Sixth Iteration Logs

<div class="postheader">WHO: (Who is making the post)
WHERE: (Where the post takes place)
WHEN: (When the post takes place)
OPEN TO: (Who the post is open to tags from -- Specific characters, all, none, etc.)
WARNINGS: (Please warn for adult content or anything triggering) <hr></div>
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borneinblood

WHO: John Druitt
WHERE: Fountain/around town
WHEN: June 3rd
OPEN TO: OTA!
WARNINGS:

[Fountain]

The last thing Druitt is consciously aware of is seeing Helen vanish through Worth's portal, chasing him back across the timeline into the past; he feels, rather than sees, the massive shockwave of energy that coincides with portal's collapse as his vision fades away.

He comes to - and that's surprising in its own right - abruptly when he realizes that he's floating. It's only a moment later that he realizes that he's only doing so because he's submerged, eyes snapping open at the realization. And while it's certainly tempting to simply let the pull of the water take him and carry him away for good, or rather, would be if he'd stopped to think about it, he doesn't. Instead he reacts, kicking up towards the light without so much as a second thought.

A moment later, he breaks the surface, and for a brief moment he simply remains where he is, blinking. Partly because he doesn't recognize any of his surroundings, but also because he's not really certain what to make of the idea of finding himsel in the middle of a fountain. Eventually, though, he makes his way to the edge, hauling himself up and over with relative ease; a moment passes in silence before he turns to whoever happens to be nearby.

"You wouldn't happen to know where this is?"

(Elsewhere, on the network he doesn't yet know exists, a new name pops into existence: Jack the Ripper)

[Elsewhere]

Once he's gotten a reasonable explanation of where he is - if not necessarily why - Druitt takes to exploring the village. And given that he's still slightly damp, if not actively dripping, it's not too hard to guess that he's newly arrived, even if he doesn't look lost, the way some new arrivals can. Instead, he mostly tends to loom, although just at the moment it's the sort of looming that just kind of happens, when you happen to be as tall as he is. Still, he makes his slow way past most of the various landmarks of the village (such as they are), before he finally arrives at the Inn, where he drifts for a bit, before settling into one of the chairs to do a bit of people-watching.

Still, he tries to offer a polite nod to everyone who passes by, and is certainly not against a bit of conversation, if it should happen to come up.

markwatney

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: 6I Inn front lawn
WHEN: 21 June 2018, afternoon/evening and onward
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
NOTES: A few thinsgs: You may assume your character helped set up; There are tubers in pot with the red salt, negating the warmth effect; The list of of potluck dishes is here; The list of local provisions is here

The weather is great, the sun is starting to dip toward the horizon, and it's pleasantly mild. Time for an (extremely) old-fashioned low country boil.

We've got two small fire pits built out in front of the inn, each with a massive pot filled with loads of vegetables — corn, carrots, potatoes, onions — and of course the rainbow crabs Finnick and Annie discovered not long after we arrived here. We've even got salt, if you can believe it, although the red salt in this place is pretty spicy and usually makes me sweat, so I've only put it in the one pot, and then set a bowl of it out for garnishing.

Tables and chairs have been brought out from inside, a couple of them set aside specifically for piles of plates, bowls, cups and whatever potluck provisions the rest of the village brings.

frankensteinian

WHO: Erik Lehnsherr
WHERE: The storage rooms, the village headed for the woods
WHEN: June 16
OPEN TO: Anyone
WARNINGS: None yet

He had thought, for a few days, that perhaps they had just missed each other. They're both busy, after all, and they don't live in the same place. They hadn't seen each other every day anyway. But after days of not seeing her around, and seeing no signs of her at her house, Erik has been forced to the conclusion that Claire is now among those who have disappeared from this place. One more loss to add to the list. It hasn't gotten any easier to handle than it ever has been before, but at least this time he can't tear the world apart just by thinking about it. Good for the world, but bad for him.

It's a good thing he lives alone, because the chair that he sends flying across the room to crash into a wall could have hurt someone. Instead the only harm is to the chair itself as it splinters. It's the sight of them, and the awareness that now he doesn't have that chair for sitting in anymore, that gets through to him. There has to be a more productive way of dealing with this.

Whoever's behind this. They brought him here, they brought her here, they must have taken her away again. They're the ones he should mad at. There's just one problem: he doesn't know who they are. Or how to find them. Or what he could do about it even if he found one of them. But he's not a quitter; there have to be answers out there somewhere, and he won't find them by remaining here.

It only takes an hour. He empties out the backpack from his arrival and fills it back up again, with an extra set of clothes, a little food, blankets, any supplies he has lying around. Then he heads to the communal store rooms to see what he can find. No tent, but he grabs an Army tarp and a rope. He can rig something up with those. A survival kit, and a hatchet, for chopping wood. Everything he might need for a wilderness camping trip.

They've found places belonging to them before, though he hasn't heard of it happening since their arrival in this new place. There must still be places out there somewhere, and he's not returning to the village until he finds one. Does he actually know how to survive out in the woods for that long? No, but that's no concern to him. He'll do what he always does: wing it.

With his backpack loaded up and his arms full, he sets out in a random direction, headed for a place where he thinks something had been found before.

tosavecocoon

WHO: Oerba Dia Vanille
WHERE: Fountain, Inn, edges of the 6I village, outside the village
WHEN: June 1st through 4th
OPEN TO: Everyone! - Helen for the arrival part, but everything else is completely open
WARNINGS: might be a general death and people turning into monsters/crystal zombies warning in her narratives about Oerba and l'Cie, but TBD otherwise

June 1st - arrival ~~FIRST COME FIRST SERVED~~ HELEN

They had all made a promise. To not let anything happen to Cocoon. Every single one of them wants to try to change their fates. The crystal or Cie'th choice is clear, but so is the choice to defy that fate and save the world. They stand at the end of the path to Orphan's Cradle, ready, minds made up. Vanille is ready to face her fate, for once. Her promise is the strongest. Cocoon is important to her new family and, through her travels with them and everything that had happened to her since she woke up in the vestige, Cocoon became important to her as well. She grips her weapon with both hands, nodding. She is more than ready to end this. Taking a deep breath, she opens her eyes.

And finds herself no longer standing at the door to Orphan. Instead, water surrounds her and beyond that stone walls. It takes every shred of willpower she has not to scream or thrash. She'd lived near water long enough to know how to swim and what not to do when suddenly submerged. For all she knows this could be another fal'Cie trick anyway. Kicking her feet, she reaches for the surface, held back by whatever is around her shoulders. She'll figure that out later. The important thing is not drowning.

It feels like forever before her head breaks the surface of the water and she practically throws herself against the edge of the wall, clinging to it as she sucks in as much air as she can. For a few minutes, she'll stay here, trying to catch her breath, and then she'll figure out how to climb out of this. There's no bottom that she can see and she doesn't think she can dive far enough to find out, so up it will be.

Later. Once she's caught her breath.

June 1st to 4th - outside/Inn

She feels a bit strange, almost as though she doesn't belong, but that's mostly due to being so new. The village itself reminds her so much of Oerba that it hurts. There are no Cie'th wandering the town streets, no crystal ash falling from the sky. No Cocoon as a backdrop to everything. She stops along the street for a moment, shading her eyes against the sun so she can see as far as possible. She's been kidnapped somehow and dropped here in this village that is so similar to Gran Pulse that she half expects to see an oretoise in the distance. Or a chocobo flock. At this point, she might even take a behemoth just for the memories.

Sighing to herself, she continues on her way, eventually making it to the Inn and stepping inside. She doesn't really know how things work here, even with an explanation or two, so she makes her way into the kitchen, mostly looking at what's available. One hand lifts to rub her chin thoughtfully before she lets it fall, pointing a finger at a soup bowl.

"So... do I have to contribute something to be able to take food?" she asks the nearest person. It wasn't like that in Oerba, but from her experiences on Cocoon, the few days she'd spent in Bodhum, she'd learned that not everything was communal. Sometimes a person had to work for something or have credit chips or gil to be able to buy anything. Either that or someone's good will would provide.

On the 2nd and 3rd days, she comes back like clockwork, mostly to eat and meet the people. She's very friendly, taking a seat out in the middle for the specific purpose of being able to ask questions. She does her best to fit in, but so far it hasn't been a bad thing to be new. It's not like Cocoon where people are afraid of the l'Cie shadow. Even so... she hasn't exactly brought that up and isn't planning to for a while.

On the 4th, she stops coming and indeed it might seem as though she has vanished entirely. In reality, she's gathered a few supplies and decided to take a trek outside the village to see what she might find. She'll be happy to have company if anyone wants to join her, but she isn't expecting it. Honestly, she doesn't know quite where she'll end up. She just knows that she's following one of the river branches out towards the southwest. Who knows what she'll find?

zomboligist

WHO: Ravi Chakrabarti
WHERE: Behind the Inn
WHEN: May 23
OPEN TO: OTA!
WARNINGS: (Please warn for adult content or anything triggering) Gravedigging, brains, zombieism talk

It's probably alarming, but in the early hours of the morning, Ravi has been out with a shovel, digging up graves that he'd once put bodies into. It had been something he's been wary about ever since Major started showing symptoms, because maybe if he could somehow find old brains, he could at least keep Major off the animal ones.

Unfortunately, days of digging in the exact place he remembers the corpses being yields nothing but dirt on his face and frustration. He needs to figure out some sort of solution that's more viable (and horrifically gross as it sounds, tastier than what they're doing). Unfortunately, replicating myelin is a strange idea to begin with and that's with a postulation that the myelin is what's causing the zombie to be fed.

So here he is, another early hour, trying yet another grave site that he thinks might be the location of one of the bodies he'd performed his autopsies on. If this is a bust, then he's going to have to resort to trying to lure the new animals into a trap of some kind and hope that possibly, the brain chemistry or the effects of one of their new friends can help to keep Major fed without him resorting to wanting to hoard nuts for the winter every single time.

Sticking the shovel in the ground, he wipes at the sweat of his brow, having dreadful flashbacks to the days of their delightful tainted utopium searches and he knows, more than ever, that this is absolutely not the sort of life he wants to keep on repeating.

Grateful it's hardly sweating season, Ravi stares at the large mess he's made, realizing he'd started far too late today and he's definitely appearing to audition for town gravedigger with absolutely no intentions of taking that job, but honestly? He's just absolutely too worn to do anything but stare right now, because the emptiness is too much to handle.

sixthiteration

WHERE: Lawn in front of 6I Inn
WHEN: Morning, April 5
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
WARNINGS: n/a

The day dawns bright and just a little cool, soft mist rolling over the distant mountains as the forest stretches and yawns in the breeze. It's another beautiful morning in this new-old village, just waiting for its inhabitants to begin filling it with the work of the day.

But this day, there is a surprise. A gift, if you will, not unfamiliar to the old timers, although they know too that sometimes these gifts come with strings.

On the lawn in front of the 6I inn, all of the tables, chairs and even the bar has been moved out into the breaking sunshine. A breakfast feast has been arranged, tables piled high with every imaginable delicacy and comfort food of a certain era: Muffins, toast, coffee, fruit, pop-overs, crumpets, lamb chops, porridge, hot chocolate, biscuits, and every kind of egg, just to start. Even the bar is stocked for those itching for mimosas, mint juleps or irish coffee.

Of course, anyone who has spent time in the wilderness can tell you: In a place gone wild, it's only a matter of time before the scent of food draws in unwanted visitors. Eat up while you can, villagers; you may be sharing your plate soon.

[Please read details here!]

ethnobotany

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: Medieval Sim!
WHEN: March - whenever people involved opted for it. Beverly is March 18-28
OPEN TO: Anyone who bought points for the Medieval fantasy Reality Altered sim - IT IS A MINGLE POST
NOTES: From the plot discussion page: Opted-in characters will disappear from the main 6I sim.
WARNINGS: TBD

Kingdoms are often in conflict with each other, wars break out. Famine, plagues, or just plain old territorial disputes. Of course, there's also the dragon that's made its home at the top of the neighboring mountain range, but no one likes thinking about that too hard. Or the camp of giants they've heard tell of on the other side of those mountains. Most of this small kingdom likes to pretend they don't exist or pray to some god or other that they will stay on the other side and ignore the people here. So far, it's worked.

But it may not work forever.

The kingdom itself is sprawling and generally enjoys peace, as long as the nobles and various magic-users get along. So... no more than any other kingdom. At any rate, it isn't abnormal in most ways, although that could be a good thing or a bad one. Whatever the case, the smoke rising from the top of the highest mountain seems to have doubled in the last few days and no one thinks that a good thing.

(( ooc: this is a mingle post for everyone involved in the medieval fantasy sim. make your own top-levels, tag around, and have fun! setting left fairly generic so anyone who wants to add to it, let me know what details to add to the main post here. anything goes! ))

ethnobotany

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: Starting outside House 20, Inn, hospital, and anywhere outside in both villages
WHEN: March 4-10
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: To be determined. Will update as needed

March 4th

Mist isn't usually a bad thing on most planets Beverly has been to. On her home planet, Caldos, it's usually very lovely, especially in the mornings. But if there's anything that exploring the galaxy, and especially being trapped here for so long, has taught her it's that mist is an unknown. Mist can be bad.

So one morning, when she first spots it rolling through the area, she watches it from the front porch of the house with no small amount of wariness. She's suspicious of it and now on high alert. With any luck, it will prove to be simply the good doctor developing a sense of paranoia after all these months of being stuck here.

She makes her normal rounds through the Inn to make sure nothing's amiss and then heads out to the hospital for her normal shift.

March 5-10

It may have taken her over a year to figure it out, but she's definitely avoiding the Inn for a while. At least until she can tell that the effects have worn off. The last thing she wants is to be stuck in there again while she's like this, spewing out the actual truth for all to hear and shattering the Prime Directive while she does. She's got enough trouble trying to juggle it as is; she doesn't need this.

For all that she isn't normally the type of person to keep herself isolated, she's been trying to avoid the vast majority of people. She does still show up for her time in the hospital mostly because she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't make herself available and someone needed her. But she tries to keep to herself and doesn't say much unless prompted. There are far too many ways this could go terribly wrong.

Eventually, she starts avoiding people in the mornings, keeping herself inside House 20 and eventually taking walks around both villages, in an effort to see where the mist has permeated and whether or not she's the only one who's been affected. She still mostly keeps to herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her body and a frown of concentration and worry on her face. If anyone tries to catch her attention like normal, she won't turn them away, but they might find that she has some... interesting things to say.

3ofswords

WHO: Kira Akiyama
WHERE: House 42 (Mark and Helen)
WHEN: January 13/14 - during the snowstorm
OPEN TO: Mark, Helen, Ravi
WARNINGS: Will put in tag headers if any arise beyond smoking weed and going stir crazy.

Stay the night, Mark had said; it looks awful out there, he'd said.

It looks a lot worse in the half-light of day, the sun obscured by clouds, the trees visible in how they whip and bow to the wind, until they disappear behind the falling snow. Kira's hardly at his best after a night on the couch, listening to the wind howl and his fucking goat clopping around the room. Goats are kind of inherently creepy, and they're ten times worse in the middle of the night.

But she's his, and there's no telling if it's the weather or something worse that has them down a bit of livestock.

Point is: there's a cramp in his shoulder, a goatlick of hair slicked out over his scar, and the plans to let her out in the morning are not going well. "Hey guys," he calls to the waking household, "The porch is basically gone." The wind has apparently been bad enough to pack snow against the front of the house; Kira is surprised enough by the sight, and bleary enough after sleep, that he stands there a moment staring at the wall of it.

The goat takes seconds to push past him, headbutting the barrier and making it fall in on top of her. The layer carries on in a slope, and the wind starts to blow the still-falling snow back toward him. Anyone coming into the room will find a goat bleating helplessly as she shakes herself out of the pile, and Kira trying to nudge her out of the way with his foot, unable now to close the door against the wind and snow.

[Four adults, one goat, two days. Free for all post for individual and multi-person threads.]

thegreatexperiment

WHO: Sam Moon
WHERE: The Inn's kitchen
WHEN: January 8 (Sam's birthday)
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Language, rumination on violence and death

When you didn't get older, birthdays kind of felt like a joke. At least, that had always been Sam's feeling on the matter. She wasn't really sure where she stood right now, considering the situation. But all she really wanted was to spend the entirety of her birthday in a blanket fort, watching all three of the original Space Wars movies on her iPad. Unfortunately, as so often seemed to be the case, the fates were conspiring against her. Actually, she had pretty much come to the conclusion that it was somehow her own fucking fault she'd been abducted and tossed into this Skinner Box, but Sam had a habit of passing off blame when she could. So it was obviously the fucking fates.

And Karen, of course. She loved blaming Karen for things. And visions of the night they met--her "other birthday," as Karen euphemistically called it--kept going through her head.

( CW: Violence and Blood )

To banish the thoughts--really, all of her thoughts, Sam wandered into the kitchen. In the last few weeks she'd become increasingly obsessed with trying to figure out how to build a still. They had potatoes after all. Potato vodka couldn't be that hard. Applied chemistry wasn't her area of expertise, but she figured the challenge would only help keep her mind off of...things.

So her birthday would be spent in the kitchen. Quietly humming It's My Party by Leslie Gore under her breath, she experimented with whatever glasses, tubes, and burners she could rig up. In between each attempt, she would pause to write up a full debrief in the little notebook Jude had given her. Occasionally, birthday cakes and balloons would sneak into the margins of her notes.

notdrfrasier

WHO: Carolyn Lam
WHERE: The Fountain and the Inn
WHEN: December 15th
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None yet but will update if needed

Water. That's the first thing that Carolyn Lam thought about as she came to. She was in water and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out how she got there. One minute she had been at her desk at the SGC gong over the medical tests for one of the teams and then she was suddenly immersed in water.

Breathe.

She had to breathe. Kicking her legs, she propelled herself up as she fought to hold her breath. She could see what looked like sunlight dancing across the surface, at least she hoped it was the surface. And she kicked a little harder, trying to hurry her ascent. She couldn't die in the water, she had to... And then she was breaking through the surface and sucking in a deep breath as she floundered for a moment.

Cursing in her mind, she paddled to the edge of, God, she didn't even know. A freakin fountain? She sighed as she threw her arms over the ledge and held on for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Holding on didn't last long because it was colder than the water and she knew she needed to get out before she caught hypothermia. Somehow she gathered the strength to pull her entire body out of the water and she very ungracefully rolled off the ledge and onto the ground.

She didn't even care. She was out of the water and that was what was import for the moment. She knew she needed to move, needed to find some sort of shelter before she began to try and figure out where she was and how she could contact the SGC, but first, she just needed to catch her breath. She wouldn't close her eyes, she would just rest there for a few minutes.

Somehow she had ended up at the Inn. If anyone had asked her how she had got there, she wouldn't have been able to answer. But, she was warm and sitting before a fire with a blanket wrapped around her. There was a bowl of some sort of stew in front of her, but... She wasn't so sure it would be a good idea to eat anything in this strange place.

Instead, she was looking around, watching the people who were also in the Inn. They didn't look weird, or primitive but they didn't exactly look like they were space age either. No one she could hear was talking about a God or anything... Which was strange because she was pretty sure some Goa'uld had managed to beam her out of the SGC and plop her... Well, where ever she was.

Carolyn knew that once she was dried, she was going to have to explore and try and figure things out. She was also going to have to try and find a gate. Hopefully there was one there. But if a Goa'uld had dropped her there... There had to be a gate. God, she hoped there was a gate because she wasn't sure how she'd get off the planet if there wasn't one.

Her stomach grumbled, breaking her thoughts. She looked around quickly, really hoping that no one had heard and then she was reaching for the bowl of stew. Her nose wrinkled a bit but... Oh, she didn't know.

theluckygirl

WHO: Claire Temple
WHERE: Around her house (#3), inn and the clinic
WHEN: December 9th & 10th
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Injury, blood and some cursing

[ December 9th - around house #3, inn, clinic for things and clinic ladies hen party!) ]

It was yet another day and Claire was really feeling the repetition, but the nurse had very little energy that morning and while it didn't particularly show in the way she carried herself, it was in the very 'bored' looking face she presented to people. The previous nights sleep wasn't great, but she kept on with her routine which started with stopping at the clinic briefly to check on the empty beds before hitting up the inn for (hopefully) some coffee and a bite.

Afterwards, she headed by the fountain to check for signs of new arrivals and when it seemed it would be another day to get through the rest of, Claire headed back to the clinic to see what sorts of things she could "organize". Again.

[ December 10th - forest area and back at the clinic ]

Not sleeping much better again, Claire decided to go to the place where Clint took her to get some more firewood and though she was sure she'd be able to find her way back, there was a complete loss of direction when her ears picked up a sound and spun her into a different direction.

Seeing a deer dart off the other way, the nurse dropped the wood into the sling she brought along and started back. Yet after five or so minutes, Claire felt her energy deplete and before she knew it, the terrain changed to mark the realisation that she wasn't going the right away. Instead of the fairly flat land, it abruptly changed into something far more challenging. Only after muttering a worried 'shit' did she hear the distant sound of rushing water - the waterfall - and was smart enough to know that was NOT a sound heard from the village. So she turned herself away from it, hoping it would set her back on the path home.

It would eventually, but not until after Claire tripped on an exposed tree root that sent her tumbling down into a rocky ravine. By the time she finally stopped rolling, her left arm was bleeding badly, ankle throbbing painfully and her face felt like it did after the Russians beat her up for information on Matt.

Thankfully, she could see the river through the trees and that was a landmark she knew would take her back.

It was early evening when she finally limped her way into the clinic and slowly set out to find a suture kit in one of the EMS backpacks. Over the next hour, anyone that stopped by would see Claire putting herself back together again.

sixthiteration

WHERE: 6I Inn
WHEN: 10 November, all day
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE POST
NOTE: Details can be found here.

In the wee hours of November 10th, before even the earliest risers have roused themselves for another day, items begin to appear in the front room of the Inn. Decorations first — Boughs of autumn leaves in their reds and golds, wreaths of dried flowers and silken ribbon, flickering candles among the goards and berries and acorns. The food arrives next, the decadent aroma slipping up the Inn stairs to tempt those lingering in bed — Every imaginable harvest time delicacy, from roast turkey and ham to smoked salmon and oysters; fresh, soft bread warm from the oven to plum pudding and ice cream. And did we mention pie?

Once again, it's time for a feast. The bar is stocked, the coffee is brewed and the tables are groaning with food. Indulge, there's more than enough for everyone — That is, if you don't lose your appetite worrying about what it will all cost.

zomboligist

WHO: Ravi Chakrabarti
WHERE: Under a delicious tree (an evil, delicious tree)
WHEN: October 17th
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: Ferrets, mischief, swearing

There is a ferret currently pawing at a sweater vest near one of the trees on the outskirts of town.

This isn't a sentence that Ravi would've ever assembled prior to this place, and yet, now it feels commonplace. If he weren't currently in a little ferret body, he might even feel compelled to squeak about how this place is awful. No. Wait, squeaking is for right now, which is what he's doing. It's all that bloody apple's fault for looking so green and perfect, and if someone's going to change you into a ferret after a few bites, he thinks he ought to be warned.

Of course, right now, maybe his priorities are a little off. First, there had been the immediate 'oh, fuck, I'm a ferret', and yet, after that, Ravi didn't think about switching back instantly. No, instead, he's far more concerned about the fact that he'd been wearing one of his best shirts and sweater vests and they're currently all in a pile where someone might step on them or, worse, might take them for their own. That won't do.

This is how there's come to be a tiny little angry Ravi-ferret pawing and clawing at the sweater vest to try and figure out a way to drag it with him back to his and Major's place. No opposable thumbs rule out hands, which means that teeth are next. That is, teeth are next until heavy footsteps and a looming shadow above him makes Ravi realize just how small he is and just how much he currently detests that stupid apple for making him like this.

What if it's permanent? What if he has rabies?

What if their dog eats him?

Letting out a panicked and angry squeak, Ravi clambers to protect his clothes ever the more, while simultaneously hiding behind one of his boots in case he ends up accidentally pelted by an over-eager kick.

theluckygirl

WHO: Claire Temple
WHERE: Fountain and settling in
WHEN: September 2 - 4
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None, but will updated if necessary

[Fountain]

Like probably a lot of other people, once Claire was out of the fountain and able to look around, there wasn't much convincing that this was all some crazy dream. How else would one explain being teleported from the second largest city in the world to a place that looked like the population barely met 100.

And as nuts as her life had become, there was no way this involved the Hand.

Oddly enough, even though she kept telling herself it was a dream, it didn't feel like one. Physically and mentally speaking. She felt wide awake. So, Claire sat there soaking wet, looking at the fountain, trying to figure it out as she pulled the bag off her back and opened it up to hopefully find more clues.

"You know what this is, Claire? This is you finally cracking." she muttered to herself.

[Around the Village]

So, she wasn't crazy, but this was still insane and what made it worse was that Claire was by herself. No Luke, no Colleen, or Danny. Hell, she would have been happy to have Jessica around to share in the absurdity of the place. Then again, no. Having Jessica there would likely result in a lot of beaten up people.

But it would keep her busy.

Thoughts such as these ran through the nurses head as she explored the area over a couple of days. She checked out the inn and the hospital, which were both a stones throw from the house she claimed for herself. Everything else was more or less found as she walked past it.

And despite the new face looking calm and relaxed, she was doing a little freaking out on the inside. Oh, she definitely didn't want to be there. But by the third day in, she was quite aware that going home wasn't going to be happening any time soon.

zomboligist

WHO: Ravi Chakrabarti
WHERE: Hospital / Casa di Helen & Mark
WHEN: Anytime between August 7 - 10
OPEN TO: Mark, Helen, Kira, Major
WARNINGS: n/a

It ought to be strange, really, taking your best friend from a world before and hiking him around for all your new friends to meet, but Ravi is somewhat determined to make sure that the people he feels closest to here really do like Major, especially seeing as he's going to end up picking up his life and moving in with him, mainly in an attempt to reclaim some of home again, but also because it's Major. How can he not move in with him and have incredible roomie shenanigans, again?

"They're going to love you," he vows, promising Major like he's the one who needs the pep talk instead of Ravi who needs a little bit of encouragement to sort of get over the fear that any of his friends are going to meet Major and, well, and not like him. He takes Major by the shoulders and stares at him like he's about to give him some sort of sports-related pep talk.

He doesn't, though, mainly because it would just make Major cringe and then Ravi would cringe with embarrassment and generally, it just wouldn't go over well. There's no time like the present, though, which is why he steers Major in the direction of the door, one hand draped around his shoulders like he's proudly showing off his latest creation (even if that sort of mad science has never been his bag of cats), plastering a broad smile on his face.

"Guess who has two thumbs and found a best friend?" he says, gesturing to himself, then to Major, then quickly back to himself. "I'd like to introduce you to Major Lilywhite. Yes, that is his name," Ravi says. "It's an unfortunate American thing, I think."

enterprisingheart

WHO: Jean-Luc Picard
WHERE: The fountain and around town
WHEN: 8/4
OPEN TO: Everyone!
WARNINGS: None at the moment; will update as necessary

The Fountain

With first contact with the Vulcans successfully (re-)established, the trouble with the trouble with the Borg dealt with, and the timeline (presumably) set back on it's proper path, Picard had, generally speaking, assumed that they'd make their way back to the 24th century and whatever inquiry might be awaiting them. Instead, he comes to and finds that he can't breathe, eyes snapping open a moment later to find that he's underwater. Which explains the former, at least, but not why he's here instead of on the Enterprise. Which isn't to say that he has any significant complaints, when it means postponing what would almost certainly have been a visit from Temporal Investigations, but it's not anything that he can he'd be expecting either.

But there's no time to dwell on the fact. He might not know why he's ended up underwater - or where - but he can see light coming from above, and that's better than nothing.

He breaks the water's surface a moment later, coughing and blinking as he begins to haul himself out of the fountain. As beginnings go, he thinks to himself, it's not a terribly auspicious one. But he's alive, even if he feels half-drowned, and just at the moment, he'll take that.

Out and About

Once he's had some time to get his bearings - helped a little bit by an explanation from Beverly - and has figured out where he's going to be staying besides, Picard takes to the streets. Such as they are, anyway, but the point is more figuring out the lay of the land. And what they have to work with besides - explanation or no, he much rather prefers to actually see things himself. And if that also comes with the opportunity to talk to some of the people he hasn't already met.

The earthquake catches him off guard, small though it is, for all that it's mostly that he hadn't thought to expect any tectonic upheaval.

"Never a dull moment, I see."

He's not really directing the comment at anyone. But it's spoken loudly enough to be easily heard, and the last thing he's about to do is stop someone from chiming in if they should care to.

pretendtoneedme

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: 6I's Town Hall
WHEN: July 10th
OPEN TO: Everyone who wants in. There will be one subheader for welcoming back the group and one for the actual meeting
WARNINGS: Nothing so far; please add headers in the comment subjects if something does come up that could be problematic

The return is, when everything is said and done, uneventful. The group who went to explore the break in the canyon walks back into the village in the early afternoon, laden down with most of the supplies they'd brought with them and without any obvious injury. There's some scratches, a couple bruises, but whatever had happened to seal them away from the village for a week definitely didn't happen to them, and they're not buzzing with any news so world-shattering that everyone needs to be collected and reported to at once. There's enough time for the group to separate and grab showers, clean clothes, and something to eat, while the word passes from person to person that the explorers have returned and that there's going to be a meeting right after dinner for them to explain what they've found and answer questions.

At the appointed time, the five of them are there, looking less ragged, and ready to talk. They've brought a few things back with them to show the others in the village, but all in all there's just not a lot to show about the other side that's different - except for that one, giant thing. But the non-changes are going to be shocking enough for most people, and decisions have to be made about what to do with the information they have now.

notsocommon

WHO: Helen Magnus
WHERE: 6I village, canyon breach, 7I village
WHEN: 2 - 10 July
OPEN TO: Bodhi Rook, Ned Stark, Mark Watney, Clint Barton
WARNINGS: None at this time.

As happened the last time an expedition was mounted, Helen found herself as part of a team to go and investigate something at the edge of the known world. This time, though, the known world had expanded to great degree and it seemed that the canyon that had hemmed them in and been the bane of all those trying to escape the last several months had rent in twain, leaving them with another side of the world to push forward and survey.

Of those she found herself traveling with, only Mark was truly familiar to her. She knew the others in passing, yes, but knowing faces and part of a name weren't the same as knowing someone and she hoped that they were as stalwart and competent as they seemed to be upon first glance. All of them seemed well aware of what such a trek was going to entail, at least, and Helen wasn't concerned that she'd end up having to carry a load bigger than she'd intended in asking them along.

She wished, as always, that she had supplies to be able to draw a map or make notes about the lay of the land beyond the breach. While she knew the forest and fields beyond the village well enough, everything beyond the canyon wall was going to be new territory entirely and she wanted some way to memorialize it for the others. She hoped that someone else had access to paper and pen, that someone would be willing to give up such a precious commodity for the good of the community and for the furthering of knowledge. Supplies gathered and goodbyes said, the hike was begun to the edge of the known world and into the great beyond.

"I have no idea what's beyond this breach," Helen said. "I cannot even speculate, since none of us have been able to climb it. Geology was never my strong suit."

notsocommon

WHO: Helen Magnus
WHERE: woods, river, butcher's shop
WHEN: 10 June - 12 June
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: TBA
STATUS: Open

i. ❝ the year's at the spring ❞

Helen found that paper was a precious and limited commodity around the village and the bits and scraps she had leftover from her gifts over the winter were rapidly dwindling. She had written on every inch of paper as best she could, cramped writing fitting every square of space, and she was reminded for not the first time of Carentan and how things had to be made to last and last again well beyond their original expiration date. In this, she felt her age for one of the first times in her long life. She felt as her friend Tolkien had once described thin, like butter scraped over too much bread and facing her mortality head on wasn't a position she thought she'd ever find herself in.

She didn't particularly face it head on now if she could help it. This morning she'd found herself in the woods hunting for herbs but, honestly, they were few and far between. The sun was up nearly all the time now and while it flirted with the horizon, it never sank beneath it at night. The best they got was a few hours of near-twilight but no true night fell over the land and hadn't for the past several days. To add insult to injury, it was stifling hot and miserably dry. The grasses had either been eaten down to the earth by the grazing animals or withered and dried up.

Her basket woefully empty aside from some indigo for dyeing, she made her way back to the village, brow furrowed a bit with worry. She made a note in her already-cramped notebook: Sun - constant. Arid. Vegetation scorched.

ii. ❝ the hillside's dew-pearled ❞

Later in the day (for a given definition of day, anyway), Helen made her way down to the river to make observations there. It was dangerously low, the banks exposed to a worrisome degree. Much of their food came from the river by way of fish and if they didn't have that resource and the plants were scorching under the bright sun, what were they going to eat? Rations would need to be put into place regardless but this was escalating to a degree that had Helen wondering if they ought not call a meeting to discuss it. It was something she would certainly be discussing with Mark and Ravi when she got home to see if they ought to bring it to the village at large; her roommates were always a good sounding board for such things.

The bright sun glinted against something bronze and shiny against the dried mud of the riverbed and she picked it up, uncertain of what it could possibly be. It appeared to be some sort of arrowhead but she knew the people here who fletched and made arrows typically used flint for them, not bronze. This was something that didn't seem to fit with the activities that the residents normally engaged in and she slid the arrowhead in her pocket, intending to ask about it once she'd gotten back to the village. Perhaps the others might have a better idea as to what it could possibly be.

iii. ❝ all's right with the world ❞

In spite of the strange happenings of late, some things never changed and one of those things was the need for soap. A village like theirs with about five dozen people, give or take, went through a good bit of soap both for personal bathing and for laundry. It took a lot of Helen's time each week to make soap, cut it, leave it to dry and to distribute that which was ready to be used. Each batch of soap had to be cured for at least three weeks to a month before it could be used but given the bright, beating sun of the past month or so she'd had luck with curing soap for much less time.

"The only good thing to come out of this bloody heat is that I can turn over the soap much faster," Helen muttered, stepping outside the butcher's to get away from the hot lye and fat mixture bubbling over the fire and get some sort of relief. It wasn't coming to her here, given it was nearly as hot outdoors as it was inside, but at least she could fan herself and get a chance to get a few deep breaths without inhaling the scent of soap-in-process.

She slid off her t-shirt, standing in just her bra for the moment, and used the soft cotton to mop off her brow.

Sixth Iteration

Logs

Entries tagged with sanctuary: helen magnus

Credits & Style Info

(no subject)

[MINGLE] Crab Boil

Is this what you want of me?

shine a little light on everything around you

braaaaains?

[MINGLE] Breakfast Feast

Reality Altered - Medieval Fantasy

i'm not calling you a liar

[closed] winter breakers

Reason says I should have died three years ago... | OTA

Took My Faith (OPEN)

so what? i'm still a rock star

[MINGLE] Harvest Feast 🍂

what's ferret for 'bitch please'?

crazy, but that's how it goes

(no subject)

(no subject)

Slow Rider, Slow Rider, Move On a Little More

Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends, Once More [Closed]

004 ❝ God's in his Heaven ❞