Nuages de Violet (a Shared Story exercise)

Her backpack slung over her back, Tamara dropped out of the plane, apprehensively eying the floating cube. She doubted anything good could come of it.

Although if I heard right, it and that girl saved the plane. Damn, that's powerful. I'd never be able to measure up against them.

"Um, excuse me," she said to no one in particular, "but is staying here such a good idea? We should get moving if we want to get back to civilization. Or... wait a moment..." She thought for several moments. If the plane's lights were gone, then maybe the instruments were too, so the plane probably dropped off the radar. No one knows where we are. Unless... "Anyone got a satphone? We could call for help, assuming whatever killed the lights didn't do the same to the phones."

Melissa looked over at Tamara and said, "well, I got something like a satphone," she brought up the holographic computer imbedded in her left gauntlet, "but it can't get any kinda connection. Which is strange — this thing'll patch into basically anything mankind's thrown into space with a transmitter and a receiver." She examined the diagrams and numbers, then added, "but it can't find a damn whisper here."

They mentioned the trilobite. They must be talking about him.

Wilhelm's trilobite whirs and clicks. A propeller pops out of its back. He doesn't even remember putting that thing in it.

The trilobite flies off to bother someone. Wilhelm watches it carefully, not caring to direct its path with the music.

edited 4th Dec '11 4:45:36 PM by SnowyFoxes

He can't stop communications, can he? I didn't think he'd brought anything like that anyway.

"Okay," said Tamara, a little nervously. "This is bad. Out in the middle of nowhere, no communications, no one knows we're here. Swell." She glanced around herself, checking if she could see him, but no. "Do you think we should maybe scour the land or something? Examine the surrounding area to see if we can find anything we can follow to a city? Because I... I'm not used to being out like this."

Tamara turned over some thoughts in her head. It had sounded like Melissa didn't like magic, but Tamara wasn't doing her any favors by concealing what she was. The only reason she was doing it in the first place was because magic apparently didn't exist in this universe at all. But this event threw that idea to the ground and trampled it. And... it looked like Melissa could live with magic for now.

"I'm a magus," Tamara said quickly. "I can use some types of magic. Just..." She took a deep breath and looked at the ground. "Just throwing that out there," she said quietly. "Thought you might want to know preemptively."

"Another one," Melissa said, sardonically. "You guys are just crawling out the woodwork. Aright. This is a Sigma-class event — an inter-universal collision — if I'm hearin' things right. So I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." To herself, she muttered, "and I thought our brainiacs had just watched too much sci-fi."

She looked around the group and and said, "so here's the situation as I see it. We got food enough for a while on board, so we ain't down to hunting and gathering just yet. Though if someone wants to step forward, they can be my guest." Stepping back to keep Tamara, Wilhelm, and Mizuki in her sight, she said, "you wizardy types, see if you can sniff out wizardy things. A Sigma is damn likely to have something wizardy, and who knows, you met get a shiny souvenir for your mantlepieces."

"As for me?" She readied her SMG and said, "I'm gonna assume xenos are our flavor of the month. Not more or less likely than magicky stuff, but I'd rather deal with hostile xenos than hostile wizards. I'm pretty sure xenos will have the courtesy to die after a few rounds from my pal here," she slapped the SMG fondly, "but who knows with wizards?" She opened up her gauntlet computer again, setting it to alert her to any unusual energy signatures it picked up. A radar, directly inspired by the ones found in video games, showed up in the lower-left corner of the HUD her helmet was generating. It hadn't picked up anything so far, not even the current batch of wizards.

edited 4th Dec '11 5:46:48 PM by KillerClowns

"Inter-universal? Maybe that would explain why I've never seen any of these other kinds of magic before." Mizuki said, shooing the buzzing trilobite away from her, "Also maybe why I can't get any signals here either..."

"I'll keep looking for anything (else) strange, but if we're dealing with other universes' types of magic, I'm not sure if I'll be able to sense them or not..." Mizuki said, checking her phone, "Hard to say right now. Also, Melissa, by xenos do you mean - aliens?"

edited 4th Dec '11 6:13:01 PM by Sonzai

"Yep," Melissa said. "We've yet to see a living xeno, but the brainiacs — who are damn insistent about the term, 'xeno', for some reason — still have about fifty different event plans. Of course, Earth comes first, but we wouldn't want first contact to involve interstellar war, now would we?" Then she added, "anyways, I hear ya about not being able to detect other universe's magic — you guys don't show up as anything funny on my sensors. But still, you got eyes and ears, same as me. That's a start."

edited 4th Dec '11 6:17:35 PM by KillerClowns

"Hey Melissa, I don't mean to pry about top-secret technology, but since it would seem better the more people we have working together..." Mizuki said, taking out her phone, "I communicate with Mandel here through the phone, cause, you know he can't speak." She held up her phone, that displayed the message: 'Hi there!'

"So maybe we could have him talk to your sensors similarly in case we see anything?" she said.

"Well, um," said Tamara, "there's... ah, how do I put this... I was... after a certain someone on the plane who was... maybe a little insane. Granted powers by a demon in exchange for servitude. He has control over the classical elements, and probably has maybe ten or so bodyguards with him, all with a limited amount of elemental control as well. Shortly after the plane crashed, I couldn't find him. So he's somewhere out here." She waved her hand around.

"But..." Tamara pulled a pistol out of her backpack and tossed it to Melissa. "...if you can hit him with that, you'll significantly decrease his powers. The bullets are solid orichalcum, and it's selective-fire; semi- and full-auto. It's got about fifty bullets, thanks to hammerspace. It could work on me, too, so watch where you aim it."

She reached into her bag again and pulled out a knife. Laying the blade against her palm, Tamara said, "Watch." Small wisps of smoke began to curl up from her skin as she bit her lip. A few seconds later, the smoke had increased, and she was clenching her teeth and breathing heavily. With a gasp, she yanked the blade away. "See?" she said, holding up her hand. She had a burn on her palm where the blade had been. "Also orichalcum. I won't lose anything yet, since it didn't break the skin, but if it had, I'd be normal until the wound healed."

edited 4th Dec '11 6:45:39 PM by TeraChimera

Sniff out wizardy things. He can do that.

The trilobite lands on his head and settles there, clicking contentedly, as Wilhelm wanders off, playing a dirge on his harmonica.

"Shootin' crazy demon-worshipping mages," Melissa said. "Now, that I can do." She grinned, putting the pistol at her side. She suspected using it on someone else would be like shooting the Green Lantern with kryptonite, but it was something she could try in a worst case scenario.

Then, to Mizuki, "oh... well, these sensors are kinda picky. About a bajillion different anti-cyber-warfare thingies, and I'm not quite sure how to turn 'em all off. I don't think he could patch right into this," she flicked the radar gadget on her HUD, "but he can send me a message if he spots anything on whatever channels he thinks is best. Radio or what have you."

Setting the pistol to semi-auto, she said, "okay. What's our target look like?"

"Um, hang on," Tamara said, snapping her fingers. "Nice suit, tallish, looks mid-40's, clean-shaven, black hair, well-trimmed... oh, and yellow eyes. Not amber, yellow yellow. I suppose you could call it gold — they do — but yellow's not as romanticized, more belittling to them, and makes it sound a bit ridiculous."

She looked around. "He can cover his tracks semi-decently, but at least he's not a shapeshifter. Then we wouldn't find him until he was ripping our throats out as a wolf. And he can't sense life, so there's another plus. But still, we might not see him until he attacks us. If he does attack us; he might want to draw us into his service with offers of power, but..." She glanced at Melissa. "I doubt you'd take it up."

Tamara looked back to the plane. "I wish I knew which seat he sat in... then I might be able to track him..."

Mizuki looked at her phone again, and said, "Okay, he says he's going to try to establish a data link."

The hovering box then began sending signals over Radio, attempting to establish an encrypted text-message link.

"Also, I don't remember seeing anyone like that, but I didn't really look around carefully until it was too late." Mizuki said to Tamara, "But I can try to help out - that kind of person sounds like serious trouble."

As Wilhelm wanders the area, playing his harmonica all the while, he doesn't notice the silvery mist seeping out of the ground, like fog. They begin to form shapes and creep towards him. The trilobite notices, though, and flies back to the others to get their attention.

Unfortunately, it seems to think that the best way to do this is to land on their faces and necks and crawl into their hair.

edited 4th Dec '11 7:34:38 PM by SnowyFoxes

It could fly.

Matt swatted the thing away with catlike precision, his attention turned to the mist that manifested as a dull pressure of sorts in his hand. He shook it at his side, as if trying to get something off of it, as he set his violin down atop a rock. Delicately, he held his cane with three fingers on each hand, in such a way that suggested that he was about to snap it in two, and stepped warily towards it.

The trilobite guides the man to Wilhelm, who is sitting on a rock with his eyes closed and glasses slipping dangerously close to the end of his nose.

What the fuck is this shit? seems to be the question it's asking as it bobs up and down in the silver smoke swirling on the ground. It was all over the place, but seemed to originate from wherever Wilhelm happened to be.

edited 4th Dec '11 7:48:46 PM by SnowyFoxes

After finishing the cryptographic handshake with Mandel, Melissa spotted the trilobites antics. Flipping on the cyan laser sight for her SMG, Melissa muttered, "...the fuck?" The dot came to rest on Wilhelm's skull as she said, very slowly and carefully, "...you okay, pal? Speak to me."

"Huh?"

Wilhelm looks at the silver smoke, which has frozen in place.

"What the hell is this stuff?"

The trilobite lets out a tiny buzz that might be a sigh.

"I'm fine, by the way."

Melissa lowered her gun, but kept it ready, and said, "alright. Just makin' sure. So. Let's get this thing scanned..." she fiddled with her gauntlet computer, waving away error messages. "Dammit, couldn't they have at least waited until beta?" She sighed, and flipped it off. "Experimental tech is experimental. Funny how often people forget that. Let's hope this thing reboots nice, at least." Then she looked at the fog and said, "but that ain't normal. Anyone got any better ideas than 'poke it with a stick'? Oh, and, uh, you might want to get out of that stuff..."

"It's not hurting me." Wilhelm pulls a wrench out of his coat and swats at it. Nothing happens. "I think it was moving before I stopped the music."

Cautiously, Tamara stuck her hand into the mist. It felt like normal mist, but there was something off about its magical signature; something she couldn't put her finger on. She didn't want to try manipulating it in any way.

Pulling her hand out, she noticed that some of the mist was sticking to it unnaturally. Tamara gave her hand a little shake; some wisps fell off, but not much. She shook her hand much more vigorously, and all of it fell off.

"If no one minds," she said, nervously scratching her hand, "I think I'll head into the forest a little and try to find out what the landscape is like. If anyone wants, they can come with me." She pulled a smallish assault rifle from her backpack. "Wish me luck." She began climbing up one of the shallower hills.

'Are you receiving this message?' Mandel texted to Melissa, 'For the mist, I do not recognize it, other than that it is not of our universe. My range here appears to be rather limited, but I will keep you informed if anything shows up.'

"Actually, maybe I'll check out the area with you, too." Mizuki said, following Tamara up the hill. Mandel shrunk back down to small size (3 cm / 1 in) and went into Mizuki's pocket.

"Call me back if there's a problem." Mizuki said as she left the crash site.

"Huh," Melissa said, keeping her SMG trained on the fog. "So, uh..." well, there were really two options. Have him play a bit more, and see what happens, or tell him to not play.

Or a third option. "Hell. Y'all magicky people figure out the magic fog. Just, uh, don't breathe it in if you can help it." Great. I need to throttle those brainiacs who decided a gauntlet computer with alpha software was more important than a damn gas mask. Even Sigmund sends his goons out with gas masks!

"Alright," Melissa said, following Tamara, "sounds like somewhere I could be useful. Let's hope we're walking away from the weird."

Mandel's message appeared on her HUD, in the red color reserved for unauthorized transmissions. A bit of fiddling set it to green, so she didn't mistake him for someone else. "Alright, Mandel," she said, "you got any tactical capabilities you'd like to share? I'm guessing I can't just hand you an M-16 and call it a day."

edited 4th Dec '11 9:31:02 PM by KillerClowns

'In my current form, I am very limited in my capabilities, and cannot even communicate, unless I am bonded to another intelligence, currently Mizuki.' Mandel texted back, 'However, she is a level two mathmagician apprentice and has a variety of physics and fractal-based spells at her disposal. However, I believe she has no experience whatsoever with firearms.'

'Normally, we could also call for others if the need arose, but for an unknown reason, we cannot communicate with anyone else here, and so appear to be alone.'

"Thanks," Tamara said to Melissa. She hadn't wanted any support particularly badly, but she welcomed it. "Tell me if you spot anything like a branch or something that looks like it's been pushed aside recently. Or anything that could tell us that the guy I'm looking for — Zachariah Garner, by the way — that he's been here. I'm not good at any sort of tracking."

A thought jumped into Tamara's head. "Listen, I know you don't like magic, so would you object if I shapeshifted into an animal that could help us if the need arose? I don't mean like any superpowered version, just a normal, run-of-the-mill animal. And I can't hold them for very long before they start to ache, but at close range, I'd rather have a wolf's claws than a machine gun." After a moment's pause, she amended that. "I'm fine with guns, although not as much as I should be, and I figured I'd bring this up now."