[Milliways] White Upon White

[dejah_thoris]

He'd only left an hour ago.  Darkness had fallen and the storm outside was screaming and tearing at the building.  It was lunacy to go out in this weather.  But he was out there, and in only the clothes he'd put on this morning.  He and Edgar both.

They'd die out there, surely, if they didn't get a move on.  

Woola whined at her, picking up on the desperation she felt crawling down her spine.  She'd put on her winter coat and boots, and taken the goggles bar had given her.  Ellen and Ysalwen were already waiting for her at the backdoor.  She handed each of them one of the electric lanterns Bar had provided.

"Are we ready?  Do we need anything else?"  

Comments

[dejah_thoris]

"I'm not sure. But you are in charge of communications." She gives it over to Ellen's safe keeping and follows Ysa's example by fastening on the safety belt.

"Andrew, we'll keep in touch. Thank you again for all your help. Let's get going then. I do not wish to waste any more precious time."

They could already be freezing to death out there. Anyone near her would not need the Voice to feel the desperation pouring off of her.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Preparation isn't waste," Ysalwen says, checking the fit of her gloves.

Though it may be for the best that they are both already dead. Just in case.

"We'll find them."

Chances are good she'll unsling her staff from her back once they get out into the whirling storm. For footing, of course, but also to have magic ready-to-hand. Just in case.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right," Ellen says, after fiddling with the radio's controls. "I can work this, it's no problem. I'm going to patch it into my Pip-Boy- that's this here-"

She raps a knuckle against the bulky metal-and-glass device on her left forearm, clamped over her suit.

"It's got a built-in radio and a speaker you can hear from a long way away. I'd say it's got a map function, too, but the mapping program doesn't work on the Milliways grounds. We'll just have it for our communications."

She nods to Dejah and offers Andrew a small wave; he's got another team to reach, after all.

"Let's go pick up some trail."

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, and nodding. This is going to be a long night.

She opens the back door and winces as the wind almost tears it from her hands. Stinging knives of cold bite at her face and she scrambles to get her goggles pulled down and the scarves pulled up over her nose. She holds the door firm against the side of the building so the others can follow.

"Woola. Stay close."

The calot chuffs his assent. The cold doesn't seem to bother him, but he is squinting against the wind.

[freedom_is_grey]

Liranan trots out just ahead of Ysalwen, breaking through the snow with his relatively greater bulk.

Ysa, meanwhile, does start using her staff, muttering quietly even as she pulls her cloak a little more tightly around herself.

A faint haze springs up around her, because if there is anywhere you want elemental resistances, fumbling around in a blizzard is it.

Her hands are buzzing very faintly, and she lifts her head a little as if to try to see where it's coming from. It's a futile gesture in these conditions, but still.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

They don't have snow in the Capital Wasteland, but Ellen earned her way into the armory where the suit she's wearing had been kept for centuries by slugging through a training sim based on the Anchorage campaign of early 2077. She moves carefully through the snow near Ysalwen, peering through the mostly odorless mess in search of the faint glow of orange that means 'a human was here'.

"At least nobody's shooting at us," she mutters.

[dejah_thoris]

"Ysa!" Dejah has to raise her voice to be heard. "Can you take point? I have to focus on the amulet he's wearing, and that's going to be difficult to do while breaking the path! Let's head for the stables and we can regroup there if we need to!"

[freedom_is_grey]

"I can!"

Ysalwen raises her own voice to be audible over the scream of the wind, and Liranan echoes her with a loud two barks.

(He is much better at being loud.)

"Liranan, go."

The mabari doesn't take off, but he maintains his position in front of Ysalwen, sniffing occasionally at the snow and then sneezing when it gets in his nose.

Ysalwen follows gamely behind, occasionally re-casting her scrying spell and waiting to see if guidance from Dejah and the amulet help her narrow her own perceptions.

It would be nice.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Is this kind of weather common?" Ellen wonders aloud. "I mean- I know it was in Curtis' world, but-"

She waves a hand vaguely, not that it's likely to be all that visible through the horrible white mess in the air.

"-here, or... anywhere else, really?"

[dejah_thoris]

"I wouldn't say common," Dejah shouts. "But winter storms like this happen from time to time on Earth." Jasoom is a miraculous place when it comes to meteorological phenomenon. "Andrew called it a 'blizzard'."

Woola barks, louder this time, and muscles through a snow drift to join his friend Liranan in leading the way. It'd be a comical sight if anyone could see the sheer volume of snow he was displacing.

"We're heading in the right direction, I think!"

[freedom_is_grey]

"It happens in Ferelden with some frequency. We get bad winters."

Ysalwen doesn't exactly mean to shout that, but it's easier.

"It feels that way to me, too. From what I can tell. More left?"

Liranan whuffs, pushing a little more in that direction. Not walking into large stones is probably good, just now!

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Ugh. At least you can see which way to run if the storms blow in and they're acidic, back home."

Silently, she's thankful that the Reds had enough sense to equip their Crimson Dragoons with armor capable of keeping them warm enough to fight in the Alaskan cold.

[dejah_thoris]

"We get sand storms on Barsoom. Zero visibility, but sand etches flesh. Best you can do is hunker down and ride them out!"

She course corrects with their lead and refocuses on her wrist cuff. She can feel a pull that gets stronger as they change directions.

"Yes! Better!" She lifted the lantern she was carrying but it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them. "Ellen, can you see any better with your sensors?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've got some orange blurring," Ellen says after a moment's hesitation. "A little hard to make out, but-"

She points as best she can in the direction of the more notable scent trail.

"It looks like it's getting stronger."

[freedom_is_grey]

Liranan takes easily to this new trail, and Ysalwen follows gamely behind.

"Oh, for the -- "

The endlessly whirling snow gets in the way again, and Ysalwen exhales heavily.

"Will trying to settle this wind down a bit -- at least where we are -- help anything?"

[dejah_thoris]

"Yes! If you can do it, please!"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Well, we'll find out."

It's not quite a simple thing, taking a spell you can perform blindfolded and inverting it.

But if she casts the spell and then holds it, taking the local winds and making them hers -- or the Fade's' -- and then pulling in an echoed dream of stillness --

Hmm.

At least the trail may not get so cold so quickly, just now. And for however long she can hold this effect.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Okay," calls Ellen, her voice suddenly oddly louder in the stiller air. "I've got a better line on the trail. That helped. Thank you."

She's suddenly glad she didn't bring Dogmeat for this. He's helpful as a tracker, but this weather would only make the heeler a liability, even with Ysalwen's help.

[dejah_thoris]

"Oh thank Issus," Dejah breathes. "The wind cuts right through me."

Even all bundled up like this, she's colder than she's ever been in her life. She's trying to ignore the part of her mind that envisions the worst possible outcomes. It's not helpful.

There's a straight line up ahead. It's the fences that mark the path down to the stables.

"Curtis!" She can't help it. She has to do something. Shouting is probably no good, but it makes her feel better. "Edgar! Call out if you can hear us!"

[freedom_is_grey]

Liranan howls, high and wild and hair-raising.

Maybe he is taking a page from Dejah's book.

"Liranan! They don't know you. You'll make them think wolves are hunting them. Stop it!"

It seems like a valid concern, except -- maybe their world doesn't have wolves?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen is silently glad that she didn't bring Dogmeat with her.

Besides, she's busy frantically scanning for the brightest, strongest streak of orange she can possibly find.

[dejah_thoris]

There's a vertical line of darker shadow rising from the white out. Dejah swings her lantern toward it. It resolves into the edge of the barn that houses the stables.

Dejah points.

"Let's check in there. Maybe we're worried over nothing and they're just -- let's just check it. To be sure.

Maybe they're too busy murdering one another to hear her shouting?

[freedom_is_grey]

"It's possible," Ysalwen allows, blinking her eyes heavily as she recasts her spell to still the winds.

There's no sense in making it harder to get inside the stables, honestly.

Take comfort, Dejah, Liranan would smell blood if there was any!

Less so strangling, but. Well.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Trail heads in that way," Ellen reports. "Doesn't look as fresh as I'd like, but..."

It's better than trailing them by asking nonexistent locals if they've seen two people. It's better than nothing.

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah strides ahead, unaccustomed to making her way through knee deep snow and fighting for every step. Her breath fogs in the air and a rime of ice is beginning to form on the scarf over her mouth.

"Woola?" The calot course corrects so he can break trail for her.

The barn is dark, and there are no voices, only the soft breathing of the residents. "Curtis?" Nothing.

They're not here.