Dragon Quest - Team Errol

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The IPD outpost was a small, insignificant dot in the distance, and the sun was in the center of the sky, currently serving as the main obstacle to their mission. Under a different set of circumstances, it might have caused him to remove some layers - possibly all of them - but nakedness was definitely tactically deficient with a constant dinosaur

Comments

[9mmshotglass]

Reese stared at Austin and then stared a bit more.

"A lollipop?" was all she could say for several moments as her brain caught up with the ridiculousness. She shook her head and glanced at the rest of the group for a few more seconds of what the fuck streaming from her consciousness. Then she frowned. "You're always going to hate 'goddamned lizards'. And I think I'll pass on the...candy."

She was trying not to laugh.

[loaded_wolf]

"You're kind of in the wrong place, then," Angua said dryly. She met Reese's glance with a knowing look, but did extend a hand at Austin's offer.

"I'll take one."

Might as well enjoy the day before ending up mauled or stepped on.

[weary_head]

Dean's hand was right behind Angua's, hope for green apple etched into his every feature.

"Awesome," he said, in spite of all his attempts to play it cool. It was difficult when he was in the presence of the Terminator, Angua decked out like Tomb Raider, and Dani, who was as dark as Angua was fair, and fond of sending the same no nonsense looks his way. They were the kind of looks that made Dean unsure whether he ought to be shaking in his boots...or knocking them together. In short, it was everything he could have asked for in a mission of reckless endangerment.

And there might be green apple.

[skybot_snd]

"Wrong place for us, right place for a dragon."

Or at least as right as any place could be for mythological beasts of dubious origin.

He gave Reese a look - obviously she didn't trust his candy-making capacities - then took out several lollipops - they were in different shades, all looking suspiciously radioactive - holding them out so that Dean and Angua could get a full selection.

"I have no idea what's in them. I used random ingredients. Except sugar, there's definitely sugar." When Eostre had prepared her lollipop batch, she'd used rose water, but it didn't seem like a very appropriate ingredient for a killing machine. "An ex-goddess showed me how to make them."

Lunchtime

[weary_head]

Dean announced lunchtime by stopping mid-stride, yanking a sandwich from his pocket, and stuffing half of it into his mouth.

"Fhworry," he said in a flurry of crumbs. "If we don't stop, I'm going to eat us."

Re: Lunchtime

[loaded_wolf]

Angua glanced over at Dean and rolled her eyes.

"Gods, you're such a pig," she muttered, and stopped walking when it seemed the entire group was taking a cue from him.

"...How did you even fit that in there without completely smushing it?" she added, eyeing Dean's pants.

Re: Lunchtime

[weary_head]

Dean gave her an unwholesome smile and took another bite. She knew very well what he was and wasn't fitting inside his pants.

Re: Lunchtime

[loaded_wolf]

"You're disgusting," Angua had decided needed pointing out again.

Her own lunch was in a bag, which she took from a loop on her crossbow strap. She sat down with it, taking a peek inside like she didn't already know what it contained. "Mgh."

Lunchtime broodiness

[skybot_snd]

He sat down on a rock, pulling his knees to his chest, and alternated between pointlessly staring at the ground, suspiciously starting at the distinctly unappetizing vegetable thing Angua had given him, and occasionally glancing in the direction of the team. He focused mainly on Dean's pants when he did, wondering what would come out of them next. He was hoping for a machine gun, or a rocket launcher, at least.

Or a dragon.

That would be more helpful than a sandwich.

What if they didn't find a dragon? Mrs. Vimes needed one. And he'd promised.

He proceeded to stare at the ground some more. No dragon emerged.

Re: Lunchtime broodiness

[9mmshotglass]

Wandering after Austin seemed to have become a habit, especially when he was sulking, and this time was no exception. Granted the last time she'd wandered after him, she'd gotten a bamboo spear through her shoulder, but that was not now and he wasn't freaky.

Just pouty.

Reese slid in next to him and peered at the spot, tilting her head until it just barely brushed his shoulder.

"I dunno if staring is gonna get you a dragon, Austin," she said seriously. "And I don't think pouting is gonna do it either." She pulled half of a...well, it was half of some sort of meat that wasn't goat and it tasted pretty good..from her pack. "Have a sandwich. Dean gets none because he's much too adolescent, and brought enough to feed eight, which he's just managed to cram into his mouth. So juvenile. We'll find something, I'm sure

Re: Lunchtime broodiness

[skybot_snd]

"I'm not pouting." Not much, anyway. "I'm just focusing my energy on a single visual spot."

He had no doubt they'd find something, but he was looking for a very specific something. A specific something with wings, the ability to breathe fire, and a tendency to spontaneously explode. Besides, if he had to bet, he would say a reunion with the raptors was much more of a possibility than one with the 'nicer' dinosaurs. Lizards were more likely to hold grudges than affections. Not to mention the affection were all food-based, hardly altruistic.

"Thanks," he accepted the offered sandwich, shifting the lollipop to the other side of his mouth as he leaned against Reese, glancing at Dean behind his shoulder.

"Please don't look into his pants to make sure."

He liked Dean, but to a limit.

Re: Lunchtime broodiness

[9mmshotglass]

"...I'm not gonna look in his pants. Jesus H. Christ, Austin." She was laughing, though. "He's prolly packing a sandwich down there anyway and I sure as hell am not gonna frisk him to see." She paused, frowning, but laughing through it. "You are too pouting and wasting energy trying to drill a hole and magic up a dragon. What are you gonna do if we don't find one, take one of the Compys, stick paper wings on it, pour alcohol down its throat and light the fumes?"

Finale

[skybot_snd]

The sun was beginning to set, and it now posed a different sort of obstacle altogether. Lingering in dinosaur territory at night was too suicidal even for his taste.

They had encountered nothing useful in their expedition so far; nothing but herbivores too tame to fight and too large to dress up as dragons.

It was time to face facts.

They had run out of time.

It seemed like the only option left for him was creating a dragon costume for himself, and spending the rest of his life in the guise of a lizard.

The T-1000 couldn't think of a crueler fate.

He stopped and turned to face the group, trying with little success to keep his shoulders from slumping.

"We should start heading back."

Re: Finale

[9mmshotglass]

While the light faded, a breeze began to blow swirling around the group before moving on, further away until it reached the nose of a particularly hungry velocirpator. Its head snapped up and it let out a trilling, soft sound. The same sound echoed back from further away and spread until all twenty of its packmates had answered. They knew what it meant.

Prey.

And they began to run in groups of five.

For Reese, it was the sudden hush that warned her, the absence of birds, the stilling of the insects, and the way the soft sounds of the herbivores ceased. She caught a glimpse of a sauropod plodding away, further inland toward its herd and frowned. There was nothing besides the occasional hiccup of some sort of frog. She heard Austin's voice and immediately reached to shut him up as her eyes closed. A soft slide of leaves against a solid body. Bodies. There was also a slightly rotten smell in the air and she wrinkled her nose

Re: Finale

[loaded_wolf]

Angua had been fairly relaxed, despite their locale, until Reese spoke up. She mentally chided herself for not catching whatever whiff of dinosaur the other woman had caught, and glanced around.

If only she had her old nose, she'd have been able to warn them of any impending dinosaurian threat. At the moment, one stink smelt like every other.

She could hear it, though, the quiet.

Angua took her crossbow from her back, feeling suddenly under-protected, and looked around again.

Re: Finale

[weary_head]

Dean's Colt had been in his hands at the first shift in Reese's posture, but now he was looking at Angua's crossbow. Damn stubborn woman and her damn stubborn aversion to guns. If they lived through...whatever this was, she was getting an earful.

"What is it?" he asked, straining his own ears. He could hear something, but it wasn't the sort of threat to which his body had been attuned. He didn't feel out of place, he'd never feel out of place with a gun in his hands, but deep beneath the thrill of adrenaline, Dean wished for Sam.

[skybot_snd]

They had settled inside the outpost, adrenaline gradually washing away in favor of exhaustion.

The T-1000 had pulled his shirt off, as it was sweaty, torn, and stained with dinosaur blood; not the best combination. Besides, he liked being shirtless on principle. His shoulder was heavily scratched, but it wasn't much worse than the backlash he often received from playing with Sarah, and the various cuts and bruises covering his body were all minor in nature.

Errol was napping in the corner, and was no longer intent on trying to eat the fence generator, to everyone's relief.

The setting was actually kind of comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as tiny outposts bordering on big fucking man-eating lizard territories could be.

Dean was lying on one of the beds, the crossbow bolt still very much lodged into his ass. Now that couldn't be very comfortable.

"Want me to pull it out?" the T-1000 offered with an unwholesome amount of enthusiasm.

[9mmshotglass]

Reese walked in with a bowl of Ayla's paste, the cloth bandages she'd made from bedsheets the box had given her, her canteen water, which she'd heated (the fire was still crackling, though she'd removed her leather bowl)to boiling to purify it (it was cooler now, bearable on skin, she'd tested), and glanced at Austin.

"That's my job," she said, setting everything down near Dean. "But if you want, I could use hands." She glanced at Angua. "Lots of hands." She remembered what Ayla had said about hunters' wounds and frowned. "Dean," Reese said very seriously as she took out her knife, "I hope you brought a change of pants because to get this bolt out, we're gonna have to cut you out of these. I don't want any more stress on that bolt. They'd just pull it out at the clinic and slap a bandage on your ass anyway. Austin, Angua?" She glanced at them. "Do me a favor and make sure he doesn't squirm too much."

Reese felt weird giving that order, but the pants had to go and she had to get that bolt out. Simple fact. Everything was

[weary_head]

"Aw, just effing do it already," Dean groaned, face half smushed against the ratty outpost blanket on the cot. It was gonna hurt like a bastard, he knew that already, but he preferred the bolt out rather than in. "M'not gonna squirm," he added, muffled.

He set his gaze against the wall opposite him, focusing on his happy place - ie, Zeppelin - to distract himself from the movements behind him. "The drums will shake the castle wall," he muttered into the blanket, "The ring wraiths ride in black, ride on. Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before." The last lyrics were delivered quickly, Dean sucking in a large breath as he felt Reese's efforts behind him begin to focus.

[skybot_snd]

"Legs," the T-1000 claimed instantly, moving to firmly grab the legs in question, tilting his head a bit to get a better view of proceedings.

Angua pressed down on Dean's shoulders. It was probably time for the main event.

The T-1000 thought that 'The Final Countdown' could have been a more fitting choice of lyrics.