TRAVEL LOG #3

[synfluxmods]

TRAVEL LOG #3

CONTENT WARNINGS: cult-like symbols and implications, abduction.

▶ 001. TARGU MURES AIRPORT.

In the early morning of the 1st, Outsiders will receive a message in their oculars.

"Oh, seriously? You’re putting this on my plate now when I have so much to do? Tch … Outsiders currently caring for Imugi eggs, bring them to the medical bay. I’ll take over for now. Captain Yamakawa needs everyone to report to the hangar right away. There’s been a distress call from a distant land and we’re noticing some strange readings. We need you to go investigate this.

…Put some catnip on my plate, Alex. It’ll be a long night."

True enough, a SPECIAL ALERT will blare through the implants shortly after, asking those who would be willing to help with a distress call to head to the hangar. The reward will be an additional bonus pay, as this seems to be different from detecting a kaiju. There, they will see a familiar sight: the LILITH SKY CRUISER, a spacecraft capable of carrying 80 passengers. There is little time for seat assignments, so seating will be on a first come, first serve basis (hopefully you don’t get the middle seat!) and the flight will last about 10 hours. Just like any aircraft, Outsiders may stand up and walk around once the seatbelt signs turn off. There is inflight entertainment consisting of AI movies or virtual reality games (see TRAVEL LOG #2). Characters with inhuman features are required to wear their cloaking devices.

The plane will touch down at Targu Mures Airport, Transylvania, Romania, which appears to be abandoned and desolate. There isn’t a living soul to be found.

"Most of the country was destroyed decades ago, so there shouldn’t be anyone still living here. Yet, these readings ….. And we can’t ignore that call for help. We’ll need to investigate further. My Angels, go the rest of the way on foot..."

There isn’t a data portal in Romania, and there’s just no way to transport the number of cars needed for over 60 people via plane. Let’s hope you managed to get proper rest on the way here, because the hike will take about 5-6 hours through the dense forest, with the Captain feeding directions through the ocular based on where the kaiju readings are most pronounced.

All teams will be traveling together along a treacherous terrain which will include both harmful flora & fauna. Outsiders can expect to come across brown bears, wolves, European lynx, golden jackal & wild boars. Although the forest is dense, these animals are scarce to come by, but they can appear, especially when the hike takes place at dusk and into the night.

In this time of the year, hay fever is a common occurrence in these forests. Those sensitive to pollen may be sneezing and feeling fatigue through this hike. There will be steep hills, slippery ground and eerie sounds of the night to serenade the Outsiders. It doesn't help that the further they travel, the thicker a dark fog gathers around them, making the surroundings difficult to make out. Everyone will be provided with flashlights, but those with abilities to see in the dark or cast their own light will be encouraged to lead small groups. Everyone is going in the same general direction, but giving each other some space might be helpful. There will be no time to rest, no matter how tired Outsiders may be.

Just when it feels like they might need to trek through the forest forever—is that smoke coming from a fire up ahead?

▶ 002. BRAȘOV, TRANSYLVANIA.

Wander further through the bushes, and behold, it does appear to be smoke—but not from any natural fire. It’s coming from a chimney! The Outsiders will stumble upon the historic region of Brașov, known for its Gothic architecture and medieval towns. Romania has been classified as a desolate region for a very long time, and as far as LILITH is concerned, this city should be completely destroyed and abandoned. Yet, there is smoke coming from the chimneys, fresh laundry hanging on lines and the faint chatter of children playing. There are very clearly people living here, and this has LILITH completely dumbfounded.

"So it’s true … The resilience of humanity cannot be understated. I’ll need to report this to the Commander right away. My Angels, embark on the town. We need to find the source of this distress call and investigate these kaiju readings. I know we’ve had setbacks recently, but I’ve always had my faith in you."

One thing Outsiders will notice when they step into the town is how it appears to be lost in time. The date is still 2278 as far as anyone knows, but there’s no sign of any modern technology—no computers, telephones, or any sign of electricity or plumbing. Each and every house looks like it could have been plucked right out of the 1700s, and there even appear to be horse-drawn carriages parked along the pavements.

The townspeople themselves also look plucked out of time, with the women donning petticoats and aprons, and the men sporting waistcoats and riding boots. They welcome the Outsiders with warmth, delight, and over-the-top hospitality; more than happy to show the visitors around Brasov on their carriages. With how rarely they meet anyone from outside the village, the children are full of curiosity, following the Outsiders around and poking at their technology while bombarding them with questions, such as where did you come from? Do you know how to play any games? What do you like to eat?

Outsiders will be presented with food, clean clothing, and a room to stay at the village inns (2-3 people per room). They are free to roam and explore the village, where they will find taverns, fresh food markets, shops, inns, and a church dedicated to the village god.

One notable aspect of the town is the fact that they appear to have fresh, non-lab grown food. The vegetables taste fresher and are vibrant in color. The meat tastes much richer than it would back in Neo Tokyo. This is owed to the fact that the people of Brasov actually tend to their own farmlands, a lost practice in these times. Venture a little out of the city and you’ll find it: acres of farmland, growing wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, grapes and sunflowers. They even have livestock!

The people of Brasov are more than happy to answer questions about their town and way of living. Outsiders who go around gathering information from the villagers will learn the following:

• Why is the land so fertile? This is all owed to their benevolent village god, the Lord of the Forest. No one goes hungry because their god takes care of them. Observant Outsiders will see a common symbol plastered around town: a canine skull.
• There was a distress call. Is everyone okay? The townspeople would respond in confusion and assure the Outsiders that nothing is out of the ordinary. They have been living peacefully for centuries and it’s because their god protects them. They don’t seem to know anything about what’s going on outside their town and the word ‘kaiju’ is lost on them.
• Who is the Lord of the Forest? The townspeople will sing his praises, telling the Outsiders about how he has been providing for and protecting their town for many years.
• Where is the Lord of the Forest? He lives in the forest and mountains that surround the village. Sure enough, if the Outsiders look around, they will see they are completely surrounded by foggy forest and mountains as far as the eye can see.
• Can they go into the forest? The villagers will look worried. While the Lord of the Forest keeps them safe, the forest is still filled with dangerous creatures. Also, the thick fog and trees makes it easy to get lost. Only the most skilled hunters venture out to catch prey like deer and bears. Characters who venture into the woods will get turned around and lost but will eventually find their way back to the village, to which others will reply it is the lord's guidance that brought them back to safety.

Outsiders can do as they please. The villagers are very friendly and will try to accommodate them however possible. There seems to be very little crime in the town and the people look happy. LILITH has been quiet for some time now. Maybe this is a great opportunity to have a well-deserved break? How can you not when the people are so kind and the food looks and tastes so delicious? In fact, the longer that Outsiders stay here, the more some of them may begin to feel like they belong here.

▶ 003. BONFIRE FEAST.

On the night of the 7th, the villagers will knock on doors inviting everyone to a bonfire party! It’s just about time to harvest their crops so food is abundant. They can’t think of any better way to use it than to prepare a feast. The bonfire will be held in the council square. Tables and benches have been set up and an impressive spread of fresh food is laid out for everyone to enjoy. Outsiders can enjoy bread, cheese, fresh pork, stew, roasted chicken, seasonal vegetables and free flowing alcohol. There are live musicians on the scene as well, playing merry tunes on their instruments. Some of the villagers have even started dancing around the bonfire and they’re pulling people in to join them! At the center of the table, a canine skull is placed, and the villagers give thanks to their god before partaking in the food.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary … Full and content, everyone will feel tired and want to retire for the night. Characters that do not need to sleep will also feel tired.

Night passes, and daybreak comes. Outsiders might notice that their numbers have dwindled; certain people have gone missing and are nowhere to be found. There won’t be a trace of the captured Outsiders aside from their belongings that they may have left behind.

The villagers do not seem bothered and everything seems normal in the village. Asking the villagers about these disappearances will result in no answers—they claim to have no clue as to the missing Outsiders' whereabouts. It also won’t be possible to contact them, or even LILITH for that matter. It is almost like communications have been cut off completely and their implants receive weak reception.

Observant characters may notice that a heavy fog has descended upon the village overnight and though it gets better during the day, it never lets up.

Captured Outsiders are as followed:

Aventurine
Choso
Dan Heng
Denji
Ereshkigal
Hiyori Iki
Kabru
Kaga
Lucy/Kaede
Maki Zenin
Makima
Malkuth
Loop
Nanami Kento
Rover
Sampo Koski
Taryon Darrington
Wriothesley
Yzak Jule
Zagreus

▶ 004. THE CHOSEN (KIDNAPPEES ONLY).

A separate log for KIDNAPPEES ONLY can be found HERE.

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

Welcome to our third travel log!

There are no assigned seats this time, so characters may sit wherever they choose. Inhuman-looking characters will need to wear their cloaking devices so as to not alarm the people of the town. A separate log has been prepared for kidnappees only. An additional prompt will go up for non-captured characters before the kaiju fight. The scheduling will depend on actions in the captive log. We will announce it on plurk.

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

EVENT BREAKDOWN/RECAP (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. TARGU MURES AIRPORT: There has been a distress signal. Characters caring for eggs must leave their eggs with Dr. Spim and report to the hangar to board their flight. The Outsiders will touch down in Targu Mures Airport, and will need to hike the rest of the way through the forest.

2. BRAȘOV, TRANSYLVANIA: Romania was thought to be a desolate country but one village seems to be thriving. The town of Brasov has historic, medieval architecture and the people seem plucked out of the 1700s. They are friendly, welcoming and curious, having never seen technology like what the Outsiders have. Outsiders are provided free lodgings, fresh clothing, food and water. The villagers raise their own livestock and grow their own food, which is unheard of in these times. They don't know anything about a distress call. All around the village, the symbol of a canine skull can be found. This is the Lord of the Forest, the god of this village whom the villagers worship.

3. BONFIRE FEAST: The villagers invite the Outsiders to a bonfire party where fresh food is abundant. After a night of merrymaking, they find that certain Outsiders have disappeared from their numbers and nobody seems to know what happened to them.

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Comments

[thundercrashes]

[Manjoume has vaguely mentioned the Society before when talking about stuff in his world, but always in a manner that involved an attempt to quickly transition to talking about something else soon after.

As such, it will probably be no surprise that Manjoume does the same here, latching onto something else to comment on when Bakugou doesn't ask any further questions about Manjoume's recollection of the Society for now...]

I can only assume this isn't the first time it's happened--having unexpected visitors, I mean. Either that, or whoever is considered their leader among the villagers has told them not to be rude to us while we're here?

[blastedass]

[It's not something the duelist likes to talk about. Whether out of trauma, shame, or embarrassment. Bakugou hasn't pushed him on it, but this time he might not have a choice. If they're dealing with something similar. He narrows his eyes when Manjoume does the same thing, avoiding the topic completely. Tch. For now, Bakugou lets him get away with it.]

LILITH said this part of the world was uninhabited. These people wouldn't have unexpected visitors. [Unless said unexpected visitors never made it out to tell the rest of the world this pocket civilization was here.]

They haven't been eaten by a kaiju either. [Which raises some serious questions.]

[thundercrashes]

[That does raise some questions... in fact, it does raise a thought that's almost funny, which he chooses to voice quietly just in case any villagers are looking their way from where they're standing by the edge of the woods talking--]

Can you imagine if it turns out the God they're all so hung up on is actually a kaiju or something? Maybe that's why they haven't been getting eaten or otherwise killed out here, as far as we're aware of anyway.

[blastedass]

[Bakugo doesn't give a shit if these people look at them standing in the woods like this. If they're too scared to come into the woods (most of them) yet didn't see a simple problem with a group of strange people emerging from the woods all of a sudden, they're complete morons. Or have a huge double standard.]

Their "god" either is the kaiju or related to it. [He sounds 100% sure about this. Which made trying to convince the damn mayor to evacuate the village or at least get everyone into shelter a complete no sell effort.]

Why the hell would a kaiju nearby NOT have eaten these idiots? There's no electricity to suck up out here.

[Unless the kaiju's a shitty vegetarian and supplements on the village's crops.]

[thundercrashes]

[Honestly, Manjoume suspects the double standard suggestion being the reason for it. Or at least that there's definitely something going on behind their reasoning for how they act about the woods.]

Maybe it's been feeding off of animals in the forest, and that's the reason why the villagers don't go off into the woods themselves that often. Or the villagers are supplying it with their own crops in exchange for keeping the kaiju satisfied enough to not come into the village and cause havoc for them.

[blastedass]

[Bakugo finds the majority of their reactions suspicious as fuck. Like a creepy horror film cult. Whatever's going on behind the scenes of this village is already getting under his skin. Too nice, too accepting, too emphatic.]

Maybe. But they have livestock; a wild animal would go for that rather than hunt out in the woods. Their hunters go into the woods for deer and bear too. [The latter being a pretty crazy choice for hunting.]

Heh, a vegetarian kaiju? That sounds fucking stupid. [Most monsters in kaiju films are carnivorous or sustain themselves on human-made things, like electricity or radiation.]

[thundercrashes]

Then maybe it's livestock that they sacrifice to it? Or hell, you just said they hunt bear, maybe they offer the bears they hunt to the kaiju...

[Either that, or...

... There's a third option that gets offered that isn't crops or animals.]

[blastedass]

Maybe. But none of them mentioned doing that.

[They never said what they had to "do" to get their "god's" favor, which is another suspicion all on its own. The idea of them offering bears as sacrifice is ridiculous, considering the size and power of those things.]

Unless the kaiju's too weak to even take down a bear.

[While that's promising for the Outsiders, it's too good to be true.]

[thundercrashes]

I've fought bears before, if a kaiju can't take one down by comparison then that is admittedly one weak-ass kaiju.

[A pause.]

Either that or it's too lazy to do so and enjoys the villagers doing all the work for them.

[blastedass]

When?

[Yeah, that sounds very skeptical. Unless Manjoume means he fought some Duel Monsters based off bears, but that doesn't count!]

Hmph, maybe. It might take out its anger on the village if we interrupt that.

[thundercrashes]

When I was fourteen. I took a boat and had been trying to leave Duel Academy's island, but ended up sinking it and getting spat out from the ocean farther up in North Academy's territory, where they're surrounded by ice and a lot of wild animals like bears and giant bats and stuff. Had to fend them off until I passed a test for North Academy becoming willing enough to let me inside.

[And by "fend them off" he actually means "ran like hell away from them to avoid getting maimed and eaten", but it's fine, Bakugou doesn't need to know that part, right?

Still, the fact that Manjoume just says this shit casually like as if this is a normal occurence to have happened in his life and not just raising further questions probably says a lot about his life in his world.]

[blastedass]

[Yeah, here's the problem with that. One, Bakugou knows Manjoume enough. He's not the physically strongest and he doesn't like to break a sweat. Granted he could be talking about "fending off" via his Duel Monsters holograms, but...]

Hahaha! [Damn right he's laughing at that story!] You took a boat and fought off bears in the arctic?!

[Sorry, man, that's really hard to believe! He knows Manjoume comes from a pretty crazy world and wouldn't deny cards calling gods who want to consume the world. But trying to envision Manjoume braced in front of a polar bear, fending it off with a stick or a rock? Not to mention- ]

Since when do you know how to captain a boat?

[thundercrashes]

Yes, is that really so hard to believe?

[yeah it is, thunder boy]

And I don't know how to drive a boat. That's why that boat ended up sinking in the first place.

[blastedass]

Yes.

[Right to his face. Bakugou gives him the most "WTF" dragged expression.]

WHY THE HELL DID YOU PUT OUT TO SEA THEN?! YOU WANNA DROWN?!

[thundercrashes]

[At that, Manjoume sighs. Somehow, this is even more embarrassing to talk about than the Society of Light, in retrospective.]

Because I had lost a duel that was going to cause me to get demoted to a lower student rank, and didn't want my brothers finding out about it. So I overreacted by trying to leave school using my own methods instead of just paying for someone else to drive the boat or taking the ferry back to the city.

[He knows now how stupid that was, but at the time he had genuinely been afraid of how bad his social standing was going to be at school if he wasn't an Obelisk Blue anymore, and especially how his brothers would take the news.

He wouldn't go back and change it, though. That whole incident is what led to him becoming Manjoume Thunder in the first place.]

They found out anyway a few months later when I was going to be North Academy's representative for the school's duel against Duel Academy. They were... not particularly happy about it.

[To put it lightly.]

[blastedass]

[The sigh makes him tense. Ugh. Is he about to get a damn tale recounted in detail? But it's Manjoume's birthday, and Bakugou asked, so the duelist escapes from the usual yelling for it.

Good thing he knew more about Manjoume now. Otherwise this story would have earned him some heavy mockery for his pettiness and pride. Then again, Bakugou's had plenty of experience with his own pride getting shattered through embarrassing loses and failures. In a lot of ways, he and Manjoume are similar in those areas. Starting out the top, the best, the brightest, and then life not giving a shit as it brought them toppling in several humbling-yet-strengthening lessons.

That Manjoume left on his own strength to prove it to himself, even if done out of petty self-pity and bitterness, isn't ignored. Stupid. But his intent's admirable. No shit about his brothers either.]

If you got stronger from the experience, then fuck your brothers. It's your life, not theirs. [Yeah, he knows that's not as easily done as said in Manjoume's life, but his opinion's the same.] You were still an idiot for taking a boat by yourself into the sea.

[He's lucky he lived.]

[thundercrashes]

[his birthday was two months ago, manjoume is not allowed to use that excuse for accidental traumadumpibg anymore]

I know that now, obviously. And I don't plan on doing anything that impulsive again in the future, so it's whatever now.

[a pause]

I also haven't fought any bears or other wild animals since then and don't particularly plan on doing that again either.

[blastedass]

[shush, i got my threads mixed up. excuse is legit.]

You didn't fight a bear. [Bakugou's still giving him one of those "seriously?" looks.] You probably ran from it.

[Which is ironically the smartest thing to do in this world. Manjoume's fast. Most wildlife coaches say stand your ground, shout, make yourself look bigger, don't run. But does that work in the arctic?

Who knows. In Bakugo's world, most U.A. students could handle a bear without a problem.]

[thundercrashes]

[Yeah, Manjoume has no trouble believing that Bakugou could fight a bear and win, given the kind of things he's seen the other boy do against kaiju. Still.]

I did fight one, and you have no way of proving that it didn't happen otherwise.

[So there!

... Unless a bear chooses this exact moment to come out of the woods, anyway.]

[blastedass]

Uh-huh. How'd you fight it?

[Go on and give him the details. Manjoume already told him he finished crawling onto shore from a boat crash, so he's pretty bereft of supplies at this point in the story.

Definitely calling him out on the bullshit unless he can back it up.

If a bear chooses to be stupid right now, it'd get a face full of boom.]

[thundercrashes]

[Uh... okay, hang on, he can come up with a plausible explanation.]

Even with all the ice surrounding the school, there was still stuff that I could scrounge up, like, you know, sharp rocks and sticks. Used them to make spears that I could use to scare off the wild animals and climb up any icy cliffs I needed to get on top of.

[He did not in fact do this: in fact he tried to climb up said cliffs with his bare hands because he's a moron.]

[blastedass]

[The fact Manjoume takes a moment to think on it sure isn't suspicious at all.

What he comes up with is fucking ridiculous. Sharp rocks and sticks. How the hell does he say this with a smile on his face? So proud of himself...]

Dueling Academy has wilderness survival classes?

[thundercrashes]

No, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out how to tie a rock to a stick.

[Or at least he's pretty sure it would be super easy to do it, if he had actually done something like that.]

[blastedass]

Enough to stab a bear with?

[That would take a very secure tie to do. He's not doubting Manjoume can figure things out, but... there's a limit for a city boy like him who didn't take survival training.]

[thundercrashes]

Enough to stab it with, or at least scare it off from trying anything further.

[is it really that hard to believe?]