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 Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:19 am
“It’s messy. And quite hot. And so… bright.” Fysarius flapped a hand near his face, sending tiny pulses of air to cool him with each wave. And then, once tired of that, he shielded his eyes against the undeniably harsh rays of the sun overhead. They walked down a street, lined on either side with tall buildings in staggering sizes that seemed to be made of… mostly glass? The sun reflected off them in such a way as to be distracting.
They were labeled such names as “United Bank” and “Chase Tower” and “Energy Center,” things Fysarius didn’t know much about. And then closer to ground level, the bottoms of the buildings were dedicated to other businesses, which seemed to be a huge source of interest for some of his comrades. A “Coldstone Creamery” and a “Rue 21,” among others.
He tried to keep his gaze down, mostly toward the sidewalk, but that did make it harder to tell what was directly in front of him.
A shame, because there was a lot to take in. Vehicles in wild colors lined the streets, little squares where one single tree had been planted traced the sidewalk’s path, and a few scattered groups of humans walked around. There weren’t as many out as Fysarius had seen in some of the videos (it was apparently a “work day” during normal business hours), but there were still enough to get a bit of charge for his and Ny’s crystals.
He was still nervous about it.
They were supposed to because they needed the energy, but it upset many of the senshi on this world. Fysarius couldn’t say for sure exactly why it offended them so, but they were supposed to be treated as allies. It seemed unwise to partake too eagerly in something allies were against.
And then there was the matter of discretion. How.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:23 am
She could keep to the shadows the buildings cast, and that mitigated much of the sun’s effect. Ny eagerly took in everything around her. Being away from camp and in a very active world may seem like playtime, but there were still dangers roaming about. Those infected with Chaos could look like any other human. They had to be careful not to seem out of place.
Even in their strange, human guises, Ny bet they looked like they didn’t have a clue where they were going or what they were doing. Maybe they should have asked one of the senshi to escort them… They would be more familiar with accepted practices among this species and could help her and Fysarius better blend, instead of ambling around looking confused. They’d decided together it was probably best not to go in to any of the buildings.
There may be more people inside to use the source stone on, but buildings would be harder to escape if something went wrong, and it wasn’t like they needed twenty-one rueful creams.
So they stayed outside, walking down the sidewalk. Anytime they passed someone, Ny had a couple of seconds for them to be in range of her source stone, and she siphoned off just a miniscule amount from being in close enough proximity. It would take hours to get anything substantial, at this rate.
She huffed, let out a rumbling note of discontentment, scuffed her dark boot against the cement, and-
Ny blinked as she glanced up, and she didn’t quite understand what she was looking at. In a nook between two tall buildings, there was a square of almost marble-y looking concrete. What had attracted her attention was the joyful squeals of half a dozen children, running and chasing each other as spouts of water jetted up from the ground. They shoved, they scampered- Water. Was it water? They were playing in water.
Ny snatched at her companion’s arm, giving it a rough shake as she gestured for him to look up, dammit and see what she was seeing.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:24 am
Fysarius saw it as quickly as she did, and the sight gave him pause even before Ny had latched onto his arm and started trying to rip it out of its socket. “N-Ny, Ny! I see it!” He yelped, swatting a hand at her to try and discourage her grip. Though his gaze stayed firmly on the fountain.
The ground looked different, there. Not the same beigey concrete, but decorated in intricate swirls and marbled sheets.
The human children were playing in such a valuable resource. Why was it spouting from the ground? Unclear. Perhaps an area of intense underground pressure. Did it need somewhere to go? Surely they should be funneling it through to support some of the bits of greenery they had lining the walk. But it was so flat, and the water seemed to go right back down into drains or be trapped on the cement, waiting for the hot sun to evaporate it- after being polluted by children’s gross bare feet and fingers and mouths.
Was there someone tending to them, allowing this to happen?
Fysarius frantically scoped the area for a person who was actually looking at them, but the woman in nearest proximity was sitting on a bench at the edge of the fountain, playing on her phone and certainly not the one in charge here.
He swiveled back to Ny. “What should we do? Anything? Nothing?”
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:30 am
What should they do? Was there anything to do? They didn’t want to cause a scene, and it wasn’t their world’s resources being squandered. ...The children looked happy, if unsupervised. And a couple of them looked old enough to watch out for the others. Ny’s fingers still found purchase in Fysarius’ shirt as she stared.
Maybe they just didn’t have enough information. Maybe it wasn’t even water. Or maybe it was unsafe- should there be children playing in it if it was unsafe?
Okay, it was up to her to find out. Once they had a better idea of the situation, they could decide if there was anything to do from there. Even if Ny still wasn’t sure what that meant. Complain to the authorities about the blatant waste? Send the children away? Or find someone who was able to look after them? One of the girls looked nearly as tall as Fysarius, though Ny had no idea what that equated to in terms of human age. The nearby woman on a bench might know what actions to take.
She cleared her throat, gave a crisp nod, and approached the nearest of the spouts. Pale eyes watched intently, waited for the jet that would soon erupt, and once it did, she held her wrist to it, letting her ComTech scan the substance.
Once the results displayed on her wrist, she held it out for Fysarius to see.
Water and safe.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:33 am
It was as they feared. Perfectly good water spewing over the concrete. Wasteful. “Okay, okay. For sure someone has to do something about this. Who do we contact for a malfunction in the pipe system? Do they have a… sovereign or tribal leader who will assign someone to come and tend to this? Or should we seek out a professional in this field? There must be some contact directory somewhere- Perhaps someone in one of these buildings will know or have an adequate communication device?”
“And…” His focus swiveled from the spouting water to the children, who had all paused to stare at him and Ny as the pair had huddled close to one of the water spouts. Fysarius was not shy about making eye contact with the oldest girl as he asked, “What of the spawn? Maybe they’re too young to know better. It’s difficult to tell. But surely they can’t be allowed to take advantage of this deteriorating situation. Someone will have to come collect them and escort them away.”
The oldest girl, upon catching his staring and hearing the obvious complaint, seemed to bristle as she moved to stand in front of the smaller spawn. “You got a staring problem or something, buddy?” She snapped.
Fysarius jumped at the accusation, a high-pitched sound of shock echoing out of him at the brazenness of the spawn. “It’s not a problem, I would say?” He retorted uncertainly. “I think it’s a pretty normal level of observation, given the circumstance.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:35 am
The girl stood defensively and snapped at Fysarius, and Ny found herself bristling and taking up a protective position at his side, as well. The people here were crass, rude, wasteful, and entirely unrepentant about it! And these were just children. Why were mannerless spawn allowed to roam free, without supervision? On her world, this would never be acceptable-
“Excuse me…?”
Ny’s gaze snapped to the woman, the one who’d been sitting on the bench while playing her phone. She’d approached at some point, likely after seeing everyone standing around glaring at each other.
“Is there a problem here?”
The girl spawn didn’t miss a single beat as she whirled to face the woman. “Mama, this man and his girlfriend are staring at us! It’s really gross and creepy!”
’Gross and creepy.’ Their staring was ‘gross and creepy,’ but the people here were wasting a precious and valuable resource! Ny’s cheeks puffed up and she jabbed a ginger accusingly toward the water spouts jetting intermittently from the ground.
The other woman seemed confused, and her gaze flicked from her spawn to Ny to Fysarius.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:37 am
This was… a delicate situation. The exact sort of interaction Fysarius had feared having with the locals. Something here on this planet was incorrect, and the humans didn’t even see that there ‘was a problem here.’ He should strive not to insult them. And simultaneously to ‘blend,’ even though this wrong had to be righted, and it fell to him to point it out.
He swallowed and notched himself closer to Ny, trying to give her a nudge to make her stop frowning and jabbing her finger at things.
“We noticed a leak in your pipe network?” He tried to offer uncertainly as he gave a light gesture to the water spouts. “It seems inappropriate to play in such a necessary resource when it is being wasted so freely. Has anyone been notified? We were wondering who the area supervisor was so we could inform them.”
The woman continued to look more confused, and when Fysarius glanced to her daughter, it was to see the spawn with lips parted in a sort of grimace and nose crinkled up like she was looking at something unappealing and… foreign.
He leaned in closer to Ny for backup and support.
“A leak?” The woman repeated, watching him. Fysarius couldn’t say for sure, but he didn’t think she seemed aggressive or dismissive, just unsure. “Over there?” She gestures to the spouts, and when Fysarius gave a tight little nod, she let out an uncertain laugh. “Oh, it’s not a leak. It’s supposed to do that.”
Because he couldn’t fathom what she meant, he questioned, “Do what?”
“That?” The woman said, as she made an arcing gesture at the water streams. “It’s a fountain? It’s pretty. The kids like to run through it. It’s supposed to do that. They’re allowed to play in it. Haven’t you seen a fountain like this before? Where are you from?”
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:41 am
Ny continued to stare hostilely at the daughter, and the girl kept shooting nasty expressions her way. Well, once this was resolved, the girl would be put in her place. This whole group would be sent away to stop abusing an unfortunate situation. She scowled at the girl, then-
Whipped her head to glower at the woman. It was supposed to do that? How could it be ‘supposed to do that?’
She let out a grumble of discontentment and turned to squint skeptical eyes at the fountain. Pretty little jets in intermittent bursts, arcing in lovely patterns before splattering back to earth amidst a crude-looking drainage system. It did look like it may not be random. If not random, then it must be intentional? But if it was intentional for pure water to be spouting here, it must surely not be intentional for children to poison it with their gross little fingers and bodies and germs.
Ny puffed out her cheeks, and despite Fysarius’ nudging, stabbed a finger at the little group of children, clustered around their older sister and glaring back at her and Fysarius.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:43 am
Ny was right. If the water was supposed to do that, it was surely not supposed to be infested with spawn. “Won’t they dirty it?” He prompted, canting his head. “We’re from…” The locales Fysarius had seen in reports were ancient names, a thousand years old. He didn’t know how they’d developed now, or how accurate his knowledge was.
He choked down his uncertainty at the question and just said, “The north.” It was cold enough that pure drinking water may be hard to come by, unless someone went out of their way to melt it?
He hoped. She probably wouldn’t question it.
And she blessedly didn't, despite his vague answer. “Dirty it?” And maybe she was slightly offended that he would insinuate her children were dirty. “No, it’ll be filtered again before it gets to anyone else. It’s just city water.”
He didn’t know what that meant. What was city water compared to any other water? Sky water or… groundwater. He didn’t know.
The woman seemed to sense that they were confused. She waved her children away so that they could resume their activities, with the little girl sticking her tongue out at Ny as they went. Fysarius must have appeared dismayed at their inability to do anything to right the injustice, because the woman waved both be and Ny over to sit at the bench she’d been at earlier.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:49 am
Ny let out a high pitched trill of refusal as the children went on their way, but Fysarius followed their mother, so she begrudgingly did as well.
“Do they not have filtered water where you’re from?” The woman asked. “The pipes freeze up or something? Are you from Canada? That far north? I can’t hear any accent at all!”
Ny could not even begin to try to keep the annoyance off her face. Of course they had filtered water! They only had filtered water! They weren’t heathens! But they didn’t have extra for children to go around playing in. Shouldn’t her spawn be studying? They had such limited lives on this rock and they were using their scant years to waste resources!
It was frustrating. How could this be allowed to continue? No one on the street seemed to care as excited little squeals filled the sidewalk again as the spawn galloped through the jets, chasing and dodging water and yanking on each other’s garments to pull the others through.
She huffed, fixed the woman with a quizzical look, and tipped her head.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:49 am
“It’s… something like that?” Fysarius said as he tried to sort out what their accent would sound like. “We don’t have any recreational water, and we have to be careful with how we use it. There’s not very much to spare. What we do have is filtered. There’s just not much.”
“Oh, I see,” the woman gave a little nod, and it seemed to Fysarius like she maybe got the gist of it, but how could she possibly when there was so much here just going to waste? “You hear about places like that on the news sometimes, or places that have a lot of water, but none of it is drinkable. I’ve never met anyone actually affected by it. It always seems like a really far away problem to me.”
A very far away problem, indeed.
“There are places like that here?” He asked.
“Not in this city. I always hear California complaining worse than anyone else about a water shortage, even though they’re right next to the ocean. And there was a town in Michigan that gave its residents lead poisoning from drinking the water! But it just seems like something like that could never happen here.”
He had no idea what California and Michigan were. But it sounded like they had problems, if officials were poisoning their own residents. …Then there was the question of why those places were allowed to suffer and the children here were playing away.
“Are they very far?” He asked. “So far that they can’t use this water?”
“Yeah, something like that. It’s really expensive to move a lot of water long distances. And it can be really expensive to filter it well too. Especially ocean water. Most cities are supposed to manage their own water systems.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:54 am
‘Expensive.’ She’d heard that word since they’d been there in regards to earth’s currency situation. Things that were ‘expensive’ were harder to obtain, and outright off limits to much of the population who couldn’t afford it.
Water, the epitome of being ‘necessary’ for survival, was expensive.
Ny bristled at the woman’s words. She didn’t seem unkind, and she wasn’t being cold to them, but she was being incredibly blasé about a topic that would surely hurt a lot of people. A city was poisoning it’s residents! She said it was awful, but she was still here letting her spawn scamper away in a precious resource! Those didn’t seem like the actions someone would take toward something awful.
Ny squeezed Fysarius’ arm, giving it a tug to try and pull him from the bench. They’d heard and seen enough, as far as she was concerned.
No one cared about the waste because it wasn’t hurting them. This city was fine, so water was hardly a commodity. It was just expected that it exist for peoples’ pleasure and enjoyment. It was disgusting. If they were supposed to learn about earth, Ny felt like she’d just learned a terrible secret.
That no one cared about anyone else.
If the problem was far away, then it wasn’t their problem. Maybe that was why so many senshi were reluctant to do anything with them. Even though the Vanguard had come here to help them with their chaos problem, it was a problem in the underground. Out of sight, out of mind. Chaos didn’t go around causing a. Scene where the whole city could see, usually.
The planet hardly wanted to help itself…
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:55 am
Fysarius blinked and stared. It sounded so bizarre that there would be a situation where everyone wasn’t getting what they needed to survive. Instead some people were getting more than their fair share, and others were being… poisoned? Blatantly harmed!
“Oh, that’s… very sad,” he said, though the confusion was likely still evident. “We don’t have much to spare, but it’s not very often that anyone is harmed because of it. …I think.”
He guessed he didn’t actually knowthe situation of everyone on his homeworld. But as someone who was a protector and scientist and member of this prestigious group, he thought he’d have heard if something unsavory was going on. Probably.
The woman gave a little shrug at his comment, indifferent. “It’s sad, but nowhere is perfect.”
Maybe that was true. Their makeshift world wasn’t perfect, either. But they didn’t go around letting people get sick from the imperfections. But these people were allies, and he had to try not to offend them. “Yeah, what’s to be done about it?” He tried a wavering smile as Ny tugged on him. “Well, we’re sorry for causing a commotion. It’s just very new to us. We’ll let you get back to what you were doing…”
The woman, seemingly oblivious to the disguised alien pair’s uncertainty, gave them a small smile. “It was nice talking to you.”
“Same to you,” Fysarius said as he hurried Ny away before she became even more offended.
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