Reaching in to figure it out (Ch. 4: Day 2, pt. IV)

NPC · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:57 pm

Night fell upon the Dry Lagoon gorge, but it was only then that it really started to come to life. While Tails and the others were in Gigalopolis, the rest of the passengers from the crash-landed spacecrafts back at the Marble Ruins made their way over, guided by Juke. Yes, he actually managed to get them there alive. No one seemed particularly happy about the challenging, mountainous route he picked, being an insensitive and inconsiderate flyer, but nonetheless, everyone who wanted to stick with the "rebel cause" made it safely.

There still wasn't a great deal they could do to set up a comfortable base of operations yet, resources limited as they were, but they did discover some tunnels and chambers that were safe, if a bit dusty. Outside, a few trees had been felled for wood and palm fronds, and it seemed some kind of hut was being built near one of the canyon walls... Perhaps Big's doing? Regardless, despite its name, "Dry" Lagoon was lush, green, and had enough flora to go around.

A large campfire crackled not far from the water's edge. The cool of the desert night was setting in a little, so many were crowded around, and at least another couple of smaller satellite campfires were lit nearby. Everyone who was someone in this ragtag resistance was gathered around the largest one—everyone except Tabitha, Tails, Rodolf, Geoff, and Coop, who should have been on their way back by then...

searchindextag
chapter4search

Mie · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:05 pm

Under any normal circumstances, Tabitha usually was back around the point she should have been on her way back; today, though far from over, was pretty much safe to file under "abnormal circumstances." The otherwise endlessly energetic cat, who couldn't be made to slow pace for anything -- not walked, but trudged into camp looking as harried and spent on the outside as she felt on the inside.

Her normally neat braid hung in disarray, swinging tepidly behind her along with her tail, as she ambled along, conversing contrastingly enthusiastically.

"...I mean, I'm not one of these super hero types, and at that point, it was almost always easier to just run, but that was then, y'know? Small potatoes. I've never tried to do anything like this -- not on this scale, or with this much help, and honestly, never anything this significant! The last couple of days have really been game-changing, and I'm not really sure how to ...mmm utilize to the fullest potential all these new..." There was a very pointed, deliberate pause wherein she looked first to Tails, then the hulking form of the black eagle, and to the crystalline hedgehog and finally the unicorn, before she at last chose the word, "Resources."

"But maybe the others have had time to come up with something," she hedged hopefully, as the group drew nearer to the largest of the fires.

Kazz · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:42 pm

"Let's not have a repeat of that, if nothing else," Rodolf said in a completely, utterly flat tone as he came up behind the cat, looking harried from head to toe. He always looked at least somewhat unamused, but really, the profound and deep lack of amusement was all but dripping off him (and through his words).

He cast a look around the make-shift camp. "Looks like nobody died, at least," he murmured, mostly to himself.

Big waved one bulky arm at the returning party from where he sat alongside the largest fire. Just in case anyone had missed their arrival, the big purple feline's motion was one big 'hey there are people coming'.

Mako blinked and tilted his head to look at the arrivals; he extracted himself from his place around one of the satellite fires (he had been talking to a couple of birds who had come on the Juke-piloted spacecrafts).
"You guys just keep adding more," he remarked to the 'round-the-fire group at large, as he walked over (and made sure to give Big a wide berth). He obviously wasn't paying much attention yet to who was approaching, or he might have said something about 'glitter' or 'sparkly'.

Franky · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:21 pm

Aga looked up for a second when someone mentioned new arrivals, gave the others a quick once over to make sure no one was missing or horribly wounded, and returned his attention to the shattered pot in front of him that he was desperately trying to salvage and put together. "Yes, the more the merrier, as long as they don't wreck anything else," he muttered in response to the shark while trying to fit broken pieces together like a puzzle.

Sheff · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:07 pm

Walking along with the feline and unicorn, Geoff looked just as prepared to hunker down and sleep for three days. He had managed to leave the city unscathed, but the continuous sprinting and navigating through desert and city was taking its large toll. And lets not forget the misadventures in space they had only just returned from (well, at least some of them anyway).

Whatever frustrations had befallen the hedgehog were left behind miles ago, having done a good ramble about the dangers they just escaped. Comments of "good god are they just color blind" were out of his system, and now he just trudged along with the other two, seeing the welcoming fire ahead.

He started to address Rodolf's comment.

"Yeah, they probably had it easy out here-" He paused, passing the silent, metal body of a robot, just visible in the glow of the fire. "I take that back."

Curious to what had occurred there in their absence, he directed his attention to the people gathered around the fire, seeing that it was few more numbers strong. Guess they were turning into a substantial force now. It wasn't long, though, before his eyes fell on the large-tailed, blue member of the group, and he couldn't help but show a grin.

"Oi, Mako!" he greeted as he entered the circle of light around the fire. "Haven't been turned into sushi yet, eh?"

Diluss · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:57 pm

Tails trotted into the camp, not particularly harried by his day outing. He was not in possession of Rouge or Nocturnus technology, but seemed unworried either way.

psikeout · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:25 pm

"Look what the cat's dragged in," said Midian in a tired, rattling, albeit jovial voice as he straightened his back and sat up a little. He had been firmly parked, half-reclining by the fire for a while, at least since it had gotten too dark to work. Some playing cards were on the ground; one guess who would have been up for cards.

"Howzit?" he called once they were in comfortable earshot. Following his initial headcount (to make sure everyone was still there), his focus seemed to fall mostly on Tabitha and Tails—the former because she'd know the scoop, and the latter because he was the sole reason for the outing and their (as-yet unrealized) link to Sonic.

Mie · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:52 pm

Undeterred by Rodolf's doom and gloom (something Tabitha was becoming increasingly ignorant of), the swishy-pantsed cat jogged toward her familiar face, answering, "Well, none of us are incarcerated."

She was actually fairly chipper about it, without a trace of sarcasm to her tone, indicating that this was an unexpected providence. After a brief glance around, she pulled up a seat(some... tablet-shaped rock thing with some kind of ... funny squiggles and poorly drawn stick figures all over it; probably graffiti) with a small grunt of effort, and plopped unceremoniously down atop it.

"But from the looks of things, you've probably accomplished more than we did -- all we did was shake things up, and manage to walk- er, well, run away from it unscathed."

Kazz · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:17 pm

Mako paused and tilted his head when he was addressed-- it was a bit hard to see through the glare of fire, but lo and behold. "O ye of little faith and great levels of body-glitter," he said with a sharp-toothed grin, giving a little half-wave to the hedgehog with one hand. "And here we were thinking you'd gotten eaten by space monsters. Or blown up. Or eaten by space explosions."

Rodolf cast a glance over at Tails as the fox walked along, ever-so-nonchalant; he sighed and shook his head, and wordlessly took a seat alongside the fire, having no compunctions about sitting on the ground.
He chose not to comment further on the events of their party's excursion yet.

Greens · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:48 pm

"Not a bad guess," added the serval, seated with his back against a shapely log. As could probably be expected, he too, held a set of cards, and he held them quite tightly against his chest. Thankfully, he had nothing to gamble, or his oddly crafty opponent might have robbed him blind. Not that you could tell from the cucumber cool response he gave the other cat of the bunch. "But all we did was shake things up, an' stay right where we were."

He added a playful jab along with a thumb over his shoulder. "Yer pal Midian here's got some pretty fancy moves for a pet detective, or whatever."

psikeout · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 9:10 pm

"Park warden," murmured Midian with carefully-measured disdain, still clutching his cards.

Mie · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 9:46 pm

"Don't I know it," responded the girl with a wave of her hand; her expression turned terribly serious all of a sudden. "Actually, I've got a theory about that."

After a brief glance to the jackal in question, Tabitha edged surreptitiously closer to the serval, cupping a gloved hand around her mouth as she revealed in a whisper replete with a weighty, dramatic pause, "I'm pretty sure he used to be... a spy."

Only to positively dissolve into a poorly stifled, but short-lived fit of giggles.

"No, but really, park wardens need to be reasonably fit, I'd imagine. Can't drive everywhere out there, you know."

psikeout · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 10:00 pm

"Aeh ha ha," the jackal laughed stiffly and sarcastically. Still, he grinned just a little. "Maybe y'might use th'skeef imagination you got there to come up with a plan, maybe, hm?"

Pause.

"... Really, though," he added more quietly, leaning into the "circle" (so to speak). "I know you just got back and all, but— we've got all of these people in a big ditch in the desert. I scheme we'd do well to have some idea what we're going to do before they get restless and come asking, nè?"

Sheff · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:01 pm

"And that's just the grand ol' question, isn't it?" stated the hedgehog, having already taken his own respective seat around the fire, staring into the flames a bit. "I mean, I think we have the capability of taking action and leaving a mark, but it all comes down to where we start."

He glanced up, gears starting to turn in his head.

"I think we need to start looking for spots that would actually have an impact on the status of the Doc's empire if we charged in and roughened stuff up." He paused, reconsidering his choice of words. "...well, maybe not exactly charge, but I think you guys get the point."

Greens · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:12 pm

The serval half-growled a grungy breath from the back of his throat, scratching at something at the back of his neck. "If I was any good with plans, I wouldn't be in this mess," he admitted lowly. "...But that sounds like the right idea. Just need to narrow it all down."

For a few moments he reclined, thought to himself, and longed for a cigarette. That was happening a lot, lately. "Let's start from the top. Eggman is in power. That's bad on principal. So how did he get there? Did he use an army? Did he ask politely? Is he holding anything hostage, using the chaos emeralds? What suddenly changed to have this happen, and how can we take that away?"

He paused.

"Where is he, even?"

Reaching in to figure it out (Ch. 4: Day 2, pt. IV)

Who is online