Let it Snow: Orange Start

[voidtreckermods]

The moment Red team jumps the voice speaks again. “Orange team to doors. Void shift imminent. Ten, nine, eight, seven...” There is a lurch and the train seems to tumble. The windows flash with the void for a second before they are once again surrounded by snow.

The train steadies, the doors open, the train is in mid-air and one step away from the train doors there is an ice platform. Crossing is not too hard, though a bit daunting. They are very high up and the ice is inherently slippy.

The platform is not large enough for them all and so the only natural way is for them to begin entering the labyrinth to allow everyone off the train. The moment the last person leaves the train it blinks away and the moment everyone has entered the labyrinth there is a grinding sound and the ice behind them closes.

For good or ill they have entered. Their goal is clear, a strange machine suspended in the centre of the maze but getting there will be a challenge. Though it looks like they should be able to merely walk towards it walls of ice stand in their way. The only way to stop any of this is to get through the labyrinth.

Comments

[themasterthief]

I. Disembark.

Garrett cursed his luck. This was exactly why he hated water. Of course, usually that meant a body of water and a boat that rocked unsteadily but this slippery ice was proving to be no better than that. And since ice was just frozen water--he was really hating on water right about now. He was too prideful to accept help from anyone though, plus he didn't really like to touch people. Which was hard not to do on this tiny platform of slippery ice.

He cursed again, the noise barely under his breath. He wished he had just gotten off with one of the other teams. He hated this place already. He quickly slid his way over to the nearest wall and placed a few spidery limbs on the cold surface. He was afraid he would either not stick or that his limbs would freeze in place and not come off. He was in luck--there was just enough roughness to the outside ice that he could cling to it for support. He wouldn't dare try climbing it though. He didn't want to slip and fall if/when he touched a smooth section of ice.

There was little room here but he wasn't ready to head inside yet. He clung awkwardly to the side of the cube near the entrance and watched as everyone entered the maze. He really didn't want to go in there. His last trip into a labyrinth hadn't proved all that fun after all...

II. Or Not.

In the end Garrett's reluctance paid off proved to be his savior from the maze of entrapment. When the doors began to close the arachnid was startled. His usually graceful movements were hampered by the slippery ice and he almost skidded off the opposite side of the platform when he pushed off the wall to finally join the others. He clamored back onto the platform and comically got back on his feet, slid towards the door--and ran right into the ice just as it closed tight. He put his hands down the seam but it was nearly impossible to discern from the rest of the ice now and there was no way he was prying it back open.

Oh well!

He shrugged at the nearest person on the other side, if they were watching him, almost apologetic even. (He wasn't sorry in the least.) But now he had a new problem: what to do now that he couldn't get inside with the rest of his team. Garrett had a simple solution to that. He would head down into the valley below and tour the city there. And by "tour" he absolutely meant "steal his weight's worth in valuables and useful materials" while everyone was evacuated. What? He was an opportunistic thief, what could he say. It's what and where he truly wanted to be anyway. He was no hero.

Now he just had to find a way down off this platform of slippery ice. It took a few moments of awkwardly shuffling around the platform to peer over the edge and examine the platform itself but eventually he came up with a solution. His web wouldn't stick much better than his limbs to this ice but there were a few icicles poking up near the edge of the platform and they looked pretty solid. He created a line and wrapped it tightly around the thickest one and secured it in place. He tugged on it a few times to test it. It held.

Garrett took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then he fell off the edge of the platform. The thief didn't fall too far; the webbing held and the initial line was relatively short. He began to spin more line and slowly lowered himself down to the ground below.

It was a far way down... he hoped he could produce enough web to make it down there. He'd never spun until he couldn't produce anymore webbing before, this would be an awful time to find that limit. Great planning, the thief thought to himself.

He shouldn't have worried too much about the limit to his webbing; it was the icicle that wouldn't last long enough. He felt the first cracks as they split the ice, the small vibrations making it all the way down his line to his hands. He hurried his pace. It wasn't enough. There was a small crack! as the ice gave under his weight and suddenly there was slack in his line, and before he knew it he was plummeting to the ground below. It was still a long ways to go.

[[Spoilers: He's fine! Don't worry! He's a tough little arachnid. If you have questions or an idea for a scene but are unsure, hit me up with a PM or plurk at me! I'm cool with either.]]

I

[stealsyourheart]

Hi Garrett, have the thief you know but don't appear at your shoulder.

"You are looking surprisingly cautious, Garrett-san. Spot something?"

[themasterthief]

Garrett turned a sour face towards Katio. The expression wasn't directed at the kid per se he just wasn't the happiest arachnid at the moment.

"Nothing ever goes right during phrases like this where I'm used to." Not home. He specifically avoided that word. "Besides, all this ice... it isn't great for a spider."

[stealsyourheart]

"Oooh, didn't think of that." Kaito makes an understanding face. "Hope Charlotte's gonna be okay. And to be fair, anyone who sets up a maze is PROBABLY not intending to make it easy."

[themasterthief]

Garrett nodded in agreement. He had seen she was bundled up at least. That would help. No amount of anything was going to help the fact that the ice was hard to stick to though, unfortunately. "No, it's not that..." Mazes were simple. Or at least they were mundane, relaxing almost to figure out. It was other aspects he didn't like the thought of. "...don't worry. This isn't Rylsig. How bad could it be?"

Don't answer that.

[stealsyourheart]

"Well, the last world had dinosaurs and possibly the planet was exploding, or there was just a REALLY BIG volcano?" He offers with morbid cheer.

[themasterthief]

Of course he answered that.

"Right. It's never a picnic or anything. That would just end in horror too probably."

[stealsyourheart]

It's his thing~

"I dunno, I might enjoy a picnic... perhaps it would attract bees..."

[themasterthief]

"Then you'd just get stung."

Someone was a pessimist.

[stealsyourheart]

"True. But bees mean honey! Fresh honey is the best!"

Is he taking the piss? Who knows with that grin.

Disembark

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin was on his way into the labyrinth when he saw Garrett clinging to the nearest outer wall. "Are you not coming in?" he asked, in concern.

[themasterthief]

Garrett's mismatched eyes locked onto Curufin and he gave the other an expression that went along with his roll of the shoulders. "I don't like the look of it," he replied. That wasn't a lie at least. He glanced towards the inside of the ice cube. "The last time I ended up in a place like this..."

He looked back at the man and made a small head gesture that might have said 'well, you know.'

[so_dark_a_road]

"I don't blame you," answered Curufin. "This could be a dicey situation in about ten different ways that I can think of!"

He met Garrett's eyes and asked, "What happened last time you ended up in a place like this? If you don't mind my asking?"

[themasterthief]

The thief shifted his position as he thought of an answer. His hand was cold on the ice but if he used gloves he'd lose his most stable limbs for climbing.

"Like this? The cold, mountain area or the glassy crystalline labyrinth we're about to head into? I've got drawbacks for both." A few stories more personal than others. But none quite all that pleasant.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin noted that Garrett wasn't wearing his gloves. He never assumed that people didn't know what they were doing, so he thought to himself that there must be a reason. But not having spoken to Garrett before this mission or seen him climb a wall, Curufin couldn't guess what the reason was.

"I don't know if we're going to have to deal with the cold mountains or not. Maybe we'll be up here searching the labyrinth for the whole mission. Start with the labyrinth's drawbacks?"

[themasterthief]

"That sounds disappointing," the thief remarked off-handedly. He would rather be elsewhere doing something else...more useful to himself. Like looting those houses down below.

He hesitated before answering the actual question. "Well, it's a labyrinth. By it's very nature it's a pain to get through. But that also depends on how mundane it is. A simple maze is easy to navigate. I've solved many." With or without cheating. Besides the point. He continued more slowly. "But there's always the possibility it isn't mundane and it could have more surprises than anyone's ready for."

Such as crystals that show the deepest, darkest memories from a person as soon as one touches them. Good times. Yeah, not really.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I'll be disappointed too, if we don't have time or aren't allowed to go below and help out. My family is down there, and it's they who will be fighting the ice creatures. I'd really like to help, as I'm an experienced warrior. But mission-wise, I'll be useful when we find that machine. I'm a mechanical and electrical engineer, and I think that even if it's an alien machine, I might be able to figure out how to shut it off." He smiles. "And if I can't, then I'll just BREAK IT." He humorously flexes his biceps. He's also an Elvish smith, so he is very strong indeed, and he has his tools with him, including a very effective hammer.

"If you're solved maze puzzles before, then you're well qualified to attempt this one! But if it isn't mundane, then what surprises do you think we should be watching out for?"

[themasterthief]

"Breaking a piece of machinery is much easier than repurposing it if you don't already know how it works," he replied. "So I suggest just breaking it."

The elf may have been an engineer but Garrett would only be impressed if he was self-taught. Garrett was. The thought of which made him miss his clocktower. He was the one that kept it running. Without him, it had likely fallen back into disrepair just like the last time he'd been missing for a year...

"I am." He just...didn't care enough. "That depends. It could have mechanical traps. Trip wires, secret access doors, trap doors, smashers, hidden blades... any number of things. Or... it could be magical."

[so_dark_a_road]

"I'll agree with you there!" says Curufin, amused. Trying to decipher a strange machine is time-consuming, even where it is possible. They may not have time. Smashing the thing might be the best idea.

The Elf is self-taught. In his original world he helped to construct a lighthouse with a revolving beam and he continued to help with the maintenance until he departed from that continent. After he died and left his original world and went to another, he found a library that had quite a number of texts and treatises on modern science and technology. He read, he studied, he grasped the concepts in their newer forms. And then a friend asked him to help her build an airship. He built the engines with her help. After that, he tackled the problem of electrical lighting for the community, and he designed a generator to be powered by a dammed river. And then, concerned about what that might do to the river, he planned a wind farm instead. When he left that world and went to the next, he built three fire engines and a pumping station at the river. This gave him yet another chance to become a maintenance technician. Maybe someday he and Garrett can swap stories.

As for the maze: "Booby traps of all kinds, in other words. You're right. We'd better tread carefully and watch our backs at every step."

[themasterthief]

"Exactly. If they're hiding this weather machine in here it's definitely for a reason. I mean, guy obviously doesn't want just anyone to be able to turn it off. Guys like this... never do." Bad guys. Villains. Whatever you wanted to call them. Garrett didn't like dealing with their type. He was no hero.

He shuffled a bit so that he could glance down at the town below. It was hard to see much more than shapes from this high up, especially with the storm blocking the view most of the time, but they all knew it was down there. And that it was the reason they were here: to protect it. Garrett had other ideas in mind but he didn't think anyone else would share his enthusiasm for criminal activity while the going was easy for a thief to go unnoticed.

[so_dark_a_road]

"They definitely don't want guys like us messing around with their machine!" Curufin had experience with villains, though of a different sort than Garrett probably had. Mostly not good experiences. He was no hero either, though his upbringing and his original purpose in life had been to be helpful to others. There were some terrible years when he himself might have been justifiably mistaken for a villain. But that was the past.

Curufin followed Garret's gaze and moved a little nearer the edge of the platform. They were high above the landscape, and the storm clouds were roiling over the mountains and valley. The town was partially visible, in glimpses, and Curufin wondered how his relatives were faring down there. "Damn, I'd like to get down there and see how my parents, my brothers, and my cousin are doing!"

[themasterthief]

Garrett was silent for a moment while he peered down at the town below for a little longer. Then quietly, "Easier said than done."

The thief had half a mind to try it though. He glanced back at the maze entrance and grimaced. "Though it might be worth a shot."

Why hadn't he gotten off with one of the first teams? Oh, right. Too crowded at the time. Besides, he almost hadn't gotten off the train at all. But he was too stir-crazy not to get off even after just the week that had gone by since he'd been on the train. He was used to roaming a whole, large city. Not being cramped up inside a moving contraption. Air ducts leading to somewhere interesting were one thing, tight spaces with other people an entirely different and most uncomfortable other.

[so_dark_a_road]

"That's for sure," agreed Curufin. "I don't have an aircraft, I don't have wings to fly, and I don't have a parachute, either."

He saw that grimace, and interpreted it as reluctance to enter the labyrinth.

"Worth a shot? How would you get down to the ground?"

[themasterthief]

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied to the question. It was honest enough. He had an idea in the back of his mind but it seemed rather foolhardy to attempt. "But I have a trick or two up my sleeve."

He indicated the rope hanging from his thigh. It was one of the ones from the train and it clearly wasn't long enough for the climb down from here. Either he was indicating it was a start or...he was insane. Take a pick.

[so_dark_a_road]

"In a situation like this one, it's a good thing to have a trick up one's sleeve!" Curufin remarked with a smile.

He had hardly got these words out of his mouth when Garrett pointed to the rope he had brought. "You're going to try to get down using that coil of rope??? But. . . it can't possibly be any longer than twenty yards. Mine's not." Curufin had also brought a coil, though it was currently stuffed in the extra bag he had brought. "How are you going to get down there with so little rope? Even if we tied both these lengths together, it still wouldn't be anywhere near enough."