Baltimore, Kathy's world, Friday
Baltimore was in ruins.
Raven wasn't sure, really, what she'd been expecting. Part of her had been trying its best not to expect anything, desperate to keep herself from getting crushed if this insane plan of hers didn't work. She'd been bracing for impact for days now, though, ever since leaving Misfit behind in Harpers Ferry. She'd stopped here and there along the route, dropping down from her now well-practiced bird form whenever she saw survivors facing down exes, staying just long enough to make sure the exes were dead before taking off again -- both because she knew it was what Misfit and Kathy both would want her to do, and, she knew, to put off what might well be a giant disappointment just a little bit longer.
She'd never known she could be so impatient for something and dread it so hard at the same time.
Coming into town from the west meant the first thing she saw within the city limits was park land: rows and clusters of trees, black against the pale winter sky and eerily silent. She didn't know if the lack of wildlife was because it was so near a city, it was the middle of winter, or if the animals had been eaten by the local ex-population, but she stuck with her natural shape as she walked to conserve energy, not seeing anyone or anything around that would notice, anyway.
She arrived early Friday morning, and managed to cross the nearly ten miles to the harbor pretty quickly; even in the city center, where the buildings packed tightly together and rose sharply in crumbling stacks towards the clouds, she didn't see anyone around. She kept an eye and an ear out for the tell-tale clack of snapping teeth, but didn't even hear a lonely winter crow in the distance. After so long hiking through the woods, she'd grown used to nature sounds; their lack here was proving very disconcerting.
It was after sunset by the time she reached the causeway, which might have been why she didn't see what had happened to it until she was practically on top of it. The road that had once stretched out to the island now extended maybe thirty or forty feet out into the harbor before ending abruptly, the concrete jagged and crumbling, a few pieces of rusted rebar reaching out over the water like fingers on a longing hand.
Raven sat down abruptly, her legs gone to almost literal jello. She'd thought, sometimes, over the months, about what would happen if she couldn't get to Fandom, imagining the causeway leading to another ex filled horror, or the causeway simply being gone completely, as though the island had been nothing but a strange, vivid dream. She hadn't once pictured it like this, a taunting, broken pier.
She didn't know what to do. It was too dark to see if the island was still out on the water, somewhere, and she was too tired just now to try flying out. So she stayed where she was, wrapping her arms around her knees and staring towards a horizon she couldn't see.
It was a very long, very quiet, very dark night.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC welcome.]
Raven wasn't sure, really, what she'd been expecting. Part of her had been trying its best not to expect anything, desperate to keep herself from getting crushed if this insane plan of hers didn't work. She'd been bracing for impact for days now, though, ever since leaving Misfit behind in Harpers Ferry. She'd stopped here and there along the route, dropping down from her now well-practiced bird form whenever she saw survivors facing down exes, staying just long enough to make sure the exes were dead before taking off again -- both because she knew it was what Misfit and Kathy both would want her to do, and, she knew, to put off what might well be a giant disappointment just a little bit longer.
She'd never known she could be so impatient for something and dread it so hard at the same time.
Coming into town from the west meant the first thing she saw within the city limits was park land: rows and clusters of trees, black against the pale winter sky and eerily silent. She didn't know if the lack of wildlife was because it was so near a city, it was the middle of winter, or if the animals had been eaten by the local ex-population, but she stuck with her natural shape as she walked to conserve energy, not seeing anyone or anything around that would notice, anyway.
She arrived early Friday morning, and managed to cross the nearly ten miles to the harbor pretty quickly; even in the city center, where the buildings packed tightly together and rose sharply in crumbling stacks towards the clouds, she didn't see anyone around. She kept an eye and an ear out for the tell-tale clack of snapping teeth, but didn't even hear a lonely winter crow in the distance. After so long hiking through the woods, she'd grown used to nature sounds; their lack here was proving very disconcerting.
It was after sunset by the time she reached the causeway, which might have been why she didn't see what had happened to it until she was practically on top of it. The road that had once stretched out to the island now extended maybe thirty or forty feet out into the harbor before ending abruptly, the concrete jagged and crumbling, a few pieces of rusted rebar reaching out over the water like fingers on a longing hand.
Raven sat down abruptly, her legs gone to almost literal jello. She'd thought, sometimes, over the months, about what would happen if she couldn't get to Fandom, imagining the causeway leading to another ex filled horror, or the causeway simply being gone completely, as though the island had been nothing but a strange, vivid dream. She hadn't once pictured it like this, a taunting, broken pier.
She didn't know what to do. It was too dark to see if the island was still out on the water, somewhere, and she was too tired just now to try flying out. So she stayed where she was, wrapping her arms around her knees and staring towards a horizon she couldn't see.
It was a very long, very quiet, very dark night.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC welcome.]