Reunions and First Impressions

[Quakerlol]

Lerena and Aruale zoomed through the gate and into LOCATION. They were hovering over a large plateau, gray and full of dead trees, with a particularly stunted tree hosting a treehive. It was a modest hive that they supposed to be Kyanas'. Aruale noted Kyanas' bright green sprite as she continued to pester the greenblood. "head for the next gate!" she shouted over the noise of her copterpack. "but go s)ow, it )eads to the ground!" Lerena gave her a thumbs-up and let her set the pace into the gate.

They entered slowly, landing semi-gracefully even if they did skid a bit. Lerena lifted lightly from the ground and spun several stories in the air, looking around. She spotted a the white tree. "I zee it!" Lerena called. Aruale nodded.

"yeah. ky said it's )ike five minutes away by f)ight. the entran(e irs near the ground, though." Aruale started up her copterpack again. "ready to go?"

In answer Lerena zipped off and lifted higher into the air, grinning over her shoulder. Aruale took that as a challenge and flew off in hot pursuit.

[Shipfish]

In which I write a several-paragraph post on what Ky sees while she sits on the floor and waits. These paragraphs are non-evident.

[Quakerlol]

Aruale and Lerena zipped through the air, Aruale occasionally fouling her copterpack's clutch to belch smoke into Lerena's face, and Lerena accidentally-on-purpose dropping a few sparks Aruale's way. Soon the glittering tree loomed large on the horizon. Aruale gunned her throttle with a shout and pulled ahead of Lerena, the smog from the acceleration making Lerena's eyes sting. Aruale zoomed through the entrance to Whitetree, startling some birds, who lifted off in a chorus of indignant squawks.

Aruale skidded to a halt, leaving boot-scuffs in the dirt floor of the main chamber. She nearly overcorrected and windmilled her arms to avoid falling flat on her face. Not the best first impression. Lerena alighted gently, her fluttering sandals disturbing nary a speck of dust, and wiped the soot out of her eyes. Aruale spat on the floor. "sorry," she said, lifting up her goggles. "got crap in my mouth." She captchalogued her copterpack and rubbed ineffectually at the grime now caking her cheeks and forehead. The clean rings where the goggles had been gave her a raccoonish look.

Lerena rolled her eyes and walked over to Kyanas, who was sitting neatly on the ground. "Hello," she said with a polite smile. "I zuppoze thiz iz our firzt meeting, from your perzpective." She looked around, craning her neck at the interesting interior of the tree. "What a fazcinating place. Much nicer than mine, all I got waz a pit full of eelz." She looked behind her at Aruale, who was making faces at some smaller birds in an attempt to scare them. It seemed to be working well. "You ztop that."

Aruale made a face at her, but stuck her hands in her pockets and walked over to them. "yeah yeah, geez. (an't a gir) have a )itt)e fun." She nodded at Kyanas. "sup."

[Shipfish]

It was obvious when your two friends were close: birds came streaming into the chamber through every available opening, chattering and screeching at each other. You caught a few phrases: friends, the Sylph, flyers, the Heir.

You heard the chug-chug-chug of a gas motor, and moments later a troll flew through the entranceway, wearing a helicopter as a backpack. That looked just as physically probable as your glider achieving flight. A second after the helicopter, another troll-- Lerena-- wearing flying sandals zipped in, casting sparks behind her.

The first one, Aruale you supposed, hit the ground hard, and you almost stirred from your seated position as she tried to keep her balance, sliding slightly across the packed dirt floor. The enormous pack on her back unbalanced her, and she threw apart her arms to steady herself. "sorry," she said, and spat a glob of smoke-tinged spit on the ground. "got crap in my mouth."

Lerena lit gently down beside her, looking only slightly ruffled from the quick flight. Aruale pushed up her aviation goggles, captchaloguing her flying device, and tried to rub the smoke from her skin. You thought you would try to find some water soon, or let her use your shower back at the hive.

Lerena was the first to say hello. "I zuppoze thiz iz our firzt meeting, from your perzpective." She looked around as you got up from the ground and dusted yourself off. "What a fazcinating place. Much nicer than mine, all I got waz a pit full of eelz."

"Thanks," you blurted, oddly pleased that your randomly generated land was pleasing to her. Once she looked away from the cavernous chamber, Lerena snapped at Aruale to quit making threatening movements at the gathering birds. "sup," she said to you as she left off intimidating your consorts. To your eyes they looked rather more like they were planning to rob her of her mechanical devices than they were actually scared of her. Most of them were only a little shorter than her.

"It's nice to see yyou both. Now that yyou're here, what were we planning to do?" As you said it, you eyed the crowd of magpies and thrushes that were gathering around the group, hoping you wouldn't have to ward them off. After all, that one bird had warned the he only didn't steal your things because you were the land's Hero.

[Quakerlol]

"It's nice to see yyou both. Now that yyou're here, what were we planning to do?"

Aruale looked at Lerena and shrugged. She hadn't really been privy to any part of the plan, other than 'let'z go meet up with Kyanaz.' Lerena made a face back at her, one that conveyed 'let me do the talking here.' Aruale rolled her eyes and went back to glaring at the birds, who had started edging closer to her and peering at her wrist-mounted control device. She glared, showing all her pointed lowblood teeth, and they edged away a little. Not enough for her comfort, though. To be safe, she captchalogued her control panel and goggles. Now the only shiny thing on her was the charmbraceletkind modus. And she wasn't sure if that could be removed.

Lerena turned back to Kyanas. "Quite good to zee you again too. Er. For the firzt time." She sighed. She knew she was never going to get this straight. "Well. The plan, at leazt what I waz thinking, waz to meet up with everyone after they'd gotten their queztz. That way we can better form a plan of action for our continued play, and pool our knowledge more effectively. After all, there'z no zenze in blundering about alone and uninformed. Who knowz what zort of challengez the game could throw at uz?" She brushed a bit of glittering dust from her shoulder. "There'z nothing to be gained by going off half-cocked and alone."

She glanced at Aruale, who seemed to be holding the large birds at glare-distance. "Have either of you talked to the otherz recently? Aruale talked to Ztebia not too long ago, I believe, but neither of uz haz heard from... the blueblood in a while." She made a slight face of distaste on the word 'blueblood,' but composed herself so quickly that it would have been hard to notice. "Nor the other player. I'd like to get them on board."

[Shipfish]

You pepped up when Lerena began to speak. She seemed rather more together than Aruale, who was still glancing at the gathering flock.

"That way we can better form a plan of action for our continued play, and pool our knowledge more effectively. After all, there'z no zenze in blundering about alone and uninformed." Knowledge was good, you thought. You needed to know more about each land and what it contained.

"Who knowz what zort of challengez the game could throw at uz?" You nodded. You'd already been challenged. The basilisk had nearly ended you.

"I've not talked to Isaard recentlyy, but I just talked to Stebia. She was stuck, but we couldn't have gotten to her in time to help. And I have not spoken to Kratus." You shuffled a bit, still eying the birds, who were now starting to fluff up threateningly and whisper among themselves. "Though, did yyou encounter anyy trouble on the wayy here? The basilisks are frighteninglyy large, and the other monsters just so. I onlyy barelyy escaped one on the wayy here, onlyy saved byy an encounter with Boga, up there." You pointed to where your reptavian was grazing on the wall. "It might be better to stick around here, level a bit, before going on."

[Quakerlol]

Aruale sidestepped a bird, who was starting to edge threateningly close to her. "uh, kyanars," she said warily, "think you (an (a)) off these featherbearsts. don't )ike the way they're )ooking at me." She glared at a clump of birds, who were whispering amongst themselves and side-eying her. "what're you )ookin at."

Lerena ignored her. "No, we managed to avoid any trouble in your land, although I attribute that to our rather hazty flight. Aruale did get injured by a monzter in her land, though. Luckily you came to help uz. Erm. Will come." She sighed. "I'm not even going to try to zort out tenzez anymore."

Lerena pulled up her Trollian window on her scouter. "Neither Kratuz nor the blueblood appear to be online at the moment, and it would not be wize to blunder into zomeone'z land without knowing itz contentz. I zuppoze we could ztay around here for a bit before contacting them. However, I do believe that it'z imperative that we meet up with them pozthazte. Time zpent without a plan iz time wazted, after all." She put away her scouter and looked at Kyanaz. "What have you thought about the game zo far? I'd be interezted to hear your inzightz."

Aruale sidled further away from an approaching magpie, and nearly tripped over a thrush. "uh. guys. (an we p)earse addrerss the fa(t that therse birds are (reeping me the he)) out." She stepped a bit closer to Lerena, who the birds didn't seem to be as interested in. "if we're gonna go out and )eve), (an we do it somewhere that's not here. i got some sweet stuff a)(hemized and i don't want some dumb np('s taking it." She looked up at the reptavian appraisingly. "a)so, ni(e monster."