[ video + action ] toot toot time for that religious guy to chime in

[zooms]

[ WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK or not because Hotspur is way too worried for his mortal soul to be whistling right now. With the sleeves of his jumpsuit pushed all the way up to his biceps he wields an angle grinder in one hand and a roughly-sawn (or roughly-angle grinded, as the case may be) length of iron in the other. He flexes the arm with the metal in his hand, showing the bright grey serrations where the angle-grinder has sliced through the bar exposing fresh, raw metal beneath. ]

[ He's never been a particulary quiet man when it comes to talking - Hotspur's got the kind of voice that's been perfected over the generations via military parents and grandparents bawling at recruits on parade grounds and putting the fear of the Gods in to the enemies on battlefields - but now he sounds worried and hoarse. ]

Get to a purple elevator and head down to the shuttles if you need a place to hide out. There's freshly-cut iron all over the place down here, and plenty of it...

[ He twists the comms device to cast the video feed over the bank of purple elevators that mark the entrance to the cargo bay and shuttle decks. Stretched across the doors of each elevator is a mesh of iron chains - liberated from their usual employment as cargo nets - broad and loose enough to allow access if you haven't recently picked up an demonic aversion to iron, but otherwise blocking access for any of the possessed. Off-screen Hotspur sounds a little uncertain as he adds: ]

I'm reckoning that should do the trick. Right?

[ Casting the angle-grinder aside with a noisy off-screen clatter Hotspur takes his comms device with him as he parts a swathe of iron chains and enters a waiting lift. Personally, he's not going to stick around in the cargo bays whilst there are imperiled souls needing a morally good bloke with a stick of metal and a blisteringly earnest belief in the existence of the Old Gods of Earth to lend a hand. Providing a safe space to fall back to was a good start, but Hotspur's already starting to warm to the idea of hitting something ~in the name of goodness~ or whatever... and he hopes other people are too. ]

Starbuck, you around? Grab something big and iron-y and meet me by the purple elevator in passenger deck zero-zero-one.

[ End feed. ]

[ OOC: FOR THE RECORD he totally realises that telling people to take purple elevators to safety will make any purple lift a bit of an easy target SOoooo he is going to be defending the purple lift leading from passenger deck 001 until he gets any other bright ideas! ]

Comments

voice;

[besiege]

[ Hitting something? Cat certainly wouldn't do it in the name of goodness of all things, but she sure as hell isn't planning on letting some demon bullshit make this stupid space ride any worse. She's already navigating empty corridors looking for iron - if that's what people say will work, she's not about to argue - and finally feeling a little bit more at home. Commotion and danger are what she's used to. ]

You have any more of those iron pole things? [ There's a slight growl to her voice that is an indication she's not having much luck herself, mostly because she can't really recognise iron from any other kind of metal. ] I wouldn't mind taking a good swing at these fuckers myself.

actions like a mofo

[astrogate]

[ The moment the message came across the device, Kara didn't even hesitate - grabbing her gun (not that it would help) and quickly making her way out the door. Making a quick stop down at the shuttle bay to do just what Hotspur had said; grabbing something iron-y. (a scrap piece of metal was going to have to do on short notice.)

She doesn't know just how long it took her to finally reach the elevator - being on alert had clearly set her focus elsewhere. But when she does, her gun is drawn, and her focus is set on the pilot, a brow arched slightly as she asks: ]

What do you need me to do?

audio;

[slayer_not_player]

You're certain that that metal is iron and not some space-age composite? [He finds it strange that a spaceship would employ something so archaic.]

audio;

[zooms]

[ For a situation so grim it's odd that Hotspur can sound quite so cheery as he nods in reply. ]

Pretty certain, yeah.

[ An understatement; he's very certain. When your life depends on a few centimetres of metal dividing you from a horrible, air-less death as your hurtle onwards through space at blistering speeds you start to get intimately familiar with what's what. ]

It's all from the shuttle refits; you'd be surprised how low-key some of the resources we've been working with are. [ A pause as he shrugs and hefts the metal in one hand, unseen over the audio feed. ] Still, I'm not exactly complaining now we need it... I'd go and fix myself up with some, if I were you.

audio;

[slayer_not_player]

Roger that. If you're certain the perimeter is secure, I'm going to start escorting the kids there. [But he's bringing salt, just to be sure.]

aww yeahhh action

[zooms]

[ Perhaps in the future Hotspur might look back on this moment and regret his ignorance but as soon as Kara approaches - gun in hand - he's distracted by the fact that he doesn't have his own sidearm with him. Not that he'd had much need for it yet - less so than Kara, who had at least used it - but he knew exactly where it was: tucked away in the back of a drawer in his cabin, untouched since the first day he had arrived and picked it up out of his locker. His face falls and he briefly ignores Kara's question in favour of casting a wondering glance down the corridor in the direction of room 001-060 in an attempt to gage just how long it might take him to fetch his pistol. ]

Damn, a sidearm...

[ There's sickening flash of realisation as it suddenly dawns on Hotspur that this - being unable to even remember to fetch his own damn sidearm from his cabin - was why he'd forever be a lieutenant back on his homeworld. He grits his teeth and closes his eyes briefly, before attempting to push the thought from his mind - for now. Stupid, stupid, stupid. When Hotspur looks up again his expression is grim-faced and determined. ]

What's your ammo situation?

voice;

[zooms]

[ Me-ow, Cat. ]

Plenty. Have you been down to the shuttles before? Take a purple elevator, it'll get you down there pretty damn quickly. [ There's a brief pause before Hotspur continues, sounding more amused than anything else: ] Good to see people getting in to the spirit of things.

[ haha, spirit. ]

audio; private

[zooms]

[ The military tone sets Hotspur more at ease. There's a quiet little quality of approval in his tone as he switches the link to private and replies: ]

Secure as I could make it. All the entrances I know of are accounted for; no-one's getting in unless they don't mind getting up close and personal with iron chains...

audio; private

[slayer_not_player]

[Tillman notices the filter, and while he's pleased at the implication of trust, he doesn't comment on it.]

Roger. I've heard that they can teleport. No confirmation on that front, but I think we should station someone inside to keep a tally of who walks through the doors.

ACTION | alayne » robb » hotspur

[wont]

[ There is something wrong with the ship; that is what the reports over the devices say. Or rather, there is something among the passengers on the ship and that something, along with its wrongness, does not wish the passengers well.

According to what one of the 'hunters' has said, everyone is best holed up in their rooms, behind doors barred with salt and iron or otherwise collected in the large hall that holds the smaller ships. It is not an easy trek, not overly laborious either, though the inclusion of Bran's chair into the equation makes for a complication. And so, only Alayne and Robb descend to verify these reports with obedient Lady in tow, Bran having been left in the passenger chambers with Summer to guard him (and Petyr not a short distance away to mind him at Alayne's personal request).

All the talk on the devices makes Alayne nervous but she does her best to look certain and strong. I must prove to my brother that I have grown, she thinks. He must never think Sansa as low a creature as she proved to be.

Stealing a sideways glance at him she asks (Robb, not the king; her brother, not her lord): ] Are you frightened?

ACTION | alayne » robb » hotspur

[northerner]

[ whatever is happening makes robb think of old nan's stories, of a time when enemies were less tangible things, something made of smoke and shadow instead of flesh and blood. He almost does not believe the presence of something so otherworldly, but his sister does, and so the young wolf is thusly guided.

This is not his kingdom, nor are its inhabitants his subjects (as eric had reminded him so very bluntly) but does a king not take up arms to defend those around him? Does a king not go forth to meet whatever threats may come? When Sansa says, let us go investigate, Robb goes with her, as much to keep her safe as anything else. He would not let her leave his sight, not when she's so newly returned to it.

Are you afraid, she asks and he shakes his head. Kings cannot afford to be afraid, even if the white knuckles around the kilt of his sword betray him. He's still too young to have acquired such an ease with battle that the idea of it doesn't worry him. ]

No, I'm not afraid. Whatever this is, I do not fear it. All things die.

[ salt and iron, if that is what it takes to destroy such things, then robb does not fear them. He can find both, and fight them as he would any other opponent. ]

text;

[starked]

you want more than just starbuck tossing around the iron stick? because as it turns out i'd be willing to do that.

[ tony is actually walking to the purple lift closest to him...in actual iron man armor don't judge him hotspur. and well supposedly this situation calls for vague hero types. including him maybe. ]

video;

[entrapments]

Hotspur-?
You're gonna be careful, right?

video

[askedtobe]

Need any help defending the place?

ACTION | alayne » robb » hotspur

[zooms]

[ There is something wrong with the ship, yes, but in all fairness there has been for a very long time. Hotspur’s used to life on board various craft of all kinds but at least in all of them there had been a kind of reassuring noise of human activity – of human life - that made everything that little bit easier to live with. Here on the Tranquility there was no such noise; it lacked life in the same way that an empty cave did: it was lacking and empty and hinting at so much that had once been, but ultimately empty. Words and whispers travelled so easily, making the whole thing that little bit worse. Working in the vastness of the shuttle bay had given Hotspur enough experience of all the echoing half-whispers and suspiciously humanesque hissing noises that seemed to reverberate around the very skin of the ship, but standing alone in the corridor he feels decidedly unnerved.

Footsteps. He can hear footsteps and ...words, he thinks – more whispers, half-carried along the vaulted corridors – approaching ever closer to where he had dutifully positioned himself. The iron bar in his hand suddenly feels just that little bit heavier as he adjusts his grip on it, reaffirming the solidity of its weight and heft as he stares in to the depths of the corridor ahead of him. Whoever it was must be around the corner, he supposes. Two people, at least. And perhaps… something else, judging by the footsteps.

Friend or foe, he will not be caught unprepared. Straight-backed and chin lifted, Hotspur gazes resolutely out in to darkness from the mouth of the elevator bay. The iron bar – tip warily uplifted just enough to provide cover across his abdomen but not so much as to be immediately threatening – wavers only slightly as he shifts to stand fully across the corridor. The arms that holds it is strong, yes, and the sleeve of the standard issue Tranquility jumpsuit is pushed just high enough up his bicep to reveal the lower half of a tattooed animal – a lion. ]

text (oh my god *yes* tony yes)

[zooms]

Well I wouldn't say no to a bit more man power.

[ especially IRON MAN POWER - not that Hotspur knows this is a thing that is about to happen. ]

Plenty of iron free for the taking down with the shuttles. Unless you fancy throwing around a couple of kitchen utensils.

video;

[zooms]

Hayley! I'll be fine. - [ In the dull, half-lit darkness of the purple elevator Hotspur summons all the nonchalant cheer he can and flashes the video a brief grin. ] - Don't worry about me; just focus on keeping yourself safe, yeah? Whereabouts are you?

video

[zooms]

No-one's got much to report on how many we might be facing yet, so - [ He nods resolutely, with much more firmness of character than the prospect of fighting a potential horde of unknown evil should strictly speaking allow. ] - yeah. Most likely. Been down to the shuttle decks before?

audio; private

[zooms]

Teleport? [ Hotspur sounds palpably horrified at the prospect - even in the incredulous pause he leaves before piping up again there's a definite air of shock at the idea. How on earth were they meant to defend against that? ] We're going to need some hard intel on that. Who's your source?

[the_vishual]

I'll help.

[ Oh yes, yes she will. ]

[ video ]

[zooms]

[ Even on a good day Hotspur can certainly be considered a rather gullible man... but when it comes to people he cares about in a time of crisis the soldier is rendered practically hopeless. ]

Chase - are you safe? Where are you?

text (i actually can't help it I'M SORRY.)

[starked]

i'd make a joke about her not being a man, but i happen to like having all my parts in tact.

[ BUT IRON MAN....isn't really made out of iron oh god this is a bad idea. ]

yeah, because a butter knife is going to scare the thing. if i didn't know any better i'd say you want something bad to happen to me. :( no, but i'm swinging down there first to pick up some. beyond that you may see me chasing those things away from doors.

[ a little pause between texts. ]

you two have the passenger decks under control?

[ video ]

[the_vishual]

I'm--I'm okay. I'm safe. [ For now. ]

ACTION | alayne » robb » hotspur

[wont]

[ All things die, Robb tells his sister and Alayne nods grimly in agreement, her lips pressed together to form something of a moue (a small displeasure used to mask a deeper, darker dissatisfaction; a truth that lingers within Alayne's heart, only to loom large whenever talk of death is near). ] I know it, [ she says, and moves to touch his elbow, her head ducked low. (Brother, Alayne thinks her gaze lingering on his profile, I know it too well already.)

There is a moment that passes then between them, one in which it seems perhaps apparent that Alayne would very much like to tell him something. She holds within her a font of secrets, futures that Robb Stark has yet to experience, tales of victories and defeats that he's yet to taste. Perhaps it is one of these she means to offer, though it will never be the greatest secret of all, the one that has her heart seized with private sorrow whenever he smile (the one that steels her heart and whispers Your Grace, I will keep you safe). But as soon as the moment comes, it goes again, Lady padding forward to round the bend in the corridor to see what lies behind.

As soon as she disappears around the corner there's a yelp of surprised followed by a low-throated growl. ]

—Lady!

video;

[entrapments]

[ her hand lifts, cups the back of her neck ]

I'm- I'm still in my room. It's kinda crazy out there right now so I, figured I'd wait for it to get less- noisy or something. [ she finishes chewing on her bottom lip before she speaks again, looking back into the feed instead of staring at the door. ]

Promise you're not gonna try anything too heroic for us?