News Report #3

[pluckyreporter]

A: Williams Road Roxanne never felt comfortable sleeping with Enkidu. She bedded down on the couch more often than not when she could, or just fell asleep in a chair, or-- simply never made it to bed for any number of reasons. She'd been alone all these years, and she was comfortable that way. But when she feels a draft-- because a wall is no

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Williams Road

[pants_yourmove]

[[He's also on Williams road.

Stopping by her, raising his hands to show he's safe. That he isn't here to hurt anyone.]]

Are you okay, did you get hurt in... in whatever happened?

[[Trying hard not to shake. The town, it's all gone.]]

[pluckyreporter]

No. No, I was asleep.

I was...

[Can she still be asleep? She'd rather be asleep and this be a terrible dream, even for Mayfield.]

[pants_yourmove]

And it happened overnight.

[[She's not taking it well, Aaron takes a deep breath. He's not going to find support here.]]

Look, whatever they did, it's not going to get better before it gets worse. We won't know how long they are going to keep this up. Do you have food in your basement?

[pluckyreporter]

[Worse, she's been here less than a month. This is pretty insane and she doesn't have months or years of Mayfield living to keep her grounded.]

Ah. Yes. Some -- lots of ... dog and cat foot, but I guess that's not going to matter. They call us 'pet house'. Enkidu-- took care of animals.

C.

[gezellighe]

[He didn't really know his next door neighbor yet, but when he sees a lady calling out for someone, Holland will wave his hand, being in the rubble nearby.]

Are you all right?

Re: C.

[pluckyreporter]

[Roxanne long ago mastered running through rubble in high heels -- she is picking her way down the street at a good clip, but stops when she sees the other man. She doesn't know this one. Not sure about trusting him -- any of them -- either. But the drones are all gone, so... He must be 'real'.]

--fine. Except for--

[A general wave toward the area. Yeah, everything is peachy in the face of the apocalypse.]

[gezellighe]

Right.

I'm Holland.

[pluckyreporter]

Nice to meet you, Mr. Holland. Wish it was under-- better circumstances.

[oh well.]

Have you seen Megamind at all?

C: 1448 Mitchell Road

[mr_eviloverlord]

Megamind didn't stick around for long after he realized that there wasn't much house left to salvage. He's also not very happy that he can't seem to locate his disguise generator watch. Luckily, however, he hasn't gotten too far and he hears Roxanne calling. Stumbling back over the wreckage and rubble as quickly as he can, Megamind squints his eyes, trying to see through the dust and smoke.

"Roxanne?"

Finally, he spots her silhouette around the area where his house used to be and kicks aside a few charred pieces of framework and broken glass to get to her. "I was just going to look for you. Are you alright?"

[pluckyreporter]

A laugh, a little nervous, bubbles up. He was going to go look to for her? You know what? She'll take it. Just keeps telling herself, the devil you know is better than the one you don't, but -- she's just starting to be glad to see him, simply because it's him.

She picks her her way over the rubble-- Mayfield leaving her in supposedly sensible heels and nylons just seems cruel with all this stuff she could hurt herself on.

Stumbling forward, she uses him as a self-catch, a hand on his arm before she nearly collides, bringing herself up short in the mess.

"Fine, fine. Would kill for a good pair of boots, though. And pants. You have no idea how much someone can miss pants." She lets her sarcasm shield her, and says, "It's-- all gone. Everybody seems to be... lost. The drones are dead, gone. Only 'thinkers' are still here."

[mr_eviloverlord]

He nods at her slowly, not all too sure of what else to say. Here they are, in this godforsaken town which looks like it just went through a nuclear war. There's nothing left and nothing to suggest that anybody's going to survive much longer than it'll take to die of starvation.

At this point, all petty feelings of bitterness and resentment are gone. There's no point. Now is the time to think about what you do have and make what you can with it. He helps steady her in the rubble, then looks around for an idea, anything.

"Oh!" His face lights up. Not everything is gone. "The basements! Those are still intact. Diana, we should go find her."

Megamind excitedly begins to pull Roxanne behind him in the direction of his friend's house, forgetting to explain who she is or why her basement is better than everyone else's.

[pluckyreporter]

Well, this isn't the first time that Megamind's grabbed her to haul her off somewhere, but it's definitely the first time that she's shifted her grip to take his hand and just-- go with him.

She decides to keep the questions -- like who the hell is Diana? -- to herself for now and simply follow after, thankful that years of dealing with Megamind has left her with good managing-rubble-in-heels skills.

A

[idkmybfforin]

After a moment, Roxanne is joined out there on the porch--in a way.

Utsuho, in her humanoid form, has emerged from what remained of the house's upper story, perching in a crouch on what also remained of the porch roof--though it's easy enough to see her, with the roof half gone anyway. The wood creaks ominously under her weight, but she doesn't notice.

For once there's an expression on her face that isn't comically angry or prideful; instead her expression is...oddly blank. Just a little sad.

There's a small, pink-haired corpse cradled to her chest, cleaned with whatever bits of cloth Utsuho could scavenge from the ruined house.

She's gazing intently at the ominous cloud blooming on the horizon.

[pluckyreporter]

[This place seriously hadn't made Roxanne cry yet. She'd managed to keep it together, but -- seeing Utsuho with a girl that she knows had once been Roxanne herself, taken from hre own, before her will had been stolen?]

[Yeah, her eyes are pricking with tears something fierce.]

Oh, honey--- I'm so sorry.

[She reaches out, tentative-- to put her hand on the girl-crow's shoulder.]

There's some - some sacks downstairs, or some sheets-- somewhere. Let's ...give her a proper shroud at least. Let her rest.

The mood whiplash from these threads is astounding

[idkmybfforin]

[The only sign that Utsuho noticed the touch at all was a little shift in her wings. Her eyes remain fixed on the horizon; she knows what that is. What caused it--fire. Nuclear fire--fission, most likely.]

Fire is clean. Master should end in fire.

[pluckyreporter]

[Roxanne blanches; a pyre? God. The idea makes her stomach flipflop.]

I -- I don't-- I've never built a pyre, Utsuho.

[Or even have anything to burn. There's not a lot left. Wood. Scraps of cloth. Enough to burn a little girl?]

[Yup, there's that stomach flipflop again.]