Gravity Is Not A Friend Of Me (OPEN)

[jessie]

Things had been going well up until now, Shawna swears they had.

She had been going about her business, drifting up into the updrafts to get more height and distance for her journey. She'd just set off - that was the kicker, she had just set off - on another adventure for treasures, and gifts. But the updrafts had been a bit too draft and not enough up, winds hitting the basket hard enough to knock her to the floor of it. She'd scrambled up frantically to try and take control back, but she was already wildly off course, careening through clouds, vision obscured. This... a lot of things had happened to her over her life, but this had never happened before.

She desperately tugged on the turning ropes, trying to right the aircraft before the envelope upended itself. A daunting task, as it seemed hell-bent on doing so. She was so focused on getting the hot air balloon to not tear itself apart, she didn't notice that it and herself were rapidly dropping altitude, towards an island. She didn't notice till she was much too close, treetops catching her peripherals. She cast a quick, panicked "Aéra!" before the balloon crashed into the trees and eventually to the forest floor, kicking up dust in its wake.

She tumbled out of the basket, stumbling and scratched up, but overall okay. The aera had done enough to keep her from dying, at least, which is really all she had asked. It did not save her balloon quite as well, however. The envelope was tangled in the branches, the ropes were tangled in each other, the basket had crumpled like a cicada's shell. She just kind of stared at the wreckage dumbly for a little while.

Then the engine set the envelope on fire.

She let out an embarrassing little shriek and leapt forward to release the emergency charms on the supporters. She broke the bracelets apart, releasing winds and water, which whirled around the balloon until and after the fire had been doused. In her haste, she'd broken all of them, so she couldn't do that again. Great. Now, in addition to the initial wreck, the envelope was singed.

She stepped back and just. Took a seat on the forest floor. She heard a high whining from somewhere, and for a bit thought it was from the engine, but no. That was just coming from her.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Uuuuuuuugh... Fan-friggin'-tastic."

Things hadn't been going particularly well for Cat, but up until now, she at least had a feeling that she was getting somewhere with this project. Now that someone had just up and crashed their balloon into the forest, it wouldn't have surprised her if every squirrel in the vicinity had fled to the hills.

Frustrated beyond belief, the coyote-weasel-robin anthro stuck her head out of the tree she had been perched in. A giant, odd-looking headset covered much of her face and she held a microphone-satellite device in her right hand. Wires coiled down from one of the massive headphones and the microphone, connecting them to a generator strapped to her back. Tucked neatly into the pockets on the sides of the generator were several cans of Dee's Nuts.

"Um, excuse me!" Cat called to the woman below. "Not to detract from whatever predicament you're in, but some of us are in the middle of some important biz-nasty stuff here!"

[jessie]

The voice snapped Shawna out of her home-lost-induced despair, pulling her away from the verge of tears. Her eyes darted around, trying to locate the source. Her gaze lands on- ohhhhh goodness some sort of creature with decidedly non-human ears that was speaking English at her. Okay, no, chill out girl. Don't be rude about it, she's seen and believes in weirder things than this. Just treat the furry like any old human.

"So-sorry!" Voice squeaky, betraying how un-chill she still is. Is she still sitting? Omigod, she gets up, brushes off her knees briefly. To anyone that would ask, she would claim her cheeks were naturally ruddy. "I'm- I just, haha my balloon, uhm, sorry, I've got, uhhh..." OH-kay, how's about she takes a quick break from talking until she figures out what she wants to say, yeah?

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah. That." Cat awkwardly scrambled out of the tree, landing firmly on her butt and causing one of the nut canisters to fall out and spill its contents onto the forest floor. "Aw, fudge butter... How am I supposed to- Screw it!"

She stood back up, brushed herself off and approached the newcomer. "Well, seeing as how you've probably scared off all the squirrels, I guess this project is a bust. AGAAAAAAAAIN. So might as well figure out this situation." She then hung the microphone up on the generator and begrudgingly offered a paw. "Cat."

[jessie]

Yes. She is totally cool and okay with this. Her house set itself on fire and she's talking to an animal, and she's okay. Why would she not be? She's the vision of 'chill' right now.

"...Shawna." It took her a couple beats to respond and shake Cat's hand- paw. She feels as if her eyes are held a tad too wide right now, but she has no idea how to make them not do that. "Did, um... did you say, squirrels?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yes, I said squirrels." Cat retracted her paw and scowled at the trees. "I WILL figure out what they're trying to tell me. I WILL learn their secrets!! ...Even though these aren't the same squirrels from the World, but hey, they can't be THAT different! And if I can at least get this translator working, frig, I'll consider that an unqualified success!"

She pouted, shrugged, then continued in a slightly calmer tone, "So what's the story here?"

[jessie]

Shawna nodded slowly to the beat of Cat's mad rambling. Not only had the first to find her been a furry, but one that was a tad - pun intended - nuts. Cat seemed to be a researcher of some kind, so that would explain it, from her experience.

"Oh, um..." She turned back to her trashed aircraft. "I'm, not actually entirely sure. There was this freak gust of wind, and I just kinda, got blown over here? I, um, it'll take me a while to fix..." She waves her hand in the general direction of the downed balloon. "...all this."

Yeah, she's not going anywhere anytime soon. Which sucks, because she has people who expect her to appear periodically in their lives. Wait, people! Of course! She scrambled back to the basket, in a way that didn't make her seem much saner than Cat, and dug a walkie-talkie out from the pile of her tossed belongings.

"Hey, Steven? It's Shawna. I crashed. Over."

crackle buzz crackle

"Steve? Not the time. Over."

buzz static buzz

"Stevie..?"

radio silence.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Hmm. Yeah. Pretty busted up here, huh?" Cat sorted through the mess with low eyebrows of disinterest. "Eh, seen worse. I'm more use to working with metal and mechanics, but I guess I might as well see what I can do here."

[jessie]

Shawna was still frowning at the silent walkie, only looking up when Cat offered her help. "You'd help me? Really? Thank you so much."

Resigned that there would be no response over the radio for now, she clipped it to her belt, turning down the volume so the static wouldn't be annoying but any reply would be audible. "I'm sure repairs won't take long, with your help. It shouldn't take long for me to get out of your-" uhhhh does she say fur or hair um okay just go for it "-h-hair. I wasn't knocked too far off course. In fact... do you see any maps in there?" She looks around the wreckage, seeing if it got knocked out while Cat looks in the basket.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah, sure..." Cat grumbled, removing her generator backpack and setting it aside before digging into the wreckage, hunched over the ruined basket, her ridiculously undersized wings fluttering. She did eventually find some maps, standing up straight to look one over. Then she had to laugh.

"BWAHAHA...! God dang it, looks like I get to be the one to tell ya!" Cat then crumpled up the map, tossed it aside and leaned her elbow against a tree. "Congrats, chickie! You've crash-landed in another dimension! Yippie for you!"

[jessie]

"What?!" Excuse her? "No no no, that can't be right." She went for the map Cat had crumpled up, at least to smooth it out. She liked her maps, a fact made obvious by the painstaking illustration of all her previous routes, and careful little notes around the edges and seas.

She laid it on the forest floor for a solid surface. "I was here," she muttered, pointing near the east edge of a landmass called 'America'. "And then I musta gone this way," she traced a line over, above the sea. "So I should be... i-in the Atlantic..." Oh dear.

She trusts her maps. Man had been all over the globe, any island could not have escaped their sight. But she's here. Not at the bottom of the ocean. She is on solid ground. "Um, I think... that assumption is a bit too, jumping of the gun. Um."

She put a hand to her mouth, thinking. Hm. She'd never been to, or heard of anyone going to, another dimension. She supposed it was possible. But it seemed a bit Occam's Razor, honestly - it was easier to believe that this was just some lost island.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah, never heard of any place called 'Ah-mer-ee-ca,'" Cat continued, peeking incredulously at the map. "This here's... I dunno, I've heard it called a few things. Mostly Dimensional Island. Little landmass floating around in the void at the center of the multiverse. Trust me, toots, I've been here a while, and between the insanity I've dealt with both here and back in my home World, I know lots of things."

She leaned in slightly, yellow eyes wide and a near-psychotic grin on her face. "LOTS OF THINGS."

[jessie]

"...Multiv-?!" Cat's suddenly now right in her face, and she backs up so quickly that she just falls back with a thump. She doesn't move to get up, or much at all, just furrowing her brows ever deeper.

"...this is Alice in Wonderland. I must've hit my head on something. I'm asleep, and I'm gonna wake up after some silly adventure, in a field with my sister reading to me. I don't even have a sister." She suddenly leans up on her elbows. "Oh my god, you're the Cheshire Cat."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"No, but... nice wordplay," Cat offered modestly, her expression relaxing into a cool, laid-back smirk. "Hey, come on, it's not that bad. There's a travel station if ya wanna go home. Until then, might as well revel in such an awesome discovery while I'm fixin' up your ride here."

[jessie]

There's a travel station? "Oh, thank goodness." But... "I can't just leave my balloon. I'd rather wait til it's fixed." She pulls herself back up into a sitting position, looking at the craft in question. Where to start... The static from her walkie fills the silence she provides.