[Day 225] [EVENT] A sinking feeling

[bastionmods]

Who: Anyone and everyone
Open: Open
When: Early morning on Day 225
Where: Everywhere in the Bastion
What: Remember how cores used to be a thing? Yeah, they're still important.
Format: any
Warnings: terrible modpuns

[Early in the morning on Day 225, most people are probably asleep. For the couple of stragglers who may still be awake so late, though, they may notice something strange. At 2:31 am, any lights that are on start to hum, and flicker in and out of dimness.

At 2:32 am, every light in the Bastion (excluding the emergency lights) shuts off entirely.

At 2:33 am, a horrible grinding noise can be heard throughout the Bastion, seemingly coming from everywhere at once. This sound continues on for several minutes, throughout everything else that begins to happen.

At 2:34 am, for anyone outside Nathaniel can be seen running from the Apartments towards the Monument as if his life depended on it.

At 2:35 am, ever so slowly, sections of the Bastion begin to sink.

What do you do?]

Comments

[daughterofursa]

[The sound wakes Zuko almost instantly, and her instincts have her grabbing for the swords she keeps near to her bed. All she knows is something's happening and it isn't good.]

Toph?

[She darts out of her room, barefoot but mostly dressed, gripping the sheath in one hand and ready to draw even if she's starting to realize that won't help right now. She can't identify the sound, but it doesn't take an earthbender to feel the tremor in the ground.]

Toph!

[tophgirl]

[Toph manages, through sheer stubborn overwhelming willpower, to sleep through the start of the grinding noise. She's slept in a lot of noisy places and she's learned to differentiate between obvious threats and just weird shit. The grinding noise is awful, but nobody's approaching, so she snores on.

The snoring stops abruptly as she feels the earth sink. The earth’s not supposed to do that! She leaps out of bed, fighting a wave of dizziness, and stumbles to the door.]

What the badgermole is going on?!

[daughterofursa]

[Toph, that hair is almost as startling as everything else that's going on. Zuko stumbles over her words.]

I- I don't know! You can't feel it?

[tophgirl]

[Rude, Zuko. Her hair is glorious in its natural state.]

I can tell that we're sinking, but I don't know why! [She can also tell that there's a large group of people gathering not far away.] C'mon, let's go. [More people, more chances someone will know what's going on. And Zuko might be worried about some of her friends.]

[daughterofursa]

[It's certainly... impressive, she'll give it that.]

Sinking? [She feels her heart drop into her stomach. This isn't the plummet Zulf was worried about, but there's no telling whether it might turn into one, or how long they have. Which definitely means they can't stand around here.]

Right. [She strides for the front door and out of the house. Between people shouting questions above the persistent grinding noise and their shapes running in the dark, it sure doesn't seem like anyone knows what's going on.]

[tophgirl]

[You can't just judge those things at one glance. You have to wait and listen... which in this case translates into "move where the crowd is."]

Seems like people are moving this way. [She reaches for Zuko's hand, to tug the other girl in the right direction.]

[daughterofursa]

[What? Oh. Zuko lets Toph take the lead, trusting her to have a better grasp of the situation right now. She should be able to feel and avoid the sinking pieces of land.]

Toward the Skyway? Maybe that means things aren't sinking out there.

[tophgirl]

Better hope so. [Toph wishes she could tell, but with everything as segmented as it is, she can only "see" so much. It's frustrating.

As they get closer to the crowd, Toph tries to find somebody she recognizes — but in the chaos of the shifting land and the mass of people, it's almost impossible to distinguish individual patterns.]

Do you see anybody you know?

[daughterofursa]

Yeah.

[She can make out Colin and several of the people around him thanks to the flashlight, and now she can make out what he's shouting.]

Do you have any idea how long we have? We have to make sure everyone gets out.

[Because she can tell the people gathered here don't constitute everyone. There are probably people who haven't even made it out of the apartments yet.]

[tophgirl]

[Toph throws out her arm to stop Zuko as she senses a shifting spot in front of them.]

Let's just say we better hurry.

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko stops, in part because of Toph and in part because she's feeling like she should be running in the other direction, towards the people who haven't come out of their homes yet.]

I understand.

You can go on ahead, but I can't leave just yet.

[tophgirl]

[That's Zuko for you — always the heroic idiot. It's a little charming, but mostly it makes Toph scowl.]

As if I'd let you go off alone. You'd step on a falling piece of earth and go tumbling to your death. I'm going with you.

[Which should've been a given.]

[daughterofursa]

[And Zuko didn't really expect Toph to follow the suggestion to leave. Guess that makes her a heroic idiot, too.]

All right, fine. Come on.