Giggle glanced around, and grunted. The dragon had somehow also encased herself in ice, and with sarcasm, the hyena spoke. "Maybe ice is a little stronger in the cave made of ice, huh? Little caution, here, guys." She moved on to help Carja.

She wasn't noticing Pallas, or Temperantia or any of them. If Vargas was fine with them being here, then she herself didn't care (not that she particularly even cared either way). She didn't realize that Vargas probably had no idea that they'd once been infected.

She turned her attention to helping Carja, instead, intending to help the dragon free her limbs, but she was already breaking free.

Giggle shrugged, mentally, and cast one last look around. "Come get me when you're ready to attack," she told them bluntly; "like I said, there isn't much I can do here to help prepare."

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

exit Giggle

Pride was less accepting than Giggle--he'd been at the fight, and he kept one ear toward Pallas. He didn't really take note of anything off, nor did he pry; it was just a vague awareness that Pallas wasn't quite as trustworthy as the rest of them. But he'd taken in Temperantia, so...

Still, he did speak to Pallas, and anyone else once touched by the fungus. "Those of you who've been afflicted by her--what do you think she would do, here? How would she set up; what might we expect, from your experience?" It seemed a foolish resource to waste, this knowledge.

Meanwhile, he was examining the fissure he'd created, the snow piled into it.

"I will try to make some walls, myself. Diamond, I think, so the enemy cannot tell it apart from ice," he added. The magic did not, at first, respond, and so he spoke again. "This may take some time. I wonder, should I put it before the ditch, or behind it?"

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas glanced over with a grunt. "Put them behind, no point in having them break them down. This way anything that falls into the ditch cannot break through so easily. Leave holes, little holes, and those behind can cast magic through them." Arwen he merely glanced at. "We are not assaulting yet. There is no need for your... antidote just yet. You will all need time to prepare. I have given you advice on what to practice on, but you may be in the snow for a very long time so to this I will add, prepare for bitterly cold weather--extended out for hours. Train in it. Learn snow. Do not go too far into Ursa; Tunnel M is perhaps a good place to practice ice and snow, and cold."

Good preparation was important, and they needed time to fortify this location. "Tahi-shei, make sure you have a way to contact them all when we are ready to move. In the meantime, are any of you skilled with scouting?"

Tahi-shei shook his head when Pallas spoke. "No, we should stay together -- anyone who goes anywhere alone or even in a small group becomes vulnerable. Don't forget, the infection can be transmitted through the air if they prepare well enough. We have to be careful, and we have to stay together. If anyone tries to break from the main group, that's suspicious -- it wanted me to lie to Madhukar, so that I could manipulate her into becoming infected. Don't trust anyone who's been up close and personal with an infected creature."

He nodded to Vargas as well. "Any kind of wind barrier could be good for my purposes, and any way we can get the wind blowing from behind us would be good, too. Try to cover the air, if we can, and keep an eye on the ground, too -- if they have tunnels, it's best to assume they have tunnelers."

"I have ways to contact any of them when it's time -- the night or nights before, most likely, but from anywhere in the caves if I'm careful."

mostly @pallas and @vargas

Nemo

Nemo snorts in glee at Giggle's deadpan warning, deciding to let his questions and advice being ignored roll off his back, and he flutters around a bit before spiraling up- and back down, having given the camp an aerial once over.

He looks at Tahi, still mid-air, and then at Vargas, before speaking quickly. "I can counter the wind here, and create twisters... sort of. Magic is finnicky. But I know I can make a stream of air kind of like what you're asking-" he turns his attention fully to Tahi-shei, and his bauble bounces with every flap of his wings. "But I can work on something more like a barrier, instead of a river."

A mention of a need of a scout, however, is almost something he wants to avoid thinking about. Almost.

But alas, he's got an ego, wings, and magic to prove useful.

"I don't have experience scouting in any other way other than for food while in the air - I went hunting a cycle or so ago here. I..." his voice is low, like he only wants the two near him to hear him, and he lands in the snow with a small thump to look up at the two leaders, wings sore and very much not for hovering without thermals. "I can go, if no-one else better suited steps forward."

There. He can let his ego and conscience calm down at the same time, while his nerves decide to start a tango in his chest. Fun.

@ Tahi
@ Vargas
((Since Nemo was speaking to them specifically.))

After a while, she graced the gathering with her presence—and what an explosive presence that was.

(The Sleepless Chaos had missed the greater part of any discussion of barracks- or trench-making; not that it would have mattered if she had been present for it, wont as she was to just throw caution to the wind. Strategy was hardly on her mind—brute force was overwhelming enough to quash any attempt at it. As it turns out, a massive monster barreling towards you without a modicum of hesitation is cause enough for worry.)

A broad chest shoved aside any pale drifts in her way, like some sort of remorseless bulldozer; every step was a bounding one, tail whipping through the air. She was one lolling tongue away from looking like a golden retriever set loose into a winter wonderland.

Even as she drew to a halt on Vargas's heels, Draconua couldn't stop jittering.

She barely spared Tahi-shei—or any other familiar faces—a glance before twisting to stare back at Ursa. Oil-ridden dribbled from every orifice, and she grinned wickedly; a chaotic bomb ready to go off at the drop of a hat.

It did not occur to her that this was merely preparations.

After mere seconds of waiting, the massive monster shot up from her haunches. Sanguine face-plate peering this way and that, limbs ploughed their way through the snow. Wings flared out, flapping only when she stepped in a particularly deep spot of snow. The powder-white sprayed everywhere, clinging and caking onto her overly hot body.

Magic flowed from the overly full reservoirs, but left nothing in her wake. So, innocently enough, she was the picture of the aforementioned dog.

Swamped with snow and trying to shake the flakes off his snout, Reign turned with faint surprise as an elf came, offering pelts. My, how charitable! "Thank you," he rumbled, nosing the blanket over his body to the best of his ability. "That helps a lot."

His head turned towards the sorry excuse of a trench he dug. "Our long-range fighters can hide inside, obscuring us from the Hive." Up came Pride, next-- he moved back respectfully at the leader's approach. The ground rumbled, the snow frothed up, and next thing he knew a long, deep fissure stretched out before him. "Yes, that'll do, Pride. Thank you as well."

His ear flicked back as the deer spoke to Vargas. Walls behind, correct? Well then-- Reign barreled back in surprise as an oily kaiju barreled through the snow. What the--?! He decided not to worry about that too much. Likely just one of Vargas's minions. Now, what was he talking about? Construction, right? Well, he didn't have any of the spells or tools needed to make his own wall, but he could certainly help with something else, like...

"A place for medics?" Reign's crowned head turned towards Pallas. He considered the idea for a moment. "That does seem like it could be useful. Healers are some of the most important people in battle, after all." He shook the pelt more securely over his shoulders. "I'll mark out some borders in the snow-- close enough to the front lines so they can easily reach the injured, but far away enough that they are relatively safe. Near the tunnel mouth should do well, right?"

Reign padded back to the gaping entrance, squeezing past the crowd of gembounds already gathered. Then, dragging his claws through the snow, he marked out the beginnings of a sunken encampment, hesitating to proceed further in case someone wanted to speak up. "We can store items in niches dug from the snow," he said, mainly to himself and anyone who wanted to listen, "and in case gembounds become too injured to fight any longer, they can rest here until they recover. But I trust that we'll do well enough in the coming battle that it'll be sparsely used."

Madhukar was here. Never fear.

The felinoid observed. There were some things of interest here... Well, many, many more than she could comprehend. She was singling stuff out to help with the clutter. Three things she kept her eye on:

1.) Tahi-shei's position. Talking to the big purple guy. That was fine, she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. She just had to know where he was.

2.) A little critter and the bipedal Gembound that hung around Carja were offering tools of many varieties. Being bipedal herself, perhaps Madhukar ought to check that out...

3.) Bug... person? Bug person. Like the buzzy bugs Madhukar adored. But a person. It would be more interesting to her at literally any other time. For now, her brain was focused on something else. A mind, tunnel vision, locked on a future of obliteration. Depending on how they set things up today, some lives might be spared. Others...

Madhukar approached the tool makers, approaching the little one first. She gestured broadly to the array of supplies in tow, and laid out a simply query: "What?" Hopefully that was enough to be understood.

Madhukar didn't know how to contribute to the building. Her magic was far more a force of destruction. Her body wasn't stable enough to reliably move objects to where they needed to go with ease. So, she would be their weapon. Sharpen herself upon a whetstone, prepare to be a key to success in this fight. Take down anything that needed annihilation.

Lightning was a sword of many edges. Storms were used to grow seeds, energy to replenish lives... this was not the world in which those uses were valuable. Not as valuable, it seemed to Madhukar, as they would be elsewhere. Now was the time to train for everything she hated most. Train to demolish. Train to protect.

Train to kill.

@Sharp (interaction)