TDM #1

[thequietmods]

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?

Comments

[icysmile]

1. As ridiculous as it is, standing there in what just barely isn't a swimsuit, Blue Rose is one of the ones who seems totally at home in the chill. Not that she's chomping at the bit to go outside, mind. She's standing a good distance inside the cave, squinting as she tries to make out the forms in the distance. "Are those..." No, couldn't be.

But they sure were the right size for dinosaurs, weren't they? Or maybe it was the dark playing tricks on her. Hell, she couldn't even tell what that was even further in the distance. She frowns, glances around, then snaps her fingers at someone nearby. "Hey, are you doing anything? Can you tell what's going on out there?"

2. "Hey," She's moved on, now, to the people in the pillars. Now she's holding out her hands, trying to catch someone still working their way free. "Hold on, you're going to fall if you keep that up! Here, let me help."

3. A faint blue glow envelopes her as she waves her hand. In response, an icy throne appears in front of her, one that she settles in with a groan. "It feels like I haven't sat down in forever," Rose complains, still watching the storm. "Add that to the list of complaints to issue to whoever put us in those pillars, I guess." She glances over, spotting someone, and leans forward in her seat. "What do you think?" She raises her hand, tapping her wrist underneath the slightly odd-looking gauntlet that's similar to the one they have. "My communicator band isn't reaching anything, but that could be because of the cave. Or we could be too far away. Or... Anything, really."

She heaves a sigh. "I just want to know what on Earth is going on."

1.

[mad_larkin]

Larkin looks over from where he's poking at rocks, then walks to the entrance. "No, I'm not doing much. Huh. There's... something large. Can't see what, exactly."

Re: 1.

[icysmile]

She scowls a little, disappointed at the lack of added clarity. Then again, if she couldn't see through that, it was kind of dumb for her to expect others to do better. "Wish I had some binoculars or something." Rose folds her arms over her chest and bites at one of her thumbs, irritated at the whole situation. "Wish I had some answers, too. I've got things to do that don't involve being cooped up in here."

Re: 1.

[mad_larkin]

"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.

[icysmile]

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.

[mad_larkin]

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."

[icysmile]

"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."

[mad_larkin]

"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."

[icysmile]

"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!

[mad_larkin]

"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."

[icysmile]

"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?"

2.

[huntgodsbride]

"I'm fine," comes the reply as Nora works her body from side to side, trying to shimmy her way out of her pillar. "But, my owlbear could use some help," Nora nodded to the very large creature that was hooting sadly in his own pillar. It looked as though someone had transplanted a very large snow owl's head on a polar bear's body, then decided to add some feathers along its back for decorative effect.

It also looked very pathetic. "Astrid's not use to this kind of thing."

Re: 2.

[icysmile]

If she says she's fine, Rose is going to trust her. No use offending her by insisting, right? There's an indulging smile that freezes onto her face when she turns to look at the owlbear.

"What. Is that." It doesn't even come out as a question as she just. Points. A bit of panic enters her eyes and she glances at Nora again. "It's huge!" And somehow kind of pathetic, stuck in the pillar like that, but still. Big monster is big.

[huntgodsbride]

"He is Astrid. An owlbear. Have you really never seen an owlbear before?" The surprise in her voice was evident. "Then again, if you're from one of the smaller, southern towns, I guess you wouldn't see them that often."

That, and they tended to like their forest. Nora grunts as she frees herself, but Astrid's big head swivels towards Rose and he hoots at her sorrowfully.

"He's trained, so he isn't going to bite you," she adds as mostly an after-thought

[icysmile]

"No," she says flatly. Then, more defensively, "And I'm from Sternbild, it's not exactly a tiny town. I've never even heard of owlbears." Then again, she's not quite into tabletop gaming, either. Her schedule's pretty busy, after all, and even if it wasn't, that was something old people were into.

Still, it seems more... pathetic than bloodthirsty. Unless that was part of the trap? But Nora seems pretty together about it all and Rose had offered to help... Ugh. Wincing slightly, she closes the distance and cautiously pulls a chunk of ice away from it. "Steady there..."

[huntgodsbride]

"Sternbild? Never heard of it," Nora says as she knocks the remaining frost and ice off her clothing. She frowned at the pillar, and pulled on her gun. Didn't they know the water in the ice would ruin her weapon?

Astrid, for his part, clicks his beak at Rose and turns his face away from her, crunching on the ice carefully. It cracks up his side hard, and he turns his face to hers again, as if suggesting she do the same thing.

[icysmile]

Now who's the backwater? "Sternbild's huge. You must have heard of it somewhere." Rose gives her an odd look, then leans back away as Astrid does his thing.

No. Not gonna chew on his ice. What she will do, however, is rear back and give it a good kicking, splintering chunks of the ice off of his side. She may not look it, but she's no pushover when it comes to physical power.

[huntgodsbride]

Astrid makes whuffing sounds, but once it appears that the ice is cracking away, calms down and continues to bite at his own ice. Between the two of them, it doesn't take long for the owlbear to break free.

"No, I've never heard of it, but considering all the in and out time shenanigans I've had to deal with lately, it wouldn't surprise me if it was buried under the ice." That was just the way of things with her home planet. No warmth, only ice. She pulled her rifle free and checked it over to make sure there was no damage on it. When it appeared that it was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief. "I've never seen anyone with blue hair before, though. Is it natural?"

[icysmile]

Once the owlbear's free, Blue Rose takes a few steps back. She's not entirely sure how tame any 'bear' can really be, especially not one with an owl for a head.

"Time shenanigans?" That sounds like something science-fictiony to her. But then, who really knew what all was out there? This woman didn't seem like she was from the same country as Karina, and that gun seemed absolutely antique. At the question, she blinks, then laughs a little and shakes her head. "No, it just looks like that when I freeze it in place." A bonus effect in protecting her identity!

[huntgodsbride]

Astrid makes a beeline for Nora and who fluffs his head affectionately. "There's a good boy, yes you are. We'll figure out something for you to eat here shortly." She turned her attention back to Blue Rose.

"Huh, I didn't know you could do that to hair." Nora nodded, sounding a bit impressed. "But yes, we had to do a lot of things involving time before I left my group. I'd had enough of it."

3

[tuckedinyoureyes]

White grumbles. For all that she's not doing much, she sure likes to make a racket talking about it. That's tolerable with people she knows and cares about but on a stranger she's just met it makes her feel assaulted on all sides by a level of obscenely un-earned confidence. It's also just extremely hard to focus when there's an extremely pretty but extremely the visible opposite of "hot" (ha, ha) lady over there drawing attention to herself like some sort of anime superhero or something. Doesn't she know her outfit is ridiculous?! Is that an advertisement for Pepsi on her - ahem?!

"Not on Earth," she finally manages to bother saying, in one of the moments where no chattering chatterboxing appears to be happening.

[icysmile]

Her ahem isn't for advertising, thank you very much.

She cuts her gaze to whoever spoke and pauses. That is... a very white girl. Whiter than white, even. Was she an albino? That would be a new one for her. She blinks, processing the brief sentence, then frowns. "What do you mean 'not on Earth?' Where else would we be?"

[tuckedinyoureyes]

Ah, the casual certainties of a life dedicated to the humble art of heroism. White sighs, head and shoulder sagging.

What a pain.

She points outside, briefly. Then to the pillars. Then makes a ┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ gesture with her whole body, as if wondering what the fuck is wrong with Rose's eyes that she can't tell the obvious herself, like, hello?!

[icysmile]

"Yes, it's raining," she says dully. "And those are ice pillars. I can freeze people in ice pillars, that doesn't mean that we're anywhere other than Earth."

Look, she can handle being kidnapped to some godforsaken cave, but being kidnapped to another world? That's the kind of thing that only happens in bad science fiction stories. Right?

[tuckedinyoureyes]

(* ￣︿￣)

White sighs again. "So stubborn."

She shifts, so she's not completely hunching in on herself like a NEET without a computer chair to use as a comfort blanket would anymore but almost sitting like a normal person who is participating in a discussion would, and briefly puts her hand to her face so she can gnaw a bit on one thumb.

And then, with a grunt, leans forward, as one eye opens, revealing a blood red iris with eight bright, shining white pupils, and suddenly there's a whole translucent three-dimensional render of the Milky Way galaxy in the space between them, out of nowhere, from nothing, with a giant red arrow pointing to a single spot on it with the words "THIS IS EARTH" flickering above it. Her eye jerks to the side, and then the galaxy shivers, rotates, and is ... no longer the Milky Way. A new arrow appears, in puce. The words "THIS IS US (probably)" flicker to life above it.

Her eye closes, but the display remains. "Deal with it," she says, leaning back against the cave wall and smiling in that rude sort of way someone does when they know they're right but already expect the other person in the conversation will disbelieve them on principle anyway and thus find said other person the equivalent of a small, yippy dog of some kind, rather than a person with any sense at all.