lucetilogs | Mission: Burying the Past in Zompania

That, and you could say it was a fate of the timeline. This is where they were that day, so it stands to reason this is where they were again, bomb or not.

[Knowing there was no bomb, however, and of their demise, it probably means they lost more ground than they gained. Closer to the city then, and not further from where they are now.]

That just makes the demise of Davis-san seem inevitable, when you put it like that. Like it couldn't be helped.

[He doesn't have a yes or no comment to any of that, so he just declines to say anything.]

[ That didn't merit a response, anyway, honestly. But... okay, he'll make his way to follow him, glancing around as he does ]

[Telltale signs they've found what they're after become evident pretty quick. Animals who had their way with some of the bodies left a trail - nothing more graphic than bones gnawed cleaned, gleaming white off the flashlight in the dark. Shikamaru chooses to pass them from now, going deeper until they come across more bodies in various states of decomposing. And further still, an altar.]

Oh God, no one ever cleaned this up?

[ The little signs of decay were bad enough, but confronted with the rotting corpses - with the altar? It gives him an unsettling feeling he can't quite articulate. A need to say a prayer, even if he's not religious ]

Guess not.

[His tone is flatter than usual - he's tuning Masaomi out, even if he knows he shouldn't be. That's the correct response. His disgust and his anger is how you should react to something like this.

Shikamaru came out here because he thought maybe someone had left behind something useful. A little too late for it, he does feel ashamed of himself.]

You can head back, if you're uncomfortable. [He stops in front of the altar, raising his chin at it.] Even with my scroll, we'll probably need a cart.

Don't give me that shit.

[ Masaomi is Shikamaru's most loyal follower - his best friend. He won't forsake Shikamaru if he killed someone, if he buried someone alive, or if he put him to work which would scar his soul. Masaomi's dealt with death before - you would even say that this days, he trades in the stuff. But being put into a position like this... it makes him feel a little sick until he closes his eyes and remembers Vaskoth. Vaskoth was worse.

He can do it. ]

[It's largely because he knows Masaomi would go through things for him that he wouldn't for anyone else that he offers.]

It doesn't exactly make me happy that you're willing, knowing it bothers you. There's some things you just don't put your friends through; it's the difference between being a best friend and an asshole.

Look, I know you're raised in Death, Shikamaru, but I've been apart from you long enough I'm not planning to let you escape my gaze. Just point out where I can help and I'll get on it.

[ Besides, these suits must have some sort of barf clean up if he gets there ]

[Does Masaomi think he's going to vanish? Not many places you can go here. He'd comment on it, if he thought Masaomi was that stupid.

He doesn't. He knows it's really a dig at him. And fine. It's warranted. So he sighs, and turns back to the altar.]

Give me a bit. I didn't come out here with a plan on what to do with bodies, if they were around.

Yeah... you'd think that the MSF would collect their own. I guess a fallen barrier's that dangerous.

[ He looks... at more or less anything that isn't rotting. So he looks off at the darkness to his left, sidelong. He doesn't want to look at the altar. The altar fills him with something of an unnatural dread. But... ]

... Or it could be that thing you mentioned.

[ You know. His offhand reference of what the bomb died. What he's dreamed(?) about? These little things Shikamaru has not mentioned much to him, but he knows exists ]

Former's more likely.

[Still flat. Shit, he hopes it has nothing to do with the bomb anyways. Could these guys have been sacrificed twice? Is that possible?

He wonders if there's a difference between being sacrificed in a bomb, or on an altar. He wonders if Davis and these soldiers felt that thing watching them, consuming them.

He wonders if there's an end to that, or if they're still there.]

God... [ He frowns a little here. This is awful, honestly, the idea they were put out here to die. All the eyes of the cultists on them, hungry to get them out of the picture for good. Did those bastards think that they were doing these guys a favor...? How many of them are his friends. ]

Makes me concerned our suits'll rip.

[He opens his mouth to tell Masaomi that letting him think involves being quiet but--

(decides he likes him better talking)

--changes his mind halfway into it. Sighs.]

They won't. [Shift effects be damned, he kind of wishes they would though. He was joking the last few days about these suits being itchy, trying to bring in a little brevity, but in this instance he really wouldn't mind the chance to take his off.

Under the protective material and the fabric of his clothes, he can feel a chill prickling his skin like gooseflesh; can feel the thin hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as if wary of a threat. There's an itch here beneath all of that, running as deep as his bones, that he can't scratch no matter how much he'd like to.

He turns away from the altar.]

I can take twenty of them. For now, we'll pick out the bodies in the best condition to be transported. I'll get them to send someone else out here with the tools necessary to collect the ones the animals have been into. The Malnosso will want to examine the altar themselves first anyways, so they'll have to come this way either way.

Twenty, right. ... Suppose that'll be Jewel, if she's here.

[ Nothing could piece her skin anyway. It's a morbid though, and he's sort of afraid to look for her, because he knows if they do find her she'll be unmarred from when she was alive, aside maybe from missing wings, with dull, lifeless eyes. Can you even sacrifice someone who can't piece the skin of? He doesn't want to think about it, but his mind does anyway - unbidden... ]

Morbid.

[Shikamaru works from the opposite way of Masaomi, examining each corpse carefully. When he finds a body he doesn't think will fall apart, he pulls it forward by the feet, dragging it to lay in the center. It's a slow process.]

[ Ugh, ugh, this is so gross. Masaomi tries not to breathe - because even with the limited smell he does not want to take it in. He has this fear that maggots will come in through his suit, somehow. Some of these people have obvious bites in them, but more of them seem to be missing eyeballs. Obviously the first to go. It's gross. Ugh ]

[It is, and few of them aren't intact as they look either. Shikamaru finds that out the hard way, even if he had figured it - it's what dragging them forward was for - when one falls apart on him. Wordlessly, he leaves it as neat as he can and moves on to the next.

Further from the altar, he does find one body that stands apart from the rest when he examines it closely, however. It's rotting as bad as the rest, and he can tell from here most of the bones in the hands and legs were shattered. But for all of that, there's few marks marring the skin other than the ones the cultists had to have made for the sacrifice. There aren't even teeth marks.

It makes him think of what Masaomi said about Jewel, moments ago. Only this isn't a woman. Crouching low beside it, from the back of Shikamaru's head a memory comes to mind...

Skin is dense and not penetrable by standard medical needles and requires laser tools for surgical use.

Carefully, Shikamaru works at removing the MSF uniform from around the left arm, even if the insignia noting rank is probably the better clue.]

I think I found Davis.

[ Masaomi himself just found a mostly in tact person - a woman, by the looks of her, but she seems to be... a minotaur? But she seems almost completely in tact other than having her fingers nibbled at a little or something. But when Shikamaru speaks up - Masaomi shifts his light onto him, and after noting where she is, he makes his way over to check on Davis ]

[Shikamaru finally gets the cloth torn, revealing the skin beneath. It's discolored by this point, but if he looks very closely he can make out the start of a tattoo on the inner bicep: 051

He can guess he has a pretty good idea what five digits will come after, if he were to turn it over to see.]

[ ... ]

Yeah, I think that's him.

[ Are his sunglasses there? Will he see his eyes missing too? He doesn't really want to ]

[~~Since we're still waiting for the word on that, let's be vague for now.~~

Shikamaru lets the flap of cloth fall back, breathing out quietly through the nose. He wipes the fingers of his glove on the grass before standing again, avoiding looking at the face.]

[ He sighs out of his nose - he's sort of glad that he can not actually touch the guy, not skin to skin ]

Right, so he goes in the scroll?

Yeah. [Shikamaru drags him toward the rest, stopping just short of where the others lie.] Maybe.

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