Day 72 :: [OPEN]

[bastionpc]

Who: Everyone
Open: Open
When: Day 72
Where: The Skyway
What: Out on the Skyway is a farm. On that farm are supplies and plot coupons.
Format: action
Warnings: cows

[On day 72, whoever happens to be exploring the Skyway will come across a farm! It is rather large, with several overgrown fields, a huge barn, some chicken coops, and a farmhouse.

It is undisturbed for the moment, though it would be advisable to make any stop here quick. Monsters are never that far away.]






((OOC: There will be several different areas each character can explore and find things. Please choose only one area of the farm per character for your characters to participate in. Your characters can interact with anyone else in that particular area.

Teamwork may be needed to accomplish goals in this post.))

Comments

FARMHOUSE

[bastionpc]

[The farmhouse is, for the most part, unremarkable. It is a small ranch-style home, with three bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. An outhouse can be found in the backyard. Entering the farmhouse is easy, as the door has been left open.

What part of the house will you explore?]

Re: FARMHOUSE

[buildingthefuture]

[Osahar's been trained to look for signs of habitation, and to focus on the people first, then the goods. So, the instant that he sees- of all things- a farmhouse on the Skyway, he immediately bends his path toward it, plasma pistol at the ready as he goes to investigate.

While supplies would be important, his first concern is securing the area and making sure it's safe. Then he can worry about the rest of it. So... he makes his way into the farmhouse, cautiously investigating it and planning to make his way to the bedrooms. If he makes it there, he'll start investigating there- see if he can find any clues about the inhabitants, former or otherwise, and who knows? Maybe there's something useful in there. Hard to say.]

[blackblooded]

[Crona doesn't have the same sense of caution that Osahar has. Crona's awkward, nervous motions are based more in Crona's general sense of awkwardness than in actual real worry about potentially being attacked.

This just results in Crona walking behind Osahar, peering into the rooms and looking around.]

[bastionpc]

[Fortunately for the two of them, whatever had attacked this farm is long gone by now. There's some obvious damage to the front door, and the floor has long gouges in it, but otherwise the house looks oddly undamaged. It's almost as if something came in here looking for something, but didn't find what it was looking for and left.

There are four bedrooms total. One has a larger bed than the rest, clearly meant for two people. Two of the others are full of toys and bright colors, obviously meant for small children. The last looks mostly unused, though it does contain a bed and an empty dresser.

In the largest room, with the big bed, there is a box hidden under the bed. If either Osahar or Crona looks in it, they will find some handwritten letters, all dated with dates that seem to run on an entirely unique calendar of its own. But if they compare the numbers, they're all within a relatively close range of numbers.

The contents of the letters are impossible to read without knowing the language, and they are partially water-damaged. But, most interestingly, there is a page with a diagram of some kind of machine on it.]

[buildingthefuture]

[Under normal circumstances, Osahar might have been upset at Crona's awkwardness, but the boy's proven himself decently well, and he's not endangering them, so... he just keeps in the lead, staying alert for any possible dangers.

Doesn't seem like there's anything here, though. He notices the gouges and the damage to the door, and the obvious intelligence there worries him. Clearly, there's something out here that's more intelligent than the creatures that they normally encounter. He can only hope that they encounter it somewhere that they won't suffer the consequences.

The children's rooms get a good once-over, but eventually Osahar makes his way to the bedrooms, and while searching there...] Ah hah... there we are...

[He grins as he carefully examines the box and the bed for traps- one can never be too safe- and then puts it on the bed. The fact that he can't identify what's written down doesn't bother him at all- quite the contrary!] I think we've found something very interesting, Crona. I'll have to take this back to Nathaniel.

[blackblooded]

[Crona knows this sort of monster. Crona was this sort of monster. Come in, look for a target, don't waste time with anything else.

The children's rooms get most of Crona's attention. Toys and bright colors and small beds made for little children.

Crona has never seen rooms like that, and just stands in the middle and looks around while Osahar examines the room.

Osahar leaves and goes to the room with the largest bed, and Crona follows, still distracted by the idea of the children's rooms.]

Ah... [Crona jumps slightly when Osahar speaks.]

Research notes... [Crona doesn't know about letters or journals.]

[buildingthefuture]

[That makes Osahar shake his head. Crona may know monsters, but Osahar knows scientists. Research notes would involve a lot more things he could puzzle through- numbers, especially. Especially with that diagram- research involving that should be organized in a better way, he'd imagine.

No, if he had to guess...] I think they're letters. The language is similar to something I saw earlier, though- we can get this translated and find out for certain.

[He carefully puts all the papers back into the box, then tucks it under his arm.] I'm probably not going to be able to carry much more while I'm looking after this. Why don't you take something as well, and we'll head back?

[blackblooded]

[Crona pauses, thinking things through.]

The little one's rooms. I'm going to look there. [Crona saw toys, soft things like pillows in animal shapes. There might be a dragon.]

[buildingthefuture]

The... little one's rooms? What do you hope to find there? [He'll admit, he's kind of curious. There wasn't anything in there that caught his eye, but now that he thinks about it, Osahar remembers that there was something odd about how Crona acted in there. Maybe this is an opportunity to understand this strange kid a little better.]

[blackblooded]

I..... [don't ask, Crona doesn't know. It sounds silly.]

... pass.

[Crona's just go back and look in the toy box.]

[buildingthefuture]

[Ah, that again. Ah well. At least now Osahar knows what Crona means by it, and not to push it. So, he just follows along, curious as to what Crona is looking for.

...the toy box...? Why would he look in there...?]

[blackblooded]

[Crona's actually looking for presents for other people. Maybe a cat-shaped toy for Maka. What Crona finds instead is a plush dragon, made of soft, sky-blue fabric with little button eyes. No one told Crona that you grow out of playing with stuffed toys eventually.]

It... it might be... nice. Taking some of these back , you know? They're like pillows.

[buildingthefuture]

[Huh... well, he wouldn't have expected Crona to be so interested in it, but it's all right. He nods- not that they'd need pillows, but Crona came over here first. It would seem like Crona really wants these things, so... who was he to contradict?] I think that sounds like a good idea.

[blackblooded]

[A little pile of toys, and then Crona's hand closes on a picture book.

It's not very exciting, just a little kid's book, a story about a bunny jumping into little containers of brightly colored dye and turning different colors. Red and blue turn the bunny purple, red and yellow turn her orange. Just a little story about colors, written in a language Crona doesn't know. The child's mother probably read it aloud, teaching her little one about colors and letting the child turn the pages.

The child's mother was probably very kind. The child's mother would never have given them just one book, a book about every way to kill a person.

Crona's hands are shaking.]

[buildingthefuture]

[When Crona's hands start shaking, Osahar's instantly alert. There's any number of things that could be going on, so... he walks over, curious. It's a kid's book- that much is clear in any language, though this is the same one as the letters- but it doesn't seem like anything else is amiss.

Yet Crona's clearly affected by this. So then... Osahar asks the question, as kindly and gently as he can.] What is it, Crona?

[blackblooded]

L-lady Medusa... My mother, you know? She...

I had one book, when I was little. Just one. A book of how to kill. Every way to kill a person. That's the kind of book I read, when I was little, like this child was little.

She made me kill things. Little things, when I was little. I said no, you know? I told her I didn't want to kill the little one. Then she threw us in the room for days. We didn't have any food or any light.

Ragnarok got angry at me. My blood is black.

Then I killed it.

... This child, they didn't have to kill anything.

[buildingthefuture]

[As he listens on, Osahar's heart feels like lead weights have been dropped onto it. This poor kid... it's one thing to know, in abstract, what happened. It's something else entirely to start getting the details. What kind of monster would do that to a kid? Raise them up to be a monster, ruin what should have been a wonderful time of their life?

He can't do anything about the past, though. The damage there has been done, and Osahar can't change that. But... perhaps... he's not the best at verbalizing things like this, but he reaches out his hand, hoping that Crona will accept a hand on his shoulder, like he did last time. 'I'm sorry' feels like a pathetic thing, even if Osahar is sorry that Crona won't get to experience what he should have. And blithely promising a brighter future here seems hollow at best. So, in the end, he can only be there, and hope that the young one gives him something to work with.] Crona...

[blackblooded]

I hated her.

But Maka killed her. I couldn't. She... she did horrible things and I hated her but she was my mother.

[buildingthefuture]

Exactly... she was still your mother. [He quietly sighs and then kneels down, so he is more eye-to-eye with Crona. This poor kid...] But I'm glad that you're away from her. Crona...

...you're still young, you know? And this world is a new start for all of us. [Now that he knows even more about what Crona's gone through... what he really wants is to help Crona experience something better. Some semblance of a normal life.]

[blackblooded]

[Crona doesn't make eye contact, but the meister nods in response to Osahar's comment.

A new start.]

[buildingthefuture]

...good. [He smiles a little, hoping that Crona takes advantage of it. Perhaps in the future he will. Osahar hopes so, anyway...]

[blackblooded]

[Another nod, and Crona stands, leaving the book and grabbing an armfull of stuffed toys.]

L-let's go back then.

[Back to the Bastion, the new life.]