open } pictures soaked in gasoline twisting through the steel and concrete

[choosetruth]

Who: Georgia, Shaun, YOU??
What: Georgia and Shaun can leave the temple!! Time to explore.
When: After Katniss does her god thing to keep the Kellis-Amberlee from spreading by air.
Where: The Temple of Communication and elsewhere in the city.
Warning(s): Some swearing, probably! For more general warnings, see Georgia's permissions post.

Temple of Communication

Considering Georgia's weird eyes and general aversion to unnecessary danger, she usually isn't excited to go outside, especially when it's sunny. Normally, bright sun just means headaches and misery. Normally, fresh air just means risking zombies.

Normally, she hasn't been cooped up inside with only Shaun for company for over a week. She loves Shaun more than anyone else in the world, but he doesn't do well cooped up for an hour let alone days. She's been ready to kill him since day two. And even if Georgia's more comfortable indoors generally speaking, she likes going outside too.

So here they are, finally given a clean(ish) bill of health from the god of medicine and their local zombie doctor. She pushes open the door, closes her eyes underneath her sunglasses, and steps out into the sunlight.

It feels so good.

Exploring

Initially, they're just walking. Georgia's mind, always observing, always analytical, is filing away details for later, but that's not her primary purpose. She's just stretching her legs and enjoying the fresh air and keeping an eye on Shaun to make sure he doesn't poke anything that shouldn't be poked, or making sure that if he does, he's got backup.

But that quickly turns into a more focused exploration. They stop by different temples, both taken and empty, to explore and get a feel for the different realms. Georgia takes the time to talk to both locals and those who've been abducted from other worlds, both the ones who have become gods and the ones who've stayed mortal. With Shaun along to balance her, she's a little more pleasant than she'd otherwise be, though she still very rarely smiles. He balances her well.

Snow

It is extremely unfair that so soon after they find a way to get outside, someone claims the winter throne and turns this place into a horrible winter nightmare land. But Shaun and Georgia aren't about to let a little bit of winter stop them. They can go outside. So long as they bundle up, they'll be fine.

Their explorations post snow are split pretty evenly between Shaun trying to shove snow down the back of George's coat and ducking into buildings to warm up and continue their interviews.

Georgia shakes the snow off her, lowers her hood, and nods sharply at whoever happens to be there.

"Georgia Mason, After the End Times. Do you have time to answer a few questions?"

Comments

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun glances at George and shrugs a little. They're not typically the most social, but that was before being locked in their own temple for days on end with no one but each other for company. It's almost like that shitty summer when they were teenagers, but that was at least their choice.

"Sure."

[choosetruth]

Georgia shrugs as well, then nods. "I've wanted to get a look at the other temples anyway. Seems like a good opportunity." A beat. "So long as you don't expect us to eat squirrel."

I'm so sorry

[fungi_notpunny]

Even though they don't really look like each other, there's something in the way they move that's vaguely similar. Probably the same nod and shrug.

"More for me," Ellie says, actually relieved. Stretching a squirrel between herself and Joel had been hard enough, and Joel had been dying of an abdomen infection, and had barely kept anything down. She'd have to make a soup, and she only has a few dry vegetables and cans, and she needs to find something for Callus soon--

Ellie blinks hard, and remembers that their horse Callus has been dead for months, Joel isn't here, and she's been staring kind of blankly at the siblings for... a while? A few seconds?

She's not sure. Shit.

"Um, yeah. Here." Ellie turns for the temple. With the quilted pelts covering the open arches, it's not clear which is the door, but it doesn't matter. She pulls open the closest one that might be a wolf or a coyote pelt, and steps inside.

The temple has eight columns, with a brazier on the inside of each. The layout is a big octagon, and the stone steps follow the pattern, going about ten feet down from ground level, leading to the bottom floor--an octagon in an octagon. In the middle there's a fire pit, and to the South-west sits her throne... a simple woven mat on the floor, with a couple of sown, stuffed pelts serving as cushions.

To the West is an entrance set into the stairs, with a simple curtain that can be drawn over it. It's Ellie's bedroom, though it's not particularly personalized - just a low bed, and some clothes tossed in the corner.

To the South, there's another entrance set into the stairs. This one is obviously a work room, with a butcher table and a sink, with a couple of shelves with tools, arrows, bow strings.

The North entrance is a heavy, metal door that's insulated, and looks suspiciously like a walk-in fridge.

Finally, the East alcove just has a few wooden crates stacked in it, the purpose not very obvious.

Above every entrance is some kind of thicket of plants, hibernating from the winter but still serving as a deterrent to keep people from stepping off the edge of every alcove. The seven foot drop wouldn't be fun. Ellie doesn't know what any of them are, but the Eastern plant is spiky.

Otherwise, there are trails around the temple where vines have grown and died, but there a not much green at the moment. The ceiling is more rough stone, with a rectangle hewn into it - a rough chimney. There's a wooden board over half of it that Ellie put to try and keep out more weather, at least until she can go up and set up some kind of tarp.

There's the edge of a rope ladder dangling from the hole, and it looks like it could fall far enough away from the fire to be safe, but there's no obvious way to get it down from almost twenty feet up.

Ellie goes down the twenty steps easily and goes for the big metal door, pulling it open with a grunt. It's just cold storage, with some barrels of salt and hooks to hang animals on. Ellie has to stand on her toes to reach a hook, but she leaves the squirrel there for now. It's fucking freezing in there--it'll keep.

At least the rest of the place is warm, with the fire going.

"I guess I can't talk you guys into taking my venison jerky then?"

NEVER

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun isn't quite able to keep from pulling a face. He's never had venison--or any kind of red meat--and he doesn't plan to start now, where it only might be safe. Or not. Who even knows in this crazy place.

"Uh. Pass, but thanks. Unless you have tofu jerky around here somewhere."

tag order is a lie and I'd like to drop in a fast comment <<

[fungi_notpunny]

"What's tofu?" So, no, Ellie doesn't have any of it.

TAG ANARCHY

[choosetruth]

"It's a plant. Makes a good protein replacement. Turkey jerky would be acceptable too." Georgia looks around as they follow Ellie into the temple. "This is... rustic. I guess that makes sense with wilderness."

[fungi_notpunny]

"Oh." Ellie wonders if it tastes like beans.

"Sorry, no turkey," Ellie lies, not wanting to share the jerky she actually likes. There's less of it than venison, too. It needs to be preserved.

Ellie follows Georgia's gaze. "It's weird looking, but it's not half bad." She pulls the fridge door shut, and pauses for a moment before going over to a crate, and pulling out a small knapsack.

"I found some maps of the main hiking and hunting trails. They aren't great, but I guess if you want to do your... write everything down thing, these could help."