly suggested.

They've brought gifts for our new arrivals as well. These gifts are to be distributed later. I know some of you will think it's unfair that the Thessyx are favoring them, and that in three years of being here this is the first time they've initiated contact with us. Tensions are bound to be high — but the first person who picks a fight is getting thrown in the brig, I don't care if you're a civilian or not. We could all use this break.

Don't offend them. No fish jokes.

Childe out.

At dinner, a few crew members get out their instruments, and Captain Childe even looks the other way when Senior Engineer Thorkil Bjørnson opens up a barrel of the moonshine he’s just finished. It means going without later, but they’ll share some of their modest wealth with the Thessyx. The mess hall is cluttered with revelry, and some of the tables have been pushed together to make room for people to dance.

The feast is made up of various mosses and seaweeds, pickled insects, and a few mollusks. Whether this sounds appetizing or not, it’s the freshest food anyone on the base has had for a while, and it seems it’s only intended for the Children of the Leviathan. Some crew members look on jealously or externalize their bitterness. Others may be pushier — after all, they’ve been providing for the hatchlings out of their own supplies for a while now. Still others will be surprised if any of the hatchlings offer trades or pawn the food off on them preemptively — they may be inclined towards favors and good will.

A few notes:

The Thessyx refer to the hatchlings as ‘Children of the Leviathan.’ They do not appear to sleep, nor do they step out from under the leviathan’s embrace when the sun is out. The three blue finned Thessyx who meet with Captain Childe are not the Thessyx’s leaders, only representatives. They prefer to ask the PCs questions about them and where they came from rather than answering questions about themselves.

To interfere with the shell, attempt to be involved in the closed-door meeting between Childe and the thessyx, or to ask questions of the thessyx, please visit the QUESTIONS sub-thread. These options have staggered deadlines so that we can account for each stage while responding to the next; these actions of some hatchlings will reflect on others.

By JUNE 30TH at 21:00 EST, please respond to the mod comment labeled THESSYX GREETING with a brief description of how your character would greet the Thessyx. Feel free to write multiple characters in a single comment. We just want to check the temperature in the room.

❀ A DISTURBANCE UNDERFOOT

On June 12th, the thessyx’s visit is disrupted by the appearance of a sinkhole in the gymnasium. The basketball court, which was already in disrepair, suffers the worst of the damage. In the midst of a scrimmage between PCs and NPCs, which the thessyx observe quite rapturously, a 5-meter hole opens in the middle, with concrete and steel and earth crumbling underfoot. Any injured PCs will have their sprains and scratches treated well by the medical team, and the gymnasium will be closed until further notice. Don’t worry! The Adamant’s engineers are on the case, figuring out how the soil’s stability gave way. This could be bad news for the entirety of the basecamp if it’s an ongoing issue. The engineers could probably use some help addressing the issue — to volunteer, reach out to us in the QUESTIONS thread.

Over the next couple days, two more sinkholes appear — one near the Memorial Wall, and one in the showers (though it thankfully doesn’t seem to have affected the plumbing). Anyone injured by a sinkhole will also have their sprains and scratches treated well by the medical team. Cartagena shares a helpful (“helpful”) PSA about the dangers of sinkholes and how to protect yourself, which is clearly dated and has nothing to do with whatever is going on here on Ethyraia:

Hello, Children of the Leviathan! Isn’t that a silly name? I guess it’s the most accurate, since you did come from eggs. Soon you will be one month old! Hahaha! Biology can be odd sometimes.

It’s not just biology, though! Ecology is certainly strange and confusing, and nothing is stranger and more confusing than the ecology of Ethyraia. I’m sure you have all noticed the sinkholes appearing more and more often these days. Do not be alarmed! Not because there is nothing alarming, but because alarm leads to panic and panic leads to more danger!

For the time being, please follow these helpful tips for sinkholes:
1. If you see a sinkhole, go the opposite direction.
2. If you fall into a sinkhole, try not to cry. Instead, yell for help!

I think these are sufficient enough guidelines to follow, yes?

Remember, be careful out there! And protect your squishy selves. You never know when you might be useful later. Then it would be a shame if your squishy self was gone. We’d all be very sad. Or most of us. Or some of us. At least me, to the capacity that an AI can be sad.

Stay safe! Cartagena out.

On June 14th, the first of the critters emerges from the sinkhole in the gymnasium. These creatures are roughly a meter tall at the shoulder, blind, with enormous clawed forepaws and supernumerary hind-legs that appear shrunken and shrivelled and barely provide function. These creatures have tough, armored hides and truly, truly awful breath. They are capable of tearing through metal with their claws, and small arms fire does nothing to them. Within the day, dozens of them have skittered into the base. They seem as confused and afraid to be in here as the basecamp’s residents are to have them here. However, these are wild animals; they react to their fear with sharp teeth and claws. A few perseverant critters find their way into the cafeteria, sniffing out food, while others can be found gnawing on cables that power the lights for the basecamp.

Chief Security Officer Rémi will be quick to pursue an extermination plan. The problem is big enough that the PCs are encouraged to help out, and those who volunteer will be quickly accepted, as long as they aren't trying to offer their own bright ideas.

A few notes:

To volunteer to help out with engineering, please visit the QUESTIONS sub-thread.

If your character would volunteer to help security exterminate the creatures, or if they would disregard the security force and go after the critters on their own, please let us know in the QUESTIONS thread so we can talk about what this would look like. Rémi isn’t well-known for liking people who subvert the chain of command.

By JUNE 30TH at 21:00 EST, please respond to the CRITTER WRANGLING comment with how you vote the critters get dealt with — extermination, rehoming, or something else. If someone has already commented with your characters’ IC preference, please add your +1 under other people’s comments, so it’s easier for us to sort.

Comments

alina starkov (shadow and bone) | ota

[sunmon]

01. the thessyx are the thing (OPEN)

[ the arrival of the thessyx shifts the way some of the adamant's survivors look at them, not that alina notices. she is too busy gluing herself to the side of whatever thessyx will have her to pay mind to those who've kindly hosted them for weeks, sharing supplies. she gives up on the theater entirely except to tour one of the thessyx around the place. ]

Unai, come over here and show us what you've made. [ but unai is ignoring her, just as she'd ignored him. ] I'm sorry. He's not usually like this. [ but instead of persisting with unai, she turns to the amphibious creature, hands folded behind her back and asks, ] Are your people's children stubborn like this? You must have left them back in your settlement, right? Is it more of a city or a town?

[ when unai realizes that he will not get her attention by ignoring her, he arrives then with the wooden flower he'd been painting for the set background and cracks it into her shins. alina curses. eight-year-olds.

she chases him back behind the stage's curtain, and when she has stolen the flower back from him, unai lets out a loud protest, 'i heard you asking about where they're from. you're going to leave the leviathan and go with them, aren't you?'

and he's absolutely right about what she'd been hoping, admittedly, but hearing him say it with such betrayal surprises her. alina crouches down and hands the flower back, smoothing his hair against his head despite his stubborn play at indifference. ]

We were never supposed to be here in the first place. [ she won't lie to him and say otherwise. but this isn't the comfort that he'd wanted, so he takes his flower and stomps off, leaving alina sighing and alone. she glances outside to see that the thessyx has moved on — unsurprising, given that everyone is trying to make time with them — and resigns herself to picking up scraps backstage. ]

02. in the memorium hole (OPEN)

[ alina is at the memorial wall when the hole opens up. she's trying to search the names on the wall for some semblance of timeline, of cause of death, as if it were a puzzle or a map that might tell her more about the planet and its dangers, but it's just a list of names. if disappointment were the worst of her problems, she'd have been lucky.

instead, the ground under her right foot gets soft. she has exactly enough time to look down before the shifting soil and splitting steel flooring plates has swallowed her leg. she cries out, the pain of getting caught between steel immense and crushing, but she's not pinned like that long. the steel around it gives too, and she falls deeper, knocking her head on the way down to pin her arm under herself.

everything hurts. she groans, dazed as she picks herself up. she reaches out to poke at her leg, which has left bloody stains in her torn pants, but she can't feel any bones sticking out anywhere. the same is true for her arm, although after a few ginger attempts, she discovers that she can't unbend it without wanting to scream.

she points her grimace upwards, towards the wall, and calls, ] Hello?

03. wildcard (OPEN)

[ feel free to reach out to me at protects or on the discord server to plot something else. alina will be trying to figure out about where the thessyx live and (subtly) if she can go back there with them.

once the sinkholes start opening up, she will be injured (and obviously unable to go anywhere at all) but insistent that the creatures responsible not be harmed.

she's available for all things you might need a human night-light for. ]

01

[portolan]

[ [I'm gonna assume the theater welcome happened and if we need to adjust that we can]

Balthier is out at the theater returning a few items that were missed in the initial clean up and making an effort to thank the local team again. A thank you right after an event, when it's convenient, is appreciated but easy. Making an effort to appear again, in person, with a handwritten note shows effort. Sticks in people's minds. He's reaching back into his Archades days, all the etiquette and diplomacy details he hated at the time, and for once thankful for them.

It isn't that he never used them as a pirate; it was that he never had to truly consider the impact of burning bridges within a community he effectively could not leave. That had been the whole point of the leaving and the piracy, after all.

While he's waiting to speak with one of the busier director types, he spots Alina touring a Thessyx around. He hasn't seen much of her since the performance, but she seems at their sides every time he does. He makes no effort to interrupt, but pirate is as pirate does, and he manages to overhear the conversation -- and her disappointment. ]

Trying to run away with exciting strangers? Still sure you aren't a pirate in training?

And all children are stubborn and difficult, for the record. It is one of the three truths of the universe. [ This is an old wives tale in some town he can no longer recall, but good stories are treasures, too. ]

[sunmon]

You heard that, did you?

[ she looks skittish. hare-in-a-clearing skittish. as if she might get devoured for moving too fast, alina instead goes so still that she might as well be a part of the set herself. but her eyes fix on balthier, and her expression twitches into a careful smile.

she can't pretend it didn't happen, and she can't take back making it sound like unai was right in his conclusion. so she needs a good reason that she'd be doing it that isn't running away from someone who everyone has seen her with the majority of the time. ]

It would be good for all of us to have a place to go if the Adamant's survivors decide they've had enough of it, wouldn't it?

[portolan]

[ he sees her eyes widen, senses the nervous energy. she showed it in the alley, when she showed him her light and he asked questions she didn't like. ]

I would be a terrible pirate if I advised you to not keep a back door option.

[ he considers his words. ]

Or for wanting to be somewhere else.

[sunmon]

[ there's a casualness about his words. the kind that allows the understanding to lie on its own, settle between them comfortably. but more to the point, that generalization of her sentiments gives her an easier opening to divert them. something more believable than the good of all the hatchlings — or the children of the leviathan, as it were. ]

Do you know what they do to Grisha — people with power like mine and yours — where I come from? [ she straightens her back. ] In the North, they burn us at the stake. In the South, they experiment on us, trying to replicate what we can do. I've heard on the Wandering Isle, they think drinking our blood will prolong the lives of the otkazat'sya.

[ all this, she'd learned in greater depth since coming to the little palace. she breathes deeply. ]

In Ravka, we're lucky. The king just expects us to be soldiers. [ but the people were still turning against them, even in ravka. she recalls kirigan's fears of west ravka, of the uprising. she thinks of marie. looking a bit dour, she contextualizes; ] It's a matter of time before they realize the value of what we can do and decide what they're going to do about it.

02

[freightcars]

( There's a ruckus about as the sinkholes collapse; not exactly screaming and chaos, but definitely some alarmed shouts and a pick-up in general activity. This, of course, strikes up his ingrained habit of "time to help", and he catches the sound of her voice a little bit before anybody else. Thank you, serum hearing.

He takes a knee at the edge, squinting down to try and assess the situation.

Familiar face.

Familiar setting.

He'll get around to the dry commentary in a minute, first comes yelling down with a more earnest concern. )

Hey! You okay? You hurt?

(cw: racism ref)

[sunmon]

Not badly. But I—

[ this is an overestimation. it becomes clear when she tries to stand up and finds her leg won't take her weight without pain lancing straight up it. alina drops back to the ground with a hiss of pain that ends in a grunt. she takes two deep breaths.

no one has ever helped her before when she had injuries. she'd done it herself. there were too many children to worry about in the orphanage, and all of them hated her and mal both. the one time she'd been injured with the first army, the nurse on staff had decided they wouldn't treat 'the enemy.' so she'd bandaged herself and moved on. she'd recovered from any number of untreated injuries in the stocks following fights she'd started over similar treatment.

this is different. she can't just stay down here. ]

I don't think I can climb. But there'll be ropes at the theater.

02

[annoyware]

[It's Alina's continued good fortune that leads not a kind, friendly face looking down at her through the hole in the floor, but a small, glowing blue light.

Is it friendly? Yes, annoyingly so. Is it kind? Well...]

Wow, you are really far down there! Hellooo down therrre. [He's trying to see if his voice will echo.]

[sunmon]

Yeah, I can see that. Thank you.

[ her head is buzzing, but somehow, claptrap's stilted cadence pierces right through. alina groans again as she tries to sit up, touching her leg more gingerly with the arm that can fully extend. not broken, but not ready to bear her weight either. ]

Do you see a rope or anything?

[annoyware]

[The light briefly vanishes as Claptrap looks around and then wheels away, his electronic voice drifting behind him.]

Not to worry! I'm well-versed in scavenging. Back on Pandora, it's basically the planetary pastime -- you get used to sorting the dangerous, toxic garbage from the useful, slightly-less-toxic garbage...

[He's still talking as he moves further away, but it's all banal chatter about various types of trash. Like that one time he retrofitted a coathanger into an antenna but nobody complimented him on it, which probably just means they are jealous of his style and grace.

Eventually, he come back and drops the end of a thick cable down.]

Ta-da!

[sunmon]

[ long after claptrap's words are utterly indiscernible, alina can hear that he keeps going. she scrunches her face up and looks up through the hole, staring straight at steely gray ceiling and simply waiting.

saints, is he talking to himself? is he getting distracted?

just as she's getting out her comm to message someone else about a way out, the cable rolls down. alina jumps, and in doing so, aggravates her injured leg. she winces, but grabs onto the cable and eases herself with some struggle to her feet. ]

Thanks. [ she really hadn't expected it at this point. ] What was that you were saying about toxic garbage?

[ it'll maybe distract him again so he doesn't notice how long it takes her to decide how to climb the rope with her injuries. ]

01!

[figlia_morbida]

[As another theater regular, Trish has likely seen Alina around, but she hasn't pursued most people's names. Hell, the majority of the children she recognizes easily by physical traits alone - smudged face, eternal bedhead, and so on.

She's watching Alina from her perch on the stage, watches this woman ingratiating herself to a Thessyx, beckoning one of the children over -- and Trish's eyebrows fly up when the child attacks said woman's shins. They tear off and Trish rises, listening from the other side of the curtain. She doesn't go back right away...wondering if the woman will reappear, but when she doesn't, Trish steps around the curtain.

She reaches to pick up a piece of scrap as well as she approaches, as if she hadn't been listening, but her frown is apparent.]

Hm....I feel like I've seen you around a lot before. But lately, not so much.

[No, they may not have spoken, but Trish has an excellent memory.]

I won't fault you for having no love for this place, but you could be more subtle for the sake of the rest of us.

[Especially when tensions are the way they are.]

[sunmon]

the smarter thing would be to pretend that she hadn't been looking for a way to anywhere but the basecamp. but trish's attitude — dismissing alina's needs and insisting she focus on the rest of them, as if alina's actions have anything to do with the others — rankles her. ]

What is that supposed to mean?

[ it comes out pushy and defensive. alina is too young and too unused to politics to see how her actions might reflect on the whole. ]

[figlia_morbida]

[Trish's frown deepens, and she turns the scrap she'd picked up around in her hands, inspecting it instead of looking at Alina. it's a feather cap, probably from one of the plays earlier today.

Alina's tone is hard to miss, and it sounds to Trish like Alina knows exactly what she means.]

If you want to sabotage your trust here, be my guest. It's not really my business.

[Everyone's feelings towards the people of the Adamant are complicated, sure, but the lack of tact some of the Hatchlings have...

Normally Trish wouldn't comment on it, but if the Adamant's survivors start to expect similar behavior from the other hatchlings, the generally charitable attitude towards their presence might change.]

But if the Thessyx don't take you, what are you going to do?

[sunmon]

If our hosts would turn us out for seeking greener pastures, than they never had our best interests in mind in the first place, and we'll be better off without depending on the whims of their good nature.

[ she doesn't want to believe that about childe. but she's also not going to pretend that rémi's resistance to any cooperation doesn't make her nervous. she's not going to sit here and count on childe to protect them from all her people.

but she doubts it'll get them kicked out to admit that. ]

( closed to kirigan )

[sunmon]

[ her injuries from the fall sit alina in the medical bay, chewing on some unfamiliar and frankly bitter root that the medic on duty claims is a remarkable painkiller. honestly, she'd rather have a healer, but she knows that calling nina or balthier would mean they could be less help with the vermin that are currently spreading through the basecamp at an alarming rate.

she's not worth that. the little palace would have frozen everything, proving she was, but sun summoner or not, alina isn't going to go about demanding it for herself. she may be ravka's savior, but to the people from the adamant, she's nothing.

so she takes a nap, shifting sourly as she can't get her shoulder and ankle comfortable at the same time. when she wakes, it's back to chewing on the root, which seems to be giving her a fever more than quelling any pain. but the heat of the room is a distraction, and even changing into the white nightgown she'd found in one of the eggs hasn't done any good for it. ]

[morozova]

( he doesn't rush to her side. however, that's only because he's been kept busy wrangling the creatures that are responsible for her present state. ugly things, likely acting out of an instinct that would make them difficult to hate if they weren't also such an utter nuisance.

finding out that alina has been injured doesn't help endear them to him, of course. and though he's quickly assured that her injuries are minor, he spends the duration of his stay watching her shift with a mingling of frustration and concern.

when she wakes, she'll find him watching her still, a cup of something that might be water and might be moonshine, clasped in his hand. he's been here a while. ) They tell me you'll live.

( he doesn't mean it to sound like an accusation but it manages to anyway. the concern edging into something very nearly angry. )

[sunmon]

[ she startles upon seeing him. dressed down like he is these days, she barely recognizes him. he doesn't look like the black general. he just looks like a man. somehow, that's worse.

but alina sits up, groggy and feverish, rubbing at her neck with her bad arm while she supports herself on her good one. ]

Try to contain your relief.

[ it's a little acidic. on the one hand, his insistence on open disdain makes it easier to remember what he is. on the other, now of all times she could use the comfort of how he had feigned care and concern over her. even if it wasn't real, it would be nice to have. just for a little while. ]

They said nothing was broken. Just a few tears. And the bleeding, obviously. [ they'd cut away part of the pants she was wearing, and her leg is still bandaged. brown-red stains seep through the dressing. ]

[morozova]

I'd rather you not have been injured at all.

( it's not apologetic, precisely, but some of the tension he's been carrying dissolves in the wake of her response. if she's in a fit enough state to snap at him, then she'll probably be fine.

he extends the cup to her. it's water. )

Do you remember what happened?

wildcard! - shortly after the thessyx arrival, pre-sinkhole - hope this is cool!

[neversmall]

[ It's not too long after the Thessyx arrival before Nina seeks Alina out. She tries the routine places first, and meets with some success at the theater. ]

So! [ Nina approaches brightly, with a quick wide smile and a heavy shade of 'ehehehehwhatthefuck' in her eyes. ]

Today I met somebody who has four arms and was named after the impression of the scent of the reeds on a spring day. He was friends with someone whose name was a bit like the slant of sun hitting a water lily. How was your day?

[sunmon]

I've been doing my best dancing bear impression.

[ she says this boastfully, like it holds any candle to nina's news. it's a sort of self-effacing pride, though, that seems too aware of the fact that actually, alina has been in the salt mines. ]

The kids are rehearsing a show called Peter Pan that mostly involved me carrying Nivea around in the air while she pretended to be covered in fairy dust. I think The Slant of Sun Hitting a Water Lily will like it.

[neversmall]

[ Nina is almost happily derailed at this: ] Fairy dust? Why should that make any difference?

[ It is a bit of a Grounding Tactic, but then she's had rather an extraordinary day and could use the grounding. ]

03 - Network follow up re: sinkholes

[portolan]

[ Steering the hoverbike through the crowded, narrow streets to the Aid Station is difficult. Fran was usually pilot on this, while he shot and navigated. It's also harder to reach the Mist here. He imagines that he'll improve with time. He did all right driving it back from the hatching grounds with Nina -- he just has to pay attention to his energy.

He reaches the outskirts of the station and parks the bike. There's no real worry of it getting stolen -- people here aren't prone to that anyway, but even if they were, he's fairly certain it won't work without Mist connection, and the only ones who might have that are other Hatchlings.

He wades among the tents to where Alina is lying on a medical cot. Her leg is heavily bandaged, and she's absorbed in something. ]

Your chariot awaits, madame.

[sunmon]

You make it sound very grand.

[ she's not sure what to expect, honestly, and from here, she doesn't have a good view. so she eases herself up off the cot, careful of her leg. one of her arms has just been freed from its sling, fortunately, but she still keeps it bent a little bit at her side. ginger.

she doesn't reach for help. instead, she starts at a steady limp towards him, head as high as can be expected. ]

[portolan]

[ Balthier notices that she doesn't reach or ask for help. He doesn't want to offend her independence, but it also seems absurd for her to push herself when he can help. ]

Feel free to decline, and I won't push a second time, but would you like either my arm or my magic to make the walk easier? I'd rather you have your strength for any unpleasant surprises in the sinkholes.