tampered | (no subject)

When; Dec 1
Rating; Variable; starts G
Characters; Janine and OPEN
Summary; Janine visits Xanadu.
Log;
Janine lined herself up for the approach. In her weeks since arriving at the City she'd never gone into it. Flown over it the other day when there'd been those stone angel things, yes, but that was as close as she'd come. But this morning, it was cold. No frost that she could see, but her breath condensed in twin plumes.

She glided down with wings spread wide, the trailing edge of her chilled wing membranes flexing up and down as she killed her momentum, losing speed and altitude. Janine descended as far as was feasible, changing her orientation so her feet were downwards and ready. At last, when she stalled, backwinging twice to cut as much momentum as she could, she was close and slow enough to drop to those feet and run some distance, wings starting to tuck but still half-open and adjusting until they folded neatly and she dropped down onto her clawed hands.

Janine looked along her own back, ignoring the shells clicking around her neck. Landings were... tricky things. Her wing membranes attached shoulder to wrist and finger to below the knee; she physically could not hover, she couldn't even backwing as effectively as a bird could, and there was the fact that standing on all fours with her neck high she was twelve feet tall. But she was getting better at it, and that had been a pretty creditable one. No matter now. She lowered her neck and gigantic beak out before her like a knight's lance, and ambled through the garden entrance. It would be warmer here, right?

[Please state where in Xanadu your character meets her, and only one can see the landing. Thank you!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

< Yeah, I know. > Janine just wasn't one who liked to have her heart on display.

Rose isn't certain what to say to that. It seems like a moment that ought to be rushed past for Janine's sake anyway.

"Ought to be a good place to spend your nights at least."

< Better than that cave out there, > she said, head veering as she looked out along the path. Hopefully there'd be a place out of the way. < Though it was better than just being out. I'm lucky I'm not claustrophobic. Embarrassing way to die. >

"Freezin' you mean?" Rose thinks she's following Janine. "M'guessin' you'd end up City Dead too. Doesn't make freezin' to death any better but...there's that."

< Freezing, exposure, opportunistic little mammals... > She glanced back at Rose and acted as if she'd come to a belated realization. < No offense. But what's this city dead thing? >

"Oh. Not entirely sure myself but if you die, you just...wake up minus a heartbeat and needin' air. Don't know how it works."

And she really doesn't. It's a bit confusing and disturbing at the same time. She knows the TARDIS is dead though and yet...isn't.

This got Janine to stop and position her beak so that she could look at Rose out of both eyes at once. < You're serious. >

She nods a bit, wincing in a sort of apology. "Yeah. The TARDIS is in a human body that's dead. She's not the only one. She's just the one I know."

< You know a time machine in a zombie human body, > Janine said, deadpan.

Then she shook her head, the gesture exaggerated just by the size of it. < Says the girl in a telepathic pterosaur. Okay. >

"Well she's not decomposin' or tryin' to eat people but...yeah."

Rose grins because Janine has a point. It's not as if it sounds impossible given the other 'impossible' things.

< A well-preserved and mannerly zombie, then. That happens to everyone here, if they die? > Janine, fortunately, has some experience with accepting weird things.

"Yeah, from what I gathered. Haven't had any other experience with it though."

Rose has pondered over the possibilities of it though. "S'posedly y'can't go back if you die here."

That made Janine give the shrug-gesture again. She didn't know if going back would mean immediately getting killed or not. If it didn't... < I imagine I wouldn't have to worry about the cold if I was a zombie, but I'd rather not find out firsthand. >

"Yeah, don't think temperature's a problem with it but not sure I'd want to try it out." She knows it means she wouldn't ever die. She's considered that form of immortality. She doesn't like the side effects that go with it.