[stonecast, the info sharening]

[thegoofball]

[Hey there, Enso, it's ya boy Lance. Or ya stranger Lance, he hasn't exactly been a social butterfly on account of abruptly disappearing.

But, anyways, he is here, on your rock, laying down his dulcet tones because a discover has been made.]

Sooo that new island, right? With all the nothing and the flowers? [You know the one.] Had a little search party and found a letter - or more like a diary page, really? Keith [who you might hear int he background, or you might not, we're doing it live] thinks it's pretty important.

[There's the careful rustle of paper, as Lance doublechecks the scroll.]

Some of the writing at the bottom got damaged, but whoever wrote this was evacuating their home - some place called Tempide - because it was being swallowed by the sea? [Or it was something else that had the side-effect of raising sea levels.] Or collapsing, which they say had happened before.

They ended up at a temple which - might be somewhere on this island? We found this at a dock.

[There's a brief pause, because what do you really...say when you're dealing with something like this?]

There's more, but I don't really know what it means. But somebody else might find something that explains more.

Comments

[counterblows]

Yeah, I heard people were having trouble with vines a little while ago.

[Vaguely, anyway. He's heard it through the grapevine, so to speak, though he hasn't pried.]

Sounds like you were pretty thorough. [...but Wash is still probably gonna go over this area his own dang self because of who he is as a person.]

[thermalwind]

Feel free to go back over it if you want to. We might have missed something. We don’t have the equipment to make absolutely sure an area is clear.

[It bothers him. He wants to have the means to ensure everyone is safe. But his issues can wait.]

Anyway, we did. It was an island called Ziziphus, home to the deity Rapsho. Their domain was Bliss...and they had been feeding on everything that could feel it. Their roots went throughout the island. We realized that too late.

[He can’t help the strain that seeps into his voice. The encounter left scars on his heart and soul.]

They were too far gone to reason with. Ziziphus collapsed without Rapsho to keep it together. I don’t know if this island has a deity that’s awake. We’ll have to find the temple to know.

[counterblows]

Assuming there is one. Half the stuff here looks like it’s completely fallen apart. What happens if that’s the case for one of your temples?

[The whole thing smacks of the same kind of grim, prophetic tones that plagued the temples on Chorus, and that very nearly ended in disaster for everyone. They were lucky it only ended in disaster for one of them.]

[thermalwind]

We'll have to deal with that when we come to it. I don't have enough intel to make a guess there.

[In other words, they're blind. He doesn't like it. He's a broken record of not liking any of this.]

The only clues we really have are what we find and this island is a good source of ores.

[counterblows]

Maybe it was. Or maybe the ore in question is just a whole lot of these robots. I haven't seen anything resembling a mine yet.

[But, granted, they've not explored the entire island. Just a fraction.]

[thermalwind]

Could be. We'll find out soon enough.

[This is the most straightforward and familiar sounding conversation he's had the entire time he's been here. There are no future landmines sitting in it. No complicated problems. Nothing weird. No attempts to mess with his head. Wow.]

Hey, for the sake of keeping track of each other. What name do you go by?

[counterblows]

Washington.

[Yes, like the state. He forgoes the "agent" prefix - it's not like C.T. is about to correct him.]

You?

[thermalwind]

Keith.

[He adds a little more just for the sake of letting Wash know things.]

The guy who started this is Lance. We're both from the same world. [Formerly same team.]

He's a good shot when you need the backup.

[counterblows]

[A pause, then:]

I think I've met him. [He sounds maybe...vaguely perplexed at the memory.] Wears blue? Was shouting about a cow?

[thermalwind]

[There's a pause.]

White and blue? V on the chest plate?

[counterblows]

That's the one.

[Small world. Literally.]

He didn't go with backup, I should add.

[thermalwind]

[His sigh is long and loud. He suddenly understands why Shiro gets headaches or seems to get them.]

What was he doing. [Said like a good leader about to put his foot somewhere the sun doesn't shine.]

[counterblows]

Looking for a cow. Very. Loudly.

[While the ravenous elevator was still flying around, ready to snap up anything that moved, no less.]

[thermalwind]

[Silence. That's so Lance. That's so Lance he is rubbing at his forehead.]

I don't even know what to say. When was this? [He hasn't heard him doing it recently or he'd smack him upside the head.]

[counterblows]

I don't know. Maybe...a week or so back? When that elevator was still flying around.

[Time is fake, and you can't expect him to keep track of it when they're on an abandoned-ass tropical island, son.]

[thermalwind]

That really creepy one that even swallowed and spit back out a flaming phoenix?

[A pause.]

There's only been one. Right. ...I'm not sure how much thought power that thing even had.

[counterblows]

Whatever it is, I haven’t seen it since. Which is a good thing, because armor-piercing rounds weren’t doing a thing against it.

[And while that’s not a first, it sure as shit makes his job more annoying.]

[thermalwind]

Yeah...you get used to your stuff not making much of a dent in things here. My luxite blade usually cuts through metal easily. Not here.

[Not a first. Not a last. But man he misses having a Voltron Lion that could wreck most things.]

[counterblows]

Tell me about it.

[It's bog standard for more...advanced opponents to have some means of shrugging off bullets and sundry, but that doesn't mean it's great that this is the norm.]

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea that there's nothing we can do about a flying elevator.

[thermalwind]

Yeah, me too. [He has that awful thought. What if it comes back? Then they'll be stuck with more stupid mayhem.]

It...just gives us more time to think of ways to deal with it if it comes back.

[counterblows]

We're on an island. It's less of an if and more of a when.

[And doesn't he just sound thrilled about it.]

[thermalwind]

Technically we're getting to travel across several islands but I was trying to fake some optimism.

[He knows he failed that test.]

...anyway we should get focused on here and worry about that really [stupid] mess later.

[counterblows]

[Admirable, maybe, but not tactically sound.]

So far nothing's attacked anyone. At least as far as I can tell. Ordinarily I'd say that's a good thing, but... [buuuuuut they don't know the deal with this weird, silent island, and it's frankly wigging him out.]

[thermalwind]

But...these islands don't operate on normal rules. We'll have to keep alert and solve what happened here.

[They might already be in the middle of it all.]

[counterblows]

Great.

[Again. Pick up the pieces, Recovery One, of someone else's mistakes. Someone else's failed project. Someone else's civil war. Someone else's ghosts. Someone else's fucking brutalized history of war and blood and violence.]

Well, I'm oscar mike now, so I guess we'll have to hope there's answers somewhere.