Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

[lucetimods]

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

Comments

[foundafamily]

[Firo glances down at his knife and wipes it off with his sleeve once more.]

Yeah, it hasn't been easy gettin' here, so it'd definitely not gonna be a cakewalk where it counts.

[He runs his hand through his hair.]

What do you think of findin' a gate and just fightin' our way in?

[ribbonbon]

H...Huh?

[Pilouette takes a second to run through that plan in her head a second time. Even if she's with Firo, she's not sure she could fight her way into a wet paper bag much less into a city protected by trained soldiers. If anything, she would probably get in the way if the two of them were to actually attempt such a thing.]

Um, I-I don't know. I, uh, I'm not really much of a fighter, you know, since I'm like, not really very strong...

[foundafamily]

We can't just dig under, can we? There's no time for that.

[But maybe there's a way they can sneak in...]

[ribbonbon]

Y-Yeah... [Plus she thinks it would be kind of silly to even attempt that, but...well, that feels like it would be a little rude to say out loud.]

And it's not like we can climb over either. It's probably way too high. We'd probably get caught right away, too...

[foundafamily]

[He nods.]

And that wouldn't be fun for us...

[He doesn't even want to think about how they'd get killed for that.

With that, Firo's not even sure where to go. He stamps his foot on the ground and sighs impatiently.]

...Damn it, I didn't think we'd actually need to think out here!

[Life is hard.]

[ribbonbon]

[While she wouldn't have put it quite that way...she thinks she can kind of understand how he feels. The last draft she was on she just did whatever other people asked of her and went where they told her to.

Unfortunately, in this case, it seems like no one knows quite what to do. She never realized it before now, but when you're used to doing what people smarter than you tell you to...it's a bit frightening when said people don't know exactly what they need to do, either. She's never felt quite so helpless. Still, none of them can afford to do nothing, right?]

I-I wonder if there's a way we could just...look around a little without being noticed too much.

[foundafamily]

[He nods slowly. That's better than anything he was thinking.]

Case the joint, you mean? ...I guess that's all we can do.

[Firo, too, is used to following the lead of smarter people. He tends to think he's not that useful beyond a fight or a card table. Heck, even in his long career as a criminal, he's never had to break in somewhere. Because of that--and because the idea was hers--he gestures to her to start walking.]

Lead on. I'll guard your back.

[ribbonbon]

['Case the joint?' Even if they're in a war zone, he doesn't have to make her sound like a crimin- Wait, what? Pilouette stares at him for a moment. He's asking her to take the lead?! Isn't he the adult here?! She's not used to take the lead in anything. Ever. In everything she's ever done, her strategy was to stay in the back and let people lean on her, to do what she was asked.

Still...She's the kind of person who does what she's asked. Besides...Firo seems pretty reliable. If she's with him, she's sure she'll be okay. She nods and there are traces of apprehension when she speaks, her voice coming out as a whisper.]

U-um, okay...! Uh, l-let's go. [She half crouches and starts forward, occasionally taking a nervous glance back at Firo, almost as if making sure he's still there and that some cultist hasn't picked him off while she wasn't looking.]

[foundafamily]

[He follows her lead and crouches. Keeping his voice low, he looks behind them and asks.]

Have you ever done anything like this before?

[She doesn't look like the type, but he figures it doesn't hurt to ask. Most people would say he doesn't look like a criminal either.]

[ribbonbon]

[She looks back at him over her shoulder and shakes her head.]

No...I've never needed to. To be honest, I'm not really sure what I'm doing. [She stops and cranes her neck a bit to try and get a better look from their current position.] Um, do you see anything...?

[foundafamily]

Me neither...

[Sneaking up on a well-fortified town to break in is very different from sneaking up on someone you want to pickpocket.]

I don't see any guards, but I don't see a way in, either.

[He sighs, annoyed, and doesn't notice that he's raised his voice.]

What're we even lookin' for? You'd think somebody'd tell us so we're not just wanderin' around.

[ribbonbon]

Uh...! [She sucks in a breath when Firo raises his voice. Her expression grows a bit distressed and she keeps her own voice at a whisper, hoping that her own whispering will remind him to keep it down.]

R-right? It's like, already pretty dangerous without us just going around with no idea...

[foundafamily]

Those assholes probably just wanna get us killed. But there's definitely easier ways to do it than this.

[And then he finally notices how uncomfortable she looks. Connecting the dots, however, will take more effort.]

What's wrong?

[ribbonbon]

[The idea that they were sent out to die doesn't do much to calm Pilouette's nerves. Her body is tense and she leans toward him a little.]

M...Maybe it would be easier to avoid being killed if we um, keep it down a little.

[foundafamily]

Oh.

[He nods and lowers his voice.]

Yeah, yeah, sorry. Won't happen again.

[ribbonbon]

[Pilouette exhales. That's one issue down, but...]

Either way, we still don't know just what we're looking for, huh? [She thinks for a moment.] In the movies it's always like, an air vent or a sewer or something, but...

[She doubts there's going to be an air vent just out in the open for them to climb into.]

[foundafamily]

Yeah...

[He scans the walls again to see if there are any vents he missed. Nope.]

Maybe they do have somethin' like a sewer. At least we'd have somethin' to look for.

[Though if they don't, then this whole thing will be fruitless.]

[ribbonbon]

Yeah...or maybe there's at least some kind of drain or something, right?

[Now that they have some idea of what to look for, Pilouette is feeling a little less lost about this whole thing. Though still a little shaky about taking the lead, she signals for him to follow her and begins to creep forward.]

Let me know if you see anything...maybe this will be easier now.

[If only a bit.]

[foundafamily]

Yeah... If it's anything like the ones back home, there should be a way to get in.

[It might not be pleasant, but is anything?]

You got it, captain.

[ribbonbon]

[Well, they had already died once. Compared to that, a trip into a sewer drain can't be that bad, right? As they go, she does her best to try and avoid anything that looks too heavily guarded. However, even though they have a better idea of what to look for, she kind of feels like she's just dragging Firo around aimlessly.]

Uh, s...sorry about this.

[foundafamily]

[Firo's attention is caught between saying alert for enemies and searching the ground and the walls around them. He blinks when she speaks, wondering if there's something he missed.]

What're you apologizin' for?

[ribbonbon]

W-Well, you told me to take the lead, but...well, I'm not really doing all that much.

[She figures there's probably no point in pretending to be a competent adult in this situation.]

I, um, I guess I'm still like, freaked out, you know? [After all, the last thing she wants is to get them both killed or something.]

[foundafamily]

Don't apologize for that. I wouldn't be doin' any better.

[He tilts his head as he looks at her.]

Freaked out about bein' dropped in a warzone or gettin' killed by a bomb?

[There's a lot of freaky stuff afoot these days.]

[ribbonbon]

[She thinks she gets what he's trying to say; really, what isn't there to be freaked out about? She smiles (though it's not a happy one) and then begins to scan the area around them, looking for a drain or opening of some sort.]

Oh...Y-yeah, I guess pretty much everyone is pretty freaked out right now, huh? It's like...it's just...a lot. I guess. It's kind of hard to concentrate or think or anything.

[That's an understatement. Unfortunately, Pilouette isn't exactly at her most articulate right now.]

[foundafamily]

You can say that again.

[He sighs and shrugs.]

Just... try to forget about some a' the weirder stuff.

[Yeah. Because that'll be easy.]