Core Event: Day 259 [open]

[bastionpc]

Who: NPCs and you!
Open: Open
When: Day 259
Where: Starting in the Bastion, and continuing on the Skyway
What: A Core has been spotted! And....another Core? What is this?!
Format: action
Warnings: none

Starters are in the individual threads within the post. Important threads will be linked here.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Start of the event

Continuing on

important metaplot things

Boss fight!

Comments

[bastionpc]

[The journal is well past halfway filled, and it's clear that whoever has been writing in this has been in jail for some time. The first entry details his detainment (over theft) and his jail sentence (three years). Several months' worth of entries are filled with the day-to-day boringness of life in prison, as well as this man's struggles with sharing a cell with an Ura, as he had never met an Ura before going to prison and he only knew the stories his father had told him about them. And since his father had been a military-type...yeah, not the most neutral opinions there. But yeah most of that can be skimmed, it's not so important here.

Closer to the end of the filled in pages, it's clear that this person has gotten on more friendly terms with his roommate, who is later referenced by name: Zed.]

I am not sure what happened, but it has to be something big. I saw the light, and I felt the burn of the heat, but Zed and I managed to avoid the worst of it. For one long, horrible moment, there was much screaming, and then all went silent-

[Bloodstains cover the rest of the page, and they seem to have soaked through, making the rest of the pages only readable in chunks. All of the following text is all that is readable on the next ten or so pages.]

-We counted by shouts, naming off ourselves. All told, there are sixty-one of us left in this cell block. I do not know if anyone else survived outside, but I can on-

-two days now. Zed and I had been saving our food for months already, as the guards liked to sometimes 'forget' our meals, no doubt because of who Zed is. The other cells with Ura in them had a similar problem, so they will last longer, like us. The rest have eaten through what little they already have, though. Zed wanted to share, but with no sign of any living guards, I thought it best not to-

-down to fifty-nine now. The screams last night seemed to come from one of the upper cells, which is where our missing brothers were. As hungry as everyone is, the worry over what happened is making everything wor-

-A group came through he cells today. I do not know who they were, but they had the pale skin and black hair that all Ura have. They went through, talking to those in the cells, unlocking some but leaving others-

-ty-three left now. Between those who left with the man, and those who disappear each night, we are down to less than half our original number. I hate to admit it, but I am afraid. When will they come for us? When wi-

-finally got Zed to explain why we were left. He said that they only wanted him. They were only freeing the Ura, not the Caels. He had refused to leave me behind to die, and instead was left to rot with me-

-ten left, maybe less. Our food has lasted us these three weeks, and the water dripping from the ceiling has kept our thirst at bay. But we are running out. Zed has a plan, we will be sleeping during the day, so that at night we can entice the beast to our cell. When it rips the bars off, we will take that time-

-leaving this here for whoever may find it. Do not stay in this place. The beast will devour you. We are going towards my home-

-find us there. If we survive.

Whatever may happen, whoever finds this journal, tell my mother I love her.

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin's flipping through the pages, skimming them as quickly as he can without damaging them.]

Typical prisoner log, Caelondian tongue...

Huh... Looks like a few of them did survive the Calamity...

And, surprise surprise, racial hatred screwed some of the survivors over. We were right. Ura survivors came by to free their companions.

They left the Caels to die. No big surprise there.

[Little bit of disgust? Oh yeah.]

And... they also left Zed behind... interesting... hang on, I'm going to read this. It's... kinda broken up by blood stains, so...

[Colin's going to start reading from the first mention of the Calamity, all the way to the end, pausing between readable spots.]

We may have to go pay our Ura friends another visit.

[notachickenhawk]

[There's a shout through the building, though it's mental rather than actual sound. Tobias has landed at the closest opening to the building he can find.]

<Hey! If you guys are in there - there's something going on in the offices. I think it's a monster. Head over there now!>

[daughterofursa]

[Maybe it's no surprise to Colin, but it makes Zuko a little sick to think the Ura just left people here to die. At the end of the world, shouldn't they have a little more compassion than that? Maybe it just makes her worry about the kind of treatment her own people would get.

If the Boiling Rock survived the Calamity, would anyone have come to let Mai out? Or would they have left her, too?

She doesn't have the time to find her words before Tobias's voice rings in her mind and her expression hardens.]

Looks like that monster is still living here.

We should get going.

[windgod]

Damn!

[A rare curse left Ippo's mouth and without a second thought, he gave his gauntlets one more tap for luck and darted out of the room like a zip of lightning. Now that he was back in tip-top shape, he felt ready to handle anything that was going to come his way and if it was just a monster, a monster he could hit...he would do just fine.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin blinks and looks down the hall, then he scowls.]

Dammit... Zuko, I need to put this stuff away. Keep up with Ippo, I'll be right behind you two!

Tobias, what kind of monster?!

[daughterofursa]

[And Zuko thought Ippo had made some progress at being less reckless. Maybe not. Not that she planned on wasting time, but she thought it might be useful to know if Tobias had any more information than that.

Instead she nods to Colin. He'll tell them if he figures anything out.]

Right.

[Aaand she's off after Ippo.]

[notachickenhawk]

<Some kind of lizard. I can follow behind you guys, but it'll take me a minute once we get in there for me to morph to anything useful. Heat will probably drive it off if it's anything like the lizards I know.>

[Then again, maybe it's not. But it's worth a try.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin frowns, and looks around at the debris and along the doors at the cell block. Something doesn't feel right...]

Keep out of its range, and dive-bomb it. If it's like the lizards I know, it won't enjoy an aerial threat to its well-being.

[He starts packing away the book and carefully arranging the letters to minimize the risk to damaging them in transit and combat. He also takes a moment to study the damage to the doors. He's going to want to compare the marks to the Lizard's body when he gets the chance... Prisons are designed to take a LOT of abuse. Even a large, angry animal would probably not be able to do all of this, even over an extended length of time...]

[notachickenhawk]

<Got it. I'd morph Paarthurnax but he wouldn't fit. I don't have any tougher options for aerial assault. I'll head over there now.>

[He flaps and takes off, thinking over his options. Staying in his current form is probably the best option...]