From the Causeway to Washington DC, Thursday Afternoon

[arboreal_priestess]

This was not the first time on Fandom that Verity had been glad her apartment could double as an armory, but it might have been the most acute. This week had been ridiculous, from fighting off a radroach invasion in their kitchen to the heart attack that had been discovering that the colony of Aeslin mice had been replaced by a colony of Aeslin mole-rats.

Nightmare fuel was walking into a room of giant mole-rats and hearing them talk to you, in case anybody needed a shot of that real quick. (Nobody needed a shot of that. Nobody.)

They also ate a lot more than Aeslin mice normally did and even though they supplemented their diet by eating pretty much any other creature they could find, the food levels in the Kincaid-Price household had gone from 'dangerously low' to 'practically non-existant' over night.

Which was why Liam and Verity had decided to strap on pretty much every single weapon they owned and head into the Wasteland to scavenge the remains of D.C. Supposedly, that was where the best remaining supplies were located.

Supposedly, that was where the most dangerous predators in the Wasteland were located, too. And most of them walked on two legs.

That was a problem they'd deal with when they got to it.

"All right," Verity said, securing another rusty container of bobby pins and her spare screwdriver. "We ready to head out?"

[Open to anyone who wants to join Liam and Verity on a scavenging expedition. Be prepared to self-NPC!]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

This wasn't Octavia's wasteland, but it was closer to it than Fandom usually was, and so she had been feeling a very weird sense of belonging, all through this week so far. And then feeling conficted about that feeling, because it wasn't as if she'd missed having to scavenge for survival, but -- in some weird way, maybe she had?

She'd also gone further and further back into looking like a Grounder, this week. All tough, practical leather with her hair braided back along her scalp, away from her face. And of course, armed with both her grim-looking sword as well as the knife she'd bought from Cable a while back.

And, guess this off-island trip was special because she'd gone for the warpaint, too. Black around the eyes, with specific shapes on her forehead and her cheeks.

"Food's an obvious priority. Anything else?"

[firstofitskind]

"Keep an eye out for power packs for this thing?" Liam asked, hefting his rifle up slightly. He'd been a little dismayed to find out his favorite sidearm had changed along with the island. "Also medical supplies can't hurt." Sure, the clinic was well-stocked. Didn't mean a personal stash of that anti-radiation stuff wouldn't be useful.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked at the rifle briefly like she was memorizing what to look for. Then she looked up again, and nodded. "Rad-X and RadAway especially, right?"

Of course she'd committed those to memory as soon as she'd found out about them.

"Also more weapons." Well, for her, anyway.

[firstofitskind]

He nodded in response to the question. He'd pick up any Stimpaks they came across too, of course, though that was something he personally wouldn't be using. "More weapons are always helpful," he agreed.

[okteiviakom]

"Figuring out a way to get the island away from this wasteland would be the most helpful thing," Octavia drawled. It was a kind of a dry joke, so, feel special, Liam. "But failing that, more weapons is really good."

[firstofitskind]

Liam's lips quirked up in a half-smile at the joke. Sure, Octavia's sense of humor wasn't typical, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate it when it made an appearance.

"I've done a bit of research," because of course he had. "Apparently this sort of thing has happened before; the island spends a summer hopping to different locations." Which meant that hopefully, soon, they'd be on to something else. Whether or not it would be any better was anyone's guess.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's face scrunched up. Displeased, if not overly so.

"So this is going to keep happening?"

She wasn't actually sure how she felt about that.

[firstofitskind]

"Unfortunately. Or fortunately, from a certain perspective," Liam confirmed.

[okteiviakom]

"Guess that means we probably won't be stuck here longer than we had the flood, or the dinosaurs, then," Octavia noted, but with an odd note of reluctance.

This wasn't her wasteland.

But.

[firstofitskind]

Liam tilted his head at her, giving her a considering look as he took in how she was dressed now, how she'd been dressed the first time they'd crossed paths nearly two years ago, and the small-but-significant concessions she'd made to life on the island in-between.

"Most people would be relieved to hear we'd be leaving this place behind," he observed mildly. He was well aware Octavia was not 'most people'. It was, after all, kind of what had brought them together.

[okteiviakom]

It had been a slow process of assimilation, replacing somee of her wardrobe with present day things. Lighter materials, here and there. Pants that couldn't withstand even the slightest encounter with a blade.

Yeah, none of that was present now. Give her Helios and she might as well have been back in the woods where she'd come from.

(Give her Lincoln.)

"'Most people'," she rasped, but sounding subdued, "sound like smart people, for once."

[firstofitskind]

"Bound to happen eventually," he shrugged. He tried to think about how he'd feel if they ended up in a world similar to the one he'd come from. A harder life than Fandom, to be sure, but also one where he wouldn't have to second-guess himself quite so much. "Still, there's something to be said for what's familiar."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged. A little piece of helplessness seemed to bleed out in the gesture - but only a very little bit.

"Guess I should get my turn at feeling like a belong in a landscape."

Guess she was getting it. More or less.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Clean water if we can find some," Verity said, noting the warpaint but not questioning it. "I don't trust the pipes with those things down there."

Some of the noises she heard echoing up from her sink had been downright unsettling.

"I wouldn't say no to more medical supplies. And weapons. The more we have the fewer other people do."

Verity trusted her people, even the ones she didn't really know. It was everyone else in this Wasteland she was skeptical about.

"And fuck, if you find coffee? I don't even know."

[okteiviakom]

"I think most of those other things might be easier than the water," Octavia noted, a little on the dry side. She didn't trust the water here just in general. (Which meant she'd grown up a lot since she'd been the first person from the Ark to step on another irradiated Earth. There'd be no swimming, this time.)

But, she nodded. "But basically, everything that's even remotely useful, because the island had barely anything. Got it."

[arboreal_priestess]

"You're not wrong," Verity said with a sigh, twisting her high ponytail into a bun and shoving some wicked-looking metal sticks into it. "Maybe some of that mutfruit--" her mouth twisted into a grimace "-if we find a grove on the way home."

Sure, the mutfruit was supposed to be healthy, but Verity still felt safer sticking to the expired-for-literal-centuries pre-boxed food.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had so such qualms. She'd be careful about what she ate, sure, but they hadn't had any pre-boxed food available back where she was from.

"Yeah." She nodded, glancing brieflt up at the metal sticks. (Those looked good for stabbing. She approved.) "I brought bags, we can bring back as much as we can carry."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was wearing so much weaponry that she could clank when she walked. The only reason she didn't was because that was a dead giveaway to the things she generally intended to use her weaponry on.

"Good," she said, nodding. "How are you on weapons? Have enough?"

Well. 'Enough.' That wasn't really a concept in an irradiated hellscape.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia inclined her head back towards the sword that was still - for now - in its scabbard at her back. "Enough to be effective."

Verity was going to be seeing her throw her sword at something or someone today, for sure.

[arboreal_priestess]

And then Verity would need to know where the hell she'd gotten a sword balanced for throwing and if that place were still accessible because holy shit a throwing sword.

"Any good with guns?" she asked, giving the sword an approving nod.

[okteiviakom]

It was also possible the sword wasn't even remotely meant for that, and Octavia was just good at hurling it out of pure stubborness.

She shook her head. "No," she said. "Guns are more my brother's thing. I never bothered to learn."

He'd learned guns on the Ark, she'd learned blades down on the ground. It worked the same as all their other key differences.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Let me know if you ever want to learn," Verity said, carefully scanning the horizon for anything moving. "I generally prefer killing things from a distance."

[okteiviakom]

"Where's the fun in that?"

It was clearly meant to be a joke, but her tone didn't really make it sound like it.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You hit 'em just right, they can explode," Verity said.

...Was that a joke?

[okteiviakom]

Too bad if it was, because Octavia's head tilted a little like she was intrigued.

She was... uncomfortably comfortable with violence. (Wherein it was uncomfortable for everyone else.)

"Huh. Fair point."