Kind-of-an-OOM: Car adventures!

[hasthehighground]

Clint's not entirely sure how Oswin's gained access to the car she has -- a sturdy four-door sedan.

Whichever way that happened, she has a set of keys and hasn't wrecked it yet. Clint's given it a look-over, including pulling out out of its parking spot and re-parking it in the middle of the lane, and now he's sitting in the passenger seat.

He hands Oswin the keys once she's buckled in.

Comments

[hasthehighground]

Good question.

Clint unbuckles his seatbelt. "Crawl over, I'll go around," he says, opening the door and standing up. The air is heavy with humidity, and there's nothing indicating a way back behind them.

A wave of unease sweeps over him; the road is starting to become overgrown, and there's the air of desertion you sometimes get in the wake of war zones.

He unholsters his P30 before opening the driver's side door; it's difficult to get at seated, and he'll feel better with it available.

[souffle_girlek]

She shifts obediently, crawling over and getting buckled up again as quick as she can. There's this... feeling. She knows this feeling. She knows this one entirely too well, where somehow things have all gone very wrong but one tries not to panic.

"Is this..." She asks, nervous-and-trying-very-hard-not-to-sound-like-it, "Is this what happens, with cars? Because I don't think I want to drive if it is."

[hasthehighground]

"I've never ended up in another world while driving before," Clint says, adjusting the seat. He grins at her, sideways, clicking off the secondary safety on the P30 and setting it in the open pocket on the center console.

He rolls up left leg of his pants, and unharnesses his knife, putting it in the middle as well, still sheathed.

"Okay," he says, buckling in and adjusting the mirrors. "We have most of a tankful of gas, and if we have to there's probably a radio somewhere around here. Which direction do you want to try?"

[souffle_girlek]

The grin's familiar too, though she doesn't say anything about it.

Hellooooo there Binky Boy!
If it's a straight shot, I prefer Nina.
I'm loving this. The Nose and The Chin - you two could fence!

Only difference is last time she was the one making light of a rather horrid situation.

"The Bar very clearly isn't behind us, there's giant ferns on either side, so forward, and damn the torpedoes."

[hasthehighground]

"More cars should come with torpedoes," he murmurs, glancing behind them -- just in case -- before starting up the car.

Clint's taking it pretty slow, maybe 25 miles per hour. The roads are still in fair condition, but he can't help but shake the feeling something's up, and he'd rather have some forewarning before driving into danger.

"This your first time out of Milliways?"

[souffle_girlek]

"There was... somebody's apartment, she was moving and needed help unpacking," No, she didn't get the person's name, or if they were, you know, a goodish person, or even figured out if there was a clear way back before she just went. "But then there were killer robots so I came back."

Came back, ran back and hid in her room for a couple days, something like that.

"... There aren't going to be killer robots again, are there? There's repetitive, and then there's taking the joke entirely too far."

[hasthehighground]

Clint's not even sure what to say to that. If he had more attention to give to Oswin, he'd still not be entirely sure what to say to that.

"They'd probably rust," he settles on. "Hey, look."

They're just on the brink of a field that Clint can't yet judge the depth of, but there's a smattering of small white flowers across it. It's beautiful, and sun-bathed, and subconsciously eases some of his tenseness.

[souffle_girlek]

Oswin doesn't get a lot of that - this landscape is about as foreign as they come, to her. Very pretty, very open (which she appreciates rather a lot), but... wild. Unkept. Abandoned.

"Well, so much for being somewhat close to civilization." In her experience (which is, admittedly, very little and deeply skewed) you don't get landscapes like this on the same planet as a major port city. She's holding out hope that it's some sort of wilderness retreat camp for rich tourists.

[hasthehighground]

He breathes a laugh at that, thinks city slickers, and looks across the field -- then slows the car.

"Maybe." He looks away from the jeep in the mid-distance to scan the rest of the field. With nothing else in view, he sets the handbrake, and looks over to her. "I'm going to go check out that car. Place like this, it might have a radio."

Though only if it's owner was stupid. Or dead. The chance of a radio's too good to pass up.

[souffle_girlek]

"... You're getting out of the car?" She demands, incredulous, her eyes gone wide. Just. Why? No. She learned from last time. Don't leave the vehicle. Bad things happen outside the vehicle, Clint.

[hasthehighground]

Clint glances back at her with confusion, door already open. After a moment, his expression clears. "A radio can contact any nearby civilization," he says, tone lightly teasing. "You don't have to come."

[souffle_girlek]

She gives him such a look for that - if he's going into the field, she's going into the field. He's the one who has the know-how to get them out, she learned that lesson too, she's sticking close.

"Because staying behind is such a good idea." She huffs, and reaches for the door handle.

[hasthehighground]

Clint shrugs, holstering his P30 as he stands. He doesn't bring the knife; he has an all-purpose one in his pocket, and it seems like overkill for foraging in an open field.

The grass comes up to mid-calf. Clint doesn't shrug, just starts in. "Keep an eye out for snakes."

[souffle_girlek]

"Okay, snakes, keeping an eye out for snakes." She agrees, tentatively following in his wake.

After a few minutes of looking at everything with a low-grade sort of horror, she pipes up again.

"Clint, what's a snake?"

[hasthehighground]

"Oh." Clint stops, turning around. "They're little reptiles with no legs. They're short, so grass like this'll hide them a bit, but they're not a big hazard." He considers this, then doesn't amend it. "They just bite if they think you'll step on them."

[souffle_girlek]

That earns a quick squeak, more reminiscent of a second grader than a grown woman, and Oswin is now staring at the ground warily.

Snakes don't sound good.





After a few more minutes, she pipes up again, hesitantly.

"And the big... flappy things? Do they bite too?" She'd probably be doing better if she'd ever gone outside while in the bar. This is... all a bit new.

[hasthehighground]

Clint's inside the jeep. It's almost emptied out, like whoever abandoned it here, its undercarriage caught on a small boulder, made sure to pack everything up beyond the owner's manual and a small flashlight. He's checking the batteries on the light when Oswin asks.

He sits up, looking to where she's pointing, then laughs. "Those're butterflies. They just look pretty and eat flowers." Though these ones are really big.

He climbs into the back, to look under the tarp that's been stashed.

[souffle_girlek]

Oh, well. That's not too bad. She can deal with creatures that are just... pretty. And so far there's been no snakes, so, that's good too. The longer bad things fail to happen, the less fear gnaws at her, and the more she can appreciate that yes, this is a very pretty field.





"... Clint?" The last two things she asked about weren't much of a concern, and this probably isn't either, but... it seems like it might be.

[hasthehighground]

-- Huh, a tackle box. Clint pulls it out.

"Yeah?" He stays under the tarp, looking for flares -- the busted flare gun isn't much good on its own.

[souffle_girlek]

The butterfly is long gone, but Oswin hasn't noticed. She's too busy staring, trying to figure out how... that works. How does it even... be?

"Clint?" She calls again, her pitch rising as she can feel minute shivers under her feet. "Clint, what do I do if it goes towards the car?"

[hasthehighground]

Clint sits up, considers this, then scrambles back out of the car with the tackle box. Before he can ask for clarification, there's a noise like the whole brass section of a marching band in the distance.

On the other side of the field, across the road, there... well, there are two dinosaurs. One's pulling leaves off of a tree, and the other is trotting over to join it.

Clint swallows, and his muscles loosen as he takes a deep breath. He knows where he is. The 90s-style abandoned jeep, the oversized butterflies and ferns and road going to weed. If Batman's real somewhere, why not Jurassic Park?

"Okay," he says, as evenly as he can, "let's go back to the car."

[souffle_girlek]

"For the record," She calls as she heads back to the car - not quite at a run because really, running towards giant lizard things seems like a bad idea but walking seems too slow so really it's just all kinds of awkward and indecisiveness, "I know that tone of voice, I am not a fan of that tone of voice, and it'd be awesome if there's somewhere nearby where that tone of voice really isn't needed."

[hasthehighground]

"Yeah," Clint says, scanning the rest of the field constantly, checking back on the -- brontosauruses? that feels wrong, but it's all he can think of -- dinosaurs to see if they're still calm. "I don't know if there is. Do you have anything from Milliways with you?"

[souffle_girlek]

"Just the tablet." It's a reply that implies she really hasn't gone anywhere without her computer if she can help it, so it's kind of a given. She's also trying to step over the gravel on the edge of the road without crunching, but it's really not working. How good's the hearing on giant lizards?

[hasthehighground]

"They're not the issue," Clint says, putting his hand lightly to the back of her shoulder, surveying the field behind them. Every movement seems dangerous, but he hasn't yet picked out a pattern that'd suggest predators. "I'll explain in the car."