❪ mini-event ❫ OLYMPIA QUESTS: 1

[natha]

It isn’t easy starting life in a new place. It quickly becomes apparent that you are in dire need of two very important things: money and a good name. In addition to full-time jobs, certain people in Olympia will reward handsomely for helping them with tasks. Submit any AC eligible thread of participating in this log's prompts for One (1) Olympia REP point HERE. Threads involving your flora/fauna submission may also be submitted, even if your submission is not made official game canon. FOR THE RECORD     It’s time to put on your hiking shoes. Characters will be approached by both Evras and Lysa at separate times. Both individuals are interested in recording species of plants and animals-- El Nysa is bursting with all sorts of life, after all! It is impossible to chronicle all of it without help. You will be provided with a journal to chronicle your findings. Each submission pays 100 silver. OOC: We need YOUR help in worldbuilding the area in and around Olympia and The Outlook! Create a creature or plant and submit it HERE by August 31st at 11:59 PM EST. ONE entry per character only. NOTE: If you have accepted a job at The Sanctuary or Simwe Institute, you MUST submit your entry to your boss to maintain your position. You may assume a character got the job if they established contact, even if an official offer hasn't been extended yet. Although an entry will net you TWO (2) Olympia REP points no matter what, we will be choosing a maximum of 20 entries to include in the official bestiary for future encounters. THE BIRDS AND THE BEES     Along with the request to record traits of a certain specimen, Evras and Lysa independently ask for more quick favors. Certain species, due to their unique natures, aren’t as prone to procreating as one would hope. They need your help. The directions for these requests, provided by Evras or Lysa, are simple. You will be provided a small amount of heavy aphrodisiacs (and a mask) to spray in a particular region. Because the natural aphrodisiacs of the island run a bit thin there, the wildlife has been less... willing to comply. Each species you help will net you 50 silver. Three species in particular are in need of a little help. Note: There will be a mask provided. Forgetting it may mean you start to feel some of the effects yourself. You may also be immune. Please put appropriate warnings in threads if applicable. Xlarix, also commonly referred to as the love bug. Found in MURKWELL HOLLOW. They have an ability to release literal positive energy, making those exposed to it more willing to be friendly and jovial with another. Even the most heated rivals can easily become the closest companions. You may even be tempted to temporarily abandon the request and do something fun with your new best friend. Unfortunately, while many have desired to use its effects in diplomacy, its effects only last a few minutes at best. Despite their powers to assist others in bridging emotional gaps, they are vicious insects. During mating, they engage in battle, normally losing the lives of both parties before their spawn is even properly produced. This is why they need a little help. Try to break up the fights as much as you can. For the Xlarix, being in each other's presence for long enough will eventually get them to calm down and continue the process. You may get unlucky in the process and end up with an extremely painful sting that requires healing, however. The pain increases with time, and if you allow it to go untreated for more than a day, it will be excruciating, enough that it may be debilitating, for 12 hours before eventually healing on its own. Sepht, found in EDRATHE RUINS: Both shy and antisocial, it’s no wonder these little marsupials don’t have much luck in the mating department. They prefer to live in isolation, and are much more concerned with hoarding everything they can get their hands on. This includes stealing anything you may have brought with you. As a warning, they are incredibly strong. They can also fly, so good luck catching them after they’ve made off with your stuff. Let’s hope you can get back that magical sword or enchanted necklace of yours. Once you have sprayed the chemical in their habitat, do not stick around the area. Despite being more suggestible to mate now, they are shy to the core, and will not come out of hiding until they are sure the coast is clear. Cinjaw, found JUST OUTSIDE OLYMPIA. Domestic animals kept by local farmers in the outskirts of Olympia. These guys are just really, really lazy. Too lazy to care about things like passing on their genes. Honestly, if it weren’t for the efforts of humans and the fact that their meat is too delicious for the Olympians to allow these creatures to go extinct, they would have been wiped out years ago. Stay too long near the herd, and you will begin to feel extremely lethargic yourself. Nothing sounds better than using the person next to you as a pillow for your nap, or dropping everything you’re doing to go sleep in that hay. Hopefully someone finds you and is kind enough to wake you up. After spraying the aphrodisiac, you won’t want to stick around. They are loud: loud enough to damage hearing without proper ear protection (Now you know why those farmers walk around with ear plugs). HELP A NEIGHBOR     Being new is tough in any given neighborhood. This is especially the case when you’re a newly arrived refugee. Though you’ve been welcomed here, you haven’t established a lot of trust in the community. Your neighbors don’t know a single thing about you, and that name tag fiasco doesn’t count. Fortunately for all of you, the rule of this game is simple. There is no monetary payment, but isn't it priceless to feel good about being a good samaritan? Make yourself helpful. Did you neighbor mention wanting to take their pet chicken out on a walk? Offer to do it for them and they may pay you back in a meal or a small gift. Did one of them mention needing help with rearranging their collection of thousands of cat figurines? Well, who better than to ask but you! You over there, why not help your fellow refugee by doing this task together? It never hurt to do some teamwork. Or maybe your roommate is the one taking that chicken out on a walk, and you’re just ready to judge. Complete judgment. But hey, that’s fair. BLOOD BANK     CW: Needles, Blood One of the things that quickly becomes apparent about life in Olympia is that all citizens are welcome, including those who may possess unique dietary requirements. The Blood Bank is an institution that has stood proudly for many years, and in addition to providing meals for some of its citizens, the supply is invaluable for care in The Sanctuary, research in Simwe Institute, and for use in certain types of magic. They're offering you a special today, for your blood in particular! You just look so... healthy and able-bodied. Donate a few pints, and you'll earn an easy 200 silver. Unfortunately, the center is so busy today that they've had to call on volunteers, and depending on who you've met so far, your particular volunteer may look familiar. It's... another refugee. Wait, are they even qualified?! How did they even get roped into this?! Qualified or not, the job pays well for both the refugees donating, and the ones drawing the blood (much more for whoever's donating, though. Fair is fair.). A blood drawing set inclusive of clean needles, antiseptic swabs and a blood storage kit, will be provided. Sticking a needle into a vein isn't as easy as those people in the Sanctuary make it seem, though. You may not always get it the first time, so try, try again! And if you still can't hit the bulls-eye? A rogue-looking Olympian "volunteer" approaches and hands you a knife. Apparently, cutting right into the vein and collecting the blood in a saucer also works; the staff would only need to sterilize the blood with a spell afterward. And about the gaping wound you'd cause? They always have healing potions on hand for when things go wrong (but just like the potions from before, they have been known to cause some nausea). You'll do anything to help your fellow Olympian, right? OOC     There are a total of 3 OLYMPIA REP POINTS possible to earn in this log. 2 from OOCly submitting a flora/fauna above in For the Record, and 1 for submitting any AC-length thread for any of these prompts. You may do one or the other, or both. Submit a flora/fauna HERE and submit an AC-eligible thread HERE by AUGUST 31st 11:59 PM EST. The results of The Birds and the Bees will be submitted to whoever you submit a flora/fauna entry to. If you do not submit a flora/fauna entry, submission to either one may be handwaved. In the event of CAPTCHA, we will be providing an overflow. In the event of a second CAPTCHA, players are advised to move threads to an overflow post on their character journals. These threads remain eligible for AC, AC Rewards, and REP. 1 SILVER = 1 US DOLLAR. QUICK NAV premise ● faq ● world ● map ● reputation ● npcs taken ● reserves ● application calendar ● hiatus/drops ● modbox [ FULL NAVIGATION ] elnysa nysalogs nysaisles nysaooc elnyan

Comments

I.

[tummyflowers]

[That place where Merlin was going to walk into? Richard is there, coming right out of a door, wearing his official guard uniform and trying to look all official like. If you pause the frame right there and advance a single second, you can see the moment when he realizes what's about to happen. One second later, it's very likely Merlin will realize the same.]

[politrick]

[First of all of course Richard is there. It would be him. Merlin doesn't notice, of course, until that perfectly timed freeze frame, that anyone is there at all, resulting in a kind of weird acrobatic twist as he exclaims a noise of surprise and tries to swerve at the very last second. He might clip Richard's arm with the corner of his big crate, anyway. More than a few parcels are jostled, bottles clink together that shouldn't, it's a whole ordeal.

Also none of it, that's right, none of this at all is Merlin's fault. The only reason he doesn't charge on immediately is he needs a moment to make sure he didn't just twist his own spine out of alignment there.]

Would it kill you to pay attention? [this DUDE]

[tummyflowers]

[Richard watches with that horrified expectation of everything collapsing, wide catastrophes unfolding, and all number of horrors unfolding from a horrific crash. This somehow doesn't happen and Richard isn't entirely up to speed when suddenly instead of destruction, he's getting accusations.]

Me!? You mind your tongue boy or I'll have you on a charge of... excessive baggage!

[politrick]

[Look, he said coming through! He did! Those words genuinely passed through his lips, which means that once again, Richard did this and Merlin is innocent. He balks at the sudden threat of charging him with something - Richard isn't a king of any questionable quality here, that was established, so what on earth - and then he actually takes in the whole uniform bit.

The look on his face goes from almost concerned to sick and tired of this almost immediately. God. No.]

How did you convince anyone you've the good judgment to charge anybody with anything?

[tummyflowers]

[He may technically be in charge of the armory and not actually assigned any patrol as such, but that doesn't stop him from going out and wearing said guard uniform in order to project a certain air of authority. He isn't aware if there's any rules granting him the ability to charge anyone with anything, but that's neither here nor there. Merlin has been too much of a nuisance at this point to worry about details like that.]

I'll be asking the questions here, young man! [A pause as Richard thinks.] Okay, I don't have one ready. [A beat.] And I didn't have to convince anyone. It was just obvious. [... and they were desperate.]

[politrick]

[Projecting an air of authority isn't working on Merlin, but then, Merlin could probably meet the Empress and still give her an attitude. That said, he hasn't been a nuisance to anybody important as of yet.]

Stop calling me "young man" and "boy" when you know my name. [God... this is going great. He gives Richard a look up and down, critical, assessing him as still not qualified for this job.] Are you sure?

[tummyflowers]

That I know your name? I mean, I think I do. It was something Arthurian, I think. Percival, perhaps?

[This is why you can only have one conversation at a time with Richard. He doesn't multitask well.]

[politrick]

[Okay first of all, this is only proving him right about Richard being poorly qualified to do anything. Second, what the hell.]

Percival is a knight. I'm Merlin. Remember, you don't believe I know who I am?

[tummyflowers]

Oh God, are you still on about that? [Richard exhales loudly.] Honestly, if you want to be Merlin, be Merlin! I'm sure there's lots of stories to be told about the famous wizard Merlin, trucking around absurdly large amounts of luggage and tripping over people while being a general nuisance to the public at large. They'll make a rhyme of it, no doubt.

[politrick]

I am Merlin! It has nothing to do with wanting it or not!

[Anyway, he can't contest the rest of that because that's a decent summary of his life so far, SO... back to the real point.] I don't think you're going to be good at this job.

[tummyflowers]

Please, I'm already doing a lot better than you are at... whatever all this is.

[Because if this is the Merlin moving company, then it's already a joke supreme.]

[politrick]

I'm doing favors. Obviously.

[Obviously, he says, as his not-actually-his cloak slips and he has to shrug a bunch of times to keep it from falling to the ground.] And I'm almost done.

[tummyflowers]

Oh, favors, of course. Pay well, does it?

[This is kind of great. Richard rarely finds anyone who is even worse at doing things than he is. It's nice to be amused at someone else's incompetence.]

[politrick]

That's the exact opposite of what a favor is.

[Is it better or worse that he's doing this for no money? How does Merlin survive?]

[tummyflowers]

Well I would hope it pays. You're going to need a permit for that, you know.

[He doesn't. But Richard is still pretty annoyed at being criticized and bribery is just basic guard etiquette.]

[politrick]

For carrying a few boxes? I don't think so.

[He's not falling for this, Richard... try harder.]

[tummyflowers]

[Damn... he was so sure that was going to work. But then, what's more convincing than needing a permit... in song form?]

Oh, but I'm afraid so. For you see...

♫ A half dozen bags, an old wooden box
this cloak, that junk, and some nasty old socks
clearly exceeds the weight of sixty five pounds
which exceeds the moving weight in this old town.

Because in ordinance number two-eight-three-nine-three
you need to carry much less to do it for free
unless you have a cart from the cart-carrying guild.
I'm sorry but that's just the power they wield. ♫

[politrick]

[Merlin has already started to sidestep around Richard to get the hell out of here. There he goes. Stepping. To the side.]

That's very nice. I'm going to go now.

[tummyflowers]

[Well, okay, that didn't really work. And people get so skittish when he sings. So weird.]

Okay, okay! I made that up! Just, look, stop will you? I'll help you with that before you fall and murder someone and I do have to arrest you.

[politrick]

[He just doesn't need that in his life, okay? He's past that stuff.]

No one's ever been murdered from falling packages. [Letting Richard help... isn't what he wants to do, but... he sighs, nodding to his pile o' junk.] Alright, come on.

[tummyflowers]

Well, let's not start, hm?

[Richard in his infinite generosity, proceeds to pick off a single bag to carry which he slings along his shoulder.]

Now then, where to?

[politrick]

[God...........damn. Merlin looks from Richard to the single parcel and back, but you know what? You know what, today? He doesn't even care. That's one less thing, which is enough.]

Across town. There's an old woman with, I'm told, "too many terriers" who needs some of this for her dogs.

[He'll have to remember which piece of the pile that is when they get there, uh. Yes.]

[tummyflowers]

[Richard is, naturally, oblivious to how unhelpful he is actually being. This is his way.]

Ahh, time to rid her of her pest problem, hm? A big grisly, but I suppose I don't carry this sword for nothing.

[politrick]

[Richard is oblivious to so many things, it seems....]

What? No. No, you're not going to kill this woman's pets. Stay here if you're going to play scary knight with a sword.

[tummyflowers]

Well, I'm sorry but you're not very easy to understand sometimes! First you say too many terriers, now she apparently has the right amount. Please make up your mind!

[At least Richard knows how to be clear about things! Perk of being a king. You quickly learn that your words mean things when people follow them to the letter and people end up dead.]