06 . the sleepy town expedition.

[necrolord]

Who: necrolord, Gideon, Harrow, Paul, Kaworu, "Shannon," Mako, Ford, Shiro, Ruby, Luna, Faith, Willow, Ezra, Zhongli, Perell.
What: An intentional family-and-friends roadtrip to a forbidden holy ruin. A less-intentional catacombs adventure.
When: 3/14.
Where: Sleepy Town and the Catacombs.

Content Warnings: Sleepy Town-typical themes of grief, loss, and surreal landscapes. Catacombs-typical horror per the March event. Also, note all the usual warnings of this character.

[ See this doc for info! ]

Comments

[shiro2hero]

[He stops, where he was about to push the door open a little more. Wide enough for them to get into. But Mako's words cut him off.]

[Shiro throws a sheepish grin over his shoulder. It's really hard not to laugh at the look on his friend's face right then.]

Sorry. Probably should mention I always come... armed for trouble.

[arclightning]

[ If it was hard not to laugh before, it should be impossible now, because Mako's expression goes a strange mix of flat and clearly-trying-not-to-laugh. His mouth twitches, and he shoves it back ruthlessly, trying to keep his face straight.

It is... mostly not working. ]

How long did that one take you? You just always come, uh. Armed with bad jokes?

[shiro2hero]

Mako, please, it's me. I always have a pun on hand.

[He gives the door one last push, letting it fall all the way in. Just to punctuate the statement.]

[With a little flourish, even. Despite the pain and fatigue of Warmblood this month, it's really good to see Mako smile. See him trying not to laugh. Shiro can't not ham it up a bit.]

[arclightning]

[ It hits the ground with a very punctuating slam indeed, sends up a puff of dust in its wake that leaves Mako wrinkling his nose. There aren't any lights, and the sky is oddly dark, so he holds up a palm full of fire as he steps carefully over the doorframe into the old shop. Orange light flickers strangely off slick, dusty bottles. ]

...it's so weird to think this place really was real.

[shiro2hero]

[Mako's fire helps a lot, he won't lie. But Shiro flicks his own fingers, activating the lurid purple glowstick that is his own hand. For up close work. It doesn't look like this expedition is going to bring much back. Much to his dismay.]

Nightmares left over are real enough.

[He plucks up a can, turning it over in his hands. Impossible to read anything on it. And sets it back down.] But, yeah, I know. Coming back here just makes it feel less real, somehow.

[arclightning]

[ Shiro does that sometimes: puts into words the things Mako couldn't quite say. He throws Shiro a grateful look as he heads down another aisle, stepping carefully over shattered glass. ]

That's exactly it. The dream never felt like a dream when we were in it, but now?

[shiro2hero]

Now it feels like one big hallucination.

[Or something along those lines.]

Or, hah. A dream. [He picks up an old, deteriorated package. Turns it over.] Now we have all these new faces... trying to explain what it was like almost makes you sound crazy.

[arclightning]

[ Mako snorts quietly to himself as he crouches down to look for more of those weird bandages on a dusty bottom shelf. A couple packages crouch near the back, stuffed into decaying cardboard. ]

Every time I tell Ryan or his boyfriend about something from the dream they look at me like I started airbending.

[shiro2hero]

[Shiro's turn to snort.]

I've almost stopped trying. If they ask, then I hand over Peter's notes. Maybe... it's not the best. But I don't know.

It's easier.

[arclightning]

Hey, if they were helpful in the dream, they're helpful now.

[ Mako yanks out one of the dusty packages, blowing off some of the crap, and holds it up. ]

This is them, right?

[shiro2hero]

Maybe we need to condense them somehow, then... just to keep new arrivals from feeling like they're back in school.

[That won't help anyone. Especially the teens he's seen.]

[His head pops up. And, miraculously, Shiro grins.]

Yeah - there they are.

[arclightning]

[ That grin feels, as always, like a victory. Mako grins back and shoves as many as he can reasonably fit into his back before pushing himself to his feet to go prowl the medicine aisle proper. ]

That's half the point of this, isn't it? Figure out what's still relevant so we can tell people what they actually need to know. Should definitely condense them.

[shiro2hero]

Maybe that's something else we can go over. You, Ruby and I. And whoever she has in mind for the fourth.

[Most of the cans are either rusted out, or expanded past the point of safety. What few bottles of aspirin he can find look decayed.]

[Moving on to another aisle.]

[arclightning]

[ Wow it is really quite empty in here, huh. Mako snags a few bottles of vitamins that somehow got neglected but it does look like it did near the end, when they had no supplies but what was already on-hand. ]

We should probably make a list of what we need to figure out. Ford was saying this place wasn't even the only echo of the dream. That maybe there are other realities out there where people landed.

[shiro2hero]

Did he mean places beyond Trench? [It's a thought, and not a bad one. Maybe other people aren't ending up as squids. Maybe there's something beyond the ocean. Or whatever was in the opposite direction.]

How did he find that out? The Archives?

[arclightning]

[ The ocean, the desert, the forest. The dream could have been any of them, couldn't it? ]

It's just a theory he had. Think he was looking to check it out, told me to keep an eye out for those weird rifts. You think we can still find those doors?

[shiro2hero]

If he does, and he needs backup... I want in. Or, at least, I don't think he should go alone. More eyes the better.

[He straightens up. Aside from a few bits and pieces, there doesn't seem to be much usable ... anything here.]

I think it wouldn't hurt to take a look.