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Post by DanteMGalileo on Jul 27, 2017 14:58:14 GMT -5
"Wheee!! Sorry Seeker, but you're gonna have to let go- ain't no room for you!"
"YOU FUCKING C-"
A stream of energy surged through Seeker's body before the eyepatched individual could react, letting go of Lark, and going into a drop... Down into a very cold and hard-looking mountain trail.
"Fucking..." Mumbling more curses, Seeker pulled themselves to their feet. "Great..." They were alone in this frigid and very high mountain range. Although the altitude didn't seem to be bothering the one-eyed being, they felt the cold sinking in despite their layers of clothing.
... Best to keep moving rather than freeze. Taking a minute to inhale, they figured there was nowhere to go but up.
---
With a small thud, Lark landed on the snow- and ice-covered peak, although not before his unwitting travelling companions crashed. "Nice four-point landing! Ten outta ten, hundred outta a hundred!"
Oh, right. Non-mountaineers need lotsa air. I poked the heads of everyone in turn, creating a green light upon touch. "Breathe, dammit, breathe." A swirl of green energy surrounded each of the poked, but after it subsided, they all would have found it as easy to breathe as though it was sea level.
"It's a li'l spell I know. Now you won't end up like Green Boots here! ... Wait, where'd Green Boots wander off to? Oh well. At least you won't be part of the bodies of Mount Everest... Or should I say, Mount Tsereve!" They give me weird looks! What, it gets lonely up here, and a dead body is better than nothing!
Okay, now what do I do... Oh right! Food! I dug around my Galaxy Cloak and yanked out a buncha pots and pans. Settin' em down on some rocks and snow, I snapped my fingers, igniting a fire beneath them. "Now, what was I gonna have for dinner... Oh right! Beefbeetle and rice!" Yoink! Out from the cloak came a bag of rice, and a beautiful, giant beetle made of what I guess you'd assume was beef.
"Lalala... One goes to the morgue, and the other to jail~ Except we're BOTH alive!"
---
Meanwhile, many meters below...
"Okay, good. Cable cars are still running at this hour, and they had enough supplies for us all for the last couple hundred meters." With a small crash, several heavy jackets, gloves, oxygen masks, and the like came tumbling out of Percy's hands. The brunette instantly threw off his usual coat to put on a red jacket. "They're size-adjusting to a degree, but try to find one your own size." Indeed, the red jacket did seem to shrink a bit to fit the teenager's slight frame. "Better get changed quick, the cable cars leave within the next ten minutes or when everyone's boarded, whichever comes first. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a changing room."
Stopping only to pick up some gear (curiously excluding boots), Percy shuffled off.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jul 27, 2017 17:23:34 GMT -5
"MMPH-!!!" Paul promptly face-planted into the snow and tumbled downhill a few feet, lying motionless for only a few seconds. He then quickly picked himself up and shook the snow out of his hair, pausing to examine his surroundings. Apparently he and Lark's other tag-alongs had been transported to a mountain, a revelation that Paul had... surprisingly little reaction to. The teleportation didn't exactly surprise him; been there, done that. The frigid air, though certainly cold, barely felt like it was below freezing to his skin. The thin atmosphere hardly even fazed him; he somehow seemed to have little trouble breathing even before Lark cast his spell.
If anything, Paul simply found himself worrying about Kelsey. He couldn't imagine how she was feeling at that moment.
So... how was he going to get himself out of this one?
Rubbing the spot on his head where Lark had poked him, Paul stood up and trudged through the snow over to the white-haired man, who had busied himself with... making dinner? Wow, talk about mood whiplash...
"Uh... Hi." Opting to make the first move, Paul stood on the opposite side of the fire and offered Lark a somewhat awkward wave. "I'm, uh... sorry about tackling you back there. Just... trying to help... what with the lunatic after ya..."
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"'Fhalma fri'ilthah, why here of all places?!" To Kelsey's credit, she grew up in a part of the United States that annually received little to no snow. She was understandably unaccustomed to the sub-zero climate Percy had transported her to. "Is this Lark character crazy or just plain stupid?!"
"I'm willing to bet on both," Tri chuckled, clearly enjoying his detachment from this world's weather.
Kelsey huffed and hastily grabbed a coat relatively close to her size. After securing it around her form and slipping a glove onto her left hand, she ignited a small fire in her right, hoping it would at least provide some level of warmth. She was half tempted to unfold her wings and start scaling the mountain herself, but she quickly decided against it. No sense in venturing into unknown territory alone, and on a lesser note, no sense in ruining a good dress.
She sighed, her breath like a puff of steam from a kettle. "So what exactly do we intend to do once we find the others? Exactly how far down this rabbit hole are we willing to venture?"
"I'm more curious as to why this kid dropped ya off at the BOTTOM of the mountain..." Tri mused.
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Post by ColArana on Jul 29, 2017 9:09:59 GMT -5
"OOF!" Alaric let out a choked gasp of pain as the hard landing punched the air out of his lungs. "Unng.... where am I--" He slowed his speech as he felt the icy chill of snow set in, and suffered what seemed all too much like altitude sickness. Disoriented as he was, and still in the process of processing his first ever teleport, Alaric wasn't able to do anything about Lark's boop to the forehead. However, it certainly resolved the altitude sickness. Alaric gave his head a shake, in surprise at that. True he knew about magic, and could sense it as well, but it was still a strange feeling. He was relatively silent as Lark began to produce cooking materials, seating himself slightly apart from the others, while he maintained something of a suspicious eye at Lark. The man seemed far too at ease, considering that the company here had just tackled him to prevent him fleeing the Club.
---------------------
As for Ranuen, it had been a taxing day to keep up with the party at his small size. Somehow, he'd managed, and it seemed Percy was ditching them now with only some last minute instructions. Great.... Scaling a mountain! Ranuen had tried that once. He'd almost died. Percy was leaving out some gear though that.... scaled to the wearer's size!? Oh that was the best news Ranuen had heard all day, and the shrunken swordsman quickly hurried to get his own gear.
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Post by enigmamystere on Aug 1, 2017 9:16:10 GMT -5
Enigma had a little bit of difficulty thinking, much less breathing, before the spell was cast. The subzero temperatures were not something that he was used to, not in the least, and for the first time, he wished he'd been born a pegasus with their partial immunity to weather. He taps his hooves together, causing gauntlets and a covering to expand over his legs and wings, reducing the chances of frostbite, at the very least. He taps the dark metal against the snow, looking around with a small frown. "...what exactly happened? And where's this Everest?"
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Aug 5, 2017 9:32:41 GMT -5
"Like I said; welcome to Mount Tsereve, once known as Mount Everest on Old Earth. Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Welcome to Terra Nova, or New Earth, or Purgatorio, take your pick!" I flipped over the beefbeetle there. What can I say? I don't like my food burnt.
"Oh, yeah. You lot were kinda on me, so you got a li'l trip on me. 'Course, if you want, I could remove the protective spell and let ya die of oxygen deprivation. I ain't an expert on this, but I'm sure most creatures can't survive for more than a few hours at this really high altitude." Steam started comin' from the rice pot. With a flick of my wrist, the contents began to stir themselves. Man, I love magic.
"Had to make a stop to drop off an unauthorized passenger, but we're all good! Now why don't ya just sit down for a bit and eat. Oh, please, don't give me that look. You seriously think I'd poison something I'd eat myself?"
---
"Gate C car departing in five minutes."
"Shit. Gonna have to forget about boots for now." Percy, now clad in heavy winter gear and carrying an oxygen mask, began running out of the changing room. They probably can't read our language and that's a rather long climb...
He caught sight of the rest of the small group, trying to get their attention. "Gate C's the one to the right! With the kinda-bent looking symbol!" Indeed, a magically-lit sign was present, with a VERY bent-looking symbol that presumably stood for C. "C'mon, you heard the intercom! I'd rather not hike up how many thousand feet, and I'm sure you'd rather not either!"
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Aug 5, 2017 10:36:20 GMT -5
"Oh, uh..." Paul raised his hands somewhat defensively, though his tone and expression were completely genuine. "That's okay. I just ate a while ago, but thank you."
He sat down next to Lark, resting his arms on his knees, yellow eyes eerily luminescent with the fire reflecting off of them. Now that things had calmed, the odd fellow seemed a lot more approachable, though time would tell if Paul's willingness to go through with this paid off. "So pardon my asking, but... what was that back there? Why was that guy so dead set on getting to you?"
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"Alright, coming..." Kelsey murmured as she struggled to put her remaining boot on, having spent a good long while trying to fit her dress into her snow pants. Once she was fully covered, she grabbed an oxygen mask –opting to put it on during the ride up– and followed Percy towards the gate.
She didn't have to turn around to know that there was a huge grin on her master's face. "You having fun with this, Tri?"
"What, you're not?"
Shaking her head, she turned to the teen and awkwardly said, "So... Percy... I don't know if I properly introduced myself. I'm Kelsey." She paused to readjust her scarf. "And, uh... thanks for helping me out..."
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Post by ColArana on Aug 5, 2017 19:45:01 GMT -5
Alaric patiently waited for Lark to eat first before helping himself. He hadn't eaten all that long ago, but it was good to get what food he could, when he could. Afterall, up here, he had no idea when he was going to get a chance to eat next. "I'm curious as well." He noted, looking at Paul. "I apologize for tackling you, but I find innocent men seldom flee when they are asked to stop." He said to Lark, sitting down to a bite.
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Hearing they only had five minutes, Ranuen finished pulling on his jacket and gloves and mask. "Right! I'm good to go!" He exclaimed, expending some of his magic to return to normal size. "Let's do this shit!" When Percy mentioned to hurry up, Ranuen tagged along easily enough. "Normally I wouldn't mind the hike, but I imagine we're a little pressed for time, huh? Can't expect our friend to sit patiently and wait for us at the top, can we?"
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Post by enigmamystere on Aug 7, 2017 12:05:44 GMT -5
"Yea, what he said." Enigma smiles and moves closer to the rice pot, pulling open one of his wings to carefully preen the feathers. "So... any chance I could have my bags? I kinda left them at work..." He looks curiously at the bug for a moment before turning his gaze to the man he'd previously tackled. "And what is that, if I may ask?"
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Aug 8, 2017 15:44:17 GMT -5
"Beefbeetle. Looks like a bug, tastes like steak. Just that for most people, the shape turns 'em off." I cut off a leg of the creature, exposing a leaky brown substance. "Extra fancy specimen, comes with its own soy sauce!"
Oh, right, why'd I leave? "Let's see... Seeker is mentally unhinged and can render me totally powerless with those bracelets. Why WOULDN'T I be runnin' there, Mister Hunter? Crazy bitch has been after me for over a decade now."
I shoved the entire leg into my mouth. Nope, don't wanna talk about that guy.
---
"Gate C car departing now. All late arrivals will be forced to wait for next car or go on recycling duty. On behalf of the Old Everest Mountaineering Company, we wish you a safe and pleasant ride."
"Recycling duty, more like we'll grind you up and use you as fertilizer duty," Percy mumbled to himself as the doors closed on them. It was now or never to the summit.
"Please remain seated on the way up. The green light will indicate when you need to put on your oxygen mask. Frostbite advisory today is almost certain. On behalf of the Old Everest Mountaineering Company, we wish you a safe and pleasant flight.
"They're not joking, either. This is a 2600-meter ride, and you'll be feeling it get colder and the oxygen level fall in here." Outside, the mountain scenery passed by. "They'll drop us off on the old Camp Four. If your oxygen mask isn't on, you'll be lucky if you remain conscious for just a few minutes. Humans like us aren't meant to function at these altitudes... which makes me question if Lark is undead, come to think of it..."
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Aug 8, 2017 17:27:36 GMT -5
"Oh... I see..." Paul leaned his head against his hand and stared into the fire. Sure, running from a crazed psychopath with the means to render you powerless was kind of a given, but there had to be a legit reason why Seeker had been after Lark for such a long time. Someone was bound to question that, but Paul opted not to let it be himself. He still had no idea how Lark would react emotionally, if the young man was in any mental state to discuss that heavy topic, or if it was even any of his business.
Still, there were other things he wanted to know.
"So when you finish eating, were you planning on taking us back to the island? I kinda left my date behind back there."
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"Okay..." Kelsey sighed, slumping into her seat in the car and watching the frozen landscape roll by with a tired, deadpan expression. Once again, she found herself questioning how she had gotten herself into this mess. She was already up to her neck in supernatural bullcrap back home, and she had only intended to explore this island she stumbled upon for a few weeks. And yet here she once, at the epicenter of some feud that easily went beyond petty human dispute. She wanted to believe she was trying to help, but she knew deep down that some part of her would've wanted to stay out of this had Lark not absconded with Paul.
Regardless of that nagging voice, that feeling of obligation would not leave her be. She tightly closed her eyes and shook her head. Maybe she really was a pushover.
"Yeah, kinda."
"F*** off..." Kelsey grumbled under her breath. Then she turned to Percy and asked, "So do we have a plan? Truth be told, I don't know how excited I am to meet this guy."
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Post by ColArana on Aug 10, 2017 3:32:48 GMT -5
Alaric seemed to have few difficulties accepting the unusual look of the beef beetle and went ahead and began eating. He'd eaten stranger. However, something Lark had said caused him more than a little discomfort, and he looked at the other man. "How did you know what I am?" He asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Yes, he was carrying a revolver, loaded with silver bullets, but it wasn't as though Lark had seen one yet, had he? The fact he'd already apparently pinned down Alaric's profession was unsettling to the man.
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Paul delivered several additional warnings, as did the PA system, which Ranuen only seemed to half listen to. "We'll be fine for frostbite." He commented, expending a little more of his magic to create a small flame at the tip of one finger. "Anyone starts getting cold, just let me know." He told the group. And hopefully my supply of magic lasts us to the top. He added in his head. As it required a constant expenditure of magic in order to maintain any height above bug-sized for Ranuen. In fact it was probably best to conserve his magic reserves, come to think of it. After seating himself, Ranuen stopped expending his magic to maintain his "normal" size and shrank back down to Borrower height. True, this made seatbelts more difficult, but.... hey! It meant the trip up might be an adventure! Besides it freed up some space in the car up the mountain. The comments about the risks of oxygen fell on deaf ears, as Ranuen listened in to the discussions of the others that had come with.
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Post by enigmamystere on Aug 10, 2017 10:54:49 GMT -5
Enigma squirms uncomfortably, staring at the food being presented to him. "...anything that's not meat, perchance?" He shivers, his head twitching to the side as he tries to shake off the random bout of chills he just got. "...Vi's gonna kill me for being late..."
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Aug 10, 2017 19:24:37 GMT -5
"Plenty of rice. Seasoned with only the finest bone marrow and saffron."
... Oh, yeah. Mister Hunter. "You certainly look like one." I then got right up in the guy's face and took a big ol' sniff. "And you definitely got the SMELL of one! Seriously, I can smell ya from a mile away."
I just lit a small fire under my plate. "Oh, I'll warp ya back after I'm done. Just lemme finish, will ya?"
---
"Now passing Old Camp Three, altitude 7,470 meters. Please get your oxygen masks ready, Old Camp Four is only a few minutes away."
"Ugh... I'm reminded of how uncomfortable these things are..." Percy winced at the thought of putting the life-saving piece of equipment on. "And once we get to the old camp, after the short teleporter, there's still another couple hundred feet in this." He gestured outside to the frozen, rocky landscape. "I've done some missions on this mountain, but we never went any higher than Camp Three."
"Old Camp Four in eyeshot. Conditions today: Clear skies and low winds. Risk of sudden avalanche: F-"
The car suddenly shook, as though a large, heavy creature suddenly landed on the roof, the impact noise drowning out the rest of the announcement. Still, the car continued its climb.
"The hell was that?! I don't know any native creatures big and strong enough to do THAT, and it's clear and not windy out!"
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Aug 10, 2017 19:37:13 GMT -5
"Oh yeah, sure, sure..." Paul hastily responded, raising his hands defensively. Probably best not to offend this guy. Not when Paul still had no idea what he had gotten himself into.
Opting now to leave Lark alone in the hopes that him finishing his dinner meant getting home sooner, the dragon man turned to his fellow tag-alongs and said, "I feel like I oughta apologize for something, but I'm not really sure what. At the very least, I hope you guys are taking this better than I am. Name's Paul."
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"Still not sure what we intend to do when we reach the top," Kelsey reiterated somewhat irritably as she fastened her oxygen mask around her head. "I'd like to avoid anymore senseless violence if possible."
But of course it wouldn't be that easy. Of course something had to land atop their car, causing Kelsey to tense up and dig her nails into her seat. "Oh, what now?!"
Tri hissed through a clenched smile. "Ooh, boy. You guys are NOT gonna like this..."
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Post by ColArana on Aug 11, 2017 1:20:15 GMT -5
Alaric raised an eyebrow at that. "Is that so? I smell like a Hunter?" He asked. "And if you can tell that by my scent, would that make you the sort of thing I hunt then?" He replied rhetorically. Alaric was, afterall, not a mere Hunter of rabbits or bears. He hunted monsters. The supernatural beasts, and while his area of expertise was in vampires and werewolves, he certainly had branched out in the past. However, his threat here was an empty one. A meager case of verbal sparring with Lark, as evidenced by the fact Alaric had not gone for any of his weapons. Alaric took a bite of the beef beetle. "As you say, this is actually much better tasting than it looks." He added, looking at Paul. "....Alaric." He said, taking a moment to pause between mouthfuls of food, so that he did not speak with his mouth full.
Ranuen looked out the window. He would say "at the snowy terrain below" but from his bug-sized stature, really he could only look UP into the cold, cloudy skies above. "Can't be THAT bad though, right? I mean, normal people can do this in the proper gear, can't they? And nobody in here's completely a "normal person" are they?" He suggested, hopefully. He heard the announcement, followed by the crash as of something landing on top of them. "Is that.... what I think it is?" Ranuen commented, gleefully. In a flash the swordsman glowed and quickly grew to his normal height. Holding his oxygen mask in one hand, he fumbled for his sword in the other, unfamiliar with the thick glove. "I'll go and check it out!" He exclaimed excitedly, eyes gleaming at the prospect of a fight. Ranuen rushed to the car door, and attempted to fling it open with a bodily heave of force, before quickly swinging himself up to the top of the car, one hand on his sword hilt, the other fastening on his oxygen mask in mid-swing. Was this the most intelligent course of action? Probably not. Was Ranuen thinking about that when he went out? Absolutely not. Something had just hit the top of their car and he was more than eager to find out what. And if it was hostile, he was more than eager to get it OFF the roof of their car.
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