Old School Blues [Crono, Rina, Nicky]

[Tally]

There was always music playing on Diva.

Tonight—night and day being only a comfort and conceit out here—Nathan had soft old beat jazz playing over the speakers.  Old old.  Nearly a century old this album was, from back in the day on Aedolis when some old folks endured the particular torture of remembering the flavor of freedom even as they saw any hope of regaining it die off.  Their music imparted despair, and memories of something more.  Nathan heard the breakdown of it, the chromatic harmonies, the parts of the whole.  He heard the math in it.

But!  It was starting to depress him.  Him in his little bubble of life, surrounded by black for millions of miles.

'least I'm not alone.

Without a pilot, it fell on him to fly Diva himself.  Sad that, but there'd been no takers on Cancer.  Without a cook, he had to make his own meals, and they were simple, boring dishes even if they did keep him alive.  And without a doctor, he did the best he could to patch up the little things.

But Cian was here.  Another living presence kept a little light burning in him, made it all bearable.  He didn't even care that Cian's exact function on the ship had never been established.  So long as the man wasn't setting fires or reneging on their agreement regarding personal hygiene—specifically that Cian would see to his on a semi-regular basis—then it was all aces.

Nathan flicked a switch and the music cut off.  He rose from the pilot's chair and stretched his arms above his head, back popping.  Was about time for his nightly before-sleep routine.  He'd learned the hard way just how important routine was out in the black.  Too easy to lose your way out there, with nothing but emptiness staring at you hour after hour.  Routine kept him well-groomed and kept these small quarters feeling normal.  Routine kept the handguns at his hips clean, oiled, and loaded.  And with him at all times.

He was halfway out of the bridge when a hail came through and lured him back to the helm to check it out.

A distress code.

Nathan hesitated.  It wasn't uncommon for pirates to put out a distress call and snare any well-meaning ship who came along to help, and Nathan was naturally distrustful.  He patted at his pockets for a coin to flip, but found none.

Oh well.  Leap of faith it is.

Nathan plopped himself back into the pilot's seat and sent a wave ahead of him to the other ship.  "Ibis Minuet, this is Blackjack Diva.  We are on route to your coordinates.  We're a jumper, be there in a few."

Before changing course, he punched the button for the intercom.  "You up Cian?  Wakey wakey, we might have some visitors and I prefer you up and alert just in case."  He set the course, then thought better of it and told the jump engine to drop them a decent distance away from the other ship.

If they had to run, he wanted plenty of room.

[Anonymous]

For the most part, few things really fazed Papillion. She just didn't worry much about things, taking everything in stride and seemed to lack fear. Things that most people saw as problems were just adventures to Papillion. While she had no desire to die, she also didn't really fear it, so most things lost that frightening edge when you just weren't worried about dieing.

But currently she was rather annoyed. She was amazingly proud of her ship. It was her baby and she loved it. And it was being invaded by really unpleasant and massively huge spiders. The tiny Captain winced a little every time she heard them break something.

Her leg had swollen up and turned a slightly alarming shade of purplish green. All the movement she had done in the last day had caused the poison to spread rapidly. It had hurt, now it mostly was tingly as she had tied a tourniquet around it. Best to not led the poison spread any farther then it already had. It did make movement hard.

Then on top of that, Papillion had to worry about Ashley. The mechanic did not handle spiders well. Thankfully they had managed to hole themselves into the cockpit and Papillion had a gun. Sadly, it was the rail gun. Which would splatter the spiders, but also punch yet another hole into her beloved ship.

A distress signal had been sent, but who knew when and if it would get picked up. Reaching over, Papillion awkwardly patted Ashley's shoulder, "Don't worry. We'll be fine. We....will think of something!" It wasn't an attempt to give false hope. Papillion was quite positive they would. She knew that today was not her day to die.

[Anonymous]

Ashley had been singing under his breath, flute clenched in his hand as he tried to get his lips moist enough to actually play it. He knew he could probably fix her leg...if he could get past the all consuming panic and actually play the flute he always insisted on having in his pocket.

It was strange for him to be violent in any sense of the word. He was a quiet gentle person-- a quiet, gentle person who was finally picking through whatever he found, looking for a spider-fighting weapon. He really didn't want to try to beat it off with his flute. He loved his flute, and if it become covered in spider goo, he'd probably never be able to play it again without feeling ill. Besides, who knew what sort of toxin they carried in their bodies.

He drew a deep breath, rubbing his arm while still grasping the flute with a couple fingers. "I don't suppose there's any way to fix the engines from here?" He knew he'd probably pass out and become spider-food before he ever even made it to the engine room.

At least he knew he was a coward. He had no visions of being some grand and glorious hero, fearless and strong.  He was a pretty man, who prefered wearing women's clothes. Nothing about him screamed manly hero, and that was fine with him.

He was quite willing to try his hardest to pull it together to help out a fellow person, but chances were he'd be shaking and sweating if it involved any sort of animal. A death defying drop off a cliff would probably be taken more gracefully. Hights didn't bother him. Water, didn't bother him-- though the things in the water certainly did. Animals left him paralized with fear and anxiety. He was fully aware of just how silly it was for a grown man to be afraid of a spider-- or a rabbit for that matter. Puppies and kitties scared him.

He sighed and sank down into a chair, clutching a broomstick. He would have prefered a bat. It simply felt more solid, even though it probably would not improve his aim in the least. A bat felt like something protective. A broomstick felt...well, somewhat sissy-ish

[Anonymous]

OOC: D= College break deprived me of the mysticalness of the internet and I just got it back a few days ago. :3 Please don't eat me.

IC: There really was not that much to do on Diva, as Cian saw it. Besides sleeping and trying to get Nathan to repeal his Bathing Code, Cian was regulated to wandering aimlessly through the ship. Of course it never took that long to get from one end of the ship to the other, so he ended up sleeping most of the time.

Cian had suggested once that he fly the ship so Nathan would not have to do it all the time but all that got him was a banning from the cockpit. Cian had also tried cooking but after a dish made some growling-like noises, an unspoken agreement was reached that Cian would not cook. So he ended up sleeping most of the time.

Nathan's voice over the intercom woke Cian from his usual pastime and Cian was not too happy about it. He had been having a really good dream. Oh well, the prospect of having somebody new aboard cheered him up a bit. It was not that Nathan was bad company, it was just getting harder and harder to shock or scare the man, and Cian found much amusement in exposing people to what they were not used to.

Cian got up out of the bed he was sleeping in and made his way to the front of the ship. After the ship dropped out of its jump, Cian poked his head into the cockpit.
"So what's this about visitors?" He asked with a grin.

[Tally]

Diva came out of jump with a fair bit of distance between the two ships.  Beyond the cockpit window, a void peppered with stars and the Ibis Minuet, drifting, seemingly dead in the water.

Seemingly.

Nathan took the helm and piloted Diva forward manually.  As soon as they were in range, her scanners swept the other ship and spat out the specs to him on the cockpit terminal screen.  Cargo transport, Moonstar-class, or so his scanners said.  Some of these stats weren't in keeping with what he'd expect from a freighter.  Could be she'd had some heavy modding done, and that put him on edge.  If a captain were of the less upstanding variety, they might use that to their advantage.  They might, say, outfit a cargo ship—ostensibly a harmless vessel—with jump trippers and navmucks and send out a distress signal then just take their ease until an easy take came along.

"I don't know yet," he said to Cian, keeping his eyes on the Ibis Minuet, growing larger and larger as they approached.  No surprises yet.  So far so good.  His hands rested light on the yoke, ready to kick the jump engine up and haul out of there.  Wouldn't have been the first time Diva had to outrun a hostile.  She was a Swift, built for evasion and hard to catch.  

"Might be they just need a push, but...yeah, we might have some company for awhile."  The scanners returned info on her weapons systems.  Nary a one functional, broken or else she'd just lost power to all the nonessentials.  Life support was still chugging along though, along with their main engine, so they couldn't be too bad off.  But if the engine was functional, what was the problem?  Why not just be on their way?

"Wait...do you see that?  Check out her hull.  Looks torn up in places."

Bad.  Very bad.  Could they have a breach?  He couldn't tell from here whether the inner hull had been compromised.  Nathan started up the docking sequence just in case he had to get those people off in a hurry, then hailed her again.

"Ibis Minuet, we're coming up on your port.  What's the problem over there?  You weren't all that specific in your distress message.  Do you have a breach?"

[Anonymous]

Reaching over, the tiny Captain patted Ashley's leg, "I am sure help will be here any moment." She beamed, adjusting her grip on her gun. It was not easy to hold the weapon in her seated position, but she made due. She still wasn't sure how the spiders had managed to multiply so quickly on her ship without her realizing, but, well, they had left the planet in a bit of a hurry, so stowaways weren't that hard to imagine. And the bastards seemed to get real big real fast.

There was a loud banging, screeching sound as another one of the spiders tried to get through the door. It wouldn't be to much longer, it hadn't really been built to take this much punishment. Glaring at the door, Papillion shifted her weight, wincing slightly, "My poor ship. Do you know how long it took to put this baby together? All I had was a gutted frame."

And now bastard spiders were tearing it apart. Then she jumped slightly, biting down to stifle the cry as pain shot through her leg. The radio let out another crackle, before the message came through, "Ibis Minuet, we're coming up on your port. What's the problem over there? You weren't all that specific in your distress message. Do you have a breach?"

Clapping her hands, Papillion beamed at Ashley, "Ha! See! I told you! I win!"  Pushing a few buttons, Papillion grabbed her own radio to reply, "Hi! Oh man am I ever glad to hear your voice. Thought we were in some real trouble here." Despite all that was going on, her voice was all sunshine and roses, pleased now that someone was here, "Kinnda got a bunch of giant spider....things. Tearing the ship apart. Me and my mechanic are stuck in the bridge. I am pretty sure the haul is breached in a place or too."

Glancing over at Ashley, not bothering to take her finger off the talk button, she frowned slightly, "Am I missing anything Ash?"

[Anonymous]

"Well, if we get out of here in a reasonable number of pieces, and your ship is salvaged and spider-free, I will help you rebuild it" Ashley assured, jumping as the radio crackled.

"They bite and they're about to break through the door?" Ashley said, jabbing at a leg that came poking through a space as the door continued to take abuse. He was sweating buckets, which was not generally a look he liked, but didn't care at this point. His blouse was clinging to his body, but then again, his entire outfit was pretty much shot from the sweat, dirt and spider guts. Except maybe his boots. Those could possibly be cleaned since they were stain resistant.

"Captain, how are we going to get out of the bridge? Is there an exit from here? We c-can't go back through there, that's for sure." Especially not with her leg like it was. She wouldn't get through the spiders, and he was not sure enough of himself to attempt to carry her, even if she were shooting the spiders for him.

"Ooooh!" he squealed as he saw fangs poke through the bend in the door and went to whacking it with his stick in a rather flailing fashion, but he was connecting with the spiders as they poked bits of themselves through the opening. "Can they hurry? Are they close? Please tell me they're close."

[Anonymous]

Cian grinned at the reply that came back over the radio. "Seems like they could use some help, eh there Nathan?" He asked, lightly elbowing Nathan in the shoulder. He giggled. "Please say I'll be able to have fun with the spiders. I haven't had much play time since we left Cancer." Cian started bouncing on his toes in anticipation. Of course, he didn't really wait for an answer before scooting off towards the door.


((Holy crap that was a horrible post. >.< I seriously couldn't think of anything to write about, but since it's been over a week since Nicky posted, I felt like I had to write something. ;.; Please don't hurt me too badly.))

[Tally]

The reply from the Ibis Minuet came back, and Nathan released the transmitter button to frown at the ship through Diva's window.

"Did she say...spiders?"

Shaking his head, he depressed the button again and sent one more message over to the besieged ship.  "All right, uhhh...spiders, huh?  Right.  Okay!  We're gonna go ahead and dock with you then see about clearing up your pests."

As soon as the transmitter was off, he swiveled the seat around to answer Cian's elbow nudge.  "Honestly I think they're bullshitting us.  I mean come on.  Spiders? On a ship?  How would they even get there.  But we'll check it out anyway.  And if there are giant spiders on board you can have as much, uh, fun with them as you like. Okay?"

He had learned, way back on Cancer, that fun for Cian involved setting things on fire.

With the Ibis Minuet being near motionless, docking should have proved simple enough even for a mediocre pilot like Nathan.  But no, now his imagination was filled with the scrabbling fangs of enormous spiders and they clamored in his head while he piloted Diva closer and nudged her into position.  He held one finger up at Cian in a quiet please gesture and steered the ship with the other.  The proximity warning flashed on screen.  A hundred feet...fifty...twen ty.  He held his breath.  Still on target.  Ten feet, and then...

A bump and a shudder as the airlocks connected with one another.  Docked.

"Phooo."  Nathan breathed again.  In the hallway leading down to the airlock was an armory compartment.  He grabbed a couple of extra clips—hullsafe bullets of course—before joining Cian at the door.

"Now look," he said, slipping each clip into a side pocket near his holstered guns.  "There may or may not be huge arachnids beyond this door.  And if there are you can do whatever you want with them.  In fact, the less spider guts I have to get on me the better.  But let's remember we're in a spaceship yeah?  A spaceship that doesn't belong to us and which may or may not contain flammable materials lying around.  So let's just be careful what we set fire to.  Actually let's just be careful in general."

Nathan punched the button and both sets of airlock doors swooshed open.  Beyond, the interior of the Ibis Minuet was lost to darkness.

[Anonymous]

There wasn't anything visibly wrong at first. The docking area in the Ibis was clean and simple and so far no sign of anything remotely spider related. It was only once they were farther out into the cargo hold that the fist suggestions that something might be wrong appeared.

The boxes of cargo were all neatly stacked and organized, though there weren't too many of them. But small black and red colored specks seemed to be crawling all over them. Spiders, though smaller ones, nothing that should have caused all this panic.

The smaller spiders seemed to be concentrating in a back corner, the boxes there so thick with them the boxes looked to be shifting. As the scent of other humans on the ship reached the spiders, scuttling could be heard as many of them headed toward the cargo bay.

Inside the cock pit, Papillion glanced over at Ashley, "Well lovely. There isn't another way out that I know of." She gave Ashley a bright smile, "We can just see about shooting our way down or something when help gets here." She patted her leg, wincing slightly. She just hoped it didn't start stinking. That would be bad, "I can still get around on this thing."

Papillion wasn't about to let something like a poisoned leg stop her. Sure it hurt like liquid fire up her leg, but she would make it. And, well, she supposed there were worse ways to die then being eaten by spiders. That was all very circle of life. Giving back to nature or something.

"Man. I love my baby, but I wish I had gotten something with a higher rate of fire. That would be so much more useful."

The computers in the room told her she was docked with. And they were probably inside. So she reached for the com button again, this time going ship wide, "Hello! Are you here yet? I rather hope you are! Um, don't let the spiders bite you. The little ones probably wont do much, but the big ones are nasty. Hey! So, we are kinnda stuck in the cockpit. I guess we can attempt to get to you, but, um, I'm a bit injured and all." Papillion paused for a moment, thinking of something, "And I really hope someone is actually there. Feel a little silly if I was talkin' to an empty room this whole time."

[Anonymous]

Ashley was busy pounding at the spiders at the door, one nearly getting his arm and ripping through his shirt sleeve. "I really hate spiders" He muttered in distress, putting his flute away. He wasn't going to have any time to play it at this rate. Shooting their way through spiders wasn't going to be fun-- at least not for him.

"How do you want to do this?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Papillion. She was the one with the injured leg, and he one with the long-range weapon. He had a stick and a pair of boots on his feet. "Do we wait until they get closer to us?" That made sense to him. Besides, there was no sense in leaving the bridge if the spiders ate the rescuers before they could do the actual rescuing.

"I mean, I'm sure I could carry you and all, and that might be faster, but we probably won't be as good at beating them off" He reasoned, mopping his brow as the spiders seemed to give up on coming through the hole in the door for the time being.

He had to trust the captain would get them both out alive. She had managed to live this long, and she had more experience with animals, ships and adventures than he cared to ever have. He bent over, one hand on his knee to try to catch and slow his breath. He couldn't start hyperventilating now. He was at least calmer here on the ship than he had been running into them on the planet originally, but maybe he was just getting used to them-- or used to being on the verge of panic.

[Anonymous]

Cian's grin was a little lopsided. Squee! He could finally make things go boom! Or at least make the spiders go splak. It would have to do. He quietly left the cockpit to leave Nathan to getting the ship where it needed to be and skipped to over to the airlock.

As he waited for Diva to dock with the other ship, Cian looked down at his cane. Hmmm. Should he take it? It would probably be useful for thumping any spiders that got too close but who could blame them, really? All they wanted to do was give him a little kiss. A probably deadly and painful kiss but a kiss nonetheless. He set his cane a little ways from the airlock. It wouldn't go with him on this adventure. Who knew what spider venom could do to it? Poor thing. He'd have to tell it everything when he got back.

Cian got back to the airlock right as a large thud sounded from the closed passageway in front of him, followed by the sound of various mechanical noises saying that various mechanical parts were doing things. He never claimed to know spaceships but he assumed that the time was at hand when Nathan joined him.

His grin got a little less lopsided as Nathan briefed him on the mission. "Aye, aye, sir." Cian snapped a salute. "I'll be as careful as a mother with a babe." A tinkle in his eye said that his carefulness would only extend to not breaching the hull. As fond as he was of space, Cian had seen what could happen if you were stranded out there with nothing but your knickers. It'd been an interesting sight.

Nathan really should have known him better by now. After all, Nathan had basically told Cian that, as long as nobody friendly died, the fireworks were ok. At least that's what he took from what Nathan had said. After all, what's a little damage to a ship when the alternative is large, venomous arachnids trying to eat you. Right? Right.

He was bouncing on his toes as the airlocks opened into the ship, a few spelled readied should anything lunge at them. Sadly, nothing did. Yet. "Damn. No welcoming party." Cian said, dejected. He'd always wondered what would happen if a fireball hit something going the other way in midair. He made a note to find out, eventually. Cian sauntered ahead of Nathan into the ship, expecting to be greeted by the sight of multitudes of eyes, peering at him, fangs dripping venom, giant spiders poised to rip him limb from limb.

The truth was much more depressing.

Where were all the damn spiders?!

The ship's intercom crackled to life as a very cheery voice informed them what the hell was going on. "Ya. That would be pretty silly of her." Cian commented, chuckling. "I say we get to the cockpit sooner rather than later. I'm in the mood for a roasted spider. The bigger the better." He frowned around him. "I say this place could use a lightening up." After a couple seconds concentration, four balls of fire were lazily floating around Nathan and Cian a couple yards from them, providing a fair amount of lighting around them. "There. Much better." Cian said happily.

When he turned back around, Cian could swear that the floor near the door up ahead was moving toward them. He blinked. Nope, it wasn't a hallucination this time. Cian could almost feel the tiny spiders' beady eyes on them and his face lit up like a kid's in a candy shop. Spiders! Lots of them! Not the big ones, sure, but still!

Cian giggled then held out his right hand, fingers parallel to the ground. After a few seconds, a tiny flame appeared beyond his middle finger, floating about an inch or two out. He curled his fire finger under his thumb, making the flame almost touch, then made a flicking motion towards the spiders, sending his 'gift' flying. "Watch this." Cian said to Nathan with undisguised amusement. Oh was this going to be fun. He might even get a reaction out of Nathan for once.

The flame stopped right over the front of the charging mass of spiders and hung there, waiting a good six feet above the ground. Cian wiggled in anticipation. When his little spark was over where guessed the center of the writhing mass was, Cian snapped and in the time it took to blink an eye, the harmless spark was transformed into a rather large ball of fire, expanding to hug the ceiling and reaching out to touch the walls. It almost got to the lazy floaters Cian had set for a light source.

Cian bounced up and down, clapping. "That was a wonderful warm-up, don't you think?" He asked Nathan. "So. Which way to the real fun?"

[Tally]

All the crawlies in the corners sent shivers down Nathan's spine.

Nerves of steel, Nath.  Come on now.

He inched forward a couple of steps before Cian went past him.  You'd think he was enjoying this the way he acted.  Nathan watched him conjure the fireballs with some apprehension.  It wasn't that he didn't trust Cian—though you never really knew if he was going to explode things in a way that was helpful or not—it was that he didn't trust magic.  Didn't understand how a person could maintain control of a thing that even modern science failed to properly explain or predict.  If Cian's fire kept the spiders off him, though, then he was glad to have it.

There was a com panel on the wall beside the airlock entry, and after double checking to make sure no spiders would be within pouncing range of his hand he hit the button for the bridge.

"Okay, we're in.  We'll make our way to you and we'll all leave together.  Give us some directions so we don't waste time going the wrong way."

Only one door lead out of the cargo hold.  It was guarded by what he could only describe as a civilization of spiders.  Time for Cian to shine.  Nathan's pistols would not be so effective at killing a large number of very tiny things.

He took a few steps back, and let Cian do his thing. The aftermath of the conflagration left him with spots in front of his eyes.

"Yes. You've blinded me. It was amazing!"

He wasn't being sardonic—well, maybe a little—he genuinely found the display incredible, in the same way he would have found a volcano incredible, or a giant meteor hurtling toward Earth incredible, which was to say he found it fascinating but didn't necessarily want it happening right in his face.

Nathan put the floating fire orbs at his back—much better.  They illuminated the corridor before him while saving his eyes. He stepped over the crunchy, scorched spider corpses and paused there to blink a few times into the dim interior before daring the hallway.  More of the tiny spiders huddled against the walls.  He saw nothing else but drew one of his pistols just the same.

"I guess they're all crowding around the bridge.  Might be we'll have an easy time of it. Take them by—"

An enormous spider dropped right in front of his face, hanging so close that all he saw before him was a mass of eyes and hairy exoskeleton plates.  He cried out and jumped back a step, raising the pistol reflexively and firing off one shot, right in the thing's face.  The bullet punched it back several feet where it hit the floor and twitched and writhed.

"Euuugh."  He was splattered with spider juices.  He could only stand there frozen in disgust as it dripped down his face and the front of his shirt.

[Anonymous]

The tiny Captain's face split into a huge smile when she heard the other man speak, "I have to say, you have just about the sexiest voice I've ever heard right now. Alright, from the cargo bay, you'll need to head up the stairs. Then go down the hallway. There is another set of stairs and Bam! You've found us. There are a bunch of spiders at the door though."

Another spider attempted to make it's way in and it was small enough to get beaten back with the butt end of her rifle. She was saving her ammo for when the big ones attempted to break the door down. She was feeling pretty good, other than her leg. She was starting to feel pretty warm, which might have been a fever, might just be all the adrenaline.

[Anonymous]

"Oi me bucko, ya should'a known that you couldn't jush waltz in ther' withou' somet'ing jumpin' out at'cha, ya?" Cian flashed Nathan a grin as he came up next to the Captain. He balled his hands in front of his face and gave a couple of mock punches "At least ya gave him a good what for 'n' tha's really all that matters." The mage really was enjoying himself in this little venture. It was a good change of pace after all the boring waiting around that had been going on.

He had enjoyed the naps, though.

Not so much the pains the unusual positions brought.

Right! Spiders! "The little dearie said that it was straight ahead to the funner area, right?" He bounced on his toes in anticipation. "Can we go now? Huh? Huh? Can we? Can we? Pllllleeeeeaaaaasss ssseeeeee?" He gave his best puppy dog face before giggling and shuffling along ahead. He could already imagine all the mischief that he would be able to cause to the spiders and there was still the matter of roasting one to eat. Oh! And maybe he could tame one to keep as a pet.

That was a joyous thought indeed.

He hadn't shuffled more than a few feet ahead when he froze. There was something...not quite wrong but not quite right about the air. He face kept the same distracted grin on it while he thought about this new conundrum. It took a second for him to recognize what it was, upon which his face contorted into a frown. That no good bastard. Coming without his permission. He'd show it what was what.

He went ahead swiftly, grumbling along the way. At the first option to turn off, Cian took it and stood at the beginning. A handful of doors lined the short hallway. Which one? Which one? Which one? He thought rapidly. The mage went ahead slowly, intently looking at each door before moving on to the next one. He stopped at the end of the hallway in front of the right-hand door, scowling.

"Well, open up!" The door didn't budge. His eye twitched. "Fine, if that's how you want to play." He placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, the door blew inwards, a loud splat echoing out with the door's crash against the far wall. He quickly glared around the room. "There you are, you no good, misbehaving, little monster." And sure enough, there was his stick leaning against the opposite corner of the room.

The couple of spiders in the room, recovered from his sudden entry, quickly decided that he was a friend and rushed to hug him and, though Cian was never one to turn down a hug, he had no time for their tricksy antics. One leaped towards him (flying hugs were superior to normal ones, of course). He sidestepped into the room and out of the way and slapped the spider's abdomen before sending a tendril of fire through the face of the other one.

The spider landed and quickly turned around before shrieking out in pain. The area where Cian had slapped it had had burning hand print on it that was rapidly growing larger. The spider still in the room collapsed as a fire started to consume it from the inside. "You see what kind of trouble you put me through?" The mage asked, storming up to the walking stick. "I left you behind for a reason but noooooo, you just had to come along." He glared at it. "Don't look so smug."

Cian grabbed the stick and started walking back to the hallway he had last seen Nathan in, ignoring the spider that was twitching on the floor outside the door, most of its flesh gone. Returning to his starting point, Cian looked up and down the pathway before laying eyes on Nathan once more. "You see what this mischief maker did? Came here without my permission! And has the nerve to be smug about it too!"

((Cian is such fun to write for. :3))

[Tally]

Turned out spider guts were clingy.  Nathan kept one eye on the dark corridor before him, but he was more concerned with flinging the goo off his hands.  It wanted to stick, and when globs of it finally flew off and hit the wall they clung there like a giant booger.

Deep breath there Nathan.  Don't throw up.  You're the captain! What's running through your veins?  Ice water.

He had to rake some of it off his face, and that almost did him in.  "Nastyass spiders," he muttered.  "Gods.  I hope they don't give me some kind of disease.  What if I turn into a werespider or something?"

Cian would probably roast him if that happened.  "Yes yes, go on."  The mage hardly needed the encouragement, or the permission, but hey if he wanted to skip off in front then happy trails.  Nathan would hang back and not get more spider juice up his nose.  Yes.  That could be his goal for this excursion.

Funny as it sounded, even in Nathan's own head, he had enough faith in Cian's competence to let him lead.  They hadn't gone far before Cian's grin twisted into a frown and gods be damned it that wasn't one of the more unsettling images Nathan had encountered in his lifetime.  Something about the idea of Cian on a warpath put the fear of the divine into him.

"We're supposed to be heading to the bridge remember."  Too late.  A second later, Nathan flinched as Cian blew a door inward.  Well to be fair he hadn't exactly demanded subtlety of the mage.  So this was all his fault really.

Nathan edged toward the door, guns drawn once again, and only just avoided getting slammed in the face by a flying, burning spider body.  It his the floor with a bang and twitched for a moment, burning out.  He decided, right there, that Cian would be his go-to spider guy.

Since the mage didn't seem to need his help from the one-sided bantering going on the other side of the doorway, Nathan kept watch outside, head swiveling between both ends of the dim corridor.  He guessed most of them remained focused on the bridge, too concerned with their cornered prey to harass the two intruders.  But what would happen when they broke her out?  Their exit might turn out to be a lot more interesting than their entrance.

"You done now?  Good.  Let's get this over with."  He found another intercom terminal on the wall nearby and punched the button once more.  "We're nearly there.  Try and hold them off for two more minutes."

He put a finger to his lips for silence and proceeded quietly now.  He wanted to catch the spiders around the bridge by surprise.  Further down the hallway, the second set of stairs loomed up before them, too high to see over.  Nathan took a couple steps up, just to verify they'd found the place.  It had to be it.  In the dim glow of the emergency lights, a dozen or more huge spider bodies clustered around the bridge door, clawing and banging at the metal.

"They're all yours," he whispered to Cian.  "Have fun."

[Anonymous]

((OOC: Not to be a bitch guys, but = Really? I posted in July, then Crono didn't post until September, then Tal posted in January. I'm pretty patient....but....t hat's kinnda pushing it))

Papillion kept at the ready, gripping her gun and watching the door carefully. Things seemed to have quieted down a bit, though she could still hear them moving around, skittering. She shifted her gaze away when the intercom let out a soft crackle, then that wonderful voice came on. He was almost there! Yay!

The door shuttered again, a spider leg managing to work its way in. Moving quickly, despite her leg, Papillion smashed it, causing the spider to shriek in pain and withdraw the leg. Good! She could totally do this!

[Anonymous]

Cian pouted. Why was Nathan being so dismissive of a clear breach in the Chain of Command?! After all, the mage had clearly said that he was leaving his stick behind and then the smug little thing went and did the exact opposite! He was not a happy camper about it.

"I told you to stop looking so smug." He commented to the object in his hand. Maybe his companion should be left here. There'd be a lesson: Do what I say or I'll leave you to rot. What was that technique called again? Tough love? He was liking the idea of it.

He shot a sideways glare to his hand-held companion. "If you keep acting up, don't think I won't do it." Cian gave a firm nod and brought his attention back to the matter at hand. Capturing a spider to train! No. Wait. Saving people! Yeah, that was it.

The mage took a post a few feet before the stairs while Nathan checked over the top. He sure was taking his time in getting a view up there. The mage fidgeted. The suspense was killing him! What was up there? Corpses? Gold? A spider orgy? It was driving him mad! Finally, after what had to be thousands of milliseconds, Nathan gave him the green light.

Squee!

Then there came a scream. Whether it was a spider scream or a person scream, he couldn't tell, but either way it meant that he had to leap into action! Or, more fairly, shuffle into action! And so he did, moving up the stairs with all the grace and finesse of a trained ballet dancer with his shoes tied together. The noise, however, was enough to alert a few of the spiders to the duo's existence.

Oh, this just wouldn't do! He had wanted to subdue all of the spiders at once! Oh well. The mage picked himself off the ground and made a thin, waist high wall of flame between the advancing arachnids and himself. That should slow them down a little, but now he was faced with a problem. How to squash the spiders? "Hey Nathan, how explosive do you think these spiders can be?" He smiled. Oh the fun to be had.

[Tally]

Talking to inanimate objects. Huh.  That was sort of a new one.

Patience, Nathan, patience.  Let him talk to the stick all he wants if it keep the spider juice off you.

Nathan followed Cian up the stairs, but kept a close watch on the dark corridor behind them, trusting Cian to deal with the mess of spiders around the door.  "I couldn't even begin to guess.  Why don't you find out?  Take them all out so we can get to the door and get out of here."

He shot one down that was trying to climb the side of the walls to get to them.  Fire definitely had its uses.  He could never have taken so many on his own.  He was quick with a gun, but not that quick.  He just wanted to get the victim out and get back to Diva as quickly as possible.  He didn't trust the too-quiet halls behind them.

[Anonymous]

Papillion could hear voices now, but she couldn't make out what was being said. The walls were to thick for that. That was a good sign though! And there was gunfire! That meant they were shooting them!

There wasn't much she could do yet, as without knowing what was happening outside, she didn't want to risk opening the door.