[Video, backdated to Tuesday morning]

[kazeninaru]

[The network post opens with a not-so-great video of a distant city of blackened buildings, set in some kind of rugged desert terrain. It's not-so-great because it's being viewed through a set of lenses in a not-very-great telescope. Haruka's voice comes from off-screen.]

Found something interesting. That explosion or whatever it was looks like it was some kind of city.

[Then she pulls the phone back from the telescope to her face, with Darwin and Chime not too far off in the background, visible mostly because they're both taller than she is. Briar's around, too, but not within the camera's scope. There's also some Wasteland terrain visible. It looks like they had to get a little ways into it before they could get a clear picture on the shoddy spyglass Haruka had.]

We've already caught the Authorities flying that way, but we can't see what they're doing from here. We didn't bring supplies for crossing this mess, but I'd be happy to try coming back again if anyone wants us to get a closer look.


((Chime, Darwin, and Briar are all welcome to add their two cents to any thread in this, and if you wanna do an action thread in here, I'm cool with that too!))

Comments

[kazeninaru]

[After three days of hearing his chatter, Haruka has finally lost the sesne that she's somehow mistranslating what he's saying. He really does talk like he's a plant. So she lets that roll by, pocketing her phone and ducking to peer through the spyglass again.]

Well, next time I will have more water, certainly. Then maybe you will not feel so dried up.

[growingwild]

It's not the water. This place is dead - there's no plants here at all, not anywhere.

[mentornomore]

[Chime strides over, wearing his tougher Raksura form. Scales don't feel dried out so easily and his wings give him a bit of shade.]

It is an odd place. Makes me miss the Reaches even more. But there's always something alive.

[He's trying to cheer Briar up a bit.]

[kazeninaru]

I don't know. There might not be.

[Haruka has heard about this place, if it's what she thinks it is. She looks around with narrowed eyes against the brightness.]

If this is the Wastelands, then there was a war here that destroyed everything alive, or so I have heard.

[steamosaurus]

[Darwin shudders, eyes fixed on the horizon, though she can't see the city unaided at this difference.]

Whatever happened here...

We should at least send a party to check for survivors. Nobody could survive out here alone for long.

[growingwild]

Maybe there's animals alive out there, but there's definitely no plants. I'd know if there were. [He knows how Rosethorn felt being without any plants in Urda's House now] What kind of war could destroy everything?

[kazeninaru]

Chemical war. Nuclear war. Magical war. War that the likes of us cannot even imagine yet.

[Haruka shrugs, looking somber. She's seen the kind of destruction that can make Wastelands before. She's also seen such things healed, but not without the Princess.]

I actually think we should not go further, not without better preparation. Those buildings are still partly intact. If there are survivors, they will have the remains of their own supplies to get by with.

[mentornomore]

[Chime disagrees more out of principle than any evidence. He's never seen a place that didn't have life pulsing somewhere, even if it's scummy fungus or horrid insectoid crawlers popping up. And since he doesn't have the mentor power to reach out to find plants anymore, he's safe from being proven wrong.]

I could fly a ways, but so can the Authorities, so might be best not to risk being seen.

[steamosaurus]

Brair's right. This isn't natural. I've been all over my world and there's nowhere like this.

[Deserts, sure. And she wasn't too fond of those, either. This was a whole new level.]

I wouldn't want to leave anyone out there to the mercy of the elements. Or the Authorities, for that matter. [Her first and only encounter with them - the raid - had left a bad taste in her mouth. And she wasn't the sort to despise a whole group on principle.]

[growingwild]

We don't even know if there are any people out there. And if there are, we won't do them any good getting ourselves killed looking for 'em.

[kazeninaru]

The four of us would not be much good against the guns they have, not with what supplies we brought, and our water would not last across this. It's too far.

[Haruka shakes her head.]

No, we cannot go, not right now. Well. I will not recommend we go, and I will not go, but I cannot stop any of you if that is what you wish to do. We can attempt to return, better prepared and perhaps armed, if there are weapons we can find back in the city.