istones: 8.26

[piercetheheart]

Hey guys, 's Gladio. Got some new gear that'll make construction easier. And a rain barrel so we can haul a much larger quantity of river water over from Enso. Planning to set up another shower and water filter on the little islands, votes on which one?

And while I've got your attention I wanted to see who'd be up for helping me fix up the temple some. Tory -erm I mean The Storyteller's- been busting their butt looking after us, only feels right we should do something for them. Maybe... trying to make friends with them too, guys. They kinda think we all hate them.

Comments

[postictal]

You call them "Tory."

[That's not...shocking to him? But that easy familiarity isn't one Tim himself can achieve with any simplicity. Particularly with, uh...gods.]

I guess we'd better get everything done that we can while we can.

[piercetheheart]

Sounds more like a name and they need some friends. Friends give each other nicknames. So yeah, Tory.

I've been haulin as much over as I can, got a wheelbarrow now so things've been goin a hell of a lot faster

[postictal]

A wheelbarrow? [Well, shit. He had the right idea.] How pricey was that score?

[piercetheheart]

Iggy helped me get it. Got a rain barrel to haul water in from the river to the filters. Setting up another filter by the mana pool on the other islet, by the way.

The wheelbarrow and a 2 grit whet stone with another pretty decent knife. Igs and Prom have been here so long they've got plenty of credit with Tory for some of the real important shit.

[postictal]

I've been saving up, I guess. For the next disaster.

[Because there's always another one. They're like storms on the horizon, that way.]

[piercetheheart]

I mean... that's fair. I'm kinda doing the opposite I guess, getting all the materials I can so I can start getting shit fixed up before disaster strikes again.

Like once we get the roof finished out the way I want we should hopefully be able to house a dozen or so people the next time we get some really severe weather. Safer than most people's cottages anyway.

Denny's still gonna be the safest bet I think but different places, different islands, y'know. Whatever's closer to hide in.

[postictal]

That's one of the reasons I set it up, actually. I've got a stockpile of flare guns and stuff. Keep it stored with anything useful, in case we need to hole up.

[In case there's another sunpocalypse, in a matter of speaking. Not that he's expecting anything as specific as that, but he wouldn't be surprised if there was another siege of sorts.]

[Not very much surprises him anymore.]

[piercetheheart]

's a good plan. Hopefully it won't come to that but if it does. People have options. Hell our place is pretty sturdy if someone can't make it to the main island.

[Ideally everyone will be together in one or two locations but if not they should have hidey holes across the islands as a whole.]

Hmm... maybe we should... reinforce one place on each of the little islands too?

[postictal]

In case we get more monkeys trying to abduct us?

[Did Gladio hear about the monkeys? Someone should probably tell him about the monkeys.]

[piercetheheart]

[Gladio did not hear about the monkeys.

Wtf?!]

Monkeys? What are monkeys?

[There are no monkeys on Eos what even.]

[postictal]

You know...apes? Hairy, hands for feet?

[He's not a simian biologist, so it's not like he can explain what...monkeys are with any accuracy. It's like trying to describe the color purple without using the word "purple."]

[piercetheheart]

Not... familiar, nope.

But okay big hairy creatures with hands for feet... what'd they do?

[postictal]

Snuck into people's homes, caged them up, and tried to cook them all alive, basically.

[The new arrivals got the worst of it, like they pretty much woke up in that state. Was a goddamn miracle now one actually died.]

[piercetheheart]

THE FUCK!?

[Why in the hell hadn't Iggy told him about-

Because this is how he'd react, that's why.]

So you're saying I need to get a lock on the door and start making sure I bring the girls in at night.

[postictal]

I mean, they're all dead now. We're pretty sure, anyway.

[Now and then they still find the odd straggler, but they'd pretty thoroughly eradicated any and all of them when they'd made the mistake of abducting half the island overnight.]

That old compound place, with the huts in the trees? We didn't build that or anything. That was theirs.

[piercetheheart]

Still that's fucking terrifying. You made it sound like they were just animals not...

Smart enough to be doing abductions, Shiva!

[postictal]

They didn't give us a lot of choice.

[He's not about to justify it. What he did. What all of them did. He was just as bad as the rest (put a hatchet it one of their guts, watched it thrash and shriek and bleed until it lay still and oozed black into the dirty), and it wasn't even just the ghost of someone he knew (haunted eyes and a black hood and a leg burned an angry red), and by the time it was over, none of that had been the worst part.]

[The worst part was the question: is it getting easier?]

[piercetheheart]

Obviously.

[He can't blame anyone for that, for taking them out. He'd have done the same without a thought.]

At least there was something useful left behind for all of that... I guess.

shit.

[postictal]

So I guess we don't wanna risk people getting nabbed again. Not that putting a lock on the door is guaranteed to stop anything.

[Bliss came for them in their dreams - the most efficient backdoor of all.]

[piercetheheart]

At least should give us some warning, time enough to get to our weapons if they'll help.

[Without Noctis they're all left without the Armiger. His sword and shield no longer accessible with the flick of a wrist but instead requiring him to physically store them somewhere nearby at all times.]

[postictal]

Fair enough.

[He won't stop him. Tim, paranoid jerk that he is, is exactly the sort of person to put superfluous locks on his doors anyway.]

Like I said, I think they're all pretty much dead now, but who knows if anything else might show up.

[piercetheheart]

Showed up once, something similar might happen again.

Then again getting Iggy or Prom to lock the door will be a nightmare.

[postictal]

They had this...sleeping stuff. Drug or something. Shot people up with it and kept them sedated so they could drag them back to their compound.

[He only mentions it because the plant they used to make said sedative is still growing there. Plenty of people can just sample it whenever, which is...you know, fine.]

[piercetheheart]

Shot people up with it

[Incredulous and a little disgusted.]

Do you mean that the way it sounds dude? Cause if these monkey things were running around with needles... or like... what blow darts or something?

[postictal]

I think it was blow darts, yeah.

[Tim just sounds remarkably cool about this. Flat, tired indifference is just how he copes most of the time.]