[Open]

[heavenly_earth]

Characters: The Watch & OPEN to everyone
Location: Death City
Time: May 10th-13th
Rating: PG-13 for now
Warnings: Potential violence
Summary: The city is in chaos and the Watch is trying to do their job, but it's a little more than they can handle on their own.


The civilians have taken to the streets in a formal march of protest, holding signs both insulting and critical; some simply vulgar while others call for action- for change. They come from everywhere and don't stop until they reach Shibusen's stairs to rally with a growing mob of protesters. Shibusen agents gifted with Calming Wavelength stand by to allow attempts at mediation, but while they aren't violent, the protesters remain unyielding in their convictions.

In other parts of the city, trouble-makers work tirelessly to disrupt or sabotage businesses, paint graffiti over any untouched wall of known guest establishments, and harass the unusual-looking passerby. Don't go out alone, or you might find yourself cornered by these troublemakers with unpredictable temperaments.

The Watch is on the move in every district, working to protect its citizens and try their hand at peacemaking, but they're stretched pretty thin...


[OOC: Coordination post is here and as always, feel free to make your own threads!]

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

The disgust, Bakura expected. But he had figured it was worth a try...

When L picked one up, however, his breath caught a little in surprise and wonder. Was he truly...?

... was this the feeling a mother had, watching her child take his first step? Or something like it...

"What do you think....?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"Um, it's..."

He stared at the monitor, lost in thought as he sought a word to describe it, chewing slowly.

"I'm not sure it really is a vegetable. It's too soft, and sweet."

[shiromadoushi]

"Because of how it's cooked," Bakura nodded with a warm smile. "Vegetables are pretty versatile with how they can be prepared! A lot of them can be pretty sweet, yet still good for you."

Well. When soaked in sugar, they were less healthy than normal, but when compared to L's usual fare...

[dead_black_eyes]

L paused to think about that.

Rather than spitting out the carrot, he chanced a second bite.

[shiromadoushi]

In Bakura's mind's eye there was a full amphitheater of cheering at the momentous occasion of L voluntarily eating a vegetable. It was something he never would have thought possibly a month ago, but with how so much had changed...

It was awe inspiring and humbling to think how such a horrible event could result in such positive change...

Rather than stare at Ryuzaki nibbling, his eyes drifted over to the wall of monitors. It was a different assortment of cameras than the one at the Agency, it seemed, though the last time Bakura had seen that one, most of the cameras were offline or broken, and his smile slowly faded into a faint worried frown as he watched the situation. So many people that were so unhappy and blaming them all for it....

[dead_black_eyes]

"This is my job," L said, staring glassily at the screen as he chewed the carrot impassively. "Not at all depressing, right? Every few hours, I rewind all the footage and watch it again on fast-forward to make sure I didn't miss anything."

[shiromadoushi]

"...you can see it better on fast forward...?" Bakura blinked, turning to look back at his friend. "Or just to see if there's anything you didn't see the first time around..."

How anyone could stare at so many screens and see everything... even for Ryuzaki that had to be a challenge!

[dead_black_eyes]

"Some things. Mostly changes in the crowd formation. There are four particular instances that seem very interesting to me, but... it's difficult to really call them anything but a strange coincidence. Crowds do odd things. Do you see this?"

He rewinds one of his screens, one that is replaying footage from the day before. When he presses play on fast-forward, the crowd appears to knit together in a ripple, before dispersing randomly once again.

[shiromadoushi]

"Eh?" Bakura blinked, looking over before his eyes widen. "Did that-- Can you play that again, it looks like---"

A wave. It was definitely a wave...!

[dead_black_eyes]

L bit into his thumb, watching Bakura as he watched the footage.

"I thought maybe I was just tired, and seeing patterns where none existed, but if you see it too... I admit I am more heartened than I would be, otherwise."

[shiromadoushi]

Finding the pattern in anything... it was a skill that Bakura had honed from games. Matching bubbles, finding pathways through chaos to get the most points as you traveled from A to B across the screen, catching the sequence of the gates you had to run your character through not to get sliced up... every game that held a puzzle involved patterns.

He reached up, finger tracing a line across screen in the direction of the wave. "Can we follow it? Across the screens? Where does the next screen pick up from?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"To an extent. I actually spent three hours doing just that but there's a point where it all blends and disconnects and it's like it never existed. If it's a trick, it's a good one. At any rate, you can see that they're crouching there..." he paused the video, "...and there. They seem to be moving something heavy."

[shiromadoushi]

"Something..." Bakura repeated, eyes widening. "...There's now way that it could be.... could it....?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"It's what I'm thinking. It's certainly not impossible."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura could only stare a moment. If that was what it looked like then...

"For so many to be involved...." There was a shaky note in his voice before he shook his head. "Ne... can you make a copy of this? I can bring it to the police I'm working with... maybe..."

Maybe it would help them target their search.

[dead_black_eyes]

L nodded, pulling a laptop onto his knees and continuing to work on what appeared to be the very task Bakura was requesting.

"I did anticipate that someone would need it. I'm also forwarding it to Mello and Near."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded, slowly sitting down, still looking a bit shaken. "Even just covering the area the ripple was in... it's some place to start..."

Everyone had said it was too organized, but he had wanted to believe that it wasn't... that it was all just random chance or whim that things had come together like they had... but for something like this....

[dead_black_eyes]

"Perhaps..." L said, but his tone was doubtful. "A lot of these figures wore sweatshirts with hoods that covered their faces, so they'd be hard to pick out of a lineup. It's blurry, in the surveillance footage, but I thought I saw a mask. Odd."

[shiromadoushi]

There was a short, uncomfortable pause. "...They knew we'd be looking, didn't they...?" he realized, even more unnerved.

"And it's trying to trace where they might have taken anyone, more than the people involved. If it had a point where it ended that could be seen, there must have been some place or thing that it reached in that spot, either a building or a car or something..."

And if they could find that...

[dead_black_eyes]

"That is a definite possibility.," L said soberly, taking another bite of cooked carrot. "Unfortunately, this is where the signs of involvement end. I'm going to work out a theory tonight, and there are others doing the same, so at the very least none of us are working or proposing in a vacuum."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded. "If you come up with anything... let me know and I'll pass it on. With everybody working on it..."

With everyone working together, surely they'd find everyone before anything could happen.

"And if anyone on my end finds anything, I'll let you know as well."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Yes, thank you. I'm absolutely sure we can track down the perpetrators and recover the victims safely if information is shared effectively. In the meantime... I want to tell you that I appreciate dinner. It's kind. I didn't even have to ask."

[shiromadoushi]

"I didn't think you would even think to," Bakura admitted, smiling softly. "Or think to eat," he added.

Getting thanked... it was a nice change.

[dead_black_eyes]

"There have been a lot of recent changes in my life. I am bound to slip up somewhere."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded. "More reasons for me to just take care of it, when it's something like this," he smiled. "Especially when there's so much else going on."