vallo

Inquiring to know if there is a very specific kind of pest control available in this world to handle a massive ant hill that is also spouting equally massive ants. And, no, my coffee isn't spiked. I almost wish it was.

So far they've all been running into the rest of the forest but two tried to climb Darla, scratched it up, and then were deterred by the pride of roaring cats we've got here. Please be careful out there for those working Defense. They look strong.

Hi, everyone. I’m sure you’re all aware of the very recent round of vanishing friends and family again. The DOA has received reports from Vallo PD of a rash of locals disappearing again as well. It looks like we’re dealing with another portal, likely the one I’m sure we’ve all seen hovering over the mountaintops.

I received word from Keith Kogane a few minutes ago that he’d taken the Black Lion up to take a closer look through the portal. He reported seeing nothing more than stars and darkness but received readings of a lack of oxygen as he ventured out farther.

It is the DOA’s belief that, much like last month, the missing are on the other end of this new portal. With that in mind, please reply if you meet the following criteria:

You would like to be a member of the rescue team.

You have a usable spacecraft and are open to transporting teammates through the portal.

We’re going to move on this as quickly and efficiently as we can. Those who reply should report at 4:30 PM with packed bags here: [mountain coordinates].

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[ VALLO PRIME, RESCUERS, & REBELS ]
Got what we were looking and more. No surprises, but we'll do a full debrief after dinner for anyone that wants it.

Magic types, you're going to be needed asap though. Meet you at the command room.

VALLO PRIME, RESCUERS, & FLIPPED REBELS

Full disclosure, I am not a full-time employee with the magic department at the DOA, but so many of us are gone and you are stuck with me, delivering good and bad news. Hello!

The good news is that thanks to the brilliant researchers in both our Vallos looking into where Bronislovas's resting place might be located on the other side of the portal, we're pretty damn sure of where it is, between his notes, so many books, and what info we got from Beketh. The thought is that it's within a cave system in one of the mountains by the city. Here's a map, for your reference:

[pretend there's a cool looking map here with probable mountains highlighted]

Unfortunately that's more or less all we can do on our side for now, so it's up to all of you fine people over there to pick up the trail. If we can do things, we'll do it, just let us know.

And now the bad news: the portal is causing some oddities. The portal monsters from a few months ago are back, seemingly being created by or summoned by the portal itself. If you have fighting skills of some sort but aren't already involved with defense, please reach out to Evie and Kara and they'll get you sorted as needed.

The other odd thing is that the area around the portal seems to be, for lack of a better way of putting it, turning into what we can only assume the other side of the portal looks like. Buildings are suddenly in disrepair and there's a lot of graffiti talking about your Revenants and how disliked they are, missing people posters, that kind of stuff. This started yesterday and the area affected has only grown today, so it would appear we're on even more of a timetable than we thought.

All right, that is all I have for the moment, so...go team?

[Not Hank Henry]

I've been here for a few days now, and I think I've finally figured out how all this works, and I can see where I went wrong. See, I was looking for a badass chick named Revy, all covered in tattoos, who swore like a sailor and is way, way too trigger happy.

What I should've been looking for was Becky Lee. I bet she loves pink. And pigtails. And cute little ruffled mini-skirts. Probably knee-high socks and high heels? Oh, and she loves puppies and kitties and might even have a pony? Was definitely a cheerleader in high school.

Does this ring any bells? Will the real Becky Lee please stand up? And if you see this post and want to shoot me in the ass, I'll be waiting for you.

[Shared Network: Catradora]

Hey guys. How's things over there? How's Chris doing?

Good morning, everyone. I know we've all been feeling tense as we wait for word from our volunteers who went through the portal. I know that brings with it an inherent feeling of helplessness; I'm sorry there isn't more we can do on that end at the moment. However, we do have news.

The DOA received a call from the Vallo Police Department early this morning. Late last night, Dahlia Argent, of Beketh coven, turned herself in as a party in the portal beasts incident back in November. Along with our people, her sister, Luciana, was taken by the portal, as well as some Vallo residents - the exact number is currently being investigated. DOA leadership was invited to come speak with Ms. Argent, and we've learned the following:

A group of Vallo natives have been working on ways to open a portal to send Outlanders either back to their world or out of Vallo permanently. The teleportation circle found by Sam Wilson in December, as well as a portal that opened on Geliara Academy's grounds and the theft of the Ashurbanipal amulet in November were all early, failed attempts at targeting Outlanders. The November 10th incident with the portal beasts was the closest they've come to success, but they didn't have the correct knowledge to close the portals without threatening the rest of Vallo.

This group has been using the teachings and research of the Guide of Existence, also known as Bronislavas of Beketh, whose body is on display in the Vallo Museum of Natural Magicks. They've made attempts to resurrect him for his assistance - if you remember, the museum was broken into back in August and that particular exhibit was temporarily closed; this was an attempt to take one of Bronislavas' bones for the resurrection process. This plan also failed.

After discussions with VPD and Beketh, they've agreed to let Outlanders take matters into our own hands. We've been granted permission to resurrect Bronislavas and, hopefully, both get more answers on this portal and his assistance in bringing the missing back home. If any of our community have the appropriate skills for this task, please let us know here, and the DOA will facilitate any way we can.

We have over 30 missing Outlanders so far and more names are still coming in. The portal they went through is still open, and now protected by a barrier so we don't lose track of anyone else for now, but it does seem to be a working portal, but we cannot guarantee that it is a two-way street, given our friends and family have not stepped back through yet we have to assume the way may be blocked on their side.

We still plan to launch a rescue mission, but the group going through also needs to be aware of the risks and be able and willing to set up communications in the event that a return trip won't be immediate.

The DOA is going to be confirming the list of those missing so we have exact names and numbers, and studying the portal to ensure it's safe to travel through.

The current plan is that tomorrow we'll send a group through, if you wish to sign up to be on the rescue mission, put your name here and be at the DOA offices in the morning for a full briefing. Pack ONE bag, no larger than what you can carry and run with, and bring your weapons of choice.

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Huge thanks to everyone who helped tackle trying to get our sudden spacecraft up and talking to us yesterday. Been a while since I've gotten to do that whole thing, was kind of nice. Sadly we didn't get much out of it before a small fire erupted (that was not my fault thank you very much, Shiro). But uh - notes I guess if anyone was curious!

• So far no one has claimed it as something they recognize from their world.
• Which makes sense because what we did find points to having been in Vallo, at least a Vallo.
• There's directional mentions to some standard stuff but one to "THE FOREST" which we couldn't tell if that was something in the ship at one point or pointing towards a waypoint type thing like we have.
• We managed to get a message from the comms system before the fire:
This is Captain Alarie, Vorerra Squadron, requesting immediate assistance from Starship V.A.L.L.O. in— The rest was lost.
• Black lugged the ship back to the Castle of Lions so if anyone wants to scope it out or keep doing some work just hit us up!
• There were no signs of alien monster eggs or identity thieving slimes.
• Keith finally stopped crying tears of joy.
• Nevermind.

( I'm not saying I feel a crazy amount of vindication right now, but... )

I was downtown on a call with the station, when I came across part of a spaceship. Weird thing is that it looks like it crashed here? But awhile ago. I think we definitely would have noticed it being here though by now and I vaguely remember there being a boarded up building for rent around here before, but me and our station inspector can't find any evidence of it being under this beautiful hunk of junk. I called it into the city and the DOA (hi Shiro!) and I'm waiting to hear back something about that.

Weird Vallo thing probably?

The inside's wrecked, but the comms system looks like it might be salvageable. I'm not techy enough to work on this, but would love help figuring it out to see if we can maybe get some logs or security footage out of it. I was thinking about reaching out to Enki to see if Mei or anyone could lend us a hand if we don't have any Outlander brains on it.

I am never going house hunting again.

[Yelena]

Drinks?

[Atreus]

Hey, can you watch Chris tonight?

So we've got quite a few of the Flerkens who didn't decide to adopt a human for the moment over at the Castle-ship. I've set up a livestream from the cameras going here [link]. Very much recommended viewing if you need a pick me up. Or just because.

If you run into any more just give a heads up to Carol and we can get them reunited with their friends here.

[ they're contained in very large space that is basically a cat's dream with lots of places to run, jump, climb, etc. the stream itself will toggle between various viewpoints and cameras with the option to view just one specific camera if wanted ]

Carol, have you checked on Goose lately? If so, did they seem...pregnant?

Because there's a gaggle of flerken at the base of this tree I'm at and I'm only counting around 39 of them. I suspect there's more elsewhere since they're capable of laying up to 117 eggs, but I'm hesitant to leave this tree until this group is contained because at least their focus is on me at the moment.

Team B, I'm sending you my coordinates. I will need assistance containing this group. They have a mess of tendrils that protrude from their mouths that they use to eliminate their opponents by eating them and their scratches are toxic to humanoids. We're going to try not to harm them, but we need to herd them away from the public.

Anyone that comes across a seemingly innocent, unclaimed kitten may not want to startle them.

Finn got to hang out with Molly, our tortoise, this morning. The giggles when we helped them hand her some lettuce to snack on was easily one of the cutest sounds I've ever heard in my life. She's pretty cute for a reptile, too. Look at her.



Oh, and - Happy (late) New Year to everyone!

Lance and I just got done fighting a couple of weird chimera type of assholes with sharp hooks for arms in the forest. We were clearing some underbrush, when jumped us from the trees. They were uncomfortably close to the cabin, but wards kept them out. (Thanks Teela and Atreus.)

They can leap pretty far, they're also twice my height, and they like rushing you. So watch out, whoever's out in the forest. Sending coordinates to patrol now.

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After taking some Tylenol (I cannot handle an extra glass of wine like I used to, not because re-lived my college years somewhere out in the city) to nurse this stereotypical New Year's headache, I realized that this month marks my sixth month here. I keep thinking this place is going to kick me out like it has the first two times. It's definitely the longest I've been here, and while I miss the two main males of my life, I'm grateful to still be around.

But this sense of staying around long-term has made me realize that I need stable employment to spoil people with. Please see this shameless photo of who I am in need of spoiling. It's both of them.

Background: Military, NASA, Engineer, Astronaut, space-traveled, crash-landed on another planet a galaxy away from Earth, married the prince, became queen, did a lot of politics and sword battle. I enjoy getting my hands dirty. I also enjoy wearing jeans again versus the royal garb.

Would anyone have any leads on some kind of mechanical work? I'm a bit rusty, but I've retained a lot over the years, and if I can successfully figure out the kinks of a one-thousand-year-old spaceship that needed oil changing, I can most likely translate that into smaller vessels.

I intensely dislike the feeling of lost time.