[Day 212] Well it woulda been coulda been worse than you would ever know... [OPEN]

[hellpyre]

Who: Everyone!
Open: Open
When: Day 212, evening
Where: in front of the Distillery
What: No one died during the horrible plague scare! That's reason enough for a feast and a mingle log right?
Format: Any!
Warnings: Shouldn't be any but will adjust if needed

[Someone has been busy today. The kitchen and Distillery has been noisy and bustling, a departure from the much more quiet days when the illness was spreading through the Bastion and survival was once more on the uncertain scale of things. Somewhere around the time that the night cycle begins, when the sky is more of an orange-ish glow fading in to blue and purple, a large spread of food has been set up near the Distillery with glass lanterns hanging overhead.

Just like any other time there has been a feast be it random or planned, there is a wide selection of food on the covered, decorated tables. There's even meat this time! And yes, Aoi, your doughnuts have been transferred from your trees to a platter on the table. There's even a section for Paar, complete with massive amounts of bbq'd mammoth meat! You can thank Colin for that.

There's really no announcement for the feast, but chances are if you're outside at any point today you'll see the progress towards the set up, or smell the delicious scents wafting over the Bastion. (There might even be music playing, if Colin finds a way to provide it!)

Either way, come dusk food will be ready and mingling will be had!]

(ooc: Standard mingle log right here. Throw your threads up, poke other people's threads, and eat all the food!)

Comments

[notachickenhawk]

The first one, I think.

When...

[This is uncomfortable.]

I guess I'm not... entirely human. Or I wasn't, before I was a hawk. Elfangor - the Andalite who gave us the morphing power - trapped himself as a human to be with my mother. But the Ellimist put him back in his Andalite body and back into Andalite service and erased him from my mother's life. She was pregnant with me, though... so I don't know if I'm genetically his morph's or the man who 'replaced' him in the timeline. He left me a letter.

... But when we found him dying, when he gave us the morphing ability, he... transferred something to me. Knowledge of where to find certain things. And...

[... His voice drops a bit in volume. He doesn't like thinking about it, even though it's always in the back of his mind.]

... I was being tortured, and dying, and the 'life flashing before my eyes' thing happened... and then I remembered things from his life. I just... I don't know. Ax said it was an Andalite superstition - that memories could pass through DNA. Memory messages triggered by imminent death. A surge of strength during the last moments to ease the dying.

[He goes silent for a few moments, but he's not good at controlling his expressions as a human when he's upset. He blinks hard and looks down, trying not to cry.]

I don't... know. I guess... I mean we're all crazy for doing the things we do, but... I thought maybe if other races did it, it might feel less... weird.

[freedom_engineer]

[Nope, you're getting another hug. Sorry Tobias, shouldn't have shown that emotion in front of Colin.]

Many telepathic species share thoughts and memories with each other, as common as talking is to us. Mind links are also common, letting one person experience the things another does. Thoughts, feelings, sensations.

Memories are tricky things, especially when it goes between different races. With a non-standard storage medium, it's next to impossible to say what a race can and can't do. What works for humans may work differently for everyone else. That Superstition may certainly be a superstition, or it may be a fact to them.

Computers also tend to function this way, and they do try to upload everything they can before death so they can be stored in a new body, or at least share their experiences with someone else.

[notachickenhawk]

[He squirms somewhat. Human contact is weird, and he's not that used to nonviolent contact that doesn't come from Rachel or one of the others.]

I guess... that makes sense. I just felt... so real, like it was really happening at that moment.

[freedom_engineer]

It's certainly possible. In near-death experiences where your instincts think it may be your last moments, you body will do amazing things. You blood-pressure shoots up, filling every part of your body with oxygen. You burn massive amounts of adrenaline, endorphins, whatever chemicals your body typically associates with "Do something right now", and your brain red-lines to try and get you through the situation.

... This means you get the kind of behavior that you don't typically see in anyone. And weird things start happening. If you were in contact with a telepath at any point in your life, odds are very good your brain processed not just your own thoughts, but whatever thoughts it got from them as well.

[Still hugging. Sorry, Tobias. Say something if you want to be let go...]

[notachickenhawk]

[Words are hard. He just hunches his shoulders.]

I don't know how they did it, either. She just pressed a button and everything was pain. And then she pressed a blue button and I felt happy, before she pressed the red button again.

[freedom_engineer]

Neural manipulation, pain induction from the sound of it. Gain access to the brain, and trigger the appropriate functions. Pain centers, pleasure centers, nasty thing that anyone with experience with the brain and no morals can do...

[Colin shakes his head and hugs Tobias a little tighter.]

You have all of my sympathies there. It's a horrible thing to experience.

[notachickenhawk]

[He tries to hold himself back, but he can't. He presses his hand to his eyes, trying not to cry, but it's not working.]

I don't... need sympathy. It's just... it was just a mission. Just another step in trying to hold them off.

[He shouldn't cry. He can't cry. Tobias rubs his eyes, trying to will them to dry up.]

It's war. There's no time for sitting and feeling bad about it. And here... we're still trying to fight to survive.

[freedom_engineer]

.... Lay your head on my shoulder. If nobody gave you debriefing and therapy after that, you've been gravely mistreated.

Even in war, decency is to be expected.

[No, it's really not. But it's a nice thing to say.]

Torture like you went through should not be permissible.

[notachickenhawk]

Who's supposed to give me a debriefing? The others, who are the same age as me? And what am I supposed to say to a therapist? "I'm a bird and also I don't know if you've been taken over by a slug from outer space"? They don't fight fair. We don't, either.

... It's getting worse and worse, and I think we're going to have to put away more of our personal feelings or morals as it goes on. There's no room for questioning how we get things done, as long as we do. If we fail, then humanity really doesn't have a chance.

[freedom_engineer]

And these brain slugs are completely undetectable? And there's nobody else in the universe who's on your side?

[He's not incredulous, he's just checking.]

[notachickenhawk]

Unless they start making wild changes in their host's behavior, no. They feed every three days but they're good about hiding their entrances. Fast food places, changing rooms, hidden basement doors...

... And the Andalites are the main people fighting them. The only ones that I know of, but there are probably others I don't know of. We sent them a message about two years ago, but they don't really think it's a serious enough threat. I don't think they realize just how many people are on Earth, and how far behind we are technologically. If they were going to help us, they would have shown up by now.

[freedom_engineer]

Abusive precursors. Makes sense.

[Colin rolls his eyes, and keeps right on hugging Tobias.]

No scent, no distinguishing features that you can figure out in one of your forms?

[notachickenhawk]

No. If we knew one, we'd be on it. But there isn't one, at least not one we know of.

[freedom_engineer]

Hmmm, an interesting conundrum. Worth a little thought. I'll see what I can come up with, there are plenty of animals that have ties to mental processes, just not common ones...

We ever fix what happened here, I'll give you a design on how you can contact my empire. We'll lend a hand.

[notachickenhawk]

None on Earth, at least.

... But thanks.

[He tries to tug away. Waaaaaaay too much physical contact. He needs to get out.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Okay, Colin will let him go since he seems to be done.]

Think nothing of it, Tobias.

[notachickenhawk]

No, it... means a lot. We don't... usually have many people helping us.

[Not to mention his own life. Which he won't.]

[freedom_engineer]

Corsicans, Starfuries especially, help people. It's just what we do.

[Probably a wise move, unless you want another hug.]

[notachickenhawk]

Not enough people do. So it's important for the ones who do to keep doing it.

... As much as they can, at least.