The Streets of Town, Thursday Morning

[crackedncorrupt]

Everything was grey these days. Grey, or that muddy red-brown color that humans left behind when their bodies were damaged, but in the fog, the always, always fog, even that seemed grey, or black. Dirty. Earth was dirty. Dirtier now than it had been, and smaller, just one island apart from the rest, but this was the Earth that was most prevalent in

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[studyingfear]

The fog had not melted him or Dark Nation and while the streets and buildings had changed dramatically from what he was used to, it was still recognizably Fandom when Rufus headed out for personal inspection that morning.

He'd wind up in the library soon enough but, given that all Portals were down now, Rufus wanted to know what they were dealing with. Monsters didn't scare him--he was confident he could take care of himself and Dark Nation--and the streets were fascinating in their changed state.

Rufus didn't bother to hide as he walked the streets, though he wasn't going out of his way to be seen either. His eyes were alert and, now and then, a faint smile curled his lips. It was almost exhilarating, being free to do this.

[crackedncorrupt]

In a place like this, 'not going out of his way to be seen' was practically 'wandering around with a neon arrow over his head,' and Peridot's head snapped up as she noticed the figure making his way down the street, wide eyes flickering with static briefly before returning to empty, solid white.

The figure wasn't moving like one of the emptied ones, though sometimes that just meant that there was a slight tether to humanity left still. It didn't necessarily mean he would be any less viol--

He came a little closer to her hiding spot, his features coming into sharper focus, and Peridot gasped. It was possibly the most sound that had escaped her lips all day, and in these streets, it was deafening.

[studyingfear]

It was true what he’d told Kathy yesterday-Dark Nation was a puppy. But Rufus had been training him and Dark Nation was deeply uneasy with their surroundings already. A low growl started coming from him, even as Rufus’ eyes narrowed as he searched for what had made that noise.

He didn’t do anything as asinine as call out ‘who’s there?’ like the dim-witted heroine from a bad movie.

He did have his guns out, now, when he hadn’t been holding them visible a moment before, and he waited, pausing in his steps, to see what crawled out of the woodwork.

[crackedncorrupt]

It was the guns that had tripped Peridot up, admittedly. Rufus being back, she could possibly wrap her head around. The humans never came back before, but she didn't pretend to know much more about their capacity to heal now than she had before everything had gone horribly wrong. But the guns?

She looked down at the pair that were strapped to her, big enough to almost run the entire length from hip to knee on her tiny frame, and frowned. How did he have...?

She hunkered herself down for a moment more before making up her mind. If he was hollow, he was a terrible excuse for a hollow so far, and if he was Rufus, he wouldn't shoot. Squaring her shoulders a little, she pulled herself to her feet and stepped out from the rubble, wide eyed and visibly shaking.

[intotheout]

Tip had left the dorms planning to go to work. What was that postal service motto? Neither rain nor sleet nor yadda yadda. Creepy fog had to be included in that. She didn't want to get fired. Also, she wasn't entirely sure the dorms were all that much safer just now. The Post Office would maybe at least be all in one piece.

Yeah, she wasn't so sure about that, anymore. She was getting some serious late Boov invasion flashbacks going, here, especially considering the fact that she couldn't get her phone to dial any numbers off island. Which was bad. She wasn't sure she'd've gotten through the Boov invasion without J.Lo. Here she didn't even have Pig.

Bill flying in circles over her head, spelling "NO" repeatedly wasn't helping much, either.

"I get it," Tip told him. "This is a bad idea." She held up her camera and snapped a picture of a nearby ruin. "I already made the bad choice, though, so I might as well do some recon while I'm out here, right?"

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. . . .

[crackedncorrupt]

This... this was a weird day for humans who had left Peridot alone suddenly showing up in the streets. A really, really weird day. She was two for two, now, her head jerking up at the flash of a camera that made her jump in surprise.

There was a rustle of tiny hands and paper as she shoved what she'd grabbed into her bag and threw it onto her back, and then she peered out from behind the rubble at Gratuity, warily.

It seemed as though every dead (empty, monstrous, gone) human that she knew was bent on dying again, today.

[intotheout]

Bill freaked out at the rustling, popping all his carefully formed NO bubbles. Tip turned to look.

". . . Peridot? That you?"

[crackedncorrupt]

Peridot tilted her head and stared for a few seconds in silence, just to be sure this wasn't some sort of trick. Gratuity... looked different. Had looked different for some time. And hadn't moved from where she'd closed herself away since...

Since forever ago. Since after she'd lost herself.

Tentatively, bag on her back and almost comically oversized guns strapped to each hip, she straightened up and made her way out from her hiding place to investigate... maybe a Tip doppelganger. Who happened to know her name. Stranger things had happened here.

[emptypark]

Parker was walking. It was part of her... routine? Could you have a routine, if you didn't remember the word for it? Or words?

Blank-faced, she paced down the walk, eyes fixed forward. Sounds and sights passed through her field of vision and had no impact.

Anyone who tried to stop her or touch her, though, would get a very nasty face full of attack-Parker.

[crackedncorrupt]

You know, after meeting two sane if forgetful people who had been long gone, one might think that Peridot would be willing to check to see if Parker had regained her sanity, too. Fortunately, Peridot was paranoid. It made for a little extra caution when watching people shuffle by.

She watched quietly from behind her pile of rubble, and then got back to shoving the rest of her findings into her bag. Hollows... Peridot didn't like hollows.

[emptypark]

And who could blame Peridot for that? Hollows didn't like Hollows. Hollows didn't like. Hollows just... were.

Parker didn't notice Peridot, or if she did, it was as something not-threat, not-important, not-not-not.

Step step, step step. Step-step, step-step.

[crackedncorrupt]

It helped that Peridot could add 'not edible' to the list, perhaps. She hunkered down and watched until Parker had moved on, and then slipped out from behind the rubble, to follow carefully, well behind her. She wouldn't get in her way, of course, but they happened to be headed in roughly the same direction.