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Who: three-fifths of group nine (nine): ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
geophile, cryptologic & braidedwonder
When: IC 7/18
Where: "on top of a random roof in the Residential District" - cerealia mods, 2016
What: WHAT'S COOLER THAN BEING COOL? FREEZING TO DEATH. Alternatively: the humans of group nine wake up in a post-interlude, post-revival pile of bodies.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for mentions of slow, frostbitten death, among other things.
[ the last thing steven can remember is feeling bitterly cold.
really, it's the last thing that his brain was able to process before blacking out. reasoning with the spirit that they had angered had worked until a point: it hadn't killed them in a fit of rage, but the below freezing temperatures that it left in its wake did the trick. with neji having been killed before and jibril being able to survive the cold for longer than them, that left steven, dipper and duo to a slow, hypothermic grave.
if there's one regret he doesn't have, it's being able to return carbink to its poké ball before it froze, too. he had used the last of his strength for that - in doing so, none of his pokémon had to see him die again. they're all blissfully unaware of it, and he intends to keep it that way. he can't worry his partners like that, especially after his first death in the dark colony labyrinth.
but onto the present. he feels like he's been unconscious for some time; in line with how he felt the last time he had died, but without the visible trip to the nexus code. just like that before, he awakens with a startled gasp - the difference now is that he's still cold, despite the relative warmth of the air around him. it's a strange feeling, and one that he can't seem to shake.
another difference is that he's not alone. in fact, he has what appears to be an elbow pushing against his stomach, and it is extremely uncomfortable. unfortunately, he can't move much due to the fact that he's sandwiched between two of his lovely groupmates. the best he can do is try to budge, but that isn't going to do much until they come to. ]
geophile, cryptologic & braidedwonderWhen: IC 7/18
Where: "on top of a random roof in the Residential District" - cerealia mods, 2016
What: WHAT'S COOLER THAN BEING COOL? FREEZING TO DEATH. Alternatively: the humans of group nine wake up in a post-interlude, post-revival pile of bodies.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for mentions of slow, frostbitten death, among other things.
[ the last thing steven can remember is feeling bitterly cold.
really, it's the last thing that his brain was able to process before blacking out. reasoning with the spirit that they had angered had worked until a point: it hadn't killed them in a fit of rage, but the below freezing temperatures that it left in its wake did the trick. with neji having been killed before and jibril being able to survive the cold for longer than them, that left steven, dipper and duo to a slow, hypothermic grave.
if there's one regret he doesn't have, it's being able to return carbink to its poké ball before it froze, too. he had used the last of his strength for that - in doing so, none of his pokémon had to see him die again. they're all blissfully unaware of it, and he intends to keep it that way. he can't worry his partners like that, especially after his first death in the dark colony labyrinth.
but onto the present. he feels like he's been unconscious for some time; in line with how he felt the last time he had died, but without the visible trip to the nexus code. just like that before, he awakens with a startled gasp - the difference now is that he's still cold, despite the relative warmth of the air around him. it's a strange feeling, and one that he can't seem to shake.
another difference is that he's not alone. in fact, he has what appears to be an elbow pushing against his stomach, and it is extremely uncomfortable. unfortunately, he can't move much due to the fact that he's sandwiched between two of his lovely groupmates. the best he can do is try to budge, but that isn't going to do much until they come to. ]
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He feels cold. He should be cold. Like a - corpse.
The thought jolts him, and he tries to scramble to his feet, but as soon as he tries to move his limbs, he realizes he's trapped under a pressing weight.
He's face down, one arm trapped behind his back - that's his elbow in your gut, Steven - so he can't quite turn his head to get a very good look at what's piled on top of him, but it's obvious enough that it's other people. And he can guess who even with his unfortunate position on the bottom of the body pile.
He...they had...
It's so cold.
He can't tell yet if it's his memory snaring him up or if it's actually as cold as it seems. ]
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[ Well.. at least it wasn't suffocating after a closed air lock... If there was any way Duo Maxwell could've chosen to die it probably wouldn't have been freezing, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world, either. They could've burnt, or been conscious for much longer than they were. But maybe that kind of thought only comes from a kid that could've died in any number of horrible ways in a war and now has the time to consider which would be the worst way to kick the bucket.
He wakes up with a deep gasp, the kind that someone takes when their body is fighting to breathe, but it quickly evens out. Thankfully for Steven he's very light, but boney, the braid once wrapped around his neck is now touching the roof they were on, thrown over his shoulder and whoever was below him. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, they'd woken up in some sick next part of this level of hell he's fast enough to scramble to his feet, trying to touch whoever was below him as little as possible if he does so, just in case they've... you know.. been dead.
That's thankfully not the case, but Duo is a little too busy checking his fingers and other extremities, for the moment, to make sure nothing was dead or falling off.
#priorities. ]
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still, he musters up the strength to lift himself off of dipper and collapse with his back to the ground, but not without an exhausted groan. after he manages to steady his breathing and rubs his eyes with a (noticeably freezing cold) forefinger and thumb to refocus his vision, he notices that the the sky is familiar. that means that they're back in the colony... of course. where else would they have ended up? they died.
he can feel what appears to be a migraine coming on, but he'll force himself to at least begin to stand up. his endurance is good enough for that, but it won't be without difficulty. ]
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But it wasn't a nightmare.
As his eyes focus and he pushes himself up on his hands, his thoughts begin to collect, droplets on an ice cold pane of glass. Thoughts come packed with memories, and as he remembers -
He keels forward, catching his head in his hands, and it's really rather fortunate he's newly remade, or else he might be sick, right then and there.
And who could blame him? He had the death of himself and three other people crashing down on his conscience at the moment. ]
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[ Though Duo might be a little fast to 'recover' in certain ways, once the adrenaline of the moment of waking up has worn off, he drops to his bottom on the rooftop. His chin tilts upward and back, trying to reconcile what the hell has happened to him, is happening to him. He's aware that he's chilled to the bone, shivering even as he sits there, that his fingers ache like someone who's spent too long in the cold without the proper gloves on.
But all of his fingers are there, and not black with dead skin that might indicate that he might lose them, so they're fine. He'll reassess in a minute. For the moment, though, he's dead silent, catching himself and trying to reconcile what he remembers with what was going on at that moment.
They're an odd triad, really - sitting there silently collecting themselves in whatever way they'd woken up. He doesn't know how long he's been gone - he'll have to call Heero soon. ]
Everyone else's fingers still skin color and all that?
[ Might as well break the ice, here. ]
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he finds the strength to rise on one knee, staying that way as he cups his hands to breathe into them in an attempt to bring some warmth. it's there for a fleeting moment, but it's replaced by a new wave of cold just as quickly as it came. ]
Yes... Though I can't say that they feel that way.
[ the next thing he does is feel at his belt for his poké balls. silently, he counts; they're all there. he can at least be thankful for that much. ]
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He's also only semi-aware that the other two are talking now. He should look up. He should talk to them. He should face them, but he can't bring himself to.
He's just - paralyzed. Mentally, anyway.
Why is he still so cold? ]
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Feels like I'm back in Antarctica.. [ That hadn't really been the greatest trip of his life. A kid as small as him, trying to figure out what the hell his sometimes partner in crime was up to hadn't really been the very best idea in the world. At least he could say that he's been the Antarctica, at least, right?
He's quick to notice Dipper, though, or rather... his silence. His head moves to be in the right position, seeking out the other kid, watching for a moment. It's a sinking sensation when he takes in the way he's breathing, his body language - a like to shell shocked soldiers who'd barely survived a fight that he'd managed to walk past once or twice after a mission. It stirs something in him, though probably not something as tender or.. forgiving as other people might expect. ]
Yo, you having an attack over there? [ Ah, yes, divert the attention away from whatever feelings may be going on, here - ] No sense in freaking out now - it's over with, and we're back here, some way or another.
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but unlike duo, he has a little more tact than trying to divert from sensitivity. when he rises up from his kneeling position, he first moves in front of dipper and kneels back down to be at his level. it's still cold, but he can at least try to provide some semblance of warmth in an emotional sense. ]
I wouldn't use those same words, but he's right. [ his voice is soft, so as to not startle him. ] Side effects notwithstanding, we are safe.
[ he can't find it in him to smile just yet, but he does sound somewhat reassuring. ]
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The issue is that he got other people killed.
He finally looks up at them, rubbing a palm against his temple like he's warding off a gnarly headache. ]
R-right. Sorry, I...um, just got...sorry. [ He doesn't quite look either of them in the eye, gaze darting around haphazardly as he pulls himself to is feet.
"Sorry" doesn't even begin to cover it. ]
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[ Duo could only really guess what was going through the other two's heads, at the moment, but already his was focused on finding out how long he'd been out of commission, and figuring out where they were in the grand scheme of the colony. So with Steven handling the more delicate parts of the situation Duo moves to stand, a bit gingerly, like an old man with aching knees who needed to make sure of his footing and move with a certain deliberateness - toward the edge of the roof line. The height doesn't fuss him a bit - this is probably akin to how high he was in Deathscythe's cockpit, if not a little bit lower. It takes him a moment of looking around, and then - ]
Oh. This is the Residential District. That makes things simple at least. [ And it would make the walk back to his apartment at least a little less excruciating than he thought it was going to end up being.
Duo is keen to side step this entire subject, if only for a second, still facing out toward the district, but talking to the other two on the roof with him - ]
How long do you think we've been gone at this point?
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he looks out to the horizon as well, confirming what duo had said. so they're on a roof somewhere... how on earth did they end up here? ]
I wouldn't be surprised if it's been several days.
[ he'll be pulling out his cerevice to check that claim, and he isn't wrong. ]
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It's...always at least one. [ Something he knew from experience - both his own and his friends who had died. It's knowledge he'd really be happier without. ]
There's a fire escape over there. Or we can try to open the stairwell door, but those usually...lock from the inside.
[ As cowardly as it sounds, he's eager to get down from here. ]
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[ Duo seems to take Steven's cue and turns his own CereVice back on - it was a bit of a habit to turn it off when he wasn't out and might not need to be in contact with Heero for any reason. But as soon as it chirps that he's on, there's a few alerts for messages, and Duo is back to cursing all over again. It was only a message or two, but still. ]
Great, so I'm out 3 days too. [ Yep, already done the math. ]
You already look close enough to hurlin' and I'm not looking to deal with that on top of everything else.. [ So he'll approach the stairwell door, digging in his braid for a quickly produced lock pick and beginning to go at the lock with a practiced hand. ]
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[ after checking the time and date, steven sees that he has quite a few messages and missed calls of his own - a lot more than two. he'll have to respond to those once he's back in his apartment and hopefully warmer.
duo can work on that door, but doing conventional stuff has never been steven's style (nor does he want to wait for any longer than he has to). instead, he's going to put his fingers to his lips and whistle out into the air, letting the sound echo through the residential district.
it only takes a moment before a large metal bird can be seen flying towards the roof at a breakneck speed. when it lands, it presses its head into steven's hold in a concerning manner. it isn't often that he's this affectionate, but... well, his trainer has been MIA for three days. for the first time, steven finds himself smiling gently. ]
I'm fine, Skarmory. Don't worry.
[ he turns his attention to dipper and duo, still gently petting his partner. ]
If you'd like, we can give you both a ride home. It's the least I can offer.
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He's broken out of his trance for a moment, befuddled by the appearance of Skarmory. ]
...Okay, that should not be physically possible. [ HOW DOES IT STAY IN THE AIR ]
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Nah, I'm good. I don't need to die again in some scheme I ain't even sure about - [ The mechanism snaps with one more motion, and Duo calmly withdraws the lock pick, opening the door with a bit of a smirk. At least some things were going right in his life at the moment. He'll lean in the doorway, sending an oh-so-casual text to his roommate to let him know he's alive and coming back in a little while.
He'd fill him in on what he'd found then, but for now he was probably going to aim to sign off from this little pow wow. ]
The only metal bird I'm ever flyin' in again is Wing Zero or Deathscythe, thanks.
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[ hollow wings, baby. skarmory is pretty much built to be naturally streamlined despite his natural steel armour, which makes him the perfect means of transportation for steven. but he won't make too much of a fuss to duo's decline of the offer. ]
Suit yourself. [ his eyes will turn to dipper to get his response, but before that... ] Though before we part, I'd like to at least know your names.
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What options.
He nods at Steven, though. It'll be faster, and of the two of them, he's the one Dipper is more comfortable being with. Sorry, Duo. ] I'll go with you.
[ And...crap, right. They went through that whole ordeal without even exchanging names. How sad is that? ]
It's Dipper.
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[ To be fair it's probably a better choice for Dipper to avoid being in a small enclosed space with Duo for a while anyways. He wasn't typically ill tempered, but when it came down to being cold and fresh off a mission where he caught the shitty end of the stick? Stick with the bird, Dipper.
He makes a rather flourishing shrug as he vocalized his decision, flipping one hand up to deposit his lock pick back in to the thick crop of hair at the base of his head.
Asking about his name, though? Eh. Duo isn't too thrilled on the prospect of that, really. So he'll go with a shortened introduction from normal: ]
Duo. [ Maxwell, who may run and hide but he never tells a lie. Sometimes. ]
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he looks to each of them as they state their names before doing the same. ]
Steven. Despite the circumstances, it's a pleasure to meet you both.
[ well... for some more than others, but that goes unsaid. ]