{I am up against the wall

[forasecond]

Who: Five + Various
When: Month of September
Where: Around town
What: Various threads through the month.
Warnings: Depression/anxiety/PTSD mentions or descriptions; assassination/mass murder/themes of war; flippant references to child abuse/neglect/violence; mentioned and played out use of alcohol (which looks like underage use, all considered); will clearly mark if-when anything comes up.

I have killed a man and all I know

Is I am on the run and go

Comments

{September Message Board Notes

[forasecond]

[forasecond]

Day 2:
• Seeking shelter + basic supplies around town

• Update: Staying in house near general store, decent amt of nonperishables/clothing inside, can make trades if needed.

-Number Five

code

{First Glance

[forasecond]

Seeking shelter - Narrative ONLY

After his initial arrival and finding immediate shelter at the school house and meeting a few people and running through exploring in a more broad sense with a few others, Five buckles down and decides to find a place to stay in a more permanent sense. It might make the most sense to say centralized at the community hall, but he's not exactly a community kind of guy. He wants his own space, where he can do whatever he wants without judgy eyes on him.

He does find a place, eventually, not even what would be half a block in a regular cityscape from the General Store. Makes him feel better about if he needs something in the meantime, though he's already taken note of the supplies the store has on hand, calculating in his head how fast all those resources might disappear with the number of people that he'd seen at the feast that first. It will take some time to completely deplete their available rations, but if more people show up, it might become an issue quicker.

The house is a bit dilapidated, like it's been abandoned for a long time, but mostly still in tact. The work he needs to do on it will give him something to focus on, and in the meantime, he'll turn his attention to getting the inside organized in a way he likes.

Store Run - OTA

A place to stay more or less secured, he makes a mental note of things he needs to make sure he has on hand, most importantly something to write with. The walls of the house he's taken over are about to be covered in a hell of a lot of nonsensical equations once he has some time on his hands, and he anticipates running through the couple of pencils he's found too quickly for his tastes.

While he's aware he has to not hoard everything– and the instinct to do just that is strong, far too many parallels to that end of all ends he got stuck in all those years are appearing in this place– he still needs to gather what he genuinely needs to have on hand.

The house he'd decided is now his own had enough in terms of nonperishable foods and clothing, but it had little to speak of in way of writing utensils. This is what brings him to the store. One might find him rummaging through one of the aisles murmuring incoherently under his breath.

store run

[bigbaddy]

Did Bigby see Five jumping up on a chair back over in the big meeting hall on the first day?

Sure did. He even heard the whole spiel the other was giving - even if Bigby didn't respond to it back then. There were far too many people around, and he was honestly just ready to peace out of that place and get some quiet to himself, focusing on getting one of the houses cleared out enough for him to sleep in for the night. No way he was going to try and wait for people to be done talking to Five to get in a turn of that himself.

He figured that he'd surely spot the other around town sometime the next day - and seems like he's right about that one, considering Five is very easily recognizable. (Sorry, this is just what happens when you look like a short kid..)

So when he spots Five in the store at the same time as Bigby happens to be there, he doesn't hesitate to approach the other, arms crossed across his chest.

"So, how did things end with your big speech last night?"

Because he feels like the answer to that is probably not well. If experience is anything to do by, anyway. People tend to generally not listen to kids. Or people who look like kids. Bigby isn't sure which one of those two is the case yet for Five, though he's leaning towards the latter, given what he had been saying back then. Or he's just a kid trying real hard to act mature. Also a possibility, he guesses.

[forasecond]

He turns at the voice, eyes sliding up the tall frame of the man that had addressed him. He folds his arms across his chest as he turns to face him, "About as well as I figured it would," which from the tone of his voice, is probably not as well as he would have liked.

People just don't listen to authority when it comes in a kid-shaped package. It's infuriating.

[bigbaddy]

"Yeah, I did too."

Bigby.. Please, my man, this isn't just something you can tell a person who is clearly disappointed about the outcome of their plan.

But Bigby is, if nothing else, extremely practical in this sense. And since he doesn't exactly mince words, this is just how things apparently come out of his mouth, even if nothing about it sounds malicious in tone. It's not like he's here to rub it in, after all.

Hence why the man continues with something more productive a moment later, adding: "Getting people to work together is practically impossible. Especially when they don't even know each other. You can probably expect to run into more distrust than any real cooperation here."

Even if it would be far less annoying if people worked together. Bigby will give the other that, honestly.

"Not to mention people probably thought you're just a kid."

.. granted, the other could be a kid. He looks like a kid. But Bigby doesn't think he sounds like a kid, and considering the sheer variety of Fables he's dealt with back home, he's fairly certain he can tell the difference at this point. He could be wrong, sure-- but he feels pretty confident about this one, even in his body language as he speaks.

[forasecond]

Five appreciates blunt honesty, so it's weirdly the best route he could have taken in response at all. Too many years of secrets, half-truths, and outright lies from every brand of person he may have ever held an ounce of respect for at one time or another.

He scoffs at that comment, "No shit," he rolls his eyes, but it doesn't escape him that there's not exactly calling him a kid with the way his statement is phrased. It's just slightly different from other ways he's been treated thus far that it's hard not to make note of it.

"And what do you think?" with all the air of someone who truly does not care what anyone else in the room thinks, but wants to know anyway.

Store run

[worthallthis]

The asset has a small problem. He knows how to eat food handed to him, mostly in liquid form. He knows how to cook over an open flame, but he doesn't remember how to do that at this point because nothing has happened to spark the memory yet. And he has problems with too many choices at once.

So he's at the store kind of... staring at the shelves. Walking up and down them slowly and keeping his shaking hands in his coat pockets while he tries, and fails, to find something he thinks he might be able to eat. Most of what's left is, after all, in cans. And he's not really sure what to do with stuff in cans.

Wanna help him out, Five? Or mock him, you can do that, too.

[forasecond]

As Five moves through the store, he eventually turns down an aisle where he sees- did he even ever get the guy's name? Whoops.

Five looks at him, then to the shelf of canned goods, and back to him. He perks an eyebrow, "What are you looking for?" Maybe he can help him find it.

[worthallthis]

Well, Five did ask for a name, but the asset didn't give him one because he doesn't have one. So not really a failure on Five's part.

He hitches his good shoulder a little at the question, uncertain, looking in Five's direction only sidelong. "I don't know. Something. Something easy?" Look the guy is used to nutrients in an IV or a bottle. There's mission skills related to eating at grubby diners if necessary on long missions, but that isn't this either.

[forasecond]

Well, that's nice and vague. Annoying. "Well, none of this is going to be particularly hard to cook, long as you know how to make a decent fire and can find some kind of cookware in one of the houses," he shrugs. He's eaten worse, personally.

[forasecond]

Day 4:
• Exploring south of town tmrw, back by sundown. Community Hall @ dawn to come with.



-Number Five

code

{South of the border

[forasecond]

Meet at dawn - OTA

Five wasn't kidding when he said he would be at the community hall by dawn. He's dressed for the task he's chosen to be at hand today, boots and a heavy jacket he found in the closet of the house he's taken over, as well as a satchel in case he finds anything interesting in his travels.

He'll wait for a little while to see if anyone might have seen the note on the board and decided to take him up on the opportunity. He needs to sun to rise a little more before he's comfortable with heading out, so he perches on the steps out front and waits.

Going South - OTA

Whether he is going on his own or has a companion or group to go with, once the sun has risen enough to give adequate light, Five sets off on his exploration journey for the day. He feels like he's seen enough of the town proper, so it's time to go further into the area surrounding them.

Arbitrarily, he's chosen to head South today, and he has no idea what he might find in that direction, but any information is useful. He makes a mental note to add a new note to the board to ask if they have any cartographers in their midst. He could make crude maps for personal use, but it would be better to have someone with the skill for it to make detailed ones as they start learning more of the land.

meet at dawn

[solitarysoul]

"Are you the guy that wanted to explore?" Levi asks as he walks up to the hall. Being up at dawn isn't really a problem as he's not managed to get more than a few hours of sleep here and there since arriving. And before arriving, really.

He's wearing what appear to be green army coveralls, an oversized coat and scuffed looking boots. What stands out most, though, is likely the rifle slung over his back.

[forasecond]

"That's me," he says, turning to look at the owner of the voice addressing him. His features aren't perfectly clear in the early dawn light, but the silhouette of that rifle is crystal clear to him. Handy.

"You find any ammo for that thing around here yet?" he can't help the curious question, there. It'd be good to know how limited the opportunity to use it might be.

[solitarysoul]

This guy looks younger than him. Levi doesn't like that, but there's nothing he can do about it. Except try to keep him alive, unlike all the others.

"I showed up with some, but not much." He's mostly carrying it because it's a security blanket, but he'll never admit that.

[forasecond]

"Best to ration it as much as you can, then." Never know when they might need it, and what kind of threats might be lurking around Milton. Because.... yeah. Five doesn't trust any of this, not even a little bit.

Going South

[pythianwoman]

Zoey had a similar idea. Learning about the worlds she’s found her way to, exploring and mapping them out until she has discovered their idiosyncrasies and has them memorized. Until she knows her way through and around them. Even without her powers, she still has that need to know. To learn. So here she is, trekking southward, bundled up in the warmth of her longcoat and boots, her long black hair done up in a braid and tucked beneath a warm hat, gloves on her hands and a satchel across her body. It’s full of pens and a couple journals for note-taking as well as the usual sort of supplies.

She’s not surprised to see that someone had the same idea, nor is she entirely surprised it’s him. She smirks a little. “Fancy meeting you here.”

[forasecond]

Five isn't sure if she chose this particular exploration route because of his note in the community hall or not, and he doesn't really care either way. Not going alone is... probably for the best.

"It's a small world, after all," he quips back, not bothering to resist the urge to throw his eyes into something of a half-roll.

[pythianwoman]

It's chance, this time, because Zoey hasn't checked out the community hall much, let alone taken note of any notes left there. Just pure chance. Honestly, too, given her powers of sight have been stolen from her.

She's unbothered by the eyeroll, instead just grinning cheekily at him. "It might be a very big world, we're just a very small group of interlopers. Then again, there might not be much outside of where we are, here. I suppose we’ll find out when we try to venture further out." Despite the lack of powers, she’s remarkably unbothered by all of this. Honestly she’s CURIOUS, more than anything.

[forasecond]

"Guess we're gonna find out," he agrees with a slight nod.

For awhile, he walks along with her, only the crunch of their boots against the snow to break the silence that stretched on between them. He prefers it to idle chit-chat, not particularly a man of many words.

As they go, he takes notes of different potential landmarks to keep in mind to look for as signs of being close to "home" when they're on their way back later. Until they've got more of an idea of how the land sprawls away from the center of the town, they might be the only way people will be able to get a sense of direction at all.

South of the border

[aetherialshackles]

[Erichthonios knew his presence was... unneeded in town. Most people knew how to move around, meanwhile the young man still struggled to learn how to properly walk in the snow and, after the first few days, his food supplies were starting to get dangerously low. Yes, he managed to scavenge and stash something in the outskirt house he claimed for himself, but it was time to do something more. Time to try to be part of the local community, hopefully someone could teach him how to survive.

This is why he decides to pack things up when he realizes someone wants to explore the area. Whoever they are, they may have more knowledge than he does about the surroundings and how to live in the place. A clean notebook is stashed with a pencil in a frilly pink dufflebag he found near one of the bodies, it was the largest one and he shall not complain, this with a pair of spare mittens and a few of the edible things he scavenged.

He may or may not be a bit late when he finally shows up at the Community Hall, it's hard to tell hours apart when you don't have a clock to guide you.]

Uh... hello? Has the exploration team already left?

[forasecond]

[Five is getting ready to head out, but when he hears someone asking about the "exploration team", he turns toward the source of the voice– ]

About to head out. You coming with?

[aetherialshackles]

[oh, so THAT is the current exploration leader, huh? Bit short, perhaps, but considering Erich's own very best friend looks much younger than him and can kick down mountains... he's not really giving it too much thought. The warder offers a small bow and a nod.]

Yes, sir. If possible, of course. I don't exactly have much experience in exploring... but we can't stay hidden inside the city the entire time, can we?

[forasecond]

[Yes, sir, it just hits a certain place of respect that Five appreciates. Inflating his ego a bit? Maybe. But it's better than some kind of indignation at being led around by "a kid", so... he'll take it.]

You don't need experience- [He says matter-of-factly as he grabs the satchel he's kept on his person pretty much constantly.] just eyes and an attention for detail.