(closed) dark water draining north

[potentialman]

who: Megumi, Aventurine, and Noah.
what: Checking the condition of bridges off Manhattan Island.
when: After Aventurine's murmur message about not looking at the moon.
where: Northeastern Harlem.
warnings: Nothing yet; will edit as needed!



[ Megumi reaches the intersection ten minutes before the time agreed upon. For all his protests, it is probably best not to be doing this solo, and he recognizes that.

Aventurine just...grates his nerves. A lot.

There's not much in the way of wildlife in the area at the moment. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. Hopefully it's not all waiting to give them grief once they're en route.

He shoves his hands in his pockets and mentally reviews the route he's planned out. Straight east on 125th will get them to the Triborough Bridge. From there, it's just a matter of following the shoreline north, which will get them to another bridge relatively quickly, and then another three after that with a bit more time and distance. At least the first three should be enough to give them an idea of whether the island has been deliberately sealed off, but if there's doubt then going to all five might be necessary.

And if that still leaves them uncertain...well, hopefully they can get ahold of someone who's already farther south to begin with. The financial district will be a long hike in the city's present state. ]

Comments

[offseers]

[ he was a little surprised by aventurine's invitation but perhaps not that much. much like lortel, aventurine reminds him of alexandria. pleasant, but hedging his bets. hurt in the past has manifested into a guarded careful attitude. cultivating allies but never getting close.

he doesn't sense anything bad, so noah remains the same. he'll go along with it. and step in when he needs to. for now, he waits, doing a few sword training motions instead. this is not his usual Blade and thus, he keeps up the practice. he doesn't want to falter because he's unused to a weapon.

when someone arrives, noah doesn't pause, moving through the stances gracefully before he stops, sheathing the sword. ]

All set?

[sorte]

[ Aventurine is last, but he's still five minutes or so early from his committed time frame of being there. His face is neutral, breathing a bit heavy as, especially compared to these two, he's out of shape when it comes to stamina. Not to mention his choice of dress and footwear isn't exactly the best for long walks or runs, but whatever fashion over function, even in the apocalypse.

When he sees the other two, though, he plasters on a smile, as if flipping a light switch, like it's his job. ]

Ready when you boys are.

[potentialman]

You're coming too, Noah?

[ It's a surprise, but certainly not an unwelcome one. Given everything that's happened, one more person watching their collective back is a good idea, even if they're not doing anything quite as dramatic as going underground.

(Also, Noah is good company, which Megumi wouldn't say about everyone in this party, for sure.)

When Aventurine approaches, he eyes the man's shoes, a bit dubiously. ]

You okay to keep up in that?

[ Function absolutely over fashion, what is wrong with you??? ]

[offseers]

I was invited.

[ he gives a polite nod. like megumi, he does think the clothing is odd but he could see why it might be comforting. holding onto the vestiges of your self as this place. ]

It doesn't hurt to have more backup.

[sorte]

I figured you'd appreciate someone a bit more like-minded to your way of doing things. Also someone who knows how to actually do something beyond skid under a car if something angry shows up.

[ he's never shopped for sneakers in his life, okay? Trying on shoes when the sizes make no sense to you is also a long endeavor in the dark sucks...!

He hums at the question before exhaling. ]

Well... I won't say no if you have a shoe store rec on the way or anything.

[potentialman]

That's...unexpectedly considerate.

[ Who are you and what have you done with the guy who keeps pissing him off for the lulz. ]

...I mean, if I see a shoe store, I'll say something, but it's not like I know New York either.

[offseers]

Shoes are shoes, right? We can take our time looking through the windows as we go along and keep an eye out.

[ noah, practical to the last. he glances at the bridge, one hand resting on his blade. carrying it around is a pain but what can you do? ]

We should get moving though.

[sorte]

You're welcome. [ he has to keep you on your toes, Megs, and make it impossible to truly toss him in the garbage— at least not without thinking about it for one or two seconds. ]

Would be a lot easier to find things in this place if it wasn't stuck in a perpetual horror flick twilight. Earth isn't supposed to be tidally locked, right? You said you live on the other side.

[ he nods to Noah. ]

My feet thank you both. Lead the way.

[potentialman]

[ HIS SOUL WEEPS ]

Yeah, it shouldn't be. But with whatever's happened with the moon here...who knows.

[ But anyway. ]

Continuing straight east from here will get us to the first bridge. We can work our way north from there.

[offseers]

What exactly are we expecting to find?

[ he's a bit surprised aventurine is undertaking this. or perhaps aventurine is undertaking this because he roped megumi into this. ]

[sorte]

[ Yeah, so Aventurine kinda roped Megumi into this, because also he needed to get some space after a few of those Murmur exchanges. As much as he would like to ignore and pretend otherwise, he knows being petty as fuck and going to find Jayce to throw rocks at his window is a really unproductive way to blow off his agitations.

( Also, Jayce probably can pick him up with one hand and throw him like an American football if he wanted. This confrontation would very much be chihuahua versus at least german shepard territory. )

This is at least kind of productive while accomplishing the same thing mostly. ]

Those journal excerpts suggest that only the humans that went into bunkers survived the initial cataclysm brought on by the Lunar Anomaly. There's no mention of trying to contact the world outside of Manhattan, though. Maybe we're missing that part, but Megumi said we're on an island, meaning bridges connect it to the mainland. We don't know how far and wide this anomaly incident has spread beyond the island; but if all the bridges are destroyed in a certain manner, that suggests outside human activity still exists— or at least existed— beyond the bunker survivors to try and quarantine Manhattan off from the rest of the population. Sign that's the case, it's more likely the Lunar Anomaly devastation was localized rather than immediately global somehow. It'd be a pretty prove indicator, even, for human survivors if people this close to ground zero survived the knowledge wave while above ground to take such actions.

If the bridges haven't been destroyed, however, that's a much grimmer sign. Not guaranteed they're all wiped off the planet, obviously, it's a pretty big place, but Megumi says if this is an infection it could spread incredibly fast with the way technology and travel is, depending on government response.

...Of course, two weeks is a long time underground, and this strange lack of a day and night cycle could suggest other devastating effects and threats the rest of the world could be suffering, but... one thing at a time. ...On the bright side, as someone who has walked the dark side of many tidally locked planets, it's not nearly cold enough.

[potentialman]

[ Megumi's more than content to let Aventurine do the explaining, long-winded though he might be about it. Every introvert should have someone who does the hard work of filling up the silences.

...well, he's perfectly happy to just let the silences be silences, but not everyone is good with that. ]

If we do have a path off the island, then that raises new questions...but we can deal with that when we come to it. If we come to it.

[offseers]

[ noah nods. all he needed to know there was some kind of goal. megumi had explained to him what earth was so he was all caught up thankfully. though now he wonders how much megumi knows about what aventurine has faced. ]

Got it. Whatever we can find will be useful.

[sorte]

[ Lucky for the both of them, that's about it for Aventurine's long-winded chattiness until they actually get a bridge in their sights. Either he wore himself out with that initial one or he's just somehow not in the mood to keep being annoying with excessively talking about unimportant things.

Time for them to find out firsthand what they're dealing with regarding these bridges! ]

[potentialman]

[ It's a Christmas miracle?

Megumi's not about to start talking to fill the silence, anyway. He takes point as they move forward. It's grating, not being able to summon his shikigami to do the scouting, but he does his best to keep an eye in every direction at once and an ear open for anything that sounds like an approaching Host or three. ]

[offseers]

[ this is very weird.

not in a bad way, but he feels like both these people are . . . not relaxed with each other. it's such a change from traveling with the others. it reminds him of the early days. agnus and keves, formerly enemies, now forced to work together to survive.

it makes him smile, despite it all. early days. there's still hope. ]

[sorte]

[ this is a lot of walking.

he misses walking in areas that have climate control, too.

noticing that they're approaching the first bridge, Aventurine reaches into his coat and pulls out a small lightweight pair of binoculars he managed to salvage. They're not nearly as sophisticated as they could be if he could have gotten one of the ones with batteries or charging to work, but... they're better than nothing! They work better with more light, too, but Aventurine can at least see somewhat better than most people by now so they're definitely better than nothing. They also can help spot any trouble this way. ]

[potentialman]

[ Suck it up, buttercup! With the state of things here, there's a lot of walking (and running) in everyone's future, unless they want to just pick one place and hunker down until something gets them. (Whether that's Hosts, starvation, thirst, or exposure depends where they hole up, probably.)

Still, he has to admit that Aventurine is showing preparedness in other ways, even if his cardio could use some work. Binoculars were a good thought. Megumi hasn't run into anything similar in his own salvaging efforts, yet...but it's one more reminder that a sporting goods store would be a great resource, if he can find one.

He pauses. ]

I don't hear anything approaching. We're probably good to get a little closer, but the view from here should be okay too.

[ They're definitely close enough to tell if there's a bridge, but specifics about what's happened to it (if anything) would probably be easier if they close a bit more distance first. ]

[offseers]

[ noah looks across. it's hard to make out much. more buildings perhaps? this world is still a lot to deal with. and the stillness. he's kept an eye out for the animals and anything else, but it feels so quiet, this close to the edge. ]

Do we know what we're looking for? At all?

[sorte]

[ The bridge is destroyed, which isn't surprising overall, but Aventurine is going to use his binoculars to take a look at the other side. It doesn't look much better over there than it does here, so maybe the not much to complain about concerning the lack of access.

He exhales sharply when he focuses on the strange lineup of hosts standing there longingly with their attention skyward but (luckily) unable to get to this side. He wonders if that means this really is the epicenter of this madness? ]

...Well, we aren't looking for those guys, that's for sure.

[potentialman]

...what guys?

[ They're out far enough that the mass of (former) people aren't clear without the binoculars.

Megumi can, however, see that the bridge is fully gone, and the ends look to have been blown apart fairly cleanly. ]

If I had to guess, I'd say that the bridge looks to have come down deliberately, not in a freak accident.

[offseers]

[ he thought as much. it's not great confirmation, but any truths they can divulge is helpful. noah casts an uncertain look at the water. it's deep and there may be other creatures in there. he's fought his share of sea monsters, but like this? he doesn't fancy their chances. ]

No further. We won't make it without numbers.

[sorte]

[ Silently handing the binoculars over to Megumi.

He nods at Noah's warning. ]

[potentialman]

[ Megumi takes the binoculars, raises them to his eyes, and -- ]

What the fuck?

[offseers]

[ he doesn't need to see. noah already knew. this kind of place, this kind of event. it spreads. and no one escapes.

the moon is everywhere.

those poor people though. he nearly reaches for his flute and stops himself. they won't hear it from here. it won't mean anything. ]

I think we're done here for now.

[sorte]

Guess we should check on the others nearby?

[ he feels like it almost has to be the other bridges are out simply because there doesn't seem to be any unnatural influx of hosts in terms of numbers yet. That would be extremely obvious to them if the ones from the other side got over here, too, right? ]

Just to be sure.

[ more like he's not quite sure what else to do but wander for a bit longer with this new information. ]

[potentialman]

...yeah. I'd still like to do that.

[ Megumi's hopes aren't exactly up. If the first bridge was destroyed intentionally, as he believes, then there's no reason to think the others won't be the same.

But he needs to be sure.

He needs to feel like he's doing something, because the thought of going back and laying low and scrounging for food and firewood is a little too disheartening right now. ]

There are another three north up the coast, fairly close to each other.

[offseers]

[ his hopes are low. but he understands the reasoning so noah just gives a curt nod. ]

Yeah. Let's be absolutely sure.

[sorte]

[ Aventurine is not someone who wants to responsible for others, but in this moment he feels particularly responsible for these two especially because of their age. No matter what they've been through, things like this that crush hope are never easy to swallow, even if you're thoroughly prepared for it or your expectations are in the ground. And as much as he swears he doesn't care about the flights of others, he really doesn't like the young people having to go through this kind of environmental hopelessness that involves so many lives needlessly lost.

So, he straightens his posture a little, rolling his shoulders once as he goes to put his sunglasses on— more to obscure the glow of his eyes than anything else so it doesn't somehow accidentally attract unwanted company. He hasn't figured out if light attracts the hosts or repels them, and until he's sure one way or the other, he's not going to take chances, especially with the other two here as well.

His voice is gentle as he turns away from the bridge. ]

All right, come on, then.

[potentialman]

[ Megumi swallows past the lump in his throat and hands the binoculars back over to Aventurine. This isn't the time or place to let this get to him. He's given himself a job (check the status of the bridges, multiple, regardless of whether he thinks the first one says it all) and he's going to get it done.

Processing that information can happen later.

He turns to head north from the bridge. It's not going to check on itself. ]

[offseers]

[ noah is still arrested by the sight. people like that should be laid to rest. not puppeteered around. not having to suffer through the pull of the moon. if he wasn't pragmatic, he'd glance at it right now. the moon. once its light had been a beacon, a boon. something to believe in.

and here they were. finally he shakes his head, catching up. ]