raisetheearth | 039 ♦ mostly open

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039 ♦ mostly open

[A | action: open ocean off America's west coast | closed: Lily, Jasmine, Rakka, Marina, doppels to taste | 7/25, morning (NZST)]

She'd thought it would be like any other day. When she'd seen the story about the cruise ship burning for no apparent reason in the middle of the ocean, she'd figured they could go and help, and she could go home and sleep with another successful rescue mission under her belt. So she'd assembled her team, transformed, given everyone their wings, and they'd opened a portal into what sounded right. Really, the smoke was easy enough a marker. And there was even another ship already there.

In her best official tone, Winter clicks a button on a headset she'd put on before they left, connected to a radio attached... somewhere. She's trying not to think about how belt clips work with her costume. "Attention, vessel near the accident site," she starts into the headset. "My name is Winter Tsukuyomi, alias Cure Diamond; my team and I are here to assist in whatever capacity we're able. I expect that will be via flying victims off the wreck, since we have wings. I'll stay on this frequency; designate me-"

She's cut off as something dark blue and fast jets past her, taking time to stick out a tongue on the way. "Less blabbing, more work, honey. Daylight's wasting!" The voice - her voice - comes over the earpiece. Summer's flight continues as she reaches the cruise ship, before she disappears from sight into a doorway. Winter is silent for a long moment as she watches the girl disappear, her hand falling to her side, before she starts to squawk. "How dare she!? Come on, let's go!" All thought of introducing herself to the other ship present falls to the wayside, as she jets off in a streak of blue, and possibly cursing.

((Mostly just a set piece for the slime to be discovered, and for shenanigans. Jump in and do whatever~))

[B | network: video | open | 7/25, late morning (NZST)]
[At the conclusion of the mission, Winter returns to Shepherd's Haven, thoroughly annoyed, but also concerned. She absently slams the door shut as she pops her laptop open and kicks the network on. She looks a little disheveled, but not particularly worse for wear, if hastily dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Although... there's a worried look in her eyes.]

What's going on? There's... something's happened. This... weird green stuff... it's almost sticky. And it changes. [She holds up a pink plushie, kind of like Raquel, except with a heart motif, and looking mildly like a bunny.] This shouldn't exist. Not in this world, not without a certain person that isn't here. I-

[She looks lost for a moment, staring into the plushie's eyes, torn. After a second, she looks back up at the camera, a helpless expression on her face.] I don't know what to do. This hasn't happened before.

[C | action: Gateway City | open | 7/24, early evening (local)]

At some point, Winter decides that getting out of the house and doing a little walking might be a good thing. That brings her to take the teleporter - which is, itself, a surprisingly novel experience; when one can teleport at will, using a device with restrictions feels different - to Gateway City, and just walk around the city a little bit. She's changed out of the things she'd thrown on this morning, into a dark top, a light jacket over it, and her usual long skirt. As she roams, she keeps looking back at the odd pink plushie - Cheryl, her mind supplies; Raquel wouldn't like being called hey, plushie all the time - and wondering why it's here. If her being here means Mana is here somewhere. And that's enough to throw her seriously out of whack. Enough to probably run into someone or something, with a brief and stammered apology, before she ends up in much the same state a few minutes later.

Eventually, she ends up sitting on a high ledge, looking up at the night sky. The stars are hard to make out from here, but... it's still kind of comforting. Even when everything else changes, there are certain things that stay the same... and she has to cling to that fact to keep herself steady as the waters of life get rough.

This is about the time Cheryl returns to slime once more, and Winter lets out a loud shriek in shock. Oops.

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A familiar voice, with a less familiar sneer that she hasn't quite cared enough to work out of her tone, carries from further inside the engine room. "Easy, honey. Our better halves don't walk into rooms expecting ambushes."

Stepping out of the darkness, a much less pleasant version of Winter presents herself with an expression that matches her earlier sneer, taking a position just next to Rose. "And it's not our job to remind them how careless and accident-prone they are. Cure Moonlight, Cologne. A pleasure, as always." Dressed in a short skirt that matches the warmer weather she'd come from, Summer manages a small, passable curtsy. She doesn't look particularly concerned that they're on a sinking ship.

Rose clicks her tongue a bit, but gives Summer a nod as she defers, stepping back to meet her. "Sure, sure. Still... I don't exactly get the chance to have fun there often, do I?" She crosses her arms, turning her smirking face back to Lily. "What? You look like a cat's got your tongue."

She probably does, Lily realizes. Rose is a disturbing sight in her own right, but she's just a mirror. Seeing someone who looks for everything like her wife... That's another matter entirely. It's hard to hide that disturbance, and almost sensing that, Cologne floats forward a bit.

"As certain of that as I may be, we are not exactly here for idle chatter," the fairy says in a calm, even tone.

Composing herself, Lily nods. "Right. Just what's going on down here, anyway?"

"I know, dear. I'll make it up to you. But, this once..." Abandoning some of her ill intent, her tone mellows. "We need her. We need both of them, even if the good witch stayed topside."

Frowning, she shakes her head, pointedly ignoring Cologne. "I found something, looking at what could have gummed up the engine. Because that's what happened - something got in it. What I found... well. I haven't touched it yet, but something seems off." Gesturing, she indicates a large glob of green slime, coming out of what looks like an important series of gears and mechanisms and forming back into a single piece. "It's been doing this for the last few minutes, just trying to fish itself out of the works and come together. I didn't want to mess with it until someone the rest of the Numbered trust was here, which isn't me." There's a small shrug; she knows that full well, and chooses not to care most of the time.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm going to poke it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Without waiting for permission, she steps toward it, reaching out a hand. It's not a long distance, but it's probably long enough for someone to stop her, if she were quick about it.

Cologne refrains from making a face. He's a lot more dignified than that, but Lily can catch the offense practically drifting in the air before him. The violet haired Precure listens as her wife's doppelganger talks and explains. As she talks her vision drifts off towards the slime, and for a moment Lily appears to zone out.

Sure, there are words being said, but something else is happening. Two somethings, actually. At sight of the slime she feels that hollow, almost out-of-body sensation for the first time in quite awhile. Yet... it's all too familiar.

At the same time the slime shifts and changes itself, becoming... pieces of paper, just sitting between those gears loosely. Unthinkingly, and going on pure instinct, one of Lily's hands snatches out to grab Summer by the arm and stop her from reaching in. At the same time, she reaches in herself and yanks out the papers.

They're... drawings. Some are sort of crude, but they're so familiar... and before she can even comment on that there's a sudden presence of clothing appearing in her arms. Seeing both that, and the drawn pictures, she feels that echoed feeling again.

She remembers some sort of school show. Not her school's. It's... that of the other Heartcatch Precure. Everyone is happy, there's music pulsing in her ears...

Lily stumbles back, clutching the papers in her hand. "Th- that..." She looks back at the gears, now much less. Ah. 'Slimy' than before.

"Ugh." Rose groans from behind them all, clutching her head and holding an identical set of clothes with her expression wrinkled. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

...right. Because whatever Lily echoed back...

Summer, too, can detect that the fairy is not particularly pleased, but he's holding his tongue, and so he doesn't get called on it. But her face shifts into surprise as Moonlight hauls her back, which is just as well; the slime is changing, and as much as she likes causing trouble, jumping into the thick of unknown threats isn't exactly a hobby. There's a very marked scowl on her lips, but she doesn't complain right away. As she sees Lily stare at the drawings, though, she realizes what's going on, and she reaches for her microphone with her free hand, before she thinks better of it. No, better to let Lily - or Rose, for that matter, whose symptoms she recognizes, which makes her shift to her partner's side - handle it.

"A pulse? Now?" Her disbelief spreads into her tone. "I don't like this. A trap? Or... is it all starting again?" As Winter's copy, she knows the score. And she knows they're not prepared for another crisis. Not by a long shot. "This doesn't feel like one of the Enemy's tactics. But we've got to be on guard all the same, or we're all dead." Changing her mind again, she keys her radio. "Diamond, get down here and make sure Moonlight gets topside all right. I'll help with whatever you're doing up there. I want off this damned ship, as soon as we can manage it."

The real Diamond, still on the ship's deck, doesn't even register the second half of the message, cutting off the power she was feeding into making her already-respectable platform and rushing downstairs as fast as her feet can carry, but it'll take her a second.

Lily snaps back to reality, and gnashes her teeth a bit. She looks at the drawings, and the clothes, and gives a shake of her head. "I'm fine. Really, Winter doesn't need to..."

She trails off, and just lets it stay drifting. No sense in it, it'll only take Winter another moment to be here anyhow. She side-eyes Rose briefly, who's looking even more befuddled at the clothing than Lily. "It was definitely a pulse though, yes."

A couple of them, even. She's sure Rose will make that much known to Summer inevitably, so there's no need to focus on them much -

"I mean seriously, that stupid song is going to be stuck in my head for a month," Rose mutters. Really, Lily can't disagree.

"Either way," Lily adds, watching the door for Winter. "This removes immediate danger to the engine, even though it looks damaged. We can focus on getting these people off here now, right?"

There's a bit of stubbornness cropping up for Lily here, and even she can notice it. She's determined to not feel helpless, to not need to be someone who has to be protected, in one way or another. Certainly, she's accepted that inevitability at times, but there's always been that little voice in the back of her head that says she can do more. That she can stand on even footing with everyone around her. So she keeps her expression calm, and her tone even. They have work that needs to be done.

Edited 2015-08-01 04:09 (UTC)

It's at about this moment that Cure Diamond arrives in the room, murder in her eyes, footsteps falling heavily on steel that's creaking as she goes. Her stride carries her straight to Summer, and she proceeds to slam her into the nearest convenient wall; the doppelganger doesn't resist, just settling on a very creepy, very slimy smile as she's interrogated. "What did you do," is the first hiss. "I will wipe you from the face of this Earth, so help me-"

"She's right behind you, idiot," is as much as Summer can force out through the hand on her chest that's making breathing just a tiny bit hard. "And get a mint when you let me go." Taking the brunt of her original's anger in a difficult situation... she doesn't mind that, so much. Better than the alternative, where Diamond goes off half-cocked and destroys something she can't replace in a torrent of frost.

That's enough to get Winter to disengage immediately, whirling on a heel and, as soon as she catches sight of her beloved, let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. In an instant, she's next to Moonlight, holding her hand and trying to get her heartbeat back under control. "Sorry, Summer. You know how I get. Anyway... what do you have for me? We'll get finished topside, but not until I know what's got you spooked." Priorities... kind of? Considering she'd just stormed down here with violence first and foremost on her mind, maybe not.

Summer shakes her head, crossing back to Rose and sighing heavily. "Same old Winter. But no, we're getting off this hunk of metal, and then you get your explanation. I'm not in the habit of staying somewhere I think may kill me while I vomit exposition. You're supposed to be the light of wisdom, figure it out." With a dismissive wave, she looks first to Rose, then to Winter, and last to the door and stairs beyond. "Any other demands before we get to work?"

Lily tries to get something out before Winter bursts into the room. At least partially she should have expected it, and maybe she did. But she moves far too fast, and with far, far too much fury before she slams Summer against the wall. A part of her thinks that perhaps she shouldn't stop her - there's a certain smugness in both their doppelgangers that really does need to be whittled down...

Of course, that draws her eyes to Rose. Who looks like she's about to do something somebody in this room is about to regret. That trains her gaze directly to her doppelganger, who notices and pointedly seethes before... Winter and Summer break away, preventing much from blowing up down here. Mercifully.

Lily gives a slight nod to her, squeezing her hand back. While it's what she expected, there might be a need to talk later, but not... here. Especially not with these prying ears.

"Makes me wonder why you called her down here in the first place, then," Lily says quietly, folding the echoed clothes over one arm, before she shakes her head. "No, let's take care of the people first. But you're not the one in charge, so do us a favor, Summer - don't give us orders."

That lights Rose's eyes ablaze, but she doesn't do much other than her stance tensing. Either she's gotten trained properly, or at least knows enough not to incite a fight in a place like this. Regardless, Moonlight starts to move without being prompted, pulling Cure Diamond along with her.

As a credit to herself, Diamond doesn't pipe up further while Summer finishes berating her. She just stands passively, before shaking her head. "Nothing from me. Let's get this done." When Moonlight starts to tug her back toward the stairs and safety, she doesn't resist, feet automatically

Summer herself, of course, takes offense at her partner's other questioning her authority. "I called her down here because I didn't want to get blamed when I touched something. And..." Her tone mellows. "I wasn't sure if whatever was down here would be hostile if provoked. As much as I complain, if things go south, there are few people I trust to have my back more than her." That much, she doesn't mind admitting.

Letting out a huff, she continues, "Let's get moving already. Don't we have a job to do?" It's as much directed at the retreating Precure as it is at Rose. "If you can get things done and moving, I won't have to start taking charge." Privately, this continues to freak her right the hell out, and that's more or less where she wants to be right now - out.

As they start up the stairs topside, Diamond lets out a sigh of her own. "Sorry. I think she got her stubborn streak from me. We can be done soon, and on our way. Okay?" She doesn't want to be here much either, but there's work to be done, and she can handle things going bad for at least a little while, until then.

There's something difficult about snapping back at someone who looks exactly like her wife, but when she gets prolonged exposure to Summer... Well, she's certainly someone like Winter in some ways. But the attitude is more than enough to give her the incentive to butt heads with the doppelganger.

Her eyebrows raise sharply at the mention of "trust," but she lets it slide. For now. More important things. Of that much, Summer's right.

Rose just waves a hand and smiles, falling obediently into Summer's shadow. "Lead the way~ It's started to get crowded down here anyhow."

Meanwhile, Moonlight turns her attention to Diamond as they follow. "Well, I won't disagree with you on the stubbornness, part," Lily murmurs, trying to stifle her annoyance from the doppelgangers and make the comment come out lighter. One can probably detect a hint of it, though. "The thing is, I like that with you most times."

She looks back up, as they follow their doppelgangers. Which feels weird enough as it is. "Don't blame her on yourself too much, though. At this point... She's her own, and those choices are hers. For better or ill."

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039 ♦ mostly open

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