TRAVEL LOG #2

[synfluxmods]

TRAVEL LOG #2

CONTENT WARNINGS: natural disaster, acid rain, vehicle crash.

▶ 001. WINGING IT.

In the early morning hours of the 1st, Outsiders will receive a rude awakening blaring through their implants. No matter what they do, the alarm will not stop sounding until they are forced to get up. A message will flash through their vision:

ALL OUTSIDERS ARE TO REPORT TO THE HANGAR IMMEDIATELY FOR DEPARTURE

Get up, get dressed in your plugsuit, and it’s time to go! Once they report at the hangar, they will be met with a huge spacecraft, large enough to fit at least 80 people. This will be their mode of transport to their next location.

"My Angels of Lilith. You are needed once again. We have received distress signals from the neighbouring country of South Korea. Unfortunately, since we have not established data portals in that country, we require you to embark via air. Your aircraft is ready for you and your seats have been assigned. I bid you a safe journey."

True enough, there are more than enough seats on the LILITH SKY CRUISER to accommodate every Outsider, and to get everyone organized quickly for departure, all Outsiders will receive a seat number. Like any plane, seats are rather cramped and there isn’t much leg room. Once the seatbelt sign is off, Outsiders are free to stand up and move around the cruiser, but they might have to climb over other people or make the whole row stand up to give them room. The aircraft is serviced by robotic stewards serving light snacks of nuts and crackers, and coconut crab kimbap and seaweed soup at meal time. Any characters who use a cloaking device will be instructed to use it during the flight to accommodate the aircraft. Also, any characters who rely on a weapon or anything else (such as a Gundam), it will be loaded onto the cargo of the aircraft.

The flight will take about 2-3 hours. Outsiders may take a nap, chat or try the inflight entertainment available. This inflight entertainment is delivered through a virtual reality headset. Outsiders may pick a selection of AI movies of questionable quality, along with several virtual reality games. There are single player or multiplayer options available for every game.

Available games include:

• The Sims 30: One player gets to become the ‘god’ of a world and build houses or dictate the lives of other players and NPCs within the game as they see fit.
  
• Farm Crossing: A farming simulator game where players get to build and manage their own farms. Harvest your crops and tend to your animals! Impress the friendly villagers in the town with your beautiful ranch!
  
• Tales of Heroes: A fantasy game where players are reborn into a world of monsters and magic and have to level up by fighting monsters and slaying demons.
  
• And many more … (Feel free to design your own VR games.)

Eventually, the sky cruiser will touch down on Incheon Airport. There’s no need to be stuck waiting in line at immigration... it appears as if the Incheon Airport has not been used in decades and seems completely abandoned with the exception of the Outsiders. The old scanning machines and luggage belts are simply collecting dust. Outsiders will be ushered immediately to the nearest train station, where they will continue their journey by train.

▶ 002. WELCOME TO SEOUL.

Once descended from the train ride, they will have arrived in the city of Seoul, South Korea. Similar to Neo Tokyo, a lot of the people on the outskirts moved to this area in order to receive shelter and the benefits of being amongst civilization, rather than fending for themselves. As such, there is a certain hustle and bustle, but considering the state of their dilapidated airports and most of the other cities falling to ruin, there definitely is a more somber vibe to the city. Despite that, the residents carry on and there is no shortage of shopping, food stalls (mostly with foods that are not easy to perish), cafes, pojangmacha to have a late night food or drink at, and many more smaller businesses. The people are resilient and have every single desire to continue making a living. As such the prices here are competitive and Outsiders will find if they look hard enough, there are some fairly good deals to be made. Currency exchange is no issue, as KRYPTOS is the universal currency.

Since a lot of efforts were made to keep Seoul intact, there are still some important sights that were kept up and can be visited if desired. While LILITH urges people to keep their eyes peeled out for any clues to the next kaiju’s whereabouts, Seok Dang may or may not have sent each Outsider a map of the best sightseeing amongst many other not-so-innocent suggestions. He calls it the difference of experiences and “doesn’t want anyone missing out!” If people check back on the message a day later, they will find it was almost as if it didn’t exist at all. On the list, however, includes sights like the Gyeongbokgung Palace, COEX mall and aquarium, Seoul Sky, and many others. However, some of them may or may not exist anymore. How long was he out of the country for? For an extra “freebie” he throws in, Outsiders will find an odd message on their style upgrade saying there is a new outfit available, when opened, it will download a hanbok that they can wear at any time.

"Well, well. Unfortunately, whatever fun could have been planned will need to be halted just a mere two and a half days to get settled. Once again, a message will be produced on everyone’s oculars suggesting an emergency is on the horizon. Guess we better get to that instead of showing you my home country!"

And Seok Dang wonders why he is the Commander's least favorite.

Beep! An alert pops up on the Outsiders' ocular devices. According to the information LILITH just received, there is not just one large kaiju occupying this region, but two. In order to chase both of these leads, Outsiders are split into two groups in order to chase these two kaiju. They have described these kaiju as being very agile and fast, but resembling a serpent from the few sightings that have been spotted. As for the rift that it originated from, there is no sign of a rift in South Korea. Did it migrate here from somewhere else? More details will pour into the Outsider's devices as soon as possible, but for now, Outsiders are called to pursue the hunt.

▶ 003. TEAM SEOUL.
_{EVERLIGHT & REDEMPTION}

Within the next hour, rain will begin to fall upon the city, but this is far from the average summer shower. The precipitation doesn’t seem weather-related as much as it does seem to be a proponent of the kaiju’s abilities. They find this when studying the rain itself, which is acidic to the touch. While the buildings and other structures will remain sound, the people will need to evacuate quickly in order to avoid any lingering effects to the skin. Skin contact with the acid rain will cause both minor and severe burning, depending on how quickly it is rinsed off with normal water. At the first discovery of the acid rain's danger, Outsiders will be commanded to press a button on their plugsuit on the left shoulder, activating an invisible helmet to keep their heads and faces safe.

The Outsiders’ plug suits prevent them from receiving any damages from the rain, but that’s certainly not the case for everyone else. The first team, made up of the members of Everlight and Redemption are to prioritize the initial evacuation of the people, especially those who live slightly outside of the city limits of Seoul. They are the most vulnerable during crises like these and will need to be pulled from their homes, and those who live in the basement shelters will need to be pulled to one higher ground in case of potential flooding with the acid rain. Individuals who have skills in healing will also be called forth in order to tend to the injuries of those who are saved.

Between evacuation, there will also be tidbits of information provided to those on the team that remains in Seoul to check out specific locations in order to figure out more about this kaiju. The first location listed is Gyeongbokgung Palace. Outsiders that remain in Seoul will be utilizing that as their base. They are set to look at any remains the kaiju may have left behind. Any findings are commanded to be surrendered to LILITH. Emergency response of South Korea will use this palace as a safe haven, providing cots for sleeping overnight and other emergency supplies.

▶ 004. TEAM BUSAN.
_{BRIMSTONE & REVELATION}

The second team will depart via train on a journey to the city of Busan. The journey is expected to take 2 hours, and while there are comfortable seats available on the train, any luxuries beyond that are minimal. At least LILITH has brought along a few VR headsets for whoever wants to kill time with games or bad movies? Anyone can sit where they'd like for this ride.

An hour into the trip, a loud crash is suddenly heard, with the entire train rocking and falling to its side. This causes a complete blackout throughout the train and it stops functioning completely, leaving Outsiders stranded within the pitch black tunnel. The train system is completely inoperable in this condition. Outsiders will need to make their own journey to the city, following the rails by foot and helping any Outsiders who happened to be injured in the crash. It’ll be dark within the tunnel, but light will soon emerge once they exit it, and they will find themselves at the foot of Mount Geumjeong.

From then on, they’ll need to put their trekking skills to the test and cross the mountainous, forested region, where they will encounter various local fauna such as snakes, deer and black bears. They will also spot many destroyed villages and temples on their way to Busan. However, evidence of the Kaiju can be found in both the subway tunnel and throughout the mountain trek, suggesting that the kaiju has moved through here. This encourages LILITH to keep Outsiders in this area. The Outsiders will need to make a campsite in one of the destroyed villages, though emergency response will also pay them a visit several days later with sleeping cots and emergency supplies. In the meantime, hopefully they brought enough food with them or know how to forage and hunt for food in the wilderness. Some of those berries out there are poisonous....

The team here will be encouraged to explore the area to find further traces of the kaiju and help any villagers who are still alive.

▶ 005. STATUS REPORT.

Promptly, at the same time, all Outsiders will receive a text message and be put in an encrypted chat-room: OPERATION: RED/BLUE
CODENAME:
LOCATION:
STATUS:
FINDINGS:
Outsiders are instructed to fill out this information and send it into the chat to communicate with one another.

▶ 006. AFTERWORD.

Welcome to our second travel log!

Characters do have ASSIGNED SEATS for the duration of their flight to Incheon airport, though there are just enough empty seats that some characters can move around if they really don't like their seat buddies. Teams BRIMSTONE and REVELATION will be traveling to Busan, while teams EVERLIGHT and REDEMPTION will be staying in Seoul.

RNG below to discover what your character will find in both Seoul and Busan respectively. For the STATUS REPORT Prompt, treat it as an open chat room for all Outsiders and respond to the HEADER COMMENT. Feel free to threadjack and discuss among yourselves. You may also include this as a text prompt in your top level if you would like for people just to reply to you instead of using the header comment.

All tags on this log are worth 2 points and will count towards August AC.

EVENT BREAKDOWN/RECAP (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. WINGING IT: Characters are told to head to the hangar for DISPATCH to SOUTH KOREA where reports of a kaiju have been seen. Characters sit in their assigned seats for a short air travel ride.

2. WELCOME TO SEOUL: We arrive in Seoul and are given orders to split into two teams: Everlight & Redemption in Seoul, Brimstone & Revelation in Busan. Seok Dang has tried to sneak in some sight seeing in between mission briefs, but it looks like there won't be much time for that, as two kaiju have been found in South Korea.

3. TEAM SEOUL: Everlight & Redemption deal with acid rain in Seoul, ushering civilians to refuge, tending to acidic burns and using Gyeongbokgung Palace as a makeshift base. Investigation hints at the kaiju being somewhere in this area as Outsiders find claws, teeth, droppings and other things that belong to a dragon-like creature.

4. TEAM BUSAN: Brimstone & Revelation board a train to Busan which has an outage, trapping them to travel along the tunnel in the dark. They arrive at the end of the tunnel at the foot of Mount Geumjeong and create a makeshift base in the village there. Investigation hints at the kaiju being somewhere in this area as Outsiders find claws, teeth, droppings and other things that belong to a dragon-like creature.

5. STATUS REPORT: Outsiders are encouraged to share their findings and speculations on the kaiju in an encrypted chat room.

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Comments

[saudadist]

I'm sure the base has cleaning solutions that will get anything gross off of it
it'd make an interesting centerpiece if nothing else

[coordination]

[ Maybe it's because this is so amusing to Yzak in a shitty little goblin way, that Dearka gets a very special treat in response. ]



[ He will not be responding or making eye contact over the seats after sending that, though. ]

[uncourteous]

[ to be honest, since his arrival here, save for gilgamesh who he didn't know by name or title— no one has really spoken to him in this manner. he doesn't exactly hold any particular emotions of resentment because of it (maybe a lie), but it's a fact that will likely remain on his mind for months to come.

especially, since the man appears to have no desire to correct himself. ] "Objective," is it? [ as of now, it's beginning to feel real personal. even if he knows it can't be, if just because they've literally just met. at the very least, if he met such a man before, he'd surely remember him.

callisto's words are punctuated with a sharp huff, obviously done to express his disbelief. this all the more when he whacks the bear head ...

quite far? hello?

where will their center piece for their evening's festivities go now? still, his display of power does get ... a clap from callisto. a slow, methodical, sort of clap; all the markings of mockery imbued in the motion, even if he genuinely was impressed. ] Congratulations, that was certainly a new record. Not even the jesters of the royal court could hold a flame to your passion.

[yormama]

Oh! I understand perfectly. Mine is much the same way.

But still, please know you have lots of backup at the ready. All you have to do is ask.

[yuwon]

[ even history on earth feels so far removed from himself, and he doesn't exactly feel any connection to it, even now. they're facts that feel like they're so long ago, too. then again, he could barely remember the names of anyone in his life before the tower. when bakugo asks for clarification, yuwon just stares at him.

before opting on the most infuriating explanation of all. ] People. [ whether he does it on purpose, or simply became tired of potentially expounding anymore on the topic, he seems to cut his words relatively short. ]

Merchandise...? Was there some of you? [ is this denji dog plush all over again? ]

[yuwon]

[ "far less experience." it's clear by the slightest shift in his expression that he faces wriothesley's words with a certain amount of disbelief. ] I think people tend to be trickier than most monsters. It's like that between Rankers, too.

[ there were a handful of times in the tower where he felt his power, while could easily match up against the trial's difficulties... could barely hold a candle against a proper ranker. it reminds him a lot of his battle with theseus, and the idea seems to make him shake his head a little. if wriothesley were more accustomed to fighting other people, then he was probably in decent shape. ... he says while not actually knowing much of his world. ]

I'm already ready. [ says yuwon, but like a friend who says they're otw when they haven't even left their house (jk, he can't actually relate to this experience), he also begins his preparations. while he was wearing what he typically wears under his clothes, he opens up his inventory, grabbing his spare jacket and putting it on, before turning back to wriothesley. everything in his posture saying, "let's go." ]

[axethrows]

Guess he was in here before the rain started. There might be more once the body get searched, but I guess we better keep on looking for clues.

[yuwon]

[ can you imagine if for some reason the dots were misaligned...

thankfully for bakugo it isn't, but he seems to shrug it off all the same. this wouldn't be anything new. at the very leats, it was better than his forced niceties the first time they spoke on the network. ]

What if its insides were explosion proof?

[ not such a specific what if. ]

I'll take a look. Guess it helps we are sleeping outside.

[blastedass]

[wouldn't be much of a middle finger without those dots, would it.

of course yuwon's going to shrug it off! the guy's like a damn stone wall that won't crack! outside of mentioning his mentor to him or something... bakugo's going to find a way to fluster or irk this guy. one way or another, he'll get a damn reaction!]

Then I'll claw my way back up it's fucking gullet and blast its teeth out!

[explosion proof innards would be a hell to deal with... anyways, he's gonna do a quick search on the internet, just for yuwon's sake.]

Soapwort, english ivy, horse chestnuts, clematis. Those can all be used as natural soap.

[yuwon can look them up to find their appearance, as well as other plants that can be used as soap. it's an offer at least.]

[sensehispresence]

It might work. All you can do is try.

[blastedass]

[bakugo doesn't realize yuwon's from earth at some point; he's envisioned his history being completely locked within the tower and the worlds that exist on each floor. as insane as that sounds... thinking about to too hard just pisses him off, half because he can't go there to see it for himself, so tries not to.

his expression flattens slightly at yuwon's retort.] Duh. Who else do you think uses that kinda stuff?

[give a stupid answer, get a crotchety response. bakugo snorts at the other question as he finishes one row and crouches down to rifle through the next one.]

Not yet. I'm not a Pro Hero. I'm only in my first year of hero training.

[though considering the sheer scope of the war his world's in, and the huge role his class is playing in it, odds are their year's going to get merch well before they actually graduate.]

[sensehispresence]

It'll give you an adrenaline rush, I'm sure.

[blastedass]

[In this case, no matter what word he'd use, Bakugo's response would've been the same. Trying to get his head around it...]

I've never seen a female Godzilla in any media.

[blastedass]

[This is the first time they've had to deal with the prospect of two distinct kaiju, compared to a group of the same or a single beast. Katsuki still carries the burden of guilt and anger over what happened in Vegas. Keeping these monsters away from the city would be a massive benefit for all of them.

But he takes the silent cue to shelve the talk of that for later. There'll be more time for preparation. Right now, he can curb his impatience and rest in the evening. It's... not the easiest task for Katsuki. Raidou's presence helps.]

All of it?

[His retort's mildly taunting. Raidou's always seemed to have a logical and responsible head on his shoulder.]

[sensehispresence]

Which means you've been fighting kaiju just as long?

[sensehispresence]

That will come in handy, in the long run.

[sensehispresence]

They gave you ways to fight them in the water?

[ Or did the plugsuits allow something like that? ]

[30storieshigh]

This is correct 👍. There has not been a female of my kind in a very long time.

[ Which is kind of a bummer, as people say, but let's not dwell on that. ]

My spouse, as your kind say, is called Mothra 🦋. She is very different from myself, we are mated by the soul rather than by physical compatibility.

[kubricks]

I'd say longer than that, I've fought my share of creatures back home. They're not quite the same as the ones here though.

[saudadist]

yeah, we lured them onto boats or had these gems that transformed you into a part fish creature

the second one had some side effects

[blastedass]

Then don't bring up your personal feelings and act like an arrogant jackass!

[this is the second time someone's taunting the "god" in his hero name and bakugo bristles instantly.]

What?! That doesn't make any sense! You don't enforce something else's wants!

[that's nothing more than forcing your own wants or desires onto the other person! (or world in this example.) even if he has "god" in his name, the only thing he's enforcing is law and order based on social morals!

touch him and you're gonna be nothing more than chunks of gore splattered all over the wall...]

Unless the reptile has the scales and horns and the mammal has the hair and claws. If we keep them separate, we have to divide our forces and fight a battle on two fronts.

[granted he's not going to suggest clashing the kaiju together until they know more about them, since a team up would make things harder. but he wants the idea and potential kept open in people's minds just in case.]

We haven't fought an amphibious kaiju yet. But those damn orca had arms enough to come up on land if they needed to.

[yeah, most people just call him "dynamight" and ignore him shouting at them to use his full name. since his original name choices were "King Explosion Murder" and "Lord Explosion Murder", both rejected by his teachers for being unacceptable, i figure the hero registration committee eventually compromised his stubborn ass by forcing him to "choose something we can call you safely on air" and then let him slap whatever other aggressive extras he wanted in front of it. hence "dynamight", then other people could choose if they wanted to call him the rest of it. *le shrug*]

[blastedass]

These bastards always seem to have a bio for whatever kaiju we face right before we fight.

[blastedass]

[Sorry, big guy.]

YOU'RE MATED WITH THAT GIANT BUG?!

[Feel free to swat him later for his insolence. Just don't ask what images are in his head right now.

KINKY]

[zauneyete]

What, and get everyone all riled up for beating a child?

What do you take me for, a monster?

[ Text has little inflection, but the briefest of glances in Set's direction, his eyes tipped in that directions says, very clearly: 'oh of course i will' ]

[30storieshigh]

[ Bakugo being technically correct is what saves him from insulting Godzilla. Mothra is, in fact, a large insect. ]

Ah, then she is a subject of legend too. This is fitting, a god of Mothra's caliber should be recognized 💯.

[ yup Godzilla is a wife guy. Add that to your mental theater. ]