( open) la pista è come uno specchio d’argento

[totoriel]

Who: OTA parties interested in the Remove the Obstacles! job, with the added bonus of collecting the frozen-to-the-canal toys and donating them to the orphanage for bonus cookies and affection points from the orphans!
When: Before the start of the Flower Festival.
Where: Anywhere in Caissa!
What: Several Heroes take up Stuart's request of taking care of freeing frozen toys from the canals and repairing ice where they can.
Rating: None, will update as becomes necessary.

The canals are used by citizens looking to shave time off their travel through the city during the winter season, skating on anything but thin ice. The troublemakers salting patches of the smoothed ice has turned it into a hazardous endeavor, made all the worse when wooden toys have been frozen to the ice. Of the Heroes who've stepped up to help take care of this clean-up (or perhaps even catch a culprit in action, despite the guard saying they had a plan in place for the very thing) were finding themselves facing a variety of challenges, up to and including...

One: getting out on the ice. The salted patches aren't too slick, but the rest gets slippery, and those who might be borrowing ice skates to speed up their travel times from trouble spot to trouble spot might be facing the biggest challenge yet. Learning how to ice skate! Or walking out, or giving up and sliding on one's rear end to reach the trouble spots. Whatever works! If people are judging you, well, they're probably no one worth listening to anyway, right?

Two: communication over radios is a dream and a wish, but Heroes do have Carriers, and Carriers do have audio capabilities. Trying to coordinate with fellow Heroes over Carrier-audio is more of a challenge than it may seem, especially with so many new to the idea! (And not all Carriers being willing to cooperate...)

Three: there are places where the salt has thinned the ice too much to support added weight... be careful, Heroes, lest you fall right in! Though if you do fall in, can you swim? Or fight off the shock of potential hypothermia? Oh dear, where are the blankets? Victims of thin ice may need to get wrapped up and brought indoors as soon as possible. Heat 'em up! We don't want our Heroes losing fingers or toes!

Four: though once the wooden toys are found, prying them off the ice is a challenge in and of itself. For those Heroes already tapping in to the Pawn rank's limited magical abilities, matchstick level fires can be effectively used... at a cost. Patience and perseverance are key to this method of toy removal, as will purifying and replenishing one's mana. Toriel will insist that everyone should try and salvage both the toy and ice for the sake of donating these toys to the orphanage along the way. Then again, one might try using brute force to pry the toys free... or see about convincing one of the residents who lives near the canals to allow them to borrow pots of hot water to extract toys that way!

Five: all work and no play leaves people grumpy and gives people aches and pains, which means that breaks are a must have, even for the heroes! If that means earnestly learning how to skate, picking impromptu snowball fights, or volunteering to haul a load of salvaged toys to the orphanage for a cookie break is up to each individual. This may not be their city, but wandering the canals, at least they're bound to get to know the layout of Caissa a little better than before!

Comments

[holdthatpose]

Yep! Kitty!

[She takes the glasses and puts them right back on her face after a quick little wipesie.]

Kitty's preeeetty hard to break! Normally, I break all kinds of things, but I keep dropping Kitty and nothing bad has happened! It's 'cause I'm more used to Poochie, see?

[She picks up her camera.

The legendary weapon.

The fearful.

Kitty.]

[totoriel]

[ ... What an apt name! Maybe? Who knows, it's a fun one either way. Toriel nods, fishing out an apple. She rubs the pad of her thumb over the apple's surface, rolling it to be held between her fingers. ]

Poochie is an older camera of yours? I imagine that it did not arrive with you, anymore than our clothing did.

[ Which was a bother when she really preferred skirts that were a little longer, or pants much looser to shove her feet through. She sighs inwardly; those are such minor inconveniences, she doesn't give voice to them right now. ]

Will you be able to develop your photographs with Kitty?

[ What kind of magical picture taking was involved? She's curious, since it's something different and new, and more reminds her of her own "weapon." You know, the apple in her hand, if not her eye. ]

[holdthatpose]

That's right! I told them...don't give me a weapon, I'd rather be dead than not have a camera! How am I supposed to scoop scoops and photograph photographs and article articles without a camera?

[She looks distressed at the memory. It's one thing to have a photo stolen from you, it's another thing entirely to have a way of life stolen! But all's well that end's well, or. Something. Dorothy did not die.

Actually, hold on, she wants to take a picture of Toriel and AD...she'll ask politely in a second, lucky them.]

Yep! There's someone who helped me! Baaack home, cameras use quartz, but here they used something called film. Pretty neat, huh? What'd they give you?

[totoriel]

[ Toriel held out the apple to Dorothy, offering her a somewhat amused smile. An apple... is a fairly ridiculous weapon, but in that, she prefers it to things like guns and swords and whips: "actual" weapons. Perhaps the only thing better would have been a pie tin! ]

This.

[ An apple a day keeps the... ... ... enemies at bay? ]

I take it you are a journalist of some kind?

[holdthatpose]

Ohhh, an apple! Delicious!

[And Dorothy.

Grabs it. She looks like she wants to take a bite and has completely forgotten about Toriel's weapon in the presence of what is definitely not a weapon and is definitely a snack.]

Thank you! ...That's right! I'm a camerawoman! I'm still new, but I'll do my best! ...When I get home! Probably.

[totoriel]

[ Toriel doesn't mind the apple being nabbed, though she offers some advice: ]

It does look delicious, but I warn you against taking a bite. It is more painful than you may imagine.

[ It's inedible for as good as it smells, a faint cinnamon and butterscotch if Dorothy brings it closer to her face. Toriel hasn't managed to make it work like it's supposed to, but with her working around fire, there's some sympathetic stirrings going on while she labours away. ]

I believe you will be a good camerawoman, back home or here. Is that how you intend on assisting in the trials we are being asked to face for the sake of this country?

[ She wonders how many of them aren't planning to fight in the classic sense of the word, instead finding their own ways of helping out that didn't require people dying to be justified or considered useful. ]

[holdthatpose]

Huh?

[She's about to bite down on it, but she stops. It smells so delicious...she's salivating...fruit is only second best to fruity milk, and this one is her new favorite. But if it's painful...maybe...

She just gives it a lick.

Just one.

Sorry, Toriel, it smells like cinnamon, you can't do this to her.]

Aww, I really wanted to eat it. [She's going to keep holding onto it, but moving on.] Mm, I thought about that, buuuuut I'm a Hero, you know! So I should probably help in dungeons and stuff, right? That's why I came to help gather toys!

[Quests and dungeons, Dorothy seems to understand this part of her job. It's a small miracle.]

[totoriel]

[ It even feels like apple. This is the most treacherously tempting of weapons... for all who enjoy apples. The apple of their eye is not meant to be consumed; it will only drive the doctor away when applied with force to the doctor's body. Such is the terrible life of an indestructible fruit. ]

Yes, it is a good thing to help each other. What do you imagine these dungeons will be like?

[ A monster asking what Dorothy plans on doing when faced with monsters who may or may not be aggressive. She knows she must hold judgment in reserve. Circumstances are too tenuous, though in the end she has to wonder: how much will be them provoking others and then wondering at a violent response, and how much will ever be attempted in negotiation?

Or will they face those with such bitterness in them, such cruelty, that there will be no point on either side? ]

[holdthatpose]

[She really wants to eat it, but she wipes it on her jacket (it's cold!) before handing it back to Toriel. If she still wants it.

She's a bit reluctant to let go, too.]

Oooh, have you never been in a dungeon before? I keep finding myself in them back home! I wonder why?

[Also, Toriel isn't a monster, she's cuuuute, Dorothy hasn't even considered that possibility yet.]

[totoriel]

[ Toriel gently, but insistently, takes her apple (weapon) back. She tips her head to the side as she considers how best to answer that question. ]

What would a dungeon mean in this case? If it is a place below ground, I am also used to living in those. I do not think I have a good idea of what is meant by the word here. I would expect a dungeon to be below a castle.

[ How many castles does Dorothy have back home?! Granted, Toriel feels like the word has multiple meanings that she simply isn't aware of yet. ]

Would you tell me what your dungeons were like?

[holdthatpose]

Hm, hm, hm! A dungeon is beneath a castle, that's true, but a dungeon is all about how it feels! If it's dangerous and full of monsters, then it's a dungeon, see?

[Like beneath the old schoolhouse that was filled with ghosts, or the towers!]

It's just gotta be an old and dangerous place! I walk through them all the time for work, buuuut there are people with me so the monsters don't eat me! Usually.

[totoriel]

Ah, I see. It is dangerous because it is not well taken care of and has challenging traps.

[ She nods. ]

Those can be quite dangerous if you do not know the way to navigate through them. Monsters are fond of traps where I am from as well.

[ The mention about getting eaten pulls a somewhat amused expression from Toriel. ]

The monsters you know are fond of eating humans? What lack of taste...

[holdthatpose]

Oooh, and it's not just traps! Sometimes, you get really, really lost because all of the paths look the same!

[She nods at the mention of monsters who eat humans. It was a horrible experience, once she wasn't eager to experience again. That didn't stop her from finding danger later, she never learns her lessons.]

Well, they were big wolves, you see...the kinds that can use powers and are super strong! I was just taking a walk and they all cornered me.

[totoriel]

I do not believe I have met such impressive and cruel creatures as your wolves. To think they cornered an innocent youth! What cretins!

[ She looks miffed, metaphorical hackles raised. Cornering without provocation, trying to harm others, humans in particular (after being around those who so blindly would try for many years), she doesn't like even the distant memory of that kind of danger.

And it is what they will face here, isn't it. The thought sinks like stone in her stomach. ]

We will need to make sure not to get lost in these dungeons we will face in the future.