Post by Wolfe on Dec 10, 2019 14:32:13 GMT -5
The first day on the eastern front was largely uneventful for most of the group. The populace was too fucked up on the emotion dampening water to do much to react to their coming, and the trainees largely had free reign over the area. This was both good because there was little interference, and bad because there was no guidance. It was common knowledge among the trainees at this point that the village elders did not take their own water, but it seemed like almost everyone else in the city did. Each trainee had four doses of dust of any type, up to and including up to one use of Hard Light for this mission and could use that dust in their preparations.
The primary goal was still fortifying the village in any way possible, though, and each group would do that in a different way. The number of trainees available for this mission was low due to both the unexpected nature of the assignment and the fact that there were some who were still out on vacation or other travels due to school being suspended. That meant that there was only a little more than half a dozen trainees for this mission, when the ideal would have been double that number. It made an already difficult assignment, frankly, much harder. What made it even harder than that, though, was keeping emotions in check.
The emotion dampening medication that they were all given only lasted twelve hours, and a new set of two was needed to keep the effect going. It was not as strong as the ones used on the locals, but it was a chemical calmness that prevented anyone from freaking the hell out and helped with focus. Shade had made it extremely clear that not taking it was dumb as hell because it put everyone else in danger, but the fact of the matter was that there was no supervision on this mission due to the circumstances of the mission. If the person decides that they don’t need it, they can just never take another dose and not mention that fact to any of their peers.
The villagers themselves almost seem like zombies, with their emotions repressed to the point of general sluggishness and apathy. It might have been how they survived this long, but the interactions with them definitely took some getting used to. While trainees would get some help with completing tasks, the fact of the matter is that the villagers are too apathetic and sluggish to really be of much help even if they agreed to do so. The bulk of the work was going to have to be done by the trainees, and because there was no supervision it was the trainees who decided what to prioritize.
Kishka decided the first thing that she wanted to focus on was coaching the lethargic militia, and the first thing she noticed was that they were a lot more than just emotionally dampened. They were physically lethargic, too, with physical responses like reaction time noticeably dulled. This meant that if placed in standard positions they would probably be wiped by any attacking Grimm before they ever got the chance to level their rifle and fire a shot. Speaking of which, their rifles and equipment were very poorly maintained with the turrets being in a state of disrepair and their rifles having a multitude of issues from the sights and the rust that had invaded them due to lack of maintenance over what had to be weeks if not months. It was also obvious to her that assigning any of the militia members in this condition to do night watch was an extremely risky endeavor, because their reaction time was so slow they were either put into safe spaces with no information gathering ability or lookout spots where they could be wiped out before they alerted anyone. After doing this with the help of her proficiency scheming, she would help Argent with his mission.
Argent would spend his day fortifying the outer wall with the benefit of his ability to not waste any time due to precise measurements limiting the wasted effort and material to near zero. Wood and metal were added to barricade and strengthen the walls, and the door was welded shut because there was no circumstance where it even needed to be opened again. With the quick speed of his work and Kishka helping him towards the end of the day, they managed to fortify both the gate and the entirety of the outer wall with their combined effort and precision. While it was a makeshift job, the durability of the wall increased from stone level to weaker metal level throughout the entire sector. This meant that if nothing else the Grimm who could not scale or fly over the wall would be forced to spend a large amount of time trying to break it down, which gave everyone much more time to react to danger than they otherwise might have.
Nasrin would spend her day out and about the town in hopes of drumming up some more recruits to defend the city but happened to be in the right place at the right time to learn a lot more than that. The first thing that she noticed was just how widespread and devastating the effects of the emotion dampening drug were. The ones that the trainees got were noticeably but not debilitating, but it looked like the city hadn’t been functioning well in weeks at the minimum and maybe even months. Trash was piled up rotting inside of houses that didn’t even bother to throw them out, and she realized those who volunteered to be part of the militia just seemed to be marginally less effected by the extra strength drugs the water was laced with.
She had the vague notion she was being followed, but frankly everyone looked so zombie-like shambling around it was hard to tell. While wandering around the city trying to drum up support, she succeeded in basically forcing a few of the stronger looking males to get moving and arm up by appealing to the last of the emotion they had and barely present but still operational sense of self-preservation. Speaking of self-preservation, though, while she was wandering around town, she did lose some time investigating something very off when she noticed an old man dragging what looked like a leg through the snow. Upon following the guy, she was led to a destination behind the house that the elders stayed in where the old man would lift what he was dragging into the snow and wander off as if nothing had happened – like taking out the trash. The thing he was dragging, though, was the corpse of a young boy no older than ten that was just dumped in the snow.
What was also visible in that snow was blackened fingers, toes, and other appendages that were just poking out. It wasn’t even a mass grave, because it wasn’t underground. It was literally just a pile of frozen bodies covered mostly by the snow and ice, and nobody seemed to give two fucks about the situation. Thusly, Nasrin became the first trainee to be aware of just how strong the drug laced water was and how dangerous it would be for any student to drink it. By the time she found out, though, it was already fast becoming dark and further investigation would be riskier.
She could absolutely choose to do so, but she would also be exhausted the next morning due to sleep deprivation if she wanted to get a similar amount of work fortifying the village done. The night itself would have zero attacks from Grimm in a way that would seem odd to most, but Nasrin would have uncovered very early on how the village was able to survive so long in its position… or at least most of it. Plans for the next day would have to be made, as well, along with what tasks the trainees wanted to accomplish. Morally black situations aside, the town was still surrounded by Grimm and could be attacked at any moment… especially if negative emotions started to run wild. The fact of the matter still remained that one widespread outburst of negative emotion was enough to doom the town to being overran within and very likely less than that, which made the position Nasrin in particular was in very precarious and anxiety inducing.
The primary goal was still fortifying the village in any way possible, though, and each group would do that in a different way. The number of trainees available for this mission was low due to both the unexpected nature of the assignment and the fact that there were some who were still out on vacation or other travels due to school being suspended. That meant that there was only a little more than half a dozen trainees for this mission, when the ideal would have been double that number. It made an already difficult assignment, frankly, much harder. What made it even harder than that, though, was keeping emotions in check.
The emotion dampening medication that they were all given only lasted twelve hours, and a new set of two was needed to keep the effect going. It was not as strong as the ones used on the locals, but it was a chemical calmness that prevented anyone from freaking the hell out and helped with focus. Shade had made it extremely clear that not taking it was dumb as hell because it put everyone else in danger, but the fact of the matter was that there was no supervision on this mission due to the circumstances of the mission. If the person decides that they don’t need it, they can just never take another dose and not mention that fact to any of their peers.
The villagers themselves almost seem like zombies, with their emotions repressed to the point of general sluggishness and apathy. It might have been how they survived this long, but the interactions with them definitely took some getting used to. While trainees would get some help with completing tasks, the fact of the matter is that the villagers are too apathetic and sluggish to really be of much help even if they agreed to do so. The bulk of the work was going to have to be done by the trainees, and because there was no supervision it was the trainees who decided what to prioritize.
Kishka decided the first thing that she wanted to focus on was coaching the lethargic militia, and the first thing she noticed was that they were a lot more than just emotionally dampened. They were physically lethargic, too, with physical responses like reaction time noticeably dulled. This meant that if placed in standard positions they would probably be wiped by any attacking Grimm before they ever got the chance to level their rifle and fire a shot. Speaking of which, their rifles and equipment were very poorly maintained with the turrets being in a state of disrepair and their rifles having a multitude of issues from the sights and the rust that had invaded them due to lack of maintenance over what had to be weeks if not months. It was also obvious to her that assigning any of the militia members in this condition to do night watch was an extremely risky endeavor, because their reaction time was so slow they were either put into safe spaces with no information gathering ability or lookout spots where they could be wiped out before they alerted anyone. After doing this with the help of her proficiency scheming, she would help Argent with his mission.
Argent would spend his day fortifying the outer wall with the benefit of his ability to not waste any time due to precise measurements limiting the wasted effort and material to near zero. Wood and metal were added to barricade and strengthen the walls, and the door was welded shut because there was no circumstance where it even needed to be opened again. With the quick speed of his work and Kishka helping him towards the end of the day, they managed to fortify both the gate and the entirety of the outer wall with their combined effort and precision. While it was a makeshift job, the durability of the wall increased from stone level to weaker metal level throughout the entire sector. This meant that if nothing else the Grimm who could not scale or fly over the wall would be forced to spend a large amount of time trying to break it down, which gave everyone much more time to react to danger than they otherwise might have.
Nasrin would spend her day out and about the town in hopes of drumming up some more recruits to defend the city but happened to be in the right place at the right time to learn a lot more than that. The first thing that she noticed was just how widespread and devastating the effects of the emotion dampening drug were. The ones that the trainees got were noticeably but not debilitating, but it looked like the city hadn’t been functioning well in weeks at the minimum and maybe even months. Trash was piled up rotting inside of houses that didn’t even bother to throw them out, and she realized those who volunteered to be part of the militia just seemed to be marginally less effected by the extra strength drugs the water was laced with.
She had the vague notion she was being followed, but frankly everyone looked so zombie-like shambling around it was hard to tell. While wandering around the city trying to drum up support, she succeeded in basically forcing a few of the stronger looking males to get moving and arm up by appealing to the last of the emotion they had and barely present but still operational sense of self-preservation. Speaking of self-preservation, though, while she was wandering around town, she did lose some time investigating something very off when she noticed an old man dragging what looked like a leg through the snow. Upon following the guy, she was led to a destination behind the house that the elders stayed in where the old man would lift what he was dragging into the snow and wander off as if nothing had happened – like taking out the trash. The thing he was dragging, though, was the corpse of a young boy no older than ten that was just dumped in the snow.
What was also visible in that snow was blackened fingers, toes, and other appendages that were just poking out. It wasn’t even a mass grave, because it wasn’t underground. It was literally just a pile of frozen bodies covered mostly by the snow and ice, and nobody seemed to give two fucks about the situation. Thusly, Nasrin became the first trainee to be aware of just how strong the drug laced water was and how dangerous it would be for any student to drink it. By the time she found out, though, it was already fast becoming dark and further investigation would be riskier.
She could absolutely choose to do so, but she would also be exhausted the next morning due to sleep deprivation if she wanted to get a similar amount of work fortifying the village done. The night itself would have zero attacks from Grimm in a way that would seem odd to most, but Nasrin would have uncovered very early on how the village was able to survive so long in its position… or at least most of it. Plans for the next day would have to be made, as well, along with what tasks the trainees wanted to accomplish. Morally black situations aside, the town was still surrounded by Grimm and could be attacked at any moment… especially if negative emotions started to run wild. The fact of the matter still remained that one widespread outburst of negative emotion was enough to doom the town to being overran within and very likely less than that, which made the position Nasrin in particular was in very precarious and anxiety inducing.
1417 words
