snowblindrpg | [network; video] @Nobody; [open] Morning 010

[So many people keep dying. This time, he knew three of the names in the obituary, even if he'd only spoken to two of them once. This is unacceptable. They need to find a way to stop this.

[The video feed opens on Lea's face, looking sort of stern.]

So I say this is getting out of hand, who's with me? [He lifts one finger as if to call for a show of hands, then lowers it and shakes his head.] People keep getting caught outside after dark, and it's gotta stop. We need a map, even a crude one, so people have some idea how far they're gonna need to travel to find shelter and food, or this is just gonna keep happening.

[The view shifts away from him and downward, to show a page in a spiral notebook. It has some boxes and squiggly lines on it. Lea's no cartographer, but it's something.]

[The feed stays on this doodled map while Lea continues speaking.]

On the far right is what's believed to be the southeasternmost corner of this town. It's a veterinary clinic that's apparently cornered in by that huge snow wall. To the south is the wall. Everything westward of it I've mapped as I've traveled around, though I can't guarantee the scale by a long shot. I marked each house with a noteworthy feature, in case anyone happens upon it, so we can try and cobble the rest of the map together based on who's traveled from where.

This is about all I've got--nothing else I've noted has any orienting landmarks--but if anybody can expand on it, we might be able to figure out where other people are in relation.

[The feed comes back around to Lea, and he frowns darkly.]

We've got no choice but to work together, or people are just gonna keep dying. Anybody got anything?

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[ Clarke had spoken to two of them, too. Neku Sakuraba on her first day; they'd talked about the house of math — back then, that was the most disturbing thing about this place. Tim, too. She can't keep seeing people die. The obituaries are almost mocking. ]

I used to draw a lot, back home. If we could find some good art supplies, I could start trying to draw a map. I don't know how successful it'll be, but it's something. I'll need help from the others, though. Descriptions of where they've been, and where it is in relation to everything else.

[ She pauses, eyes downcast. ]

Did you know any of them?

Heh, yeah, I'm not much of an artist, unfortunately. But it's a start, right?

[He gives Clarke a weary sort of look and hefts a sigh.]

A couple of them I spoke to on the network, but only once. Demyx, though... [He shakes his head.] I knew him from back home. We, ah... we used to work together. [He's not exactly sure if he would have called them friends, but even without a heart, he had known that Demyx wasn't a bad guy. He had been about as close to a friend as Axel had had before Roxas showed up, and Lea is genuinely upset that he's dead. Would he come back, like Clayton had? Or would he just vanish forever like others seemed to have done?]

Demyx.

[ The name is unfamiliar on her tongue, strange and foreign-sounding. It hardly goes with a name like Lea. ]

I never spoke to him, but I'm sorry. That can't be easy to hear.

[ None of it is, not really, but it's the names she recognizes that frighten her the most. Only the first time was she truly stricken by an unfamiliar name. She hates to see all of the names, but sometimes she isn't sure if they're people that were ever really here or just fake names to stir up fear. When she knows them, she knows they aren't. ]

But they aren't always really dead, are they? Just a false obituary, meant to scare us.

He's kind of a dweeb, but he's... not a bad guy. He didn't deserve this.

[He hadn't deserved any of it, honestly; Demyx had been way too nice for the Organization, and pretty much everyone had known it. He glances at Clarke and presses his lips together, then pulls one of the bottles of water out of his backpack and takes a swig. He's still got two more in the backpack from when they filled up at the gas station, but they're going to need to find more soon, or start packing snow instead. Even so, he offers the bottle to Clarke, figuring share and share alike is gonna go a long way to keeping himself alive, too.]

I dunno if it's false so much as... people don't necessarily stay dead. [It's not the first time that's happened, after all. He died once himself, back home, and came back better than ever. Idk, video game physics are weird.] Plenty of other stuff here seems to defy rhyme and reason, so I'm not sure death should be regarded any differently.

[ Clarke stills, thoughts warring. On one hand, Lea's right — nothing here makes sense. She's accepted the possibility of time travel, for crying out loud. On the other hand, it's one thing to accept time travel and another to accept resurrection. It's hard to let herself believe in these things when there's no scientific basis, no logical reasoning behind it. She's always been rational, and trying to marry that side of her with this new 'believer' side of her is frustrating. A few months prior, if someone had tried to convince her that it was possible to come back from the dead, she would have said Don't be ridiculous. Now, she doesn't know.

If it really is possible, if there's some intellectual explanation for it behind all the woo-woo sorcery nonsense, what does it really mean? That every death she's responsible for could have been reversed? That there was a way to save her father? The implications are too much to process; she simply nods in acknowledgement, accepting his offer of the bottle. ]

Thanks. [ She takes a sip before handing it back to him, careful not to drink too much. If it comes down to there only being enough rations for a few of them, she doesn't want to be the one who took from others. ] There's a culture where I'm from that believes death isn't the end. Maybe there's a shred of truth.

[ That's all she'll say on the matter, too conflicted at the moment to have a definitive stance. She's in no position to brush aside the claim, but she isn't ready to support it, either. ]

So, if you've mapped from the southeast, we should start heading northwest? I think that the sooner we identify all the corners, the better our maps will be.

[He takes the water bottle back, then makes a mental note to check the fixtures in this place. The gas station still had running water, so it's possible some of the houses might, even if he hasn't found any so far. He smiles a bit.]

I don't know that I think death is the end, myself, really. [After all, he already died once. Twice, if you count the time he lost his heart. Maybe he's just insanely lucky, but he'd rather think that maybe you got more than one shot at this game.

[He looks down at the map he's doodled, pressing his fingertip to the northeast of what he's drawn.]

Yeah, if you've been in the opposite direction from here, anything you remember would be helpful. Even if we can only get a vague idea of where the major landmarks are, I think that'd be useful for everybody. Might even be able to get some kind'a sense of scale of this place.

I wanna see if I can figure out where the school is; there's apparently food there, and I dunno about you, but I could seriously go for a snack right now.

I think the school would be a good landmark. It's large, and probably going to be necessary for everyone to go to eventually.

[ She speaks as if that's the only reason she'd like to go to the school — it'll be a helpful landmark, good for the others to know how to get there. If Clarke is being honest, though, her stomach is starting to rebel. The hollow feeling only grows with every minute; if there's food in the cafeteria, she wants to go there not only for them but for herself. It somehow feels selfish to say, like she should be more focused on keeping everyone else fed and putting herself last. But the hungrier she gets, the less selfish it feels; the less anything feels, as it gets to the point where it's difficult to focus on anything but the pangs of hunger. ]

I saw a large building to the north while traveling — I don't know for sure, but I think it might be the school. Even if it isn't, something that big can't be unimportant.

[She's not the only one whose stomach is starting to eat its own lining. What Lea wouldn't have given for something to eat. He's always been a little selfish, always tended to look out for #1 first; the difference here is that he actually would proactively help a stranger, provided they didn't try and kill him first. He has. He knows he's going to need allies in this place if he's going to survive, so he's been exercising that Benefit of Doubt muscle.]

Oh, yeah? [He looks intrigued.] If you wanna go check it out, I'll go with you, if you want company. I kinda think it's best to stick to The Buddy System around here, to be honest.

Yeah, that would be great.

[ She won't deny that it'll be nice to have someone watching her back for once. It gets exhausting constantly looking over her shoulder, heartbeat rising with each creaking of the floorboards or gust of wind. Clarke isn't quick to trust these days, but if Lea turns out to be dangerous, she has enough makeshift weapons to defend herself. If not, she'll have gained an ally. ]

I think it's best, too. The things that have been happening lately — they're escalating. We need to be careful, in case they decide to unleash something worse on us.

[network; video] @Nobody; [open] Morning 010

action bc i can't be tamed!!

action!

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