trans_9 | Survivalist Plot: The Envy of Eden

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Survivalist Plot: The Envy of Eden

Day One

Stacy calls Cedric Diggory, Diana Ladris, Guru Clef, Howard Bassem, Karis Needleteeth, The Master and Maxine Hunkel to the deck.

Planet Designation: Eden Status: Terrestrial, H-class. Non-sentient life: Sparse levels of flora, no natural fauna Semi-Sentient Life: None Sentient Life: Small human colonies created to mine Eden's limited precious elements. As of last Eden 'year', population 300. Settlers do not typically make permanent stays. Water: 75.6% of the planet's surface. Climate: Dry and moderate during the day. At nights temperatures drop to below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Infrequent rains, risks of flash floods. Landscape: Desert and sedimentary rock mountains. Most water is retrieved by wells or from cargo ships. Sparse vegetation. Air: Type I (breathable) Sky: Grey Warnings: Electrical storms may interfere with omnicomm function. Mission: Investigate source of distress signal picked up on Stacy's sensors.

For the most part the trip down to the atmosphere goes uneventfully, even if it is a little cramped in the shuttle, but as soon as they get within a few thousand feet of the ground things start to go wrong. Communication with Stacy cuts off; Stacy herself is cut off mid-sentence while warning the crew to use iodine in any tap water they find. The omnicomms go similarly blank. The shuttle lurches through the sky and tilts sideways. One of the engines blows. The automatic seatbelts unlock. A section of the shuttle's roof rips off, letting in thin, hardly-breathable air.

More terrifying still, the superpowered members of this crew may have time to notice that they no longer have their abilities.

About thirty feet above the ground the shuttle tips into a barrel roll, the autopilot fritzing out as it tries to right things, and the crew goes tumbling out and scatters amongst the town moments before the shuttle crashes into a far cliffside.

[OOC: Tag into your designated subthreads! In a little, once we've established what's going on a bit more, while I'll put up a thread for them all to reconvene. I will be NPCing monsters in these threads, so please drop me a line if you want the monsters to do anything specific or if I'm being slow on a tag.]

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Diana yanked open the compartment and dug under the receipts and other pieces of paper until she felt something smooth, about the size of her hand.

Pulling it out she saw the object with black casing had a black looped cord attached and large silver switch. Flicking it upwards with her thumb, a relatively bright beam of light burst from the three, perfectly intact, bulbs on the front.

Hardly believing their luck, she snapped the torch off to save battery and turned it over to inspect the back.

What she saw almost caused her to give an audible reaction. Tucked neatly into its placeholder, was a small handle.

Feeling like a hope filled fool for even attempting it, Diana pulled the handle out and turned it, almost dropping the device when it made a distinct whirring sound.

Getting over her disbelief, she gave the handle one full turn before folding it back into place.

A wind up torch. A working wind up torch. This was too lucky, and she knew it.

She quickly tied the cord through one of the belt loops on her jeans and answered his question. "Water first."

She didn't care how cold that may of sounded, Diana hasn't been away from the FAYZ long enough to fool herself into thinking concern for others is something she must prioritize.

Besides, what if they did find everyone else first but didn't find water? Howard should know just as well as she did that next to no resources amongst a group of people was nothing if not dangerous.

Afterall, the information given to them about the planet had said--

Diana suddenly began digging through the glove compartment again, wondering how much their luck really would hold out.

Howard reaches over and pushes her hand with the flashlight down. There's a reason he's driving with the headlights off. Any light they cast can be tracked to them, and so they should wait until it's entirely dark before they give away their presence visually. Even the hum of the car motor's set him on edge.

"I was thinking having softer people around for the monsters to eat when they attack us," he says. "That little kid, or the girl with the red hair or something. Safety in numbers and all."

But it's tricky, safety in numbers. Because while it may be useful against immediate threats, he knows as well as Diana does that a group without resources is a group that turns on itself. She's right. They should secure water first, at the very least.

It's strange. As terrified as he was, suddenly he's struck with a sense of calm. While survival mode was something he was stuck in back on Stacy, here it makes sense. This sort of situation is what he's adapted for. He's not crazy and neurotic and damaged here, he's just smart.

"Hey." He thinks he's got a good idea what she's looking for in the glove compartment. "Take my hand. Let's find out if magic and technology's the only thing that don't work here."

If she does, all she'll feel is his pulse along his skinny wrist.

Diana gave Howard a look when he touched her, not really understanding what had possessed him to do so, she'd already turned the torch off. And he had made it clear the last thing he wanted was physical contact with her. Or with anyone.

But, apparentlly, that wasn't true. Obviously, she'd hit her head when she'd fallen through that roof. Because she was sure she'd just heard Howard say 'take my hand'.

Diana looked up from inspecting the papers in the compartment and just raised an eyebrow at him for a moment.

"All right. But I have to tell you, this doesn't guarantee a second date." That's better, mocking, she must be alright again.

Sighing, she wraps her slender fingers around Howard's hand, their palms connecting. She looks at their joined hands for as long as she needs, then lets go. "Nothing."

"But what were you expecting? You're a no bar anyway, remember?"

"I'm heartbroken." He sounds sarcastic but his heart's not really in it. Partially because he is, at least, a little devastated about other things, but certainly not the idea of missing out on a date with Diana.

"You didn't know I'm a no-bar, though. So you don't feel anything on normal people? I always just assumed you at least sensed a nothing if there wasn't any power there." He pulls his hand away and shrugs. "So that's no good."

And he's back to being fine never touching Diana again.

He coasts at a little under twenty miles an hour down the road, occasionally veering around cars that were just left in the street. They don't see any monsters. Maybe the monsters don't come out at night after all.

The car's got a half a tank, which is good information for him to tuck away for later. He pulls over onto the sidewalk once they hit a stretch of road with no bodies anywhere. Better to deal with any territorial survivors than the monster again.

"Might as well search this house. I'll keep the motor running in case we have to book it out of there." Honestly, it might be smarter to take the keys with him, since he expects if they get chased Diana will leave without him without a second glance, but, well. He'd do the same to her, and he'd rather not wrestle with the engine as a beast descends on him.

The house is completely intact but also almost entirely empty. It's a little one-story flat with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and an office. The beds are left unmade, but there's no sign of struggle anywhere. There's a skylight they can use to get to the roof and get a good view of the city.

Unfortunately, the pantry's also been emptied, but they might find other useful items in the house: a vacuum cleaner, a space heater, tabs of iodine, signal flares, binoculars, sleeping bags, kitchen knives, and other odds and ends. The door to the house is still locked, as if someone was intending to return home and just never got to. No water is running through any of the taps.

They'll have to break in to enter, but they probably won't have any compunctions about that.

“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.” She shrugged as they headed towards the house. “But I can tell you I’ve not even sensed my own power since we got here.”

The way in had been far too easy. A smashed window was all it took. It felt painfully slow having to knock out all the sharp shards sticking up from the frame but they didn’t have anything to throw over it, so once the larger pieces were out of the way they carefully climbed their way into the house.

Diana grabbed the first rug she saw and tossed it through the window to make the escape less tedious, then began looking around.

It was frustrating not to find water. Not disappointing. No. Disappointing would imply they’d been expecting something to go their way. And people like Howard and herself didn’t ever expect that anymore. Besides, it’s not like everything they found was worthless.

Diana had been dumping anything that could be classed as ‘useful’ and ‘portable’ near the window they’d smashed in when she looked up at the sky light. She seemed to consider something before looking at Howard. “All right, who’s going up?”

"So I guess it's across the board, then." Howard pulls the curtains around the broken window. No need to announce their exitway to others. He pops back out to get the keys from the car, now that they've secured the perimeter, and returns.

Howard sweeps a glance over what Diana's categorized over by the window. He adds some of his own finds to the piles. A roll of duct tape, scissors, a pack of double-A batteries, a box of Kleenex, a few books of matches. He grabs the binoculars out of the pile.

"I'll go up. You can run across the street and set off the signal flares. Then we can watch from the roof to see if anyone investigates." He pauses and tugs the binoculars into his pocket. "After we move this stuff somewhere out of the open and find that water we're looking for."

He pulls out a map he found in a desk. "There should be a well around here somewhere, a few hundred feet out back. Think we can wait it out until morning?"

What with all the running and the knowledge that any well they find might be empty or contaminated, Howard's not keen on waiting. But he doesn't want to head out into the dark with monsters out either.

Clearly the best solution would be to coax Diana into doing it, but he knows she's not that dumb. No way would she leave him alone with all their scavenged items and a car.

“Oh, goodie.” She said, rolling her eyes. “I get the fun job.”

While collecting what she would need for her run across the street tomorrow, she addressed his question. “Tomorrow.” Like everything else, those creatures probably needed water too, and there was no way of telling what might be sharing your well in the dark until it was too late.

Once everything was organized she pulled up one of the kitchen chair and sat in it (not trusting what might be lurking within the cushions of a sofa). “Looks like we’re back to long, paranoid sleepless nights. The justified kind, anyway.”

She resisted the overwhelming urge to rub her shoulder, her arm was beginning to really smart. “Who’s having the first shift?” They may not trust each other but there wasn’t a cat’s in FAYZ chance they were going to let the night pass unwatched. True, they both had sleeping issues, but after a tiring day pumped on adrenaline it would be impossible for them both stay awake all night. It felt horribly wrong but for the sake of rest, they’d have to put their life in the others hands.

At least it was only watch duty.

"I got the binoculars," he says, totally smug. He pats them in his jacket. "And goodie, I missed the sleep deprivation so much. I can't wait for the dehydration to kick in next."

He rolls a sleeping bag out on the floor and sits on it. It's going to be a long night, probably boring and tense at the same time. It's not like they have anything to read and even if they did, they wouldn't want to get distracted. "I'll take first shift."

There's a downside to that - if Diana chooses to mess with him while he's sleeping, he won't have a similar opportunity to get back at her. But the upside is that since they have no way of telling time, shifts will have to be divided by 'until I'm about to doze off', and without the cat nap to recharge his batteries a little, Howard's shift will probably be shorter.

"You want me to take a look at that arm before you conk out?"

Diana gave him a look, not even bother to hide the distrust in her eyes.

She really didn't want Howard anywhere near when she was injured, much less actually touching her. And the boy probably felt the same way.

But despite this, they would really be no use to each other if they were injured. Even distractions needed to be able to run, if only so the creatures followed them instead and left you alone.

And turning down help from a medic would be a foolish waste and most likely would just haunt her later.

With this in mind, Diana lifted her sore arm out, presenting it to Howard.

"If you want."

"You're more useful if you can actually do the 'pick up' in 'pick up and run'," he says, echoing her thoughts. "You can still flex all your fingers, right?"

As he approaches he plugs in the space heater and turns it on, noting with some satisfaction that it's nearly silent. Good. They can stay relatively warm without attracting enemies, and the house has electricity. Not that they'll turn on the lights and alert the whole world that they're there at night.

"I mean, I don't got my kit, but if it needs something warm or cold applied to it we might be able to manage that. Keep a towel by the heater or something." He could probably make a sling or splint for her out of materials around the house if she needed it, but he figures Diana wants to advertise her injury as little as possible. And if it's dislocated, he might be able to pop it back into place.

“Yep.” Diana held up her arm and wiggled her fingers at him, before giving him the ‘Spock’ sign.

Moving her hand didn’t seem to be too difficult, but there was a slight twitch in her jaw that indicated moving her arm and, more specifically, her shoulder, in anyway was painful.

“Don’t get too excited though, will you?” She smirked, as she pushed down her shirt to reveal her bare shoulder, which was blooming into an impressive combination of colours.

"Shockingly, I have other things on my mind."

At least there isn't too much in the way of open wounds. Despite looking through the house, Howard hasn't been able to find anything that might work as a disinfectant besides household bleach, and he figures they'd both rather risk the infection than use that. No cinnamon, no sugar, no garlic, no vinegar, no honey. Whoever cleaned out the pantry took the condiments and with those, all the natural antiseptics Howard knows of.

"It's dislocated," he concludes, then cuts a strip off the bottom of the curtains. He twists it into a thick wad and hands it to her. "Put this in your mouth, because this going to really hurt."

It's kind of funny how he doesn't mind touch when it's strictly in a medical sense. Touching Diana's bare arms and shoulders is probably something almost every other teenage boy in Perdido dreamed of doing, so at the very least Howard should be feeling awkward about not feeling thrilled, but instead he's calm and collected. He holds her upper arm out, gets the angle right, and starts, "on the count of three, one, two-"

He jams it back into place without bothering to get to three, hoping to avoid her tensing up.

Diana watches him, unable to supress the growing sense of dread as he prepares.

Raising an eyebrow, she makes a joke about gagging then holds the wad between her teeth, readying herself. When he moved earlier than she anticipated there was a sudden panic, but that was quickly replaced by the blinding pain that attacked her.

Her jaw clamped down on the wad, managing to make a strangled growl rather than a scream but tears of pain still found a way to gather in the corners of her eyes. She furiously blinked them away, pretty face twisted horribly in agony.

Slender fingers appeared more claw-like as she gripped Howards own shoulder and pushed him roughly away from her. “Get off me!” She spits out, along with the wad in her mouth.

Clutching her bruised shoulder, she pants, fingers curled in torment. It felt like it’d been set on fire, then the flames beaten out with a hammer.

"You're welcome!" he hisses at her, getting up from where he'd landed flat on his rear from being pushed. Fine, let her sulk and whine and lash out. He thought pregnancy toughened girls up. An idea occurs to him and he disappears to one of the downstairs bathrooms before emerging with a tiny bottle of mouthwash.

He walks over to the supplies they've collected again and digs through it, finally producing a roll of clear packing tape. The mouthwash should be barely enough to cover disinfecting all their cuts and scrapes, which is a pretty pressing concern for Howard. Who knows when they'll get back to Stacy, and with Stacy's stupid bacteria filter their immune systems aren't going to be prepared to cope with anything this planet throws at them.

Unfortunately, he knows from experience that mouthwash does not substitute for water.

He dribbles a little bit on the gash on his shin, then tapes it up like a waterproof bandage. "When you're done whining over there, I'll tape you up and you can go to sleep."

Diana didn’t say anything.

Once her breathing returned to normal she just sat up and looked at him, waiting.

She was still holding her shoulder, and the look in her eyes clearly told him she wanted nothing more than to inflict the same pain on him as he had on her.

But for the most part she'd recovered.

"Hey, it's not like I enjoyed doing that." Howard stares back at her. "Unlike some people we both know, I'm not a sadist."

He drips a little of the mouthwash on her skinned elbows and cut arms, passing her the tape. "This is the best I can do for bandages right now, but it's waterproof. If we get infections we're both screwed. I have no idea what kind of bacteria's on this planet."

He pats the sleeping bag. "Now go to sleep and it'll probably hurt less in the morning. I'll keep watch."

She lets him get on with his work without attacking him this time, inspecting his makeshift bandages and copying them when she uses the tape.

"Thanks, Howie." It's blunt and quick but at least she's said it now.

Settling down into the sleeping bag, she rolls onto her side and looks at him, small smirk on her lips. "Can't believe we're back here already, huh?"

Her tone is teasing, because if she doesn't mock the situation, what else can she do but worry about it as she tries to sleep?

Her 'thanks' would probably mean more if she hadn't followed it with that loathed pet name.

"Feels just like home." He means it as a joke, but in an awful way, it's true. He takes a seat in the chair and watches out the windows as she sleeps. His notepad, which somehow managed to stay in his pants pocket during all this, lays on his knee, and he makes notes in it to pass the time. Some drawings of the monsters. A list of their supplies. A list of what they know about the monsters, and a copy of the map he has in his lap.

It was stupid and naive to believe they'd ever really escape the FAYZ, wasn't it? Maybe it's not the same bubble as they used to be in, but the rules are the same. Be smart. Be vigilant. Be shameless. Trust no one. Look out for yourself because the instant you rely on someone else is the instant you're out of luck.

He looks over at Diana's sleeping body and realizes that as much as they don't get along, she's the only one he knows who truly understands it. Even Orc doesn't, having spent most of the FAYZ in a booze-fueled blur and leaning on Howard to keep things from falling through. It's a strange sort of camaraderie, one that isn't worth anything practical, but at least they don't have to explain themselves to each other during this romp through Hell.

After a few hours he's having trouble keeping his eyes focused, and a sleeping guard is worse than none at all. His head's throbbing from dehydration. He tugs at the end of her sleeping bag. "Your turn. If I don't crash I'm going to doze and then we'll both end up dead."

Before he'd looked at her, Diana had watched him for awhile. It was hard to stop the paranoia that had hardwired itself into her system, demanding she never shut her eyes because who knew what could slither up while she was unaware. After finally managing to suppress it whilst on Stacy, now it was back with renewed vigor.

She didn't make eye contact, just grazed her gaze on his knees and notepad before rolling over, her back to him, staring at her own hand laid beside her. She'd need to sleep as much as possible, who knew when the next chance to rest would come up?

His scribblings make a noise, barely louder than a whisper, but FAYZ kids were used to laying in darkness listening for any sound. She forces herself to remember that it's Howard she's hearing and focuses on that. He wouldn't be writing if something was wrong. If he'd heard something or danger was near he'd stop. The scribbling means she's safe. Mostly.

So, she focused only on that noise and the lines of her open palm. Finally falling into a troubled sleep.

Her eyes snap open when he tugs. There's no bleary eyed teenager trying to roll over back to dreamland. Instead her pupils focus in record time and look him over, something flashes within them. Regret, is it? For their situation maybe? Either way, it's gone.

She nods and gives her slender a limbs a cat-like stretch before pulling herself from the sleeping bag. Butterfly from chrysalis.

Sitting on the previously used chair, she tucks her legs underneath herself, resting her chin on her knees and looking at him, corner of her lips tugging upwards. "Sweet dreams~"

Her naturally ability of observing shines through, making the whole 'watch duty' seem very casual, even if she is taking it very seriously. But she's an expert at acting cool.

To keep herself alert, she whispers and murmurs songs under her breath. Songs she can't believe she even remembers. Songs from before FAYZ.

Edited 2012-02-13 23:09 (UTC)

Unlike Diana, Howard lived with Drake/Brittney in the basement. He's used to tuning things out. Diana's songs barely leave a imprint on his memory as he drifts off. That doesn't mean he isn't alert. Even in sleep, there are certain noises that will rouse him instantly: doors opening, footsteps, glass breaking, wood rending. The scraping, clumping sound of Orc walking around.

It takes him about twenty minutes of listening to Diana sing to convince himself she's not going to ditch him here and take the car, but in a strange twist, he sleeps better now than he has in months. Possibly his body knows that it needs rest now, because there won't be any later. He's not going to waste a chance at recharging on petty nightmares and insomnia.

He sleeps and it's deep and dark and warm and silent, like the lights went down on all that bubbling paranoia and neurosis he totes around in his head. He wakes up and he's getting a migraine from the dehydration. The edges of his vision are blurry and vibrating. Not that he'd let Diana see that he's hurting.

"I'm up," he whispers, not needing Diana to rouse him. It's still dark but there's just a peek of light starting up outside, enough that even without the flashlight they can see silhouettes against the background. He curls his hand over the handle of his pocketknife in his jacket. "You ready to find water? We're not going to make it much further otherwise."

Maybe they would have back home, in humid SoCal. But they've been running, and there's no food to get moisture from, and it's arid climate.

"How's the arm?"

Diana licks her dry lips and she nods, throat feeling sandpaper lined. She swallows a few times so her voice doesn’t sound like a smokers.

“Better.” She answers bluntly, uncoiling herself from the chair and rolling the limb in question experimentally.

She gives her long hair a shake and looks out the window, expression unreadable before turning to him. “Let’s get out of here.”

"Good." Howard packs up what he can fill his pockets with without compromising his ability to run. His knife, the notepad, tape, a large empty pill bottle he found that they can use for at least some water. "Man, I already miss showers. Stacy spoils us."

The walk to the well is about a quarter mile across flat terrain, which Howard thinks is a very good thing. With the exception of the row of house blocking the view behind them, they can see anything coming at them from any direction. Although the thought that some of these evil beasts could fly or burrow up from the ground does occur to Howard. The ground is dirt, pressed hard, and as the sun rises they can see that it's cracked and parched.

For a while, he just listens, wondering if the sound of one of their crewmates or of the monsters will echo across this expanse. And once they're far enough away that the houses behind them are just dots in the background, it's pointless to listen more.

"You dream about anything last night?"

Diana walked in step beside him.

Her eyes flicker about the landscape constantly, casting hated looks at the cloudless sky and following the snaked scars in the thristy ground.

"Yeh, I did."

She always had dreams. Whether she wanted them was another story entirely.

"What about you?"

"Nothing. One bit of good luck for me on this whole stupid trip. Well, that and not getting eaten."

More than they can say for Cedric. It sort of amazes Howard that he's managed to put that out of his mind, mostly, but there isn't time or energy to mourn here. And even if there were, he wouldn't do it in front of Diana. Most of the kids in the FAYZ were too busy trying to get by to really mourn their parents or older siblings, either.

It's a trait he's held onto. Keep busy, it keeps the despair at bay.

The well is, in fact, an old-fashioned well, stone rim, bucket and all. But Howard's face falls as they approach and are hit with a pungent smell.

"Something died down there." No duh. It smells as if many, many things died down there. "Want to risk if it's still good?"

They could at least try boiling it or using iodine tabs once they get it back to their shelter.

Re: Diana and Howard

Re: Diana and Howard

Re: Diana and Howard

Re: Diana and Howard

Feel free to find other things, just no food, water or current tech.

Re: Feel free to find other things, just no food, water or current tech.

Re: Feel free to find other things, just no food, water or current tech.

Re: Feel free to find other things, just no food, water or current tech.

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