[Sappheara]

(The E tags are in place because I honestly don’t know where the PR could be going, and I want to make sure those that happened to glance at this thread aren’t offended by anything that may be posted in this thread.)

Concordia shifted through her closet looking for the thick scarf that she needed to wrap around her face before leaving her house. The times had changed, and everything was different now. Because of the greediness of her species, the humans, that had destroyed most of the living things that once flourished on the earth, it had become a barren wasteland. Connie pulled out her favorite scarf that was hidden beneath a pile of unkept clothes at the bottom of her closet. She wrapped her scarf around her face and looked into the broken mirror that was hanging on the door of her closet. She looked safe enough and at least she did not have to worry too much about breathing the dust with the scarf around her face. Connie just hoped that there was not going to be any dust storm today as they were scouting for some recourses. Today she was on rotation with her best friends, Natalia and Ioannicius to go scouting for some food and water and some other recourses that could help her and her clan.

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Connie picks up her backpack from her bed and walked toward her dresser. She looked around her room to make sure she had packed everything she needed for the journey. Satisfied that everything she need was in the backpack, she grabbed her goggles from her dresser and walked out of her room. She walked into the kitchen and throw her bag on top of the table as she started to rummage in the kitchen for her travel items. Connie grabbed a handful of water filters, ration food packs, and her water skin and throw them in her backpack. Connie heard the loud knock at her front door, she picked up her back and walked towards her entrance door. She opened the door and looked at Natalia leaning on the wall and chewing on some gum. “Hey, Nats!” Connie looked around to see if Ioannicuius was also there, but she did not see him anywhere. “You didn’t pick up Ioan this time?” Connie did not give Natalia time to answer before she grabbed her, pulled her into the house, and closed the door behind them.

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“What the hell, Connie! Why are you acting like that?” Natalia was surprised that Concordia forced her into the house. “To answer your question before you forced me into your house, no, I did not pick up Ioan. That is because he had to pick something up from Domitian and before you ask me what it was, I do not have a clue. Ioannicius did not tell me, and I did not question him. It is none of my business. If it is safe and does not have any to with us, why should I care.” Nat kept chewing her old gum as she watches Connie grab her weapon from the side of the entrance door. “Connie, you do know that there is no war, so you can calm down.” Natalia smiled as she watched her friend gather her protective gear. Nat removed her backpack and placed it on the floor next to the couch and sat down.

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Connie spoke as she gathered more stuff around the living room. “You know Nat, it is nothing wrong with being prepared for the outside. You know as well as anyone that the world is chaos, and you can never be prepared for the strangest things that could happen. Hell, all you could know is that we can die out there, someone from a different clan could kidnap us, slit our throats, and watch us bleed out of the damn floor!” Natalia choked on her gum. “Jesus Christ! Connie, damn. I am aware of how this world works, you know, and how dangerous it is. Once we are in our clan's haven, we are safe, of course, once we leave, it is everyone for themselves or the team for themselves. You know damn well that Ioan and I would never let anything happen to you. We have been friends for 10 years.” Nat walked over to Connie's trash and spit out her gum. “You, fucking suck sometimes Connie. I was looking forward to a fun entertaining rotation, but you had to be a piss ant about it.” Nat stuck out her tongue at Connie as she walked back to the couch. “Anyways Ioan should be here soon.”

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Ioannicuius was tired by the time he got to Connie's bungalow. He ran from Domitian's bungalow to her bungalow within 20 minutes. There was no real reason for him to run but he was excited. Small beads of sweat dripped down his face as he stopped in front of Concordia's front door. He took a few deep breaths to labor his breathing. He knocked on Connie's bungalow door as he bounce up jump and down on his feet. Ioan could hear noise on the other side of the door as someone twisted the door knob and opened it. “Hey, Natalia! Glad to see you.” Nat steps aside to let Ioan into the house. He beamed at Nat as he walked passed her. “Hey, Con!” He waved at Connie as he placed his backpack and weapon on the worn coffee table. Ioan sat down on the couch. “I have good news. You know I went to Domitian's bungalow early because I needed to trade in my old broken longbow. You know, the one that I broke during practice? Well, the good news is that Domitian gave me a new one.” Ioan pointed to the new longbow on the coffee table. “I had to trade several of my food rations, water filters, and a couple of rusted old tokens that I found last rotation.”

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Natalia walked over to the coffee table and picked up the new longbow. She tested it out before she spoke. “Domitian must have just made this.” She pulled the Flemish twist string a couple of times before she continue to speak. “It just needs several practice shots and it should be just as good as your old one. I wonder where Domitian got the wood and flax from?” She places Ioan's longbow back down on the coffee table. Ioannicius shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn't matter where Domitian got it, I'm just glad that he traded it to me.” He gave Nat a crooked smile. “The bow string is made with silk, so it's a lot rarer. That's why I was excited and ran here. Can you believe that Domitian was willing to trade such a rare object?” Concordia and Natalia stopped what they were doing and stared at Ioan. Both of them were speechless. “What do you mean that Domitian just traded that...” Connie pointed at the longbow, “...for some food rations, water filters, and a couple of old tokens? Don't you find that weird, Ioan? What else does he want in return?” Ioan got up from the couch and picked up his longbow and backpack from the coffee table. “I don't know but I'll find out when we get back from rotation.”

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“Babes, you better hope that Dom doesn't ask for anything super rare in return,” Nat spoke as she checks her knife belt around her waist. She wanted to make sure that her throwing knives were sharp. Nat pulled out her throwing axe and examine it. She was satisfied with the sharpness and placed it back in her knife belt. Natalia looked at Ioannicius while he tested out his bow, he pulled out an arrow from the brown leather quiver. Ioan places the arrow in the notch of the bow and pulled the arrow back tightly and slowly release the pressure. He did this a couple of times before placing the arrow back into the quiver. He was happy with the results. Concordia slowly examine her metal bo making sure that there were no slight bends or breaks. Everyone wanted to make sure that their weapons were in excellent condition before heading out to their rotation. Connie was the first to speak. “Does your weapons look good?” Everyone agreed and walked out of Connie's bungalow.

[Sappheara]

(Hollowheart is tempary until I'm able to get Modesty's form.)

Concordia closed her door behind them. Everyone walked into the underground hall looking in at open doors. One open door, the greenhouse, caught Ioannicous attention. Ioan spoke to Modesty who was attending the plant nursery for the morning shift. “Hi, Modesty. Is there anything that you need for the greenhouse?” Modesty looked up at Ioan and smiled before answering. “Yes, if you can find a replacement for the broken solar panel, that would be great.” She pointed at the crack panel above their heads. “That's really all we need at this moment. Unless you can find some new vegetations that we can add to the nursery that would also be great.” Ioan shook his head in agreement and was thinking about the average time that he and his companions would be back with or without the items on their list. “Okay, the girls and I should be back by the waning gibbous the day before last quarter. That should give us enough time to track some of the items on our list.” Without saying another word to Modesty, Ioan waved goodbye to her and continued their path. Ioan spoke to his companions and informed them what Modesty needed for the greenhouse.

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The group spoke to people with the doors open to ensure they had a correct list of items they needed to scout for while they went on their rotation. They may not be able to bring back everything on the list if they found them, but they could at least locate some of the items and come back with more people to help get the larger items back to their underground colony. “Did you write down all requested items?” Natalia spoke to Ioan as they stopped in front of the exit door. Ioan rolled his eyes and pulled out the cloth with a list in black letters. “Yes, of course, I did Nat. What do I look like? An idiot? I don't think any of us could remember most of the items that were requested. Also, I plan to make notes on the side of the items. Mark them if we can bring them back, if we couldn't find them, or if we must come back to retrieve them.” Ioan wasn't always the best at being organized but when it comes to important things, he always made sure that he was organized so that he couldn't mess up. Ioan and Nat put on their shemagh on their heads and wrapped the tail end around their mouth and neck. Connie pulled up her neck scarf over her mouth before Ioan and Nat unlocked the heavy metal door and pushed it open.

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Natalia was the first one to step throw the large metal door. Nat looked around the small alcove of the stone steps that lead above ground. She motioned for his companion to enter; everything was secure. “Well darlings, the main door above is still secure.” Nat turned to Ioannicius and grabbed his right arm and pushed him forward. “Since you're the only dude among us, you get the honor of checking the telescope.” Ioan scrunched up his face with irritation and flipped Nat the middle finger. He had no issue with using the telescope and hated when Natalia was bossy. Nat spoke in a monotonous pattern. “I love you too baby.” She laughed and winked at him. Both girls watched as Ioannicius walked up the stone steps until he reached the telescope. He unlocked the telescope from the wall and peered through the eyepiece. He slowly did a 180-degree turn to ensure it was clear above them. “It doesn't look like anything is within a couple of miles around us. But to be safe, I think we should prepare our weapons so that we aren't surprised by anything.” Ioan places the telescope back and locked it. Connie spoke up, “I'll go first since I have the bo, then Nat and Ioan will go last since his weapon is long-range." The girls went up the stairs to where Ioan was standing. They each grab one of the metal handles on the stone door and pulled it towards their left, slowly opening the door.

[Sappheara]

(Aqua Kuhna is temporary until I'm able to get Toutatis's form.)

Concordia peeked through the opening of the entrance. She notices see anyone outside but she did have her weapon ready for use. A noise caught her attention and she looked in the direction and saw that Toutatis was staring at her with a frown on his face. Connie motions for her friends to come up with her as she completely exits the entrance of the underground bungalow. “What are you doing out here?” She spoke to Tatis as the rest of her group exited the underground. Toutatis looked towards the direction of the north. “I was escorting Domitian, Beverly & Rembrandt a couple of miles up north because there was mutant out and they needed help killing the bastard.” He looked around a few times to make sure there weren't any mutants lurking around. It might be a barren land but there were still some places those monsters could hide. “Ajay, Alkmene and Maxi took the east. Rajabu, Charita and Cyrus took the west, so I guess ya'll are going south. Y'all be safe because those nasty bastards are out this morning.” The three friends looked at each other because they realized they forgot to check in with Gabriel to check which part was their rotation. “Fuck, the one thing none of us checked up on before we left. Should we check with Gabriel before heading south?” Nat said as she looked at her friends. Connie shook her head no, “There's no point right now. Toutatis already told us which way we need to go and I want to get started with our rotation.” They all agree and Ioan looked at Tatis and spoke, “Is there anything you need?” Toutatis shook his head no and went down the stairs and closed the stone door.

(Will be revising this story.)