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

[so_dark_a_road]

Disembark:

Curufin grabs his gear and heads for the doors along with the rest of his team. He grabs onto one of the hold bars as the train lurches and goes into free fall, and the Void colors glow and streak past the windows. Suddenly there is a snowy atmosphere outside, the doors slide open, and they are hovering beside a platform that appears to be made of ice. The labyrinth sits on the platform, it's icy walls blocking their route to the odd-looking suspended machine.

"Here goes!" says Curufin with a grin. He jumps onto the platform and skids a little, and then quickly regains his balance.


Labyrinth:

He steps into the maze, looking all around and verifying that it looks something like his dream. An ice door slams shut behind him and the others, with an ominous grinding sound. And now this looks even more like his dream -- it is as though he and his teammates are trapped in a great block of ice, standing in a passageway within it. He starts walking and prying into the various bends in the corridor until he comes to an opening into another passageway.

"Luckily for me, I've got geographic memory!" he sings, rhyming and slightly out of tune in order to make it funny. Of course, it won't be funny if they can't find the way to the machine. But he's confident that they will.

Labyrinth

[shockinglycaffeinated]

Telli was obviously not happy to be here and was huddled into her coat trying to keep warm. When Curufin began wandering off she followed, not comfortable letting anyone go off alone.

“I was told once that if you became trapped in a maze you should keep a hand on one wall and use that to find your way out. I don’t know if it’ll help us find the machine we’re looking for, but it can’t hurt.”

[so_dark_a_road]

He turned to find Telli behind him and smiled. "I guess the theory is that any path that includes a continuous wall must lead eventually to the exit, or conversely, to the center of the maze. Yes, maybe we should do that? It sounds like as good a plan as any."

And he laid his hand on the wall, threw an amused look back at her, and started into the new passageway.

[shockinglycaffeinated]

Telli followed as he moved further down the passage, tapped one knuckle against the labyrinth wall, and considered how it felt before she spoke.

"This seems to just be ice, do you think heat might melt it?"

[so_dark_a_road]

"I, too, am detecting nothing but ice," he answers. "And if it's just ice, then it should be possible to melt a hole in it with enough heat. Why, do you have a means to do that?"

[shockinglycaffeinated]

"I do."

She shifted her grip on her cane, brought her free hand up to grab it about half way down, and with a twist she separated the two halves of her cane. Her right hand twisted as a green energy blade emerged and she struck out at the wall.

The blade skittered off the wall, causing a loud screech, but the ice appeared unharmed.

Telli frowned at her lightsaber, "Hmm. Normally that works."

[so_dark_a_road]

He watches in fascination.

"Very odd. Your light saber ought to penetrate the wall, but it does not. The ice seems not to be normal ice."

[shockinglycaffeinated]

She struck out again and hit the same spot, confirming that it wasn't a fluke, before she powered down the saber and put the cane back together. A moment passed while she considered her options before speaking again.

"I have one other thing I can try, but I need you to move a bit behind me. I haven't done it here and I don't know if my control will be the same."

[so_dark_a_road]

"All right," he agrees, and moves behind her and a little way back. "What are you going to do?" he asks, eagerly.

[shockinglycaffeinated]

She tossed a grin over her shoulder and confirmed Curufin was a sufficient distance from herself, before raising a hand in the air and concentrated.

Above Telli a storm begins to appear, lightening arcing through the clouds before Telli pulled her arm down to point at the wall. As she does so a bolt of lightening follows her gesture and slams into the ice with a resounding crack. The flash and noise blinded and deafened them for a few seconds, and once their vision clears they see the wall sustained no damage.

"Well fuck."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin gazed in delight at the storm clouds and the lightening as it appeared above Telli's head. And then again as she directed the lightening bolt straight into the ice wall. He has always liked the crash and the flash of lightening and the boom of thunder, and now it seems his teammate has powers of this sort. Nice!

But. . . no effect.

"Yeah, fuck. You'd think that much power would reduce the wall to a puddle. Maybe it's not really ice, maybe it just looks like ice."

Disembark

[democratically]

Cold. She is not the biggest fan of it, but she will abide it. It will be interesting anyway, to see what this place is all about, about how it operates. She hears his voice, glancing over as he jumps, and a small smile twitches along her lips. She does follow suit a few moments later, delicately jumping to the platform to land in a half crutch.

Upon straightening, she takes a deeper breath, feeling the cold in her lungs. "I must admit, I'm not exactly particular to the cold."

Although it won't stop her or make her balk.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin watches Padmé leap skillfully and land skillfully.

"I think most people don't especially like the cold. Kudos to you that you came along on this mission anyway. And I think you'll be all right."

[democratically]

"I can't blame them," Padmé muses, straightening to look ahead, before turning back to him. She isn't one to sit around, even if she hadn't been brought here by her own choice. "People had spoken about stops, and I will admit, I was interested."

[so_dark_a_road]

"And this is a sample of what to expect on the missions," answers Curufin, with a humorous light in his eyes. "Adverse conditions, strange problems to solve, and vicious creatures to manage. All right, Orange Team doesn't seem to have creatures to fight or collect, not this time. I figure we'll only have to deal with booby traps in the maze."

[democratically]

"So long as it actually does some good." That would be the biggest question. She will see for herself today, and know at least first hand what it entails. There is a soft huff from her as Padmé offers a small smile. "Well. Just another day in the senate for me... You'd be surprised at the traps therein."

But even though her words are light and playful, there is also a certain seriousness in it. It's clear that she does take this matter to be important and will treat it like such. "I'll need to keep an eye out in that case."

[so_dark_a_road]

"I certainly hope this mission does some good." Yes, they will soon see whether it does or not. "The senate? This is a government body? Oh, you mean politics. What sort of traps do your senators like to spring on their colleagues?"

"And as for the maze, yes. Keep a watchful eye on every twist and turn."

[democratically]

"Not always pleasant ones." She had almost died shortly after joining the Senate, having been lead in to an area that was having work down. They likely would have found her body under the rubble, eventually. "So long as it doesn't move."

Although she isn't being serious with that statement. After all, it doesn't, right...?

[so_dark_a_road]

"The politics of the most democratic institutions can be savage, even if there isn't a King claiming the right to overrule the rest. When people can't give orders dictator-style, they may resort to trickery or even to violence." He knows. He wasn't always as nice a person as he is now.

"I did dream that the maze started snaking and shaking with us in it. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that really happens at some point."

[democratically]

"There are strengths and weaknesses with every form, although it has as much to do with who is involved as not." Were all senators true to their calling, the system may well work far better than it did.

She frowned a little, tilting her head toward him. "You've dreams that come true- or dreams of the future?"

[so_dark_a_road]

He gives a small laugh. "I agree with you, it does have to do with the players in the game of politics. The form matters, but perhaps not as much as the participants."

Oh yes, the dreams. "Yes. My intimations don't always come in the form of dreams, but often they do. I can tell when they're real or not. My prophetic dreams on the train have been real."

[democratically]

"No doubt that must come in handy at times." Although perhaps a bit troubling as well. Gifts can also be a burden, especially when it is not something that one wishes to dream. "But also be something that shouldn't be taken lightly."

[so_dark_a_road]

"It does come in handy, at least it has since I left my own world." Sometimes it is troubling, though. In the world he lived in before he escaped into the Void and was picked up by the VoidTrecker, he had known he was going to lose his lover, and he did. He knew more than a year before it finally happened, and so his joy was always tinted with sorrow -- though it had made their time together profoundly precious to him.

"Elves never take prophesy lightly, no matter what form it comes in. It's part of our culture. But since you're asking about it, I was wondering if prophetic visions are something that your people receive?"

[democratically]

"Not the people of Naboo, no." A shake of her head in return to the question. Her dreams are only dreams, her mind doing what it does as she sleeps. There is nothing prophetic about them. They simply are. "But..."

She pauses, brow furrowing, thinking of Anakin, and what he has told her and what she has learned over the years. "I believe that there are those out there who may have them. I can't speak on it though, as unfortunately I have little to offer information wise."

[so_dark_a_road]

"So, this is rather new to you, then." Dreams as prophesy, not simply the mind doing what it does when a person is sleeping.

"Are those you believe may have them shamans, priests, teachers, sages? I would be surprised if not all cultures had such people."