2018-05-06 - SPACE JAIL: Breaking And Entering
| Title: SPACE JAIL: Breaking And Entering | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Steven frees Ami, and they learn tough lessons about the sneaking mission required of them. Ami discovers she can operate the locks keeping the cell doors closed - another way to free those around them. Jasper and Rubeus briefly pass by, but the two fugitives remain mercifully undiscovered, and able to find their way to a storage room. Also, there's a puppy. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Outer Space | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2018-05-06 - 2015-04-16 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Outer Space +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Earth's little corner of space, called its geospace, is characterized by a fading haze of gravity-trapped gas, a charged magnetic field, and an increasing clutter of drifting satellite garbage no one's cleaned up. Pale moon above, bluegreen earth below, the atmosphere lights up with an orange glow during the day, and paints the cities in electric yellow dots at night. Without the atmosphere or ambient light, the diamond stars are sharply cut. Between them are unthinkably vast stretches of frozen nothing. Their number seems infinite, and while most are almost as desolate as the void in which they float, others contain strange beings and worlds. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Players +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Cold.
The halls are cold.
Not the sort of freezing you'd expect in the dead of winter - but the cold of a crisp autumn morning, before the sun has fully risen in the sky, while the sky is still overcast and grey from the night's rain. A chill which settles gently onto the skin, a reminder of the warmth below. Chilly enough for a jumper, perhaps, or to pull the covers over your head for five more minutes. Alas, there are no blankets in this place.
Just... don't touch the walls for too long. There is a greater coldness there, uncomfortable and vast. These walls are hard things, unkind. It is not difficult to imagine this place as a prison, not at all.
The viewports show something vast and black. Unnaturally so - there ought to be stars, galaxies, the milky way. Instead, there is nothing but darkness, not a single clue as to the ship's location. They could be anywhere, or, perhaps, nowhere at all.
It is all cold and dead and silent but for the sounds of misery which echo through. Misery... and music. Such music. It is a woman's voice - soft and distant, beautiful and lyricless, somehow comforting in this desolate and terrible place.
From where - that is impossible to tell. The smooth walls of this place are acoustic in the worst way; they reflect sound just as they reflect the green and yellow light here, bounce it about their halls, confusing its source as if it comes from everywhere and yet nowhere at once.
And then, the music fades, as if the musician was otherwise occupied.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.
An echoing noise of something soft hitting the chilly mechanical floor, as a stout boy runs down these almost surreal halls. A person who despite his history, does not fit in these halls whatsoever, even though he is more relative to this technology than he cares to admit.
The voice that woke him seems to be echoing from everywhere and nowhere. The shapes of these halls and the lack of anything in them besides the occasional cell forcefield and control panel affect sound in a foreign way, almost like the lighting, which doesn't seem to stem from any particular origin point.
The music stops, causing Steven to halt for a second. "What... Huh." As he continues, he wonders what became of it. The boy reaches a set of halls, all cells, some closed. "Gotta find everyone...!" he says quietly, running as fast as he can, checking each cell that is closed, for someone, anyone, that could be trapped here.
They have to be around here somewhere! There have to escape...
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Down a long, dark corridor, Ami Mizuno sits in her cell alone. The coldness of the cell causes her to draw her legs up, pulling them closer to her and wrapping her arms around herself. In the distance she can hear a small sound which appears to be singing. The silences in between the lyrical notes are almost deafening.
After Rubeus had used her as a pawn in negotiation, it left her feeling more vulnerable than she ever had before. Even worse was that she was separated from the other Sailor Senshi. While she knew they had saved Chibi-Usa and Usagi for now, not knowing her fate or that of the other magical team was almost too much to bear...especially alone.
Unwillingly, Ami feels a tear run down her cheek and watches as it hits the cold cell floor. "What am I going to do?" She whispers to herself and then she thinks about her friends and what they would want her to do. She imagines Usagi telling her to cheer up. Knowing the other senshi wouldn't want her sinking into despair, she finally raises up, walking over the front of the cell.
It's been a few minutes since she saw the last robonoid come through and even knowing that they could come back she calls out, "Hello? Can anyone hear me?" And then Ami begins to examine the force field keeping her shut inside, not wanting to touch it, but wondering if there was a way to penetrate it.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Here, a cell is open - here, a cell is closed. Empty, empty, empty. Steven Universe is very small, and this ship, despite being the smaller of the two, is still more than large enough to be his match.
Everything about this place seems to be designed for ultimate confusion. Sound doesn't come from where it ought to; light seems to simply exist. Every diamond pattern looks like the last. The halls are dangerously open, and there seems to be so little variation. It is a ship designed for those who can remember its details, those who are so agonisingly familiar with its smooth architecture.
It is not a ship designed for stout, brave little boys.
Neither is it a ship designed for teenage girls all in a ball of misery. But, perhaps, the terrible sadness of a girl left behind is enough to move even alien geometry to sadness - for ice has formed in the far corner of the cell, dripping down-down-down into a sad little puddle.
Drip... drip... drip. Tiny little droplets of water, each as small and yet each as vitally important to life as Ami Mizuno.
Voices carry, in this place. Far away, they seem to come from everywhere. Closer still - perhaps they can be followed.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
"Bah!" Steven lets out after about the fifth or sixth shut but empty cell. Why are the doors even on in some of these if they don't hold someone?! He would call out himself, but those robonoids are everywhere. He has already eluded one or two of them, and skirted around even more.
He probably could fight one if need be, but that nasty goop they leave behind doesn't go away. Even if he was successful, there about be signs of a struggle. Signs not all is well on the ship for the invaders.
Thankfully, making noise isn't left for him to decide. Someone else calls out. Someone possibly ahead! It is difficult to ascertain the direction for sure, but it definitely sounded like it could be farther up.
The little boy begins to run his hind end off down the hallway, causing claps of his flip-flops to echo father down, hinting at something else not normally seen in these halls approaching. Perhaps he finally found someone!
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
It seems like hours pass as Ami examines the field surrounding the cell. Still feeling weak from losing her powers and just the general shock of what has happened in the last few hours, she sits down again near the field. It doesn't seem to emit any heat or anything unpleasant but just knowing how it felt when her powers were stripped keeps her from making any sort of contact.
There is a quiet sigh as she considers her other options. Ultimately, she imagines that her only hope is a change of heart with her captors or else someone rescuing her.
After sitting in silence for awhile, she hears something even more unusual than her captors arguing or the robonoids going by. At first, Ami thinks her mind is playing tricks on her but with the singing having stopped for now and the robonoids in the distance, she hears something else. The sound of sandals on the floor of the jail becomes unmistakable. Regardless if it's friend or foe, Ami calls out louder, "Hello? Can you hear me?"
As the sound gets closer she continues to talk and calls out, "I am here! Please help me!" For the first time since this ordeal started, Ami feels a little hopeful. If one of them got out then maybe the others could as well. Of course, in the back of her mind she is on edge. It could be someone unfriendly and without the ability to fight back she would end up at their mercy. Because of her concerns, Ami moves as far back into the cell as she can, feeling the drip of the water on her shoulder which causes her to shiver in it's coolness.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The robonoids are, indeed, everywhere. They go on their programmed path, fix everything up with that goop Steven hates so much, and maybe at the end Peridot will give them some nice oil, because Peridot is the best Gem in the universe, don't you know.
(The robonoids are, necessarily, biased.)
Flip-flops make for poor footwear on such a cool floor, but the clap-clap-clap is a clarion call - there's no sound like it on this silent ship. There are no loose engine belts which might make such a noise, not in an alien vessel like this. The silence it runs on allows Ami's voice to reach out so clearly.
And down drips the water, chill from the recent thaw. It is a bracing thing, but it seems so unlike the rest of this cell, where everything is smooth and hard and there is nothing extraneous at all.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
The female voice calling out grows nearer. Steven puts the pedel to the er, sandal, and checks every cell he passes! "Nope nope nope nope nope nope WAIT." A little boy in a deep pink shirt and a star on it nearly runs by Ami's cell and has to skid to stop. "Another person!" the boy says ecstatically. "Hi! My name's Steven! I'm gonna bust you out of here!"
The boy has no idea who this person is, but if she was captured, she was at the fight! Was she a magical girl, or a civilian caught up in the mess? Did Jasper do any other abductions before this one and she was taken from elsewhere? Ugh, so many questions! "Stand back, miss!" His finger blocked the emitter's path before, maybe he can do something!
But its gonna feel weird
The boy steps in to the field, putting his hands out. yellow circuit-like patterns cover the boy, and he looks quite frazzled, as though being shocked. "L-L-Le-e-et-s-s G-G-Gooo-oo-o!" the boy states in a stiled manner. His eyes look crossed and unable to focus, but he has a smile on his face regardless. Perhaps due to the fact he found someone finally after so long of searching.
Indeed, much how one would block light, Steven's arms block the emitter's effects in a square-ish shape. Big enough for anyone to crawl through. Steven steps away from the effect, and shakes his extremedies around, once Ami is freed. "Gah, Ew..."
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
A flash of pink passes her cell and even in her current state Ami recognizes it and she quickly walks over to him as he introduces himself. "Steven! I saw you..." She smiles in a relief. "... you saved us... on the beach... but...how did you get out?" Knowing how her captors have treated them so far she couldn't imagine it was one of them that helped him escape.
"I am Ami Mizuno." She introduces herself and then steps back. "Wait! Don't hurt yourself! What are you going to-" Too late though. He's already in the force field and it takes her a minute to realize she has a path to escape. Finally, she ducks down and walks through.
Once outside the cell, "Are you okay? How did you do that?!" After the shock wears off, "Thank you so much! We have to get to the others!" In her relief, Ami seems to have forgotten that at any second the robonoids could come back or anyone else for that matter.
Lowering her voice she asks Steven, "Where have you looked so far? We don't have a lot of time..." As much as she doesn't want to think of the fate of the other senshi or anyone else captured she can't help it. The dreams she had after being knocked unconscious are still on her mind and it isn't just the dreams themselves but the lingering feeling of doom left behind even now.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Distantly, there is the sound of something skittering...
This, in itself, is not unusual. Steven has heard the skittering many times. It's a fantastic early warning system, because those little robonoids, while adorable and roly-poly, are not terribly smart or good at stealth. They don't know how to sneak up on prisoners. It's just not in their programming. They fix things, like broken warp pads, or unruly magical girls. They fix both of these things, in fact, in the exact same way. It's a remarkably efficient system.
It echoes through the halls. It's unclear where it's coming from. But it is an unpleasant reminder that this place is entirely hostile, entirely unkind, and entirely inhospitable.
And it is coming closer.
Ami's analytical mind may help here, more than the misdirection of the noise: she has seen them patrolling, every ten minutes or so. They come from the right side of the hall, and leave by the left. It has been eight minutes since the previous patrol. No - perhaps eight minutes, thirty seconds.
Skitter, skitter, skitter...
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Huh! This nice young lady knew his name! He must be more popular than he thought! Or maybe a description was passed along one of the people he called. "I uh, I dunno, to be honest! But I don't take the full hit like I saw everyone else take." He has an idea why, and it involves his strange hybrid nature. It always involves his nature.
"Nice to meet you! Wish it was under better circumstances though. But yeah, we should go!" The boy begins to head forward. So much is arrayed against them. But they can't stop!
"I looked down a few very halls, but you were the first person I found! I also found some rooms with some freaky gray things. Dunno what those do."
The boy stops in his tracks. "Wait... that noise!" The 'weep woop weep woop weep woop' echoing sound! "One of those robonoids are coming! We need to hide!" He looks dow nthe crystalline shaped halls. They all look the same, he has seen so many! "We gotta find somewhere to duck away!"
The boy looks to one of the turned on prison cells. "Quickly! Over here!" The boy states, ushering Ami toward a cell. Perhaps they can pretend to be trapped still!
But... ew.
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
"Does it hurt when you do that?" Ami has so many questions. "I saw those guys address you back on the beach. It seems like one of them knew you?" Even with her questions and her mind racing, Ami begins to move down the corridor, making mental notes of every cell they pass, counting and trying to make a mental map.
And then, the skittering noise is unmistakable. She can hear the robonoid coming towards them as Steven directs her towards a cell. "Steven! If you keep standing in the forcefield... are you sure it's not going to hurt you?" Ami seems concerned and doesn't want to put him through that again if they can avoid it.
Then she looks down another hallway that seems to be empty, apart from the cells. "Let's go down here! Maybe there's a closet or something!" If Steven follows her, Ami approaches the first cell and looks inside. No one is visible but something on the outside catches her attention.
"Hey, check this out!" Ami leans over and begins pushing on some buttons. "I wonder if these open the cells. There has to be some kind of lock." She continues fiddling with the buttons for a few minutes. "Keep an eye out for the robots Steven!"
In the excitement of being rescued and now her focus on the keypad outside the cell, Ami loses track of the time the patrols came by but for the moment it sounds like the robonoid is still fairly distant.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Tap-tap-tap against a floor patterned with diamonds, tap-tap-tap comes a little crystalline creature on four little jagged legs which don't even seem to connect to its spherical body. It's light blue and completely, totally round, as if mocking Ami's delightful little bubbles.
It skitters across the floor, sweeping across it for imperfections. And - of course - intruders. Both must be fixed. The world is in a constant state of disrepair, to the robonoid; it is the one who might repair it.
And prisoners belong in cells. This, according to its programming, is the proper state of the world. Perhaps Steven's plan would have worked - except that Ami has a different idea. Down another hallway - she's surely got a sharp enough eye to see, roughly, the range the robonoids tend to patrol.
This particular little happy funtime marble goes down its hall and disappears. They are not complex creatures.
But the lock on the cell is complex and alien, a puzzle which for almost any other girl would seem entirely mystifying. Ami is not almost any other girl - Ami is a genius par excellence, and she recognises the patterns for what they really are.
... even recognised, however, they are still a puzzle. It will take some time to complete. A minute passes by. Two. Three. Five...
It's only a third of the way through, and there's something worse than the tap-tap-tap of a robonoid echoing through the halls now.
This time, it's footsteps. And they don't sound hurried or panicked at all.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
"A little!" Steven reassures Ami with. No. It hurt a good bit. Worse, it feels like a rock is duct taped to where his navel should be when he touches the fields. It was definitely wrong and uncomfortable. But it wasn't screaming levels of pain, or instant unconsciousness as others feel. It felt like a strong electrical shock and a weighty sort of pressure upon him..
"Oh, is that some kind of operating mechanism?" he asks, once shaking off the debilitating feeling. "Good idea! If you can figure that out, we can free more people quicker!" It might involve splitting up. And the number one rule of adventuring states, according to Ronaldo... is don't split the party.
Well this is different.
"Okay!" Steven calls back quietly. Time to scout! Steven listens out. His ears picked up something worse. "Oh no...!" the boy hurries to Ami. "Someone's coming! We got to hide!" he says hushed but hurried. "Wuick, over here!" he says, gesturing to a smaller cell that is open. The boy rushes to it and around the corner, and presses up against the wall around the corner. Beads of sweat form on his brow-- will this work?! Maybe they will be beneath their notice... He holds his breath.
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Ami nods, "It looks like it Steven!" She continues to tap away on the keypad. If it wasn't so cold in this place she would be sweating. She is very tense and hyper focused on the task at hand. Each combination of button tapping seems to get her closer to solving the puzzle but it's taking time and that is one luxury the two of them are lacking right now.
"I feel like... if I can just..." Ami continues punching away, determined and believing that she can crack the code with just a little more time and effort.
As the robonoid once again nears, Ami finds it harder to work and she looks to Steven, "We need to hide." But then... the robonoid noises stop and then grow distant again and she sighs in relief. "I promise I can do this Steven. Trust me. I just need a few more minutes!"
Steven's alarm that someone is coming makes her stop completely and nod. "Right." Ami follows him into the empty cell and moves behind the wall next to him. She remains as still as possible, barely even daring to breath. If they were caught now, she wasn't sure when or if she'd get another chance to figure out the code and the most important thing to her right now was being able to help free their allies and other captives.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Press yourselves against the side of the wall, boys and girls, because there's something big coming through the hallway Steven and Ami so recently fled. Something big - and something else, too, no less threatening.
Jasper is giving Rubeus a tour of the ship. "I've been told that we've integrated these Black Crystals of yours into our highly advanced technology, to great effect."
Rubeus grunts. "In exchange for securing the Silver Crystal and the death of the Rabbit?"
"That's right," Jasper agrees steadily. "Seems like a pretty raw deal to me, we didn't need this stuff to accomplish our own mission at all. I've got half a mind to leave right now."
"No," Rubeus insists, a little heatedly. "A deal's a deal. When the hostage exchange is complete, you may go. Until then... relax and enjoy our hospitality. If you'd care to sample some delicacies straight from the court of Prince Demando..."
Jasper does a double-take as they move on. "Tell me more about your Diamond," she demands.
There is a tiny, tense moment which seems to stretch forever, as it seems certain they will turn this way and discover that two of their prisoners are distinctly where they oughtn't be - but they're occupied with their conversation, both invested for their own terrible reasons, and they take little notice of the hall with the open cell and two prisoners who aren't quite imprisoned any more.
As if to add insult to injury, another robonoid skitters down Steven and Ami's hall while they're hiding. But there's no one strange in the hall itself, so it just keeps moving. Tap-tap-tap down and into the death hall. Hiding, it seems, is an effective strategy.
Lesson learnt: that hall is immediately dangerous. Don't go back that way.
Further lessons learnt: all halls are potentially dangerous. If monsters like Jasper and Rubeus are stalking around -
- well, Steven's seen the results of a dematerialiser first-hand, and Ami's surely seen the crushing effects of that man's will.
Perhaps, at least, there will be time for Ami to finish the puzzle now...
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Steven has never held his breath longer than he has at this moment. By the time Jasper and Rubeus move on, and the patrol Robonoid has gone by, his face is nearly the tint of his shirt. Once the loud clinking of heavyset feet disappear into the distance. The boy takes a very deep and very well-earned breath. "Jasper!" he lets out inbetween breaths. "Who... who was that she was talking with? That red haired person..."
A look is given to Ami. She might not know, but he nods his head toward the outside hallway. "I think it is safe."
With all the sublety he can muster, he sloooowly peeks his head out from around the corner. Threats loomed everywhere. Especially with the Gems wielding wicked devices. "You can do this!" the boy quietly cheers on Ami. She seems to have the aptitude to solve this complicated locking mechanism.
"I'll make sure they don't double back!" Steven adds, keeping a close ear out.
If she can figure out that mechanism, they can both free people! More ground could be covered! But a question comes to mind. Can... Can she fight? He has no idea what she is capable of, but he can't just let a defenseless young lady run the halls alone! Even if they could free more people that way. If she was jsut a harmless bystander, that makes things even harder.
What a predicament...
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Ami listens as the footsteps draw closer. Her heart races, it's beat as loud as a drum in her ears. The conversation that is overheard causes her to sink back even further against the wall. Her mind goes over all the events again and again. Rubeus wanting Chibi-Usa and then Jasper taking them captive. The pieces don't fit together completely and she cannot begin to really understand the partnership. What is painfully obvious though is that this combination of forces against them is going to be hard to overcome.
Even after it appears the threat has passed, Ami remains quiet which turns out to be a good idea as another robonoid skitters down the hallway past them. Steven is the first to talk and with his question, Ami's eyes darken. "That's Rubeus...he wants to hurt one of my friends." She can't begin to go into what details she knows right now so Steven will have to fill in the pieces later.
Once they are safe for the moment, Ami nods at Steven. "Thank you. I will get this." She looks down the hallway both ways before she steps back towards the keypad. It takes what feels like an eternity to finally hear a noise. Suddenly, she watches as the field in front of the cell fades away. It doesn't occur to her that is was strange to see a locked cell with no prisoner in it. "It works!" Ami is relieved.
"That will be useful but now... there's something else." She pauses. "They took something important to me. I need to find it...." Ami looks at Steven, her eyes almost pleading with him to help her. "It's a pen... blue with a gold star on top..." Ami doesn't explain why it's so important but it would be easy enough for Steven to make assumptions about her reasons for needing it so badly.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Six... eight... ten tense minutes pass. As the skitter-skitter of a robonoid draws closer again, Ami Mizuno cracks the code on the door, and it's easy enough to huddle inside just in time to avoid the seeking gaze of that same robonoid's ten-minute patrol.
The principles are sound. Having experienced them, a genius like her understands well enough to explain to others. But it seems like it's impossible to get the time under fifteen minutes - in order to crack a door code, they'll need a hiding place nearby to evade those little blue robots.
There's got to be a better hiding place than the cells.
If they eventually proceed down this hall, now the robonoid is clear - they'll find something interesting. An opaque door, which seems to be operated by a touchpad beside it. Doors, in this open-air place, are something precious; this ship seems completely phobic of privacy, so surely does it avoid all liminal space.
Doors can hide people.
Doors can give magical girls and boys a little bit of breathing room.
This touchpad, mercifully, is not a puzzle-lock; it is a simple activation mechanism. The area is perhaps the size of a living room, but there are no lounges, no tables, no television. (No wifi, either.) Instead, the room is filled with strange, sweet little grey balls.
For some reason, they seem vaguely like eggs.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
"Oh, that is awful!" Steven replies to Ami with. "The big Gem is Jasper. Not nice people from Homeworld. I guess they are working together." Now that he thinks about it, didn't Jasper say something about a bunny rabbit? It is too fuzzy to recall if that is true or some sort of hallucination.
The boy tilts his head at the mention of a pen. And she sounded serious about finding it. There is only one reason why a small item like a pen is direly important. "Right," the boy affirms with a nod. Ami activates the device correctly to release the field. "Oh, nice! You can help me free people!" the boy cheers. "Let's see if we can find anyone else!" And with that, flip-flops pad on the floor again, echoing a strange signature unlike other beings that walk these halls.
However, before they can find anyone else, something different catches their eye. A door. An actual door. "Oh, this looks important," Steven states, going over to look at it. "What is in here?"
It turns out to be soem sort of... storage room? At least he thinks. He has seen one or two of these rooms so far, but wasn't sure of their purpose. "Maybe we can hide in here or something!" He did feel a little fatigured after all that electro-shock therapy.
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
As another robonoid passes them, Ami makes sure it's safe before moving outside of the cell. "Yeah. As long as we don't get caught..." She reminds Steven. "Unfortunately, I don't think that code is going to get any easier to figure out but with enough time we can get it and then you don't have to endure that forcefield as much." She can't imagine that would be a good thing for his body, hybrid or not.
Proceeding down the hallway, Ami follows Steven to the door. "Hrm. Looks like a simple keypad here." For that, she is grateful and once inside Ami breathes a sigh of relief and noticing the water, she takes a drink. The cool water makes her colder but it's oddly refreshing. She is exhausted after all of this.
In the corner she suddenly notices the tiny eggs and she beckons Steven over. "Hey! Look at these." She bends down to look at one closer. "What do this is in here?" She is hesitant to touch it but finally picks it up. It feels oddly warm to the touch.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
This room does, in fact, seem uniquely suited to resting. They'll still need to be cautious - they'll need to take turns keeping guard - but with the door to give them privacy, it ought to be possible. That possibility is as pure as hope itself, in this moment.
The egg, mercifully, is not a monster in a box. Well - technically, it is a monster in a box. It cracks open, hatching, if you like. Inside is a little alien... ah... puppy? It seems, for all intents and purposes, to be a little fluffy white dog, except -
- except it's got white-furred human hands where its paws ought to be.
It's kinda creepy, but it's also kinda cute, and it gives Ami's chin a big lick with a broad red tongue in thanks for freeing it. Its tail wags, and its whole body starts wagging behind it. Any happy barks are easily shushed.
It's small enough that it won't cause any trouble, and it seems really happy to be out of that egg. Perhaps it can keep the two of them company while they're keeping watch.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Steven enters the room proper, and slinks against a well. "Okay, so, we got this far! This is good! We... we have a good chance. Maybe." A forearm wipes the sweat from Steven's brow, perspiring more from stress than temperature, which, even here in this room is still far below the norm, yet not freezing. Though those temepratures are so close, the cold in the rooms have an intense feeling, as if the deathly chill of space is just barely being held back.
"What's that?" Steven says, as Ami picks up an egg. "Look out!" he calls as it begins to quiver and crack. Moments later, they both are confronted with something from the adorable regions of space. A dog with furry hands, like some sort of dog-monkey. And it looks much cuter than that name might imply. "Oh... my god," Steven says, staring at it.
"It's... so... fluffy!"
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Before Ami can inspect the egg closer it begins to shake and a small crack forms on the top and then it finally splits open, taking her by surprise. What she's left holding though is a tiny white, furry puppy. When it licks her, Ami giggles. "Oh! Poor little thing! I wonder how long it was in there..."
As she holds it out for Steven, she notices the weird hands for paws but she says nothing as it looks so happy to be freed. When it barks though, Ami holds it closer. "Shhhh... don't get us in trouble." Luckily, it stops barking pretty quickly.
"Hey Steven, why don't we take turns keeping watch and stay here for awhile? We are going to need our energy to find the others." Even if Ami has time to sleep for a few minutes here and there it will be uneasy, haunted by dreams of her friends, of lingering darkness and hopelessness...
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
This dog-monkey-alien is, indeed, the fluffiest thing in the room. It shushes up when Ami asks it for quiet, but it's still wriggling happily! It must have been trapped for a long time. Or, at least... what felt like a long time. Time is a nebulous concept for puppies, even alien puppies.
Whoever takes first watch will be joined by a dog guard. Dog guards are, unfortunately, not as useful as they seem, because this puppy is quite young and inexperienced, but it's good company regardless. And soon enough, it will get tired, and go and nap on whoever is resting instead.
It's a helper.
