"My name is Ko. Ko Ophelin." She said, bowing her head and bringing a fist to her chest in a salute.
"It is a name we will remember fondly, then, Ko Ko Ophelin," the Old Dog smiled once more.
"Happy hunting to you. I do not believe the walk back will be quite so long, if the engines I hear are from your kith or kin."
Ceneric peered at the water. "How does one lure a Sea Wolf, exactly?"
Ko help up a finger and turned to say something to Ceneric, but she was coming blank. She turned around to the water and pointed over it with Non. "Come up here, you blubbery bastard, or I'm coming in there!"
"...I didn't expect that to work." She joked, sheathing Non and unbuckling her breastplate. She removed the armor and set it beside her, stretching her shoulders and then lifting the black tank-top she had on underneath to the part of her stomach she caught swords in. After stopping and picking up a piece of ice, she turned it's point in her hand and sighed.
"Now this- THIS I expect to work." She said, digging the ice into her torso and clenching her jaw not to wince. It wasn't a deep wound, or even a particularly bad one, but it bled like any other. Ko knelt down and put her hand to her side, washing it in the water and adding more blood to the tide every few moments. The cold she couldn't feel helped numb what little pain there was. Non was gripped tight in her left hand: if an Orca rushed her from the ice, she wanted to be ready to to come to grips as soon as she could.
"...What'cha doin'?" asked a Cocker Spaniel.
"Fishing, what does it look like?" Ko asked, laughing a little.
Eventually Ko stood back up and sighed, cleaning her gauntlet one last time and buckling her armor back on. "Well, either it doesn't care that something up here is bleeding and injured, it remembers what happened last time, or maybe... I wonder if the smell of my blood scared it away?" She mused, looking out across the flow.
"They're not sharks, miss Ko Ko. It's not gonna shoot at ya just because there's a little blood in the water." The Spaniel supplied. Ko raised an eyebrow at him. "You gotta get where he's at! He's not comin' to you!"
"Good point. Well, guess I'm going out there after all!" Ko snorted, stomping across the ice and doing her best to give the impression of being a flat footed idiot. The Orca would never suspect a thing...
Sure enough, this time, it sprang upward in a massive arc of sparkling crystal shattering in the sun and water spraying in rainbow misting patterns all about the ice, just in front of where her feet would land, trying to catch her up and toss her as it might a sea lion in the deadly play before the kill. Although a shark did come up to where she was first bleeding, rather to its disappointment, one must feel, for it found nothing but steel hands yanking it ashore. Two sets of them, in fact. Ko's kill, when she scored it, would appear to have side steaks.
"Are you going to be alright, Ko?" Ceneric yelped, despite remembering about her very enduring nature and being in the midst of punching the hound shark.
Ko leapt forward, trying to meet it's charge and check it. She gripped Non tightly as the soft white aura of True Strike made the air hum. She lunged in and hammered it hard with a downward blow, drawing blood- but it wasn't stopping. Ko hurtled another blow out, but it was too late, it was too close- the Orca crunched it's bite down on her left arm, it's teeth making a low scraping sound.
She hissed, trying to plant herself in the ice, trying to rip her arm out of it's mouth and stop it from dragging her under. She couldn't feel the teeth grinding into her mithril wrist, but she wasn't absolutely sure she couldn't still drown if it succeeded, and it looked like the Sea Wolf would. It was just bigger than her, and she was more tired from the run here than she'd been willing to admit. Too many factors not in her favor, she thought grimly as she jerked back a step and waved her sword at Ceneric and Cauren.
"I'm fine! I've got this handled!" She yelled over, giving them a quick grin before turning her grip on Non and holding the blade one-handed. She drove back a step with her right leg, keeping the Orca one shimmy away from a hole on the shifting ice. It grunted and glanced at her, crunching down harder on her arm, so hard Ko could hear one of it's teeth crack. Ko wondered if it had ever eaten a human, before remembering it was a moot point.
Blue force shimmered into being around Non, the air not humming this time but vibrating in place. Ko drove back another step, the blue glow around Non going from an oval to a sharp, focused blade of energy around the weapon. She cleaved her sword down, her eyes burning and her grip like iron, and the force the blade was channeling hurtled into the first thing it hit-
The blood, brains, and most it's skull covered the area around her, and Ko kept her stance for a moment before taking a step forward and prodding the flipper with Non's tip. When it didn't move- hard to do without a head- she turned back around and raised her arms to Cauren and Ceneric. She didn't say anything, she just grinned and gave them both a thumb's up before turning around and kneeling to clean Non with Ice chips.
When it was done, and her sword sheathed, Ko walked around the corpse with her hands on her hips and a small, satisfied smile. At the tail, she hoisted it up on her shoulders and eyed the distance between her and them. It wasn't going to be a short walk, and the whale weighed a whole lot...
I can do this. She told herself, and she did. Even after all that long-distance running, Ko's nature meant she was able to keep going. She drove her metal feet into the ice, grit her teeth, set her shoulder, and did her best not to stop moving once she'd got momentum on her side. The icy surface helped the meat slide along, and even though it left her gasping for air and on her knees at the Arctic beach, black dots in front of her vision for nearly a minute, eventually she stood up and smiled, none the worse for wear.
"Y'know, I've never really liked seafood, but for this, I'll- whoooooo-" Ko took a few deep breaths and continued. "For this, I'll give it another chance. Oh, Shark too? And Non told me that was a dumb idea... Well, let's eat!"
"I always thought I was slightly kidding you about picking me up," Cauren blinked, joking but honest at once in her not-particularly-slight awe. She had a great deal of faith in Ko, but even so, it was quite a bit of a surprising feat to see in action as opposed to talking over. The black and white beast was a good eighteen feet long and possibly did outweigh the giant girl, at, with a glance's estimation, perhaps three and a half tons. "I think you may need stronger sparring partners than I know to train more, my dear friend."
Ceneric patted down the mithril covered woman despite her reassurance, though he wasn't quite certain what he would have been able to do to help even if she did need it, before shrugging and clapping. "That was impressive. I'm sure Veovis would say Non was right, but that was worth seeing."
Between them they set about setting up a fire before Cauren pointed up. "Think Sine's gotten tired of being patient. We might have better spices on board for all this anyway, when she's done yanking ears and growling. Then we'll get you to a decent bed, Cen."
"...you were, at least, until I could actually do it. Giant-sized or not, you're never getting a half-assed hug out of me." Ko said, looking over from her place at the fire pit and up at the TARDIS. She'd let Ceneric examine her wrist, but she'd been right- between bone and Mithril there could be only one winner. "Thank you, Ceneric! I can't believe I did that! Did you see how far it- oh, well, not that far." She said, turning back to him and shrugging with a more subdued bearing.
Only her legs hurt, and she wasn't surprised after all she'd put them through. Her bones felt heavy, and they ached. Her calves were the worst of it, but they weren't screaming anymore, at least. She looked back over the Orca's corpse with a quiet pride and the warm, satisfied glow of her dull pain before turning to the siblings with a growing smile.
"I honestly didn't know if I could do that or not, but DAMN, am I glad to find out I can!.. I'm not slowing down." Ko said, holding out her right hand and looking at it's silver-white surface appreciatively. The metal shone like liquid in the firelight, but it was enough to show the designs on it's surface and how close to a real arm rather than dead metal plates it had become.
"Well, let's get boots off dirt and back to cooking. I wonder if we can deep fry a whole shark... Say this extraction was my idea, if it comes up. I'll take the blame, I'd have asked Etch to bring me here if I'd had to." She said, looking serious. "I don't want to cause trouble."
"I'd actually meant to ask, if he and you are willing, you might be alright with him going back with you and Etch. I'm not entirely certain how this will all go and I am not alright with you taking all the fire, you're my friend. He might be more happy training with friends then trying to patch things with Sine and worrying about babies to come anyway..." Cauren started, and Ceneric's eyebrow slowly lowered and rose as she talked before he folded his arms.
"Please, you don't have to on my account, Ko. I figure there are things we need to talk about anyway, we three. You aren't getting rid of me that easily."
Ko bowed her head; when she looked back up she was slightly smiling. "You're both right, of course... One day I'll learn I don't have to do everything myself. Maybe not today, but-" she snorted, looking back over at the Orca "Put at least some of the fire on my own account, then, and I suppose I'll be satisfied with that."
"So be it- guess you're coming back with me, Ceneric! Do, uh- Do you have a Shen, or something I can call Etch with, Cauren? I left mine charging in Her stockroom...."
"I believe we have something of the sort. Can the Skype reach Shens? Or holograms? I'm not entirely familiar with the limitations of such devices, merely Carol's proclivity to making lewd comments on them. -usually to amuse me, though," Cauren inquired back. "I really don't know that she meant some few concerning a lovely black haired lady of recurring and welcome acquaintance held as a dear friend and would never dare repeat them aloud to her. I'd simply die of-"
"Moving on!" briskly interrupted her sibling. "Are you certain you want to, Ko?"
Ko winked at Cauren and nodded. "It'll reach the Shens, at least. Etch did something to ours so they can accept almost any kind of communication and store numbers- but don't tell her I told you, she felt awful about fiddling with the Professor's hard work."
"Anyway, of course, Ceneric! Until you decide where you're going, I'm sure Nasennia or Etch can set you up with somewhere to stay- and if you're coming with me, I'll secure you a Hotel room for the season. Up to you, really."
"I would rather like to see what they have to say before I choose," Ceneric elected carefully, "but I equally assure you- by this beard and any honor you might believe after the things I've done- that I should love to serve as your shield if it need be, my friend. Or, if instead store clerk while you and Etch adventure, that, I suppose."
"I have never had a family. I really ought to try it, for fairness sake, before deciding against it," he peered at the opening TARDIS. "I believe it is time, though."
"On the precipice of facing the music. No good deed goes unpunished and no mischief undiscovered, as they say. But you know something, Ko? If it's not too bad, I want to show you what it is to fly," Cauren grinned with stars in her eyes and a tremble to her wrist. "It's really something, with something that knows what you want and bickers back and sings along. I suppose that's why Carol loves her organic ship so much."
She walked in, and managed not to slump her shoulders or shiver with more than the anticipation of joys to come. Not a whit of dread of punishment or scolding this time around. "Sine?" she called.
"Maybe I'll write Carol first. I would half expect our dear night stalker to pop up or- be right over there very visibly tapping a foot, or somesuch."
"You know," her sibling proposed, looking around at the surrounding foliage and fauna and sticking his tongue out in concentration while fixing his apparel more properly, "it is a time/space device. I'd be rather more surprised if there wasn't an opportunity to nip off and grab Carol while we were in a real world doing things for nearly a day than if she wasn't here already."
Cauren bopped him gently. "You'll just remind the Jumpropeman this thing exists and get him grouchy again, talking like that..."
No sooner has Cauren said that then the Skype ringtone goes off from within the TARDIS.
Speak of the devil...
"That is a very curious sound, and this is a very odd grotto for a work of man. I expected metal," Old Dog commented, and Ceneric started half again as much as Cauren had at the Skype ping signals sounding through the corridors at volumes loud enough for a giant levels away in the every shifting rooms to hear when he saw the native animal had stepped to the threshold with them. He had scarcely taken notice of the husky, but the canine merely threw him a cheeky smile and a long observing stare at Ko. "Return again, Miss Friendly Ko-Ko, if you can. It would be well to see you once more before you or I move on."
Then he was gone, as the doors sealed and Cauren bolted to click 'answer' as best her condition would allow. TARDIS seeming to be in a like mind, no swimming pools or armories appeared to obstruct her progress the way they sometimes jokingly did around Sine, no monkey rooms or hospices out of the blue, no tanks of any definition of the word. She barely had time to wave Ko on and in alongside Ceneric before she got to the screen again.
She fumbled for workable headphones while glancing between the emerging image on the call and the pair she'd brought aboard.
After a bit of a fuss, Carol's face appears on the screen. Well, most of it - it's obscured by a madly-waving hand.
"Hello? Cauren, you there? Gah, I hate space-time interference..."
"Hello, darling! I'm sorry about the interference," Cauren sympathized at the screen as expressively as a face and voice her size could at a camera. "Are you well otherwise? I- We, I suppose in due fairness- have got a bit to tell you, but how are you and Robbie and Daniel and Crusoe doing?"
"Oh, same as ever. Robbie's watching some Disney film on TV - something to do with bears, I think - and the other two are watching. Well, I say 'watching'; it's more like they fell asleep on the couch because it's a warm sunny day. I don't blame them..."
Carol yawns, hugely.
"But enough about me, eh? How's it been going on your end?"
Never one to shy away from the grit of things or blunt news, Cauren still took two seconds to try to find a way to phrase it that wouldn't terribly upset her buxom bosomed beauty. "Well, Carol, since we last spoke, we've had a little bit of trouble, but nothing that couldn't be overcome with help! And then after that we went to fix something that I should have awhile back, honestly."
"So good, on the whole. Ko and I were going to see about whether or not Orca whale can be cooked well with shark, when Ceneric is settled in again and we tell Sine that the Balrog is dead and everyone is okay."
She almost immediately ducked below the counter after reflecting maybe detail was a bad idea, but instead tried to catch the ginger's eye through the static. "It's all worked out okay, but I miss you."
"Balrog, eh?" Carol cocked an amused eyebrow. "Hope you remembered to bring the fire extinguisher. I remember saying on that movie night why they didn't just douse the fuckin' thing- oops!"
She covers her mouth and turns away, as if checking om something. Evidently, nobody heard her little linguistic screw-up, because then she relaxes and returns to the screen.
"Ah, so you picked up Ceneric. Cool. I was wondering what he was doing, up on that dog planet, and if he'd learned his lesson yet. Hope he has, ot else you wouldn't be contacting me!
"...I miss you too," she adds, after a pause and a sigh.
Cauren glanced at Ko, and visibly put her cheeks in her hands to the screen. "Fire extinguisher. I, ah, I didn't entirely think of that when I was telling Sine to get in the safety ball and fighting it the hard way, but very fortunately we hit down where we had good friends around. She saved my butt again."
"Didn't that fallen Maiar Gandalf killed keep fighting up the inside of a mountain after they landed in an underground lake before it was smitten on the mountainside?" Ceneric inquired aloud. "I need to reread those books if those are going to be real things."
"An extinguisher has clinging hardening foam, though, unlike water," his sister started, and then shrugged. "If there's a next time I'll try that first."
The white haired man waved at the sighing Texan on the screen from Earth's Las Vegas, Nevada. "Good morrow, madame Parthan."
"Darnation and tarnation, I cannot make this silly thing resolve clearer or I'd try to blow you a kiss. Maybe Sine can help with that again, but I think I'd really rather just fly back and pick you up, Carol. You two could say hi, maybe hunt or something. Or perhaps you might have something, ehem, inventive, in mind. It's been entirely too long, lover."
She scratched Fluff's ears as the large dog trotted in and claimed her lap before licking the screen in a friendly manner, not as the lesbian might just might have if they were in a lewder session and not in front of polite company to try to amuse the other with silly antics. "Down, sweet thing."
Carol seems to groan and roll her eyes at the mention of the Safety Ball. It's clear she never did like that invention. "Well, just... try not to let another one in. God knows, cinders are a nightmare to scrub off of metal. Hi, Ceneric. And hey there, Fluff~"
Cauren vaguely hears some silly coochy-coo noises from behind Fluff, before she can finally pry the Leowolf away from the screen. Then, at the mention of being picked up, a smile crosses the Texan's face.
"Yeah... a pick-up sounds nice. Not had much to do down here, apart from the usual routine. I need a bit of an adventure to spice things up, right now..."
Oh, dear, it's the eyebrows.
"...bonjour, Carol!" Ko said, walking into full range of the screen with a smile and a raised hand. "It's good to see you again. I hope all is well back on the home front."
"I'd figured Ceneric could use the assist-" she nodded toward him. "-so I went and retrieved him. Truth be told, I expected things to be more dire. When those dogs started talking, I almost laughed with relief."
"So, how're you? How're thi- oh, y'know, we could pick you up." Ko said, starting to grin. "I wouldn't mind some more adventure myself! I'm sure there's something out there us three or four can hunt down. It's been too long since my last dungeon crawl..."
"Is it named that because that is how one is to move, or because it might be something of a slough before one is free?" Ceneric tilted his head at the term 'dungeon crawl', but shrugged and nodded. "I appreciate the assistance a great deal, again. Thank you. Truly, Ko. The adventure of actually managing to down these giant water animals will sate my tastes in more than one sense for now, though."
"So a pick up might serve as a mutual pick-me-up, as Sine puts it?" Cauren quipped, and stuck out her tongue. "All we'll need is to do it, then."
Sine: Does whatever a spider can..
It was around then that the TARDIS door slammed shut. Something to remember about the TARDIS: Its trademark sounds are due to age and misuse. So the fact that the engine of Sine and co's TARDIS immediately started making those sounds was...somewhat indicative of something not good
Well, could be worse
The Cloister Bell could be ringing
Cauren had not yet entirely versed herself in the lore of Sine's favored television history, but she did know that machines making unpleasant noises, particularly machines that made a point of getting their operators' attentions and compliance, were not at all signs of anything welcome. "Carol? I need to go check something out. I'll be back if the call doesn't drop or Sine doesn't kill me or the ship doesn't blow..."
Patting her companions briskly, she stepped off to go and check the user input consoles on the bridge before the engines. Maybe she would say what was going on, or a diagnostic would.
IAMNOTADARNSCOOP
The mind within the Eye of Time wasn't pleased.
GODOWNTOTHEENGINESSOTHEDUMBGIRLDOESNTKILLHERSELF
Carol groaned. "Well, make it quick. Otherwise Daniel will wake up and be hungry, and then I'll have to go shopping again..."
"Scoop...?"
Nonetheless, the mind's bellowing and the grave tone of its impartment otherwise sent the pregnant woman bustling down again for the engines as Ceneric folded his hands in front of the camera and peered at Carol. "Would you care for shark, or orca, should we arrive without first encountering some manner of unfortunate occasion? However does one cook them?"
Taking a set of service stairs, Cauren peered into the first awning of the engines. "Hello?"
WATCHOUTFORTHECHRONOECHOZOMBIES
Oh, hello
This is staggering Cauren's way
ACTUALLYJUSTRUN
"TARDIS? Quarantine that, please?" she lunged, seized an extinguisher, and popped it open at the shaking thing. "Where exactly is 'the girl'? Where am I running to away from these?"
"Or when? If it's when?"
The door slams shut
SHESINTHEEYE (Of Harmony)GOTHERESOTHOSEECHOESDONTHAPPEN
Cauren hears shifting behind her. Good news is, she's got a path. Bad news is, now Ceneric and Ko are cut off from her and stuck in the main chamber.
Oh look here come more things staggering into said chamber
Ceneric folded his hands in front of the camera and peered at Carol. "Would you care for shark, or orca, should we arrive without first encountering some manner of unfortunate occasion? However does one cook them?|
"Orca, please. I tried shark once before - it was like boiled boot leather. Ugh." Carol shifts about in her seat, grimacing at the memory. "So... you alright there, Ceneric? Dog planet treat you alright?"
[4/21/2016 5:08:33 AM] Legend Maker: (Cue comedy of Ko beating up time zombies in the background Of Ceneric's call)
"Carol, do you know perchance anything that might deter whatever that is?" Ceneric tried to point the static filled screen at the time zombies as Ko worked, and made a face. "I might have known. The dog planet had some good aspects. Has the Earth treated you well- gahh. No, no touch."
Carol wishes she wasn't looking at the time zombies right now. Then again, who would want to? "...I put something together some time ago. I think I left it under the desk. I dunno if it'll do much, but it'll hold them off for a bit."
"Oh, yeah. Hi, Ko. Sorry, kinda forgot you were there. You okay there?"
[4/21/2016 5:14:45 AM] Legend Maker: (Ko: I'M A LITTLE BUSY RIGHT NOW!)
Cauren made her way along the path and approached the Eye of Harmony. "I can't quite see in there, TARDIS. Is she trying to accomplish something in there?"
BRACEYOURSELF
A door opens.
You know how in movies, people will stand over and right next to lava with no effect? Like convection doesn't exist? Well, this is that to the extreme. A platform in an unfathomably massive room holding this. There's Sine, battering on the computer keypads there like they owe her money
"CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!" Cauren yelped, and then shook her head. "Sorry. Sorry. I assumed if we ever had a situation involving you doing crazy things and lava, we'd have come across the One Ring somehow after all. ... Bad timing."
"Sine? What are you -doing-?" She tried to catch at her girlfriend's arm and winced at the chamber.
Sine: Oh, hello Cauren! Have you been down here yet?
Sine: This is amazing! It's an exploding star in the midst of becoming a black hole! Frozen in time!
Sine: This machine rips stars from its orbit, renders them in a permanent state of decay!
Sine: It uses the potential energy to power the machine! Amazing! Also we REALLY shouldn't be down here exposed!
Sine: You need to go now I'm a little busy!
Sine: OW!
Sine does not seem to have been struck or harmed, though she acts like she has been. But she shrugs it off and goes back to work
"Honey, there's time zombies and TARDIS is making very very angry noises like you're kicking her where the sun doesn't shine with hobnailed boots, and Carol is going to be very grumpy if you kill us all by accident. Ko's over. She might need help with making dinner from the whale. Please... step... away... from there, and come back up with me," Cauren tried the reasonable and not simply picking up route. "Come here, you."
Sine: NOT JUST YET! The heck are time zombies?! -it's like watching someone play a piano that they hate-
Sine: I kinda....got some foreign material....in the engine!
Ko shook the pieces of a zombie off her fist and stood back to survey the area. Things weren't looking too good, but they could have been worse. The door opening had worried her, but after peaking in she'd immediately looked away. Not her kind of battlefield.
She drew Non and got ready to hold position.
Sine: OW!
Another phantom pain. Then a box walks by Ko....
"What precisely did you get in there?" the baffled girl asked. "Why were you even -down- here? Is this how the Balrog got in?"
-Back at Zombieland
"Hang on, I think I got the remote for it, actually..." A scrabbling noise from the screen. Anyone looking at it now would mostly see Carol's feet - where the hell is she even going?
Ceneric made a face at the feet even as he tried antimagic to support Ko, though he doubted it would work on the temporal anomalies. Her fist seemed to well enough, though, so the giant set to behind her. "Well. That didn't take long."
He crushed in a head between his palms. "The finding adventure together, I mean."
-Back in Engine
Sine: I ran here, because of a job, and no!
The inside of the room is like being on the outskirts of a hurricane and a wildfire-
Sine: Cauren dear, how much time is on the clock?
[4/21/2016 5:26:14 AM] Legend Maker: -27 seconds-
Sine: That could be better!
Sine: OW! That one smarted....
"TARDIS? What is she doing and is it helping or hurting?" Cauren finally asked the rather larger partner again, eyeing the sun with continued dismay. "Oh, for the love of all."
She knelt to grasp at the smaller redhead. "Let's go. Where does it hurt? I'll kiss it better and I'll get Carol to make you something nice. Just- whatever this is-"
-Back at Zombieland
"Alright, I found it!" Carol re-emerged, holding what looks like... a phone? "Now, how did this go again?"
Beep, bloop... Click.
"Turn it three times..."
And then this thing suddenly flew out from a compartment somewhere in the TARDIS, spinning like a top as it rushed to catch up with the others. But the surprise didn't stop there, as it then proceeded to grow in size, then unfold itself like a Rubik's Cube gone awry.
The size of a small pony and much bulkier, Cube Elephant trumpets as it advances, blasting at the Chrono Zombies with jets of water from it's trunk in an attempt to force them back and away from the engine room.
"Surpriiiiiise~!"
"All things in their own time, right?" Ko snorted. "Alright, you and I will kill every one that moves toward the entrance. There's nothing we can do in there-" she jerked her head behind her, Into the temporal room- "so we'll make do!"
This is not good.
So I can see. Ko thought back grumpily to her sword.
"...I hope Cauren can grab her." Muttered Ko, lunging forward to cleave down through a zombie in front of her.
"Cubical elephants AND time zombies. I need more drugs after all. I thought Courier was kidding when he said there would be days like these," Ceneric stared at Carol's aid and the enemy, but smiled despite his sardonic tone. "Thank you kindly."
"He does tricks, too! Like balancing on a ball!" Carol cheers.
-Back in Engine
Sine: OW! OW! OW! OW!
Sine: This job was a bad idea...-near to collapse-
Cauren shook her head with frustration. "WHAT job? Whatever is worth this???"
Her caution something at an end, she picked up the scientist by the scruff of her neck and collar and tucked her into the top of her own bust under Ensemble before glaring at the panel. "Now. Again. TARDIS. Is this better," she glanced at the timer, "or worse?"
As if on cue, a box flies out of the trapped star, clattering on the platform
Sine:...diss'll do...get box get out....
-7 Seconds-
The walls were made of light and stars, and Ko could see behind them all.
She drove forward, letting Ceneric have her side as she hurtled Non out again and again in devastating, zombie-crunching blows, her teeth grit and her arms always moving.
"We aren't going to die here!" She yelled, to herself, Non, and anyone who could hear her.
"More obsessive than normal," the white haired girl slouched, although not quite enough for the other to slip out as she shouted about the box. "Alright. If I trust you and pick up this box, we run out, things are okay?"
She seized it carefully and toddled for the stairs again. "We are going to have words, especially if this does kill us all. I suspect that would just annoy Ko. And Carol would chew your head off in front of Hel for forever when she came to pick us up."
Hurling the box ahead of her, she tried to seal the engine room again from the outside.
That, fortunately, was easy. The second the door shut, every single time zombie literally blinked out of existence.
Sine:.......you people.....hit hard.
Ko blinked and lowed Non slowly, looking around for any signs of movement. When there were none forthcoming, she advanced to Cauren and kept up her guard, just in case. "I think we need to either abandon ship or fix whatever the problem is. I don't like our chances outside, but in here we're sitting and waiting for a malfunction to kill us all. What do you three think? Is Sine... Alright?"
Ko's eyes narrowed. "Wait, did she do this?"
Sine: A little bit....urrrgghhhh I need some painkillers....
"They do tend to," Cauren considered shifting her lady out of the makeshift and perchance awkward 'prison', and listened to Ko's question as she did. "I don't entirely know if she's alright, but it seems she did. Something about a box in the middle of the engine and a job she isn't elaborating on.
"Sine, TARDIS, please explain? I think Ko and Carol deserve one. Carol? Oh hey, the static cleared. Hello, sweet- angry..."
Carol shrugged. "I'm pretty sure the TARDIS just wanted Sine out of that room. Trust me, we'd know if anything worse was going to happen. And those time zombies are gone, so that's a bonus.
"Alright, Number Four, stand down. And fetch some painkillers."
With an obliging trumpet, the elephant waddles away in search of the medicine cabinet.
"...Now, Sine." Carol folded her arms and scowled. "Explain. Or else I'll sic the gorilla on you. And he's not finished, so the sight of all those trailing wires and exposed frames is going to traumatize Cauren as well. Which I don't want. So TALK."
Sine: Well they shoved me in the box 8[
Sine: And I was mad. -semi babbling- Then I got out.
Sine: And they were gone. So I went to find some way to be mad constructively.
Sine: Dawn calls up, hello mother, I'm looking for something, mind helping me?
Sine: So I go to help her and next thing I know there's Varsavarti stuck in our engines.
Sine: We gotta find some way to get it out....
"...Varsavarti?" Ko asked, with a blank look.
Sine: Varsavarti, also known as Mara, also known as Papiyan, the Wicked One, The Tempter, the Murderer. The Buddhist concept of Satan. Dunno if he she it matches that, but it sure read like a Ruinous Power so....maybe?
"Uuuurgh." Carol facepalms. "Typical stupid Sine. One of these days, I'm going to tie you down before we set off, so you don't do shit like this again."
Cube Elephant comes back, carrying water and pills on a tray on the end of it's trunk. It offers them to Sine.
Sine probably gulps more than the amount recommended on the bottle
"...please tell me Sine isn't saying we're all going to die." Ko said quietly and calmly. She looked away and put her hand over her face, taking a few deep breaths and turning back around. "...I'm more and more happy to have you here, Carol." She said, sheathing Non across her back and sighing.
"Oh, Sine. Sine, I'm sorry for shoving you in the box. I wanted to make sure it didn't hurt you. I didn't mean to make you mad, I just wanted to be sure a Balrog didn't impale my loverly. It still got me in the throat even with Ko's help," Cauren let her free gingerly to take the meds and fixed her top. "I don't know what Dawn wanted with another Ruinous Power, but we'll get rid of it..."
She kissed the madwoman's head and shook her own. "Ko, do you have any ideas for getting rid of Concepts? Will stabbing it work again? Carol?"
Sine: Well it's kinda stuck in the engines so it can't go anywhere for now.
Sine: But I don't wanna a Warp God lite stuck in my engines
Sine: And Dawn didn't want anything to do with Varsasarti
Sine: She wanted this.
Sine: -manages to open the box-
Sine: The Cintamani Stone.
Carol winced. "Probably not. Concepts are funny like that - they like to bullshit their way out of being harmed. You gotta trick them, play mind games so they backfire on themselves. Works in all the movies I saw, at least.
"Ooh, pretty. What does that do?"
Sine: You know the Philosopher's Stone concept?
Carol nodded. "Yep"
Sine: Oriental equivalent.
Sine: It represents Buddhist values and teachings...and supposedly can grant wishes, but I dunno, that might just be legend stuff.
"...Sine, NO. I thought we agreed - no more all-powerful objects! We blew up all the ones you had before, remember? Don't make me have to do that again!" Carol very loudly protested.
Sine: It's not for me! Dawn wanted it.
"TARDIS? Are you going to be alright with that removed? I feel like our reality altering friend might just object to a reality altering object being removed from the engine room. I really do. ..." the white haired pilot asked at their surrounding partner.
Sine: And I have no idea if it does that. I wanted to study it.
Ko shrugged. "If it bleeds, I can kill it. Remember... well, what I told you on the way to Ceneric?" Ko asked Cauren with a dark look. "If we have no other option, that can be our nuclear plan. Because if we end up doing that, I have a feeling nothing is going to survive.
"Alright, Sine. Let's cut to it, how do we destroy what's in the engines? Chuck the stone through it's head, or something easy and simple?... It's not, is it."
[4/21/2016 6:03:44 AM] Legend Maker: The TARDIS basically complains about the Stone like it's an unwanted guest.
Sine: The Stone doesn't belong to that thing. It was lost.
Sine: Dawn and I found it. We were gonna borrow it and put it back.
"So, no? Damnit." Ko continued to clench her fist.
Sine: But it seems when mortal hands touch the darn stone it set off an alarm bell for WHATEVER that thing was
Sine: And it came snapping at our heels.
Sine: I didn't know that was going to happen! There was nothing about it in any legends or whatnot!
Sine: How did I know the magic stone would wake up the devil?
-Sine is getting groggy-
"Because... that happens all the time? Seriously, watch a fucking movie!" Carol is starting to lose her temper. Uh-oh.
"...You could've left well enough alone." Ko said. "If this is it, I hope it was worth it."
"Also, what Ko said. I mean, really?" Carol double-took.
Sine: I dunno how to get Varrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sine: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
If it makes Carol feel any better, it becomes clear that every time you took care of a time zombie, you basically punched Sine in the face.
"Alright. Alright. Let's have a moment to think here. I'll gather up the sleepy butt here. We'll see about ejecting Satan and then getting rid of the darn rock, either with Dawn or by another means. TARDIS? Can we still make the flight to get Carol under these conditions?" Cauren asked again aloud, as she did so.
Ceneric looked at the sleeping body on his sister's lap with something of sadness and leaned against the Orca corpse. "I almost thought I was going to get a cooked dinner for a moment there stepping aboard, you know."
"Hey, I got a turbo-charged oven over here. I can cook an Orca in it no problem! Hell, I cooked a dinosaur in it once - that was quite the party." Carol reminisced.
"Sounds good to me, Cauren. Let me know what I can do." Ko said with a nod, heading over to the oven to give it a quick once-over. She turned around with her hands on her hips and gave a thumb's up to Ceneric.
"Fortune favors the bold! Help me shove this thing in here, would you? My legs are killing me." Ko chuckled, setting to dragging the Orca into the oven. "Carol- what did I ever do without you-"
"Not much." Carol sticks her tongue out at Ko. "Welcome to the modern era - where the culinary arts are out of control.
"...plus, I have booze." The technopath rubs a hand to her temple, sighing irritably. "Trust me, after the shit that's happened so far, I need it."
Using Ensemble to type coordinate timespace while Ceneric helped and she looked back and forth between screen, keys, levers, screens, and dear things, Cauren set a course and took the TARDIS' silence for normality being restored. Well, such as it was. She had little doubt it would be Utterly Bizarre Circumstance for someone else's life, but here it was something of a downtime despite the seething. Her own hands stroked at Sine, mostly thumbs along her hair and spine, and she snorted to herself. "Two demons in the space of one day. Oh, you silly thing, you, you've really given us a devil of a time, haven't you?
"Er... Carol, you might want to push the couch to the side. I'm aiming for the yard, but I don't know how it'll revert with the, ah, unforeseen factors to compensate for and all. We should be there almost before you hear this, though. ..."
"Alright, but I'll have to try and not wake the others. See you lot in a bit!"
With that, Carol ends the call.
"It is a name we will remember fondly, then, Ko Ko Ophelin," the Old Dog smiled once more.
"Happy hunting to you. I do not believe the walk back will be quite so long, if the engines I hear are from your kith or kin."
Ceneric peered at the water. "How does one lure a Sea Wolf, exactly?"
Ko help up a finger and turned to say something to Ceneric, but she was coming blank. She turned around to the water and pointed over it with Non. "Come up here, you blubbery bastard, or I'm coming in there!"
"...I didn't expect that to work." She joked, sheathing Non and unbuckling her breastplate. She removed the armor and set it beside her, stretching her shoulders and then lifting the black tank-top she had on underneath to the part of her stomach she caught swords in. After stopping and picking up a piece of ice, she turned it's point in her hand and sighed.
"Now this- THIS I expect to work." She said, digging the ice into her torso and clenching her jaw not to wince. It wasn't a deep wound, or even a particularly bad one, but it bled like any other. Ko knelt down and put her hand to her side, washing it in the water and adding more blood to the tide every few moments. The cold she couldn't feel helped numb what little pain there was. Non was gripped tight in her left hand: if an Orca rushed her from the ice, she wanted to be ready to to come to grips as soon as she could.
"...What'cha doin'?" asked a Cocker Spaniel.
"Fishing, what does it look like?" Ko asked, laughing a little.
Eventually Ko stood back up and sighed, cleaning her gauntlet one last time and buckling her armor back on. "Well, either it doesn't care that something up here is bleeding and injured, it remembers what happened last time, or maybe... I wonder if the smell of my blood scared it away?" She mused, looking out across the flow.
"They're not sharks, miss Ko Ko. It's not gonna shoot at ya just because there's a little blood in the water." The Spaniel supplied. Ko raised an eyebrow at him. "You gotta get where he's at! He's not comin' to you!"
"Good point. Well, guess I'm going out there after all!" Ko snorted, stomping across the ice and doing her best to give the impression of being a flat footed idiot. The Orca would never suspect a thing...
Sure enough, this time, it sprang upward in a massive arc of sparkling crystal shattering in the sun and water spraying in rainbow misting patterns all about the ice, just in front of where her feet would land, trying to catch her up and toss her as it might a sea lion in the deadly play before the kill. Although a shark did come up to where she was first bleeding, rather to its disappointment, one must feel, for it found nothing but steel hands yanking it ashore. Two sets of them, in fact. Ko's kill, when she scored it, would appear to have side steaks.
"Are you going to be alright, Ko?" Ceneric yelped, despite remembering about her very enduring nature and being in the midst of punching the hound shark.
Ko leapt forward, trying to meet it's charge and check it. She gripped Non tightly as the soft white aura of True Strike made the air hum. She lunged in and hammered it hard with a downward blow, drawing blood- but it wasn't stopping. Ko hurtled another blow out, but it was too late, it was too close- the Orca crunched it's bite down on her left arm, it's teeth making a low scraping sound.
She hissed, trying to plant herself in the ice, trying to rip her arm out of it's mouth and stop it from dragging her under. She couldn't feel the teeth grinding into her mithril wrist, but she wasn't absolutely sure she couldn't still drown if it succeeded, and it looked like the Sea Wolf would. It was just bigger than her, and she was more tired from the run here than she'd been willing to admit. Too many factors not in her favor, she thought grimly as she jerked back a step and waved her sword at Ceneric and Cauren.
"I'm fine! I've got this handled!" She yelled over, giving them a quick grin before turning her grip on Non and holding the blade one-handed. She drove back a step with her right leg, keeping the Orca one shimmy away from a hole on the shifting ice. It grunted and glanced at her, crunching down harder on her arm, so hard Ko could hear one of it's teeth crack. Ko wondered if it had ever eaten a human, before remembering it was a moot point.
Blue force shimmered into being around Non, the air not humming this time but vibrating in place. Ko drove back another step, the blue glow around Non going from an oval to a sharp, focused blade of energy around the weapon. She cleaved her sword down, her eyes burning and her grip like iron, and the force the blade was channeling hurtled into the first thing it hit-
The blood, brains, and most it's skull covered the area around her, and Ko kept her stance for a moment before taking a step forward and prodding the flipper with Non's tip. When it didn't move- hard to do without a head- she turned back around and raised her arms to Cauren and Ceneric. She didn't say anything, she just grinned and gave them both a thumb's up before turning around and kneeling to clean Non with Ice chips.
When it was done, and her sword sheathed, Ko walked around the corpse with her hands on her hips and a small, satisfied smile. At the tail, she hoisted it up on her shoulders and eyed the distance between her and them. It wasn't going to be a short walk, and the whale weighed a whole lot...
I can do this. She told herself, and she did. Even after all that long-distance running, Ko's nature meant she was able to keep going. She drove her metal feet into the ice, grit her teeth, set her shoulder, and did her best not to stop moving once she'd got momentum on her side. The icy surface helped the meat slide along, and even though it left her gasping for air and on her knees at the Arctic beach, black dots in front of her vision for nearly a minute, eventually she stood up and smiled, none the worse for wear.
"Y'know, I've never really liked seafood, but for this, I'll- whoooooo-" Ko took a few deep breaths and continued. "For this, I'll give it another chance. Oh, Shark too? And Non told me that was a dumb idea... Well, let's eat!"
"I always thought I was slightly kidding you about picking me up," Cauren blinked, joking but honest at once in her not-particularly-slight awe. She had a great deal of faith in Ko, but even so, it was quite a bit of a surprising feat to see in action as opposed to talking over. The black and white beast was a good eighteen feet long and possibly did outweigh the giant girl, at, with a glance's estimation, perhaps three and a half tons. "I think you may need stronger sparring partners than I know to train more, my dear friend."
Ceneric patted down the mithril covered woman despite her reassurance, though he wasn't quite certain what he would have been able to do to help even if she did need it, before shrugging and clapping. "That was impressive. I'm sure Veovis would say Non was right, but that was worth seeing."
Between them they set about setting up a fire before Cauren pointed up. "Think Sine's gotten tired of being patient. We might have better spices on board for all this anyway, when she's done yanking ears and growling. Then we'll get you to a decent bed, Cen."
"...you were, at least, until I could actually do it. Giant-sized or not, you're never getting a half-assed hug out of me." Ko said, looking over from her place at the fire pit and up at the TARDIS. She'd let Ceneric examine her wrist, but she'd been right- between bone and Mithril there could be only one winner. "Thank you, Ceneric! I can't believe I did that! Did you see how far it- oh, well, not that far." She said, turning back to him and shrugging with a more subdued bearing.
Only her legs hurt, and she wasn't surprised after all she'd put them through. Her bones felt heavy, and they ached. Her calves were the worst of it, but they weren't screaming anymore, at least. She looked back over the Orca's corpse with a quiet pride and the warm, satisfied glow of her dull pain before turning to the siblings with a growing smile.
"I honestly didn't know if I could do that or not, but DAMN, am I glad to find out I can!.. I'm not slowing down." Ko said, holding out her right hand and looking at it's silver-white surface appreciatively. The metal shone like liquid in the firelight, but it was enough to show the designs on it's surface and how close to a real arm rather than dead metal plates it had become.
"Well, let's get boots off dirt and back to cooking. I wonder if we can deep fry a whole shark... Say this extraction was my idea, if it comes up. I'll take the blame, I'd have asked Etch to bring me here if I'd had to." She said, looking serious. "I don't want to cause trouble."
"I'd actually meant to ask, if he and you are willing, you might be alright with him going back with you and Etch. I'm not entirely certain how this will all go and I am not alright with you taking all the fire, you're my friend. He might be more happy training with friends then trying to patch things with Sine and worrying about babies to come anyway..." Cauren started, and Ceneric's eyebrow slowly lowered and rose as she talked before he folded his arms.
"Please, you don't have to on my account, Ko. I figure there are things we need to talk about anyway, we three. You aren't getting rid of me that easily."
Ko bowed her head; when she looked back up she was slightly smiling. "You're both right, of course... One day I'll learn I don't have to do everything myself. Maybe not today, but-" she snorted, looking back over at the Orca "Put at least some of the fire on my own account, then, and I suppose I'll be satisfied with that."
"So be it- guess you're coming back with me, Ceneric! Do, uh- Do you have a Shen, or something I can call Etch with, Cauren? I left mine charging in Her stockroom...."
"I believe we have something of the sort. Can the Skype reach Shens? Or holograms? I'm not entirely familiar with the limitations of such devices, merely Carol's proclivity to making lewd comments on them. -usually to amuse me, though," Cauren inquired back. "I really don't know that she meant some few concerning a lovely black haired lady of recurring and welcome acquaintance held as a dear friend and would never dare repeat them aloud to her. I'd simply die of-"
"Moving on!" briskly interrupted her sibling. "Are you certain you want to, Ko?"
Ko winked at Cauren and nodded. "It'll reach the Shens, at least. Etch did something to ours so they can accept almost any kind of communication and store numbers- but don't tell her I told you, she felt awful about fiddling with the Professor's hard work."
"Anyway, of course, Ceneric! Until you decide where you're going, I'm sure Nasennia or Etch can set you up with somewhere to stay- and if you're coming with me, I'll secure you a Hotel room for the season. Up to you, really."
"I would rather like to see what they have to say before I choose," Ceneric elected carefully, "but I equally assure you- by this beard and any honor you might believe after the things I've done- that I should love to serve as your shield if it need be, my friend. Or, if instead store clerk while you and Etch adventure, that, I suppose."
"I have never had a family. I really ought to try it, for fairness sake, before deciding against it," he peered at the opening TARDIS. "I believe it is time, though."
"On the precipice of facing the music. No good deed goes unpunished and no mischief undiscovered, as they say. But you know something, Ko? If it's not too bad, I want to show you what it is to fly," Cauren grinned with stars in her eyes and a tremble to her wrist. "It's really something, with something that knows what you want and bickers back and sings along. I suppose that's why Carol loves her organic ship so much."
She walked in, and managed not to slump her shoulders or shiver with more than the anticipation of joys to come. Not a whit of dread of punishment or scolding this time around. "Sine?" she called.
"Maybe I'll write Carol first. I would half expect our dear night stalker to pop up or- be right over there very visibly tapping a foot, or somesuch."
"You know," her sibling proposed, looking around at the surrounding foliage and fauna and sticking his tongue out in concentration while fixing his apparel more properly, "it is a time/space device. I'd be rather more surprised if there wasn't an opportunity to nip off and grab Carol while we were in a real world doing things for nearly a day than if she wasn't here already."
Cauren bopped him gently. "You'll just remind the Jumpropeman this thing exists and get him grouchy again, talking like that..."
No sooner has Cauren said that then the Skype ringtone goes off from within the TARDIS.
Speak of the devil...
"That is a very curious sound, and this is a very odd grotto for a work of man. I expected metal," Old Dog commented, and Ceneric started half again as much as Cauren had at the Skype ping signals sounding through the corridors at volumes loud enough for a giant levels away in the every shifting rooms to hear when he saw the native animal had stepped to the threshold with them. He had scarcely taken notice of the husky, but the canine merely threw him a cheeky smile and a long observing stare at Ko. "Return again, Miss Friendly Ko-Ko, if you can. It would be well to see you once more before you or I move on."
Then he was gone, as the doors sealed and Cauren bolted to click 'answer' as best her condition would allow. TARDIS seeming to be in a like mind, no swimming pools or armories appeared to obstruct her progress the way they sometimes jokingly did around Sine, no monkey rooms or hospices out of the blue, no tanks of any definition of the word. She barely had time to wave Ko on and in alongside Ceneric before she got to the screen again.
She fumbled for workable headphones while glancing between the emerging image on the call and the pair she'd brought aboard.
After a bit of a fuss, Carol's face appears on the screen. Well, most of it - it's obscured by a madly-waving hand.
"Hello? Cauren, you there? Gah, I hate space-time interference..."
"Hello, darling! I'm sorry about the interference," Cauren sympathized at the screen as expressively as a face and voice her size could at a camera. "Are you well otherwise? I- We, I suppose in due fairness- have got a bit to tell you, but how are you and Robbie and Daniel and Crusoe doing?"
"Oh, same as ever. Robbie's watching some Disney film on TV - something to do with bears, I think - and the other two are watching. Well, I say 'watching'; it's more like they fell asleep on the couch because it's a warm sunny day. I don't blame them..."
Carol yawns, hugely.
"But enough about me, eh? How's it been going on your end?"
Never one to shy away from the grit of things or blunt news, Cauren still took two seconds to try to find a way to phrase it that wouldn't terribly upset her buxom bosomed beauty. "Well, Carol, since we last spoke, we've had a little bit of trouble, but nothing that couldn't be overcome with help! And then after that we went to fix something that I should have awhile back, honestly."
"So good, on the whole. Ko and I were going to see about whether or not Orca whale can be cooked well with shark, when Ceneric is settled in again and we tell Sine that the Balrog is dead and everyone is okay."
She almost immediately ducked below the counter after reflecting maybe detail was a bad idea, but instead tried to catch the ginger's eye through the static. "It's all worked out okay, but I miss you."
"Balrog, eh?" Carol cocked an amused eyebrow. "Hope you remembered to bring the fire extinguisher. I remember saying on that movie night why they didn't just douse the fuckin' thing- oops!"
She covers her mouth and turns away, as if checking om something. Evidently, nobody heard her little linguistic screw-up, because then she relaxes and returns to the screen.
"Ah, so you picked up Ceneric. Cool. I was wondering what he was doing, up on that dog planet, and if he'd learned his lesson yet. Hope he has, ot else you wouldn't be contacting me!
"...I miss you too," she adds, after a pause and a sigh.
Cauren glanced at Ko, and visibly put her cheeks in her hands to the screen. "Fire extinguisher. I, ah, I didn't entirely think of that when I was telling Sine to get in the safety ball and fighting it the hard way, but very fortunately we hit down where we had good friends around. She saved my butt again."
"Didn't that fallen Maiar Gandalf killed keep fighting up the inside of a mountain after they landed in an underground lake before it was smitten on the mountainside?" Ceneric inquired aloud. "I need to reread those books if those are going to be real things."
"An extinguisher has clinging hardening foam, though, unlike water," his sister started, and then shrugged. "If there's a next time I'll try that first."
The white haired man waved at the sighing Texan on the screen from Earth's Las Vegas, Nevada. "Good morrow, madame Parthan."
"Darnation and tarnation, I cannot make this silly thing resolve clearer or I'd try to blow you a kiss. Maybe Sine can help with that again, but I think I'd really rather just fly back and pick you up, Carol. You two could say hi, maybe hunt or something. Or perhaps you might have something, ehem, inventive, in mind. It's been entirely too long, lover."
She scratched Fluff's ears as the large dog trotted in and claimed her lap before licking the screen in a friendly manner, not as the lesbian might just might have if they were in a lewder session and not in front of polite company to try to amuse the other with silly antics. "Down, sweet thing."
Carol seems to groan and roll her eyes at the mention of the Safety Ball. It's clear she never did like that invention. "Well, just... try not to let another one in. God knows, cinders are a nightmare to scrub off of metal. Hi, Ceneric. And hey there, Fluff~"
Cauren vaguely hears some silly coochy-coo noises from behind Fluff, before she can finally pry the Leowolf away from the screen. Then, at the mention of being picked up, a smile crosses the Texan's face.
"Yeah... a pick-up sounds nice. Not had much to do down here, apart from the usual routine. I need a bit of an adventure to spice things up, right now..."
Oh, dear, it's the eyebrows.
"...bonjour, Carol!" Ko said, walking into full range of the screen with a smile and a raised hand. "It's good to see you again. I hope all is well back on the home front."
"I'd figured Ceneric could use the assist-" she nodded toward him. "-so I went and retrieved him. Truth be told, I expected things to be more dire. When those dogs started talking, I almost laughed with relief."
"So, how're you? How're thi- oh, y'know, we could pick you up." Ko said, starting to grin. "I wouldn't mind some more adventure myself! I'm sure there's something out there us three or four can hunt down. It's been too long since my last dungeon crawl..."
"Is it named that because that is how one is to move, or because it might be something of a slough before one is free?" Ceneric tilted his head at the term 'dungeon crawl', but shrugged and nodded. "I appreciate the assistance a great deal, again. Thank you. Truly, Ko. The adventure of actually managing to down these giant water animals will sate my tastes in more than one sense for now, though."
"So a pick up might serve as a mutual pick-me-up, as Sine puts it?" Cauren quipped, and stuck out her tongue. "All we'll need is to do it, then."
Sine: Does whatever a spider can..
It was around then that the TARDIS door slammed shut. Something to remember about the TARDIS: Its trademark sounds are due to age and misuse. So the fact that the engine of Sine and co's TARDIS immediately started making those sounds was...somewhat indicative of something not good
Well, could be worse
The Cloister Bell could be ringing
Cauren had not yet entirely versed herself in the lore of Sine's favored television history, but she did know that machines making unpleasant noises, particularly machines that made a point of getting their operators' attentions and compliance, were not at all signs of anything welcome. "Carol? I need to go check something out. I'll be back if the call doesn't drop or Sine doesn't kill me or the ship doesn't blow..."
Patting her companions briskly, she stepped off to go and check the user input consoles on the bridge before the engines. Maybe she would say what was going on, or a diagnostic would.
IAMNOTADARNSCOOP
The mind within the Eye of Time wasn't pleased.
GODOWNTOTHEENGINESSOTHEDUMBGIRLDOESNTKILLHERSELF
Carol groaned. "Well, make it quick. Otherwise Daniel will wake up and be hungry, and then I'll have to go shopping again..."
"Scoop...?"
Nonetheless, the mind's bellowing and the grave tone of its impartment otherwise sent the pregnant woman bustling down again for the engines as Ceneric folded his hands in front of the camera and peered at Carol. "Would you care for shark, or orca, should we arrive without first encountering some manner of unfortunate occasion? However does one cook them?"
Taking a set of service stairs, Cauren peered into the first awning of the engines. "Hello?"
WATCHOUTFORTHECHRONOECHOZOMBIES
Oh, hello
This is staggering Cauren's way
ACTUALLYJUSTRUN
"TARDIS? Quarantine that, please?" she lunged, seized an extinguisher, and popped it open at the shaking thing. "Where exactly is 'the girl'? Where am I running to away from these?"
"Or when? If it's when?"
The door slams shut
SHESINTHEEYE (Of Harmony)GOTHERESOTHOSEECHOESDONTHAPPEN
Cauren hears shifting behind her. Good news is, she's got a path. Bad news is, now Ceneric and Ko are cut off from her and stuck in the main chamber.
Oh look here come more things staggering into said chamber
Ceneric folded his hands in front of the camera and peered at Carol. "Would you care for shark, or orca, should we arrive without first encountering some manner of unfortunate occasion? However does one cook them?|
"Orca, please. I tried shark once before - it was like boiled boot leather. Ugh." Carol shifts about in her seat, grimacing at the memory. "So... you alright there, Ceneric? Dog planet treat you alright?"
[4/21/2016 5:08:33 AM] Legend Maker: (Cue comedy of Ko beating up time zombies in the background Of Ceneric's call)
"Carol, do you know perchance anything that might deter whatever that is?" Ceneric tried to point the static filled screen at the time zombies as Ko worked, and made a face. "I might have known. The dog planet had some good aspects. Has the Earth treated you well- gahh. No, no touch."
Carol wishes she wasn't looking at the time zombies right now. Then again, who would want to? "...I put something together some time ago. I think I left it under the desk. I dunno if it'll do much, but it'll hold them off for a bit."
"Oh, yeah. Hi, Ko. Sorry, kinda forgot you were there. You okay there?"
[4/21/2016 5:14:45 AM] Legend Maker: (Ko: I'M A LITTLE BUSY RIGHT NOW!)
Cauren made her way along the path and approached the Eye of Harmony. "I can't quite see in there, TARDIS. Is she trying to accomplish something in there?"
BRACEYOURSELF
A door opens.
You know how in movies, people will stand over and right next to lava with no effect? Like convection doesn't exist? Well, this is that to the extreme. A platform in an unfathomably massive room holding this. There's Sine, battering on the computer keypads there like they owe her money
"CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!" Cauren yelped, and then shook her head. "Sorry. Sorry. I assumed if we ever had a situation involving you doing crazy things and lava, we'd have come across the One Ring somehow after all. ... Bad timing."
"Sine? What are you -doing-?" She tried to catch at her girlfriend's arm and winced at the chamber.
Sine: Oh, hello Cauren! Have you been down here yet?
Sine: This is amazing! It's an exploding star in the midst of becoming a black hole! Frozen in time!
Sine: This machine rips stars from its orbit, renders them in a permanent state of decay!
Sine: It uses the potential energy to power the machine! Amazing! Also we REALLY shouldn't be down here exposed!
Sine: You need to go now I'm a little busy!
Sine: OW!
Sine does not seem to have been struck or harmed, though she acts like she has been. But she shrugs it off and goes back to work
"Honey, there's time zombies and TARDIS is making very very angry noises like you're kicking her where the sun doesn't shine with hobnailed boots, and Carol is going to be very grumpy if you kill us all by accident. Ko's over. She might need help with making dinner from the whale. Please... step... away... from there, and come back up with me," Cauren tried the reasonable and not simply picking up route. "Come here, you."
Sine: NOT JUST YET! The heck are time zombies?! -it's like watching someone play a piano that they hate-
Sine: I kinda....got some foreign material....in the engine!
Ko shook the pieces of a zombie off her fist and stood back to survey the area. Things weren't looking too good, but they could have been worse. The door opening had worried her, but after peaking in she'd immediately looked away. Not her kind of battlefield.
She drew Non and got ready to hold position.
Sine: OW!
Another phantom pain. Then a box walks by Ko....
"What precisely did you get in there?" the baffled girl asked. "Why were you even -down- here? Is this how the Balrog got in?"
-Back at Zombieland
"Hang on, I think I got the remote for it, actually..." A scrabbling noise from the screen. Anyone looking at it now would mostly see Carol's feet - where the hell is she even going?
Ceneric made a face at the feet even as he tried antimagic to support Ko, though he doubted it would work on the temporal anomalies. Her fist seemed to well enough, though, so the giant set to behind her. "Well. That didn't take long."
He crushed in a head between his palms. "The finding adventure together, I mean."
-Back in Engine
Sine: I ran here, because of a job, and no!
The inside of the room is like being on the outskirts of a hurricane and a wildfire-
Sine: Cauren dear, how much time is on the clock?
[4/21/2016 5:26:14 AM] Legend Maker: -27 seconds-
Sine: That could be better!
Sine: OW! That one smarted....
"TARDIS? What is she doing and is it helping or hurting?" Cauren finally asked the rather larger partner again, eyeing the sun with continued dismay. "Oh, for the love of all."
She knelt to grasp at the smaller redhead. "Let's go. Where does it hurt? I'll kiss it better and I'll get Carol to make you something nice. Just- whatever this is-"
-Back at Zombieland
"Alright, I found it!" Carol re-emerged, holding what looks like... a phone? "Now, how did this go again?"
Beep, bloop... Click.
"Turn it three times..."
And then this thing suddenly flew out from a compartment somewhere in the TARDIS, spinning like a top as it rushed to catch up with the others. But the surprise didn't stop there, as it then proceeded to grow in size, then unfold itself like a Rubik's Cube gone awry.
The size of a small pony and much bulkier, Cube Elephant trumpets as it advances, blasting at the Chrono Zombies with jets of water from it's trunk in an attempt to force them back and away from the engine room.
"Surpriiiiiise~!"
"All things in their own time, right?" Ko snorted. "Alright, you and I will kill every one that moves toward the entrance. There's nothing we can do in there-" she jerked her head behind her, Into the temporal room- "so we'll make do!"
This is not good.
So I can see. Ko thought back grumpily to her sword.
"...I hope Cauren can grab her." Muttered Ko, lunging forward to cleave down through a zombie in front of her.
"Cubical elephants AND time zombies. I need more drugs after all. I thought Courier was kidding when he said there would be days like these," Ceneric stared at Carol's aid and the enemy, but smiled despite his sardonic tone. "Thank you kindly."
"He does tricks, too! Like balancing on a ball!" Carol cheers.
-Back in Engine
Sine: OW! OW! OW! OW!
Sine: This job was a bad idea...-near to collapse-
Cauren shook her head with frustration. "WHAT job? Whatever is worth this???"
Her caution something at an end, she picked up the scientist by the scruff of her neck and collar and tucked her into the top of her own bust under Ensemble before glaring at the panel. "Now. Again. TARDIS. Is this better," she glanced at the timer, "or worse?"
As if on cue, a box flies out of the trapped star, clattering on the platform
Sine:...diss'll do...get box get out....
-7 Seconds-
The walls were made of light and stars, and Ko could see behind them all.
She drove forward, letting Ceneric have her side as she hurtled Non out again and again in devastating, zombie-crunching blows, her teeth grit and her arms always moving.
"We aren't going to die here!" She yelled, to herself, Non, and anyone who could hear her.
"More obsessive than normal," the white haired girl slouched, although not quite enough for the other to slip out as she shouted about the box. "Alright. If I trust you and pick up this box, we run out, things are okay?"
She seized it carefully and toddled for the stairs again. "We are going to have words, especially if this does kill us all. I suspect that would just annoy Ko. And Carol would chew your head off in front of Hel for forever when she came to pick us up."
Hurling the box ahead of her, she tried to seal the engine room again from the outside.
That, fortunately, was easy. The second the door shut, every single time zombie literally blinked out of existence.
Sine:.......you people.....hit hard.
Ko blinked and lowed Non slowly, looking around for any signs of movement. When there were none forthcoming, she advanced to Cauren and kept up her guard, just in case. "I think we need to either abandon ship or fix whatever the problem is. I don't like our chances outside, but in here we're sitting and waiting for a malfunction to kill us all. What do you three think? Is Sine... Alright?"
Ko's eyes narrowed. "Wait, did she do this?"
Sine: A little bit....urrrgghhhh I need some painkillers....
"They do tend to," Cauren considered shifting her lady out of the makeshift and perchance awkward 'prison', and listened to Ko's question as she did. "I don't entirely know if she's alright, but it seems she did. Something about a box in the middle of the engine and a job she isn't elaborating on.
"Sine, TARDIS, please explain? I think Ko and Carol deserve one. Carol? Oh hey, the static cleared. Hello, sweet- angry..."
Carol shrugged. "I'm pretty sure the TARDIS just wanted Sine out of that room. Trust me, we'd know if anything worse was going to happen. And those time zombies are gone, so that's a bonus.
"Alright, Number Four, stand down. And fetch some painkillers."
With an obliging trumpet, the elephant waddles away in search of the medicine cabinet.
"...Now, Sine." Carol folded her arms and scowled. "Explain. Or else I'll sic the gorilla on you. And he's not finished, so the sight of all those trailing wires and exposed frames is going to traumatize Cauren as well. Which I don't want. So TALK."
Sine: Well they shoved me in the box 8[
Sine: And I was mad. -semi babbling- Then I got out.
Sine: And they were gone. So I went to find some way to be mad constructively.
Sine: Dawn calls up, hello mother, I'm looking for something, mind helping me?
Sine: So I go to help her and next thing I know there's Varsavarti stuck in our engines.
Sine: We gotta find some way to get it out....
"...Varsavarti?" Ko asked, with a blank look.
Sine: Varsavarti, also known as Mara, also known as Papiyan, the Wicked One, The Tempter, the Murderer. The Buddhist concept of Satan. Dunno if he she it matches that, but it sure read like a Ruinous Power so....maybe?
"Uuuurgh." Carol facepalms. "Typical stupid Sine. One of these days, I'm going to tie you down before we set off, so you don't do shit like this again."
Cube Elephant comes back, carrying water and pills on a tray on the end of it's trunk. It offers them to Sine.
Sine probably gulps more than the amount recommended on the bottle
"...please tell me Sine isn't saying we're all going to die." Ko said quietly and calmly. She looked away and put her hand over her face, taking a few deep breaths and turning back around. "...I'm more and more happy to have you here, Carol." She said, sheathing Non across her back and sighing.
"Oh, Sine. Sine, I'm sorry for shoving you in the box. I wanted to make sure it didn't hurt you. I didn't mean to make you mad, I just wanted to be sure a Balrog didn't impale my loverly. It still got me in the throat even with Ko's help," Cauren let her free gingerly to take the meds and fixed her top. "I don't know what Dawn wanted with another Ruinous Power, but we'll get rid of it..."
She kissed the madwoman's head and shook her own. "Ko, do you have any ideas for getting rid of Concepts? Will stabbing it work again? Carol?"
Sine: Well it's kinda stuck in the engines so it can't go anywhere for now.
Sine: But I don't wanna a Warp God lite stuck in my engines
Sine: And Dawn didn't want anything to do with Varsasarti
Sine: She wanted this.
Sine: -manages to open the box-
Sine: The Cintamani Stone.
Carol winced. "Probably not. Concepts are funny like that - they like to bullshit their way out of being harmed. You gotta trick them, play mind games so they backfire on themselves. Works in all the movies I saw, at least.
"Ooh, pretty. What does that do?"
Sine: You know the Philosopher's Stone concept?
Carol nodded. "Yep"
Sine: Oriental equivalent.
Sine: It represents Buddhist values and teachings...and supposedly can grant wishes, but I dunno, that might just be legend stuff.
"...Sine, NO. I thought we agreed - no more all-powerful objects! We blew up all the ones you had before, remember? Don't make me have to do that again!" Carol very loudly protested.
Sine: It's not for me! Dawn wanted it.
"TARDIS? Are you going to be alright with that removed? I feel like our reality altering friend might just object to a reality altering object being removed from the engine room. I really do. ..." the white haired pilot asked at their surrounding partner.
Sine: And I have no idea if it does that. I wanted to study it.
Ko shrugged. "If it bleeds, I can kill it. Remember... well, what I told you on the way to Ceneric?" Ko asked Cauren with a dark look. "If we have no other option, that can be our nuclear plan. Because if we end up doing that, I have a feeling nothing is going to survive.
"Alright, Sine. Let's cut to it, how do we destroy what's in the engines? Chuck the stone through it's head, or something easy and simple?... It's not, is it."
[4/21/2016 6:03:44 AM] Legend Maker: The TARDIS basically complains about the Stone like it's an unwanted guest.
Sine: The Stone doesn't belong to that thing. It was lost.
Sine: Dawn and I found it. We were gonna borrow it and put it back.
"So, no? Damnit." Ko continued to clench her fist.
Sine: But it seems when mortal hands touch the darn stone it set off an alarm bell for WHATEVER that thing was
Sine: And it came snapping at our heels.
Sine: I didn't know that was going to happen! There was nothing about it in any legends or whatnot!
Sine: How did I know the magic stone would wake up the devil?
-Sine is getting groggy-
"Because... that happens all the time? Seriously, watch a fucking movie!" Carol is starting to lose her temper. Uh-oh.
"...You could've left well enough alone." Ko said. "If this is it, I hope it was worth it."
"Also, what Ko said. I mean, really?" Carol double-took.
Sine: I dunno how to get Varrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sine: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
If it makes Carol feel any better, it becomes clear that every time you took care of a time zombie, you basically punched Sine in the face.
"Alright. Alright. Let's have a moment to think here. I'll gather up the sleepy butt here. We'll see about ejecting Satan and then getting rid of the darn rock, either with Dawn or by another means. TARDIS? Can we still make the flight to get Carol under these conditions?" Cauren asked again aloud, as she did so.
Ceneric looked at the sleeping body on his sister's lap with something of sadness and leaned against the Orca corpse. "I almost thought I was going to get a cooked dinner for a moment there stepping aboard, you know."
"Hey, I got a turbo-charged oven over here. I can cook an Orca in it no problem! Hell, I cooked a dinosaur in it once - that was quite the party." Carol reminisced.
"Sounds good to me, Cauren. Let me know what I can do." Ko said with a nod, heading over to the oven to give it a quick once-over. She turned around with her hands on her hips and gave a thumb's up to Ceneric.
"Fortune favors the bold! Help me shove this thing in here, would you? My legs are killing me." Ko chuckled, setting to dragging the Orca into the oven. "Carol- what did I ever do without you-"
"Not much." Carol sticks her tongue out at Ko. "Welcome to the modern era - where the culinary arts are out of control.
"...plus, I have booze." The technopath rubs a hand to her temple, sighing irritably. "Trust me, after the shit that's happened so far, I need it."
Using Ensemble to type coordinate timespace while Ceneric helped and she looked back and forth between screen, keys, levers, screens, and dear things, Cauren set a course and took the TARDIS' silence for normality being restored. Well, such as it was. She had little doubt it would be Utterly Bizarre Circumstance for someone else's life, but here it was something of a downtime despite the seething. Her own hands stroked at Sine, mostly thumbs along her hair and spine, and she snorted to herself. "Two demons in the space of one day. Oh, you silly thing, you, you've really given us a devil of a time, haven't you?
"Er... Carol, you might want to push the couch to the side. I'm aiming for the yard, but I don't know how it'll revert with the, ah, unforeseen factors to compensate for and all. We should be there almost before you hear this, though. ..."
"Alright, but I'll have to try and not wake the others. See you lot in a bit!"
With that, Carol ends the call.
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