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

[nutkick]

Soooo ... not everyone can climb it? [ he wouldn't expect yuwon to talk about every aspect of his life back home in one sitting, but at times it would be less overwhelming to ask a few questions instead of demanding a long lore drop. there is no pressure, denji will take what he can get at the other's pace— he's aware not everyone around here likes to spit secrets about themselves, and he'd be a total hypocrite to think otherwise.

the little clink made him feel a few years older and more mature; it had it's charm a bit, even when he knew he shouldn't drink it. he promised bakugou to never break the law again, and he didn't want to do it but— denji couldn't waste anything edible. it's a wicked habit due to growing up in extreme poverty. denji wouldn't leave a table empty of food or drinks; even if someone had dropped their share to the floor he'd still lick it clean. luckily, no one had seen him act this insane (yet), maybe only a few had seen him munch on the bones post a meal, leaving no traces behind, but-

yeah, he took it in one breath and placed his glass down, mindful to slide it faaaar away from yuwon's reach. please don't fill it up again. he clears his throat before he scoffed. ] Maybe I made up the name but it's real. You need to go to a professional bar for that stuff.

[yuwon]

I would say even if most are skilled, a lot end up stuck around the 59th floor? Assuming they haven't died before then. [ the trials all had varying difficulties, and it also wasn't unusual for there be to be pvp scenarios, and sometimes there were little options but to kill your enemies.

perhaps, they denji and yuwon had that in common. aside from their last conversation and some version of a past coming back to plaguing them (or having plagued them in past tense) involuntarily — he supposed, there was a lot they haven't brought to light. but, maybe that's what made it comfortable; speaking in vague terms, harboring their secrets and keeping it close to their proverbial chests.

for a second, he isn't sure if denji was going to take the drink at all. but, when he downs it, he gives a slight hint of a smile. he supposed in moments like these he can see why aki thinks denji may have matured. until he opens his mouth, that is. so he really did make it up... ]

What kind of drink is it for you to call it "flaming"?

[nutkick]

That doesn't sound like a welcoming place. So ... what's the reward? [ for some reason, the skilled fighters are on a mission to advance in that specific tower, and denji can only assume they are actively seeking something; a prize for their hard work and survival. otherwise, what was the point? he wondered how far yuwon had made it, or was he pulled into this city before he could test his own strength? hmm, this man didn't come off as someone who would yearn for recognition, often seemingly unmotivated in life, so that was surprising.

he picked up on the tiny smile and then the sheer disappointment that followed; denji would've been offended if he was caught in a lie, but that's not the case this time. yuwon had no reason to be discouraged. using their tech, he decided to share a link via text with the other man instead of elaborating further, and it would direct him to this video. ]

The drink you're having right now is baby food in comparison. This is the real test of tolerance.

[ denji and tsurumaru couldn't even finish a shared glass; one sip and they were both out and acting like clowns for the rest of the night. what a terrible idea that was. why is he trying to make yuwon try it? ]

[yuwon]

I guess it's not. [ he does find a touch of humor in that response, and so he releases a soft breath that could be his own version of a chuckle. as subtle as it is, he does seem to pour himself another drink, his fingers idly touching the rim of the glass as he speaks. ] Each floor has its own rewards, depending on performance. More than anything, it's about acquiring strength.

[ at least, it was like that for him.

he3 doesn't actually know what sparked his drive to continue to climb the tower in his first life. a dogmatic desire to survive? his desire to become something beyond what he was capable of in his original life on earth? even in reality, he knows it couldn't exactly make up for all he was lacking...

he takes another drink, before he sees the video on his oculars.

...

i'm crying at how that really is so many shots. ]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that still wouldn't do much for me. Maybe the people who tried it were just weak. [ lol. ]

[nutkick]

[ this is the most masculine reason ever. to acquire strength, test your raw power, claim victory and assert your dominance among men— the kinda shit girls would swoon over, isn't it? but, it also felt like yuwon was risking his life when there was no necessity for it. was it really survival if one chooses to walk into a treacherous road? denji is not sure, but this lifestyle is fitting for someone like yuwon. he would've shoved him into this shallow category if the half-devil didn't feel there was more to him.

there has to be another reason behind choosing to be in that tower. ]

I'll make sure to find you when the bad monsters show up. Let's see what you can do.

[ denji knew the 'manly' way to test their strengths is by asking yuwon to a noble battle under the hot sun, but fuck that. he's not that invested in taming his curiosity about the other's skills. they can make a judgment during an actual fight as outsiders. when he got called 'weak', denji's lips curved into a cheeky, toothy smirk. yeah, it's fucking funny how they got knocked out over a tiny sip. ]

Let's go find a bar that serves those drinks, then. Since you're that amaaaaazing and strong ...

[yuwon]

[ perhaps, that isn't wrong, but would any normal person want to simply remain stagnant? to claim nothing for themselves, or seek higher pinnacles if they were entirely capable of it? was it simply to drown out his lack of any real lineage of familial connections? they were pointless matters to think of now. besides, yuwon could only consider his past self... nothing less than a complete ass. damn, he really didn't need this reminder today.

so his thoughts naturally begin to wander; he wonders what it is denji desired if it wasn't strength. ... a life where he can finally be content? happiness he can actually come to believe in? could he eventually let his guard down like that? ]

It's not like you need me, but sure. [ he's not the one they make plushies for??? ] I don't think the monsters here are anything special, though. [ per usual, yuwon exudes a certain level of confidence. this self-assurance is bold, whether in the face of kaiju, or ... in this case for drinking. as if to prove a point, he does down the rest of his bottle, before he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. ]

Fine, let's go. We can even make a bet. [ though, is it unfair to bet against a result he knows can't change no matter what type of alcohol or how much they drink of it? maybe, but that's up to denji, isn't it?

what a wonderful adult... ]

[nutkick]

[ only someone like yuwon can drop a compliment and then ruin the lighthearted exchange by acting pretentious. hmm. he does have a point, though, not that denji will validate him openly. the monsters are dangerous, true, and the half-devil certainly does not act like he can one-shot them with his outstanding skills, but they are an easy target in the sense they don't play mind games. the enemy is clear. denji functions better in black and white instead of having someone scheme and plot against him with slow, sinister tricks.

so, yeah. they are 'easy'. ]

Fine. I bet you can't gulp down three shots back to back.

[ why did he jump from one to three? well, denji is starting to believe that alcohol might not influence this hulk. he does, however, indulge yuwon as they leave the place and step outside. there should be a couple of bars down the road. ]

Don't ask for something too crazy ... or weird.

[yuwon]

[ three of those...???


while most might find the prospect daunting, it's not that.... that ends up bothering yuwon. instead, it's the concept that: ]

That's a lot of fluids. [ ???? hello?? ]

Make it two, and it's a bet. [ is this the adventure of figuring out what bar even has this "drink." ]

Are you sure you know where you're going?

[nutkick]

For someone who volunteered to fight in some dangerous tower, I'm a bit disappointed you're scared of little fire and alcohol. [ he knew all those muscles had no purpose but a false decor to attract a mate. ] Okay, but what's the bet? Aren't you supposed to make it clear? what your intentions are with me?

[ that came off a bit weird, but denji is still speaking facts. the betting game is the wild west; people would often ask for treasures not a lot can afford to lose, and he needs to know what he's getting himself into. yuwon is still someone he does not trust fully and wholeheartedly. so spit it out! as for where they are heading— he shrugged. ]

Nope. I don't drink. You should know better. Drinking is your hobby, right?

[yuwon]

[ intentions are...?

he looks at denji, his eyes squinting slightly as if trying to assess what he means by it? only for him to swiftly conclude that he probably has absolutely nothing in mind. head empty... jk, but it likely is one and the same conclusion. ]

Loser pays for dinner.

[ didn't that seem simple enough? besides, didn't denji say he would invite him to dinner sometime? whether it was true or he was being polite, for once, yuwon wasn't opposed to the company in this case. not that he would openly say so. ]

It isn't a hobby. [ ... ] I don't really have one. Do you? [ but, thankfully, they don't venture long before they hit an actual established bar. it doesn't necessarily look high-end, but it does seem like they would have a mixologist or two. ]