fh_dungeon | Dungeon Residential Camps, Somewhere, Saturday

And then the pathways slammed shut.

Oh, not all of them. Most of them simply rearranged themselves. But whatever had connected each camp to another had been violently stripped away. They were alone now, and they were easy prey. At least the winds had settled down...

The maze had grown more erratic, however. Instead of speeding up time for all, it was now slowing it down at random in different places. Anyone caught in a sudden bubble of it would find themselves slowing down compared to the rest of the world. Awkward.

[ camp one | camp two | camp three | ooc | note: feel free to mod knowledge of sholeh's gremlin key, dean's unicorn key, and the vault. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

lockestheway

Peter hadn't bothered to leave camp yesterday: he wasn't stupid. A little hungry, but not stupid.

He'd taken to laying down on his back and staring up at the ceiling, making revisions to his SO CHINA'S INVADING article in his head.

From:

whenshewasnice

Natalie, having forced herself up and taken most of her scavenged food to where it could be split up by others, wandered over and dropped one of the shirts on him. The other, along with her new pants, hung over her shoulder, still. One thing at a time, and there were more important things in her hands.

"There's also breakfast."

That. Slightly bigger portions than yesterday, even. There was more of everything today. Including how tense and tired she looked. Day of abundance!

From:

lockestheway

"Thanks," Peter said, holding up the shirt for a quick inspection before he shuck off his jacket. He dropped the new shirt on his lap and unbuttoned his current one - what, like anyone would care?

From:

whenshewasnice

Probably not, with the amount of nudity they'd had around this place at the start. Natalie looking at the random food items from Rapture in her hands was less politeness and more general weariness. Besides, she'd seen him shirtless before.

She stayed quiet.

From:

lockestheway

Once the shirt was on, Peter cast his old shirt aside. It was probably unsalvageable at this point anyway. "Where'd you find those?"

From:

whenshewasnice

"Some underwater city," Natalie replied, idly enough, moving to sit down before handing over approximately half of what was in her hands. "Beautiful setting, not a great experience."

From:

lockestheway

Peter accepted it with another "Thanks", taking a bite immediately. He'd... been pretty hungry, yeah.

"Something attacked?" he hazarded. "That usually seems to be the case."

From:

whenshewasnice

"That is what happened, yes." Because that was how it worked here. "But no bigger injuries this time. Few scrapes."

Yay.

From:

lockestheway

"Lift up your shirt?" Peter asked matter-of-factly.

From:

whenshewasnice

"... What?"

Well, that was the first actual expression on her face today.

From:

lockestheway

Peter rolled his eyes. "I'm just making sure," he said.

This was what Peter sort-of caring looked like.

From:

whenshewasnice

Natalie sighed, but put her food down for the moment to pull her poor battered shirt up to just below her breasts.

There was the old bruise on her stomach, and little nicks and scrapes all over, with a couple of slightly deeper-looking gashes over her ribs on one side that looked like maybe cleaning them up and a bandage wouldn't have hurt things. But nothing that wouldn't heal with time.

"I'm fine."

From:

lockestheway

Nothing looked terribly infected or anything to Peter's untrained eye, so he nodded. "Okay," he said. "So how are the rest of our reserves looking? ...Do we even have any?"

From:

whenshewasnice

Natalie let her shirt drop back. "Well, it's not hopeless," she said. "But it's not great, either."

From:

lockestheway

Peter rubbed at his face. "I'll go over them," he decided. "Make sure there's enough to go around."

If he lived through this, he was going to get some firearms handling lessons or something. He hated it when Fandom put him in these situations he really wasn't made for.

From:

whenshewasnice

"Good." She chewed in silence for a moment, then asked, "Has there been any news or... progress, or anything? I was out for most of yesterday."

And then out of it, sleeping like the dead, since then.

From:

lockestheway

"Some guy went after the fireplace with a knife," Peter said, nodding thataway. "Says he found another one of those keys."

From:

whenshewasnice

"Good." That was going to be her go-to word now, was it? It was the oppsoite of how she felt. "Progress."

Or they were going to open something that was just going to blow in their faces. That was possible too, but she tried not to think about it.

From:

lockestheway

"I hope so," Peter said honestly. "I'm not sure how long most of us will hold out in here. A couple of people look close to cracking, and I'd rather not be here when they do."

From:

whenshewasnice

"Mm." Yeah, it wasn't great to be one of the people who felt like they might crack, either. She wanted to get back to the problems she was at least a little more equipped to handle. "Well. We'll keep trying."

From:

lockestheway

The hopelessness of it all - or rather, his inability to act - was driving Peter nuts, sure. But he was more resilient than to let something wear him down this quickly.

This would be the first time he genuinely realized that.

"We will," he agreed. "Now that we know what we're looking for, we should be making good time. And hunting down supplies is a dangerous pain in the ass, sure, but it could be worse - there could be none to find."

From:

whenshewasnice

Natalie figured she would have been doing better had her plans for this week not consisted of sleeping through most of it to make up for the previous week's drama.

Oh, well. She'd just sleep for two weeks once they were out of here.

"Mm hmm." Mild agreement, but agreement all the same. "Guess I'm going out again today."

From:

lockestheway

"You should find someone to watch your back," Peter said, his eyes darting briefly back towards where her shirt covered her stomach.

From:

whenshewasnice

"You haven't even seen my back."

Yeah, her humour had... gotten a little darker for today. And yes, she definitely had some more bruises and small cuts on her back.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I can take care of myself, Peter." Well, she hoped she could.

From:

lockestheway

"It has nothing to do with what you are or aren't capable of," Peter said matter-of-factly. His eyes flicked back up to her face. "It's safety in numbers."