middleofsomewhere | Let it Snow: Blue Start

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Let it Snow: Blue Start

The moment the doors open for purple to jump the train is speaking again. “Blue team to doors. Void shift imminent. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one” The train lurches and shudders as the windows flash the colour of the void for a split second before it shakes again and they are back in that frozen tundra.

The doors open and blue can jump down into a large snowdrift. They are at the foot of an impressive mountain range. Snow swirls around them, the wind hows. Ahead of them, half obscured by snow is a tunnel entrance.

Even getting there is exhausting, wading through the snow. Inside there is no snow but it is cold. The walls and floor shine with ice and the way is treacherous. It is pitch black.

Their task is to find those hiding in the tunnels. Some have formed makeshift camps in large caverns, others have fled into the small tunnels and have gotten themselves lost.

The voidtreckers are lucky to at least have a map on their SCA though it does not show where anybody else it. It is time to start the task of rounding everyone up and making sure they can survive the storm.

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Madoka won't get hurt. Ple Two is entirely confident that she can keep Madoka safe, whatever comes, whatever she lets happen to herself.

So that's fine.

"The first useful weapon, I suppose, will be fine."

Truly the first rule of the blue team, always sacrifice yourself first...

Madoka - thankfully? - has no idea of what Ple Two is thinking though, so she instead nods in agreement. She glances from their surroundings back to Ple Two, and judging by her expression a different thought seems to occur to her at that exact moment.

".. um, please don't feel like you have to say yes to this, okay? I know you're not good with these things, at least definitely not when they come out of nowhere.." She's being rather long-winded about it, huh. Mostly since she doesn't want to say anything too rude. "But do you mind if we hold hands while we look around? I just.. I want to make sure we don't lose each other. If you don't want to, that's fine too, I understand..!"

It ought to be unnecessary anyways, although they should be quick about their search. Just in case.

Ple Two brushes herself off a little as Madoka speaks, and makes a bit of a speech out of a simple request - but she is the one who'd rather have people ask before things like hugging. It's not like Madoka can be expected to just know what she's okay with.

"It's a good idea, anyways, since we don't have anything to tie us together with." That would be even safer, but this is... practical.

She nods. "Alright then."

Honestly, Madoka is kind of relieved that's the answer. Because she's definitely not just thinking of the practical reason here - it's really hard to get seperated if you're literally holding the other's hand - but also the emotional reason. These missions can be really overwhelming and scary at times, but she thinks she would feel a lot more at ease just holding someone's hand for a bit.

So she moves to do so. She grabs Ple Two's hand and holds it.

.. she does feel kind of better already.

"Where should we go look?"

The practical reasons are excuse enough for Ple Two; the emotional support, obviously, is good for Madoka. Even through gloves, though, it's a little reassuring to have Madoka so close in reach.

Although she's going to have to somehow throw this girl if there's danger.

"Work our way outward until we spot any sign of something interesting or useful?"

"That sounds good.. I'll let you know if I spot anything first."

She doubts that'll be the case. There's no way Ple Two would overlook something when she always seems so amazing and competent! But still, she'll definitely tell the other if she spots something Ple Two doesn't, just in case.

But quietly walking now they're starting to move isn't really Madoka's thing. And she can definitely look around and talk at the same time, so she can't help but try to make some small talk along the way.

"You know, I don't think I've ever been to a place this cold before.."

Another set of eyes is always useful, especially in adverse conditions... so she won't be surprised if Madoka spots something of value.

Ple Two would rather keep quiet and move quickly, but there's... probably no harm in chatting. A little. "...space is very cold." Like that. Small talk.

Hey, at least Madoka does have enough social skills for two. Even though she's usually very shy when it comes to strangers, Ple Two has passed the stranger mark a long, long time ago. If Madoka is bold enough to even have hugged the other, then talking to her is nothing. It's so easy.

Even if Ple Two comes from a situation entirely different from her own.

"Was it this cold? All the time?"

That's all Ple Two needs to have like, actual conversations at this point. Someone else to actually... make them happen.

"Well, the ships were kept warm enough to not be uncomfortable, but much more than that was impractical." Not that energy was at any kind of extreme premium... "Once outside any ship, though, you'd feel start to feel it."

"I see.. Then walking around like this must be nothing to you."

Not that Madoka is absolutely dying of the cold over here or anything. She's made sure to bundle up before they were sent out. But it still isn't really comfortable, although the girl is doing her best to bear it with a smile.

"But it must always be a little sad if it's always so cold. Then you couldn't go to the beach." .. do they even have beaches in space? Look, Madoka is just going off her own experiences here.

"Well... there's no snow in space. I'm not used to this resistance." If anything, she was happier when the gravity went out on the train, although it helped that she could show off how at home she was.

"Colonies are climate controlled, so some of those can have beaches." But she only spends so much time in the nice part of them.

That last part is actually exactly what Madoka is wondering. Considering what Ple Two has told her so far, she's really wondering how much the other has seen.. But downright asking that feels so rude. She might hit a topic that's a little too sensitive.

It's probably better to keep things more general.

"There are colonies in space..?"

"Massive orbiting man-made habitats." To preserve the Earth, apparently. Ple Two knows her way around them, but she never had any real leisure time. "Most of humanity has moved into space."

"What is it like to live out there?"

She's also kind of curious as to why humans are living out in space, but.. the obvious answer is probably that there's something really wrong with the Earth if there's hardly people living on it anymore, huh. Not exactly the most fun topic. It helps though that she's genuinely curious about that question - Madoka herself can't even imagine what it must be like out there. It's kind of like a sciencefiction movie in her mind.

"Normal?" Overcrowding. Environmental disasters. A thousand lesser reasons, many more trumped up for political gain. "I suppose it's just like living on Earth if you don't travel much."

That's probably the last answer Madoka ever expected to that question. Out of all the way she could imagine living in space to be like, 'normal' wasn't really among them.

"Really..? I see.."

Maybe some things don't change all that much after all then.

"Maybe it's not so different from my home then after all.. Except that it's out there in space."

"They shipped up enough materials to have soil for the ground beneath our feet, artificial waterways - the atmospheric composition and size of the colonies even allows for blue skies in many." It's just that your city is a tube that you can't easily leave.

"So people might not even know the difference if no one would've told them?"

Sure, there's the whole problem that you can't really leave, but what if you wouldn't try? What if you'd just live out your life normally in the city every day? If you didn't know you were out in space, that description makes it sound like any city on Earth.

"That's kind of an odd thing to think about.. But at the same time I'm glad those people don't have to live in some really strange place." (Yes, it's Madoka. Of course she's going to feel glad for people she doesn't even know.)

"Hm. You can still see enough details around you, and the curvature is visible..." What else would someone from Earth notice? It's hard to hazard a perfect guess. "But if you woke up there after falling asleep on Earth, somehow, you might not notice right away."

...aside from waking up in a new place entirely? Unless someone built a replica of where you passed out? That would be creepy.

She nods, seeming to think about this information for a moment. It's all a little weird, but she thinks she can at least kind of grasp it..

Although it does make her wonder something.

"Does that mean you've never been on Earth before?"

It's a lot to take in, she's sure, if you're from far enough in the past.

"I've been to Earth, but only briefly. For... a purpose I failed at." It's not hard to sense her mood souring at the recollection.

There's far worse to it than just failure.

Honestly, even something about the wording 'a purpose I failed at' feels kind of bad to Madoka with what Ple Two told Madoka about herself before.. So she doesn't want to dig into it. She doesn't want the other to feel bad when they're already stuck in bad enough circumstances with all this cold.

Time to try and spin this into something positive. Come on, Madoka!

"Then.. maybe somehow I'll get the chance while we're on the train to show you Earth the way I know it..! If the train sends us to a place that's like it sometime.. It's a really fun place, you know. We could go to the CD store together and listen to music, or go eat ice cream or cake.. I bet any of it would be fun as long as we're together."

There's a lot to feel bad about - more to be confused about. Ple Two doesn't like to get into it, exactly; and it will distress Madoka if she spills every detail of her life. No one needs that dumped on them.

"I've heard some of Peter's music. ...some of it is interesting." The sweets too. Someone needs to discover the ice cream fiend buried deep within.

"There's lots of different kinds of music."

She laughs a little. Madoka has no idea what kind of music exactly Peter likes, but she can only imagine how it must've been kind of funny if it was something extreme as Ple Two's first sample of regular Earth music..

"I'm sure we could find something you'd like. There's so many things you could do in general.. So I really want to try and see if you can get a chance for that sometime!" Even if she has to drag the other girl into the train's kitchen and feed her every single kind of sweet out there, okay. Anything to try and give Ple Two some more happiness in life! It's her mission now!

"I'm... sure there is..." Frankly, between the Disney stuff and Hamilton stuff, the concept of musicals has been gotten across. Glemy had listened to classical pieces and opera, but it was hard to tell whether that was an honest interest or just for appearances.

"...but we'll take our time." And anyways, they've got a job to do now.

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Let it Snow: Blue Start

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