The Silence of the Storm

[shardofwinter]

Rations have been cut. Again. Everyone is on one bowl of watery soup a day. Sometimes with crackers, sometimes not. Most people are too tired and weak to do much more than sit around and talk, and nobody discourages them in the slightest. Work has to be rotated constantly as people weaken quickly, but the fires still need to burn, people still need to guard the cooks and rations, and the sick still need to be tended to. Soon the hardest job is keeping up morale while the big expedition comes back. All the gods and heavens of the multiverse help them if they don’t come back with supplies, and soon.

The boundaries have tightened to an almost suffocatingly small space. It doesn’t take much to imagine where they will be by the end of Winter, which at least makes planning a little easier. People are already relocating to deeper in the Plaza. Unfortunately it means that those who have enough energy to often end up fighting with their neighbours, as the close quarters tests everyone’s patience. There are a few spaces carved out for like minded people to shelter from the dreary situation. Mechanics and those like them have set up a nice little place close to the Crossroads Café, and a break area for those helping the sick is sheltered in a room behind the injured and ill. Zandros moves from groups to individuals, looking for help in creating some form of morale boosting display that will adhere to Isidor's instructions. People are surviving in whatever ways they can, but it's reaching breaking point.

((It's the Final Event Post, everyone! OOC Post is here! This is for those stuck at the hub while the Main Expedition is going on. There will be a second part to this post for the Return of the Expedition. In the meantime, have fun!))

Comments

[websnextdoor]

Horvath is wise to do so well out of sight of any prying eyes, considering the dressing down Isidor has given to even parents doing the same for their own children already. A man doesn't get to be a renowned sorcerer though without knowing how to be discreet when the situation calls for it.

Peter hasn't moved from where he was laying down save to drape an arm over his eyes to stop the pounding he feels behind them from the daylight filtering in from the frosted over windows. He moves when Horvath guides him, though the action startles a deep cough from his lungs that has him doubling over shortly.

"Ugh.." His throat feels like he's swallowed glass with the effort. "Thank you. If I could smell right now, I bet it'd smell great."

[bitterguardian]

He can be very discreet, and Horvath is taking his role here as healer seriously. He's not going to shortchange himself so much that he can't help others, but he also knows after being unconscious so long, and lost for a while before that, Peter and Miles are very much in need of a little extra. If they both slip back into a comatose state from malnutrition just as soon as he's healed them, then it makes for a poor day's work.

"It's not bad." He manages conversationally, moving slow and giving the boy time to adjust as he changes position. There's no point risking nausea from dizziness. "Take your time, it's not going anywhere. Did you... see anything out there?" He can't help but wonder, after the run-in Steve had just getting to the clubhouse. If there's some predator out there, why would it target him while in a group, then not bother with two unprotected boys wandering and lost in the cold. It doesn't quite add up.

[websnextdoor]

Peter's never been a picky eater and even if he was starvation makes a guy a whole lot less inclined to care about the taste of the food being given to him so long as it's something to eat. Still, he's weak yet. It takes him time to orient himself and longer still for his hands to stop shaking.

He'll have a mouthful or two of the meal before he stops to shake his head.

"No one out there b-but me and Miles. Didn't hear or see a thing." Not even a bump in the night to scare two children into thinking they were under attack. Nothing until their rescue came, at least.

[bitterguardian]

The one resource that they all have in ample supply is time. There's not much to be done, in this desperate frigid space, and that means that the days stretch on, cold and empty. Peter is welcome to take his time eating, and if it takes him an hour just to get down a single bowl of soup, Horvath still won't rush him. The medical tent is kept warm enough that it's in no danger of freezing, even if it might go cool enough to not be appetizing.

"Hmn." Horvath hums quietly, thoughtful. "That's lucky. It's clear there are things lurking out there." People do still come in once in a while with mysterious injuries, and in the swirling snow nobody seems completely sure of what they've been attacked by. At the very least it discourages most people from lingering on the fringes of things.

[websnextdoor]

The food might go a bit tepid but it's in no anger of going cold entirely. Normally Peter eats with the rush growing boys seem to have, as though the food will be gone if they don't hurry to shovel as much of it into their faces as possible the second they're welcome to the table. He's too weak to hurry this though. His hands tremble when he eats and after spilling on himself once (okay maybe twice) Peter's going to slow down to ensure he's not wasting the meal Horvath's given him.

So it takes a while for Peter to reply to Horvath's words. Once the meal's finished he can focus again on things like conversation.

"Y...yeah. Did. Did folks ever figure out what it was that hurt Steve? Didn't you say it was a uhm. A curse?"

[bitterguardian]

Horvath has lived for over a millennia. Waiting half an hour for the boy to eat doesn't bother him. "I'm afraid not," He answers slowly, when Peter has gathered his thoughts enough to ask the question. Frowning, the older man looks away. "I fear that the being who caused that may still be out there, but it would waste our limited resources to go hunting after such a thing."

Besides which, if it does hunt people, then it would already be on the edges of their little claim to civilization, since that's where all the potential prey is.