02 ; Things To Do

[scarsolderthanyou]

WHO. Stone and OTA
WHERE. Various places, see prompts
WHEN. October 11 and onwards
WHAT. Stone has a few things to follow up on
WARNINGS. Rated E for Everything


I. Trekking Across Spring, open to anybody who'd be in or visiting Spring!

The day after the festival in Spring, Stone sets off to follow the instructions the spirit gave him towards the spring he "should visit". For the first half of the trip, he flies, following broad instructions, carrying anyone who wanted to come along. He's hard to miss in his dragon-sized winged form, pitch black and gliding along sedately, eyes on the ground.

He lands when the trees start to get too thick to follow the trail from the air, shifting back to groundling form once any passengers have been set on their feet again, and waiting for anyone who might have wound up following. "Going to be slower going, here on in," he muses, not exactly cheerfully.


II. Mission Across the Moon, open to Bramble and maybe Lucius

Several days later, there's another job that needs doing. Standing at the fallen terminal, the "meteor", Stone peers up at the "sky", the opposite side of the moon that it must have fallen from. Bramble has a mirror, to communicate with Lucius if need be, and they have whatever preparations Lucius gave them for crossing the center of the moon. Stone's pack has a pair of crystals for them both to get in to any terminals on the other side.

They may not be the best choice to send on this mission, given neither of them are particularly familiar with technology, but they're what Lucius has.

"Ready to go?" Stone asks Bramble, still in groundling form.


III. Peering Across Blood, OTA

The big black Raksura passed over the protests a couple times before swooping down onto a rampart or roof somewhere and promptly vanishing, turning into the lean old man with gray skin, to stare down at the chanting people with a thoughtful frown.

To the nearest person, he asks, "What are they complaining about? What did this queen do wrong?"

Comments

III

[whatsina_name]

This is probably not a great time to show up here, but really, when is a good time to be magically summoned to a moon world rocketing through space to somewhere unknown? But the riots don't really help, especially since no one has seen fit to explain them to Phillip yet.

He's also been trying to get someone to fucking talk to him, but of course the one person who does has the same questions. "No idea," Phillip says with a long-suffering sigh, "I just got here, and no one's stopped yelling long enough to explain."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Hmm." Not helpful, that the first person he got to answer him also didn't know. It looks like they're both in the same predicament. "I could go grab one of them, I guess," Stone muses. "Though I hear they have magic."

He'd rather not get struck down or anything by their foreign gods.

[whatsina_name]

"...You want me to go grab one, then?" Sure, they have magic, but he doesn't really give a shit. Go ahead, gods, try and curse him or whatever. Honestly he's kind of curious about how that would even go.

[scarsolderthanyou]

That wasn't what Stone expected to hear from the boy. He frowns at Phillip thoughtfully. "I take it that means you're not worried about magic."

[whatsina_name]

Hmm. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. But he does want to know about what's going on... "I mean... some people have it in my world and I still get up in their faces sometimes. Is it not a thing at all in yours?" Yes, let's try and make it seem like this guy is the weird one. Solid plan.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"It's a different kind of thing in mine," Stone explains, looking back down at the crowd. "And the sort of magic I have is very limited, and not very good at dealing with the sort of magic they have. I suppose I could shift, swoop down, and flatten them all, but that won't help us get any answers."

[whatsina_name]

...Huh. "The hell can you shift into that would flatten all of them?" Sounds like he can only shift into the one thing after all...

2

[lasteden]

[ Lucius cannot leave the Sanctum for obvious reasons, and his attendant is away on some other business - so long-distance communication will have to do. He is able to monitor the entire Moon using the environmental arrays, so it's an easy effort to focus on where Stone and Bramble had gone. At this range, communication is still possible.

There's no image on the mirror yet, but if the two Raksura address the mirror, he'll be able to speak with them. ]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone rumbles a little in the back of his throat, and looks up, until he spots the shadow of one of the dragons flying overhead. Then he points. "Kinda like one of those, except in black. And with more spines, and a flatter face."

[whatsina_name]

"...You can turn into a dragon?" Ok, he's not going to lie, that's kind of awesome. (Maybe he could try doing that sometime. He can probably turn into a dragon if he wanted to.)

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Technically, I'm called a Raksura," Stone corrects with half a smile. "Not a dragon. But I look similar enough to be mistaken for one at a distance." And it makes for a nice short-hand for people who have never heard of his species before.

[whatsina_name]

"Oh. ...Sorry." It's probably rude to call someone a dragon when they're not. But whatever, it's still awesome. "Anyway. Probably shouldn't squash people. They can't really answer questions then."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I have had that problem in the past." At least he doesn't sound offended. Just a bit amused. "My name is Stone. What's yours?" Since he's definitely picked up by now that this kid is another non-native.

[whatsina_name]

Has he had the problem of people calling him a dragon, or of squashing people that he wanted to ask questions? Either is likely, as far as Phillip's concerned. "I'm Phillip. Nice to meet you."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Both, but the former only since arriving here. There are no dragons, as such, on the Three Worlds. At least, not called by that name. Stone and the Fell are probably the closest they come. "Same here. Us kidnapped foreigners probably ought to know each other and keep in touch. There's not very many of us."

[whatsina_name]

"Yeah, I kind of got the impression they didn't know what to do with us..." Which, you know. Fair. He barely knows what to do with the shit that happens in his world. "How long have you been here?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Half a season, or so. Two months, by their timekeeping here," Stone answers. "You're newer, right? I know all the ones who came in when I did. Most of them are gone again, now." To his disgruntlement and everyone else's confusion.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip nods. "I just got here. ...Literally." Hasn't even been a day yet, unless his sense of time is way off. "Where did they all go?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"No one knows. One of them left behind a distraught dragon, and still no one can say much about it," Stone snorts. "We don't know if they went back where they came from, or they were deposited on some world we passed, or they disappeared into the air. All we know is they're not on this flying rock anymore."

[whatsina_name]

Aww. Poor dragon. "So... they don't know how we get pulled here or why, and we can disappear at basically any moment but we don't know why that happens either?" This sounds less than ideal, to be perfectly honest.

[carried_away]

1. "I don't mind." Bramble could shift and climb if she needed to, and she liked being around trees. Spring was full of thing to learn about, but it was nice to be in a forest again. It was a thing she liked about being a hunter back home -- spending time away from the colony to see the rest of the forest (or the part in Indigo Cloud's territory).

2. "Yes. wait, hang on. I'm going to shift." Because while Bramble knew Stone wouldn't drop her because this was Stone, who had been flying Arbora around since before Bramble was born, she had never done anything like this, and wanted the extra protection of her scales and grip of her claws. "Will we get the same sickness we got last time by going up high?" That wasn't on a moon, but Bramble was still learning why that sort of thing happened; most Arbora didn't get carried that high that quickly.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Pretty much." Less than ideal is really an understatement. Stone is incredibly displeased with this additional development of disappearing people, and makes a point to keep tabs on Bramble as often as possible. "And now we're on a flying rock with an unhappy bunch of people who want their ruler to step down."

1.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Of course you don't," Stone sighs, giving her head a gentle shove. He eyes the trees a moment more, then starts walking, making sure to keep at a pace Bramble is comfortable with. He still wants to find this place, wherever it is, even if he has to go the long way.

"Though I'm told there's some big enough for me to climb in, around somewhere," he adds. "Probably not as big as the ones back home, but big enough."

2.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"You might," Stone allows. "I'll take it slow, if I can. And Lucius might have suggestions." He taps the communication mirror lightly with the back of one finger, then offers it to Bramble. He won't be able to do much with it while flying, but Bramble might.

[whatsina_name]

"Awesome." It is clear from his tone that he doesn't think it's awesome at all. "So we adjust and get jobs and then maybe vanish. Good to know." It's probably good there aren't more of them, when you look at it that way. Having half your population be on the potential verge of disappearing would probably be really bad.

"...Guess it could always be worse." That part is actually not sarcastic.