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

[sensitiveapple]

She does not understand wanting to live like this. Even the poles of Cantonica are not this cold. She wraps her arms around herself. "No. You would be cold then." She says, reasonably.

[so_dark_a_road]

People who live on warm planets are lucky in many ways. Though Curufin is from the northern regions of his own world and wouldn't have it otherwise. He looks sympathetically at her as she shivers.

"Not really," he answers. "I'm used to the cold. Besides, I wore two jackets in case anybody else needed one. It was the easiest way to carry an extra. I'm not going to freeze without both."

[sensitiveapple]

She shakes her head. Hopefully, she'll get used to the cold, and not freeze to death, here on this barren planet. She wans to go home. There's nothing here that even is close. She also wishes Freema were here.

"How can you be used to this? Also, I want to be free to move with my knives, if I need to."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is not happy about Misa not taking him up on his offer of a jacket. But it is up to her, and she seems to have reasons not to want to be encumbered with the jacket.

"I was born in the land of Aman, and I grew up under a mountain range. Aman was far enough north to be very cold in the winter, and I simply thought of that as being natural as I'd never experienced anything else. Besides, I loved wintertime, running through the snow with my brothers, skating on the rivers and streams, exploring the snowy forests and plains. After my family and I journeyed to Middle-earth, we migrated away from the coast and into the East Marches, the land on the border between the tundra and the temperate zone. It was the same there in the winter, beautiful forests, frozen lakes and rivers, wide white plains."

But as for that matter of moving freely: "You are a warrior woman, and you know your own skills and requirements for using them effectively. I don't know if the jacket would slow you down, but I understand your reasoning."

[sensitiveapple]

"Oh." She says. "Cantonica is very hot. There are oasises, but mostly, it's just desert." And she dislikes this cold nonsense.

then she laughs, behind her hand. "Warrior? No, but I can stab something and run away." She admits, with a big smile. Jocko had taught her that much.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Then this wintertime weather would be very new to you, indeed! The good news is, we won't be on this planet for very long. And the next mission isn't likely to be on a winter world."

He laughs too. "Stabbing something and running away is at least one skill a warrior should have! And a very useful one, too."

[sensitiveapple]

She nods. "The closest I've come is seeing holos of places like Hoth. Which this place reminds me of, if the holos are to be believed." She admits. "Do missions happen often?" She asks, not liking the thought of that.

The she laughs. "That's what Jocko used to say. 'Don't aim to kill, aim to distract so you can get away.'" She's repeating, but it's a good lesson to learn

[so_dark_a_road]

"Oh well, at least you were forewarned by the holos that such places exist! Ands as for the missions, they happen every month."

He laughs again. "Jocko was your teacher in the art of using a dagger? Smart person. Getting stabbed is definitely a distraction!"

[sensitiveapple]

She doesn't like the cold, but the holos of Hoth and a few other places had not seemed real. But apparently, they are. Which is weird to think of after the warmth and dryness of Cantonica.

"Do they always happen in the cold?" Because if so, she's going to protest and not come along next time. She'll wait and help with making warm food and drinks or something.

Her heart suddenly constricts and she nods, looking sad. "Jocko was my guard since I was seven." She says, softly.

[so_dark_a_road]

"No, this is the first mission that's involved an iced-over planet. I've been on three missions, and the first two were respectively on a planet of moderate temperature and then on a planet that was disintegrating. That second world was blowing itself up with volcanos and being rained on by falling stars and such. I guess you could say that was a hot climate!" He smiles a little, using humor to mitigate the anxiety that everyone on that mission had felt. "I was actually kind of relieved to be in the cold instead of the heat."

He sees the sadness in her eyes. "Jocko must have cared for you well. You look sad. What happened to Jocko?"

[sensitiveapple]

"I'd rather the heat." She complains. At least, the heat she knows how to deal with.

She shrugs. "We were in the market before I appeared on the platform. If he goes back to the house without me, the Mistress will beat him." And that bothers Misa.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I guess we're all different. But I understand how you might not like the cold." The skill of dealing with any particular climate greatly depends on prior experience.

"Ah, I see. You were with Jocko right before you were snatched by the train entity. He won't have any idea what happened to you, and your Mistress won't know it wasn't his fault. But do you think it might occur to him to make himself scarce, to just not return to the Mistress? Could he run away and live another kind of life?"

[sensitiveapple]

She stares at him like he has three heads. "Jocko would never run. That's..." She waves a hand around. "It's... No, he would never do that." She can't think of the word that it is? But she knows Jocko, and Jocko would not abandon the house.

Sorry, I never got back to this thread. Good place to end, I think!

[so_dark_a_road]

"This Jocko sounds like a very loyal sort. Well, he seems to have taken good care of you and your Mistress, and I wish him well."

He looks towards the walls of ice that they will have to find their way into and through to get to the machine in the center.

"Let's go into the labyrinth. We'd better get started searching the place." And he walks towards the entrance, throwing a smile over his shoulder and beckoning her in.