[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

[freedom_is_grey]

"Andraste's ass!"

Ysalwen exhales.

"Well, I suppose that leaves it to us to do the clear thinking. So."

[stilljustandrew]

A crackling noise sounds from the walkie-talkie.

"Team A, this is Mission Control," comes Andrew's voice through the faint static. "What's your status?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen fumbles for the radio. "We're at the stables," she reports. "We got a trail, but they're not here."

[dejah_thoris]

"Tell him we're heading north from here. Along the path that follows the lake."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We're heading out north, along the lake path," Ellen duly reports. "How about you?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Team B's heading into the edge of the forest. Keep me posted if you find any sign of them? Uh, Mission Control out."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Will do. Team out," Ellen reports, and holsters the radio. "Well, there's our progress report, I guess..."

[freedom_is_grey]

"I really hope they're not in the forest."

Ysalwen exhales heavily, then pulls her hood back in place, shaking off now-melted droplets of water.

No sense letting them freeze back in place outside.

"At least along the lake path they would eventually hit the mountains. There are caves there, which is something, as far as shelters go."

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah mutters a prayer under her breath and tugs her scarf back over her face. She peeks over the enclosure at a sleeping Nitwit, and feels a lump in her throat.

He's not going to die. He's already dead. How can he die again? He's just holed up somewhere safe and warm, and when they find him, he'll be surprised they were even worried.

"Right. Let's get going again." She heads to the back door and hauls it open, only to be greeted with another face full of icy knives. "Curtis!"

Woola dives back into the snow, snapping at the flurries kicked up by the wind.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"At least there's no predators out here," Ellen says, wincing as she pushes back into the raging storm and starts scanning the ground again. "Nothing big enough to go for people, anyway."

The bears here don't count. Not compared to yao guai.

[freedom_is_grey]

Here is hoping no one decided running across a poorly-iced lake was a wise decision. Or that they could tell where the lake border begins.

Ysalwen remains silent on that point, though. Just follows Liranan back out into the blustery wind.

"Hold on a second, I can -- "

It's easier this time, casting the spell to still the winds. And if she exerts her will just that tiniest bit more --

Maybe she can push the boundary out another ten feet. It's something.

"There."

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah sags with relief. "You're a lifesaver, Ysa. I owe you both."

She turns back to Ellen. "You don't know how much I appreciate this. I've never dealt with anything like this before. I don't know what I'd do without you two."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen smiles faintly, although her headgear probably doesn't make that very easy to see. "I've had people go missing in incredibly dangerous territory before. I know what it's like having to chase them down before something happens," she says. "It's no trouble at all."

[freedom_is_grey]

"What Ellen said."

Ysalwen smiles faintly, hand dropping down to rest against Liranan's shoulder, just for a second.

"The chance to save a life is definitely worth the risk. And I'm not about to let us freeze while we go looking, so perhaps the risk isn't quite so great."

They've probably all been through worse? Ish.

"Shall we press on?"

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah's way ahead of her. She gestures silently in the direction of the pull she feels from the wrist cuff.

Woola puts on his determined face and growls low in his throat, as if he could cow the storm so his mistress no longer smells so strongly of fear.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods and focuses her attention through the snows in that direction. The trail's here, she knows it; it's a question of not losing it in the face of all this mess.

(She'll probably get the wigginses about the snow later, if she thinks about it too much. Right now she's convinced herself this is no worse than the Alaska sim.)

[freedom_is_grey]

In a little while time is going to stutter-step around Ysalwen.

It's the quickest way to make sure she has the spell to control the storm ready again.

And can re-cast it before it fails completely.

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah's eyes go wide.

"Was that you?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Wha -- oh. You felt that?"

Whoops.

"It's the easiest way to keep the storm moderately under control. Around us, anyway. And that -- seems safer? So. Just a few seconds rewind. For me. No one else."

[dejah_thoris]

"Quantum disturbance," she explained, holding up her wrist cuff and tapping it. "After what I've been through, I'm -- a little bit paranoid about that sort of thing. Glad to know it's you, actually."

She struggled through the knee-high snow, forging ahead down the path. "I'd hate to think something other than just weather caused this storm."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, that'd be just what we'd need," mutters Ellen. "Some god or something getting angry, or one of the people with super powers, or- I don't know, I don't think the Asgardians can do this..."

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen snorts.

"If it were Thor, we could probably ask him to stop and he would. Or he'd be able to fly high enough to see our missing friends."

Not that she's ever gone flying with Thor.

Wait.

"Though now you've got me wondering -- this weather isn't usual for Milliways?"

[dejah_thoris]

"I have no idea. This is my first winter here."

Dejah's trying really hard not to run through all the possible reasons for this place throwing an epic snowstorm at them. She's heard whisperings of the time the entire place came apart at the seams.

That thought doesn't bear a moment's consideration right now.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"This was the first place I remember seeing actual snow," Ellen says as she returns to picking the trail out from the background white. "I don't remember seeing it fall this hard or this heavy. That kind of thing would stick in the brain."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Ah."

Well, that's -- not particularly conclusive.

"At least I can't feel anything fighting me?"