(Untitled)

[niteo_mods]

Characters: You, you, and YOU.
When: June 11th - June 24th
Where: Nesreca. Everywhere.
Rating: PG and up.
Summary: The fog is everywhere. Sounds are heard at night. There are no inhabitable buildings. What do you do?

Comments

June 18; early afternoon

[misprotect]

Ghastly swirls of off white spun around Heine since he had arrived to his undisclosed location. Muddled outlines of large buildings could somewhat be made out within ten feet, but anything beyond that was lost the wisp of fog. His dim red eyes tried to focus and distinguish from the stationary and the moving; the latter either his growing paranoia or something really was moving in the dense fog.

Eventually he came in contact with a building and traced along its edge by hand and eyes trying to find a way at least out of the fog. There was not anyone to question where he was or if anyone had seen the people last around him. The flicker of doubt that wondered if the place was the afterlife was absurd to Heine. He’d been to that edge; there wasn’t fog so much as an utter blackness that voided all vision.

Wherever he was, he was still very much alive at if his breathing and sensory could tell him. By mistake he stepped on a weakened board causing an echoing snap to fill the gray washed air. All movements stopped and his breathing came to a standstill, hands lingering behind him feeling for his pistols.

A few breaths were taken to calm down with and then once again ventured onward seeking both answers and life. Heine’s footsteps were slowed and measured after the mishap. Thin fingers pulled at the front of his jacket fanning his body. With the fog had come humidity. The nagging feeling of droplets forming upon his skin was nerve wreaking and only further adding to his paranoia.

He had to find a way out of the fog and soon.

Re: June 18; early afternoon

[pi_of_fortune]

From first contact to buildings finally, but the state they were in didn't raise her hopes. Ever since she spoke to that little girl, it just made her wonder more and more about the possible dangers of this city. How had it even become this way? How long had it been empty like this? Was it constantly shrouded in fog? It eerily reminded her of Inaba when the fog consumed it. Hopefully there wasn't another murder mystery and the weather was just being temperamental...

Focus, Naoto. Suitable shelter must be found. This building won't do.

Though, considering her room was gone, would a decent place to bunker down for the evening be present? That just raised another question. Would it be safe to sleep tonight? She kept hearing voices and it wasn't from her PDA. She hadn't come across any other life other than the plants, but plants couldn't use PDAs... so, where were the other people in this world? Were they actually tangible?

Naoto closed her eyes and shook her head; she was over thinking again. Momentarily, she dropped her gaze to the ground, but then looked around. The fog was still too thick. Several seconds ticked before she turned on her heel and proceeded to walk again.

[misprotect]

Finding a suitable shelter was not even on his mind. Getting out and if possible finding the others was all that did. The PDA didn’t receive much attention nor did Heine actually know how to operate one beyond bare minimum function. So the newly acquired device was placed in his back pocket for the time being.

A few buildings had been past in his wandering, his hand brushing along the way like a blind man feeling his way about. Murmurs and whispers drifted in the air as if the fog itself was speaking. Heine placed little into the ramblings considering it only his ears filtering out things that were close to spoken words. Just paranoia and the loss of a trusted sense he thought.

Yet he was unnerved about the whole empty town and being swept up. Logically answers did not come. He had not fallen asleep or was taken by brute force. He remember quite well what was happening, him standing there looking Nill, Naoto, and Liza in the face after speaking of his past.

The thoughtful daze was cut when a new sound reaching his attentive ears. It was faint, but his hyper alert senses did not fail him for the most part. Something was moving or he was losing grasp on reality far too quickly in the shroud of gray. Once again hands were lingering beside his weapons as he waited for any further sound.

[pi_of_fortune]

The quiet was pulling at her nerves, but every now and again, she swore she could hear that little girl's laughter. Libitina if she remembered correctly... that had been the name the male had given her. What were they to--

Naoto paused and turned her head. That laugh she had heard; it had been too distinct. Still, it was just the laughter and nothing more. No footsteps, no words, just the sound echoing for a moment and then fading into the mist.

"..."

Calling out came to her mind, but calling here in the open? What if something else answered back; something very not-human? Caution kept Naoto from uttering a sound.

[misprotect]

He stayed still keeping his shoulder to the wall so not to lose his place. What was real and only phantoms could not be distinguished with one sense handicapped and the other untrusted with what it fed to his mind. Running straight until he broke from the fog came to Heine as a way to clear his deepening paranoia, but it was not a way he followed.

The chances that something truly lingering about the corners of derelict buildings proved to demanding for him to simply toss away and made a mad dash. Staying still forever was not a way either, so Heine began walking again with an ever increasing feeling of eyes upon his back.

Then he saw it, a mass where the fog seem to split around. Heine unlatched one of his holsters and pulled his Mauser forth. If it was a person, than calling out was sure to get a response.

If not, then he had plenty of room to take aim and drag whatever it was; presuming that the strange mass was in fact living.

"Speak up if someone is there." He called out bearing no fear in his tone. The pistol was free from the holster now and hovering by hand above his hip.

[pi_of_fortune]

"...!?"

Naoto peered back into the fog, trying to locate where the voice had originated from. Someone else was here? And they actually had done more than simply laugh unless the voices were suddenly using complete sentences. She rested a hand on her waist, just above where her gun was. This wasn't the river where the other residents were supposed to be meeting; she couldn't risk the chance of it being a trick in the fog.

"... Did you just recently arrive as well?"

She kept her voice unwavering with the usual masculine tone. There... was a chance she supposed. Someone who had been in this town longer would know where the river was already, right? The small detective ready to move if neither was the case.

[misprotect]

A frown overtook his already bothered expression. So there were others, but not enough was said to know if they knew anything just yet. A lapse in time was taken before Heine spoke again.

"Wouldn't call it arriving much as being taken, but I haven't been here long." Lacking a watch limited Heine's grasp on time and with the town enveloped in fog allowed no sight of the sun.

"The same for you?" The earlier question could have been taken either way, from someone recently arrived or from someone who presumably lived there.

Movements ceased on his end for the moment. In his right hand was still his pistol, but his body had eased considerably since discovering that it was not a dangerous being. The left remained pressed to the wall as an anchor so not to lose his way in the dense fog.

[pi_of_fortune]

Hm... well, arriving and being taken weren't far off. Logically, they were taken and then brought here. It wasn't much a matter of arriving since they couldn't leave freely. Still, the voices in the fog could be trying to lower her guard.

"... That's correct. I was told to head for the river and find a gold, dual-headed trident. Have you heard a river anywhere around here?"

There would be no need to find shelter then. It would just be a matter of time and risk trekking through the dark night to get there.

She still hadn't drawn; would she be able to by the time she could actually see this male speaker in-case it really was something dangerous?

[misprotect]

Arriving suggested that one wanted to be in a location. River had not been seen or heard in his wanders, not that Heine would have been able to see much in the dense fog. So far the only things that he came across were the collapsing buildings and this person.

"No and where did you hear that?" He asked finding the piece of information questionable. That meant even more people where there, somewhere.

[pi_of_fortune]

"I was trying to contact anyone that could possibly be from home using the PDA. No luck, but I have been contacted by several others who are stuck here as well."

Naoto would have tried approaching the speaker, but she's still uncertain, deciding to hold her ground instead. Fog was never going to settle well with her after last year.

[misprotect]

"No locals?"

There was the possibility that someone was originally from there or near considering the state that the city was in. Heine clicked his tongue in thought and holstered his pistol seeing the threat no longer pressing. The PDA had all but been forgotten since the beginning of his wanderings.

His steps picked up once again and he moved forward, or what Heine consider forward from himself. More people were heading toward a river and far as he knew there wasn’t such a thing behind him.

“No point standing idle. If there are more people here I need to find them and find out what the hell is going on.”

[pi_of_fortune]

"... The locals are all dead and the nearby city rather have us dead."

That was putting it blandly, but Lavi had told her that much. Naoto peered, but then blinked. Still no one out of the fog and which direction to go...

... Ah, they spoke again.

"Right..."

Naoto wasn't sure still. Probably best to continue with the way she was currently going now. If either of them would run into someone was up in the air.

Better late than never 8D;

[promisedlotus]

Kanda had heard a variety of sounds throughout the past week and a half. Most, if not all, were unnatural, and he had come to expect that while the entirety of Nesreca was covered in equally unnatural fog. So, when he heard the echoing sound of a breaking board, he stopped himself; he didn't immediately go for Mugen, just stood still and waited. Listened.

Footsteps. He found to himself, unable to place them. Nearly everyone in the city was at the bridge by this point, so he could only assume that Libitina went and brought more people in the middle of whatever this was. Wasn't that a joy.

He waited for a moment later before continuing on his way. If they were desperate enough, Kanda thought, then they could ask for help through the PDA.

Hey, no worries!

[misprotect]

Thing was, Heine was not the kind to be desperate for help or to call out for it. One person had been crossed in his venturing across the gray washed environment and lasted for a brief exchange of information. More people were there and were said to be huddling around the river. The tip had been reaffirmed after another encounter over the PDA and since then he had been searching for the marker and listening out for the sound of running water.

With more people he could get more information on just what was happening there and more importantly how he could get back to where he belonged. A low groan rumbled in his chest at the snapping of wood at his boots, the third in the last hour or so. He was making far too much noise and not being able to see further than a few feet had to do with it.

Just as with the other mishaps of giving himself away, Heine ceased his movements and listened to the air. Nothing, not that he expected a peep back. After what he considered enough time, Heine picked up his pace looking for the river and the unfortunate residents.

[OOC: Presuming this is a little after he spoke with Naoto and Lavi, so he’s got some information on whats going on.]

<3

[promisedlotus]

There it was again. Someone was definitely out here close by. The cracking wood was happening too frequently just to be a simple coincidence. Kanda kept one hand on Mugen's hilt and continued walking, following the dying, faint echo of the wood. He made sure to proceed cautiously, though. He wasn't going to be careless and clumsy.

After a long stretch of silence, Kanda stopped for a moment. Closed his eyes and listened. Since he couldn't see who was with him, maybe he could...try to sense them out.

[[ Gotcha! o/ ]]