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 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:03 pm
Ton'yell had been pretty quiet on the way to the snow realm, but nothing really required her to speak up. Alex looked like he was having fun with the nutcrackers, so she went to work on reinforcing the windows.
Pierre le Roache hadn't left her shoulder when they went to the snow realm. Sure, it was not comfortable for him, but he was not going to just leave the female human. As it was, he felt pretty happy with how things were going - they weren't freezing, there wasn't any fighting, and Ton'yell hadn't tried to flick him off her at all. What more could he ask for?
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:08 pm
"Nnnnnnonononononono." Andreas, it seemed, was quite adamant: "He said a blood sample, we're taking a blood sample. If even that. I'm not totally sure it's a good idea." To say the least.
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:10 pm
"Ya look like you're pretty damn handy at dealing with blood," Henry snarled, gesturing at Andreas' blood-soaked face. "Ya'd prob'ly contaminate it though. Gregory, why don'tcha be a good sport? You didn't even do anything to help us here, when he was attackin' us."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:15 pm
"Huh? Oh- ******** me," Andreas spat, looking for something to wipe his face with. "Hell, I guess that's our sample, then. No need to make the poor squeamish guy take it." He wiped the blood off his face with the only gently-applied telekinesis he could recall ever using and into the 100 mL SCIENCE! Container he had received from Matthias. "Let's help them burn that s**t and get lost before they realize we have his blood sample."
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:58 am
Gwen stood toward the back of the little group feeling (of course) shy (why did she keep having to meet new people just when she'd started to get comfortable?) and a little annoyed. She didn't want to make toys. She wanted to find her brother. If that really wasn't possible (and she couldn't think of any reason why what would be) she wanted to be back with Cindy shooting things; at least that was useful. Toys? Really?
And yeah, her dislike for toys might have had something to do with the fact that she'd never had money for them when she was little, and had found out early on that Santa wasn't interested in poor kids, but so what? Under these absolutely insane circumstances, she felt entitled towards a little bitterness, as long as she kept quiet about it. Maybe they wouldn't notice her. Maybe they would just forget she was there if she stayed quiet for long enough, and she could slip out the back.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:41 pm
Santa's Castle
Something in Gregory's gut told him that taking only the sample from Andreas' face would not end well for them, for some reason. He began debating getting his own sample just in case.
But blood.
Gregory placed his palms against his eyes and sighed heavily, remembering that the last time he ignored a gut feeling, he ended up in a different world.
But blood.
Yeah, not happening.
Before long, another yeti showed up with a burning torch. Without ceremony, it set fire to Santa's corpse. The trio - wait, trio? Where the hell had Orion gone? Was he even with them to begin with? Well, s**t. Regardless, the now trio stuck around until Santa was nothing more than charred bones. The yetis left Santa's skeleton pinned to the wall and began cleaning up the rest of the bodies. The trio was dismissed with a nod of thanks from the yeti who had stayed behind earlier.
With a collective sigh of relief, they left. Andreas led the way and Henry followed behind, nursing his headache sullenly. Their path back would bring them close to the toy factory.
***
Toy Factory
Things were going smoothly back at the toy factory. Everyone had finished reinforcing the inside of the factory rather quickly and Alex was having a joyous time helping with the nutcrackers.
Having no idea where to start looking and possessing no desire to become lost, the group decided to stay and help at the toy factory. Their goal was to stop the MADHATTER's agents from acquiring whatever it was they needed from Santa's body, and that would almost certainly bring them close to the toy factory at one point or another.
While they waited, the elves enlisted their help to dig a trench around the outside of the factory. Considering that they were mostly digging through snow, it wasn't terribly difficult work. They were about halfway done when an elf that was keeping watch called out.
"Hey! I see three guys coming this way. Think they might be the ones you're supposed to be looking for?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:32 pm
Jasper paused in his digging and looked in the direction that the elf indicated. Three, vaguely human-sized shapes moved toward the factory from the direction of Santa's Castle. Jasper's mouth twitched. It was difficult to tell at this distance, but all things considered, there wasn't likely to be any other humans coming from that direction. Sighing, Jasper stuck his shovel upright in the snow and turned to the others.
"I'm gonna go scope things out. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome." And with that, he started toward the trio in the distance, wading his way through the snow. He pulled his lighter out his pocket, clicking it absent-mindedly as he pulled out his inhaler with his other hand, taking a puff from it. If these were the three who had aligned with the MADmen, then that meant that they might have succeeded in getting whatever it was that they needed from the Santa-infected. Which meant none of them were leaving until Jasper sorted out what was what.
And so he clamly strode in their direction, clicking away at his lighter, leaving a faint trail of sparks in his wake.
Let's hope this can be settled in a peaceful manner. I'd hate to burn someone else today.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:55 pm
Juliet was still chuckling. "Yeah, this is a story they'll believe... Gonna be a lot of history we're gonna have to just erase here." This was a more somber observation, and it was accompanied by a more somber tone. "Hell, maybe this isn't real. Maybe we're dreaming, maybe I'm dreaming. I think somebody else has had this thought," she added, "but I can't think of who it'd be. Doesn't matter, though. You're right, too. Make the best of it, eh?"
Arthur turned to the elf. "Worth looking," he observed. "Can you describe 'em? Or let me up there t'have a look?"
The elf waved Arthur up. Looking down, Arthur determined... he couldn't see anything the elf hadn't already. Thanks, vision. Taking his glasses off didn't help. He didn't know why he thought it would, but he totally had. "Eh. Let 'em get close, we'll find out who they are."
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:38 pm
Ton'yell chose to stay closer to the toy factory. She agreed with Arthur in having the strangers get closer to find out who they were. Alex had continued to have fun with the nutcrackers, which was for the best. If these strangers weren't who the group was looking for, then Alex would be safe inside the toy factory.
"Guess it can't be helped..." Ton'yell muttered. She lifted her hand and waited for Pierre to crawl down to her hand. "I wonder if the insects here are as unique as you," she muttered. Talking to oneself was never a good sign, but talking to a bug was not much better. The psychologist understood that bugs liked her for whatever odd reason. If any were in the snow realm, would they flock towards her as the forest bugs had? Pierre chirped and flew off her hand to search the surrounding environment. Ton'yell smiled and didn't worry about his disappearance. She had a feeling he'd be back soon.
Though the woman hadn't said it, Pierre understood that she wanted more company. Perhaps the human was getting tired of dealing with other humans. Pierre hoped that she had started to understand that humans were weird and that bugs were wonderful creatures who would treat her well. If that meant searching for temporary companions, he could deal with it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:19 pm
As they worked, Jesse, Alex, and a phantasmal Chris chatted. It was easy after a little while. Even as amazing as the creatures were coming to life, Jesse bored quickly and Chris was furious that no one was letting her take one back apart to find out how, so Alex's initial slack-jawed wonderment faded swiftly as he was forced to spend his efforts on making sure he was tugging at the different limbs and testing them gently instead of potentially pulling off their arms from Chris's eclectic efforts.
"Why are we doing this?" Jesse asked. It was more of a statement. "It's boring. I'm pretty sure we just learned to shoot lightning, a little while ago. Can't we do that?"
"No," Alex answered calmly as Chris once again forced more effort that was necessary into his inspection of a nutcracker. "We can do that when we have time."
"Analyze them!" Chris gasped before flickering out again. She was still having a hard time with all the supernatural things going on. Alex hoped she could find a way to piece it together.
Jesse snorted. "Yeah, take one apart. I guess it's cool we're fighting those stupid faggy pricks, what're they called? MADmen? I kinda wanna punch one myself, though. Cut that smile off his face."
The quietest of them remained silent, letting Jesse stew in his ever-present anger. All three of them were still uncomfortable about B. They knew it was there, waiting... and had no idea what would set it off. For now, though, they made toys, and waited for whatever would come next. Jesse's ears perked at the mention of incomers, but none of them moved, for now.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:03 am
"Henry, are those infected fighting elves out there?" Andreas asked pointing away from the toy factory. He knew better than to include any attempt to harm Henry in his flight. That would give them a warning. That would miss the point entirely.
As soon as Henry's eyes were off him, he took off sprinting for the factory.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:01 pm
Henry, still suffering from a headache due to excessive use of his TK, was successfully duped and Andreas took off. With Andreas sprinting towards the factory, Jasper and Ro, who had accompanied Jasper, began to wonder what was happening.
Gregory noticed before Henry what Andreas had done and shouted out. "He has the only sample! W... what do we do now?"
Henry took a quick survey of the situation and determined that there was nothing they could do. Andreas had gotten a head start and they were heavily outnumbered.
"We go back to the MADmen and tell them what happened." He shrugged and hurried on his way past the toy factory. Gregory trailed behind.
*
Ro stepped in Andreas' path as he came storming towards them. "Whoa, what's going on here?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:08 pm
Andreas brought the vial up. "This is all the only thing left of Santa that isn't ashes. We need fire to rectify this. Now. The MADmen are ******** nuts. Matthias, he's injecting the virus into things and just watching what happens," he verbally vomited, growing less focused as he went. "It's not to find a cure, it's obvious they never meant to. Or at least that they don't now. They... they lure you in with false promises, or maybe true promises, but the important thing is that cannot ever be allowed to have this, and..." he blinked, shook his head. Concentrate. "And we need to destroy it. Now."
Ro blinked, processing the sudden flow of information. "Uh, yeah. Yeah! Okay, we can do that. We'll burn this, you get inside the toy factory. We'll figure things out from there."
Ro took the vial from Andreas and handed it to Jasper. "Think you can take care of that?"
Andreas entered the factory. He wasn't sure who was there, but was about to find out.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:25 pm
A few minutes later, Pierre showed up followed by a pair of icy-blue beetles.
While Ro stayed outside with Jasper to burn the contents of the vial, Alastair waved everybody inside to figure out what to do with Andreas. Alastair, Juliet, and Arthur, remembering what had happened back at the manor, formed a loose circle around him.
"Wha' brings ya here, lad? Ya made ya choice back a' tha' manor." He said cautiously.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:06 pm
"I made a choice to see. I didn't like what I saw. I'll tell you what I said to Ro - they are not and have probably never been interested in a cure. Their whole setup feels like a, a honey trap or something. They've got a SCIEN-" Andreas coughed. "... A scientist, but it's plain as day that he's more interested in weaponizing the virus than he is in curing it. It reeks of insincerity and being <********> off their rockers, and I'll have no part in it. Frankly, I'll be damned if I can see what Gregory and Henry find desirable about the ********. Probably damned in a more literal sense than I'd like, even. I think being able to understand the MADmen would be a very concerning indicator."
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