paixaorpg | Where'd THAT come from? [active]

Entry tags:

Where'd THAT come from? [active]

Character(s): Vala, Sword, Locke
Content: ~~Lots of snow~~ Bad weather for the lose! Vala, Sword, and Locke better go find somewhere safe to stay for now.
Setting: Niflheim, G10 -> H9
Time: Afternoon
Warnings: None, with the exception of lots of cold and other nasty weather. ~~Brr.~~

Locke quirked an eyebrow at Sword. While he'd seen far stranger things than what amounted to a cute critter emerging from a pile of armor, he was still slightly amused by it. "I've been as far away from most cities as possible," he said in reply to Sword. "The farther away, the better."

He held out his hand to catch a few snowflakes (though with the way it was snowing, it added up to quite a bit more than just "few"), not quite believing what he was seeing. His sentiments echoed Sword's - how could it be snowing in a place like this? "Could be a Blizzard spell of sorts," he said. "Those are only temporary, however, and usually they're not quite this bad." He looked around. "The person who could conjure up something of this magnitude would have to be pretty powerful magic-wise."

His arms and face stung with the cold. He definitely was not dressed properly for this kind of weather. "Though in the case that it's not temporary, we're all going to end up frozen to the spot here." He started slushing through the snow that had already collected on the ground. "Now where is the best place to take shelter here, I wonder..." He took out his journal; he thought he'd seen something like a map on there before when he'd looked at it, and something like that would be a major help at the moment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Vala grimaced a little at the mention of magic. That kind of talk just made her think of the Ori and their own little "magic" displays. "Oh, I don't know," she disagreed with Locke. "This kind of thing is just a parlor trick if you have the right kind of technology. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just the governor of this city playing god with the populace. Either that or the environmental systems are on the fritz and this is all just a big mistake. Either way, I'm hoping it will clear up before too long..."

That was one point she definitely agreed with Locke on. She had no desire to stand around in the freezing cold temperatures, even if they probably would only last for a short time. Especially since there was also the possiblility that she could be completely wrong and it might last for days. "I took refuge in a hospital a while back, but there's a few other places we could look into, like some kind of temporary housing. I'm not sure how long we're going to be here, but I have no idea how to get back home, so it might be a good idea to plan for the long-term, just in case."

Sword blinked back at Locke, mildly put out by the snow forcing him out of his armor. He was curious why Locke had been staying away from cities, then figured it wasn't important enough to ask about right now; he could explain later, when they were inside and out of the cold. "A Blizzard spell?" Sword blinked in confusion; he'd never heard of magic being able to cause this sort of thing. "The only things I know that could cause something like this would be.... would be the Ice Dragon. But Kirby defeated him, so...." Oh, this was confusing! What was going on? Sword decided to stay standing on the bench until they started getting a move on; he didn't want to stand in anymore snow than he had to, and it was easier to clear the stuff off a bench than it was to clear a patch of ground.

"Does this place even have a ruler?" He speculated, stretching to try and see Locke's journal display. "Whatever happened, we should get moving soon. "Maybe we could find a hotel or a house to stay at...." He ruffled himself up impatiently to try and deal with the cold; this made him look a little something like a walking kooshball, though it wasn't quite so bad. Either way, he was quite fluffy, and it really wasn't doing him much good. He'd never experienced winter since the Ice Dragon, and even that had only been for a day....

"I'd be surprised if it doesn't," Locke said. "Every large city like this has a ruler somewhere...it's just a matter of finding out who and where they are."

He tapped his finger on the screen of his journal after a few moments. Something was showing up on the map, though he wasn't certain of what it was. "We could go for the hospital, or...there also appears to be something else here, but-- huh, what?" He was rather surprised to find drops of water suddenly splattering down on his journal - and on everything else. "Rain?"

This was most definitely not the result of any spell he knew, then!

"Oh... ~Wonderful~" Vala complained as the snow turned into a pouring rain in a matter of seconds, "If we're not going to freeze, then we'll just get soaking wet instead. What with the man-eating-monsters and wacky weather, doesn't this city just scream 'vacation resort' to you? But really... if they didn't pull in so many tourists against their will, they wouldn't need to find such ingenious ways to get rid of them again..."

The dark-haired woman was obviously not very happy about the current turn of events. She'd seem some strange places, but this one was doing its best to outdo them all! "Well, hurry up and find us somewhere to go before the lunatic with the weather controls decides to try a tornado next..."

She glanced down at Sword, wondering how the poor little guy was faring in all of this. Now that he'd pulled off all that armor before he could freeze to it, the weather had changed and was going to turn him into a sopping wet little furball! "If you'd like, I could carry you wherever we're going so you don't have to splash through puddles and snowdrifts and mud," she offered.

Sword just nodded at the comment, wondering why there were so many hospitals around this area of the city. He didn't intend to get hurt if he could help it, he didn't want to take a tour of them all.... The Flopsem started a bit as the first drops of water splattered his nose, letting out a sharp, unhappy whine as he looked up into the rain. It was quickly gathering speed, from a few drops, to a steady patter, to an honest-to-dreaming flood. He might not have minded, if the rain was warm..... But no, it was still absolutely freezing. He was surprised the stuff hadn't turned into hail on the way down.

He could only nod at Vala's commentary; sarcastic as it was, it was apt enough, and he didn't have anything to say that she hadn't said better. He didn't really feel like saying much of anything, in fact. The Dreamlander looked a rather pathetic sight now, with the rain beating his ears down against his head and making his whiskers droop and plastering his fur against him--the effect made him look worn out and bedraggled, almost pitifully scrawny now that the water weight had smoothed out his accustomed level of fluff.

Shivering, Sword looked up at Vala, water running in steady little streams down his ears and whiskers, then back at the ground. He had his pride still, even if he was freezing.... But a good look at the ground was making him start to think otherwise. The snow hadn't lasted for more than a few minutes, but he could already see that some of the drifts had piled up to considerably more than a foot deep--and that meant he'd be plowing--or perhaps tunneling--through snow that went past his head, at least. And then with the rain, it would turn to slush and freeze again, and become near impenetrable to someone like him.... And that wasn't something he relished traveling through at all when he didn't have to, even if the alternative was embarrassing. "I-I guess you'd better, thanks...."

"Fine then, that one area it is," said Locke. "What I wouldn't give for a chocobo at this time..." The second part was said more to himself than anybody else. He supposed there weren't any of those anywhere around the city, though, much less any sort of stable for them. Besides, freak weather like this would have scared all but the toughest of those birds, most likely.

"Gonna need any help?" he asked Vala. He didn't think she couldn't have handled Sword by herself - the flopsem didn't look like anything too tough to handle - but that armor looked like it could possibly be a bit bulky to carry along as well.

Vala reached down and plucked Sword off of the ground, taking the armor from the flopsem and holding it out to Locke with one hand while cradling Sword in the other arm. "Absolutely!" she replied to him as she handed off the armor. "Be my guest!" She wasn't about to turn down an offer of help, if it meant she'd have less to carry. Of course, she'd much rather take the cute, furry critter and leave Locke with the armor than have it be the other way around.

She wondered what in the world a chocobo was. Locke obviously came from a superstitious place where everything unusual was credited to "magic", but Vala hadn't ever heard of that particular word, and it sounded like some kind of item or something... Maybe it was like an umbrella? With the pouring rain coming down on them, she really wouldn't have minded having an umbrella either...

"Chocobo?" Sword glanced at Locke as Vala scooped him up, tensing a little as he was lifted; it was a little disconcerting, being brought up to her height just like that. Not to mention the fact that he was now laying stark naked and prone face-up in the pounding rain. Not fun at all. Still, he wasn't about to protest the help, now that he'd gone ahead and accepted it; the Flopsem just shifted a little to get into a comfortable position, letting his ears droop over his eyes to better shield them from the rain and leaning his cheek against Vala's upper arm. There, that wasn't quite so bad, was it? "I don't know what those are, but I wouldn't mind a car, myself, something with a roof."

Personally, he didn't see much the matter with Locke's mentions of magic. After all, most Dreamlanders were pretty sure there was some sort of magic in the Fountain of Dreams and the Star Rod.... Hell, he was willing to bet Kirby's abilities were innate magic of some sort. If he tried to inhale most of the stuff Kirby could gulp down without batting an eye, he'd be toast! Transformation would be out of the question. How else could he do anything even remotely close without something like magic? Either way, he had no idea what a Chocobo was, and as long as they were out of the rain soon, they could talk all they wanted to later.

"It's a bird used for riding on...ah, I'll explain more later when we're not having whole rivers being dumped on us," Locke said, taking the armor up and cradling it in his arms. Too bad he didn't have any sort of bag to easily carry this in; the pouches he had on him weren't cut out for that kind of job. Still, at least it was a small set of armor - he could be thankful for that much.

His feet were starting to get soaked from all the water that was standing around here. He walked through a few of them, not even bothering to try getting out of their way; with all this rain coming down, what was the point? He would be thoroughly soaked one way or the other.

Vala had to agree with Sword's wish for a car or something... It would make traveling around the city a lot faster and easier... She seriously doubted there were any to be found in the city, though. The place seemed pretty technologically deficient, despite the fantastic architecture and the rather out-of-place journals. It was kind of like a culture that had once had technology, and then shunned it... Daniel would have had a field day trying to figure out that one, but Vala was more concerned with trying to make do with what little technology the place did have...

Locke's comment about the chocobo birds made Vala think of some kind of huge eagle or something that people flew around on... She wasn't sure how safe something like that would be, but it was an interesting thought, at least. Not that any flying creature would really be all that useful in the domes...

Anyway, they were finally moving, so that was good. Vala followed after Locke, her arms wrapped around Sword protectively. The little guy looked pretty pathetic with his fur all soaked from the rain, but really, the rest of them weren't that much better off. Vala's clothes were by this point completely drenched, and she was definitely looking forward to getting somewhere where she could dry off.

"....Oh." That made a bit more sense to him. After all, Dynablade had carried people in her talons before.... At least those two didn't have to carry anything much heavy. He himself probably was a little less than two pounds, and his armor couldn't have weighed more than 5, and in fact was probably less--it would just be too bulky otherwise.

Shivering in the rain, Sword shifted a little in his protector's arms, snuggling up against Vala as well as he could. Her clothes might have been soaked too, but at least her body gave out a bit of warmth beneath them..... It was something at least, especially while they walked. If it had been more normal weather, he definitely would have been running on his own steam, and could have kept warm that way....

One nice thing about being carried, though--not that he was intending on getting used to it--was how much longer his friends' legs were. They could cover in a fast walk what he would have to be nearly running to keep up with. They were going fast, and as high up as he was, he could see where they were headed a lot more easily--though that might have also been helped along by the fact that they were getting closer and closer to it.

So...was this that area he'd seen on the map, then? Locke grinned when he saw that it was apparently a neighborhood of some sort. Score! This would be a perfect area in which to hide out from this weather!

As long as there was actually a place to stay, anyways. Though even the sight of closed doors didn't deter him too much - after all, there was always a way into places. You just had to discover where it was, and then take advantage of that. However, since Locke didn't feel like standing outside for longer than he had to, he hoped that the most obvious way - actually knocking on doors - would be sufficient enough.

He rapped his knuckles on the door of the nearest house. "Hello? Anybody home?"

Vala stood back, waiting impatiently for someone to answer the door. Honestly, she was wet and miserable enough that she was inclined not to worry too much about manners. "If nobody comes to the door, I say we just break in and apologize later," she suggested. "Sometimes it's easier to ask forgiveness than to wait for permission." Besides, it wasn't like the people around here were that dangerous. She figured if the person who lived in the house got too upset and decided to get violent, then she could always just stun him with her zat.

Most of the people in the area seemed fairly easygoing, though, so she wasn't too worried about trouble with the locals. Really, they should expect it, by this point, considering all of the people that had been dragged into the city against their will. A little break-in was probably far less trouble than some of the abductees probably were causing.

Well, at least he could see the doorknob from this height, that was a plus..... Shivering, Sword sat up a little in Vala's arms, lifting his head enough to glance at Locke. "Have you just tried to go in yet? I mean, not everybody in Dreamland locks their doors, since most of us trust each other. King Dedede doesn't keep the castle locked down either, though he does have guards...." His point was that the locals were a friendly sort, maybe too friendly, too trusting..... If he was right, then they wouldn't make it a regular habit of locking themselves away, unless they were nervous from those white monsters.....

((OOC: Sorry for the short crappiness. X_x;; Dead to the world over here, but posting, as promised.))

"...I actually did consider just trying to go in," replied Locke. "Whether by force or not. I just thought I'd give the people who lived here the benefit of the doubt for once..." Whoever might be in here, anyways. He'd heard no reply to his knocking on the door, which implied to him that either nobody was home, or whoever was inside was busy. He placed his hand on the doorknob, partially expecting it to be locked - and lifted an eyebrow when the knob turned freely.

"Hah, look at that. Seems like whoever lives here did decide to make it easy for us," he said with a grin. He pushed the door open and warily stepped in.

...If there was actually anybody that lived here, then they certainly weren't keeping up with the housekeeping. It wasn't that it was filthy, but there was certainly an air of neglect to this place - and the thin layer of dust that covered some of the objects here definitely didn't help with that idea.

Vala gazed critically at the interior of the building as they entered. It was a mess and it looked as though nobody had been in the place in ages. Either that, or they didn't believe in cleaning. The former seemed far more likely, in this case.

"Cozy, isn't it?" she said dryly, carefully setting Sword down on the nearest table. He was probably going to get his feet dusty, but it was no worse than setting him down on the floor would be. The whole place could use some serious maintenance. "Kind of like some hideouts I've been in. Of course, most of those were caves, but this isn't that far off..."

"That's nice of you." But it would be even nicer to be inside, dry, and warm.... He couldn't help but be glad that the door was open, even if he would have preferred being invited in. It was the nice thing to do.... but they hopefully wouldn't mind visitors if they left the door open and unguarded, right?

He sniffled a little, and sneezed at the dust they disturbed by walking in, rubbing his noise awkwardly with one paw. "Ugh. Absolutely." He agreed, rolling his eyes as he was set down. "I hope they still have towels around here, dusty or not... Food would be nice, too. When did you need to hide in caves?" The water pattering onto the table from his coat was making a little island of clean wood around him. The Flopsem bent a little, and gave himself a good, vigorous shake to try and get some of the excess out; a spray of water arced out around him.

"I dunno, I think I've seen some caves in better condition than this," Locke said with a small laugh. "Still, can't beat something that's just about given to us." Although it did seem sort of fishy...or maybe that was just some bit of paranoia popping up. He'd seen plenty of abandoned houses that had nothing to them, before. He flung up his arm halfway to stop some of the spray from Sword's shaking from hitting him, before he realized that it wouldn't matter much anyways.

From the corners and various dark places in the house, tiny points of yellow light shone almost like twinkling jewels. Faint squeaks could be heard if one were to listen carefully.

"Oh, all the best alien technology is usually hidden in caves," Vala informed Sword with a wink. "And treasure too... You should have seen the one cave that the Ancients had back on earth, which had all kinds of wonderful goodies in it... Not to mention a holographic knight to guard it... Unfortunately, even though I brought Stargate Command the information to find the place, they didn't let me keep my half of the treasure."

The dark-haired woman looked pensive for a moment, "That's probably the one thing I regret most about joining the SGC, actually... They have this thing against treasure-hunting for personal gain. I've never understood it, really... I mean, we're already going out to save the universe from enslaving aliens... What's wrong with becoming filthy rich at the same time? It's not like the museums need any more golden trinkets..."

Despite Vala's words, she seemed more amused and resigned to the fate of all her treasure-hunting schemes than upset over them. Although she still wished she could have gotten some of that treasure, her inclusion in SG-1 actually meant more to her... It had been somewhat surprising to realize that at first, but she had come to accept it.

"Anyway... How about we get dried off a little, hmm?" she suggested, snapping out of her thoughts on the past. Those could wait until they weren't soaking wet anymore. "I don't know about towels, but I think I can do something for you, Sword," she suggested, heading over to a fireplace, where some charred wood was still sitting, just waiting for someone to come along and use it. She searched through her pockets for a moment, quickly pulling out a lighter and leaning down to set the wood ablaze. "Military issue," she said, giving her companions a grin as she replaced the lighter in her pocket. "You never know when you're going to need to light a campfire on an alien world."

"True on all counts." Sword agreed, whiskers drooping still with the weight of the water rolling off them. "Really? We never found any treasure or technology when we had to hide in caves...." Sword mused. Blade and him would have been much better off if they had been. Being bandits wasn't easy or fun, after all, and certainly not glamorous. "Why would someone abandon their loot but leave a holograph to guard it? Doesn't sound like they intended to come back...." He couldn't help but sympathize with Vala, as a former thief himself.

"They should let you take your dues, if they want to make sure you keep doing a good job. Especially if they're just putting things into museums. If they were using the funds for better gear and supplies, and helping to finance your war, I'd understand, but...." He sounded surprisingly serious at the topic, frowning; motivation was important, after all. But making sure that the struggle ended successfully was essential, and stuffing wealth into museums when it needed to be used to save the universe? Absolutely unthinkable! He was a knight, and knights looked out for the greater good. Meta Knight would have handled that situation properly, he knew.... Meta Knight always knew what to do in situations like those. It was like a gift.

Despite the water weight on his still soggy fur, Sword started to bristle as he listened, soon tuning Vala out in favor of lifting his long ears, turning them slowly to track the soft squeaks he could pick out around the house. Those things weren't just for show, after all; he had pretty good hearing, just as good as a lot of animals. He wasn't growling, not yet, but cute brown eyes were alert and intense as they scanned the shadows for any signs of whatever they were sharing the living space with.

The corner of Locke's mouth quirked upwards in an amused way when he heard the words "treasure-hunting" come from Vala. "Those sound like rather interesting artifacts," he said. "You should tell me more about those later...if you don't mind, of course." Even if he had no clue about these "Ancients", treasure of any kind was still treasure...

He merely watched as Vala started up the fire, and took his bandana off his head, wringing out whatever moisture was still left in it.

One of the things hiding in the shadows stepped forward slightly, its glowing yellow eyes settled firmly on Sword. It showed a head that looked rather rat-like, whiskers and all, except for the odd color scheme - white fur with those eyes...

Vala grinned at the flopsem's view of the Ancients' treasure. "Sword, if you were human, I might actually have to marry you... Well, except that I'm already married... But I'd be tempted to run away with you, at the very least!" The former con artist reached over and scratched behind Sword's long ears, amused by his attitude on life. It was about time that she found someone else who had a healthy view of economics!

"Sure, I'll tell you about it," she told Locke, when he asked her about the treasures she'd found. Most of it wasn't really confidential anyway. At least, not to people outside of Earth. It always struck her as a little amusing that they could talk about alien weapons and artifacts with every technologically inept village person they found, but the far more advanced citizens of Earth itself were kept completely in the dark. Understandable, given the circumstances... But amusing, none the less.

At that moment, Vala noticed a motion in the corner of the room and pointed at it with her free hand. "Friend of yours, Sword?" she inquired, since the little thing was staring right at the flopsem. Who knew... maybe they were both from the same place... Dreamland, wasn't it?

"If I were human?" Sword looked at Vala as if she'd spontaneously grown not only a second, but third head. It didn't seem like it'd be very nice to be a human; they were big and looked kind of ungainly. Their legs were way longer than their arms, so there was no way to walk on all fours if they had to, and those small ears and that weird nose couldn't be conducive to having good senses. And where were their whiskers? They must be nearly helpless when it came to sensing their environments! They must get really cold without fur, too.... "I think my parents would turn in their graves if they knew a human had propositioned me...."

Tense as he was--that thing was looking him dead in the eye, and that generally meant challenge and threatening intentions in monsters--the ear scratching actually startled some short-lived (and slightly embarrassing) purring from the Flopsem. "Not at all; I know a monster when I see one. Where did you two put my armor?" He looked around for his gear, starting to think he might need it; that thing just.... didn't smell right....

"Over here," Locke said, getting up and reaching over for where he'd put it earlier. He glanced at the creature in the corner, and wondered if armor would be needed for such a thing; but then again, he knew far too much about fighting various monsters to know that size wasn't always an indication of strength.

Something darted out from behind the furniture, another of the rat-like creatures; it leapt at him and clung to his belt pouch before he could properly react. "Ergh!" And react he did, by trying to swat at it with his nearest hand.

"Well, don't knock it 'till you try it," Vala said, winking at Sword with a knowing grin. Of course she wasn't really that serious about it, but it was fun to tease him a little. She didn't have much time to enjoy her amusement though, because at that moment, one of the odd creatures that were lurking about the place chose that moment to attack Locke.

Vala snatched up her zat gun and aimed it at the thing, hoping Locke would knock it off so she could get a good shot at it. She could probably shoot it off of him, but she didn't want to hit him by accident while he was flailing around. The weapon wasn't deadly, at least on the first shot, but it was pretty unpleasant and she had no reason to knock the poor guy unconscious. "Pesky little creatures, aren't they?" she commented as she eyed the other one that had been watching Sword and then decided to shoot at that one while Locke was taking care of the one assaulting him.

With a quick flick of her wrist, she sent a beam of blue electricity flying towards the lumen still watching them, and then shifted her aim back towards Locke, waiting for a chance to zap that one too. "Guess we get to play exterminator."

"Thanks." Sword hopped down from the table, coughing at the cloud of dust the movement disturbed. All he knew was that the rodent lumen wasn't much smaller than he was, and he would much rather fight it with a good, solid layer of metal protecting him and a sword in his hands. He headed over towards the armor, blushing a little at Vala's comment and not deigning to answer; he really didn't intend to try it. Even the thought was embarrassing.... After all, he'd pretty much be squished by any human he'd try to mate with, if he ever did decide to. And just what would interspecies children look like?

He jerked back momentarily as one of the creatures leapt at Locke, hissing loudly as his still-wet fur fluffed with surprise and sudden aggression. They probably were just "pesky creatures" to those two humans, at their size.... They could probably just stomp on them or something. Still, Sword made a run for his armor just in case, letting out a noise of surprise as he noticed a streak of light moving towards him, a third creature coming tearing out of the shadows to pounce him. He skittered back, but not quite fast enough; the pair went tumbling, raising an even larger cloud of dust as the fight turned very quickly into one of tooth and claw.

Locke hadn't missed the fact that the weapon Vala was pointing at him (well, not at him, but close enough) seemed to be loaded at the moment, and he made a small strangled sound. "But don't point that thing at me, though!" he said.

He finally swatted the lumen away from him, but not before it had managed to rip open his pouch. Several gold coins and a trinket or two fell to the floor with a clatter, along with the slightly louder thump of the dark red stone that he'd been keeping in there as well. The rat-like creature went flying a few feet away, landing on its feet as it hit the floor.

"NOW you can shoot it!" Locke said. He started to withdraw one of his knives, but thought against it, and started to chant something under his breath. These creatures were small enough that a knife might not have been enough to try hitting them...but perhaps a spell of some sort might work.

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Vala admonished Locke as she fired at the creature he'd just tossed aside. The first shot went wide as the lumen tried to escape, but she managed to hit it the second time. "The first shot won't kill you. It just... stings a little." That was, of course, putting it mildly, but Vala had been zapped by the things enough times... She figured if she could take it, then Locke ought to be able to!

Sword seemed to be in some trouble, though. She hoped he could take care of himself, because she was still trying to avoid shooting him or Locke, despite her apparently casual use of the zat'nik'tel. The glowing creatures didn't seem amazingly dangerous, but she still didn't want either of her friends out of commission in case they turned out to be a lot nastier than they seemed.

Her moment of indecision on what to do about Sword's plight got her into trouble, though. As she stood there, watching him tussle with the lumen, another one of the things shot up her leg. She yelped loudly and flailed at it, her zat gun flying out of her hands as she smacked at the little creature.

Sword was in a spot of trouble, but was doing decently for himself regardless; these lumens were the same size as he was, and surprisingly vicious when it was combat this close. There were a few snarls and squeaks from the brawling pair, punctuated by a final half-growl, half-bark as Sword tumbled backwards, a sizeable chunk of the lumen's throat clenched in his teeth. The lumen collapsed, and he swallowed the piece before getting to his feet, marred by a few scratches and bite marks, but otherwise still up and kicking.

The yelp hadn't escaped his attention; Sword turned unsteadily to watch Vala smacking at the creature assaulting her, ears slicking back as he hissed. Perhaps if he hadn't been in such a rough, bestial fight a moment ago, he would have thought more like a human. Perhaps if he hadn't been bitten and scratched by a lumen of all things--the wounds burned like nothing he'd ever felt, though the euphoria had yet to set in--he would be more rational. But rather than going for his armor and sword, as he'd originally intended to, he instead lowered himself to all fours for a better running start, leaping at the lumen on Vala's leg. At worst....

Well, at worst, he'd miss entirely; it wasn't impossible, at this point. But if he didn't knock it off, then he might at least be able to hang onto it and deal some damage while it was still trying to cling to its perch.

Just a little sting, hah! thought Locke. Even mention that it didn't kill on the first shot wasn't too reassuring - plenty of things didn't kill on the first shot, it didn't make them any more enjoyable to bear...

He stood there, mid-spell, the spell fizzling away due his concentration being broken by Vala's yelp. Never mind about that - there didn't seem to be any targets in his sight that weren't attached to others, and he wasn't about to accidently fry anybody else here. This time he did draw out one of his knives, and watched the lumen on Vala carefully - if it escaped from either her or Sword, he'd try to take care of it himself.

In her distraction, Vala didn't see Sword coming towards her, and as a result his sudden leap at the lumen climbing on her caught her by complete surprise. The new weight on her made her trip slightly, and she reached down and gave him a solid whack between the ears before she realized who he was. "Sword! You!" she exclaimed, caught between feeling bad for hitting him and irritation that she was still being clung to by two tiny creatures, one nice and the other naughty. "Don't DO that!"

The lumen that had been the intended target of both Vala and Sword scampered up Vala's back, and then got knocked to the floor as she finally managed to smack it away. It came away with the SG-1 patch that had been velcroed to the shoulder of her uniform and ran with the prize clutched in its teeth. "Hey, give that back!" Vala demanded as the little creature fled at top speed.

Sword let out a surprised yip at the blow, stunned even as he was reaching out to give the lumen a good slash; Vala hit hard. Only to be expected for someone so big, though.... Either way, it was hard enough, in his dazed state, for him to lose his grip, tumbling back onto the floor and landing sprawled on his side. He didn't seem to hear her exclamations at him, gripped by a sudden dizziness far too profound for just a good knock on the head; the bloodied Flopsem just closed his eyes and whimpered in pain, ears flopping over his face pathetically. As though they could shield him from a headache....

One soft brown eye peeped out from behind an ear as the pain and fog lifted, leaving behind a bright, tingling nothingness in its wake. He wasn't sure where he was, much less what or who, or why he was hurt and soaking wet, or even why strange big creatures and glowing mouse creatures were fighting each other. But the lumen venom coursing through him made sure that the pain wasn't so bad--like a dull, faraway ache from being active all day, easily ignored--and that he wasn't upset by his condition. It was kind of nice to lay down for a while, even if being wet was chilly; Sword was content to just lie and watch the lumen scamper away with Vala's badge, spacing out hard.

Locke glanced over at the fallen Sword, and threw his knife at the fleeing lumen, but the creature was too fast - the knife ended up sticking up from the floor for a moment before falling over to the ground. From the corner of his eye, he saw something - the weapon that had been knocked from Vala's hand before - and reached over and grabbed that.

He meant to be careful with it, after having seen it in action before - but even so, he must have accidently hit the trigger, if the flash of light from the weapon and his sudden pain was any indication. Locke fell to the floor, unable to move any of his muscles for a moment.

Okay, of all the moves he could have made, that definitely wasn't the smartest one!

It was a fine mess they had gotten themselves into, Vala thought. Sword was laying off to the side, whimpering in pain. A couple of glowing rodents had made fools of them all, and to make things even more ironic, Locke had shot himself with the very weapon he'd been telling ~her~ to be careful with! Vala couldn't help herself. She broke out laughing at the sheer stupidity of it all, sinking to a sitting position on the floor. "Well, some fighting force we are," she commented dryly. "We're more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy!" In fact, she wasn't even sure the little creatures had actually managed to significantly hurt any of them during the battle.

It was kind of pathetic, actually. She felt a little better that she'd come out in the best condition of the group, though. It would make an amusing story to tell all her friends later, assuming she ever found them again.

"I think I'd better take that before you shoot yourself again," she said, reaching over Locke to reclaim her zat. He seemed like he was still conscious, which was good. Every now and then the zat'nik'tel would knock people all the way out, and that tended to take a little longer to recover from. "Don't worry. It'll wear off in a few minutes..."

Assured that Locke would be fine in a little while, Vala turned her attention to their other companion. "Sword, you okay?" She glanced over at the flopsem, hoping she hadn't hurt him too badly when she'd smacked him away from her. He was still laying there, after all, and looking like he was in a lot of pain.

Sword watched hazily as Locke zapped himself with the gun and fell to the ground, taking a long minute to realize what had just happened and that the big creature with the thing on its head was hurt. He'd probably been hurt the worst in the fight; being as large as the rodents meant that any blows they'd gotten in had hurt fairly badly. Were they supposed to be a fighting force? He couldn't remember, but evidently hurting themselves was somehow funny....

He pushed himself to his feet, before wobbling a little and lowering himself back down all fours for a minute so he could regain his balance. She was looking at him and asking if he was okay..... but talking about a weapon? To a weapon? That made no sense! He wasn't a sword, he was a..... a..... uh. What was he, again? He decided soon after it didn't matter, and just smiled at Vala instead; she looked fine, so he scampered over to Locke instead, pawing at his shoulder and grooming the unfortunate man's cheek and hair with some concern. It was something he wouldn't have even considered doing, were he not under the influence of two extremely destabilizing conditions; licking was undignified in this situation, even if it was perfectly normal back home.

Locke mumbled something incoherent as Vala took the gun from him, feeling more than a little embarrassed at what he'd managed to do. As Sword licked at him, he finally got his arms to respond to him again, and he pushed himself off from the floor into a sitting position.

"...Yeah, I'm fine," he said to no one in particular, wobbling ever so slightly. "Or will be, anyways." He rubbed his cheek to wipe off whatever flopsem spit was on it. "Heh, I see someone's gotten a little friendlier." As he sat there, he attempted to rub a bit more feeling back into his limbs.

Sword hadn't exactly given Vala an answer, but he seemed happy enough, so she decided he was probably fine. The flopsem was apparently more concerned with Locke than he really needed to be. In fact, he was acting... more than a little goofy at the moment. Vala couldn't recall him ever actually licking someone during the time they'd been together. Maybe it was reserved for close friends and the little guy felt like they'd bonded sufficiently during their brief battle. It hadn't been much of a fight for Vala, but she was about six times taller than he was, so it could be he thought of things differently.

Anyway, it seemed like Locke had noticed the odd behavior too. Vala sat down on the floor next to the two of them, keeping an eye out for the return of the rodents, but not really expecting them to make a second appearance so soon. "I think I like him this way," she commented with a playful smile, scooping him up into her arms for a hug. It looked kind of like she was treating him as a pet, but her mischievous attitude hid the fact that she was checking him over for injuries at the same time.

She snuggled her cheek against his head, her smile fading as she murmured an apology to him. "And before I forget to say it, I'm so sorry for hitting you, Sword... It was an accident, I swear. You forgive me, don't you?"

Good! Good good good. He didn't like people to be hurt! He wagged his little stub tail contentedly at that, wondering if he should help rub--why was he rubbing, anyway? Maybe that helped him stop hurting from being shot by the whatsit? He probably couldn't be much help, though, small as he was.... He couldn't reach too much. Still, the flopsem helpfully reached to knead at Locke's arm with his hand-paws too.

His ears perked curiously at Vala's comment, though he didn't resist or even protest at being picked up and hugged; in fact, he seemed to welcome the affection, snuggling up against Vala with a deep, rumbling purr and lifting his head to nuzzle her and lick the woman's neck. Why did she like him better this way? What was the other way she didn't like as much? He liked to be liked.... Having friends was one of the best things you could have, after all.

She'd hit him? He couldn't remember that happening, and he wasn't sure where it had happened.... he didn't have many visible injuries, after all. He could see a set of slashes from claws running down one cheek, and deeper, more ragged ones gouged into his chest and back, along with definite bite marks on his shoulder and arm; the thick ruff of fur that collared him had protected his neck from any serious danger.

The lumen juice was keeping anything from hurting too badly, so he felt free to hug back and offer such physical niceties without fear of jostling the injuries, his murmur affectionate and almost sleepy sounding in the midst of his purr. "S'ok. Ok, f'give...." It might not have been entirely coherent, but the flopsem was smiling nonetheless. He obviously had friends who liked him, and Sword had to be his name; she'd said it to him more than once. What more could he want, besides friends and an identity?

"It's almost creepy," said Locke. It was obvious even to him that something had happened to the flopsem, what with the drastic change in behavior. Now he was behaving more like someone's pet cat than how he had before. "What happened to you?" He asked that question directly at Sword. "Or is this just a side of you that you just haven't shown us yet?"

Vala stroked the flopsem's soft fur gently, shaking her head at his unusual antics. There was definitely something wrong with him, but she didn't know what exactly was causing it. He didn't really seem all that badly injured. Maybe he had a split personality and he'd never told her about it, although that seemed pretty farfetched. "Well, whatever it is, we'll figure it out... Maybe he just needs a little bit of rest and then he'll be himself again."

She hoped nothing was seriously wrong with Sword. He seemed happy enough, at least. She smiled down at him, deciding to just take his odd personality change in stride for now. If he wanted to be cuddled and pampered like a pet, she could handle that! "Until then, we'll just take good care of him. That'll be fun, right Sword?" she asked him in a bubbly tone. "You just let us know if there's anything you want, okay?"

Locke's question earned only a blank, puzzled look and twitch of Sword's ears. What did he mean, what had happened to him? What was almost creepy? He couldn't remember anything happening to him.... anything at all. Nothing until getting up off the floor, where he'd been after the big female thing whose name he didn't know had apparently hit him.

He went back to purring as Vala stroked him, content to let them discuss whatever it was they were talking about. Evidently it concerned him, though he wasn't sure how--something about acting different and needing rest. He had functional ears, even if their conversation wasn't directed at him. The smile was returned, and he nodded at her request, stubby tail whisking back and forth; that, at least, was something he understood!

By this point, Vala was beginning to imagine the possibilities of permanently adopting Sword as a sort of half-pet, half-sidekick or something. In his current clingy-yet-adorable state, it was hard not to imagine taking him home for good. She did have to wonder what the others in her team would say if she popped back into the SGC with the flopsem trailing along behind her. Their reactions would probably be priceless, especially Daniel's. She could just about imagine him trying to persuade her that she couldn't just "keep" a sentient being, no mater how cute and cuddly. If she ever got out of the mess she was currently in and found her way back to Earth, she'd have to see if she could convince Sword to come along and help her mess with their heads for a while. That was, of course, assuming Sword ever went back to normal... Because if he stayed the way he was acting now, she really would have to adopt him, just to make sure nothing happened to him!

Vala supposed though, that they should probably take advantage of their shelter, now that they had managed to drive off the infestation of rodents that had formerly plagued it. "Well, I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to take a nap now," she said, getting to her feet to explore the small house a little more. "There's bound to be a bed around here somewhere..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Where'd THAT come from? [active]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject