nexus_crossings | The Silence of the Storm

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!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a lot of people coming and going, in the wake of the expedition's return. Matt pays her little attention until she addresses him, and his head comes up a little. "Oh, hey." He doesn't need to self-consciously touch his injuries to know that they're there; every breath sounds like an ancient wooden ship has taken up residence in his chest, creaking with the cracks in his ribs. "It's not too bad. I've had worse than this. Are you okay?"

Normally he'd be able to tell, but he's tired and in pain, and not as inclined to focus as well as he wants. And besides, that wouldn't tell him anything about how she's doing mentally, anyway.

"I heal quickly. My ankle is already better. And it won't take long for the rest of me to get there." She gives him a reassuring smile.

"Considering the fact that I was at the epicenter of the explosion... I lucked out pretty good. Injury wise." Harley prefers to focus on the physical side, instead of her mental stability. Cause mentally... is complicated.

"You were?" Matt turns a little more in her direction, wincing as it pulls at his injuries, and it takes him a moment to find a spot to settle where it doesn't hurt as much. "What the hell happened? One minute it was a brawl, the next..."

"Azwel happened. He went into the brawl flashing his fancy powers. And the next thing we know... a big huge Ice creature appeared and challenged him. Maybe it was the Winter Spirit making his appearance known."

"Once Azwel and the Ice Creature locked eyes... something in him snapped. And suddenly he was looking at the convoy, like we were the bad guys."

"I went to face him. Keeping him from attacking anyone else."

"His powers just kept getting stronger and stronger around him. Then Loki wrapped him up in ice... and I had a pressure cooker on my hands. So I pushed him into a group of the Fallen. And when he sorta exploded."

"Azwel exploded?" Matt didn't exactly know him personally, but he'd familiarized himself with the names of most of the people on the expedition, knowing that things were probably going to get hectic as hell out in the field.

He'd known that people hadn't made it back, but he hadn't expected to hear that someone had died by becoming a bomb. (Because of course he's dead, right? Who could survive that?)

"His powers exploded. Last I saw him... he was running off into the Wilds." Harley had survived being close to him. And so it seems Azwel himself had survived.

"I couldn't go after him. So might have to figure something else out, now that we are back."

"He survived?" Not that it's a bad thing, but it's not what Matt was expecting.

That no one's organized a search party yet, well, it's still early enough that he's not surprised by that part. Especially given just how violent everything got when they were at their strongest, which they certainly aren't anymore.

"It was his own powers. Maybe he got some sorta ability to channel an injury, when his abilities get the best of him."

"I have seen it before in other super-powered folks. It is something I don't have... for my own abilities." Mostly, because it is madness that claims her. Always has a hold on her.

"I am just lucky I was able to get back up from the fall."

Matt doesn't have anything remotely like that either, just his enhanced senses. Most of the time, he doesn't even consider them to be his 'superpower,' it's just a part of who he is.

"Maybe he'll turn up."

"I'm gonna check to see if they need any help with recovery efforts. But I just wanna'ta say hi." Harley pats his shoulder gently.

She was never one that was comfortable with 'leaving a man behind'. Besides, if she was still out there... she would want people looking for her.

Matt doesn't know her very well, but if he wasn't so tired, he'd be touched she's keeping tabs on everyone. "Appreciate it. If you see any more of those things, give 'em an extra kick in the ass from me, would you?"

"Sure thing. You get better soon, ya'hear me?" Harley knows that not everyone can heal like she can. But sometimes, teasing a friend can make them feel that she does give a damn about their welfare. Because she does.

The Silence of the Storm

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