bigapplesauce | HANDYSPLOSION [open to multiple]

Current Mood: shocked
Current Music: April 8, 2013

Entry tags:

HANDYSPLOSION [open to multiple]

Andrew is snooping, but he's not getting very far with it. The trouble with absurdly powerful, government-sanctioned entities is that getting inside the base of such an organization tends to be a bit more complicated than showing up with a forged Health and Safety ID card. Of course, he could probably get inside very easily if he simply went up to the front doors and announced himself, but somehow he doubts he'd be likely to come back out without making a grand production of escaping, and he doesn't want to be too late coming home and make James worry.

The other trouble with Romac is that they're too smart to have anything interesting going on outside. After quite a bit of loitering -- more loitering than is probably wise -- all Andrew's seen is fairly ordinary people going in and out of the building. Disgruntled at their failure to be even the least bit interesting, Andrew finally gives up in disgust and decides to walk to the rebel base in order to say hello to a few people and use their private library.

He makes it less than halfway to the park before disaster strikes. Later, Handrew will be mortally embarrassed that the crisis didn't come about because some Romac agent spotted him and decided to make trouble, or because he had to run to intercept an alien, or even because someone got it in their head to mug him. No, this disaster occurs simply because neither Andrew nor a certain speeding taxi driver happens to be looking in the right direction at the right time. As the meta-crisis steps out into the intersection of Lexington and 59th (against right of way, if he'd bothered to notice), there's a deafening screech, an impact, and Andrew quite unexpectedly shatters.

The reflex to use his power when surprised likely saves his life. Twelve tiny Andrews are scattered across the road a moment later, all of them stunned to one degree or another. As they recover and realize what's happened -- and hear the yells of a few people who saw -- they all take the same course of action:

Run.

Unfortunately, very few of them run in the same direction. There's no plan or pattern to it, and very quickly the Andrews scatter to the four winds -- or at least to the four corners of the intersection. There are a few shouts (even New Yorkers tend to notice when someone explodes next to them) and one person even stoops and tries to grab one of the four-inch-tall Andrews, but he has quite a bit of experience in running for cover.

[OOC: Let me know where you want to encounter one or more Andrews, and I will write up an explanation of how he got there. The accident occurred at E. 59th St. and Lexington Ave. (the game map might help you here), and the Andrews have gone in every direction. Some Andrews will take advantage of the nearby subway entrances; depending where he enters he could do as he intends and go northwest, or he could get on the wrong train and go northeast, which would take him past Romac housing. Really, anything is possible -- though he's trying to get to either the Rebels or the TARDIS, he could get lost in any direction, or stay stranded near the intersection. Just write a tag indicating where your character encounters an Andrew and I'll work it out (or you can PM me or ping me on AIM if you want to hammer it out together). He'll be staying in twelfths, since merging into sixths would make him a foot and a half high, meaning he'd be still too small to get around without trouble but too big to go unnoticed. There might be multiple Andrews traveling together, so let me know if you want two of them.]

UPDATE, November 14: Nine Andrews are accounted for so far. One Andrew each currently reserved for Lucy, Spike, and Topher, meaning no more Andrews are available.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If rushed -- and maybe she ought to rush him, considering there are more of him still on the loose -- Andrew could probably manage it now. With Daine's warm form beside him, though, it's more than a little tempting to take a minute or two to lay there and let things process. Her being in easy reach means that he soon stretches his arm out and starts patting her on the side, enjoying that fluff. Times like these, he misses his dogs.

"Right," he says at last, the thought of the dogs putting him in mind of James, which reminds him that there's still more of him out there to worry his partner with their absence. "No time for laying around. Come on!"

He chirps that last bit at her as if Daine's the one lollygagging, then eases himself up into a sitting position and braces himself against her to stand up. His leg twinges terribly when he puts weight on it, but now it holds.

Well, let's see. She was a crow for the better part of an hour before she first spotted him. Then there was an hour in cat shape, then back to human, then an hour and a half as a hawk, and now she's a wolf. What she ought to do is change back to human and have a snack and a nap - or at least the snack and a sit-down. That's doubtless what anyone who knew her back home would be frowningly urging her to do right now - Aly included. But Aly's not here, and there are too many Andrews who still need finding.

Ah, yes, there he goes, Daine thinks when she feels his little hand against her side. It reminds her of when she first showed Alanna's children her new shapeshifting ability. She probably should have guessed that their awareness that it was really her couldn't even begin to compete with the allure of being able to touch a wolf who they knew wouldn't ever bite them. Thom had tried to restrain himself, but the twins had been all over her.

She's actually starting to nod just a bit when Andrew speaks, and she startles a little, claws clicking against the floor. She waits until Andrew's found his feet and isn't putting so much weight on her before carefully climbing to her feet as well, tail waving encouragement. Keeping herself on his bad side so he can continue using her for support, she glances at the multiple exits and then cants her head at him. Where to?

Like Andrew knows about her limitations. He'd actually probably have the decency to tell her to go rest if he thought of it or if she commented about her current state, but as it is he's thinking mainly of his own mental exhaustion and the pain in his leg. And where has the Doctor got to? There's optimizing badly needed equipment, and then there's taking one's sweet time in the middle of a crisis.

Andrew leans lightly on Daine, frowning at the multiple exits from the room as he realizes he doesn't actually know where to go. He opens his mouth to tell her they need to go up to the console so he can ask the TARDIS, but is interrupted by a voice behind them.

"You would not believe the time I've had!" exclaims Andrew, slipping inside, glad the TARDIS door opened for him without any prompting. He stops as it clicks shut behind him, staring at the larger Andrew and the wolf. "...Not the first one here," he concludes. "And I'm going to assume that's Daine, because if it's not we really need to talk about who you let in here."

See, that's what she's thinking of, too. She probably has a few more hours of heavy magic use in her before it gets bad enough that she has to stop, but she intends to make use of those hours.

She's certainly not expecting any Andrews to make it to the TARDIS on their own, and she blinks at the newcomer in no small amount of surprise. How did he get here without any of the People noticing him and telling her? Then she remembers that she can't really hear the People out in the park when she's in here. Odd's bobs.

Well, he's right about it being her, though he's altogether wrong about wolves being bad company. She lowers her head and lets out a low groan of disapproval.

Oh, ye of little faith. So many Andrews would have made it here if they hadn't been intercepted by well-meaning (or not so well-meaning) people, you wouldn't believe.

No, really, she probably wouldn't, considering they obviously have not made it here on their own, on the whole. The little Andrew gives Daine a somewhat leery look, not sure what she means by all that groaning, and totters closer when it becomes clear his larger counterpart isn't going to come meet him at the door. "Two of us?" he guesses, eying the other.

"Three of us," says the Andrew leaning on Daine. "One injured -- let's not merge yet or I'll fall over again. We're on the way to the medbay."

Daine catches that look he gives her, and sighs. It's too bad Andrew's a two-legger; otherwise she could talk to him no matter what shape she's in. She lifts her head and wags her tail as he approaches, so at least she won't look so disapproving.

Then she turns her head deliberately toward each exit again, because seriously, Andrew(s), she has no idea where she's going.

The bigger Andrew turns to move, then halts again, following Daine's gaze. "Riiiiight," he drawls. "Or we were going, if we could work out which way. Come here and I'll lift you onto the console."

The little Andrew approaches, giving the larger one a dubious look. "Sure you're not going to keel ov--OI!" He's cut off mid-sentence due to having made the mistake of getting within arm's reach. The bigger Andrew snatches him up with moderate difficulty, wobbles in place and clutches at Daine's fur with his free hand to balance himself, then limps to the TARDIS console and deposits his loudly complaining counterpart upon it.

"Ask her for directions," demands the Andrew on the floor.

Honestly, these two. It's hard for her to express her general exasperation while she's focused on keeping the larger Andrew on his feet, but once the smaller one is safely placed up on the console and the larger one is no longer moving around, she's free to turn and eye him. He really ought to know better than to manhandle himself like that. If he were Pack, she'd probably snap at him (or snarl, at least), but he's not. So she settled for grumbling low in her chest and then pressing her cold, wet nose to his cheek. Be nice, Andrew.

"Bloody twit," mutters the tiny Andrew atop the console as he carefully navigates the controls in search of the correct display, mindful not to step on any switches.

"I heard that!" The bigger Andrew turns to look at Daine when she grumbles, then starts back in response to the wet nose on his skin. "What?" he asks. "We need directions, I'm too short to reach the controls -- he was going to end up on the console eventually, so why discuss it?"

Will he understand her meaning if she heaves a long-suffering sigh? Well, she's going to go ahead and sigh at him, anyway. Then she lifts her head to watch the smaller Andrew, wondering just what he has to do to get directions. She's big enough now that she could probably get her paws up on the console and reach things with her nose, but she doubts the TARDIS would appreciate it, and the idea of trying to manipulate any of those controls with just an impatient little Andrew to give her directions is not at all appealing.

Oh, he understands perfectly. He just chooses not to acknowledge that she might have a point. Just because he wouldn't like it if he were the smaller one doesn't change the fact that they're all going to be the same person again eventually, and until then he can do what he pleases to himself. He's the biggest, after all. Tough luck to the smaller one.

"Aha!" the smaller Andrew seems to have found what he was looking for. If Daine were to put her paws up there, she would see that the clattering sound that results is him pushing buttons on a typewriter, one at a time, throwing his whole weight into it. After a few moments, he calls down, "Door on the left, then right, then right again, right down the stairs, left at the third fork, first door on the right. Could've put it a bit closer, old girl...."

"Never mind," says the Andrew below, waving it off. "We'll manage. Come on, Daine, you heard him."

And he turns toward the door, ready to walk off and leave the other Andrew stranded without even thinking about it.

All right, that is taking his general rudeness towards his other selves too far. Maybe he's willing to abandon his fellow on the console until - what, until the Doctor arrives to lift him down? She's fair certain none of the Andrews would appreciate that, including the one who's all set to do the abandoning.

Well, she might be in wolf shape, but she's retained her manners, if not her patience. Leaving the taller Andrew to stand on his own for a few moments, she circles the console until she's closest to the little one. Then, with a mental apology the TARDIS may or may not be able to hear, she rears up and balances her forepaws on the very edge of the console, being careful not to hit anything. She lowers her head until her nose is between her paws and wags her tail encouragingly. It'll be rather awkward having him climb onto her head, but it's not as if he weighs anything, and he'll have a hard time keeping up if he's on foot, even with the bigger one all gimpy.

Besides, if both Andrews come along, they're more likely to remember the directions. Goddess knows she's going to have a hard time retaining it all.

"Where are you going?" asks Andrew petulantly as Daine pulls away too abruptly for him to follow, leaving him stumbling for balance on one good leg. While he's fairly certain he can walk on his own if he really needs to, having his support suddenly walk off without him is not exactly pleasant. "It's that wa -- oh."

"Thank you, Daine," says Andrew primly. Then he winces as he picks his way over beside her paw and gingerly climbs the side of her head. "And sorry -- ooh, sorry, didn't mean to tug on that -- there!"

As he perches atop Daine's neck, the other Andrew looks marginally sheepish and does his best to pretend he'd simply forgotten. "Thanks," he echoes. "I meant to do that."

She shuts her eyes in stoic acceptance as he accidentally gives her ear a good yank. Really, he would have been better off going straight up her nose, but she's not in any position to complain. Once Andrew feels settled, she pushes herself off the console, trying to land lightly so he doesn't end up flying right back off (though he is sitting almost right atop Secret, little as he probably knows it, so maybe the danger isn't all that great).

The looks she gives the larger Andrew is distinctly skeptical, even coming from a wolf. She ambles back over to him so he can lean on her again, then heads for the door on the left.

He didn't want to step on her eyes! Also it just seems like it would be really uncomfortable to have someone walking on your nose, though now that he's climbed her ear instead he's no longer sure he made the right call. Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- he has not yet touched Secret and has no idea it's there under her fur.

"Sure you did," he says once Daine's on all fours and he's over feeling like he's going to spill off over one side. Straddling her neck and getting a good grip on the abundant hair there, he adds, "We're going to have a talk about this later."

"No, we're not," says the larger Andrew, leaning on Daine and using her for support as they begin the trek. "Later I'll absorb you, and then you'll see that I was right."

This inability to really participate in the conversation is starting to frustrate her a little, not least of all because if she was talking, she'd like to think she'd have something less ridiculous and dismissive to say.

Well, just because she can't talk doesn't mean she has to be silent. Opening her mouth, she lets out a low, rhythmic howl, pitched to sound very much like: 'blah, blah, blah.' Except she can't really do 'b' sounds, so it comes out more like, "Wrah, wrah, wraaoh." That's how you sound, Andrew.

Both Andrews halt in their back-and-forth as Daine expostulates, almost as if they expect actual words to come out of her mouth. The one on her neck recovers first. "You said it," he grins, patting her.

The other frowns. "She was agreeing with me," he says, though he sincerely doubts it.

That's almost easy to answer: she lets out another low howl that easily passes for a "noooooo." If it makes the larger Andrew feel any better, her tail is wagging.

Fortunately, between the three of them, they manage to remember the directions. There's a bit of debate at the third fork, but by that point they're close enough that Daine can smell the medbay, so she breaks the Andrews' tie and leads them down the left-hand passage.

The larger Andrew regrets by now his decision to merge -- if he'd stayed separate, the one with the hurt leg could have ridden Daine, and the other could have walked with a lot less pain. As it is, the Andrew who gets to ride is the one who has only light soreness from a lot of walking to complain about, which strikes the limping Andrew as distinctly unfair.

He says so aloud at intervals.

"Here we are!" chirps the smaller Andrew as they enter the familiar doorway, feeling considerably more cheerful than his counterpart. "I told you so," he adds, even though he was the one arguing to go the other way a minute ago.

"Whatever, space-runt," grumbles the bigger one. "Just go up and fetch the scanner, will you?"

By the time they actually step into the medbay, Daine's had more than enough of their collective whining and squabbling. Her own tiredness doesn't really help matters, of course, but the result is this: by the time he calls himself a 'space-runt,' she's cranky enough to flatten her ears and give him a proper snarl. She knows he can't hear her frustrated, Enough!, but her body language is probably conveying as much.

At least his merging has one bonus: because he's injured, it wouldn't be sporting of her to knock him down and roll him onto his back like a misbehaving cub. Even despite his injuries, she's awfully tempted.

If she tries it, she might end up with more of him. Andrew quickly withdraws his hand from her shoulder, stumbling a step away from the suddenly snarling wolf beside him. Even the one on her back shuts up, sitting up straight and carefully trying not to call attention to himself.

"My, grandmother, what big teeth you have," mutters the one who's currently the subject of her ire. Eying her warily, he asks, "You alright?"

That's not really the reaction she was going for, and she settles her lips back over her teeth with a grumble that manages to convey both embarrassment (for losing her temper and spooking him) and reproach (because he was being a bit hard on himself). Unfortunately, that seems to be Andrew's default when dealing with his other selves, but that doesn't mean she's required to like it.

She's also not very pleased by the question. She's in better shape than he is, obviously, and considering how many other Andrews are still out there, they've both got better things to worry about whether she's all right. She swivels her ears back and forth indecisively, like a shrug, then yawns. It's a gesture she chooses more for the calming effect it would have with the Pack than because it's an accurate portrayal of how she's doing, but... it is also an accurate portrayal of how she's doing.

Yes, well, there are a few subtleties of canine communication Andrew tends to miss. None of the dogs ever snarled at him like that, and the creatures who have have tended to be ones intent on eating him. Of course, knowing that Daine will get all apologetic if he acts startled just might teach him to act startled whenever she tries to scold him.

"If you could please take me over to that workbench..." suggests the Andrew atop Daine, suddenly much more polite than he has been in a long time.

Does he really think Daine would bite him, let alone eat him? Snarling aside, he really ought to know better. There are only so many ways she can express annoyance when she's in animal shape, after all.

At least the suddenly polite tone from atop her neck is a pleasant change. It takes her a moment to reconcile her idea of what a workbench would look like with her slick, clean surroundings, but once she spots the only bit of furniture that could really qualify as a bench of any kind, she heads over and stands alongside it. It should be easy enough for the little Andrew to slide off and land on the bench from his current perch.

Edited 2013-11-16 06:34 (UTC)

Really, in his heart of hearts? Or really in the heat of the moment, when he suddenly has a snarling wolf within arm's length?

The bigger Andrew comes with Daine so he can keep leaning on her and tries not to chuckle at the smaller one's obsequiousness. Whatever bug Daine has up her butt, he doesn't particularly want to make it worse -- and really, they do have more important things to be worrying about right now. Arguing helps take his mind off his real troubles, but perhaps his troubles are where his mind needs to be.

The smaller one hops down onto the bench and goes clambering over and around things in search of the device he hopes is actually there. Fortunately, it is, and he picks up one end of the object to drag it within reach of the other Andrew. He doesn't get very far, as it's really too large for him, but luckily it's not far and the other Andrew is able to grab it from him. "Thank you," he says to both of them before sinking down to sit on the floor and start scanning away. "Look for the dermal regenerator, will you?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject