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

[lordhotman]

Ugh...

[The smell of blood and rotting corpses was starting to get to him and he covered his face, trying to mask the stench a bit.

However, as he climbed over another mound of debris, something caught his eye in the very dim light.]

Wan, get over here.

[He had found what looked to be a tunnel.]

[justdid]

[Wan will climb over as quickly as he can. He doesn't say anything for a moment as he registers what Zuko is seeing.]

Let's check it out.

[He charges ahead. Not bothering to question if it was just more rubble or some kind of trap. They've wasted enough time already.]

[lordhotman]

[As Wan charges ahead, Zuko follows. Once inside the tunnel he creates a flame in his hand so they can actually see where they're going.

There is water and its getting deeper as they go in, but what horrifies him the most is that... it looks to be tinged in red.]

Is that...?

[Blood? And not to mention the stench is getting worse.]

[justdid]

[Wan also has a torch going, but unlike Zuko he needs more training to get it down to a smaller size. There was more than enough light to see the runnel in all of it's bloody glory. The thick smell made his stomach flip, and if he hadn't skipped out on eating Wan might've thrown up. He still might.

Wan can mentally connect the dots. He could here them screaming all night, and now they've found a tunnel filled with blood. It had to lead into the city, and whatever was happening inside-

he couldn't think about it. He had to focus on getting whoever was still alive out of there. Silently forging ahead, tuning out everything except his "mission", including Zuko.]

[lordhotman]

[Zuko tries not to think about the implications either, and instead about the reason they're here.]

Maybe this tunnel can lead us into the city.

[Thus Zuko plods along, trying to ignore the filthy water that's knee deep and rising. Eventually though, he finds a ladder and raises his flame to look up to what appears to be an opening.]

1/? because the horror cannot be contained in one tag

[justdid]

I'm going up there.

[Wan climbed the ladder without hesitation. Even if the screaming had stopped what felt like hours ago, he still had hope. Maybe the people who were left had found a place to hide. Maybe they were safe.

The first thing that would hit them after a minute of trying to push the cover up was the smell. After a couple days of fighting and a few hours literally wading through bloody, filthy water, he should have been thoroughly desensitized to the smell of carnage. But this was strong.

And it only strengthened his resolve to go up there. Poking his head up to see-]

2/? in which Wan IMMEDIATELY regrets his life choices

[justdid]

[Blood, a lot of blood. Dead bodies everywhere. It's sensory overload. It's too much for him to process all at once on every conceivable level. There was nothing in his life that could have ever prepared him for this.]

3/? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE THAT IS

[justdid]

[Everyone was-
dead.

they were too late.]

4/4 aren't you glad he doesn't have the avatar state yet

[justdid]

[Wan slowly, climbs down the ladder. He's pale and shaky, but everything feels unreal right now. Like this is some really bad dream that he can wake up from if he's patient enough. Which is why he is neither burning everything to the ground or having an emotional breakdown in the middle of what was still a war zone.

He turns to Zuko and stares. Pausing for a minute because even if the other teen was right in front of him it felt like there was some invisible wall separating them. Or an invisible wall between himself and the rest of reality. It's not something he cares about enough to be alarmed by.]

Everyone is dead.

[lordhotman]

Be careful, I'll stand watch here.

[So with that, Zuko waits as Wan goes upside to take a look around. When he comes back, he brings the news that Zuko was dreading since the screaming stopped. There's a grim look on Zuko's face as he takes it in.]

We should find my uncle and tell everyone we've found a way in.

[justdid]

Right.

[A part of him wants to argue what the point of it all is, but Wan is not really in the right state of mind to start arguing. For the time being he is more or less on autopilot.]

Should we stop here?

[lordhotman]

[Zuko glances at Wan for a moment, wondering just how bad it was up there. He then turns and leads the way back out to go find Iroh.]