[plot] Invasion: Day 1

[theearth]

Who: EVERYONE + Returnees
What: Day 1 of the Invasion!
Where: EVERYWHERE
When: ICLy: The 29th! OOCly: April 29th to May 4th
Warnings: Please warn in your subject line if anything that deserves a warning occurs; this includes R-rated things as well as things worthy of a content warning/trigger warning.

The Central info post



Description: A minute after midnight EST, some people around the world who used to be numbered yet have lost their echoes since suddenly have all their pulses returned to them.

At 4pm EST, a child's laughing voice resounds in the air all around the world, remaining for over a minute and staying longer where it gets caught in the echo between buildings, mountains, or other echoing surfaces. Not long after, people in areas where the moon is visible (like those in Europe) will see pink lights on the moon, like a pink aurora borealis from above going all the way around the moon, and then the whole moon changes shape. Literally. It unfolds into a giant serpent that soon can be seen from everywhere around the world as it moves to wrap around the world, tossing and turning head and tail as if trying to hit and bite nasty flies. ...And if someone gets out a telescope, they'll realize that the serpent is doing exactly that: There are tiny spaceships attacking it and trying to pass by it, but for now it is holding up. ....You might maybe rather get to safety than get your telescope out though, because the serpent sometimes smashes down into the earth in its tossing and turning, and while it doesn't hit inhabited areas that still causes tsunamis and earthquakes. Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and Erich von Däniken will announce that it's totally aliens!!! SEE THEY CALLED IT. Ancient astronauts that gave the earth culture are coming back to us!

What this day is for: This day is mostly for reconnecting with returnees and dealing with the last wave of plot echoes. It is also for catastrophe relief efforts for areas that are hit by tsunamis or earthquakes. The only echo boundary that will be devastated in this way are the Galapagos Islands. Characters that can fly or have special swimming abilities are especially invited to help with rescuing people and delivering first aid. (Icly, the talks with the first wave aliens also happen here and they will be wrapped up or dropped after the 4th of May. You are still welcome to jump in and talk to an alien!)

How this works:

- Day 1 does not have any alien encounters past those in this log.
- There will be no toplevels on this post. Please start your own threads freely! Please format the subject line like this: "Location(s)/Network | ota/closed/etc". Please keep in mind that each character may change location twice per day (=a maximum of three different locations) and that the moon/space location is still off limits on the 1st Day.
- This post can be used for both network and action threads.
- Keep in mind that returnee characters must have checked in and must request their echoes if they get any.
- Please direct all questions to this thread on the General Invasion Guide
- For the returnee registration, please go here.

Comments

[espigeonage]

[Julien lands some ways away so the backdraft of his wings doesn't cause trouble, and moves in on foot. He's muddy and spiky-feathered with seawater, not entirely white anymore. He's tired, more tired than he's ever got in this body before, but it still has reserves left.

...somehow, he's harder to notice looking like this, in these conditions. Someone's just got a wet fluffy towel over there oh wait.]

Like old times? I can't do some things as well anymore, but I can try.

[elfstoned]

We'll see what you do better. Wash your hands over there, then you can start to --

[The instructions are mostly what Julien's used to, but Aaron will ask him to do things that require dexterity, things that are easiest with multiple manipulation points -- the weird spider wings will prove useful more than once.

They'll keep at this, stabilizing the moderately injured, until the sun is low in the sky and the supplies are nearly gone and there is little left for them to do that cannot be done by others. Aaron cuts the last thread, drops the last needle in the sharps box, and peels his bloodied gloves off with a tired sigh.]

[espigeonage]

[He can... sort of rinse off some wing feathers. Can't wear gloves, so Julien has to wash repeatedly knowing that's not enough to make them sterile. But you can't find someone who threads a needle faster, he can see through skin enough to track blood vessels and count the pulse, and him suturing something has to be seen to be believed. This isn't the time to hide how creepy his sight and fine manipulation skills are.

When they're done he lets water run over an outstretched wing - the water's working fine at least - and then shoves his head under the tap.]

[elfstoned]

[He uses Julien for pulses, for finding the broken vessels if there is internal bleeding, and the sutures get a nod and a Good.

Thank god for small mercies, like the water. Aaron climbs to his feet, his shoulders low, visibly tired.]

That's enough. Unless another wave hits, god forbid, that's all we can do for now.

Time to see to ourselves.

[He's going to wash his own hands and his own face and nod for Julien to follow him out of the makeshift-hospital room, walking through the rows and rows of injured, some conscious, some not.]

[espigeonage]

It will. That thing keeps hitting the ground. You can't hear it?

[Julien's low-frequency hearing makes him aware of many of the impacts. The world resonates. The air booms and cracks, the thrumming of tides and shorelines is shaken and shifting. He'd seen its tail dip into the atmosphere, heating with entry, to break a tiny-seeming ship, though it had impossibly whipped back up.

Following Julien shudders, makes himself focus on what he'd wanted to say.]

But people know what it means when the water pulls back and stay clear. God help anyone at sea.

[elfstoned]

I can't. Maybe I could, if I tried, but...

[He glances down at the floor of the hallway they walk into.]

...even if I guessed where the impact was, I couldn't predict where the waves would hit. The warning would come too late.

[There's a moment of quiet, a moment of walking.]

You're right. This is the beginning, not the end. This will get worse before it gets better -- if it gets better at all.

[espigeonage]

It's been long enough. People have to know by now to get far from the water's edge... easier when it's not an island, I know.

[he walks now with his body held horizontally and low, his neck pulled in tight, the kind of pigeon posture Julien normally strives to avoid. God, he's tired, and he knows he should eat.]

Can you see... you probably can't.

There are these dots up there. The moon isn't attacking us. When it hits the ground it's never a populated area, and sometimes it just swats through the atmosphere. It's going after these specks. But they just keep coming.

[elfstoned]

[Those specks -- if they're visible at this distance, they must be enormous.

Is the moon -- the snake -- Jormungandr -- protecting them? It is a strange thought, a foreign one, utterly at odds with how Aaron has thought of the great animals until now. He has feared them since learning about them, but is it that they are meant to be protectors against something worse?

If that is so, what happens when that something breaks through?

His mind keeps returning to the word invasion.

Decisively:]

...you and I are going to eat and rest, and if the situation hasn't changed, we'll return to work. If it has...well, we'll deal with that when we come to it.

[They enter another room, where food from around the island has been collected and stockpiled and is being distributed. It won't be hard to request enough to eat: it'll be plain, meant to give nutrients and keep the population healthy. It's all organized into grains, fruits, meats, beans, dairy -- a meal will be given to them.]

[espigeonage]

Right.

[His eyes are very good, but he suspects he's only seen a tiny percentage of all there are. The specks he's seen have been right at the edge of his processing power, and he's only seen them at all in the last few hours before coming here.

...okay he supposes he is hungry after all. Julien carries grain-heavy energy bars around, some made with his own recipe, so he can eat normal portions instead of great heaps in front of people, carries them and leaves a stock in all the places he tends to stay. But he's going to need those, isn't he? Concentrated high-energy food he can swallow in an instant is going to be valuable.

Aaron probably finds him arguing dully with a worker, trying to get a larger portion.]

...I know. Sorry. It's just I have a higher metabolism. Flying and swimming takes a lot of energy, too. I'm not... I know.

[elfstoned]

[Aaron comes up to him, sees what's going on, and will ask the volunteer quietly to spare another meal.]

He brought many to safety today, and he will be needed again. Better to have him fed and capable.

Please.

[The woman looks from one of them to the other, then sighs and marks down a second tick on her sheet. She'll hand Julien a second ration.]

[espigeonage]

[It's not really enough for if he keeps up this kind of activity, he thinks, but he already feels greedy. He'll manage. Maybe he'll find something opportunistically later. There's chaos enough, and he's fast enough.]

Thank you.

[Julien is awkward with a tray. He has to rear up, much taller, and walk quite slowly, his tail sometimes brushing the ground. His feathers are dirtier and less maintained than they've yet been.]

[elfstoned]

[There's a quiet room, a small one, off to the side. It looks like it was some kind of conference room; there's chairs stacked up in corners and a long table pushed up against a back wall. It's not being used for supplies, so it won't get much traffic. It'll do as a place to breathe.

Aaron will be quiet for the first few minutes, getting the food down -- when had he eaten? This morning? How many hours ago had been morning? -- and getting lost in his own thoughts. He thinks about the moon-snake, the dots Julien saw, the waves, the other animals, the people out there, the bandages and thread and penicillin stretched thin between here and the only hospital.

Eventually, though, he'll come back to the present, enough to say,]

You did well today. I'm impressed -- you've come a long way.

[espigeonage]

[Today Julien doesn't bother trying to be civilized. As soon as he's set his food down he's at it with his beak. An apple and an unpeeled orange are swallowed whole, his jaws flexing like a snake's to fit them through. Loose items like corn and peas he got in a cup and slugs back. He uses his beak to cut and ball up bread until he can swallow it, making no attempt to chew anything. By the time Aaron speaks there's nothing but a trace of liquid anywhere, and he's started trying to preen. The salt taste is disgusting, he needs a bath, and worrying that his briny feathers will be hard to fly with preoccupies him.]

Huh? -right. Yeah.

[elfstoned]

What's on your mind, Julien?

[The way he says it makes the meaning clear: what, specifically, out of all the terrible things there are to worry about, is weighing on you most?]

[espigeonage]

[Julien's feathers pull in closer to his body.]

...I'm filthy. If I'm flying that's going to slow me down and make me clumsier. Louder too.

[He wing-flips, unfolding just enough to fold them again.]

I have to spend too much time washing this body and straightening out its feathers so it works well. But if I'm in the ocean again right away that's not going to matter.

[It's also not comfortable. His skin is thin and sensitive, salt trapped against it sticks things together and irritates it. And Julien feels like he's forgetting something, but it won't come.]

[elfstoned]

For now, let's operate on the assumption that it will. For all we know, a bigger wave might bring this building crashing down on us at any time, killing everyone we spent today tending to. We can't stop doing things because they may not matter.

[He climbs to his feet.]

Shall we find a way to get you clean?

[espigeonage]

I know, I know. I'm just not sure it's worth it being fastidious.

[Julien has always been more concerned about his appearance and grooming than Aaron, even if he similarly suspends that concern when things get messy. Un-suspending it when all this is going on makes him feel guilty.

He'd sunk into a sitting position. Standing is just a matter of pushing his feet down.]

Well... I suppose the water's still on.

[elfstoned]

It is on, it is not running short, and everything else important has been taken care of.

Come on.

[And they'll find either a good sized janitor's closet or a hose connected to the outside of the building or some kind of fountain, anything with running water and more room than a sink. Aaron's been running around the building all day; he probably remembers where something is.]

[espigeonage]

All right.

[A janitor closet with a drainage grate in the floor and hoses connected to the sink is a reasonable bet. Julien takes off his clothes without hesitating - they're more a sop to the idea that he should have clothes than anything else, things tied around his neck and waist and each foot. Then he can start wetting himself down, transferring the longest hose from the remaining fingers on either wing to feathers to a foot freely as he twists here and there, opening a wing as much as he can in the limited space to get it and under it, beaking at his feathers. The water runs cloudy for a while. He has a tremendous amount of surface area for seawater and things in it to stick to. Small feathers pull free and float away fairly regularly, which is unusual.]

I'm going to start the molt soon. Oh, boy.

[elfstoned]

Is the timing always this convenient?

[Referring to the molting. He leans against one of the walls, folding his arms across his chest.]

If there's anything I can do to help, ask.

[espigeonage]

Last time it caused a hiccup in my budding modeling career, so yes.

[When Julien is molting he has to eat considerably more, his feathers don't function as well so flying and dexterity suffer, the new feathers growing in are fragile and bleed freely if damaged, and he's very often itchy and irritable. He's going to be a liability if this crisis is still going on when it really kicks in.

This will have to do. Julien's been in and out of the water enough that his preen oil's worn off, and now wet feathers plaster and spike to his skin, making the droop of his wings and tail seem more pronounced. He shuts the water off, dripping, and now there's a smell like wet dog, but sharper and sweeter.]

I'm going to go outside and shake off. [Weary, breezy] Never get feathers, Aaron, they're the biggest hassle.

[elfstoned]

I'll keep it in mind.

[He steps out of the way to let Julien past.]

I'll be where we ate.

[espigeonage]

Okay. Please bring my clothes.

[Julien will show up still damp, because feathers are a massive pain to dry. He's thinned down with more than just moisture, and even though he's drooping he paces and fidgets, not even able to settle to preen.]

The ships are getting closer. Still being smashed out of the sky while they're far away, but... I don't know, the moon's getting tired or overrun or something. It's been flailing most of the day.

[elfstoned]

[He's got Julien's clothes laid out by the table and is seated against one of the walls himself, resting his wrists on his bent knees in front of him.

He sees that Julien can't relax, that the ships are troubling him. Of course they are; it's troubling fact.]

And if they come through, what then? What is the worst thing that could happen if they get past the moon?

[This isn't a trivial what's the worst that could happen? This is a thought exercise, a mental preparation for a worst-case scenario to counteract the fear of the unknown.]

[espigeonage]

Invasion. There's got to be thousands of them, or more. And the aliens we know have weird powers, like Badri can kill with his mind, so even if they don't go for nuking us from orbit, there will be shock troops. With superpowers.

[He yanks his beak through a few feathers, squeezing some water out of them, then starts walking back and forth almost violently, his eyes flashing under closed inner lids.]

Maybe robots too, I don't... we've gone this far, we might as well go full ridiculous science fiction. They'll come in, and try and kill us all, and I don't know, there'll be a Lo! the Bird! scenario. Why not, if the moon's alive.

That's this old story where this giant space bird flies through the solar system and starts making the planets hatch, and I know that sounds stupid but it was written so by the time it gets there it's - horrifying.

[Despite the size and brightness of his eyes it's possible to miss him tearing up, with how liquid collects in the round curve of his lower lids.]