lucetilogs | Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

Who: All Draftees
What: This is your death. Followed by your time-traveling life and desperate bomb hunting.
When: From May 22 to May 20 to early May 23 (days 1-4)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the draftee-only portion of the Zompania draft--the day 3 death, time travel to day 1, and then the events until the arrival of the reinforcements. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Please note that there is a specific top-level comment thread for:

The day 3 arrival of the draftees and the 6 hours that follow until the bomb is dropped
Death--This thread can be treated as REFERENCE ONLY. Responding to it isn't necessary.
Threads prior to departing for Zompania--post resurrection freak outs, arguments over how to proceed, etc.

All other threading, from day 1 until the reinforcements arrive, should be conducted as normal.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Day four finds Mia busy; a semblance of organization and more regular chaos almost make a routine, and sticking to a routine keeps her away from thoughts of what happened to them. Of what she's seen, of bodies and souls and struggling to breathe. If nothing else, tending to the injured is familiar and safe.

Her first instinct, when out of the corner of her eye she sees something keeping out of the way in shadow, is to turn with an attack already prepared. If one of the cultists got through-

But no. It's Law skulking there. It takes too many steadying breaths to convince herself to approach, but she does.]

[The pirate watches her steadily, still looking wary and watching. Not of her but of their surroundings. Like a wounded animal, he pulls back slightly into more darkness.

Better cover. His voice is strained when he speaks.]

Seen any of them?

Edited (ICON!!!1!!) 2014-05-23 03:44 (UTC)

No, I haven't.

[In all the lifting of bomb-based worry and, if she's very honest with her darkest corners, horrific flashbacks, there are a few questions she's left unasked. Here, where she shouldn't have, is one of them.]

You don't- you're not well. What's wrong?

[It's in his voice, and his stance, and something in the way he draws back instead of nothing.]

... my heart...

[The beat is off... the rhythm is off...

Not enough to put him down completely, but enough to steal the breath from his lungs. Leave him weak and shaking.]

[What?

She thinks maybe it came out with her voice attached, too. Poor control on her part, if so.

Mia's expression sets, concerned but not severe, and she finishes her approach without any trace of apprehension.]

Sit down. [He ought to know better than to, to pirate around or whatever it is he thinks he's doing if there's some kind of problem-

And none of it comes through in her offer of assistance in sitting, one hand already around his arm, or her question.]

What about your heart?

Arrhythmia. [Irregular heartbeat, but he'd rather use the term that gets the point across better.] It started back at the bodies.

[He slumps down and draws back as far as he can into blacker shadows. Not safe here. He had been trying to get to a place he could hide and recover until it passed. There is darkness here, but it is still too open for his comfort.]

[They are too exposed for her comfort, but if Law collapses or worse while they try to get somewhere secure, they'll end up more helpless.]

Do you have any injuries that might cause it? [She thinks he'd mention it, if he did, except it's harder to talk when your heart's in a footrace. Mia feels her chest ache from thinking about hearts at all, and tries not to let on. They might all start to suffer from this, if that- that vision, or whatever it was, is true.

She also skips some of her usual round of questions; anyone can tell he's exhausted. One hand stops short of resting on his shoulder.] May I?

[He shakes his head. He's injured, yes, scratches and bruises, they all are bearing at least that by now, but there's nothing that could cause something like this.] No. No history either.

[He nods. Yes, go ahead. Mia knows by now that Law doesn't like uninvited touch by no one who isn't close, but with circumstances as they are, he has no business complaining if anyone needs to do it for whatever reason.]

[No history aside from the shared one.

Mia is already drawing up Psynergy as she accepts his permission; something small, not even a full Ply, the barest touch to divine the source of his arrhythmia if she can. Some of his cuts will seal, some bruises fade.

Her guess was right, she thinks, he is exhausted. But that isn't the problem, she can't tell what the problem is.]

I don't know if my power can fix this. I will try. [Realizing her eyes are closed, Mia opens them again to consider Law.] It's up to you if we move from here first.

[The Ope-Ope no Mi is partially to blame for the exhaustion. It hacks away at a user's stamina and after the airship destruction the price of Law's energy was high indeed.

But no, it isn't the problem here. And Law is desperately not trying to think of his heart and fingernails like scalpels and one ribbon of flesh giving away under that razor's touch.

Mia's touch is different. So much easier to bear.]

... we need to. I feel people approaching. [His head tilts.] They might be Third Party.

[That he can feel them is source for question too. Law rarely explains his abilities.]

[They might be. They might not.

No chances.]

Then lean on me if you need to, and stop if you feel you can't keep going. [She can hold off a cultist or two; she can't hold his whole weight if he falls.]

[Two hundred pounds of nearly six-four pirate is difficult for most, true.

He just nods to it though as he eases himself up. No need spending more breath than he has to while moving.]

[Mia can't hear anything or anyone approaching.

That's another matter to address when they have time. Law stands nearly a foot taller than her, and she wants to concentrate on helping him get behind their primitive fortifications. The bag over her shoulder is packed with filched supplies.

Nobody in Zompania is going to need them anymore.]

Tell me if danger gets any closer. [Otherwise, she won't encourage talking-while-walking.]

I will.

[He falls silent again. Concentrating. He's too well trained to stumble (or better put - he's too stubborn to let himself), and even now, sweating, pale, he still moves with enough cat like grace that from a distance the pirate's state would be deceptive.

The silence will continue until they are at (relative) safety or there's signs of incoming trouble. Whatever comes first.]

[They're in luck - so far, no trouble. Well, none besides Law's condition.

When they get to 'safety', Mia does a quick search for somewhere he might be able to lie down...and there really isn't one, not readily available and out of the way. She has a guess that he won't want to be on display while feeling unwell.

So she finds him an out-of-the-way corner, instead. Even here they aren't far from skirmishes.]

[She's right - Law doesn't want to be stared at. This is bad enough already. He's weakened. He's vulnerable. Easier prey.

He slumps down against the wall, eyelids dropping to half mast and just focuses on the rhythm of his breathing. Getting air into his lungs to ease his tremors.]

... hrrn.

[Just a noise as he finally settles. And as adrenaline crashes and the weight of how worn he is finally bears down.]

[It's still happening. Mia didn't expect it to stop, but a change for the better would be...too much to ask, apparently. She kneels on his left side, already casting; when Psynergy can't sort out his heart, she uses it to restore the rest of him instead, a muted cool wash of strength. On her second attempt she tries Nala, which takes longer.

It doesn't work, either.

Pulling out of her concentration and quiet, Mia watches Law in silence for a few moments.]

Tell me as much as you can about what was happening when this started. [He's sure to notice it hasn't gone away yet, but she isn't willing to give up on alternate approaches.]

[... Nala? He wants to object, tell her she's putting herself at risk of Shift Hunters.]

I had finished scavenging a building and was examining one of the bodies. [Where are the supplies? In a storage scroll. Why would Law examine a body? To figure out better how the sacrifice was done so John could maybe give his insights later. He had reversed Jacob's after all.] They're strange.

[What with the lack of rigors, livor mortis, the strange sensation from the wings... the bones.]

I was just finishing my notes when this started up. Wasn't touching them. I had found when we first encountered them that contact with their wings wasn't a good idea.

Edited 2014-05-26 08:07 (UTC)

[She didn't think about Shift Hunters. That's probably a bad sign. Mia listens without motion or comment, and when Law is finished, shakes her head.]

I know how these people died, but what are the chances you - any of us - were exposed to some kind of illness that begins this way? [She wants it to be connected to these terrible piles of the dead. Not to whatever presence that was, out there, in the boiling darkness beyond time and death.

But if it's sickness, she can't feel it.

And she only knows one such disease.]

If we were, then other people should soon be showing signs...

[There's doubt in Law's tone. He hasn't seen that, and he should given how worn down everyone was. Not complete doubt, because where there are bodies there is disease, and the people who worked with the dead were most at risk, but.

Possible. But unlikely.]

If it's just me, though, odds are against it. We are all worn down and vulnerable, so...

[Other people should. Or Law is particularly susceptible. Or it's to do with what that thing may or may not have done to them, except that circles back to "it would affect more people". Maybe it was, and they just didn't know how to describe it - but no, because she would know, or he would, one of them would have seen it in more people.]

Then it is either the result of you overtaxing yourself while fighting- [And she's seen him fight, at a distance.] -or it's related to...to the bodies in some other way. Either way, you're staying here until this improves.

[Or gets worse. She won't say it, doesn't need to.]

Not the first. I've overtaxed myself before. The symptoms are different.

[He is damn sure it isn't the first. Law's face twists into displeasure. Can't fight like this, he knows, but neither does he feel at all good with staying on his ass either.]

[Pity there's no busywork to bring him, either. Nobody likes hearing they're out of the fight...well, nobody with Law's disposition.]

Can I do anything for you? While you wait.

[Law's mouth opens. Then it closes. Regardless of what happened on the third day, things are more than grim enough that this worry is ever present for him.]

... have you seen Itachi out there?

[Better asked, do you know if my husband is okay? Itachi's even deadlier in a fight than Law, but he has much more limited stamina, and well, is practically blind without his Sharingan.]

Not since this morning. I haven't been "out" too often. [There are more than enough people in here needing attention.] I can send a letter asking him to come watch you, but by the time he gets here you will have escaped.

[Mia's not much of a joker, and she can't even work up a half-smile for this one, but she hopes the sentiment is there.]

He hasn't come back injured, though.

Day 4

Re: Day 4

Day 4

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