THE SQUAD GETS BUFFED: POST-PLOT HEALING LOG

[wildermods]

THE SQUAD GETS BUFFED: POST-PLOT HEALING LOG
OOC POST
Refuge can be found in the forest beyond Weathertop. No matter what path they all take, everyone somehow finds their way to the ruins of the long-lost mystical city of...

Philadelphia?

Wait, what?

The forest gives way to ruins that are clearly a chunk of Center City from the US city of Philadelphia. The ruins are very strange due to their placement: the trees of the forest are large and ancient but not large enough to hide the chunk of city, yet here it is, cradled in a secret place in the forest's center even though it wasn't visible from a distance.

Many of the buildings are overgrown with massive vines that have threaded in and around their structures. Most of the streets are broken up, with plants growing between cracks of asphalt. A long stretch of Market Street is now one long grass-filled path.

The sky seems caught in a strange eternal twilight, forever early evening, as if the city has decided it will be rush hour until the end of time. There's always enough light to move around in but the sun never sets or rises or any higher. The crescent moon is always just slightly visible in the sky above, never shifting its place. An effect that looks like a green aurora can always be seen in the sky ahead. This is the only part of the sky that moves, shifting like a normal aurora. Sometimes it crackles slightly and briefly changes blue or red.

Something calls out to them, urging them to the Parkway Central Branch of the Philly Free Library. Stragglers may find the quest magic teleporting them here after the majority arrives. Here, they'll be able to help each other out, heal each other and offer first aid or any food/water that was salvaged, and comfort each other after what happened.

---

NOTES
✦ Setup: Please only do top-levels either with characters that require some kind of care, first aid/conventional medical treatment, healing, food/water, psychological comfort OR with characters that are capable of offering it. All other characters can tag around and meet/visit people.

✦ General open logs: For general open logs, do not use this log, instead do your own open posts set in the area. This log is purely to provide a centralized place for healing since so many characters were injured or made ill.

✦ Background Info: Please see the related camp OOC post for any background info about the library and area.

Comments

[awfulcer]

[Dixon finally picks up that it's his turn, but he doesn't try to think or strategize, he just takes the card from the top of the deck in a kind of mindless fashion.]

That's what I told Hiccup before we started hiking. [He chews his nails again and then stops himself, like he's only just realized he's been at it for the last few minutes, bloodying himself up more than he already is.] And he pointed out that he only had one leg, and I swear, nothing makes you feel like shit more than realizing you've been bitching to a guy with only one leg.

[Even recalling it makes Dixon's neck kind of redden up in some sort of embarrassment.]

I told him I'm going to fuck it up and slow everyone down, and he pretty much told me to get over it. Not sure I did, but we're both here. So. [He sorts his brand new five of spades into his hand.] Your turn.

[shyhara]

The dragon kind of balances out the leg thing, though...

["Dragon". He still feels stupid just saying it. This sure as fuck isn't his genre and he doesn't know what to believe about any of it, but he can't bring himself to just accepting all the ridiculous and explainable things as "magic fantasy stuff". There has to be a more logical explanation. If there isn't, then what's he even good for? A detective can't deduce shit if he doesn't understand the basic rules of the universe that everything has to adhere to.

Admittedly, he feels a little shitty brushing off someone's disability so easily like that. But seriously. Dragon. In the usefulness hierarchy of this group, he knows he sure as hell doesn't rank above the guy with the dragon despite all his limbs still being attached.

Frowning, he draws a card, thinking for a few moments before swapping it out for an ace.]

And no one had to practically carry you away from that mess.

[awfulcer]

I tried to punch that dragon. [Dixon chews the corner of his tongue as he takes a card and tries to make something of his hand, realizes too late he should have gone for something in the discard pile.] I probably could have thought that through more.

[He's not a fan of the fantasy stuff either. It's less a matter of identity - unlike Shuichi, Dixon's never considered himself observant, and the presence of new hell has just accommodated itself right into his world. Why should he expect to know what's going on with magic when he barely knows what's going on in the real world?

It's more a matter of feeling like everyone's got this magic sorcerer bullshit more figured out than he does.]

Nah, people just had to practically carry me up the whole hill. I couldn't even carry a pack past the first day. Everyone else had to do it for me. [It's not that he hadn't been trying. That's the only comfort that helps him sleep at night. He had tried and failed and thrown up in a bush and passed out, but it was lack of capability, not lack of effort, when it came to keeping up with the rest of the group.] Besides, you and Impulse gave me an excuse to punch that bitch in the face.

[Highlight, honestly.]

[shyhara]

[Shuichi isn't trying super hard -- he's hardly in the right mindset for it, and, well...Dixon doesn't seem like he would take that much effort to beat anyway, even in a game he's still learning. But strategy and careful thinking comes naturally to him, so he still takes his time with his moves, noting the cards in the discard pile and what potential possibilities that leaves him with.

He takes the card Dixon abandons and tosses an eight out.]

You punched someone?

[He was unconscious at that point. And pretty out of it immediately afterwards. In hindsight, he really didn't know what exactly went down to facilitate their escape from what had seemed like a hopeless situation at the time of him going down.]

[awfulcer]

[Dixon takes time with his cards too, but it's less strategizing than trying to do two things at once, another one of those many skills he never totally got a handle on. He figures Shuichi's going to beat him. The kid seems quick, even underneath the pall. Did even when they first met.]

Some goth bitch cursing Impulse. You were out of it by then. I don't...

[he doesn't totally remember what happened either, truthfully. He was pretty shitfaced on magic at that point; everything's a bunch of individual images patched together with little throughline of context. He's pretty sure he punched a woman, but the more he thinks about it the less he's certain when in the whole scramble of events it was.]

You know how I said I was trying to babysit all you teenagers? Turns out I was really bad at that. So that's on me, not you.

[shyhara]

[Ugh. Impulse got hurt too? Or "cursed" or whatever. He hopes that isn't his fault, even just in the way of having distracted him or something.]

It's not your fault. You weren't even there yet when...that happened.

[The fact that he glances up from his cards to say that, however briefly, does add to the sincerity of it. Fuck, he doesn't want anyone else feeling guilty over him getting knocked out, especially someone who couldn't have done anything to stop it. He's not worth that much concern.]

[awfulcer]

You're right. [It's not that Dixon believes for a moment Shuichi's right. He saw the whole thing, and even though he doesn't remember it all well, he knows if he'd just been a little faster to get to them things might have turned out different.

It's that enlisting Shuichi in his guilt spree doesn't seem to be helping the kid at all. Some people are always hungry for someone to blame, but Shuichi isn't the type, and in the balance between Dixon's concern and his self-absorption, this time concern comes out ahead.

So time to switch. Shuichi doesn't seem particularly happy about talking about the past prior to this quest, so Dixon scrounges around for any sort of hook. Mentally, he crosses things out as he takes from the discard pile. Probably shouldn't ask Shuichi if he's got a girlfriend - for all he knows she's back home and Shuichi misses her (the idea that she might be dead or worse doesn't cross Dixon's mind); the same goes for family. The battle's an awful topic of conversation, and it's not that the future is bleak, but that it's so unpredictable.]

You going to be reading many of the books out here? You seem like you'd be a reader. [Shockingly, Dixon isn't, but he'll try and find something about them to talk about if it fills the time with something besides that heavy, anxious, smothering feeling in the air.]

[shyhara]

[Wow, is he that predictable? Called the fuck out.]

Uh...maybe. I haven't tried reading anything here yet, but if I can understand the language, then...

[He shrugs a little, a hint of pink in his cheeks in vague embarrassment over being so obvious. Not that it's that surprising. He knows how he comes across, the quiet polite kid who probably keeps to himself and just reads a lot and, well...that's not inaccurate.

It does strike him that he'd probably be more enthused to look through some of these books in a better moment, if not for his own enjoyment then to look for any clues they might hold about this place and their situation. Shit, maybe there is something wrong with him. They've been here for hours, but he's just felt too tired to be bothered.

Frowning at his own uncharacteristic behavior, he bites his lip and shuffles theough his cards, making an awakward attempt at returning the interest]

Do you, uh...read a lot?

[Dixon doesn't really seem like the type, but he's trying not to make assumptions.]

[awfulcer]

[He gives Shuichi a knowing sort of smile, like quiet shy bookworms look the same across all generations and nationalities. He can sniff a nerd out easy.]

Not really. I never was good at it. Words just don’t really sit right with me when they’re on a page. [It certainly doesn’t help that by now he’s got a lot of baggage loaded up into it, years of red marks on papers and Chief kicking his paperwork back and being near old enough to buy liquor legally at graduation, all of it chewing at him all day, every day.] But I read comics, so I guess those count as books.

[I mean, he’s not going to fight Shuichi if he disagrees about the literary value of Robot Comics, honestly. He draws another card.]

I can grab you some of the books in there if you want to just sit here and read. Probably better than sitting and staring into space.

[shyhara]

[Shuichi frowns slightly for a moment, eyebrows knitting together. He's aware of the concept of dyslexia, but not familiar enough with the ettiquette surrounding that sort of thing to probe. Would it be rude to ask directly if that's what it is? Would that just make him sound like a smartass? It's probably better to just leave it be.

So he just nods idly, apparently without any judgement. Not like he really could, anyway. He generally likes novels more, but it's not like he's never flipped through any manga magazines. Hell, he was actually keeping up with Weekly Shonen Jump for a while for Death Note alone.

He moves to draw a card of his own, but pauses at that offer to just blink at Dixon for a second.]

Uh... [Words, Shuichi.] You don't have to go out of your way like that...

[awfulcer]

[Probably a mercy that Shuichi doesn’t ask, since it would require some negotiating in an area full of tender wounds. As far as Dixon’s aware, he’s just someone who’s always been pretty bad at English and had to make it work anyway. He’s heard the term ‘dyslexia’ on TV, but it’s like hearing about things in far-off places: no impact, no recognition, no relevance to his own life, as distant as Ebola or ocean coasts or New England autumns. A factoid about other people and places that aren’t Ebbing, Missouri.

He looks back at Shuichi with a bit of a puzzled expression, like he doesn’t quite get why Shuichi is second-guessing his attempts at comfort. It seems obvious to him; Shuichi’s clearly in a mood and those moods don’t tend to go great places, not with teenagers or anyone else. And seeing as it doesn’t cost Dixon anything to try and alleviate that, of course he’ll offer.]

It’s not like I got anything better to do. I already went through the...Wawa, or whatever. Stupid-ass name. [He pats the cigarette pack in his pocket, the most prized possession of his meager haul.] You like a certain genre?

[shyhara]

[He second guesses these things at the best of times. Not because he distrusts other or anything, it's just his shitty self-esteem. It usually only takes that brief brush-off to reassure him, but as Dixon's worked out, he's not in the best place right now and so he frowns uncertainly, glancing away.

Still, it feels worse to argue over it. He's probably waste less of Dixon's time just letting him do the nice thing.]

Um...mysteries. And crime fiction.

[Way to be a walking stereotype, kid. But those are pretty international, compared to some of the other genres he dabbles in sometimes. It'd probably be easier to find something to distract himself with in that vein, even if some of it might hit a bit too close to home these days.]

[awfulcer]

Right. Because you're a detective. [Dixon straddles that line between petty and affectionate when he says that, like he's teasing but also sincerely sour. He hasn't told anyone here that he's former police, although he figures a few have put it together, especially since his shield has faint engravings of a police badge.

He's been keeping it under wraps. It's only been six weeks since he got fired and he's still smarting. He thinks he might be for the rest of his life. Good thing he hasn't taken Shuichi seriously yet.]

Don't peek at my hand. I'll be right back.

[He lays his cards facedown and gets to his feet, something that isn't as graceful as it could be given the back wound. At least Trance's healing magic took away the heaviness of physical exhaustion; he's fine with the trade.

It takes him about half an hour, but he returns with a handful of books, not surprised but a little dismayed to see that Shuichi's still sitting there. He shuffles towards Shuichi and lays down the stack - a Sherlock book, an anthology of short stories, and four dimestore novels with names like Fowl Play: A Chicken-Coop Mystery and On What Grounds: A Coffeeshop Thriller.]

Sorry, that's all I could find.