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]

"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."

[souffle_girlek]

She jumps under his hand, in the way she'd like to claim she was to experienced in 'all things go to hell' to have done, but has anyway. She does, however, get the idea that picking up the pace is wanted here, and she's already learned that he's totally the boss here, so.

She hustles.

"Also, for the record, not reassuring. Terribly poor marks on reassuring, this is going on the review."

[hasthehighground]

"I'll make a note." Once they're in the car, he puts the tacklebox in the back (though he doesn't want to even consider fishing at the moment), and waits for Oswin to shut her door, then locks them in.

"We need to get back to Milliways ASAP. Those are dinosaurs, which don't live on Earth anymore. Some scientists brought them back in a movie that looks a lot like this place, and fictional doesn't matter in Milliways." He breathes. "That type eats trees, but some-- well. I can't really be reassuring."

This is why he doesn't work with civilians.

[souffle_girlek]

"... This movie sucks." Oswin declares, after considering the implications of that. "Tell me they're not as big as that. The ones that don't eat plants. Lie if you must."

[hasthehighground]

"They aren't." Faster, scarier, full of sharp teeth -- yes. Larger? Not that he remembers. Clint props himself up a little, unholstering the P30 again. He digs into his pocket after it's set aside, handing oswin a little case. It's the storage case for his hearing aids, but it has two earplugs inside. "If I have to shoot something, you'll want to put these in. The ear closest to me first. Okay?

I think there's some sort of port off the island they used when the system controlling the fences was turned off."

He starts up the car.

[souffle_girlek]

She nods compliance, but there's a question there, in the frown lines between her eyebrows and the tilt of her lips, one that gets utterly erased when she hears about a system controlling fences.

"... Computer system?" She already has her tablet out and powering up, because even if it's utterly futile? Doing something suits her hell of a lot more than sitting and waiting to be rescued.

[hasthehighground]

"Yeah. Really advanced, for 20 years ago." He glances over at her. "I... don't think they'll be remote-accessible." But he's not the computer expert, Natasha is.

He breathes a laugh. "Jurassic Park. She's going to kill me.

[souffle_girlek]

"Bah." She huffs at him, because she's already commandeered a couple satellites and has seduced them into doing terribly naughty things their creators never dreamed of.

(And she'll never, ever, ever say, but damn it feels good to hack into a system again.)

"She? There's a she now, how exciting." She's teasing, which is a fairly good indication of just how focused she can get on her computer work and how at home she feels with it.

[hasthehighground]

He snorts, distracted by the fact that no terrifying dinosaurs have appeared yet. That's a good thing, but it doesn't stop him from feeling like he's in a horror movie.

"You know, Dee?" He considers this. He's not actually sure if he's mentioned Nat to her. "My wife's a big fan of dinosaurs."

[souffle_girlek]

"You'll have to bring her back a picture or something." Oswin replies, typing furiously away at the digital keyboard on the screen. "Or maybe there's a gift shop..." She suggests, before breaking off into a low, ridiculously pleased laugh.

"Oh, that's good. Tell me I'm clever." Oswin purrs, having almost entirely forgotten possible imminent death by non-plant-eating-reptiles. "So very, very clever."

[hasthehighground]

"Incredibly clever," Clint says, slowing as a much smaller dinosaur, still taller than the car, steps out into the road in front of them. It turns to make eye contact.

Clint remembers this part; he doesn't even look for the other two, just shifts into reverse. "Hold on."

He looks behind them, pressing the gas down until they're out of the triangle of raptors, lets off the gas and pulls the steering wheel around. The tires squeal as the car turns in place, and he quickly adjusts them back into forward gears before hitting the gas again.

Velociraptors.

[souffle_girlek]

She squeaks in alarm, clinging with one hand to the door. She goes silent though, when they slide past the two flanking velociraptors, their dagger-like claws on clear display. She twists in her chair when they turn, staring through the rear window.

"Clint, they're chasing," He probably already knows, but there's a primal, hind-brain fear that rattles through her words and she says them anyway. "Oh, my stars, Clint, faster."

[hasthehighground]

Clint doesn't even nod. The raptors still on the road are too close to them, and he's just starting to hit a speed where they're no longer gaining. 70 miles per hour, seriously?

He's not comforted by the fact one of them's gone; there's a large curve in the road coming up.

Clint snags Oswin's left hand and the P30 in one motion, putting her hand on the steering wheel. "Keep this steady if I let go," he says, as he puts the P30 on his leg for easy access. This would be a lot easier if he didn't have to keep the car intact as protection against dinosaurs. "And put in your earplugs."

He turns off the hearing aid closest to the window before starting to roll it down. His audiologist is going to be pissed, but is he supposed to do -- freak Oswin out with temporary deafness?

[souffle_girlek]

She holds on tightly, unprotesting - what exactly could she say? Don't let go? That's just idiotic. She fumbles with the earplugs, and instantly hates them the moment they're in (She can't hear, she can't hear, how can she fight them stop them if she can't hear?) but she promised and somehow doesn't rip them out the second she's got them in place.

Something flashes across her screen as the system finally cracks under her assault.
"The Mesozoic Experience!" She calls out, "Sound familiar?"

[hasthehighground]

Clint barely registers the comment, the raptor calls vying for his attention as they round the bend.

There's more than one raptor waiting for them; some of them are still a ways out, but there's a -- a pack circling in. On seeing the car, there's a stillness, and then one of the raptors on the right side of the car lunges towards them, trumpeting loudly.

Clint doesn't veer left; he doesn't veer left because he's holding the steering wheel steady as he raises in his seat. He shifts around, and rules out the raptors who've been chasing them. They're not on fresh legs; they're less dangerous that these ones who are staring at the car with a dangerous sort of curiosity. Chasing, but he's starting to think they're chasing just fast enough to keep up with the car. Trying to wear it out.

He glances forward again, then raises his P30, turning off his other hearing aid.

The first shot takes out the closest raptor, through the eye; they don't scatter until the second one goes down with a bullet through the soft pallet as it opens its mouth to roar. They break and scatter, falling out of close range, and Clint pulls back into the car, and turns his right hearing aid back on.

"What?"

[souffle_girlek]

He's rewarded with a thin sound that had the definite potential to be a scream if she'd remembered to take another breath. Her left hand is still locked around the steering wheel, knuckles white. Her tablet is tucked between her body and her knees which are pulled up tight, her arm wrapped around her head in what might be a slightly effective defensive gesture if she'd stop staring out the side window and put her head down.

There's dinosaur blood on the glass.

She's a little fixated, at the moment.

[hasthehighground]

Well. Shit.

Clint can't exactly say anything to comfort her or snap her out of it, with her earplugs in. Touching her is probably a terrible idea, but her hand is locked around the steering wheel and he'll need her to let go and focus on what she was finding in the system.

What they need is information.

He covers her left hand with his right, fingers wrapping around her thumb. He's just holding, for now, but with the intent to pry her fingers off once she relaxes enough that he won't cause damage.

[souffle_girlek]

There's a short startled shriek at that, her heart jamming into her throat and going triple-time, but her head catches up soon after and registers that the touch is warm and if it's warm it's not reptilian and if it's not reptilian it's...

"Clint, this movie really sucks." Her voice is shaking so hard it's almost unintelligible and it's a bit too loud because she's entirely forgotten about the earplugs and is compensating but she manages, somehow, to let go of the steering wheel.

[hasthehighground]

"James Cameron has a lot to answer for," Clint agrees, grin tugging at the corner of his mouth despite... everything. He glances to her, and taps his ear lightly, to remind her about the earplugs.

[souffle_girlek]

There's a blink of pure confusion on her part before she gets his hint. Then she's digging out the muchly-hated earplugs and reveling as sound returns, whilst trying to remember that breathing is good.

"Right. So. So." Here's one thing a whole year under Dalek mental attack will do for you - reshuffling one's brain from scrambled to functional almost becomes easy with that much practice.

"So. Mesozoic Experience, educational park with truly horrible computer program design, kind of broken at the moment, and there's a gift shop." She sums up, and then shows him the screen of her tablet.

"At least there's a map."

[hasthehighground]

Meso -- great. Not only is there apparently someone else willing to make a carnivorous dinosaur amusement park, his (admittedly incomplete) memory of Jurassic Park probably won't help.

"Okay," he says. "Okay, awesome. Anywhere on there look like a garage?" He flicks a brief look at the screen; he's not quite sure where they are relative to the buildings on the map.

[souffle_girlek]

"Mmmmm..... yeeeees." She draws the word out, squinting at the admittedly deeply rudimentary map. "Right next to the..." She pauses, then makes a frustrated noise of 'really, who drew this nonsense?' that probably isn't reassuring. The map and portal to the island's computer system are shuffled off to one side of the screen as she pours over her work again - in a world without a wide-spread and omnipresent internet, she's a wolf in an unguarded flock of sheep.

"Luckily, the natives are a nosy lot." She adds on a few moments later when she manages to get a hold of a satellite with a spy camera, and diverts it from it's assigned job of taking pictures of suspicious sites in North Korea. Someone, somewhere, is going to be having a very bad day, and Oswin can't be bothered to care.

With the line drawing and the real-time photo side by side, things suddenly get a lot clearer.
"There, that set of buildings there - looks like the main headquarters, and we're.... here." She points out helpfully.

[hasthehighground]

Clint knows what imagery from spy satellites looks like; he doesn't know of anyone who could access one that fast and sort through the data. Her tablet's probably some sort of Milliways magic, but --

"I could kiss you, Oswald," he says, taking a right at the fork.