[open] down in the abstract, looking for a concrete artifact.

[blackagar]

▶ WHO: Black Bolt & you!
▶ DATE: Anytime during the month.
▶ WARNINGS: just, you know, zombie gore. the uzhe.
▶ SUMMARY: Come run into a creepy silent guy who does a lot of staring and zero talking! Love charades? BOY IS THIS EVER THE LOG FOR YOU. (prose or action is fine by me, i'll follow suit!)

a: a shield

He wasn't sure where this box had come from, but wasn't that just the nature of this place? Inexplicable mysteries and no one in a place to explain them. A little bit of investigation had easily turned up what the box was meant for, at least. It's a shield.

Today he means to test it.

He'd taken flight, headed away from the generally acknowledged safe zones, searching for somewhere as thickly populated by the undead as he could find. It's dishearteningly easy to locate such a spot. He spends some time rounding up an unruly crowd of the poor creatures, which stumble after his provocative swoops and darts. Finally he has a good sized crowd, about twenty or so, and he folds up his fanned wings and drops straight into the middle of them.

The shield is up instantly, glowing a soft pink and, he's happy to see, completely impenetrable. The zombies thump against it, pound their bodies into it, and it doesn't even waver. Black Bolt sits himself down carefully in the middle of it, the box held in his lap, and watches the shielding energy intently. He might be able to learn a little more about who brought it to him by seeing how it works.

b: a cozy abode

It's taken him a while, and it's a laughable accommodation compared to what he was used to in his own world... but Black Bolt is tentatively satisfied.

He's essentially gone and built himself a treehouse outside the gates of the compound. The wood is stripped from abandoned shops and useless houses, repurposed into a pretty decent, if small, house. There are two distinct rooms, a surrounding fringe of wood that could be used as a porch (it's additional defense, really — if something did manage to reach the level of the house, it would have to then climb over this additional obstacle), and it's covered from the ground by leaves and branches. And best of all, without flight or an excellent tree-climbing ability (he's stripped off all the lower branches), it's impossible to access from the ground.

It's only designed to keep out the mindless undead, though. A clever explorer could certainly find their way up, maybe climb a nearby tree and jump over. Maybe a grappling hook. Either way, if anyone happens to find their way up and inside, they'd discover a well-stocked little house, about as cozy as anything this freshly built can get.

c: the compound

Black Bolt has been surprisingly absent lately. (Building his cool little treefort, mostly.) But he does still appear sometimes in the Compound. Anyone he's met before might find themselves being checked up on. He doesn't have anything to say (of course), he just wants to know that they're still alive and well. This might translate into the living shadow that is Black Bolt stepping into sight, glancing at them, and striding off to disappear again — but he can be stopped, if anyone's interested in some one-sided conversation.

Otherwise he can be found raiding the kitchen, glancing over the books in the library, taking stock of the medical supplies. The last one is the only place he doesn't take anything from. What need would he have? He drops off a few found supplies sometimes, but otherwise leaves it intact and untouched, after a quick survey.

He certainly doesn't invite conversation, the imposing, silent figure that he is, but he's perfectly willing to stop if someone wants his attention.

Comments

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[kamikaze]

"Clever" might be overshooting it. Certainly exploratory, though, and he's constant restless motion that finds every sort of thing that may or may not want to get found. There's a big box up in a-- what had Capable called it? Tree, right-- and Nux is instantly slamming his palms to the trunk, staring upward.

He's never climbed a tree. Can't be too different from a big rig or a mast like when he'd had to yank a dead polecat off his perch, get rid of that drag that one time?

Nux does a ferocious leap upward, fingers clawing at the dry bark, arms and legs wrapping comically around the trunk as he starts to shimmy his ascent. There's branches he can grab, so those are grabbed. Used as leverage for dirty hands and boots as he makes a ludicrous scramble up the tree and into the box itself. It's a box that looks made to be lived in and Nux throws a sweeping gaze all over it as he simultaneously hurls himself into it.

"Ah-- !" Just a noise. A panting-noise of victory and awe. What is this mystery place? Bolt must be in the other room or Nux just hasn't noticed his silent so-called Bullet Man yet.

b

[respired]

[Koltira is really good at climbing trees. He hunted like this in life, jumping from branch to branch in the dense forests of Quel'thalas, tracking prey from above. He's no less skilled in death than he was in life; in fact, the sharp claws of his gauntlets offer greater purchase than ever before.

He's gotten a little overwhelmed on today's patrol, and even though he has no particular need to rest, he does have to take a minute to bandage his increasing wounds. He scrambles up the tree nearest to this strange little oasis, finds his footing on a branch, and leaps over. With furious precision, he claws his way up the tree, leaving streaks of dark blood in his wake. Once he's reached the deck, he hauls himself up--still bleeding--and then sets heavily down.

Koltira doesn't even check to see if anyone's home. He just pulls out his roll of bandages and starts tearing off strips.]

a

[controlledvariable]

Steph is, as always, out exploring the area, because it turns out that the end of the world isn't as interesting as a regular week in Gotham, so she needs to find something to keep herself busy with.

Up on a rooftop, she spots the faint pink glow of Black Bolt's new shield in the distance, and follows it to it's source, staying high as she watches the zombies fruitlessly try to break through.

"Someone got a new toy," It's an observation, rather than a question, but still.