Blackout, blackout!

[kore_npc]

Who: The residents of Cape Kore
Where: The center of town, near the ruined fountain
When: Day 100
What: Stane gathered some supplies for a community fire. Consider this a party-style post reacting to the lack of power and the loss of the communicators.

After the power goes out, Stane spends a few minutes standing stock still in the room, holding his breath and waiting for it to come back, but he doesn't waste too much time lingering in that kind of hopefulness. People are going to need things; they're going to need fire to cook and boil water, and they're going to need to do something about the food that's going to spoil.

It's so important that he helps them. It's so important that he helps them stay alive. Maybe the dream sharing is getting to him, maybe it's made his nightmares... feel real, but...

They're going to survive this. He's determined.

He gathers some wood that can be used for firewood and kindling, and he leaves them in the center of the town; he has no way of announcing that the things are there, really, but he cups his hands around his mouth and shouts a general Go to the fountain! Maybe someone will hear him.

Comments

[purplishgreen]

[Shiala follows easily enough, but the nickname... makes her wince. Her skin colour is not something she likes to be reminded of. She knows it isn't intended to be mocking -- surely this is one more person who has no idea what an asari ought to look like.]

Please, don't call me that. But I will gladly keep you company, dark or not.

[She's trying, trying not to take it personally, trying to will herself to relax.]

[any1youwant]

'Green'? Why not? Your skin is beautiful. [She frowned, speaking honestly. She paused for half a second before leaning in closer so she could whisper quietly in Shiala's ear.] I'll have to show you my true colors some time, gorgeous.

[Her gaze flickered down to Shiala's hand as Raven slipped her fingers between Shiala's, her fingers slowly turning blue before shifting back.]

[purplishgreen]

[She's... surprised, if not shocked. For a brief moment she has the thought that Raven is another asari -- that's what blue implies to her -- but no, she had said she was one of these mutated humans. That's... quite the mutation. Equally interesting is that she is somehow hiding this.]

Perhaps you will. I think I'd like to see.

[She squeezes Raven's hand.]

But blue is normal, while green is... freakish. I prefer not to be defined by what is essentially a disfigurement. Surely you can understand that?

[any1youwant]

[Raven's laugh is so abrupt that she has to clap a hand over her mouth to quiet herself down.] Blue... blue is not normal. Not where I come from. Far, far from it. It's 'freakish', but I love it. I love what and who I am. I embrace my differences and let them, at least in part, define me.

If I wasn't stuck in the middle of... wherever this is, with unknown people, for reasons unknown to me, you better believe I'd be myself, not this ugly lie. But I have to survive.

But I respect your request, I won't call you that again.

[purplishgreen]

[Now? She's doubly curious. There's nothing freakish about blue to her way of thinking. What a human -- or a mutant, for that matter -- might look like in blue is an interesting question.]

Well, asari are typically blue, even if humans are not. My own skin tone was purple until only about two years ago. It is... a side effect.

[Two years is such a short span of time to become used to it, and she hasn't had the luxury of disguise.]

Can I ask how you hide it?

[any1youwant]

Are they really? Well, I'd be right at home, wouldn't I?

A side effect? Care to share?

[She shrugs and gives Shiala a smirk when she's asked how she hides it.] I can look like anyone here, or anyone I can think up. [She takes a second to shift her vocal chords, mimicking Shiala perfectly when she speaks.] Sound like them, too.

[purplishgreen]

[She looks at Raven with a trace of surprise; this, too, is a thing out of stories. Whatever else she is, she's a soldier, and she can envision the usefulness such skills would lend an assassin. That's her first thought, anyway.]

It's rather a long story.

[She sighs. She's almost inclined to not share at the moment, but Raven's shared a secret with her. It's only fair.]

The short version of the story is that I was absorbed by a plant entity called the Thorian. It's dead, now, but its spores remain in my body. It was... not a pleasant experience, on the whole.

[any1youwant]

[Raven shifted back into her disguise. She didn't particularly enjoy not being in her own skin, but what could you do? She didn't trust the place yet to go walking around like herself, especially not with Wolverine's clone still possibly strolling around.]

A plant entity? And it changed you? [Raven gazed steadily at Shiala, leaning a little closer.] Either way, I think you look gorgeous. Honestly.

Different doesn't have to be bad, does it? At least you survived.

[purplishgreen]

[Shiala smiles a little, faintly. The flattery is appreciated; her appearance has been something she's always had to explain away, for the past two years. That she doesn't is actually something a little pleasant, here.]

I did. I was fortunate. I really have no room for complaint, considering everything.

[any1youwant]

To me, darling, the color of your skin makes you one of the prettiest people here. It caught my attention, and in the best way possible.

[She blushed slightly, trying to cover up a sheepish look with a confident smirk, and pulled back a little, realizing just how hard she was coming on.]

You wear it well, hun, that's all I'm trying to say.

[purplishgreen]

Well, thank you.

[She looks away, but she's smiling.]

I do find blue very attractive. Sometime, you must show me. You are pretty as you are, but if this isn't your true face...

[any1youwant]

[Mystique groaned and rolled her eyes.] No, this... this is all fake. A necessary evil until I can feel this place out, and I hate it.

Maybe giving you a peek will be incentive for keeping me company tonight?

[purplishgreen]

Oh, perhaps that can be arranged.

[She's feeling reckless: lonely, perhaps, and isolated, and a pretty woman is a welcome distraction.]

[any1youwant]

Can you see better than humans in the dark? Leaving the light of the fire is pretty pointless if you can't, and it certainly is pitch black out there.

[She peered around behind them, into the deep darkness that enveloped the little fire, as if she were searching for possible attacks. She leaned a little closer to Shiala, leaning her shoulder against Shiala's when she turned back to look at the fire.]

It's intimidating.

[purplishgreen]

Not better, no.

[She leans back up against Raven, comfortable if somewhat conflicted -- she just met her, after all. Still, she puts an arm around her shoulders.]

But I can be patient.

[any1youwant]

Mm, then it's probably better to stay here until morning. Safety in numbers, right? [She yawns quietly. Despite the situation, she feels drained from the past day and a half; she'd barely just arrived and gotten her bearings when everything went lights out, so it was about time for her adrenaline rush to cause her to come crashing back down.]

[purplishgreen]

[She thinks briefly of her housemate, but surely, if anyone will be safe in the darkness, he will be?]

Numbers usually do bring safety, yes, though this is hardly a good place to sleep, if you need it.

[any1youwant]

[She wasn't sleeping. Just... resting her eyes for a second. She looked around and furrowed her brow slightly.] People, a fire, aka light, you, people, this seems like one of the safest places right now. It certainly sounds a lot safer than alone in a house with no lights. Especially when it sounds like people tend to get snatched up out of nowhere...

[purplishgreen]

Are you alone?

[She'd offer to take Raven home, but... well, she won't take anyone human -- or mutant, close enough -- back to the house she shares with Hal. She doesn't trust him, even if he's trying.]

No wonder this sounds more inviting.

[any1youwant]

Yuuup. Empty house.

To make things worse it's right by the ocean and that clairvoyant, Dirk, he said he dreamed something about some kind of sea monster. Call me old fashioned, but I believe in that kind of thing - clairvoyance, I mean, and I wouldn't put monsters off the list around here.

[purplishgreen]

[Clairvoyance? She's silent on that point; she's had vision, but only of the past, memories that she's inherited that sometimes rise to the surface.]

Neither would I. Monsters are more easily found than not, depending on your definition.

[She smiles a little.]

But I will keep you safe.

[any1youwant]

[Raven grinned to herself in obvious amusement, finding the whole idea of this new acquaintance keeping her safe. It was a sentence that no one back home would ever utter to her, though she'd never had to fight a sea monster in pitch black back home either.]

Sorry, I appreciate the sentiment, it's just strange. I guess, back home I'm one of the monsters. [She laughed softly, her smirk stubbornly staying in place. She seemed more entertained by the stark contrast than anything else.]

[purplishgreen]

You would need to be a great deal more than blue to be a monster where I am from. You might be a curiosity, but then, so am I.

[That's such a nicer word than 'freak.']

I've encountered monsters, real monsters. I'm not sure what I think of prophesy, but I hope Dirk is wrong. We're... not equipped here, I suspect.

[any1youwant]

[She didn't feel like explaining that it definitely wasn't just her blue skin that made some people consider her a monster. She'd save that conversation for another time, or... never.]

Not just prophecy; he dreamed it. And he says he's dreamt other things that came true.

[purplishgreen]

And I admit I have trouble believing that. I have... I have seen visions of things that may happen, but only because they're memories of what's happened before.

[She shakes her head. She actually has no desire to talk about that in depth.]

I do believe in monsters, though. So, perhaps.