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DECEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME!
DECEMBER 2022 TDM
UNFORTUNATELY ALL TOO STANDARD ARRIVAL
THE MISDIRECTED
FROSTQUAKE
CODING
Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Man in front of broken glacial ice]
[Image Two: Human face and shoulders, dripping blood with flaking skin]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Monstrous Human with sideways mouth and eyes]
[Image Two: Solitary Snowy Forest]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Frozen Zombie]
[Image Two: Icequake!]
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
Prompt One
[Image One: Man in front of broken glacial ice]
[Image Two: Human face and shoulders, dripping blood with flaking skin]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Monstrous Human with sideways mouth and eyes]
[Image Two: Solitary Snowy Forest]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Frozen Zombie]
[Image Two: Icequake!]
WHEN: Last Week of November/First Week of December
WHERE: The Farther Shores
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Frozen Wastes, Possible Transformations, Extreme Cold, weird offers of juice under suspicious circumstances?
WHERE: The Farther Shores
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Frozen Wastes, Possible Transformations, Extreme Cold, weird offers of juice under suspicious circumstances?
The Heart of Winter in Trench is no time to enter the city as a sleeper. The entire beach is fully iced over with a glacially thick sheet of ice. Numerous patches of thick ice and heavy snowfall can be found around town, though they are shoveled to leave the paths accessible. Where the previous year, skates were rented and offered to those who wish to skate, the ice flows are far too craggy and irregular to be safe. Instead, cleats are given to those who greet and bring the sleepers to shore. Holes are bored at regular intervals deep into the ice flows and lights are lowered down into the holes to give guidance to sleepers' approach. When Sleepers rise from the depths, they find themselves in small wooden enclosures to protect from howling winds and bitter cold, able to form their bodies there in relative comfort in front of a censor with rocks heated by coldblood-infused stones especially for the purpose.
Outside of the bitter, and vicious cold, arrival to the city is a muted, quiet and otherwise uneventful occurrence. There are no tides of monsters. There are no horrific things waiting for people who arrive. There is simply a bone-chilling cold that numbs the soul a little. To help the people as they arrive, not only are they given their backpacks but they are also offered thick mugs of cocoa to help them cope with the cold. It seems to be helping quite a bit, actually. Yet, something about all of this seems off. The people of Trench are nervous, and there is an air of uncertainty in everything.
SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK
Where normally there would be large food stalls set up and games, displays of beauty such as ice sculptures, the cold is bad enough that the people of Trench want not to be out as much as possible, and doubtless neither do the Sleepers. They are hustled and bundled from one small structure to another. Heavy winter furs that look reminiscent of great wolf pelts are given to everyone, especially those who have no clothing. But it is otherwise a strangely muted affair, though the people whisper of hope that the Shedding Ceremony is about to begin, and with it is the hope of new life and new birth in the City of Trench. In time, many will find that the symptoms associated with Madame Generosity's ceremony of shedding one's older self are in full swing throughout the month of January, complete with possible transformations and itchy, scaley skin conditions. Lovely.
Before every new sleeper leaves, however, a final gift is given. It is a small box, which contains a hand written note in scrawled black ink that is alarmingly similar to squid ink. This same box appears the morning of January 1st on the doorstep of every single home of a sleeper in Trench, without fail. If a person in Trench has strange accommodations, they nevertheless find this box where they would normally wake, or around a corner in the early morning with their name on it and no explanation. Inside the box are always the same items: 1 gallon of orange juice, 6 cans of chicken noodle soup, 4 boxes of tissues and what looks like an old world-war I era gas mask. The hand written note reads clearly 'DRINK THE JUICE!' Nobody in Trench seems to know why or who gave them.
Outside of the bitter, and vicious cold, arrival to the city is a muted, quiet and otherwise uneventful occurrence. There are no tides of monsters. There are no horrific things waiting for people who arrive. There is simply a bone-chilling cold that numbs the soul a little. To help the people as they arrive, not only are they given their backpacks but they are also offered thick mugs of cocoa to help them cope with the cold. It seems to be helping quite a bit, actually. Yet, something about all of this seems off. The people of Trench are nervous, and there is an air of uncertainty in everything.
Where normally there would be large food stalls set up and games, displays of beauty such as ice sculptures, the cold is bad enough that the people of Trench want not to be out as much as possible, and doubtless neither do the Sleepers. They are hustled and bundled from one small structure to another. Heavy winter furs that look reminiscent of great wolf pelts are given to everyone, especially those who have no clothing. But it is otherwise a strangely muted affair, though the people whisper of hope that the Shedding Ceremony is about to begin, and with it is the hope of new life and new birth in the City of Trench. In time, many will find that the symptoms associated with Madame Generosity's ceremony of shedding one's older self are in full swing throughout the month of January, complete with possible transformations and itchy, scaley skin conditions. Lovely.
Before every new sleeper leaves, however, a final gift is given. It is a small box, which contains a hand written note in scrawled black ink that is alarmingly similar to squid ink. This same box appears the morning of January 1st on the doorstep of every single home of a sleeper in Trench, without fail. If a person in Trench has strange accommodations, they nevertheless find this box where they would normally wake, or around a corner in the early morning with their name on it and no explanation. Inside the box are always the same items: 1 gallon of orange juice, 6 cans of chicken noodle soup, 4 boxes of tissues and what looks like an old world-war I era gas mask. The hand written note reads clearly 'DRINK THE JUICE!' Nobody in Trench seems to know why or who gave them.
WHEN: Last Week of December through End of January
WHERE: Outside of the Main Districts of Trench, the Wilderness
CONTENT WARNINGS: Horrifying Monster, Body Horror, Being Lost, Severe Disorientation, Hypothermia, Possible Death
WHERE: Outside of the Main Districts of Trench, the Wilderness
CONTENT WARNINGS: Horrifying Monster, Body Horror, Being Lost, Severe Disorientation, Hypothermia, Possible Death
There is no real warning about what comes. Somewhere in the last week of December, people just occasionally turn up missing. The numbers are never alarming, but they're greater than should have been expected in the month of January. Trenchies seem clueless to this, and the Hunters are left scratching their heads. They do not know what is causing the added disappearances, as none of the usual signs and warnings attend the recent uptick. This alone has them unsettled, and Trenchies begin to travel resolutely in pairs and trios everywhere that they go. The reason why becomes all too clear if one strays outside of Trench's main districts and wanders the roads between the districts or anywhere near the farms during this month and a half.
There is something out there. It can never be seen directly, but the sense that you are being watched is inescapable. Hints of a figure in the shadows of the trees are nothing new in Trench, but there is a definite air of malevolence to it, one that is obvious and pointed at your person the moment that you recognize that it is present and acknowledge its existence in any fashion or form. The creature is never there if you look directly at it, but if you happen to catch it more closely out of the corner of your eye, the horrifyingly twisted form of a human being whose eyes and mouth are turned sideways is barely visible, pointing at you!
This would be the time that many good hunters would attack, yet the creature is a slippery one. It never actually attacks directly and any time a person tries to turn to it, it is simply gone. Indirect attacks can cause it to flee, but it always comes back at some point, seemingly invulnerable to attack. What it does, rather than attack, is far more nefarious as its mere presence can be disorienting to anyone who encounters it. All sense of direction becomes lost, and the person can find themselves wandering further and further out into the wilderness, even if they were originally within sight of their destination. The more lost they become, the more that their mind descends into a fugue, one where concentration becomes worse and worse, and memory seems to slip away until they lose all sense of identity. The further out, the colder it gets, and the more the smell of rotten eggs lingers, fetid in the air.
The spirit is eventually identified by some of the Arcane Scholars as not being native to Trench, and they believe it is from somewhere much further in the north, from places far removed from this town. There are only snippets about one of their kind ever being encountered in Trench before, and the reports said it eventually became lost and left again, as will this spirit. It is indestructible and unkillable, as it is already dead. The only true defense is to, when the smell of rotten eggs comes along, to cover the mouth and nose completely. The burning of incense also helps, anything to block out the foul odor, which turns out to be the likely vector of its disorienting effect. If they happen to have a compass that unerringly shows direction from prior events, those too can be a protection of sorts finding their way back. If one travels too long out in the wilderness, though, there are fears that one might become as lost as the spirit and die in the wilderness, ultimately sharing the fate that brought it into existence. Even those who escape the spirit's wrath may have lingering memory issues, though those should pass over the next week.
There is something out there. It can never be seen directly, but the sense that you are being watched is inescapable. Hints of a figure in the shadows of the trees are nothing new in Trench, but there is a definite air of malevolence to it, one that is obvious and pointed at your person the moment that you recognize that it is present and acknowledge its existence in any fashion or form. The creature is never there if you look directly at it, but if you happen to catch it more closely out of the corner of your eye, the horrifyingly twisted form of a human being whose eyes and mouth are turned sideways is barely visible, pointing at you!
This would be the time that many good hunters would attack, yet the creature is a slippery one. It never actually attacks directly and any time a person tries to turn to it, it is simply gone. Indirect attacks can cause it to flee, but it always comes back at some point, seemingly invulnerable to attack. What it does, rather than attack, is far more nefarious as its mere presence can be disorienting to anyone who encounters it. All sense of direction becomes lost, and the person can find themselves wandering further and further out into the wilderness, even if they were originally within sight of their destination. The more lost they become, the more that their mind descends into a fugue, one where concentration becomes worse and worse, and memory seems to slip away until they lose all sense of identity. The further out, the colder it gets, and the more the smell of rotten eggs lingers, fetid in the air.
The spirit is eventually identified by some of the Arcane Scholars as not being native to Trench, and they believe it is from somewhere much further in the north, from places far removed from this town. There are only snippets about one of their kind ever being encountered in Trench before, and the reports said it eventually became lost and left again, as will this spirit. It is indestructible and unkillable, as it is already dead. The only true defense is to, when the smell of rotten eggs comes along, to cover the mouth and nose completely. The burning of incense also helps, anything to block out the foul odor, which turns out to be the likely vector of its disorienting effect. If they happen to have a compass that unerringly shows direction from prior events, those too can be a protection of sorts finding their way back. If one travels too long out in the wilderness, though, there are fears that one might become as lost as the spirit and die in the wilderness, ultimately sharing the fate that brought it into existence. Even those who escape the spirit's wrath may have lingering memory issues, though those should pass over the next week.
WHEN: First week of January
WHERE: Anywhere around Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Natural Disaster Horror, Frostquakes, Falling Peril, Sinkholes, Fear of the Dark, Frozen Zombies!
WHERE: Anywhere around Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Natural Disaster Horror, Frostquakes, Falling Peril, Sinkholes, Fear of the Dark, Frozen Zombies!
At first you think you're being treated to something spectacular! There's a small scale aurora that shows itself in the sky over your head. It's breathtaking and quite stunning to behold. The truth of the matter is all too real almost immediately afterwards however. There is a dull, booming crack as the frozen ground underneath your feet breaks and shudders, giving way! It's an earthquake, or more accurately a frostquake. In and around the city of Trench, as the temperatures shift in the dead of the cold of the Bone Moon, ice flows and patches of snow shift and compress against the ground, causing localized earthquakes to occur.
These frostquakes can damage buildings, causing items to fall, breaking plaster and the like. They are not, however, strong enough to do permanent harm to the buildings unless they are themselves structurally unsound. Each of them is localized, their experience not traveling more than two city blocks way each time one strikes. However, if you are unfortunate enough to be outside when it happens, they have an alarming habit of striking under the feet of unwary sleepers. Every time one of these frostquakes occurs, a patch of ground opens up temporarily into a deep sinkhole!
Falling into the hole can be an unpleasant sequence of events, but the ground beneath is littered with snow and something soft. Though banged up, the sleeper should be able to survive the fall intact. It's getting back out that is the problem. The walls aren't sheer, but it's a difficult climb. A rope can be thrown down, but it's very dark and cold in the space, making it hard to see much of anything. The real danger lies in the fact that they find that they are not alone! The 'softness' that they landed upon turns out to be a small number of other unfortunate souls who once fell in a prior frostquake, their bodies freezing to death long ago and rising as undead, waiting for an opening to escape. They attack blindly and though they can be defeated, they are still quite strong. Unlike some zombies, they do not hunger for flesh, but for the escape from their icy tomb and will do anything to crawl their way out, where they can wreck havoc finally on the living! Better deal with them quickly!
These frostquakes can damage buildings, causing items to fall, breaking plaster and the like. They are not, however, strong enough to do permanent harm to the buildings unless they are themselves structurally unsound. Each of them is localized, their experience not traveling more than two city blocks way each time one strikes. However, if you are unfortunate enough to be outside when it happens, they have an alarming habit of striking under the feet of unwary sleepers. Every time one of these frostquakes occurs, a patch of ground opens up temporarily into a deep sinkhole!
Falling into the hole can be an unpleasant sequence of events, but the ground beneath is littered with snow and something soft. Though banged up, the sleeper should be able to survive the fall intact. It's getting back out that is the problem. The walls aren't sheer, but it's a difficult climb. A rope can be thrown down, but it's very dark and cold in the space, making it hard to see much of anything. The real danger lies in the fact that they find that they are not alone! The 'softness' that they landed upon turns out to be a small number of other unfortunate souls who once fell in a prior frostquake, their bodies freezing to death long ago and rising as undead, waiting for an opening to escape. They attack blindly and though they can be defeated, they are still quite strong. Unlike some zombies, they do not hunger for flesh, but for the escape from their icy tomb and will do anything to crawl their way out, where they can wreck havoc finally on the living! Better deal with them quickly!
Yoichi Shigaraki | MHA | Coldblood
Arrival
It must be a nightmare.
What else could it be? Finding himself in a bitterly cold ocean with the wrong number of limbs can't be anything else, and this dull, disoriented certainty remains even as Yoichi finds a hole in the ice and drags his uncooperative and strangely changing body out of the hole and into ... some little enclosure with a nice warm brazier to huddle around miserably.
It's only when he begins to slowly dry off and numb disorientation gives way to actually being able to think that he's forced to weigh the certainty it's a nightmare versus the simple fact that if it was, it was incredibly realistic. Except for the part where he's sitting in his birthday suit on the ice and isn't particularly suffering for it.
No ... no, that could make sense too, if his brother was involved. If he forced one power on him, who's to say he wouldn't force another, some kind of weather adaption technique?
That or he's dying of hypothermia right now and it wasn't like the stories said it was. The door to the small shelter is opened for a moment, taking the time to peek out into the darkness and find even more ice, cold, and ... other little wood huts, and a distant shore. The door closes. The chances of him just winding up far from his brother's imprisoning vault at random were slim to none, which meant this was deliberate, and he didn't have long to try to get away.
Carefully, Yoichi leverages the light out of the water and douses it, and then picks up the warming censor full of coldblood stones. It's almost more than he can juggle at the moment, but determination is its own fuel source, and shortly later one of the many new arrivals is scuttling away across the ice with his purloined goods and into the darkness.
He didn't like stealing, even surrounded by the frozen sea and bitter cold that wasn't as cold as it should be, a scenario that should be his death in minutes. He'd have to repay whoever owned the brazier later. ..When he had pants.
Slightly Later
Yoichi has rapidly come to the conclusion that wherever he is, his brother is not involved, at least not directly. These people are unknown, and far too helpful to be colluding with his sibling; he now has a very nice (real??) fur to wear, a whole backpack of stuff, and a Box full of surprisingly useful things in it. There's no active powers war here, he can see that, but something's going on if they're just handing out gas masks in boxes with emergency food in them.
There's a lot of other weird stuff going on so he keeps his mouth shut and eyes open, watching and listening while carefully moving all his new stuff from one small shelter to the next on the boardwalk, often taking more than one trip to do it. Some people can manage a backpack and a box with an entire gallon of juice in it easily!
He is not one of these people.
Along with a strange immunity to the worst of the cold, Yoichi has noticed he's got more stamina than he usually does, but unfortunately that's not really saying all that much, and by the time he gets to the next bit of shelter, even if it's occupied, he sits down hard with a pant of exhaustion.
"I'm sorry, do you ... mind if I just..." Deep breath! "Sit here a minute?"
Frostquake
Time passes, and he doesn't freeze to death. He's kept the fur coat even though he now had other clothes to wear, and his small stash of useful things have been carefully tucked away.
This should be more frightening than it is, but he can't help but feel hopeful for the first time in ... years. Wherever this was, he was for the time being, free. Free to get his bearings, listen to news, try to figure out what's happening and for a little while set aside the endless concerns about stopping his brother's evil plans for the world. It's a good feeling.
Plus, there's this beautiful aurora! Which meant he had to be somewhere near the arctic circle ... or antarctic, he supposed, and Yoichi stops to watch with open amazement, using the lee of a building as a wind break. It's spectacular. Pictures and videos just don't do auroras justice!
And then the ground fissures open into a gaping hole nearly at his feet. He's saved from an immediate plunge into the black abyss by virtue of being close to a building, allowing him to seize a windowsill as earth and ice tumble away into nothingness. His grip isn't secure, but in the span of seconds it takes for him to slip his hold with a shriek of alarm, the hole has somewhat stabilized, and as he slides across stone and snow and ice, he comes to a stop perhaps ten feet down on a tiny, creaking ledge.
"Hello?" The ice creaks ominously around him, and he freezes in place for a moment, then carefully looks up and around. "Can anybody hear-"
His mouth snaps shut at the faint rustling below, of something moving in the dark. Other victims? But nobody else had been around, had they? Yoichi peers cautiously downward into the dark. "I.. I think there's someone stuck further below. Is anyone up there?"
Frostquake!
Carefully. Particularly as it becomes evident that some gaping sinkhole had opened up in the icy ground. As the echoes of the snap-crack of frozen earth and stone fade, Gaia can hear the distinct sound of someone's voice. This causes her to move a little more swiftly.
Though still cautious mind. She has been here a while even if the uncertain footing of the ground were not cause for concern. Falling into or the sudden appearance of cavernous depths have rarely meant something good.
"Hello?" It's a young woman's voice. "Are you injured?"
It's alarming to hear there's probably more than one person who fell prey to the hole and Gaia considers calling for assistance. But it's probably best to ascertain as much as she can about the situation first. If Yoichi were to look up, he might notice a light shining- an Omni that has been lit like a beacon. Small trails of blue seem to flit about it.
"Can you see the light? I'll send my Omen down to find you. Try not to move much!"
The blue light will detach from the primary light source and begin to descend in a seeking pattern. Whether or not the detail resolves itself into the shape of a black betta with scale tips and fin veins of of glowing blue will depend on how close Arte manages to get to the stranded victim.
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"Nothing serious," is the prompt reply. Scratches, bruises, he can live with those. "I think someone else may have fallen in and are further below, I hear movement but.." but nothing else, which is ominous for all the reasons he doesn't know to worry about, he's just thinking of potential injuries. "You're .. your what?"
An omen? He's pretty sure that other thing was a phone, the most convenient of flashlights! And then there's a giant fish, a giant flying fish and Yoichi is gobsmacked into silence. He hadn't bothered to ask about omens, and hadn't been around long enough to disassociate the very few he'd seen from just being pets or companions, but they had been ordinary species.
This is a fish. Did she have a meta power that involved flying giant bettas?
"Miss? Is ... is this your .. um, fish?"
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Arte is pacing back and forth through the air in direct defiance of anyone saying anything about a fish out of water. He then flips off with a fancy flourish of the crowning tail, heading in a downward pattern. It's seems he's setting out to hunt down other victims of the sinkhole.
"But nevermind the explanations. We should focus on getting you to safety and finding the others." Gaia is not unaware of the cracking noises still popping off here and there; and she's praying whatever dubious safety this guy has found is going to hold long enough. On the edge above she carefully repositions herself over the place Arte had found Yoichi. Whatever the connection the two have, it seems useful in pinpointing locations accurately without the need for verbal communication. In the light of the Omni, he might even catch a glimpse of the girl, probably around seventeen years of age, peering at him.
Gaia sets her hands down on the edge of the sinkhole. For her it's freezing despite adequate clothing, for she's not a Coldblood. But her type is still useful (and blessedly stable this month). And Yoichi is not so far down that she can't reach him.
There is a sudden change in the atmosphere around him as reality shapes to her desire. The ledge becomes stable; there's no more alarming creaks and groans to the ledge. The wall behind him is no longer ice; not because it has melted, but because it has been replaced by a new reality. A nice patch of climbable surface. Well for the average person anyway.
"I'm going to send down a rope. If you can't climb, tie it around your waist and I'll help. While Gaia's voice sounds a bit distracted- by Arte's discoveries of something moving in the darker areas- the rope nevertheless comes down.
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As Gaia peers down he peers back up, wide eyed, a scrawny tangle of fur, overgrown pale hair and bits of clinging snow. Tentatively a hand is offered in a wave; he isn't so egotistical as to be embarrassed by the idea of being rescued by a girl, especially since she's probably a lot stronger than he is, but she did send down a flying fish and as the ledgelet stabilizes and the earthen and ice wall behind him changes into something very different, it becomes obvious she is indeed a metahuman.
And not really hiding it, how bold! Carefully he grasps one of the handholds and uses it to better stabilize his footing, leveraging himself back up to his feet carefully. It's still a plunge, and he couldn't see the fish -- the omen, anymore. "I might be able to climb."
There's a note of doubt in his voice, he'll be glad for the rope. But it's only ten feet! Surely he can do it!! "I'll give it a try. It's not too far." Who is he trying to convince? "Can your fi- your omen, see who else came down with me? They might need the rope more, I can go down if you can use your power again."
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"What was that?" Gaia pauses before her mind catches up to what her ears heard. "Oh! Almost. At least there's some movement, even if it's dark." There is a short pause, followed by a brisk but firm tone.
"But don't get any ideas. You're hardly in a position to help others until you get checked over yourself. It's not as if you're going to do any good for the others if you are more hurt than you realize you know."
'Gaia...'
Gaia is already preparing to hold onto the rope in case she has to physically take part in hauling Yoichi up out of the hole. She stills as Arte reaches out to her through telepathy. And then she pales. If the young man is too occupied preparing himself to see that (much less in the dark), then the quaver of alarm in her voice may draw his attention.
"Gods... you need to start climbing. Right now!"
Blue streaks appear again as Arte flashes past Yoichi at a speed far more quickly than his descent.
no subject
Yoichi isn't looking up to see her expression change, but he does hear the urgency in her voice, glancing upwards in time for the betta to rocket past.
Now, he's not stupid. He knows a warning when he hears it, but this wars with the concern that someone might still be down there and in need of help. Surely she wouldn't be that alarmed without good reason, but..
In the end, he doesn't know if the sounds he heard were even people and not say, a wounded predator likely to lash out at whatever happened to be onhand. He hadn't heard a voice, hadn't heard anyone cry out.. After a momentous internal struggle, he turns and begins climbing as quickly as he can, which quite bluntly is neither quickly nor elegantly, he's going to be struggling the entire way.
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Gaia can only hope they'll be able to hold on while she aids the person right in front of her. She wants to yell at him to move faster but Gaia knows whether he's injured or just not used to this sort of struggle, demanding him to hurry is not going to help at all. Instead she helps where she's able, keeping the rope steady if he uses it and waiting for him to get into reach. Arte has retreated as though away flitting around will be a distraction for Yoichi. The blue light tips near Gaia's shoulder suggest the Omen's presence against the dark of the night.
Behind him there will be noises. Before it was rustling. Now the sound of something scrabbling. Somethings when it becomes clear that beast or man, there are more than one. Paws (hands) which grab at loose rubble with desperate abandon in a bid to move higher. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing with a shower of gravel in a downward slide its only reward.
The worst part may well be the sounds of the effort which are not part of nature. It's not growling, whining or yips one might expect from a wounded animal. Nor is it cries of pain or despair a person might utter. Nothing pants in the effort of its exertion.
Nothing is out of breath, nor in physical pain. The utterances are without words of something so long in prison that the mere glimmer of escape has robbed them of reason and they can only react with instinct and desire for what the opening above Yoichi represents.
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A glance cast back downward doesn't tell him what's there, only that in brief vague glimpses in the dark, at least one has hands like a human, but there's no sounds that help assuage his unease. No cries for help, not even any gasps or moans of pain, nothing that would suggest someone in need. But they're ... still moving.
His mind drifts to countless horror movies he was never supposed to watch to begin with, as he turns back to his climb and the momentous effort of hauling his meager weight back onto solid ground. Gaia may have to help in that much, he's about reached the limits of what he can do. "What-- what are they--"
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slightly later!
So into one of the little shelters he went. He's wrapped up in somewhat normal clothes, a sweater and scarf rather than any furs, hand wrapped around the coldblood stone Miss Makima gave him. When someone comes in he glances up, offering a little nod.
"I don't mind." Further inspection makes him realize something- the furs are what they're giving new people, right. "You're new?"
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"New as the morning," he agrees easily enough when he can manage it without pausing to pant a bit. "Right into the ocean." Or out of it, really, and hadn't there been something about too many limbs--
Yoichi's mind shies away from the thought of being a squid immediately. "The winter's caught me a bit off, I thought it was late spring or so, but everyone's been so kind with ... the furs, and heat rocks and all." And shoes! They don't fit right but they're shoes, and they're warm!
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"It's really confusing," he agrees. "With all the blood magic and zombies and stuff. I came last month and it took a while to figure things out."
And he's not sure he'd say he has things figured out, but at least he's managing. That does remind him though- he pulls a thermos out of his bag and asks, "Do you like hot chocolate? You can have some." He figured he should bring something if he was going to see new people with nothing, what better than this? Maybe shoes that fit, but sh.
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And zombies. He'd been guessing perhaps they'd turned up somewhere in New Zealand given all the snow, but as far as he knew Zombies weren't a THING there. Or magic, but who knows what sort of meta powers might be cropping up. He can't dismiss it entirely.
He brightens up a bit when hot chocolate is in the offering, and goes for the box he'd laboriously hauled in with him. "I have orange juice .. I think it's orange juice, if you'd like some in return. Or a can of soup? It'll be cold though." Common sense says keep everything useful in case he needs it later but Yoichi's sense of what is and is not a good idea is a bit skewed.
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The cold was really a bummer, honestly. Waking up in the warm ocean during summer was probably a lot nicer, though still you know. A lot to process.
Yoichi offering that has Mob's lips quirk into a very faint smile. It's nice he's offering something even though he has very little, he appreciates that even though he shakes his head. "It's okay, you should keep those." He opens the thermos, pouring some hot chocolate into the cup and holding it out. It's still nice and hot, pretty good too! Mostly because he got it at a cafe on the way, he's still working on the making food thing. "I'm Kageyama Shigeo- people call me Mob sometimes."
The nickname has been easier to offer, honestly, with all the cultural differences between worlds.
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Hey it sounds reasonable to him. It has to be Earth, and weird powers are popping up everywhere. "If you change your mind, let me know. I don't mind, especially with weather like this." Good food, and orange juice, surely were good for everyone about now! But in no way does he hesitate to accept the cup he's offered, relishing the warmth seeping through it. The cold might not be causing harm, but that didn't mean he LIKED it. Hovering over the cup means his hair falls right back into its usual curtain, and he ignores it. "Do you prefer Mob? I'm Shigaraki Yoichi, thank you for your kindness." Information and cocoa, what more could he ask for?
Aside from somewhat better fitting clothes, but begging and choosing..
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Which wild? "As for getting here, I'm not really sure either. They say we were always squids and we're just waking up. I don't know if I believe that, but I don't really have any proof otherwise."
Mostly he's trying to just take things as they come. Regardless of all that he nods, juice was good to ward off colds, probably. He's just glad bringing the hot chocolate was a good idea, even if just for a little warmth in this bitterly cold place. "It's nice to meet you," he offers, then, "I don't really have a preference, I guess. Mob is easier though, since people are from all over. Some don't even have family names."
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And he's heard some nightmare stories about the ignorance of some people. Surely that's all it is. He shakes his head slightly at the idea of being a squid. "You don't look anything like a squid, or an octopus or anything like that. If we were just hallucinating being people, but we're really sea creatures, would I be dreaming of cocoa and not ... I don't know, fish chum?"
He's willing to entertain the idea, but not very seriously. "Mob, then. If it's what everyone uses, I might as well too." At least, with no preference cited.
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Slightly Later | holy shit, the noise i made
The brunette, a young thing in her late teens (she just turned seventeen, actually!) looks over her shoulder and blinks, startled by the man just plopping back in so suddenly.
"Oh!! Eh...I-I don't mind at all, um...p-please take what you need." She pauses, raising an eyebrow at him and just how heavily he was panting. Shuffling forward, Ochako kneels down, a little concerned. "Fo-Forgive my boldness, but. Are you alright, sir? You're so pale... Have you eaten? There's hot food and drink on the boardwalk. I can take you there. I have, a...eh. A-A means of travel."
Her Omen - a massive grizzly bear Ochako can summon and ride on, the size of a
kaijubull elephant, but who is as sweet and friendly as the girl herself.:D hello!
Her concern is touching, really. He's used to the false kind of late, pretending concern where there's no such thing, but she seems ... remarkably guileless, not helped at all by the adorable hoodie and general aura of kindness. It doesn't feel like an act to him, and he tries for reassurance in return. "Not today," or lately, "But they gave me a box with juice and soup in it." It's heavy! Box full of stuff AND backpack full of stuff really tests Yoichi to his limits.
Plus that makes it sound like he's been normally pretty well fed, so that should take some of the concern off! If he spaces out his words carefully so he's understandable through his tiredness, surely it's coincidental and he's not exhausted. "I didn't expect to have to carry around so much stuff, that's all." It sounds reasonable. It's complete bullshit, but it sounds reasonable, people don't get as thin and unhealthy looking as Yoichi is by carrying a box around but he's going to deny that til the end of time. "I just.. need to rest a bit."
hellooo!! so happy to see more obscure canon characters ♥
"Mm, yeah...I got that, too. This cold's got everyone so unprepared, but...I'd be careful about the juice." The note and urge for...whoever sent it seems a little dubious to Ochako. This is Trench, after all. "Besides, you look like you may need more than just a bit of soup, sir."
Much more. He probably needs some good starch and carbs first and foremost, as well as a bath and a nice, long rest in something soft and warm. A real bed. Whatever world this man came from before...probably wasn't the best place. But if he needs help carrying something--
"Oh, I can haul whatever you need to carry with you. My quirk--eh, I mean...I have a power suited for that sort of thing specifically. Or I could probably get Alula to do it..." Alula being her Omen - a massive grizzly bear that Ochako can summon at will. Would probably make for a decent ride if Yoichi doesn't want to walk to the actual city proper - she can hold more than one person on her back, easily.
He is excellent, albeit rather useless.
It hadn't looked like a warzone to him but this might be an unexpectedly peaceful bit. The concern over potential gas attacks makes it easy enough to wave off anything like him needing more than he has now. He'll figure it out! Somehow. In time. "Ah, don't worry about that. I'm stronger than I look." No he isn't. "I'm told there's a town around here somewhere, I'll handle the rest when I find it!" Optimism, whether or not it's deserved, because beachfront boardwalk does not count as a town even in his book.
Although he doesn't see someone else present, Alula is clearly a friend or associate of Ochako's, and she can convince that person to do carrying! ...And there's a power involved, which she more easily called a 'quirk' than 'power'. "Oh, you have powers?" Color him interested, she's not treating it like it's a dangerous secret so that's a plus. "A quirk, you said?" A turn of phrase that isn't going to be popular for some decades yet, but he likes the sound of it, made it sound more personal and individual. "I just have the pack and box of .. um, potentially .. dangerous things. Is Alula a friend of yours?"
He is doing his best.
She has food in her pantry is the thing. Once the snow really started to pile up, she began hoarding and filling her home with the essentials. Gallon jugs of water, heavy bags of rice, canned foods, pastas, and she froze what she could as well, including meats, fruits, and vegetables. Even bread, too. Being poor meant that she learned how to preserve food, and cook things that were nutrious and tasted good with what was on hand.
"Not that I know of, but Trench does have a way of being, um...u-unexpected. So best to keep it on hand, ehehe. Most of the problems right now are the cold, and I've heard there are earthquakes strong enough to rip open cracks in the earth happening in certain places. I just like to help out, it's never easy for newcomers, and this month is one of the worst times..." There's so much happening, on top of the snow and ice. Trench is just like that, and she's already hoping that the cold weather will cease somewhat once the month is over.
"I can take you to town!! I don't mind, and even the path across the ice isn't fun...and get get long with the storm. I don't know how much you found out, either, the usualy people that welcome new Sleepers are scarce because of the weather. If you need food or anything though, I can help with that. I know where the market is. It's scarce because of the time, but...there's still things to be fou--
Eh? Oh, yes!! A quirk is sort of like, and um...w-well. The best way to describe it is like a superpower. Most people have them in my world, they're passed through bloodlines and genetics. If we need to haul anything, I can show you. But I'd like to get back sooner rather than later. I want to patrol the ravines, just in case anyone fell or got trapped..."
Ochako bundles herself up again, tightening the scarf and putting her hood over her head, shoving her hands back into her mittens. When she speaks again, her voice is a little muffled, but still audible. "Alula-san is my Omen!! Everyone has one. It's like, um...well. Let me show you, are you okay to go outside, or do you need to rest a while longer?"
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Instead there's fissure causing earth quakes and it's a good idea to keep a gas mask just in case. Later it's going to go into the backpack. For now, there's a brief, faint sigh of wistfulness; he'd definitely like to just sit there for quite a bit longer, but that won't do at all. "I'll be alright. For some reason the cold doesn't seem to bother me much, even when I was in the water." He'll even get back up to prove it! Carefully, very carefully. "So if you have superpowers, does that make you a superhero?" His smile is brief beneath the curtain of white hair, a touch impish. "You don't strike me as a supervillain, with plans to go out and rescue people." Far, far too friendly for that!
Of course, in the future and in her time, that's actually a thing, and he's still thinking comic books.
It's with equal care he'd had in getting himself back on his feet that he works on collecting his Free Backpack and Box Of Stuff. "I did have a few things explained, such as the magic or powers or quirks here are quite common. And that there was a place called Sanctuary, I don't know if it's near Trench or not." But first, he has an Omen to see. And apparently, a town to get to. He hoped it wasn't that far, he didn't know how much more walking he'd be able to do without significantly more downtime.
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Ochako hovers by Yoichi after he stands, still not believing he's as well off as he says he is. She also offers, politely, to take the box of things he was given to lighten his load. The backpack is easier to carry, and he shouldn't have issue with that (hopefully). Once they're ready, Ochako bundles herself back up and winces as she open the door to the harsh and unyielding cold.
"The Sanctuary is farther out than the boardwalk, but it's the best place for newcomers just settling in. A lot of the people I know here work there as volunteers - they can give you food, shelter, and other necessities until you get on your feet properly, ne." Ochako whistles sharply and what was thought was just a large snowbank starts to shift and move, and then sit up and shake itself off of ice and snow. The big, furry lump is a grizzly bear, nearly double the girl's height, or even more than that... It can easily seat two people on its back, and yawns hugely, snuffling up to the tiny brunette and nudging her with its snout.
"This is Alula!! She's very friendly, I promise, even if she looks kind of scary with how big she is right now... I just needed her to be able to carry things...a-and me. You should have one, too - an Omen - but it can either be really simple or really difficult to summon it. It took me m-months...eheh."
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But he'll turn his box over regardless, if a bit hesitantly. He has no worries she'll take it or anything like that, but burdening others with his stuff didn't quite seem right. Sanctuary sounded good, it might let him get his bearings, find out where on Earth he even is, and more importantly, how likely he is to stay out of his brother's reach long enough to accomplish anything. Yoichi startles visibly at the whistle, not expecting the sudden piercing sound, and then outright recoils as a giant grizzly bear lurches out of the snowbank.
Any move to grab Ochako and drag her back into the shack with him is paused mid-reach when it becomes very obvious she does actually know the bear and it's not trying to eat her. Or him for that matter. He lowers his hand after a moment, brow furrowing.
The rest takes slightly longer to process. "Your friend is a bear," he concludes slowly, carefully. 'Omen', bear, same difference perhaps! "Does .. everyone get a bear then?" Who needs horses or cars, this place has bears? "Alula, was it?" That's a bear. His idea of wildlife was stray animals in town, not actual wild animals!
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