caveofsapphires | smaller patch of fading sky [ open ]

smaller patch of fading sky [ open ]

WHO: EVERYONE. All PCs thus far will be in this log, through active tagging or implication.
WHAT: THRILLS. SPILLS. Hiking trip toward the Diamond City.
WHERE: The Overworld.
WHEN: Forward-dated to May 1st (Tuesday) through May 7th (Monday).
WARNINGS: May contain violence or other mentions of physical harm. This is not summer camp.
NOTES: More information can be found on the OOC post here. Please read it!

Gathered in the morning haze, Sleepers were brought to the mouth of the Cave with plenty of supplies and equipment. Compasses that would point them toward the City. Backpacks full of clothes and food, medical kits, tents and even weapons. Stun rifles and knives — to fight off any unwanted company, they said. ("Watch out for their bite," Ryan had commented. "Those fuckers are downright feral.") The straight and narrow path would get them there in six days if they kept a good clip. They were sent off just like that. Refusals to leave were met with a wall of guard force officers blocking the entrance back into the cave city. No way to go but forward, unless someone was particularly stalwart about remaining.

From the exterminator's station near the mouth, leaving the Cave was as simple as a short hike upward into the fresh air of the Overworld. Dust and an uncomfortable sort of heat pervaded the atmosphere, light winds stirring up the sand and teasing the meager bits of vegetation that had grown. No matter what direction you looked... it was all wasteland, cracked ground and desolate emptiness. Jutting up from scarred ground were boulders and small spires made entirely of glass and patches of stone; instead of reflecting the harsh sunlight, they seemed to absorb it and only add to the muted loneliness of the atmosphere. As far as the eye could see, there was no life to be found.

With no other option, the Sleepers eventually made their way onward.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mal's words were simple, but they made Re-l aware of something she'd been ignoring.

"We might have one strength they're not counting on," she said, as coldly as she could. "Each other. I'm not foolish enough to think there's much chance of all the Sleepers being friends, but we could at least pool our information."

Re-l sighed, and found it prudent not to mention that friends were something she'd never really understood. All it ever seemed to mean was complications.

She didn't want to dwell on that, and answering Mal's question was enough to provide a distraction.

"It's a long story," Rel said, "and even I don't understand all of it. My world died, you might say, a long time ago. Like here. There was a disaster, and more than a disaster. Eighty-five per cent of all life was wiped out. Humanity created some failsafes, though. One of which was a race of superhumans. Proxies. Designed to replenish the earth. And they in turn created their own peoples. Pseudo-humans like me."

Re-l bit the ball of her thumb savagely.

"I expected to find the crack in my story there. I'm completely infertile, after all. But they even accounted for that. Apparently I was sick as a child."

The infertility didn't bother her. She'd never wanted children. But the completeness of the illusory life she might have lived gnawed at her mind.

Mal scoffed quietly. She couldn't help herself. "Sounds simple enough, but look the collection of us." Gesturing broadly to the scattered group of people slogging through the sand, she raised her eyebrows. "We've got to communicate if we're going to pool our information, right? How would you organize this communication? It's not as though we're very well connected, or like each other, or have remotely similar experiences. What's the starting point?"

She had to admit a bit of shock at Re-l's admission. All of it was odd, but the discussion of her infertility struck Mal as uncomfortably personal. Not to mention completely out of Mal's area of expertise.

With an unusual amount of tact likely borne of discomfort, she averted her eyes from Re-l's face. "They pick up on strange details, apparently," was all she said.

Re-l grimaced.

"Don't look at me. But the less we talk, the easier their job is." She paused. "Whoever they are."

Tired as she was, Re-l felt energy coursing through her. There was only one thing worth finding in this desolate place, and she would find it. The truth. No matter what it took. And if she did find it, she might also find them. Pino. Vince.

The sun beat down on her face and neck, and she wiped away the sweat with a sleeve.

Re-l caught Mal's twitch, and watched her carefully. She had always had trouble with people, but even she could tell she'd said something wrong. She just had no idea what.

"Yes. If it is a story - if this isn't true," the and I don't believe for a second that it is was left unsaid, "then they know about our pasts, inside and out. Which is strange. Impossible."

Re-l sighed. She really was getting uncomfortable.

"I wonder what time it is?"

"Well, then." Mal stretched, hands clasped together above her head. "Let's talk as much as we can while we can. No telling what's coming."

For some reason, she had no real illusions about finding anyone she knew. Maybe it was because she wasn't all that close to anyone, not on any sort of deep level. There was no one she knew well enough to confide in, certainly. Having Polly around might be comforting simply because she knew Polly knew what she was doing, but they would not be having any heart-to-heart conversations.

Anyway, hoping would likely be futile. It was a big, empty world out here, and Mal had herself to worry about at the moment.

Making a face, she let her arms fall to her sides. "Intrusive. I'm sure there are things about their lives they don't want everyone knowing. Rude beyond belief." She was only half-joking. Honestly, she was perfectly fine with people not knowing who she'd been before she'd become a Black Ribboner. It was embarrassing.

Glancing at the sun, Mal calculated automatically. Assuming the sun worked the way hers had . . . "About four?" she hazarded. "Roughly."

"I haven't noticed anything unusual about the geography," Re-l said. "Or the physics. Basic laws of thermodynamics and gravity seem to hold. Not that I investigated. There are scientists here who could probably say more. Not my field. But enough to know that whatever is strange about this place, it isn't the world itself."

She rubbed her face, and took away a layer of grime.

"Yes. We all have things we'd rather not share." Re-l fliched a little, in her mind. "I wonder if even our minds are safe in this place."

She sighed. There was a convenient outcrop of rock coming up, small and sheltered from the worst of the dust. When she reached it she dropped down without ceremony, ignoring the movements of the group around her. She could always catch up, and her own health was more important.

"Four is a perfectly reasonable time to stop and eat, I think," she said.

There was fruit in her bag, as fresh as she could find, and oatcakes and cheese. It wasn't luxurious, but it was lasting. She bit in with hardened determination.

Nodding, Mal cast her eye across the landscape. So much nothing. "It's the emptiness that's odd," she commented. "I keep expecting there to be more animals and things. Aren't there supposed to be, even in a desert?"

Running the back of her hand across her forehead, she wiped away sweat and grimaced. Vampires didn't sweat. This was absurd.

"I think it's safe to start from a position of they aren't and go from there."

With a toss of her head, she managed to get her damp hair out of her face and followed Re-l to the outcrop. She was ready to rest, and Re-l provided interesting conversation. The food was less than luxurious, but she wasn't really hungry, not yet, content to nibble on the edge of an oatcake as she perched on the edge of a rock, one leg folded up underneath her. Very non-milit'ry. She grinned. "Delectable."

The food was good, and when you weren't walking, the warmth of the sun was quite plesant. Re-l felt the dust settling in her clothes and on her skin, worming its way into all the crevices of her body. It was going to take her a week to get clean after this march.

"Animals? Maybe? I think I'm somewhat biased by my memories." She took another bite of an apple. "But there should at least be insects, and there aren't."

The breeze had died down again, and the air was heavy and dry. Sweat collected on Re-l's forehead and the back of her neck.

"It might be worth drawing up a map," she said, biting into the apple again. "Even if it's rudimentary, it could be useful."

Mal, on the contrary, missed the movement of the air on her skin. She stretched out flat on the rock when she had finished her oatcake, looking up at the sky, and passed a hand over her face to block out the sun.

"There should be something," she agreed, "not just . . . miles and miles and miles of nothingness."

She considered the idea. It would be useful - if they ever wanted to get back to the Cave. But there was so much space out here, she wondered if there was really any point in drawing a map that would essentially just lead from point A to point B with no consideration for the entirety of the rest of the world.

"It might be useful, yes, but . . . Do you want to go back to the Cave?" she asked, honestly curious. Maybe Re-l was expecting someone.

"I think there was something here, once," Re-l said. She tossed her apple core far away into the sand and bit down on an oatcake. "This is all one giant ruin, we just can't see it."

The emptiness stretched out around them, hummming with pure silence. It made Re-l feel small, shrunk down to nothing in the vast and open space.

"I wasn't thinking about coming back," she said. "The Cave is full of mysteries, no doubt about that, but I don't think they're the ones I need to solve." She closed her eyes and turned her face to the sun. "No, I was thinking that if we knew the layout of the land, it might make the shape of things more obvious. But probably that would require an aerial survey, and somehow I don't see them letting us do that."

Mentally she added acquire an airship to her to do list.

"Oh, it must be," Mal agreed instantly. "There can't just have always been nothing - a City and a Cave and all this technology and nothingness in between. It doesn't make sense."

She should have looked at a map in the Cave. Why hadn't that occurred to her? Probably the fact that libraries weren't really big in Borogravia, where the literacy level was, what, 5%? They weren't big on statistics either. Still, she could read. She could have made use of the resources at her disposal.

Mal quirked her lips in slight amusement. "Well, Re-l, which mysteries do you need to solve?" she asked, humor apparent in her voice. "Are you looking for someone?"

Everyone was looking for someone, eventually, one way or another, but who, that was the telling thing.

Re-l nodded, stretching out her legs. It was nearly time to be walking again, and she wanted just a few minutes of peace.

"Mysteries? I just want the truth." Her eyes glanced back to the cave. "What else is there to want? And I hate not being told everything."

She bit her lip, unconscious of the movement, and added "Though it would be interesting to meet the people in my dream, if they exist here."

That was slightly too much information. She shut herself down, and her face became its usual cool mask.

"What about you? What do you want from this place?"

Everything about Mal was entirely relaxed, mouth curved in a pleasant smile, limbs stretched out on the rock. She blinked under the hand covering her face. Interesting.

"I suppose it would be interesting," she mused, "though improbable. Why present us with another crack in the story, a living thing from our dreams? If this is all some sort of story, if they want to use us for something, why present us with more doubt of their version of things? I wouldn't count on finding anyone, no matter how happy it might make you."

Her smile widened, revealing teeth.

"Well, I want to be a good citizen, of course, and go to this . . . coffee shop I'm supposed to work at, and pursue an education, and be Milena." She laughed, sounding delighted, and turned her head to look at Re-l. "Really, I'm just as curious as you are. I'd like the real truth, but the truth of this place is just as fascinating. We're going to repopulate a dying civilization, apparently, by our exalted presence. I'm flattered. Tell me more."

Rolling into a sitting position, she pulled the sack of coffee beans out of her backpack and popped several into her mouth, grimacing as she made a face. It wasn't right, not exactly, because the sucking was so important to the whole facade, but it would do for the trip. She just hoped the beans would last.

The sun was slipping lower and lower. Re-l couldn't claim much - or any - experience in estimating time, but it was definitely getting late. She moved into a more upright position and packed away the rest of her food.

"I don't expect to find anyone," she said, her voice cold. It was something of a sore point. "Expecting is not usually helpful. Although I don't agree that it would confirm the dreams. If their dreams were different, wouldn't it confirm this world instead?"

She was tighening the straps on her bag as Mal spoke, and when the laugh came her hands stopped for a moment, gripping the rough fabric tightly. Then they moved again, and Re-l moved with them, standing up. She stood over Mal - Milena - and looked down at her, watching the dark-haired woman pop the coffee beans into her mouth.

"Of course," she said, with no emotion at all in her voice. "The life they offer us is so very appealing." She swung the bag on her back. "It's probably unwise for us to spend too much time with any one person, just in case they are tracking us. And I wouldn't want to get you involved. I'll leave first."

She turned away and began to walk across the desert, her face perfectly blank, her eyes on the distant horizon.

Well. That was a very efficient dismissal.

Mal didn't say anything, watching Re-l go. She crossed her legs on the stone and let a bean rest on her tongue, relishing the bitter taste. It was a shame; she'd been interesting, clever, viciously sarcastic. Prickly. Not that Mal had a problem with prickly. Prickly people tended to be fascinating, and smarter than they had a right to be.

After a few minutes, she packed up and followed after Re-l. It would be easy enough to keep an eye on her in such a small group, and Mal had been intrigued enough to focus her attention. The woman had revealed a great deal before suddenly shutting down.

It would certainly make the journey a lot more interesting.

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