So We Split the Scene
May. 25th, 2003 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
singindemonhq[Voice recognition software Recording.]
It turned out that Erynne had seen the thing that attacked me, and probably killed it. It was scattered all around us. In this dimension "a salad meal" looks like having a whole new meaning.
The plants seem to have several ways of hunting, too. We found yellow flowers that drip with honey, they seemed to be attracting in insects and even small animals.
The flowers aren't something that can be kept and carried, but they'll do in an emergency. There are spiny little yellow berries, too, easy to carry. Oddly enough, those aren't poisonous, and there's a lot of sugar in them.
We'd found my own box of tricks under the place where I'd gone to sleep, including the medical stuff. My welts turned out to be from venom - the way things are that's a lot better than if'd been allergy.
Turned out that Erynne had come through the portal a way upriver, and she'd checked out the turf. There were cave systems higher up and living under cover seemed a lot better than making the car a kind of base camp. I smoked up to take a look too and there was one we both liked. It was right beside the river, in a way.
You had to look real hard to see it at all. I guess there'd been a fallaway, taking a deep scoop out of the lower half of the cliff. The cave entrance was a narrow crack in the rock, not too much wider than my shoulders, and the passage inside led upwards for a few paces until it broadened out into a cave the size of a small ballroom.
The real kick was the waterfall. This one was quite wide. The water fall ran in a wide, shallow sheet that fell clear of the concave cliff, and curtained the entrance to the cave itself. If Erynne hadn't stopped to drink in exactly the right place we'd never have known it was there. When conditions were right there was a rainbow caught in the spray, and the light could reflect back inside the cave. That was a scene good enough for anyone and no glamor necessary. Real nice.
I'd have wanted that cave even if there hadn't been fish in the pool. There were, though, and with a wide meshed net across the outlet end we could be living pretty well.
The link, or whatever it was, seemed to have broken after the emergency and I still hadn't had that talk with Erynne. Somehow, when we were looking it was as if we planning to be both in that one cave. That probably wouldn't be a good idea, though. I was going to have us back through a portal fast - assuming that the Sunnydale dimension still exists at all.
Later, we went back to the car to collect some supplies. There was no sign of Percy or Samantha. I supposed they'd gone hunting again, or that they'd thought it over and moved into one of the caves themselves to sleep through the heat of the day.
There didn't seem to be enough missing for them to have moved into a cave, though, unless they'd decided to keep their stuff stacked in the car. We hadn't moved all that far up-river and I found I was hoping that the others would choose to stick around the original site, but they weren't my first priority by a long way.
There was so much army gear in the car that it looked as though we'd have ample even if we were here for months. I'd liberated the batteries so I took almost everything likely to fit my own stuff. I'd need that up and running to get us out of here anyway. Erynne pounced on a parcel that turned out to contain a couple of books. Wicca stuff, I think - they were hers anyway, brought with her days before.
I went through the rest of the stuff carefully. I couldn't find one major priority. There were no medical supplies at all - that been a forlorn hope, anyway. Maybe Erynne had something. There were multiple weapons. I took at least one of everything that we'd got in duplicate plus half the knives.
We hadn't figured on camping out and there was no salt. I just hoped Erynne knew more about living out like this than I did.The Minions usually handle all the practical stuff and I'd been thought strange because I could boil a kettle if I had to. There were likely to be problems ahead with that perpetual overcast, too. I'd read somewhere that any habitable planet has to have a moon, maybe more than one. If a place hasn't got a moon it hasn't got breathable air.
We wouldn't be able to see the moon, here, and any kind of magic could work differently. We had trank rifles and a kind of trank pistol, and a lot of the ammunition. I added two of those guns and half the ammunition to the packs.
It hasn't rained here yet, but when I thought about it, leaving a note on the car didn't seem a good idea. I'm making a seperate disc and sticking it in the car's playback system, to tell Percy and Samantha where we've gone.
It turned out that Erynne had seen the thing that attacked me, and probably killed it. It was scattered all around us. In this dimension "a salad meal" looks like having a whole new meaning.
The plants seem to have several ways of hunting, too. We found yellow flowers that drip with honey, they seemed to be attracting in insects and even small animals.
The flowers aren't something that can be kept and carried, but they'll do in an emergency. There are spiny little yellow berries, too, easy to carry. Oddly enough, those aren't poisonous, and there's a lot of sugar in them.
We'd found my own box of tricks under the place where I'd gone to sleep, including the medical stuff. My welts turned out to be from venom - the way things are that's a lot better than if'd been allergy.
Turned out that Erynne had come through the portal a way upriver, and she'd checked out the turf. There were cave systems higher up and living under cover seemed a lot better than making the car a kind of base camp. I smoked up to take a look too and there was one we both liked. It was right beside the river, in a way.
You had to look real hard to see it at all. I guess there'd been a fallaway, taking a deep scoop out of the lower half of the cliff. The cave entrance was a narrow crack in the rock, not too much wider than my shoulders, and the passage inside led upwards for a few paces until it broadened out into a cave the size of a small ballroom.
The real kick was the waterfall. This one was quite wide. The water fall ran in a wide, shallow sheet that fell clear of the concave cliff, and curtained the entrance to the cave itself. If Erynne hadn't stopped to drink in exactly the right place we'd never have known it was there. When conditions were right there was a rainbow caught in the spray, and the light could reflect back inside the cave. That was a scene good enough for anyone and no glamor necessary. Real nice.
I'd have wanted that cave even if there hadn't been fish in the pool. There were, though, and with a wide meshed net across the outlet end we could be living pretty well.
The link, or whatever it was, seemed to have broken after the emergency and I still hadn't had that talk with Erynne. Somehow, when we were looking it was as if we planning to be both in that one cave. That probably wouldn't be a good idea, though. I was going to have us back through a portal fast - assuming that the Sunnydale dimension still exists at all.
Later, we went back to the car to collect some supplies. There was no sign of Percy or Samantha. I supposed they'd gone hunting again, or that they'd thought it over and moved into one of the caves themselves to sleep through the heat of the day.
There didn't seem to be enough missing for them to have moved into a cave, though, unless they'd decided to keep their stuff stacked in the car. We hadn't moved all that far up-river and I found I was hoping that the others would choose to stick around the original site, but they weren't my first priority by a long way.
There was so much army gear in the car that it looked as though we'd have ample even if we were here for months. I'd liberated the batteries so I took almost everything likely to fit my own stuff. I'd need that up and running to get us out of here anyway. Erynne pounced on a parcel that turned out to contain a couple of books. Wicca stuff, I think - they were hers anyway, brought with her days before.
I went through the rest of the stuff carefully. I couldn't find one major priority. There were no medical supplies at all - that been a forlorn hope, anyway. Maybe Erynne had something. There were multiple weapons. I took at least one of everything that we'd got in duplicate plus half the knives.
We hadn't figured on camping out and there was no salt. I just hoped Erynne knew more about living out like this than I did.
We wouldn't be able to see the moon, here, and any kind of magic could work differently. We had trank rifles and a kind of trank pistol, and a lot of the ammunition. I added two of those guns and half the ammunition to the packs.
It hasn't rained here yet, but when I thought about it, leaving a note on the car didn't seem a good idea. I'm making a seperate disc and sticking it in the car's playback system, to tell Percy and Samantha where we've gone.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 01:07 pm (UTC)stopping briefly to leave a message for Percy
and Samantha, and get out the supplies left
there.Weapons, some of his equipment, the
parcel with those spellbooks I brought down.
Ground covers, a flashlight,few other things
that'll be useful for setting up.
Sweet was quiet most of the way. It was
beautiful country, but I don't think that was
what he had on his mind.
When we packed up what we meant to take,
he looked up at the sky for a moment. It's still
overcast, has been since we arrived.
It wasn't that hard to guess what he was thinking,
roughly, when he added trank guns and ammo to
the pile of stuff he wanted us to take.
I didn't say anything.
First of all, while I can sense when the full
moon's getting closer, it's not like I have a
built-in calendar or alarm. I get irritable
sometimes, hungry more often, and nighttime
shifting gets easier as the Full Change nights
approach.
But I don't have any idea what phase this planet's
moon is in currently. I can't even see it.
We might have no more than a few minutes' warning,
worst case scenario.
And even if it's weeks away...It wasn't a full moon
night when Grant and I had that little "spat".
He's got to be thinking about that. He should.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 01:40 pm (UTC)We've eaten. I'd been thinking of catching one of the big fish from outside - don't know how we'd have cooked it, though. She found that there were smaller ones in a pool in here, and somehow managed to cook them with just a fire and a couple of flat rocks. I know restaurants that serve worse meals.
We have to talk about things soon, and I just don't know how to start.)
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 01:59 pm (UTC)with fish. I managed to catch a few using
a piece of wire, and those yellow berries
as bait.
Found a lighter and a utility knife among
the gear, so now those unlucky trout are
cooking in a fire pit we dug.
Uncooked meat or unboiled water aren't the
sort of thing I want us to eat too often.
I don't get sick much--rarely,in fact--and I
don't know if Sweet can at all, but I don't
want to risk us being exposed to something humans
can't treat, if we passed it on to others.
We're sitting down to eat now...and he still
hasn't said anything...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 02:53 pm (UTC)The sleeping arrangements should be my job, because of the fabric tricks, but that's something else we need to discuss. We've already had a demonstration that it's too dangerous to split up, otherwise ... I shouldn't be here... )
Stands and walks away to pick up the pile of discs beside the battery recorder. Turns and comes back to you, holding the discs.*
We need to talk. You know that we'll need to go back by dimensional portal, like the one we came through? *sighs* There's no other way. I prepared this whole bunch of discs with the chants to open portals, earlier. I didn't expect what happened. It was just, if there was an emergency...
*slides discs into packet taken from the army stuff*
I didn't expect this kind of emergency.
Erynne, I'd better tell you. I don't know anything about this place. The portal we came though should been a safe one. It should have taken us to Kansas. If it did reroute it should have gone to a place in England. Instead, *gestures* I don't know where we are.
I think Sunnydale died as we went. Maybe the Hellmouth skewed the portals but I don't know how much of California is left. I don't know if that portal rerouted us here because Denver isn't there. I don't know if there's anywhere left on Earth that it's safe to aim for.
Normally I'd try to get us to Quaverell, especially now, but that whole quadrant was down already.
*Suddenly notices the two Wicca books.*
Would your charms ward off ... but they may not work the same way here...
I don't know how long we're going to be here - but while we are, we're going to have to be very careful. What happened earlier... I shouldn't have ... we'll have to be real careful until we're somewhere safer...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 03:32 pm (UTC)I have this awful feeling you may be right...
if the Hellmouth broke free of the constraints
on it, that much power being unleashed could
have done a lot of damage. Even I know
that.
*hugs herself*
"What happened earlier..." you mean, we
shouldn't have?
Sweet, I didn't think....
*whispering* Are...you afraid of me? I know I can't
promise--to be human, I'm not, but I didn't...
I thought you trusted me more than that...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 03:43 pm (UTC)It's me that put you in danger. I ... Erynne, those portals ... they radiate a tremendous amount of energy, all the time. It's too dangerous for a woman to go through a portal, if ... If she's ... if she's expecting a child...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 03:53 pm (UTC)*Thinks to herself* And he's supposed to
know that? How, exactly? Give him a break!What,
he's supposed to be omniscient now?
No. *looks up at him*
Sweet, I didn't think
of that--or about it--because I'm used to it
not being a concern. It hasn't been
since I reached adulthood, physically. It's
not just the shapechanging that makes for
differences. A female werewolf can conceive a
child, yes, but there are certain measures I'd need
to have taken ahead of time. It isn't
going to happen otherwise. I canpromise you
that. The steps I'm talking about would require
help from at least one other magic-user,possibly
more.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 04:48 pm (UTC)*Holding you without quite being aware of having moved*
I'm not sure if I've got this straight. You're naturally protected? It's something you'd have to choose to change and then get help to change?
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 05:02 pm (UTC)clans that did stay close to humans, until...
*shakes her head sadly* So, some of those would
have been adopted, or had human mothers. My brother's
wife Amber isn't a 'changer, and they're expecting
their first baby this fall. That's easier.
For a female 'wolf,yes, part of the magic we
get from being Marked prevents 'accidents.' Think
about it--pregnancy wouldn't hurt me,but if I shifted,well, best outcome would be that the baby
was Marked. Not something anyone wants to see.
So,yes, if I wanted a child, I'd have had to
ask for another spellcaster's assistance. I certainly
haven't done it yet.I've been on the road for months
now,even before I learned that Corona was going to
have to relocate and I moved to L.A.--Alone.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 06:28 pm (UTC)I ended up on friendly terms with that clan. That's very unusual if I've done a gig somewhere, but they knew ... At least, the adults knew. There were certainly young children in Icewind. That's how I found out for sure that I'm immune...
*laughs*
Erynne, it's such a relief that we're immune to each other. *Suddenly sounds serious. Twists in seat, holding you*
You must have heard about the gigs? You did, didn't you? That one, at least?
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 07:23 pm (UTC)Icewind...yes, I heard some of that. The Bards
have only piecemeal accounts. If you know them
personally, maybe you could tell me more
sometime. They're part of us too; their story
matters.
As for you or the Truthsingers,
I know what some of the older Clans or their
allies have seen, or your people have told them...I
can't claim to be all-knowing.*laughs* Well, I
could , but you know me too well.
Why don't we talk about this later, ok? I don't know
about you, butI'm more than a little tired.That bed you made up looks a lot more
comfortable to me than a stone floor. *banks
fire, then walks further back into cave*