July Adventure: Where the Weeds are Now Growing Free

[lifeaftr_mods]

NEW ISLAND: UMUI

Who: Everyone!
What: Umui appears, and a new adventure begins
When: July 10th and onward
Where: Umui
Warnings: Tag as you go!

'Cause the Dirt is Up to My Eyes
As of July 10th, the mana pools on Ensō and its islets will now allow for travel to the new island of Umui.

Travelers will arrive on a mana pool situated on the C1 square. The thick crops of flowers spring freely across the lush, grassy landscape, clustered in dense knots. The variety behind these growths seems profoundly limited: it is as though each flower has only sprouted around others of its kind, mingling solely at the edges. A large building looms in the corner of the region, a twisting, unfurling mass of piping and a half-crumbled metallic shine.

Whatever lays inside, or beyond the island's limits, is for you to discover for yourself.

---

Welcome to the new island of Umui! As the island is now accessible, feel free to begin preparations and explorations in this log, or create new ones of your own! For further information in regards to the island, or plotting, the following links may prove handy:

[ ♆ ] OOC info and introductory post
[ ♆ ] Optional future event sign-up
[ ♆ ] Umui on the Locations page
[ ♆ ] Search Requests page

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Legion and the Knight

[forwearemany]

(When they invite the Knight to join them on their perimeter search, they aren't really sure what they're expecting.

At least for the moment, it seems to be more of what they saw upon arrival.

They are not hugely well versed in knowledge of Earth plants, though they are able to recognize them as such, and they examine the flowers and growth patterns curiously.

They don't immediately notice that anything other than that is... off.)

[lightlessfuture]

( The Knight is...uneasy. Even in a dead kingdom, there had been life of a sort. But here, even in this riot of flowers and colours and the waves crashing against the shore, there's....no activity at all.

It puts them on guard.

When they spot something odd looming among the foliage, they approach cautiously. A quick strike with their sword produces the familiar sound of metal, dulled though it is, and then they angle their head up to look further.

...They don't like this very much at all. Ore has little meaning to them, besides using it to further hone their sword - they are no blacksmith, after all. So the fact that it is residing in the innards of a metal body is not a pleasant sight.

Legion will see them stopping and staring up at this fallen automaton, slumped among the bright flowers. They make no move to inspect it further, at least for the moment. )

d2 | in the lab | ota

[aftrnpc]

[In the desolate, overgrown emptiness of the lab, a shape stirs - the first moving, sentient thing for travelers to encounter on this entire island. Its motions are slow, heavy, and sluggish, but a soft, green light strobes at the center of its chest when travelers approach.]

[The automaton lifts their head with an agonizingly rusted squeal of old circuits and warped technology. The moss and vegetation has carpeted them so thoroughly that they have more or less fused with the office chair upon which they must have once sat with the intent to rise again.]

[The robot hums to life, a hitching of engaging mechanisms that have long lain dormant. It speaks in a mechanized drone, age warping its words into an imperfect stutter:]

query: ii-iii-didDddd-Dentfication?

SCREAMS

[deathfindsaway]

[He's got his fingers crossed this is uneventful. Of course Ren wanted to go off and see the new island, and frankly, it was a thinly veiled excuse for him as well. But after Ziziphus, he wasn't going to play around with this. Ren was in his line of sight at all times, if not within arm's reach, even in this lab.

Meaning when the sound starts, he immediately puts a hand out in front of her, tense and waiting to see if he'll need a weapon.

Kravitz looks down at Ren, raising his eyebrows and trying to impart to her not to get closer to this thing quite yet.]

Who are you? Do you know what this place is?

Hope this is alright

[forwearemany]

(At some point, news of a still living synthetic reaches them.

They wish to initiate contact.

Thus, once they have discerned its location, they approach.

...It is badly damaged.)

Greetings, we are Legion, a terminal of the Geth.

[fireindreams]

[How curious. Grimm has heard here and there of the discovery of the machines found across the island, inoperable and filled with flowers. This one clearly has not been spared from time and whatever else has been inflicted upon it, but it is still functioning. For how long is questionable but perhaps some answers may be gleaned from the robot.

Yet the Troupe Master pauses before offering a question. "Query" in this case likely was a statement of a question, but Grimm did not know if it meant his name or some other designation.]

Are you requesting my name?

Kaworu, Komaeda, and Pyrrha (C1 and on?)

[braceforimpact]

The thing about exploring is that Kaworu doesn't really have a stake in it. He's here, more or less, because everyone else seemed to be doing it, and Pyrrha was a familiar face, so he said yes. On the other side, though, he makes no contact with the ground, choosing instead to remain floating a good two feet above it, his hands in his pockets, looking up at the sky and out into the ocean as often as he studies the pitted, uneven ground for anything interesting.

But the most interesting thing around is probably just the people he's with... he's making an effort for appearances, but humans can be entertaining, and the ground is not.

[tokenflavortownie]

When Pyrrha first heard of a new island making an appearance in the archipelago, she was downright excited. Strictly speaking, she had been given the short straw, having to wake up on an island already crumbling into the ocean, but life on Enso had opened her eyes to the possibilities of way more. There were so many stories to learn, so many things to see. At first, she thought she would be investigating it alone, but soon she found herself in the middle of a little team forming. With Kaworu, who luckily said yes when she asked, and Komaeda, who seemed trustworthy enough.

"Alright, be careful, everyone." She called out, stepping carefully as she moved away from the mana pool, into the deeper grass. "We don't know what's out here."

Although, it immediately hits her just how quiet this land is. Besides a breeze every now and then sending the long blades of grass into shivers, it was almost alarmingly still.

"We don't know if... anything is out..." She trails off, an eyebrow curiously raising when she notices Kaworu's aversion to the ground.

Keith, Lance, Papyrus, and Hector (B2)

[thermalwind]

The coastline looks safe as Keith leads the group. But he moves light as a cat with his sword in hand. There will be no letting his guard down. Not this time. He sends Ember the firebird up over their heads as they near the old dock. "Okay, let's be careful. We don't know what's here."

His voice echoes thanks to the mask over his face. He should have traded favors to get his scanner working. The dock looks like it could fall apart except thick vines seem to be keeping it together. He swings his sword to the side away from everyone to warm up his wrist. "We can spread out but only within calling distance of each other."

slides in

[thegoofball]

"Looks like nothing." After being on the island for more than zero weeks, you would think some people would learn to take things a little bit more...seriously. Sure, Lance has bothered to throw on his Paladin armor and he's carefully keeping his bayard out, but...

There's nothing here. No birds, no nothing. Just an old, abandoned dock. The skeletons seem to have more life than this island, which.

That's a thing. Speaking of which... The next question is directed at Papyrus and Hector both, and is definitely important. "How good is your hearing, anyways? You don't have ears."

tim and foster go to white castle | closed

[postictal]

He said he'd keep an eye on him, and he is, nominally, doing that. It's just safer to not go it alone, and the longer he watches him, the more accurate a notion he'll get as to how Foster...operates, for lack of a better term.

When they materialize from one mana pool to the next, Tim can't resist the mental parallel between Ziziphus and this new fucked-up place. He presumes it's fucked-up, because most of the places they visit end up being fucked-up in some regard or another, particularly where Tim involves himself.

He rolls a shoulder to reposition his pack, heavy on his shoulders, staring at the dark bulk of the building.

Decides he doesn't like the look of it. Decides he doesn't care. What he's liked and hasn't liked doesn't historically have a lot of bearing on what needs doing.

"All right," he mutters. "I guess there's only one way to go here."

There's definitely a vegetarian joke here

[cacoethes_mori]

Foster is operating under a similar assumption about the islands, although for vastly different reasons. Or maybe not so different; after all, the difference between new islands and new worlds or universes is a matter of scale, not of function.

Anyway, most things are fundamentally broken, or at least by their very nature imperfect. Imperfections, flaws, are what lead to rupture, contamination, and other calamity... that's simply how it is.

But when he sees the building--the looming, bevined, classically architectural corpse of something vast and institutional, he balks. Immediately. It looks like so many hospitals--not modern ones, but the kind that were built decades ago, the kind with a long history and a morgue built into the basement. The kind where a research hospital might be set up, where the respectability of the institution offsets the dubiousness of new science or magic. He feels ill just looking at it.

"No." Absolutely not.

For Shouto and Gladio~ 10th July

[savedbyasong]

[Considering the last two islands that had been drawn near Shion treaded onto this one with a great deal of wariness. Ore the Story Teller had promised. Shion had no doubts that they would find it, but also that the dangers would be considerable.

For an island of ore it did not look like anything that Shion could have imagined. The sheer amount of flowers is fascinating.

Shion knows that exploring on his own is dangerous and so was sticking close to the mana pool writing notes in his book about his first impressions of this new island.]

[byhalves]

[Shion's not alone in finding the island to be completely different from their assumptions. When hearing the place was going to be filled to the brim with ore, he was expecting...Rocks. Maybe a mountain, or an elaborate cave system.

Not rust and flowers and eerie silence. It puts him on edge, after seeing Ziziphus, and when he sees Shion standing on his own taking notes, the familiarity of the scene gets him to stop.]

Are you heading out?

For Connor ~ 11th July

[savedbyasong]

... Then there were robots, dead robots with flowers growing in them. One of them had Centaurea cyanus growing in their jaw. [Shion is walking beside Connor, filling him in on what he had found on his search with Gladio and Shouto the day before. The new island was very disturbing but fascinating all at the same time and Shion wanted to explore more of it.]

Also not once did we see any animals, not even birds, that's really strange especially with all the flowers, the island has been overtaken with nature but still no birds have landed there. [He might have already said this previously, he's babbling. There's so much information and so much he is trying to work out. The island is strange, parts of it almost remind him of West Town. Except the flowers, there hadn't been any flowers there.]

[yourattention]

It's fucking eerie, is what it is. [Connor's been vaguely distracted by the flowers, which he keeps absently picking and weaving together as they walk, but he is listening.] I don't know if this is better or worse than dealing with Bliss.

[The flowers he's been weaving together are all some shade of purple. It can't quite be classified as a flower crown, given that he just keeps adding to it whenever he sees something he likes, but it's sort of crown-shaped in that it's probably supposed to go on someone's head.]

Where are we going again?

lup set a fire and we burned down the house(s)

[yourattention]

"Sorry this is, like. Such short notice and shit? But we figured it was better if we did this before everything does to hell."

Connor only came to Umui at all because Shion asked and Connor is weak? But then they'd investigated the buildings that Shion saw while he was exploring with Shouto and Gladio and they'd found . . . Well, they'd found the buildings, but they'd only be able to get into a couple of them. He'd tried to hack his way into the ones that were more overgrown, but there was just too much growth and he'd given up because it was obvious they weren't going to get anywhere with a hatchet.

He's was just going to ask Tim to come with him and set some fires, but then it occured to him that this might be a situation where someone with less . . . manual? Fire skills? Might come in handy. Which basically narrows it down to the kid that was at his weed party and whichever elf is the one with the fire powers. He knows one of them has fire powers, but fuck if he remembers which one because he barely remembers their names on a good day. Anyway, it's just good practice to make nice with people who run the economy so.

. . . He really hopes Lup is actually the fire twin.

[hellawrath]

Luckily he did get the correct twin, as evidenced by how easily she was bribed to come along with the promise of some strategic arson. Like, how was she gonna say no to burning some shit down in the name of science. It's not like anybody is using these busted ass buildings? She just laughs jovially at his apology and his super optimistic outlook on the whole sitch. It's funny because it's probably true.

"Nah, you're good. I was gonna come back here anyway, all I turned up the other day was a lone shitty shack further down by the sea. No flowers around, for a change? Just a crop inside the fucking thing. Weird, right?" She shrugs, eyeing the row of much sturdier looking buildings they're coming up on.

"To be honest I was kinda gunning for something cooler than Ziziphus 2.0 and robots that uhh, have seen better days, let's say."

Legion, Foster, and Hinata (E1)

[thisisourfuture]

[He's held back on most islands walking after others to make sure they would survive to come back. Storyteller had looked...it had been the way the deity of stories looked that propelled him to join the searches. Maybe he can make a difference or bring back something to tell Storyteller.

He'll talk to them over stones some time. Soon. Hinata takes the lead scanning around periodically. Nothing. It's quiet. Like the dead cities he used to tread.]

...I wonder how many years it's been like this. How far do you two want to go? [How far until they have to head back once it goes dark.]

[cacoethes_mori]

[Foster's a lot more on edge this time, given that he and Tim found an entire hospital right out of the gate.]

If we find another hospital, I'm not going in.

Otherwise...

[He spreads his claws wide--as far as he's concerned, there's no such thing as 'too dangerous.'

Just 'too medical.']

Lup n Taako, July 12th, F5

[hellawrath]

Exploring a new island should be fun, like, getting to ditch the same ol shitty chores? Seeing something new, something unknown, plus the promise of useful stuff to loot? All good shit. But after two islands so far being the absolute, unequivocal pits, even Lup's enthusiasm for the whole thing has taken a bit of a hit. It's just so fucking quiet here, and that half dead robot Ren and Kravitz found wasn't exactly inspiring a toasty sense of safety either.

But fuck it, somebody had to go find the cool shit and it might as well be them.

Lup trudges along a little further inland than Taako, having drifted away from him to cover more ground. Not that there's a high chance of missing anything, it's all just fucking... beach. She's already bored out of her mind, impatiently ramming the point of her umbrella into clumps of grass here and there. This is bullshit, when she gets home she's gonna request a goddamn metal detector.

Hot Boi is soaring far overhead and when she looks up for the hundredth time to check on him, something gleaming in the distance catches her eye. Some kind of building, pretty small, by the surf. Finally! She opens her mouth to call out to Taako but stops herself, what if they've got company? Maybe more ominous robots or something. Better not announce their presence to every clown in a five hundred yard radius like a jackass.

Not that that stops her from opening her umbrella into the air and waving it around, like a jackass, pointing excitedly at the shack with it when she has Taako's attention.

[ohshitsweetflips]

The fuck is this, the world's shittiest game of charades? He looks disdainfully at her antics, then just as disdainfully at the shack. They've done this, they already checked out shacks once, it was a good roast sesh but ultimately pointless, and he doesn't have any higher hopes for this one.

He didn't like hearing about the robot. He doesn't like this spooky deserted vibe the island's got going on. May as well go over there and not like that shack. He rolls his eyes, waves a 'whatever' gesture in the air, and heads for the shack, an ambling trajectory aimed to converge with Lup's well before they get there. No point in being split up when there's not shit else around.

"Either that shack's full of loot or you're gonna burn it down, hand to god," he stage-whispers, since they're apparently playing the quiet game and he's a dumbass. "I already did a robot one. Twice actually. This is a re-run. Snooze."

C1, backdated towards the 11th-12th

[attheclocktower]

[ She's... It's been a rough month or so. And she hasn't handled it well, at all. And as she was wont to do, Aster had dealt with it by withdrawing. A lot. And the better part of her knew she could do better than this, knew that Reno would have given her hell for sulking like she was, but... well he wasn't here, was he? The fact that Monsun had reappeared last month hadn't helped - she wasn't the most fond of that island, after her disastrous arrival there.

There reached a point though, where her frustration and guilt at herself overwhelmed her desire to keep hiding, and when she heard news about Umui... that was that point.

So she's here, crouching among flowers, holding one by its crisp stalk in her hand, looking out over the landscape. She's not idiot enough to go charging out alone, but after how badly she withdrew... she needed to see who was here, who she might be able to join up with. Or if that might take time.

If she sees anybody, either heading out or en route back, she'll stand up. ]

Hey.

[ She has the look of someone who has questions. ]

[savedbyasong]

[At first Shion barely realises it is her. Not because he doesn't recognise her. Of course he does. He knows her image almost better than he knows his own. But because he's surprised to see her out and about.

It's a good thing. He hopes. He's been so worried. He hasn't known what to do. She had been withdrawing and he hadn't known how to stop her from doing do. He was no Reno to be able to pull people up and pull people together. He's not Reno to know when you have to step in and throw someone into a swimming pool.]

Hey.

[He reaches out for her hand, he's not going to make a deal of her being out and about. But he is glad, glad that she got here.]

It's strange for an island of ore, isn't it?

July 14th & 15th (I5 & H5) & July 16th & 17th (H6 & I6) - Gladio, Prompto, & Ignis

[shatteredlenses]

When Noctis left them the first time, Ignis allowed himself to slide into a destructive mindset, and it was only good fortune and a good friend that kept him from doing something foolish. When it happens again, he does feel the urge rise one more, but he is able to push it down and lock it away. This Noctis, at least, he knows is going somewhere to live his life. He's escaped the end the prophecy foreordained for him. Knowing that isn't the same as having his king and childhood friend here, but it's better than not knowing the chance for him to escape the prophecy exists. They didn't have nearly enough time with this Noctis, but it was something. A time Ignis will never regret having.

It doesn't take long for Ignis to start sensing the stress and worry around Gladio and Prompto, though. For them, it's not enough. This is especially true for Gladio, who Ignis can already feel working himself into a frenzy. They need distraction or else something is going to go horribly wrong.

Despite the uneasiness that has surrounded Umui in Ignis' mind ever since he found that memorial with the others, the island still is the best distraction they have, especially with the promise of the kinds of building materials Gladio has been looking for. It doesn't take Ignis long to organize an exploration for the three of them. Who knows what they will find? It may be good; it may be bad, but either way, at least they have the promise of newly hatched chocobos once they return.

July 14th & 15th (I5 & H5)

[shatteredlenses]

H4 | Evening, 14th | closed to Gladio & Lance

[crosslaced]

It benefits all of us, if you’re also investigating the island- but if you’d rather treat it as a personal request from me, fine.

[Who knows how they found the Chocobros’ camp- a lucky break, probably, Laurent unusually agreeing to investigate the light of a distant fire. But they found the Chocobros, and more importantly Gladio, and Laurent seems intent on spitting out an entire terms and conditions page on the walk back.]

We just need you to identify what the metal structure we found might be for.

[He’s scruffier than usual, though it’s hidden by the dim evening light. Lance knows very well why- they’ve been scratching up a house all day like small, badly behaved animals. Lance might also realise this is Huffy Laurent, not Yeah That Bad Idea Sounds Okay Laurent? If he realises anything other than Gladio’s physique, that is.]

[piercetheheart]

Laurent, it's fine. [He'd tease about the justifications if they weren't all so raw from Noctis' absence. Something that Laurent might be able to guess at just from the fact that Gladio has both sword and shield strapped across his back at the moment. So far no one's been attacked here so it's entirely his own paranoia but especially now as the sun goes down he is on edge.]

You're the one the implemented this forced separation. [And the fact that he is so on edge makes it hard for him not to snap a little about that. Ignis needs what friends he has most of all right now, they all do.

But that's not what they're here for and he sighs, pushing his hair back out of his face and flashing Lance an apologetic half-smile.]

Sorry, you don't need to deal with our drama.

Erika Fisher | OTA, July 14-18

[bitch4bitch]

The more info they’re getting about this place, the more fucked it seems. Which… obviously means Erika should go check it out, despite getting stressed out when Chip was there on their own. It’s different, it’s fine.

To her credit, though, she’s not delving into unknown territory just yet - just poking around in the northern parts of the island, shooting occasional, quick frowns at the looming form of the laboratory. Even when she’s some distance away from it, she… kinda hates it being there. Which feels stupid, given how much she’s been missing… you know, civilization all this time, but it’s creepy.

“Nothin’ can be straightforward here, huh. ‘Hey, guys, guess what, you can get metal here - also, fuck, wait, there’s a creepy-ass hospital thing.’ Honestly, what kind of horror movie bullshit…”

She may not even notice anyone nearby yet, too busy grumbling to herself about the inconvenience of the whole situation.

July 16th

[cacoethes_mori]

Foster, wading out into the ocean, was not thinking about how much the salt spray and rolling waves would hurt his exposed wound beneath the bracket fungus he'd torn away. But it is a nice shock to his nervous system, the burn and sear of surface-piercing, eye-watering pain. It is a resurrection, vibrant and climactic in a sensory way, one he's sorely missed and always craves.

So that's what he's doing with his morning.

Ryslig Party

[solperierat]

Something about this island set Edward's nerves on edge. It wasn't just the obvious--a completely still and lifeless landscape filled with flowers in full bloom was eerie enough on it's own, but there's something else. An uneasy sensation that crawled up his neck and had his ears flicking to try and catch even the faintest sound.

Or maybe it's just the paranoia borne of what his life has become since waking up in a coffin. Entirely possible.

Ed sighs and looks around at the fields surrounding the building dominating this portion of the island; maybe a hospital once, but what little remained of the walls looked ready to fall apart at a moment's notice. "I don't think we're going to find much else out here. Might as well head inside--any bets how fast that roof's gonna fall on our heads?"

[onegreeneye]

"I'd give it a couple minutes." Which is... probably not encouraging, whoops. Either way, Ginko just takes one more glance around at their surroundings before heading for the building.

All things considered, he figures it'll be... fine-ish? As fine as anything about this is, which is to say, not even remotely fine. But who knows, maybe they won't die.

Chip and the Knight | 19th July

[lightlessfuture]

After Chip's announcement and people's subsequent reactions to said announcement on the strange talking stones that everyone carries, the Knight had gone to seek Chip out themselves. If they wanted to help explore, that was fine - but having someone with them would be better than going alone.

So after some discussion and very carefully borrowing a botany book from Chara, they're off into the unexplored wilds (unexplored wilds being a little coastal nook that nobody has checked yet). So far, the flower-strewn stretch of land is as idyllic as any other.

The Knight has their sword out - it's always good to be cautious - but they're not expecting much to happen here. It's for this reason that they're content to amble along at Chip's side rather than being first to rush in, protectively. Occasionally, they crane their neck to look up at Chip, clearly checking if they're doing okay.

[demonpuppy]

When the Knight looks up to them Chip looks back down with a hesitant smile--they aren't really used to having a friend around, not since Asriel left. It's...nice, but still kind of weird. Maybe from a more 'normal' adult being babysat like this would feel more embarrassing, but with how small and different Knight is it doesn't register quite so much.

The surroundings are for the most part exactly as boring as the rest of the island, nothing but flowers and more flowers, but Chip is fair well determined to find something of use out here. Chip stops for a moment to shift their backpack on their shoulders (that book is heavy!), and pauses when they see...something? It was just a glimpse, too quick to tell, but it wasn't flowers and that's the important part.

"Is there something over there?" they ask, pointing to a tangle of yarrow wavering in the breeze. "I thought I saw something..."

backdated to 7/15; for Taako and Lup

[deathfindsaway]

[It isn't long as they tromp through the underbrush of Umui that Kravitz is beginning to get a headache.

They're barely into new ground, Kravitz keeping abreast for danger at the front of the party, while the twins are already squabbling over their new toy. Namely, who gets to use it. There's accusations being thrown, some hand slaps, and Barry and Magnus seem completely unwilling to even acknowledge that existing. Frankly, he should probably be following their lead. Maybe if he was smart he'd have let it die. But Kravitz thinks, no, I think I can handle this. Or more, he figures this has to end before his brain jumps out of his head and beats him.

So finally, he speaks up.]

If you two don't stop arguing about that thing, I'm going to take it from you both.

[ohshitsweetflips]

[Taako meets this declaration with a look of pure incomprehension; he is shocked, shocked, that anyone has gotten involved, least of all Kravitz. He may as well have skipped straight over 'dumb accent' to speaking an entirely foreign language. Meanwhile, Taako has skipped straight from 'reasonable discussion' to outraged caterwauling.]

You, of all people, you're not-- Can't you see this is a crime? I thought you'd be on my side!

[Denied both Lup and Kravitz to make scandalized 'you see this shit?' eye contact with, he is forced to look to the heavens for support.]

I can't believe this, betrayal from every direction, I can't believe this is my life now.

backdated to 7/25; for Pyrrha and Touko

[tokenflavortownie]

[Another day, another trek through the island. Slowly, meticulously, the island was being mapped out day-by-day. More clues were opening up to them, and it made Pyrrha want to look further into the mystery. Either more would become clear, or sometime terrible would happen. Pyrrha thought herself fortunate that nothing terrible involving flowers had popped up yet.

Now, this was a change of scenery. From one end of the island to the other, with so much in between. Pyrrha thought she'd be lost if not for the people she traveled with. She was more than thankful to have Touko here, for that reason.]

Be careful, Touko, wouldn't want to fall around here. [She mention, cautiously avoiding clumps of dead vines. The livelier ones on the trees bring her to pause, and place her hand against one.

They're dying. Or, at least the ones still alive are.]

Yet another different kind of plant, I guess...

[induality]

[What knowledge she had of Jabberwock island was the only information she'd had going into this. And she'd never actually gone there. So much of her life she'd been trapped inside... trapped in her room, trapped in her school, trapped in space... now that the need to adventure has surfaced, she honestly doesn't feel the least bit prepared, despite all her experiences. This is all very, very different.]

R-right...

[The only thing here giving her any sense of confidence... is staying at Pyrrha's side. Never more than arm's length away, mind you.]

So... something's killing them.

[A++]

But... isn't that kind of expected? Plants die all the time. Too much or too little sunlight or water is enough to kill them, right?

[Well. At least that's how the ones you plant work as far as her bookish knowledge goes.]

28th + 29th | closed to zelda and ct

[counterblows]

[The island hasn't proved dangerous in the least, which Wash is personally interpreting as bad sign; the other shoe is bound to drop, as far as he's concerned, and soon. Which means it's smart to gather intel while they still can.]

[...with a seventeen-year-old who has been camping independent of anyone for the past couple weeks. Apparently.]

Are we sure this is a good idea? [It's mostly said to C.T., but there's every chance that Zelda will overhear. Everyone's interested in unraveling the mysteries of this place. Wash is more interested in figuring out what killed all these people in the first place, and Zelda, apparently, just wants to look at some robots.]

[Good thing they're all about to find exactly what they're looking for.]

[tuskenlancer]

[ She gives him a sidelong glance, and doesn't bother to lower her voice. Zelda had wanted to come along. She can deal with this, right? ]

We? I thought it was your idea.

[ Which is unfair, because even if it had been, CT had been just as eager to take a look at the island for herself despite the danger. She raises an eyebrow at him, teasing. She won't whisper, but she can at least try and lighten the mood a little bit. ]

You're not getting cold feet, are you, Agent Washington?