SKIES ARE CLEARING [p]

[Jace]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 498px; height: 480px; background-image:url(http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x363/DoomBunniBins/tables/jacetbl.png)] Debris littered the streets, and Jace picked his way through it, kicking pieces to the side, upper lip curled back in annoyance. Normally, escorting the water runs was an easy task. It was usually a simple matter of keeping watch, making sure the omegas didn’t try anything funny, et cetera. After the early summer storm last night, which blanketed the northwest corner of the dome, it was a different story. There had been a small tornado, of all things, and while it hadn’t done any serious damage, it had made a mess of things. The morning had dawned clear, but the air still smelled fresh and wet, a reminder of the recent weather. Ideally, they would’ve waited until the Nakoma got around to the pick up, but the river high due to the rain, and Charm wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to stock up on water. With the Nakoma’s permission, they were going to take triple their normal limit. Thus, the group following behind Jace was larger, and slower, than usual. As a result, he was to act as vanguard, in case anyone tried to take advantage of the disruption. It also meant that he had gotten to the usual meeting point, a marked intersection near the border, well ahead of the others. He’d been told the Nakoma were going to send someone to join him, in addition to the two that would join the Fulsi patrol. There’d been no sign of them yet, and with a lack of anything better to do, Jace had begun clearing the street. The sledges the Fulsi used to carry the water would need clear passage, and things would move more quickly if he got a head start. Getting his shoulder under a beam that had toppled from a dilapidated house, he heaved upward and hauled it to the side. Pieces of roofing and siding were chucked after it, along with branches torn from stunted trees. The work was soothing in its repetitiveness, but intersection was soon passably clean, as was a short stretch of road on either side. Impatient, he paced from corner to corner, scuffing his shoes idly against the cracked pavement. ooc: HEREEEEE FU FU FU

[Persephone Todd]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 497px; height: 1179px; background-image:url(http://i46.tinypic.com/20ktxt5.png)] It had become habit for Seph to run any time she had to go any decent distance. She enjoyed it, it saved time, and it kept her from going soft after spending so much time just hanging around the hovel, waiting for bloodied tribemembers to be brought in. Nor did she really care if on occasion people shot her strange looks for darting around everywhere. Of course, there were sufficiently undesirable destinations that could quell the inclination. Such was the case today. Her pace was a brisk walk at best, despite the shifters she was keeping in waiting. Really, she’d been avoiding the general area of the river during the day, ever since she found out that Oh, no you didn’t really miss much while you were sleeping for three months, by the way we’re allies with your least favorite ring now. It wasn’t difficult, given the aforementioned tendency to stick close to the hovel. It was only a matter of time before Persephone would run into Romans, and she knew it; she’d just hoped maybe it would be a passing encounter that she could weasel out of quickly. Instead, she’d been assigned to go tramping to the river and back with a pack of them. This probably wasn’t even necessary. If they would send someone like Seph to be the babysitter, that just meant that there was little, if any, need for a babysitter in the first place. What was she going to do if they got out of line, poke them and tell them they were bad? The Fulsi scent was very close now. A new thought occurred to her, one that nearly stopped her in her tracks. How long had it been since she’d met up with a normal, besides April? There was Fidelias, last year or so, but before that…it was only a few, here and there, and never for very long. Oh, cor, meeting fellow anthros could be bad enough, at times. Suddenly she was reluctant to even be seen. There was just one of them, some bloke who was passing the time by clearing the aftermath of that little fiasco last night. Perhaps that should earn him some sort of brownie points. It didn’t, really. Whiny thoughts kept her from considering that maybe she could have hollered to the guy before padding up behind him in customary soundlessness. When she actually tried speaking, Seph had to force the words out. “You the Fulsi waterboy?”

[Jace]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 498px; height: 480px; background-image:url(http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x363/DoomBunniBins/tables/jacetbl.png)] When the voice spoke from behind him, Jace reached out with his telepathy and carefully schooled his expression into disinterest before turning around. Even though he’d braced himself, the sight that greeted him was still startling. He’d been expecting a canine, feline, or avian anthro. Not... this. Still, his expression was under control, and the shock didn’t show. He only arched a slightly sardonic eyebrow, taking a brief reading of her thoughts. Satisfied from the half second perusal that, while displeased, the anthro meant no harm, he flashed her a mocking two-fingered salute. “Yes ma’am, that’s me. You my babysitter?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned and ambled down the street, continuing to kick debris aside as he went. Though he closed down the telepathy link almost completely, the tenor of her thoughts continued to come through. He would pick up on any ‘loud’ thoughts, or if the direction changed, without being subjected to the stream of consciousness. “Not a fan of Fulsi, hmm?” He didn’t need the telepathy to pick up on that, her body language screamed it. Though the facial expressions were somewhat... lacking. He’d been given a lecture on not insulting their allies before they left, but despite what people believed, he wasn’t that much of an ass. Usually. Suffice to say, he tended to insult people about their personalities and life choices, not things that were taken out of their hands by sadistic scientists. A small tree had toppled onto the street, and he paused to haul it to the side. There was little he could do to increase the pace of the patrol, but at least he could keep his hands busy. He had a feeling the Nakoma wasn’t going to a good source of stimulating conversation. ooc: flail at me if no gusta, I dun feel that I gave you much to go on <<

[Persephone Todd]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 497px; height: 1179px; background-image:url(http://i46.tinypic.com/20ktxt5.png)] Shoulders squared the moment he started to turn around, but all Seph got was the sort of mildy-interested look that he could given anyone. Also he didn’t call her ‘sir,’ which was always a bonus. So far, so good. “Yep, stuck with me for the…day.” Her voice faltered as the guy strode right off; she wasn’t sure he was listening. So he wasn’t terrible, he just showed signs of being flippant. Normally that would have been fine, even amusing, but she was irritable today. The anthro woman took note of the usual points. He was taller and sturdier than her, but she’d met taller and sturdier than him under riskier circumstances. Anything else about his appearance wasn’t much use; faces were hard to see, and of course he lacked animal features that made his shape easier to recognize. The scent was what was important here, such that she’d collected it without thinking. Under the Fulsi signature he was sharp smells, citrus and mint and sea breezes. That was what stood out to Seph, anyway, and she deemed it enough to recognize him in the future. Hopefully the information would never be needed. Perhaps the silence actually bothered the bloke, or maybe he wanted to be polite; either way, he cut through her first-impressions analysis soon enough. It was such a casual comment, but one that made his anthro companion hesitate mid-stride. Maybe it was in spite of her scattering, stunned thoughts that Seph said what she did, or maybe it was because of that. “Wh…oh! No no no, what gave you that preposterous hypothesis?” Despite being a regular part of her vocabulary, it occurred to her just then where she’d picked up that phrase. “Haven’t met one before but I’m sure you’re perfectly nice folk.” What had made him guess that? Honestly, Seph thought she’d been hiding her displeasure decently, and even if not, why go for that? Why not just assume she was generally cantankerous, or having a bad day, or had a disagreement with somebody just before coming here or any number of plausible reasons other than the one he’d somehow guessed? It wasn’t something she’d considered previously, because she hadn’t expected him to be so weirdly perceptive. But it was almost an instantaneous decision that it would be best not to let on about her opinions of his family group. Doing otherwise might ruin the plan to get this over with as quickly and with as little drama as possible. Especially drama that wouldn’t exactly help relations between Nakoma and Fulsi, in a ‘piling straw on the camel’s back’ sort of way. The sea slug girl grabbed the first possible subject change, which came to mind the moment his body language even hinted he was going at that downed tree. Possibly that had an effect on making it sound as though she were conversing naturally and casually. Persephone liked to think it didn’t. “Makes it a bit wack, doesn’t it? Crazy people having full control over the weather? Just popping out storms whenever they feel like it, plunking down a desert where it shouldn’t be….” That was twice now she’d been reminded of dead people. Brilliant. Today was going to be such fun. “Surprised they even follow the seasons, ‘stead of keeping us guessing every few days.” When all else fails, talk about the weather, right?