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

[neversmall]

[ It is entirely too much to keep the box. In the regular course of things, if he'd given her something like this, she'd have taken it with happy satisfaction. This is not the regular course of things; he could have traded it for other supplies, he could have simply insisted they share, he could have kept it for himself - all of these things would be understandable, acceptable.

But if it showed up in his egg, then that means they're his - his, because he values them. And he is giving them to her. Her gaze sharpens even as her eyes dilate. ]

Matthias... [ She wants to lean in and kiss him. He's not given the slightest bit of permission for her to do that. So all she does is lean in. Her heated gaze drops from his eyes to his lips and back again. ]

I'm not going to say no. But if they're mine that means I get to do what I like with them. And I insist that you have one with me so I can enjoy them properly. It's bad luck to eat semla on your own, you know.

[trassel]

[ She wants. Something in kind nearly answers her, with Matthias' mouth pressing, then he sighs quietly. No idea how to have the ah... Talk. It won't smother the longing. He's wanted her since the night in the whaler's hut, and fought that sensation tooth and nail, but it's every bit as part of him as any other part that is Fjerda. To tear it up would be to kill some part of his own nature. Not like removing a limb, but carving out a chamber of his heart, leaving the rest less whole, less able to continue onwards. ]

Is it?

[ Amusement dances in his eyes. ]

I only eat sweets on weekends.

[ True, and said like a joke. ]

[neversmall]

[ She believes him and sighs. She doesn't move back, her gaze flickering to his lips again. ]

That damned drüskelle discipline. [ Dramatic sigh. ] It will be the death of me.

[trassel]

[ He can't help it, he ducks his head to chuff a soft laugh. It is not even an obstacle for her to complain about. Matthias isn't trying to hold her off, even. But this is so inexplicably funny. ]

I wanted you to have it, [ he says, still smiling, ] you can share with any others. If you want.

[neversmall]

[ His laughter is her favorite thing. Winning a laugh from Matthias always fills her with euphoria; it means more than winning a laugh from any other hundred people. She softens, still beaming at him. ]

Fine, [ she says like she is giving up. She is not giving up. She pauses just long enough to ask: ] Is today the weekend?

[ Because, honestly, how are they even measuring time? ]

[trassel]

[ Honestly. He puts what's remaining of his meal on the plate, sets it aside, and wraps his arm around her. A second later, the other arm follows, for a loose embrace. ]

Only Djel knows.

[ His eyes spark again at her, and he leans down, close enough that he could eat comfortably out of her hand. ]

[neversmall]

[ Oh. Hello, Matthias. Look who's being bold enough to use both arms. Nina's delight does not bank her desire, the two exist in harmony, each enriching the other. She smiles at him, her breath quickening, with just a touch of wicked enjoyment in the corners of her lips. (She remembers the last time one of them did something like this; the awareness between them had been something twisted, then. Now it's ironed out, made straight - vibrant and exciting.) ]

In that case, [ she lifts up her half-eaten semla to his lips; her voice deepens all of its own accord, ] I suppose what matters most is consistency.

[trassel]

[ What? It's very cosy here. She did this on purpose, he would absolutely not be shocked to search her pockets or a purse and find a list of these places around the base. If they weren't committed to memory. ]

[ But it's impossible to complain when she's so delighted. Like a lantern in a fading snowstorm, a splendid shelter. She looks up at him, and one unnamed thing unfurls at the sight, which Matthias dutifully channels into leaning forward to eat out of her hand, deliberately not looking at her as he does so. There's only so much restraint, if it pours on too much or too quickly — ]

[ He just eats, enjoying the little morsel. ]

It is just like the one from Djerholm. The owner used to insist I take it for free.

[neversmall]

[ Um, yes? What kind of spy would she be if she didn't ferret out all the hidden places of a base? Moreover - she's learned how much he requires privacy to be with her, and she craves being with him.

Her breath catches when he eats from her hand; she doesn't try to stifle it.

He is so carefully not looking at her. She can not look away from him. If she just leaned forward, she could...

Instead, she lifts the remainder of the piece to her own mouth, finishing it. She bites the sugar from her lips, her gaze steadfastly upon him. ]

Delicious.

[trassel]

[ Look, he did the same thing, just a bit slower, and aimed for high places, rather than nooks and crannies. But the two overlap. ]

[ Matthias is not wild, to need taming, or any such ridiculous thing. But he is a spiky person, all feels soothed when Nina is safely in his arms. It's good, to know that she has the same impulses he is struggling with, only Nina is far more forward. If Nina only leaned in... ]

[ He does not want to become shameless. So blunt and gauche, as if forgetting the finesse he has worked so hard to acquire. And none of the romance that is called for in every such dance. ]

[ If Nina only leaned in... ]

[ He needs to stop looking at her lips right now. ]

I'm glad you liked it. As I said, the box is yours.

[neversmall]

[ The way he's looking at her isn't even a little bit hidden; he wants her as she wants him. Why then, all this... maidenly blushing? (The druskelle are a sacred order; a sacred, celibate order made up of men, Matthias has joined them since he was very young, he's probably not -- but it's not like it's hard.) She's patient; he's given her the affirmation she needs and she doesn't want to push him, but there is still much of their relationship that is undefined, even with this present, even with how he is holding her with both arms, staring at her lips.

Nina would like, very much, to define it.

She could banter, she could say thank you and make this something it isn't, make it an excuse. She doesn't. What Nina does is finally drop her gaze from his eyes to his lips, tilt her head very slightly to the side, and lean about 75 percent of the way in, as she had done once before, and his stomach had interrupted. ]

1/3

[trassel]

[ For one shining, desperate moment, he lives in a world where he storms through the other 25 percent, laying waste to every iron propriety he has ever had in his life, answering the smouldering emotion that had crept up and taken hold in the whaler's hut. For that moment of time alone, in the bounds of his own mind, he answers Nina with the same overwhelming force she approaches him with. ]

2/3

[trassel]

[ H E L P ]

3/3

[trassel]

[ This close, she feels his breathing halt, a soft, sharp exhale, and the rest of it held like a clenched fist, very, very still. All that's been held taut and so patiently could ignite in merely a burst. All these years — it was channelled towards vengeance. There would always be time, he thought — after becoming an officer, after having time, after cutting down swathes of Grisha, in service to his country and to Djel's will, that the rest would simply fall into place. How, he couldn't have described. All things arrive, in time. ]

[ It's not that it's difficult, to finish what was started at the inn. Or that it's unwanted, strange, or bitter, when it melts in the mouth. He knows exactly what the powdered sugar dusting her lips will taste like. He does not have to be a Corporalki himself to know the pace of her heart, or its designs. ]

[ His stomach, a traitor to his cause, does not interrupt. But Matthias drops his head away, the hair lightly brushing her cheek, and, very quietly, ]

Nina.

[ Maybe it's sorry or please. He's not sure. ]

[neversmall]

[ Nina exhales like a gut wound, sharp and brutal. For a moment, she remains absolutely still, his hair brushing against her cheek. Slowly, she tilts her own head back, staring at the unforgiving covering of the wings of the dragon, as impossible as the fact that she is sitting just so in the arms of a drüskelle, as impossible as the fact that she was certain he wanted her, was still holding onto her, and still he told her no.

There were so many ways she could press the issue, and it would stop being real the moment she did.

That didn't mean she had to sit there and be humiliated. That didn't mean she had to overturn his gift to the ground and storm off either.

She was almost sure this wasn't about her humanity or lack thereof in his eyes - almost. She was almost sure that he was passed that, that he saw her as a woman, so this wasn't a rejection of... her essence. Just a rejection of her kiss, as he held her, gifted her with his treasures from home, set his brother to guard her.

How could these things all exist at the same time, so much connection and so much rejection? ]

Fine, [ she breathes out and shifts back, moving away and not toward, using her hands to cover up the lid of the semla so it didn't spill and not framing his face and making him look at her, not moving to comfort him. He'd made his choice; it wouldn't be the only chance he had to make it, but he wasn't the only one impacted by it. ]

I don't understand, [ it's said as she moves to stand, the box firmly in her hands, not setting it down and leaving it for him, not rejecting him, but standing all the same, ] but fine.

[ And she doesn't ask for an explanation, like she has every time before, because she's not in a place to hear it. She doesn't understand, and it hurts, and she needs to go before he sees her start to cry. She starts to move forward, through the narrow space left between his knees and the wall, her gaze fixed straight ahead and lips pressed firmly together. ]

[trassel]

[ Fine. ]

[ Matthias has endured every ache. The desperate yawning cracks of being orphaned, the touch of every violence in training, and the fury of the elements. And he can rightly say none of them hurt as badly as that word. Nina can pull away all she wants — she has the right to choose how near she wants to be — but to say this, to think he is slamming the door in her face when he is in reality stuck fast and desperately trying to open it — ]

Please Nina, I'm sorry, it's not —

[ Not what? ]

[ He hates to hear the bruises in her voice, and hates even more that it's met with his clumsiness. Ask him the quickest way to kill her and he would have said: a knife to the throat. Not by... not returning her attraction, outside the bounds of propriety. When had that all come back, when in the inn he'd been so ready to leave it somewhere else too? ]

[ She's broken the embrace. Matthias reaches forward to restore that, first of all. ]

[neversmall]

[ He sounds desperate.

Trassel's already looked up from his post, lying Sphinx-like at the door, scenting the salt of her unshed tears. At Matthias' tone, however, he makes a rumble of concern. She didn't need those clues to know that this was genuine, or that she was already inexorably entwined with these two, but they don't hurt.

Matthias reaches for her again as she starts to stand and she wants to snap at him: You can't have it both ways. They can't just be friends and not be more when this is also what he wants, what he does. She's not willing to live forever with this undefined; she's worth more than that.

But he sounds desperate.

She sinks back down stiffly, her back ramrod straight, her lips tight. Her gaze locks with his, and it searches. His eyes are the color of the sky peaking through storm clouds, and they pierce her heart and leave her defenseless. Her control breaks on a silent whimper, a sudden snap of the restraint she'd put over her heart to cover up the wound. She surges forward through the pain and leans toward him, lifting up one hand to cradle his cheek, as brave in this moment as she has ever been in her life, stretching out over the yawning gap of screaming in her soul to try again. ]

You can tell me.

[trassel]

[ The relief is like another physical blow, he nearly sags with it. Instead Matthias seizes her hand in his cheek, covering it with his own, as the other tugs her insistently near. Something had broken, with his hesitation, and he will not make that mistake twice. ]

It's not anything you have done. Or anything about you.

[ He says in a rush. Her anger would be merited if so, but it's her hurt and disappointment that are unbearable. It would be horrible, to for her to think that there are lingering doubts — Matthias doesn't exactly enjoy the fact that she's Grisha, but the heart doesn't choose what it wants. He won't refuse its pursuit. ]

There is just... a proper way. [ The Fjerdan way. ] A way that this is done. And we're... I've not...

[ He hasn't finished her rose. He found the folding paper and the right shade, but the shape is elusive and frustrating. Each time it feels within his grasp it slips away. ]

[neversmall]

[ He grabs onto her like he had once before, to catch her when she was falling. He tugs her closer and she doesn't resist, though she leans in no further than she already has. She's waiting.

It's worth waiting to have that splinter in her mind pulled out - it's not anything about her - good. Then, what...

What...? Oh. That's so... Fjerdan. It almost soothes the ache, quells the hunger with a laugh; it does not, but almost. ]

...you're hung up on ceremony. [ Her brow furrows; her summation is incomplete, she knows, but there is something more important to clarify. ] But it is something you want?

[trassel]

[ What hang ups! The proper way, the proper things, these are what she deserves, and her right as a woman. It's not madness to try and commit to that, though it's maddening. Why did he have to fall for a Ravkan? ]

Yes, of course —

[ — of course, what a ridiculous question, he's wanted her so very madly that it feels strange to think of a time when that emotion was not there. ]

[neversmall]

[ Nina has experienced many things in her life that are not real. She has (and has been) manipulated, adjusted people's emotions, played games with people's hearts. She is, as a result, a very big fan of enthusiastic consent. She knows the difference between using and not using. She does not want any part of this to be fake.

In these extreme circumstances, however, Yes is enough permission for her.

She leans forward and kisses him. Her lips are soft, the kiss is not demanding, not hurried, though it deepens. It deepens as if she is trying to impress her name on his mouth, on his heart. It deepens as if it is a key fit into a lock. And she takes her time, not just proving a point or settling a need, but savoring him. ]

1/2

[trassel]

[ — How is it he has dreamed of this being within his grasp and yet this is the furthest from what he wants. He should have finished the rose, explained to her the formalities, and they would have gone about their merry way, all in its place, and each moment at its time. Instead, Nina arrives, and by arriving, throws it all into disarray. ]

[ He said yes, but — ]

2/2

[trassel]

[ His sigh is just a shiver. It's swallowed by the craving being met, and sweetly, so little to do with the semla. Nina does not kiss like a shipwreck, each old piece sundered and to be lost in the dark, but like the breaking of a wave, rolling in towards a shore. She catches him. ]

[ Matthias settles an arm around her, the other resting on her cheek, rooting in this moment as she savours him and he lets her. The key turns into the new door, no longer stuck, and her wet footprints are dark on the stone, lingering there. ]

[ Yes. ]

[neversmall]

[ He meets her in the moment. He doesn't let her fall. Joy is triumphant, fireworks through her body, a happy celebration of giving and accepting; accepted and desired. She shivers with it.

Before the kiss can change from a kiss into more, Nina pulls back and rests her forehead against his. For a moment, eyes closed, they simply share each other's breath. ]

Now, [ not as in 'that's settled' and not as in 'let's move on', but as in 'now after passing a threshold; now after beginning a journey, now', ] you can tell me what your way is. And I can tell you mine. And we can compromise.

[trassel]

[ Look he's still nursing annoyance, but oh, it doesn't even let him use any of it, because he leans in helplessly after she pulls away, startled that it's only this. (It's enough.) More would be — ]

[ More would be even more improper, and he has been surprised enough for one day. ]

I was interrupted before I could explain.

[ He's trying to frown at her. He is failing. Miserably. ]

That does not count. I will kiss you, and it will be properly.