A Ruby Gem in the Blizzard (Private)

[nintendonut1]

By the morning, everyone was well-rested and ready to embark on more adventures!! …or stay in their cozy communal hives. Either choice was acceptable!

The ecto-brother and sister, however, had definitely made plans to go out. There was so much of this island to explore! It was hard to decide where to go first! Eventually, they figured since John had entered west, and Jade had entered east, the best option would be to start up North in uncharted territory (for them, of course) and work their way around.

And so, they equipped themselves for a good solid journey, and John offered to take Jade into the air. Though Jade certainly had the equipment to help herself fly on her own, she was simply so taken by the offer that she just couldn’t refuse!!

So, currently, the genetic siblings were flying high above the North mountains on a gust of wind, the witch of space nestled tight in the heir of breath’s arms. But his winds weren’t the only ones blowing.

As they approached the mountain range, he noted the howls of a fierce storm brewing. However, he was convinced such storms would be no problem for him, not with his powers. Any blusters would be easy to clear away, he thought.

But now, they were amidst a thick and painful flurry of sleet, which seemed beyond his control.

“Sh-shit!!” he openly cursed, trying his best to navigate the blizzard while holding onto Jade as tightly as he could. The sheering ice stung his face and arms and fogged his glasses up, and sometimes Jade’s wild hair blew into his face.

[sleepZombie]

This was not Jade's idea of fun.

Well it was at first, holding onto John while the wind blew through her hair and they flew over the landscape. It was thrilling and fun and they had been laughing and then suddenly the air had gotten too cold and too fast and stung a bit too much.

With nose and cheeks pinked from the bite of wind she turned her face into her brother's shoulder, trying to keep warm. "John! What's going on, where are we?" She quietly cursed herself for not thinking to bring her specu-sooth goggles. All she knew was that they were North but that was kind of obvious... they'd even agreed that they should head out in that direction to begin their exploration.

"John m-m-maybe we shou-EEEEEEEEEIK!"

A sudden hard gust of wind sent the two of them jolting, Jade's arms wrapping around John's neck in a death grip, her eyes squeezing shut and holding herself as close to him as possible. Turbulance suddenly came, tossing the two of them like leaves. She could feel John's muscles straining to try and keep them stabilized only for a strong wall of air to smash into them and send them spinning.

Fingers loosened, stiff and numb from cold.

The flash of startlingly blue and green eyes meeting.

And then suddenly the familiar sensation of falling, falling, falling. Wind and snow whipping past her and so cold it felt like she was being cut. Jade reached out frantically towards John, mouth opened in terror as she plummeted down towards the earth.

"JOHN!"

[nintendonut1]

Tearing through the blizzards and tossed about in its retaliating gusts, John tried fighting against it, but the relentless storm was unresponsive to his powers. How could this have been happening? Why was he suddenly so powerless to stop something he should’ve been able to easily control?

Of course, that would be the least of his worries when the torrents loosened his grip, and his sister tumbled down below him. “J…JADE!!”

All concerns about anything else left him for the moment as he dived downwards, barely seeing her shadowed form pasted his speckled glasses, but it was good enough. When he was close enough, he outstretched his arms and swooped in, catching her right back into his arms.

“Hn—AH! Gotcha!” he managed to get out before he felt a very, VERY cold and hard smack to the face, and slush scattered across into his mouth and eyes and up his nose. It took a moment for his brain to catch up and realize he had hit the ground.

He flipped and hit the ground again on his back, kicking up to then land on his side, and ended up tumbling a fair distance through the powdery snow. As much as his limbs were screaming in pain from the exertion and the bruising of the impact and the abuse of the cold, he kept his grip as tight as he could on Jade, and she tumbled along with him, until they finally began to slow down and his freezing arms went numb enough to release her. She only rolled about a foot away from where he finally slid to a stop.

He didn’t move at first, his whole body aching in pain, and the snow was gradually seeping in through his clothes, making him shiver and ache even more. And all he was thinking was of his sister’s safety, wishing he could will himself to fucking MOVE and find her.

[sleepZombie]

She only had a moment to feel secure as John's arms wrapped around her before they were crashing into the snow and wet slush. Coldness sluiced down the neck of her jacket and down her back as they skidded, tumbling head over heels a few times. She held onto her ectobrother as protectively as he held onto her, one hand managing to curl up against the back of his head to dull a potentially jarring blow.

For a moment everything went dark and white at the same time and when she opened her eyes again she was laying on her back, staring up at the sky. In reality only seconds had passed but it felt like so much longer. With a groan she sat up, rolling onto her knees shakily as she looked for John through the flurry of snow that whirled around them.

There. There he was, laying on his side a few feet away. With a cough she stumbled towards him, making more tracks in the snow as she reached his side and gave his shoulder a shake. "John! John are you okay!? Are you hurt?, can you get up!?"

[nintendonut1]

Though he was groaning at Jade’s touch, John praised all the gods to feel it, to hear her voice. She was okay. Thank everything.

Though it hurt it move, he forced himself to turn over, reaching am arm up to grasp at hers tightly. He didn’t want to let go again.

With her help, he was pulled up into a sitting position, curling inward to shield his face from the swirling ice. And to hide any insecurities that may have been showing as plain as day on his face from her.

“J-Ja-Jah…!” His teeth clattered as he violently shook against her, his already pale skin on his face and arms quickly losing color. “W-we-we g-g-otta…!”

God they had to get out of this storm. He could do nothing to stop it and he didn’t know how much longer he could last.

[sleepZombie]

Jade was shivering almost as badly as John. She had her fluffy, soft, warm jacket but that wasn't doing her any good with wet slush all down her back. She huddled close to her ectobrother, arms wrapping around him as she glanced around frantically, trying to get her bearings.

They needed some kind of shelter, some kind of...

By some strange instinctual prompting she glanced up, eyes settling on a vague shape through the swirling white. Jade squinted hard, face scrunching up until she gave a small whoop of sound and began tugging on John to help him stand up.

"There! A cave!" She drug him to his feet and began the slow, limping treck over, at one point even stopping to slip an arm out of one of her jacket sleeves, curling the now bare apendage around John's hip as she forced him to stick his opposite arm through the sleeve. It was awkward and weird and kind of hard to maneuver but it was at least a little bit more warm for him.

She hoped.

"Okay, John! We're almost there and then we'll be inside and there won't be any wind! It'll be nice and cozy and I bet I can find something in my modus that will help us get warm. That's it, alright. Come on!"

[nintendonut1]

John couldn’t help a strained grin, though he truly did feel delighted to hear that four-letter word. It seemed like caves had truly become a good friend of his in this world.

He clung onto Jade’s clothes and her warm voice, forcing his feet to shuffle forward, even though they felt like limp bricks tied to his legs. As the wind tore about them, he huddled into Jade’s offered jacket and dug his face into her shoulder, limping as best he could towards wherever she was directing him.

At last, the sleet hitting his face slowed into a cease, and the white showing from behind his tightly-shut eyes grew darker. He released the tense breath he was holding and creaked his eyes open, gazing around the slightly damp, but considerably more comfortable cavern, tucked safely out of the blizzard.

“Th, tha… thank god,” John choked out, shaking his head and scattering slush from his ragged hair. He politely slid out of Jade’s jacket, feeling her cold, wet back with his other hand and sliding it off her too, holding it before him to observe the soaked stain in her squiddle jacket.

“Nngh…” he grunted, handing it to her dolefully. “S…sorry.”

He huddled against the cave wall, pulling his knees to his chest, still shaking a little. “I’m so sorry, J-Jade…”

[sleepZombie]

She took the jacket, shrugging and wrapping it around her despite it being wet. Shivering with cold she shook her head, beginning to flip through her sylladex as she searched for something that they could use to stay warm. "H-Hey, s-s-s-silly! Duh-don't feel bad a-about something ngh... y-y-you couldn't huh-handle."

She gave a small pleased smile as she found something that would DEFINITELY be useful. She pulled out the Green Sun Streetsweeper, holding it at her hip. She chewed at her lip as she looked at the variety of other things in her sylladex. Not much to make a fire with... except...

With a faint sigh of regret she dumped out the clothing she had in a pile. This really probably wouldn't do TOO much, considering it was clothing and would probably just burn up all too quickly but it was a start. "J-John, do you have a-anything that mmmm-might burn longer?" She'd comfort her brother better later. When they weren't threatening to die of exposure.

Aiming the rifle at the pile of clothing she turned her head to the side and fired once, sending forth a burning ball of green flaming, crackling energy. The clothing ignited and began to burn.

[nintendonut1]

“Yeah, but…oh!!” John sat up in surprise at the green makeshift campfire erupting in front of him. Already the warmth was widely welcomed, and he swiftly brought up his hands to ward off their icy numbness. He bit his lip, as they had turned red and began to burn and itch when the numbness faded away. He clenched them repeatedly, trying to get the blood flowing and cringing slightly. Hopefully not enough to make Jade worry.

“Hm?” He glanced up at his ectosister’s question. “Oh… huh-hang on…” When he had got the feeling back into his hands, he brought out his own sylladex, fingering it carefully as his hands still trembled in weakening pain. Surely he’d find something that would catch and burn longer; already their fire began to dwindle.

Eventually he found his own old clothing, pursing his lips. His older shirts and shorts were thin and useless, and for some reason he couldn’t find the jacket Vriska helped him make, but there was still those fancy suits he alchemized. They were full sets of fabric, and they were thick and would probably last a bit longer in the fire. It’d be a shame to let them go, but this was kind of an emergency.

One that was his fault, anyways.

At his command, the suits dumped out, and he leaned over and eventually took the white one into his arms, which was more difficult than it sounded considering his entire body seemed so adverse to moving right now. He quickly tossed it in, and already the green flames flared up stronger. He pulled the other suits next to him, to use for more fuel when the fire would die again, so as to prolong their resources. There was no telling how long the storm would last.

Immediately he began to feel pretty scummy again about the entire situation. From his shivering huddle on the ground, he glanced up at Jade meekly, and eventually pat the damp ground, offering and begging her to sit beside him.

[sleepZombie]

Jade re-captcha'd her rifle and saw John pat the spot of ground beside him. She gave him a toothy smile, coming over to plop down beside him and huddle up. She shivered and drew her knees to her chest, reaching out with one arm to wrap comfortingly around her younger ectobrother.

They sit a few moments in silence, shivering, huddling close to try and share heat and warmth. She doesn't know what he is thinking of but she figures it's probably a lot of important things. John might not realize it but everyone else did.

He was the leader.

He was always thinking about everyone, not just himself. He might never plan ahead and he might make some dumb choices but they were all still just kids. For being only 13, Jade thought that John made a really good palhoncho.

"Are you okay?" She nudged his side lightly, keeping her voice bright and cheerful for his sake.

[nintendonut1]

It was really very hard to stay in a crummy mood when faced with that bright smile, but somehow he managed. Needingly, John squirmed into Jade’s hold on him, somewhat for physical warmth, more for the warmth his heart really, really needed.

He spent some time staring at the fire, many thoughts running through his mind but always cycling back to their present situation. Though they had reacted in record time and were now relatively safe and as comfortable as they could manage, that didn’t keep him from regretting it.

He numbly rocked sideways from Jade’s little nudge, bringing his gaze up to meet her weakly. Her features were blurred and distorted, and for the first time he noticed the ice was melting off his glasses.

“I… guess,” he half-lied, sighing as he gingerly removed them and wiped the lens with his shirt, giving his aching hands something to do to keep moving again. With this distraction he spoke a bit more freely. “I guess I’m just… worried. And I feel stupid, too.”

He squeezed the folded glasses in his hand. “I saw the storm coming… and I was sure it wouldn’t be an issue. But, but then it was right on top of us and it wasn’t doing what I was trying to tell it to do and…!”

His eyes, clouded with fuzzy nearsighted-ness, as well as tears, shut painfully. “…and I put you in danger and now we’re stuck out here and it’s all completely my fault because I am an idiot who thought he had a good-enough handle on his powers already to take on a full-fledged blizzard.”

[sleepZombie]

"John!" Jade pulled him closer, reaching over to give him a full hug instead of just half of one. She rocked him side to side as she brought her head down to press lightly against his, temple to temple and closed her eyes. "Don't be so hard on yourself, dummy! Even I can't know EVERYTHING that is going to happen."

Her voice softened as did her embrace. "Don't beat yourself up over this, John. You know everything happens for a reason!" She thought back to all of the things that she had set into motion. She never knew why she was doing them, just that she needed to do them because that's how it was supposed to be.

Dave was the one who dealt with the nonlinear, she was the one who made sure that the linear happened.

"We never knew that we'd get to keep our powers when the game was over... I think it's pretty awesome that you still have any at all!" Gently she ducked her head down to look into his face, smiling. "Also, you're being as bad as that asshole, Karkat. Blaiming himself for stupid things. John you didn't know it was going to happen! And I'm not mad at you! So stop beating yourself up!"

[nintendonut1]

Jade proceeded to bring up multiple, very good points that made John feel silly. As usual. How she did that, seem to know everything and know exactly what to say and how to say, would always baffle him. He cracked a brittle smile, nuzzling his forehead into hers.

He only frowned a bit when she mentioned Karkat. He was hit with the usual sadness and hope to find the troll that came to him whenever his name crossed his thoughts, but this time things were put even further into perspective. Hearing from Nepeta and Gamzee what had happened, and remembering the last frantic persterlog received from Karkat’s end, made John truly emphasize with the Cancer and worry even more for him. Especially now that the others were gradually showing up here, god, he must’ve been all alone and terrified in his own timeline right now.

If only he knew how, he’d find him and pluck him right up and bring him over to reunite with all his friends. But that was just wishful thinking. Until then, he could only hope, and be patient. Surely he’d turn up soon.

With these thoughts, the worries of their current situation drifted away from his mind, and he offered Jade another grin and squeeze, letting her know he was alright. Putting things into perspective often helped.

“S-so…” John gave off a small, chilly shake before continuing. “If everything happens for a reason, then what led us to the cave besides poor planning?” he asked with a low chuckle, trying to make lighter talk.

But before she could answer, as if on cue, a foreign sound answered for him.

[sleepZombie]

Jade startled at the same time as John upon hearing the strange sound. It was somewhere between an almost animal keening and an infant crying. Her brows pushed up in alarm as she turned her head from side to side looking for the source of sound. It was so close! Was it in the cave?

Jade got up immediately, experiencing an actual physical need to locate the source of these horribly broken sounds as fast as possible. She walked towards where she was sure they were coming from, peering behind a rock.

And finding a tiny, bright candy red colored... bug. Sort of. It also had a head. A gray head with a mop of black hair and two very teeny tiny nubby horns on top of it's head.

"OHMYGOD!" Jade tripped forward quickly, arms reaching out to pick up the little creature. It was sniffling and crying, sharp little pointy teeth bared in woe for the world to see. She had no idea what troll babies were actually like but this kind of resembled a troll, or at least it did for as far as she could tell. She'd only just met some in person today, after all.

The grub latched on with tiny chitinous legs, shuddering and shivering violently as it half curled up against the sudden source of warmth, burrowing against Jade and sobbing.

"John! John it's a baby!"

[nintendonut1]

John watched Jade get up, keeping close to the fire, as his body still had little motivation to do anything much other than shake.

It seemed to change its mind when Jade proclaimed her discovery, and he spotted the small red bundle in her arms. Eyes wide, John hopped up to his feet, and all icy pain was forgotten for the moment.

“Jesus!!” he exclaimed in natural worry. “A baby, stuck out this far!? Oh god, is it okay??”

He swept in beside Jade, peeking over her shoulder at the poor thing, its wails heart-wrenching to listen to. He took pause for a moment when he realized this was certainly no human baby, but a strange… grub-type thing. With a normal head? Weird! Still, he recognized the ashen skin, coarse black hair, and candy-corn horns either way. Suddenly, Karkat’s rants filled with ‘grubs’ and ‘wrigglers’ started to make more sense.

“Oh man, Jade. I think it’s a baby troll.”