Labyrinth

[raptorcanaria]

Here's the thing about Milliways: It's not the Real World. Dinah has a very clear delineation in her mind: there're things that happen in the bar, and there are things that happen at home, and even if people visit from one to the other, they're very different places.

Justice League, supervillains, Oliver. Those things don't follow her in. Which is good and bad, because it becomes a place to escape. And escape becomes too safe, somewhere where actual threats aren't real. That's the problem with the place. It's not home, and it doesn't touch home, and if she wanted, she could stay in the bar, rent a room, and never have to worry about outside. And that's what's so dangerous.

Not that she's thinking of danger right now, even deep in the forest where there might be demon rabbits. She's just thinking of the run, and the exercise, and also where she wants to take Ollie for dinner tonight. That's how she manages to get lost.

And how she finds herself facing a rough hewn stone wall, with a door cut into it.

Dinah stands in front of it, stretching out her warm muscles, staring at the door. Has that always been here?

Comments

[boston_bruiser]

Um.

(As ums go, this is about...pint-sized. If that pint consisted of jaegerbombs.)

"Uh. Hey," Voodoo says, lifting a hand.

There's a beat.

"Listen, I don't know if you guys understand the words comin' outta my mouth right now, but...if you could find it in your kindly bovine hearts to, uh - let us pass or tell us where we are, we'd really, really appreciate it."

He jerks a thumb at Dinah.

"She might even scratch you behind the ears."

He looks to her, shrugs, then back at the cows.

"Or, I dunno. Feed you some grass?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Me?"

Dinah loads the syllable with as much emotion as she can to express her indignation at being designated robot cow feeder.

One of the other cows raises its head.

"Query: Did he just offer us grass?"

The cow closest to them takes a couple of steps towards Voodoo.

"Observation: we are standing in a field of grass."

[boston_bruiser]

"Well, yeah, okay, I get that, but I'm tryin' to be civil here, y'dig? Now where in the fuck are we?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Response: Standing in the same field of grass."

The second cow lowers its head, focuses on some of that grass, and shoots out another pair of laser beams, cutting a blade shorter.


Dinah, meanwhile, has left the conversation, giving the cows a decent berth, but her eyes on the tree.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo shakes his head. "Fuckin' wiseasses." He turns to Dinah. "Okay, so, no answer from our bovine...friends..."

Huh.


"Y'see something there?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Analogy: I am rubber. Further analogy: You are glue."


"Dunno," Dinah says, slowly. She stops because there is a robot cow standing right between her and the tree, but she nods up, then points at the point where the first branches flare out from the trunk, about fifteen feet up.

"You see a triangle carved there?"

It could just be her imagination.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo squints, walking over to Dinah before looking up at the specified branch.


"I...think I do, yeah."

It's faint, but it's there.

He looks to her. "Maybe it's another door?"

[raptorcanaria]

"That," she says, "is what I'm thinking."

She looks up at him then over at Voodoo. "The last one just opened when you touched it, right?"

[boston_bruiser]

He shrugs. "Pretty much, yeah."

A beat.

"I ain't so sure this is a bright idea, though. Goin' further in to find a way out?"

[raptorcanaria]

"No," Dinah agrees wholeheartedly. "It's a damn stupid idea, is what it is."

She looks at him, smiling faintly. The alternative, as far as she can see, is to try and live on robot steak.

[boston_bruiser]

"Well fuck," Voodoo says, slinging his weapon and walking over to within reach of the triangle. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Tell you what, though, I find the ghost of Lewis Carrol down here and he's in for an assbeating."

[raptorcanaria]

"Get in line," she says, distantly because she's distracted, staring up at the triangle above their heads.

"Alright, you got the last one, so give me a lift."

She interlaces her fingers and holds her hands down to make a stirrup, just to show him what she means. Then backs away, worryingly close to a cow, that is now ignoring them.

[boston_bruiser]

"You got it," Voodoo says, standing beneath the triangle before interlacing his fingers to make the requested stirrup. "Don't fall or nothin', now."

[raptorcanaria]

"I don't like to make a habit of it."

Dinah rocks back on one foot, then sprints towards him, pushing her foot down in the stirrup and using it to launch herself up, fingers extended towards the triangle. She hits it, then drops down to the side of the tree trunk, looking around for a door.

And that's when the ground beneath her begins to shake.

[boston_bruiser]

Oh, shit.

Voodoo unslings his MP5, holding it at low-ready - shaking this size is never good.

"Since when did this fuckin' place get earthquakes?!"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah slips into a wide stance quickly, holding a hand against the trunk for stability.

"I stopped being surprised at this place, y..."

The shaking doesn't let up and then she realizes getting close to the tree was a bad idea, because the ground beneath her foot suddenly disappears and she stumbles down.

"Voodoo!"

[boston_bruiser]

!!

You'd never think a guy that big could move that fast, but before you know it Voodoo's on his stomach, one hand latched securely onto her arm, the other grabbing a fistful of dirt for anchorage.

"I gotcha!"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah grabs his arm firmly, and starts to pulls herself up. (You wouldn't think a florist would be so adept at one armed pull ups, but he's obviously helping.)

Except the ground doesn't stop moving, and as the tree starts to fall down, so does the ground beneath him.

"Dammit."

She swings a hand up, grabs for the grass, only to have a handful of soil come away.

[boston_bruiser]

The obscenities coming out of Voodoo's mouth right now would make Shephard applaud. Really, they would. But curses don't do much when the ground underneath your feet's caving in and -

- and all of a sudden you're falling down, down, down -

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah lets go of Voodoo's arm the instant she realizes he's falling too, and hopes her does the same, so she can at least control her fall enough to turn into a three point landing.

Then she rolls away as the tree crashes around them, stand an looks around.

Well, this time they're definitely inside, in a large cave that arches over them, light flooding in from the hole in the arc above them.

But it's too far up, and the broken tree doesn't look like much of a way out.

"Well, that was one of the dumbest ideas I've had."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo groans, facedown in the dirt. "Yeah, you can say that again."

(He lacks the lithe grace of someone like Dinah - he didn't "land" so much as "faceplant", but a landing's a landing.)

He gets to his feet, brushing himself off as he looks around. "Don't suppose you brought a flashlight?"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah pats her hips, in their lightweight running pants, lacking any sort of pocket.

"I didn't even bring a walkman," she offers.

The cave's not super dark, and if she doesn't look up, her eyes adjust slightly as she peers around. There's a patch of dark on a wall that looks like it might be a doorway, so she takes a step in that direction.

And that's when she looks down at the ground.

Which appears to be strewn with bones.

[boston_bruiser]

...oh. Bones.

Lots of bones.

Lots and lots of bones.

That's...


...very very bad.

"You get the feeling we just dropped into a rancor pit?"

[raptorcanaria]

"So that's why I keep wanting to hum John Williams."

Dinah looks down at her feet long enough to confirm they are human, or at least humanoid bones, and up again to frown at the far, but flimsy ceiling.

If a rancor does turn up, she won't be able to unleash a sonic scream in here without burying themselves.

It's while she's doing that, facing Voodoo, that a small white animal lopes gently into view behind her.

[boston_bruiser]

And, you know, Voodoo'll just blink and peer around her to make sure he's not seeing things.

"Uh, Dinah? Fluffy lil' bunny rabbit on your six."