Part 1 - Ring Around the Rosie

[wieldtherainbow]

The briefing was, well, brief, given the complicated situation they were being thrust into. Stacy tried to give them as much as she could but apparently her intel on this universe was rather limited.

For this reason, they were dumped rather unceremoniously on a vast planet, with grassy green fields, the dropship that dropped them off retreating on autopilot and disappearing back into the transdimensional ether. It was a lovely planet at the very least, with vast deep blue skies, teeming with vegetation, but oddly, they all would likely find themselves dealing with the unnerving inkling feeling that they were somehow being watched. There were no sentients or even animals in site, however.

The only thing they could do right now was wait. They had been told that they would be found, that they would be offered rings, taken into these different Corps of people, and they they needed to make sure the war ended in a way that didn't devastate life in this universe.

That was something of a tall order.

[ooc: Go!]

Comments

[nerves_of_steel]

John snorted, glancing in Sherlock's direction. "If it's a stress-test, five minutes," he said, idly fingering the grip of his gun. "Tops."

He wasn't any more happy with the situation than Sherlock. Nearly getting sacrificed and then going to Hell didn't exactly endear him to the idea of leaving the ship again. Especially not with so little information on what they were supposed to be doing.

[first_of_steel]

"I'll give 'em this much," Roger said. "Could be a lot worse. Been a while since I last saw anywhere this green outside a Sensorium. I'll take what I can get."

[quixotically]

It was Elle's first time on an Away Mission. She didn't know what to even expect, so all of this talk about horrible things happening to them is making her increasingly nervous.

"I'm sure Stacy had her reasons for not telling us more..." Even as she said it, her uncertainty was clear in her voice and on her face. Her hunting shotgun wasn't on her back like it normally was; instead, it was being held tightly in her hands in a resting position. "Maybe it's all she knew?"

[first_in_time]

Barbara silently listened to the conversation, fingers knotted before her. "At least we're not alone," she hesitantly added after a moment. "Could be worse if it was a solo mission."

[punchedoutdestiny]

"Given Stacy's change of attitude though, I'm a bit more willing to trust her judgement now," Simon adds, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his coat. He does look a little annoyed, though. He's not so hot on being out here without Lagann at least.

"Though I gotta agree on hoping for tangible things," he comments with a nod toward Roger and Allenby.

[on_your_nerves]

"Yes, wonderful, we have the pleasure of each other's company when everything goes terribly and uncontrollably wrong," Sherlock said in answer to Barbara, climbing up on some rocks...

Some rocks that hadn't been there a moment ago.

He was posing on them somewhat dramatically, coat flaring in the breeze a bit, but rather than looking out at the distance, he was looking down at the rocks he was standing on, tapping them with his feet as if testing their solidity.

[nerves_of_steel]

"Sherlock!" John hissed, moving over toward the base of the rocks and scowling back and forth between them and his best friend. "Why would you even-- get down from there!"

[soulinherfists]

"Maybe," Allenby admitted grudgingly. She was feeling much more well-disposed towards the ship lately, it was true. "I don't know if I trust some big fate-reading tapestry much more than the Daligig, though. Maybe it won't actively try to kill us, but--"

She glanced over at whats-his-face, that Sherlock detective guy, whose voice had distinctly come from a few feet higher than it had before, and groaned. "Where the hell did those rocks come from? I guess the first thing we're gonna have to look out for is the landscape itself!"

[first_in_time]

Barbara folded her arms and gave Sherlock a displeased glare...until she noticed the boulders he now stood upon without looking terribly fussed at all.

"But how?" was all she asked, turning to the quiet woman nearby. "Have you ever visited a place that changed beneath your feet?"

[quixotically]

Maybe Elle was a touch... twitchy. All the negative talk and the fact that she was somewhere she didn't know and it was her first time off the ship and and and ahhhhh where did the rocks come from?!

She took several quick steps back from the new rocks, half-raising her shotgun to partially aim at them. "Sh-Sherlock...!"

At least she wasn't high strung enough to start firing.

[first_of_steel]

"...the hell," said Roger. "Okay, is this the equivalent of the Sensorium? Somebody'd better imagine something more interesting than just rocks."

[on_your_nerves]

"One the size of a planet? Unlikely."

Sherlock started jumping up and down on the rocks to test them. Apparently, for someone who thought the mission was going to go all to hell at some point, he had very little actual self-preservation instinct.

[punchedoutdestiny]

And then Simon snaps at Sherlock. "Dumbass, don't do that! You might piss off someone under that thing, or trigger god knows what. If the ground below us collapses, it'll be on your shoulders!"

If there's one thing Simon does know, it's digging holes. And things related to holes. Like people doing stupid things that cause cave-ins.

[grimbiker]

Sirius, who had been distracted for much of the conversation, pointed his wand at the rocks.

"Specialis Revelio."

Sirius stared ahead, eyes scanning something invisible to the rest. If they were watching him they would be able to tell the precise moment he learned just what the deal was with those rocks. His jaw went slack for a moment before he closed it again.

"...The rocks didn't move. The planet did. It's alive."

[jackalpi]

Spinelli had been practically brimming over with excitement from the moment the mission had been announced - although he'd managed to keep most of it from showing. The whole thing had seemed like a wonderful sort of dream, and he'd spent most of the conversation off in his head somewhere enjoying it.

This, however, was enough to bring his focus back to the group, and he looked over at Sirius with a quizzical tilt of his head. "But would you not say any planet capable of sustaining life would be alive, at least in the most general sense? It would have to have the delicate balance necessary that would allow it to take the building blocks of life and nurture them until they blossom into a true level of being. Or...are you insinuating that there is more to this puzzle, perhaps a level of sentience heretofore unheard of in a celestial body?"

[first_of_steel]

"... the way Stacy is alive?" Roger said, staring at Sirius a moment. (If there'd ever been a Gaia hypothesis proposed in his world, the idea rose and sank from scientific sight long before his own time; the prospect of a planet as a living organism simply didn't exist in any of the books he knew.) "Huh."

He glanced down at the ground and cleared his throat.

"If you speak English- hi there."

... what else were you supposed to say in a situation like that?

[moms_temperment]

Hana was very glad to be out on another mission, he'd been getting a bit of cabin fever after being stuck inside STACY so long.

The idea of the planet being alive didn't seem to throw him at all, instead he welcomed it, patting one of the nearby rocks like a pet and grinning.

[wieldtherainbow]

All the grasses around them rippled in a gentle wave in response to Roger's hello and Hana's petting, a gesture that was possibly the equivalent of a friendly hello back.

Mogo had a good feeling about these people.