◜ . rude little goblin ┊joining . ◞

[merged stuff.]

[align=center][div style="width: 350px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]tw for mentions of injuries, blood, death and strong language

where the fuck was she?

eden left bluestem and had a pretty damn good idea on where she was until a group of assholes decided to try and take her shit from her. sure, she may have had a black eye along with some bruised ribs and a cut open lip, but you should see the other guys. maybe you shouldn't, actually... the dried blood on her clothes was a strong sign that the scene she left behind was anything but pretty. eden was annoyed by this incident more than anything, especially now since she was beat up and lost because she mixed up the direction she was heading in.

she was trying to get to the coast but now she was in the fucking mountains with the sun glaring down on her. eden walked on, appearing as if she were completely fine and healthy even though she had taken quite the beating not even eight hours ago. she did feel the pain, she felt a lot of pain, actually. the pain she felt just didn't quite reach the surface though. she didn't grimace or wince whenever she would step wrong and get a pain in her side, she just walked normally. it had always been like that for her, she never showed any shed of emotion (that's a lie, but she wouldn't admit it. only some people got to see emotion from her).

the sun was merciless as she advanced forward, she had ran out of water awhile back and was pretty comfortable with the fact that she was probably going to die very soon as long as she stayed out in the open like this. she was just surprised that after all of the shit she got into in her life that the fucking sun out of all things was gonna be the one to take out eden lovelock. she assumed that it was a little better than some other human doing the honors. she really only kept walking now just so she had something to do while she waited for it to happen, wandering aimlessly until she spotted something interesting up ahead.

as she got closer, eden noticed that it seemed to be a set of stairs leading down to something. she didn't know if it was the heat messing with her head or if she really thought this was it, but her first thought that they were the stairs to hell. so what does she do? she walks down them. she had to admit, being in the shade now did feel better than being out there. she descended down the staircase and instead of being greeted by flames and screaming demons she noticed lanterns and actual people walking around. ground people? now this was new.

"what the fuck?" eden muttered under her breath as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking around.

[ZERO]

[align=center][div style="0px; width:450px; height:auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 9pt; line-height:13px;"]During these warmer months, it was integral to stay underground. The heat of the summer was enough to reduce hard-working members into lifeless, sweaty, lazing blobs - or worse, if you didn't have the sense to stay indoors. Certainly, underground was the place to go. The temperature was blissfully close to cold, enough for you to truly appreciate the cool if you ever had the unfortunate urge to go aboveground.

Zero never had those urges, of course. Zero preferred the underground to the above; something that others (his wife, for example) hadn't quite shown an interest in. There was safety below that he couldn't quite find in the open ground and empty sky above - there was so much to take in, so much to watch out for. Sure, there were lurking dangers the deeper you went underground, but the wall kept Asphodel safe (it had for years and years). The plethora of sound and color and so much of everything overwhelmed the man like nothing else did.

He was grateful for the relative silence of the day, Zero was just in the middle of examining a lamp that appeared to be leaking its fuel, when murmurings shot up among the group of people he was surrounded by. Small streaks of blue and green danced before his eyes, and Zero turned with slight annoyance at his disturbance. He was met, however, by something that surprised him.

A woman, beaten up and clearly worn out had made it down the stairs. A total stranger. Zero tensed at her words, the orange teasingly flitting in the corner of his eye. He took his time walking over to her, looking meaningfully at the group as if to say stay back, until we know she's safe. "And you are?" Zero asked, expression neutral as he looked the girl over. "Anyone following you?"