and if you fall

[hasapoint]

WHO: Need and: the first prompt and general wildcard interaction is OTA. The second prompt is closed to her and Allynbee, Bakugo, and Yusuke. It doesn't have to be a megathread but if you want one that's cool.
WHAT: First prompt: Need meanders around and makes a weapon that throws rocks good and tests it on a wall. Second prompt: returning to the River to see what's there to be found. I'm happy with either prose or brackets!
WHERE: Cavern of course! First prompt is in the city or wherever within the lantern's light you'd like your character encountering Need. Second prompt is overlooking the River.
WHEN: Between the intro log and the first Crossing. I'm leaning after the Ferryman's announcement but if you want a thread set before then I'm game.
WARNINGS Not sure. General discussion of the lethality of slung stones is a possibility, and the unpleasantness of being submerged in the River.


check the cupboard for your daddy's gun
Need is quite tall, heavyset, and the oldest-looking person present, with a seamed and scarred face and a wary, watchful aspect. Having spent a long afterlife in service, she feels at loose ends here and is often in motion, walking slow circuits and checking to see if anything has changed, or unpicking bits of fabric so she can find uses for it as string.

One of the first things she does is put together a sling. It doesn't look like much, just a length of braided twine. She takes it up into the higher reaches of the subterranean city to try and test it, with a series of rounded stones for ammunition. The crack of the sling, or of the stone hitting, carries in the quiet as she refines her aim.

"Fired clay bullets are better," she says conversationally, not looking directly at whoever she's speaking to. Crack! Need pulls the now-trailing end of the sling up, wrapping it loosely around her fingers. "Cast lead is best. But if I'm wishing for things that aren't here, first I want a sword."

it's a long way down to the bottom of the river
It's hard to get much out of the Ferryman. Knowing how often she's been cryptic to the living, Need has set her jaw and not tried to wheedle out an answer. The little that she has picked up has been the intimation that she can glean something by returning to the River.

Maybe the other three have also spoken to them, or followed someone headed this way, or meandered here on their own. Regardless, Need looks out across the broad expanse of dark water and exhales slowly.

"It's better than the ocean," she complains, a 'but' clear in her tone.

Comments

[callsignhornet]

"Yeah, I'll take the ocean over this any day."

Allynbee watches Bakugo and his marked refusal to ask for assistance with his disrobing. The fact that he still seems injured is worrying, but that's a late conversation, if ever. Instead, she approaches the water's edge, dressed simply in her armor's undersuit to avoid extra bulk.

"Solid idea," she begins, casting the teen a curious look. "I can't imagine you have oxygen dep training. You sure you want to go in?"

Even having now experienced it thrice, she doesn't like the idea of struggling for air a forth time. But it's better than letting the kid do it alone (or at all, but something tells her that he's not going to be dissuaded easily.)

[ghostmoder]

While this discussion has been happening, Yusuke has struck out to wade shin-deep into the water. He stops there, hands on his hips, waiting... for something that doesn't seem to be coming, at least not yet, and not quickly.

"'Least the ocean's warm half the time." He glances back at them, and, seeing Bakugo, seems to realize that he shouldn't like... jump in fully clothed. His jeans are already wet, half-heartedly rolled up to his knees, but he yanks his shirt over his head and hurls it back in the direction of the rocky shore.

Swimming with jeans on is kind of insane, but, y'know. How much more dead can he get?

"Ain't that bad. All it takes is some guts." He takes a big, bracing breath, half to prepare against the breath-stealing effect of cold water, and half just to hype himself up. "Ready when you guys are."

[reflashed]

Noticing that Yusuke has beaten him to the river, Katsuki picks up the pace with getting his shirt over his head and throws it down onto the rocky shore before wading into the river. There's a massive scar taking up half his chest that wasn't there before and yet... he doesn't feel the need to examine it. Like his ruined arm, having the scar from the blow that killed him just seems right.

"Guts are only gonna get us so far. We need to use our damn brains too. Look-" Katsuki gestures with his good hand downstream to where the river vanishes into the darkness. "The river's got a current. If we're looking for actual stuff, it should get pushed to closer to shore on the outer curves."

A practical and reasonable approach. He promptly succumbs to his impulsive nature and throws it out the window. "So ext-you guys who don't wanna get wet can do that but I'm going in." And so he makes to dive into the flow of the river.

[hasapoint]

"I don't have to breathe," Need says blandly, wondering if any of the other three have picked up on that kind of thing yet. They are all disconnected from the biological processes of living, and if a representation of those continues, it's not out of necessity. The problem with the river is how much it hurts to be fully submerged.

She's not going to stop Katsuki. He's injured but not to a level that stops him from this, it seems. The boys seem to have the impulsive rushing-ahead part covered, so she's free to follow at a more cautious distance and start with the shallows. She glances at Allynbee, wondering where she fits on the sliding scale of recklessness.

[callsignhornet]

Allybee casts Need a look, already a little exhausted by the teens looking to rush in. She nearly barks an order for them to stop, going so far as to take a breath. She's not their commander. Hell, is she even a soldier anymore? The thought makes her shoulders slump a little.

Head turning towards Need, but eyes still on the two boys Allynbee addresses the older woman.

"I'll keep an eye out for them if you want to search here."

[ghostmoder]

Yusuke only rolls his eyes. Everybody's always gotta have a damn plan, even when they barely know what they're after in the first place, and when it's got them doing the same thing either way.

There's no stopping the siren call of teenage boy competitiveness, though. He can't very well stand around bitching and moaning when Katsuki's already making for deeper water. He flaps one hand back at Need and Allynbee on the shore.

"We'll take care of the hard part. Shout if you find anything, yeah?"

And off he goes, too.

[reflashed]

"Yeah, yeah, don't break a hip or nothin'."

Old people.

Things have gone from rather grim exploration to a little bit exciting because there's competition. Katsuki can feel himself getting that familiar warm feeling underneath his skin from the fire that drives him to push harder and go beyond limits.

"And you-" He cocks his head back at Yusuke, unable to keep a his lips from turning up into a grin. "Try not to drown in the current. That would be pretty damn embarrassing."

I lost track of things sorry

[hasapoint]

Need doesn't have a parting remark for the boys as they plunge ahead. As expressive as they are, if they find trouble they can't handle they'll make it obvious. Children! She literally can't remember if (when) she ever had that kind of energy.

She notes Allenby tense and sag as the younger woman starts to say something and then changes her mind. Interesting! Who is this, she wonders as she steps into the shallows. "All right. I don't know what we're looking for, just that we're not finding it high and dry. Are you coming in? If you're not all the way under, it's not painful."

Just cold. That's a more familiar sensation to her than any other, really.