System Glitch: In The City: Ship Ahoy! [location: Osten]

[theextras]

The day of July fourth was spent dealing with annoying, static-ridden transmissions from the tablets. Hisses, bleeps, pops, and occasionally what might have been an indistinguishable voice saying something unintelligible. The interruptions ceased in the evening, and the city went back to being quiet and empty.

The fifth brought more of the same, but shortly after noon something curious happened: if one consulted the map, they'd note a dot out in the ocean. Zooming in on the dot showed that it was not one but many dots, each with a familiar name attached, and observation would show that the dots were headed toward a never-before-used ferry terminal on the Osten waterfront.

Go meet your people, Taxon, and send them to get showers post haste!


ooc: The ferry terminal is a proper building so our vampires aren't in danger of going foom.

And that's that! Thanks everyone, this plot's been ridiculous fun, now back to your regularly scheduled hijinks.

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[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[azoftheoz]

Cain's offer that she could stay with him if she wished had easily turned to Azkadellia shadowing him as he went about his day, listening when he explained things to her, and spending her evenings studying up on the subjects that she had not in the past thought to look into.

Horticulture. Containter gardening. What things she could find on Otherside law enforcement to help her to try and understand Paul better. The latin books made her sad, but she looked them over anyway, trying to hide the sadness and longing that came with the memories of all she and Cain had yet again lost.

Now, wearing a long denim skirt that fell to her feet and a button down shirt that with sky blue and navy stripes, she had a smudge of dirt on one cheek, more under her nails and a huge grin plastered on her face.

"Do you do this often," she asked, kneeling by the wooden box and looking up at Cain.

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[hasaheart]

Sometimes in the evenings they would read together and try to make sense of the Other Side, some evenings more successfully so than others. It still boggled his mind, trying to imagine such a massive home land. Just trying to wrap his head around the many, many levels of management it took to keep order was enough to give him a headache. At least, that's what he told himself and Azkadellia: the headache was down to eye strain and too many levels of bureaucracy, but he wasn't too sure that was entirely true.

Thinking about the Other Side inevitably lead to thinking about his own home, and the two people he missed most out of all those that had disappeared overnight.

Most of all, he was just tired, but Azkadellia's never ending quest for knowledge was heartening and infectious and he couldn't help but be drawn in. He was along for the ride whether he wanted to or not.

Make no mistake, he wanted to know as much as he could. Just in case, he told himself in the quiet hours when his young friend had left or lay sleeping in her chosen guest room. Just in case. You never know.

He cleaned three houses almost obsessively, watered three sets of plants every three days like clockwork. He vaccuumed and dusted and shook out rugs and folded blankets and fluffed pillows...and he did his best to be a good role model. He taught Az to cook, and to grow her own food to the extent she was comfortable with. They listened to music sometimes, the collection Glitch had given him that first winter here, as a house warming present. Sometimes he couldn't bear the melodies.


Today's no different from any other day, apart from yet another cute hamster trick being broadcast every now and then to one and all. 'Cute'. It's last annual all over again, and yet another reason that Cain left his tablet behind.

He looks up, elbow deep in a big bag of plant soil, and gives her a warm smile. He can't say he's surprised she's taking her cues from him, clotheswise. She'll figure it out, all in due time. What she likes to wear for her own sake. If she feels comfortable in shirts similar to his own, then who's he to dissuade her? She needs all the comfort and security she can get.

"All the time, princess. It's...kind of like meditation, to me. Like ironing. Your mind quiets right down, and all that exists is you, your tools, and a heap of wrinkly clothes."

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[azoftheoz]

Learning wasn't just about books, and so it was Azkadellia was learning from everything she could. The rhythm of the music. The scent of the soil, and the way wood smelled with the sun baking down on it. Some days she felt like a sponge, trying to soak it all up, learning as she could. It was the only thing she seemed to remember from her childhood beyond that of her sister and the time they had together, and that she couldn't bring herself to focus on. Not now.

Her own tablet was nearby, turned away from her though she knew there was few people for it to broadcast to, but close enough she could hear if there was a message. Or if DG's voice came through. These days the tablets seemed so quiet, yet she couldn't bring herself to try and go without it.


Her nose wrinkled at his analogy, turning her attention back to shifting the rocks that would allow for drainage at the bottom, settling the soil around them in great heaping trowels full.

"I don't think I'll ever find delight in ironing," she said, giving him a side eyed look. "It's so... tedious," she teased, lips curling into a smile to mark it as such. "I like cooking though."

Even if she hoped that one day she would be facing cooking for herself. She accepted that when Paul came back - never letting herself think if - that these days would be further between. It was only right, after all.

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[hasaheart]

"You'll be surprised the things you'll come to like. Just you wait and see." Big hands make for big handfuls, and before long he's filled a fairly large pot (designated for a lone tomato plant), and brings the bag over to help her with the box. Somewhere in the background, there's a murmur of something that you can't hear, but he can feel it in his belly. Probably just another alien trick with the tablets. What else can they do to shake things up, or whatever.

"You're getting better, you know. At the cooking thing. It's all about practice, not being afraid to go with your gut."

...maybe it's not just a murmur. Murmurs don't usually have rhythm.

Wyatt frowns, looking at his young friend. "Am I going crazy, or-- Can you feel that?"

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[azoftheoz]

She was much a child in filling the box, delighting in the soil between her fingers, the feel of dirt and rocks as the scent filled the air. It was living, and life and she cherished it now that she had her life to live once more.

So caught up, the sound is distant to her, focused on working and Cain.

"I want to learn. If nothing else, maybe I can cook for Glitch when he comes over for... you know," she said, not speaking of it much these days. It was there. Waiting. Glitch wasn't.

She paused, looking up at Cain.

"I... What is that," she asked, sitting back on her heels, nose wrinkling with a frown. "Is that normal?"

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[hasaheart]

Wyatt nodded absently, not wanting to think about that. The notion of Glitch's brain being here, in Taxon had unnerved him right from the start. He still felt bad about the intrusion at the cabin, felt worse yet for threatening to shoot Glitch's brain (and worst of all was Glitch, or Ambrose, had believed he'd do it). As first impressions go, he just kept making a mess of things. It's good to know he's learned from his mistakes.

But that noise that isn't noise but grating just the same... It's getting to him, filling him with a sinking, unspoken dread of what now.

"Wash your hands. Get your tablet. We need to figure out where it's coming from."

He gets up, brushing his hands and arms free of most of the dirt. This needs investigating.

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[azoftheoz]

Azkadellia watched Cain intently, eyes narrowing slightly. He was caught up in that noise, everything that came with it, and that was easily transferred to her with the way she had been focusing on the former tin man.

She nodded, pushing quickly to her feet. "Right back," she said, dashing to the bucket and towel she had to one side, rinsing most of the dirt off her hands. She ignored the dark lines around her nails, briskly scrubbing her hands with the towel.

Her tablet sat nearby and she grabbed it up, flipping it around in her hands.

"Cain? What is this," she asked, handing it to him.

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[hasaheart]

For a moment, Cain scans the streets below, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then, after finding nothing amiss in the near vicinity, he takes his turn at the bucket, looking at the tablet when Azkadellia brings it over.

...is that? What is that? And it's heading for...

That wasn't there last time he checked. Right? Right. Something is very clearly up, and despite himself, heart going at its thing like a jackhammer, he can't help but feel hesitantly hopeful. Maybe it doesn't have to be bad this time, it's not always bad, sometimes it's just weird, and maybe just this once it could be good--

"Hang on," he wipes his hands mostly clean, zooming in on the massive dot moving towards just off the beach.

For a heartbeat or two, he doesn't breathe. Then he does, one short, stuttered gasp.

"It's them. It's everyone."

[Rooftop of Azkadellia's building]

[azoftheoz]

Something was wrong. The last time there had been no warning. They had woken up to an empty city. Would the warning be the final act? Had they assumed everyone went back and now, whatever the city was, was falling apart? She had a sudden fear the city was crumbling and they were over and done for.

Leaning in over the tablet, peering at the dot as it became more dots. So many tiny dots in a tiny space. Dots with names.

"I...They..." Glitch. Paul. Mayland. She saw their names, eyes welling up with tears. "Come on. We have to go," she said, tugging at his sleeve.