03-27-2016, 07:22 PM
The cover of ice couldn’t even be moved by an unseen story of personal tragedy, remaining flat and untouched beneath the rust-colored slime. Jade frowned disapprovingly at it, because how on earth could it be immune to the supernatural phenomena beseeching them for aid in all its quintessential mystique, and then turned to regard the others.
Ghostlike wisps of air stirred around them in the abrupt silence that followed. It suddenly occurred to Jade that, despite all of the strangeness and parking offenses and distortions of the laws of physics that took place on a regular basis in the Omniverse, some might have found such an occurrence to be a bit more weird than the usual lunchtime brand of improbability.
“Well, now!” Jade said, a refreshing bout of energy working its way somewhere in her system. “I guess we’re going to have to take a vote on what to do!”
Everyone else glanced at one another, some more noticeably than others. Jade supposed that maybe they presumed voting to be a virulent disease or that they might have grown accustomed to operating under the watchful eye of a heavily militarized police force, and so their confusion was totally reasonable. Whatever the cause, she soldiered on for an encouraging finish.
“All those in favor of helping the mysterious ghost letters, raise your right arm!”
There was a pause in which not a soul made a move, save for Rebecca who immediately thrust her arm towards the sky and bobbed energetically on her feet, clearly set to retrieve whatever sugary treasure might be discovered on this adventure.
Then, with what appeared to be a shrug through all of his armor and an “Ah, why the hell not?”, Tartaros raised his arm. A veritable forest of arms shot into the air several beats later, the group collectively deciding that his decision was, indeed, a Good One.
The Witch took her sweet time in counting them all, embodying the part of a freethinking scout master rather well, quietly mouthing the numbers to herself as she went along. As each member of the adventuring party was counted in turn, the raised arms gradually receded. When that was finished, there was nothing left to do but figure out who was opposed to freeing whatever the mystical force was.
With a wide grin on her lips, for she was certain that victory was secured, Jade asked that anyone who disagreed raise their arm into the air or forever hold their peace. To her surprise, a single arm was slung into view with all the reactionary gusto of a toast-prepper during a particularly spirited bachelor party. It was grey and attached to a very grumpy-seeming troll.
“Uh, question. Why should we help whatever-the-fuck that was?” Karkat asked, hunching his shoulders defensively as all eyes focused upon him. He looked kind of like a mightily disgruntled turtle, the collar of his sweater rising up just enough to graze his ears.
Jade grinned, blinked in a way that suggested she couldn’t quite grasp what he was getting at here. “Because it’s the right thing to do, of course!”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course it is. It’s just, some of us here— we’re not like the rest of you. We’re not big players. We die. I don’t even have a weapon to speak of—“
“Oh! That can be fixed, sure,” Jade exclaimed, hastening over to where Karkat stood so she could take his hands and swiftly pull him aside. “Just give me a moment, we’ll have that… what was it called?”
“A clawsickle.” There was a word to describe the look pasted upon Karkat Vantas’ face. It wasn’t one that could be found in a standard Earth dictionary, unfortunately.
“—Clawsickle summoned in just a second!” The starry-eyed girl answered. It actually took a grand total of fifteen minutes for the crab claw-shaped weapon to appear, spikily reddish-colored and hard as the carapace of a crustacean, but it was well worth it to see the small abatement of the tension in her friend’s shoulders once he held his weapon aloft.
That settled, Jade whirled around and considered where the scrawled cyphers had been with a critical eye. That was it; she would have to go full Sherlock Holmes here, no ifs, ands, or buts about it! It was pointing to something in the far distance no doubt, something which she could not see this close to the ground, but maybe if she were to gain a little altitude—
Her eyes clapped upon Grundy. A figurative light bulb fluttered to life above her head.
Beaming widely, Jade skipped over to her towering undead friend and lightly tapped upon his arm to gain his attention. The plant zombie looked down at her, stringy white hair frosted in funnily-skewed spikes around the top of his head.
“WHAT ANGELJADE WANT?”
"Can you boost me up real quick?" the Witch asked, making a lifting gesture with her hands.
Grundy looked at her uncertainly, as if thinking about how easy it would be to launch her into twinkling satellite range by mistake. In the end, though, he simply shrugged and steepled his big fingers into a platform that she could step on the top of. Then, with a nearly effortless heave, he launched her high above his head.
Jade’s heart very nearly slammed against her ribcage as she was tossed into the air, dizzying snowflakes whirling about her. After a tentative half-second of wavering several superfluous feet above the group, Jade’s mind seemed to catch up with her body and she gently swooped into flight, only then turning her head to look out over the icy wastes once she had arrived at a lazy hover.
Nothing. Wait, no— there was something, maybe, nothing more than a dark freckle of interest sticking up amid an absolute ocean of glacial slush, but something nonetheless. Unless the lenses of her glasses were smudged, but Jade highly doubted that that was the case.
She drifted back down again to rejoin her assembled friends, patting down her starry skirts and offering a flurried hello to the person in blue armor who had joined them. Perhaps they had seen and heard the peculiar occurrence, as well?
With a slightly worried expression, Jade’s gaze drifted to the dampening cover of bright white that covered the landscape, observing restlessly as it slipped into a darker maritime blue around the edges. Nightfall would be upon them soon. Not that it would make much of a difference in this weather, but it was simply common knowledge that all large predatory beasts preferred the cover of night to broad daylight. They would really have to book it if they wanted to get anything done before sundown!
“There’s something that way, I’m not totally sure of what it is but it should be interesting!” Jade affirmed, starting off in that direction with a spritely spring to her step.
Ghostlike wisps of air stirred around them in the abrupt silence that followed. It suddenly occurred to Jade that, despite all of the strangeness and parking offenses and distortions of the laws of physics that took place on a regular basis in the Omniverse, some might have found such an occurrence to be a bit more weird than the usual lunchtime brand of improbability.
“Well, now!” Jade said, a refreshing bout of energy working its way somewhere in her system. “I guess we’re going to have to take a vote on what to do!”
Everyone else glanced at one another, some more noticeably than others. Jade supposed that maybe they presumed voting to be a virulent disease or that they might have grown accustomed to operating under the watchful eye of a heavily militarized police force, and so their confusion was totally reasonable. Whatever the cause, she soldiered on for an encouraging finish.
“All those in favor of helping the mysterious ghost letters, raise your right arm!”
There was a pause in which not a soul made a move, save for Rebecca who immediately thrust her arm towards the sky and bobbed energetically on her feet, clearly set to retrieve whatever sugary treasure might be discovered on this adventure.
Then, with what appeared to be a shrug through all of his armor and an “Ah, why the hell not?”, Tartaros raised his arm. A veritable forest of arms shot into the air several beats later, the group collectively deciding that his decision was, indeed, a Good One.
The Witch took her sweet time in counting them all, embodying the part of a freethinking scout master rather well, quietly mouthing the numbers to herself as she went along. As each member of the adventuring party was counted in turn, the raised arms gradually receded. When that was finished, there was nothing left to do but figure out who was opposed to freeing whatever the mystical force was.
With a wide grin on her lips, for she was certain that victory was secured, Jade asked that anyone who disagreed raise their arm into the air or forever hold their peace. To her surprise, a single arm was slung into view with all the reactionary gusto of a toast-prepper during a particularly spirited bachelor party. It was grey and attached to a very grumpy-seeming troll.
“Uh, question. Why should we help whatever-the-fuck that was?” Karkat asked, hunching his shoulders defensively as all eyes focused upon him. He looked kind of like a mightily disgruntled turtle, the collar of his sweater rising up just enough to graze his ears.
Jade grinned, blinked in a way that suggested she couldn’t quite grasp what he was getting at here. “Because it’s the right thing to do, of course!”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course it is. It’s just, some of us here— we’re not like the rest of you. We’re not big players. We die. I don’t even have a weapon to speak of—“
“Oh! That can be fixed, sure,” Jade exclaimed, hastening over to where Karkat stood so she could take his hands and swiftly pull him aside. “Just give me a moment, we’ll have that… what was it called?”
“A clawsickle.” There was a word to describe the look pasted upon Karkat Vantas’ face. It wasn’t one that could be found in a standard Earth dictionary, unfortunately.
“—Clawsickle summoned in just a second!” The starry-eyed girl answered. It actually took a grand total of fifteen minutes for the crab claw-shaped weapon to appear, spikily reddish-colored and hard as the carapace of a crustacean, but it was well worth it to see the small abatement of the tension in her friend’s shoulders once he held his weapon aloft.
That settled, Jade whirled around and considered where the scrawled cyphers had been with a critical eye. That was it; she would have to go full Sherlock Holmes here, no ifs, ands, or buts about it! It was pointing to something in the far distance no doubt, something which she could not see this close to the ground, but maybe if she were to gain a little altitude—
Her eyes clapped upon Grundy. A figurative light bulb fluttered to life above her head.
Beaming widely, Jade skipped over to her towering undead friend and lightly tapped upon his arm to gain his attention. The plant zombie looked down at her, stringy white hair frosted in funnily-skewed spikes around the top of his head.
“WHAT ANGELJADE WANT?”
"Can you boost me up real quick?" the Witch asked, making a lifting gesture with her hands.
Grundy looked at her uncertainly, as if thinking about how easy it would be to launch her into twinkling satellite range by mistake. In the end, though, he simply shrugged and steepled his big fingers into a platform that she could step on the top of. Then, with a nearly effortless heave, he launched her high above his head.
Jade’s heart very nearly slammed against her ribcage as she was tossed into the air, dizzying snowflakes whirling about her. After a tentative half-second of wavering several superfluous feet above the group, Jade’s mind seemed to catch up with her body and she gently swooped into flight, only then turning her head to look out over the icy wastes once she had arrived at a lazy hover.
Nothing. Wait, no— there was something, maybe, nothing more than a dark freckle of interest sticking up amid an absolute ocean of glacial slush, but something nonetheless. Unless the lenses of her glasses were smudged, but Jade highly doubted that that was the case.
She drifted back down again to rejoin her assembled friends, patting down her starry skirts and offering a flurried hello to the person in blue armor who had joined them. Perhaps they had seen and heard the peculiar occurrence, as well?
With a slightly worried expression, Jade’s gaze drifted to the dampening cover of bright white that covered the landscape, observing restlessly as it slipped into a darker maritime blue around the edges. Nightfall would be upon them soon. Not that it would make much of a difference in this weather, but it was simply common knowledge that all large predatory beasts preferred the cover of night to broad daylight. They would really have to book it if they wanted to get anything done before sundown!
“There’s something that way, I’m not totally sure of what it is but it should be interesting!” Jade affirmed, starting off in that direction with a spritely spring to her step.
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Gamzee Makara Wrote:S’aight. After all, dogs have a tendency to motherfuckin’ bite.