And the skies opened.

[gamemakers]

The clouds rolled in at dawn, providing welcome shade. Heavy, bloated clouds, they brushed the tops of the tallest ruins, blanketed the city in humidity and watery green shadows. Throughout the day, they kept off the worst of the heat. All wind ceased.



The first drops fell some time after noon, the sun invisible above the thick layer. The rain was gradual, thickening from mist to drizzle to drenching over the next few hours. The dogs and ravens all sought shelter immediately. Rats and pigeons came out of every hole to make free of the water that was collecting in the craters and gutters. And then the smallest began to die en mass, horrible jerking deaths as they drank, as huge sores opened in their skin. Not water, but acid; clear, scentless, and caustic.

Comments

[retrieverchef]

They had just left the shack a few minutes before. The shade from the clouds seemed like the perfect cover to look for a water source. Eliot turned his face up as the rain began to fall. Finally, something to take the edge of the almost constant heat and humidity.

Then he found himself nearly screaming in pain. It burned. He ducked his head, trying to protect his face and reach half blindly for the girls. "Go," he screamed. "Ariadne, get her out of here!"

[cowardfacinghappiness]

She didn't want to get muddy and wet. Ridiculous as that seemed after everything else she'd gone through in the Arena so far, that was the entire reason Momoko had hung back under an unsteady awning in the face of the threatening clouds, and it was what saved her at minimum a very painful maiming she realized later. At the time she was too startled to think about it much, simply plastering herself against the wall with wide eyes. She couldn't even scream.

[retrieverchef]

Eliot pushed Ariadne into what shade he could find. He threw himself over Momoko, trying to shield her from the acid as it ate away at the shabby awning. He looked back at Ariadne. They needed to get back to the shack and somehow stay out of the deluge.

"Ariadne, your coat!" he called. "It's the only way we'll get back."

[greymatter]

Travel was difficult in this arena. By day there was sweltering heat, dry and overbearing, the likes of which could dehydrate in precious little time. Heat-stroke was no small risk itself. By night, the sand and dust was whipped up by vicious, whipping winds. Travel would have to be slow or none at all.

And so, when the clouds rolled in, they were indeed a very welcome sight. Grey traveled further than he likely had given a day and half without the cooling shade of the clouds. And clouds like these promised rain. A source of water that didn't include battling off packs of wild dogs.

Grey had finally taken rest in an abandoned convenience store when the rain began to fall. As the drizzle finally broke into a downpour, he stood to collect the precious liquid within the empty can of beans he carried.

The first few drops felt normal enough as he stuck the can out the open door of the building, cool and soothing. But it wasn't long before they began to burn. He jerked his arm back inside with a hiss of pain, swiping his injured hand on his shirt to get the burning droplets off. Not water.

A second glance outside soon shows him the unlucky ones. A gathering of pigeons under an overhang twitch and convulse, their feathers falling out to reveal open sores. A wild dog with two injured legs, abandoned by it's pack as they fled for shelter and caught out in the downpour, shrieks and writhes on the ground as the acid eats into it's flesh.

Grey looks down at the unfeeling metal of his left hand. If he'd gone to collect the 'rain' with that hand... he'd likely not have reailzed his error until it was too late.