there's been some confusion over rooming here

[cigarbribery]

WHO: Foggy Nelson, Tefé Holland, and Theon Greyjoy
WHERE: Maurtia Falls #8
WHEN: idk idk right now, September 4 or 5, timezones are funny
WHAT: the start of some wonderful friendships. or the making of a horrifying sitcom featuring a lawyer, a plant teen, and a guy from the Middle Ages. most likely the latter.
WARNINGS: uh none probably???

[After the relative peace of Heropa, setting foot in Maurtia Falls is a little like coming back home to Hell's Kitchen, in all its gritty, grimy, crime-ridden glory. More than once Foggy finds himself glancing up to the rooftops, almost expecting to see a horned silhouette, before he shakes his head and has to remind himself that Matt isn't here.

Anyway—it's getting a little late when Foggy finally finds where he's supposed to live, having been sidetracked along the way by ice cream and then some preliminary research on this world's history at a local library. There's a book or two on law already peeking out of his bag, and his keys jingle as he fumbles with them, looking for the right one.

He steps inside and calls,] Hey, anyone home? I'm Foggy Nelson, I'm the new roommate. [The door clicks shut behind him. Why does it sound so ominous, he wonders.] Uh, hello?

Comments

[cigarbribery]

The Cold War hasn't ended and we're still fighting with Russia, that's one. [He rubs at his eyes, yawns a little.] There were incidents where it went hot and people were kidnapped and brainwashed, but other than that, seems like more of a spy versus spy thing to me.

[To prove it, he pulls out some photocopied clippings—previous news articles, dating back to 2015 at the earliest. Incidentally, a burger wrapper also falls out of his bag, and he stuffs it back in, not wanting to make a terrible first impression on his roommates.]

Oh, yeah—I asked the network a few things about the law and imPorts, and apparently the worst sentence we can get, even in response to murder, is two months of jail and some probation time. [He shakes his head.] Obviously, that's not the same case with the locals.

[A tired sigh.] What did you find out?

[beyondthegreen]

[Weirdly, Tefé doesn't seem to respond too strongly to that bit of trivia, brow furrowing only slightly.] Really?

I don't know. There's been weird power outages and lightning strikes but in terms of everything else, it's not really that different. [Ecologically speaking, that is.] I'm going to head out to the nearest forest tomorrow morning and see what they have to say out there.

[She adds, pensive. Of course they assigned her to a school, but that's easy to skip out on without even a passing thought. The matter of getting a car, well, that is more pressing.]

[cigarbribery]

Yeah, really.

[All right, so she doesn't seem to be as much of a law nerd as Foggy is. That's fine, he's used to that. What he isn't used to is someone talking about a shadowy "they" in the forest like she can talk to them. Whoever they are.]

They? I don't get it, is there a bunch of survivalists living out in the forest with access to the news? [That's the most plausible explanation he can think of, right now. He's new to this, he hasn't quite learned that usually the implausible explanation tends to be the right one.]

[beyondthegreen]

I'm talking about the forest itself. What are you talking about?

[cigarbribery]

—you can talk to trees?

[Sure. Why not. Nothing is impossible anymore.]

[beyondthegreen]

I'm an Earth elemental. [She says matter-of-factly, like that just explains everything.] But being in the city is like... not being cut off exactly. Just more isolated. I needneed to find out how humanity here is treating the rest of the world.

[cigarbribery]

An Earth elemental. [Why the hell not.] Yeah, sorry—you're the first one I've met. We don't exactly have elementals where I'm from.

[Probably. Well. As far as Foggy knows, which, as he is increasingly aware of, is depressingly little.]

Okay. If you want, we can take a cab out of here first thing tomorrow so you can talk to the trees, hopefully we might get some useful info out of them. [He pauses, and shakes his head a little in disbelief.] That is not a sentence I ever thought I'd say, by the way.

[beyondthegreen]

Maybe you just never noticed them.

[She replies, lips pursed. Not that she really expects very much out of people anymore, but still. The Green always had its protectors.]

It will be useful to me. I don't know if you'd care. [She adds, eyeing what she can see of the books in his bag.]

[cigarbribery]

Or maybe that! [He shrugs.] I've learned lately that there's a ton of things I never noticed.

[He's cheery about this, deceptively so, but there's a quiet bitterness underneath it, like he'd learned that the hard way. He looks away, idly picking up a clipping and scanning over the words. His eyes widen a little—a zombie dragon? Seriously? Jesus Christ.

But he rallies himself admirably well.]

I don't know either. Guess we won't know if we don't try, right? [He glances briefly at the books. Oh, right, those.] I can leave them here if you want. Is it offensive to the trees?

[Why is he considering this.]

[beyondthegreen]

[Well for one, it's a bunch of law books, for the second...]

You know what paper is made from, right?

[cigarbribery]

[He's a little nerd, okay.]

...yeah, point. I'll leave them here.