[Open] That story unknown to all

[levelshift]

WHO: Accelerator (levelshift) and OPEN.
WHEN: Shortly after the second wave of arrivals, possibly other prompts later into May.
WHERE: Near the apartments and Kwik Trip.
WHAT: Taking measurements of the environment through SCIENCE, and some all important coffee hoarding.
NOTES\WARNINGS: None as of now.

The Barrier.

[It's around noon when Accelerator heads out from the apartment complex, making his way towards the north end of the island. It's slow going since he's relying on his crutch, but he doesn't particularly care. The only reason he isn't doing this directly outside of the apartment building is because he doesn't want to interrupt anyone or be interrupted himself.

Once he reaches a nice clearing with little else around he stops and hits the switch on the black choker around his neck, the green light flickering to red, then hits another switch on his crutch. The cane portion of it retracts into the cuff that's around his right forearm, allowing him to stand on his own without assistance. With a sigh he cracks his neck, and then there's a BOOM! as four miniature tornadoes suddenly form at his back.

He launches himself into the sky, eventually slowing down the higher he gets and coming to a stop before he hits the invisible barrier that's encircling the entire area. On the way up he's been running the numbers (more like, doing complex mathematical calculations in his head), and once he reaches his destination more formulas and equations flood into his head. With his ability active he can pick up on infinitely more than a regular human would ever hope to with their five senses. It's like going from a single black and white security camera to an infinite number of interconnected nanomachines measuring everything from precipitation levels to background radiation and intensity of UV light. From nothing to practically the entire world.

Accelerator frowns and stretches a hand out. His fingertips don't even come into contact with the barrier, but stop a few centimeters before it. That's all he needs to start sensing its vectors, and he spends a few moments memorizing the numbers flowing into his head and comparing him to ones he's already familiar with.

Once that's finished he drops his hand and the tornadoes abruptly cut out and he sucks in a deep breath, brain switching over to imaginary numbers and formulas. It makes the blood vessels throughout his body pulse and sweat rise up on his skin, but he keeps going until he's analyzed what he needs to. His temples are aching when he finishes and lets himself drop, going back to measuring normal scientific phenomena as he falls towards the ground. When he's close enough he slows his descent to a float, and then lightly touches back down.]

Grocery Shopping.

[Later that afternoon Accelerator can be found at the Kwik Trip, back to using his crutch like a regular person. He's got one of those plastic shopping baskets in his free hand, stopping whenever he sees some food down an aisle that he wants. The basket gets set down so he can toss the item in, then he picks it up and moves further down the aisle.

So far, he's only picked up a few prepackaged sandwiches and junk food. For someone as smart as he is, you'd think he'd pay a little more attention to the food pyramid, but he doesn't seem to care at all about nutrition. That becomes apparent when he gets to one of the coolers containing canned drinks. Scanning each of them closely he stops at a couple rows of canned coffee, and after looking each brand over carefully he proceeds to start tossing some crappy Starbucks unsweetened black nitro cold brew into his basket.

It isn't just one. He's grabbing two at a time, dropping them into his basket with a scowl, until he's taken every single one of that specific kind of can from the cooler. There's over a dozen cans in his basket, and even with that number he's a little irritated that was all the store had. It doesn't even look like it's occurring to him that he might want to leave one or two for someone else who'd like some.]

Wildcard

((If you have something else in mind feel free to PM or hit me up on plurk cryptophyta for plotting!))

Comments

[levelshift]

[Grocery shopping isn't his favourite pastime. He had done the absolute bare minimum back home when he was living on his own, and he's realizing he may have gotten a bit soft after living with his legal guardian and then being in prison, where food was taken care of for him. This is annoying him more than it should. Maybe it's because this is the only place to get groceries, which means having to run into other people if he's doing it at a decent hour.

Or maybe he's just annoyed at everything. That's how he usually acts towards everything in his life: be annoyed at it.

Anyways, he glances over at the voice, considering her words for a moment.]

Great, then I'll come back tomorrow for more.

[His tone is about as casual as he can get, because this has nothing to do with preparing for a worst case scenario and everything to do with this being a normal habit of his. This isn't the first convenience store where he's cleaned out one specific brand of canned coffee (though the last time he did this it wasn't Starbucks but BOSS) and it won't be his last. If the Kwik Trip does stock that often then that's one less thing to worry about.

His eyes turn downwards and he quickly takes in what she's shopping for. Sheesh, that's a lot of random stuff.]

The hell's all that?

[skaikru]

( annoyance is a completely acceptable emotion to let consume you, especially upon just arriving. clarke's been here a full month or so at this point, the candle lit by spite at the entire ordeal not even close to sputtering out. but she does a good job keeping her frustration under lock and key most of the time, always remembering to direct it at the powers that be and the a.i. servitor who won't answer any question beyond the basics — or at least not overspilling onto new arrivals.

as casual as she gets is doling out that piece of hopefully helpful information, then turning back to the drink case to mind her own business and focus in on making a decision here. it's between a monster and a redbull when we're down to the wire, but she's summarily yanked back to conversation when the coffee hoarding stranger pipes up about the contents of her own basket. )

...baby wipes, Tylenol, ketchup and salt, matches...

( words worst grocery list. but clarke will recite it, flatly and with the vaguely guarded set of her eyebrows silently inquiring in turn: why are you asking? )

[levelshift]

[The fact that canned coffee exists here helps immensely, especially when he has so much to be angry about. Being yanked out of his prison cell when the city he's responsible for is in the middle of martial law due to an awful magician was just running rampant makes for one very unhappy esper.

That's a whole list of very basic things and it would never cross Accelerator's mind to buying any of it except maybe salt. He furrows his brow, not seeing the point in any of it. The apartment building has running water, electricity and heat, so that kind of stuff is unnecessary, right?]

.... Are you planning to be in this for the long haul?

[Is she planning for the worst or something? With the bare minimum of society provided for them he hasn't given thought to the possibility that it all might be taken away.]

[skaikru]

( he's already seemingly figured the answer out, but with a tight, uncomfortable shrug clarke unglues her tongue from the roof of her mouth and answers slowly. )

Just... planning in case something goes wrong, you know? This is a new planet, apparently previously uninhabited. ( there's a lot of paranoia in that statement, but absolutely no facts with which to make any claims about if etraya'd ever have a native population before they arrived so for a beat clarke just allows the implication to hang there. fiddles with her basket handles a bit, switches the arm she's using to carry it, and glances back at the cold case. )

There's no saying what could happen. Earthquakes, fires, power outages, a siege, or if things ever just — stop. Restocking.

( an impulsive decision has her snatching a rockstar energy drink and nestling it alongside the sushi. even the barest minimum of society was something clarke had grown up without, and while it's new and novel and she wouldn't mind living with clean drinking water, easily accessible food, a fully stocked hospital, and endless amounts of caffeine for the rest of her life, she also doesn't trust it to stick around. these are all set dressings, or maybe just a trick to get people to relax and accept their current situation. buildings can be burnt down as quickly as they're built. )

[levelshift]

[A new planet, previously uninhabited. Accelerator raises an eyebrow at that. That aligns with what Aurora has told them, about this being some multiverse-saving nonsense (of course you'd dump a bunch of people meant to do that in some neutral space), and what measurements he's taken of the barrier and atmosphere.

That disasters could happen didn't occur to him, though. He clicks his tongue in annoyance.]

Has there been any kind of indicator shit like that could happen, outside of what's going on with the air flow?

[Now he's wondering if that can be shut off. Is Aurora in charge of it? Or Echo? Fuck, for all his power he still needs to breathe, this is such a pain in the ass.]

[skaikru]

( it's only by a month or so, but clarke's been here since the beginning. she'd plunged into the icy river in the middle of the outskirts just to discover it was cursed and made her feel hot all over, looked sidelong at the wrong flower and found herself traversing dreams just to wake up in a strangers apartment, and faced down a weird amalgamation of snake and cat. she'd been murdered by a false version of her best friend and summarily killed three imposters in an effort to rid the city of their effect.

and all of that's just recent. the last moments on her own earth she'd spent burning in the wake of a wall of fire, the second nuclear apocalypse to raze earth within a century. the idea of something as simple as an earthquake doesn't really scare her, it's just habit at this point to prepare for the worst. because the worst always comes, and seldom with any indicators.

tl;dr, she's wildly paranoid, and a bit reluctant to admit it. which is why clarke inevitably spends a few seconds sucking on her own teeth before diverting her gaze and responding. )

No, ( she admits, only a tad begrudgingly. ) But it doesn't hurt to be ready, right? Wouldn't want to be stuck in the woods without at least a bit of salt to season whatever you can find to eat.

[levelshift]

[Accelerator is at least patient, waiting silently for her to decide on whether she's going to answer his question. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to him but that clearly isn't the case with her, and if she's been here longer than him she must have a better handle on this entire situation. It's annoying, but in cases like this it's smart to rely a little on other people.

Of course, he's still staring at her pretty intensely, and combine that with his ever-present scowl and it probably looks like he's just fed up.]

.................

[Oh no. Oh no, he hates that answer. She has a point.

This is something he's thought about before, when he was younger. When you're the strongest it's only natural to consider something as extreme as the end of the world. It's the logical end point to fighting back against all the people who want to fight you, and making the world your enemy.

He clicks his tongue, exasperated.]

Maybe I should be hoarding this shit.

[skaikru]

( you don't have to be the strongest to find yourself completely ruled by worst case scenarios, up to and including the end of the world. you just need to be strong enough, crafty enough, smart enough, or determined enough to survive it — and three out of those four prerequisites required some level of planning. his patience is appreciated, not being outright dogged for her paranoia is too.

and when the boy even mildly implies he might want to follow suit...

wordlessly, clarke picks a pack of baby wipes and a few errant ketchup packets from her own basket and slips them unceremoniously into his. she doesn't smile much in general, even less after the last two weeks or so, but curls her lips in and ratchets up her eyebrows in an expression that more or less communicates: there you go, there's a start. a little shelf stable flavoring for whatever they may have to eat in the event the world ends, and baby wipes are new to her but she can already think of a plethora of practical uses for them.

...but the problem with sharing is now she needs to go back at get another pack — making individualized go-bags for herself and her friends means needing everything in a quantity of five. and she'd not meant to interrupt his shopping for this long, so now's a perfect opportunity to turn on her heel and traipse back to the limited personal care aisle. )

[levelshift]

[Accelerator doesn't know the first thing about survivalism and he's got no intention of living in some cave, so he's mulling over the precariousness of their situation. When you think about it, it isn't great....

He's pulled from his thoughts when the girl moves and drops a few things into his shopping basket. Glancing down, he frowns. Why is she giving some of her stuff? It's not like he's asked, so she's just being generous. That isn't behaviour he's used to, especially from complete strangers. It's kind of bizarre, honestly.]

..........................

[And then she's turning and walking off. He stands there awkwardly, the gears in his mind spinning. He should probably throw it all back at her and tell her off for being too nice.

............

Ugh, this is a pain, but it's not like there's any currency around here. They're free to take whatever they want, so her giving him some of her stuff isn't that much of an inconvenience. He'll leave it alone and go back to his coffee.]