thequietmods | TDM #1

The ice isn't the only thing cracking right now. Spring storms can be violent, and the thunder is strong enough to reverberate in your chest. Outside of the chilly cave, a torrential downpour makes it nearly impossible to leave the cave and get your bearings. However, through the weather, and past the giant things that seem to be moving in the weather, something large looms in the distance.

The rain and the moving things make it hard to be sure, and you can't even see the horizon line, so it's either a very large body of water, some sort of man-made structure off in the distance, or both. Until the storm clears, no one can be sure which it is.

1. Someone, though, their voice just barely echoing off the walls, seems to be coming up with theories. Is it you? Do you think this is a waste of time?

2. Are you trying to go out into the hostile weather, risks be damned? Is it because you don't care? Do you think you can survive it?

3. Being trapped in a cave full of people stuck in pillars of ice is weird, isn't it? Isn't it even weirder that you used to be in one and now you're not? Are you going to help the others trapped in the ice? It should be warned that trying to break someone out when they're not awake to help will shatter the pillar, and the person inside.

4. As the storm clears up, night has fallen. Thunder booms in the distance and the sound of insects and wild animals picks up. Wolves howl in the darkness. Is now the time to make a move, or are you going to stay in this uncomfortable, but untouched, shelter?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If I had my scope, I'd be able to tell you. But my kit's where I left it. On a ship. Not this cave." He sighs. "This whole thing's fething stupid. Getting dragged to this place..."

Then he trails off and shakes his head. He hadn't been happy, where he was, but this place isn't any better. Some cave in the wilderness will not have food or water or anything enough for all the people in these pillars.

A sailor and a Hero? That's an odd mix if there ever was one, she thinks. "Not to mention the ugly accessory," she comments, raising her hand to show her new communication gauntlet off. "I don't know about you, but this definitely isn't my style."

But there it was. It even fit her hand, too, like it'd been made for her. Not that she remembered even putting the thing on.

He looks his over, poking at the display. "It's more advanced than what we usually get. I'm used to a microbead and some maps. Not some sort of holo thing."

"Microbeads?" Like the little plastic things in her body soap? Well, maybe sailors were doing some interesting things with hygiene these days. "You'd think it'd give us some more information, though. It's a bit... minimalist."

"The communicators you wear in your ear," he explains, "though, yeah, you'd think there'd be a welcoming committee. There's a lot of people here, in those pillars."

"Oh, those things." Unaware that they're talking about completely different things, Blue Rose nods confidently. Yeah, she's worn earbuds before. She just didn't know that sailors had their own slang for them! "Maybe they don't know we're free? I mean, I don't freeze people in ice pillars if I want them loose any time soon."

Then again, she doesn't freeze people this completely at all! That could kill them!

"Then they're terrible at it, since people are getting free." He pokes irritatedly at his gauntlet. "No, no info about what planet we're on."

"Unless breaking free after a period of time is part of the plan." After all, that's generally how she stopped crimes cold. Put them on ice in an easily breakable shell. She opens her mouth to say something more, but then pauses. "I'm sorry, did you just say what planet?"

"Yes." He looks over at her. "I mean, I assume we're in the Imperium, but that doesn't narrow it down much. There's tens of thousands of worlds there. At least."

"I've never heard of any kind of Imperium," comes her reply. Was this a crazy? At least he wasn't violent. But maybe it would be best to just indulge him rather than insult him and risk a fight. "This whole thing doesn't make any sense. If you're from space, and I've never been," which was actually something of a shame, now that she thinks about it, "how do we both end up in the same cave?"

"That's what I'd like to know," he says, "but I suspect some kind of... Daemon Prince or some incredibly powerful psyker has kidnapped us. For what end, who knows."

Larkin, she'd really like to believe you aren't a nutjob, but when you start talking about demons and other planets... Well, it's kind of hard! At least given her limited experience of the universe. Sternbild is nowhere near grim or dark enough to fit in with Larkin's galaxy of terror.

"Are you famous? I mean, sorry that I don't recognize you, but I'm guessing you don't recognize me either, right?" Given the lack of drooling at her feet, which is a good thing as far as she's concerned, her fame must not have spread to whatever psych ward this guy was from. "I'm a celebrity back home, so kidnapping me makes some sense, but not the rest of this."

He's not a complete nutjob, he just has a finely calibrated sense of paranoia! That time he saw ghosts, oh, a couple of weeks ago, doesn't count.

"No, sorry, I've never seen you before. And I'm not famous, I'm just a sniper, that's all. Are... are you famous?" Not that he'd drool over her even if he did. She's young enough to be his daughter!

A sniper, a sailor, a kidnapee... That's quite the resume! Fortunately for both of them, tact and Blue Rose are on very good speaking terms, so she'll just. Pass on leaking her suspicions about his mental state.

She sighs, rolling her eyes to the ceiling of the cave. "Apparently not famous enough, but yes. Back home, at least, I'm famous." She folds her arms over her chest and huffs, shaking her head. "This really kills my only real theory about why we're here, though."

"You thought you were here because you were famous?" That... well, it'd make sense, wouldn't it? For some shadowy villain to kidnap a lot of well known people and hold them for some kind of ransom. Doing it at random doesn't make sense at all.

"I'm a singer and the Queen of Heroes," she says with a shrug. Almost like the egotistical sound of that title doesn't even occur to her. "It's dangerous for whoever's kidnapping me, but if someone was bold enough, or crazy enough..." Well. That was that.

"Queen of Heroes, hm?" Then again, he's fought alongside a Saint, so he can't say it's too over the top. "You have lots of those, where you're from?"

"Among other things." She'd much rather be the King, thank you very much, but Barnaby's got that on lock at the moment. "We have a few. More on the way, I'd hope, but I can't argue that less competition is better, for the moment."

"What sort of enemy are you fighting?" It doesn't sound quite like a war, but it's some kind of conflict.

"Oh, the normal things a Hero fights. Mostly criminals, sometimes a disaster." She honestly prefers the disasters. You don't get shot at by a burning building.

"Important work," he says. Maybe not as large scale as what he does, but it's something.

"But fulfilling," she smiles. It's not entirely honest, she doesn't really enjoy the work a lot of the time, but she appreciates that it's something so few of them can do.

"That's good. A job you hate can be awful." He likes his, most of the time. Even if it does mean flying from battlefield to battlefield, with little to no rest.

TDM #1

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