Kubo ♫ Kubo and the Two Strings (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bachido) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionmissions2017-05-23 10:49 pm
bachido) wrote in legionmissions2017-05-23 10:49 pm
The Deep Green Sea
Who| Kubo and Beetle
What| A search-and-rescue mission on a rainforest planet, for two Legionnaires who might be voted Least Likely to Complain About Camping.
Where| The planet Possuelo, newly discovered subject of much scientific survey.
When| Just after the Teen Party, vaguely during Other Mother and Gods Among Us.
Warnings/Notes| Venomous creatures! Carnivorous plants! Quicksand! Piranha squirrels!
The forest is as deep as a sea, and geographically, behaves like one. I have recorded trees whose trunks top two miles in height, where the unseen ground plunges in ravines so deep that only deep sea explorers have ever been as close to a planet's core without breaking the crust. Just like a sea, one would hardly suspect such depth, gliding over the uniform green of the canopy. One unbroken vast sea of leaves, studded with flowers, alive with creatures that have climbed and flown up from the depths. I see a new species every day. I have no doubt if I could descend past that impenetrably thick canopy with more than just my sonar, I would likely see a new one every hour. I only wish I had the luck - or rather, the funding - to make such an expedition.
Doctor Euptychia got her wish - to descend beneath Possuelo's canopy, but not by funding. A malfunctioning gyrocompass had set her research ship crashing into the jungle, her last dispatched coordinates issued several minutes before her many-mile careen into the deep, heavily overgrown layers of the planet's sealike jungle. Though the doctor had managed to put out one last message indicating that she was alive - and that her ship, while salvageable, needed parts she couldn't exactly forge in the rainforest. Including a new GPS. With her location uncertain within five or so miles of her last known coordinates and power for interstellar communications low, the good doctor needed a good rescue.
Kubo was already planning the first act of the thrilling story as he and Beetle stood at the edge of Possuelo's green sea, ready to begin their expedition to Doctor Euptychia's last known coordinates to execute a search pattern, find the doctor, and deliver her the tools they'd all need to call their ride back to civilization.
Kubo had told Beetle the story several times already on the ride to Possuelo, ostensibly so Beetle would remember it, but if he were being honest, mostly because this was certain to be a great tale.
"It DOES look like a sea," Kubo said, staring in wonder over the waving green from the plane where their shuttle had landed, dispatching them with their supplies. Behind them stretched an arid desert of red sand, but in front of them, the ground dropped down in a gentle slopw, grass growing into shrubs, growing into saplings, into trees that had all risen, like water, to the same level. "Father, have you ever seen a forest this big?"
He looked over his shoulder at Beetle as he stepped into the grass, eager to begin this great adventure, the Sword Unbreakable ready in his hand for the thick undergrowth he'd seen be hacking his way through.
What| A search-and-rescue mission on a rainforest planet, for two Legionnaires who might be voted Least Likely to Complain About Camping.
Where| The planet Possuelo, newly discovered subject of much scientific survey.
When| Just after the Teen Party, vaguely during Other Mother and Gods Among Us.
Warnings/Notes| Venomous creatures! Carnivorous plants! Quicksand! Piranha squirrels!
The forest is as deep as a sea, and geographically, behaves like one. I have recorded trees whose trunks top two miles in height, where the unseen ground plunges in ravines so deep that only deep sea explorers have ever been as close to a planet's core without breaking the crust. Just like a sea, one would hardly suspect such depth, gliding over the uniform green of the canopy. One unbroken vast sea of leaves, studded with flowers, alive with creatures that have climbed and flown up from the depths. I see a new species every day. I have no doubt if I could descend past that impenetrably thick canopy with more than just my sonar, I would likely see a new one every hour. I only wish I had the luck - or rather, the funding - to make such an expedition.
Doctor Euptychia got her wish - to descend beneath Possuelo's canopy, but not by funding. A malfunctioning gyrocompass had set her research ship crashing into the jungle, her last dispatched coordinates issued several minutes before her many-mile careen into the deep, heavily overgrown layers of the planet's sealike jungle. Though the doctor had managed to put out one last message indicating that she was alive - and that her ship, while salvageable, needed parts she couldn't exactly forge in the rainforest. Including a new GPS. With her location uncertain within five or so miles of her last known coordinates and power for interstellar communications low, the good doctor needed a good rescue.
Kubo was already planning the first act of the thrilling story as he and Beetle stood at the edge of Possuelo's green sea, ready to begin their expedition to Doctor Euptychia's last known coordinates to execute a search pattern, find the doctor, and deliver her the tools they'd all need to call their ride back to civilization.
Kubo had told Beetle the story several times already on the ride to Possuelo, ostensibly so Beetle would remember it, but if he were being honest, mostly because this was certain to be a great tale.
"It DOES look like a sea," Kubo said, staring in wonder over the waving green from the plane where their shuttle had landed, dispatching them with their supplies. Behind them stretched an arid desert of red sand, but in front of them, the ground dropped down in a gentle slopw, grass growing into shrubs, growing into saplings, into trees that had all risen, like water, to the same level. "Father, have you ever seen a forest this big?"
He looked over his shoulder at Beetle as he stepped into the grass, eager to begin this great adventure, the Sword Unbreakable ready in his hand for the thick undergrowth he'd seen be hacking his way through.
sliiides in to here
Beetle raised a hand to shield his gaze as he looked around, bow ready in another by his side. A third rested against the strap of his quiver, adjusting it over his shoulder as he took in the sight, himself.
It was...quite a view.
"Mm?" He glanced down, then up, then down and- just sort of laughed a bit, lowering his hands. "Well, I- can't say I have, but that doesn't mean that it's the only one out there, right?"
no subject
He kept glancing back over his shoulder at Beetle as he spoke, his smile wide and excited. He was excited for so many reasons - mainly, at that moment, because in his time training with the Legion (and eating all the food he could have possibly wanted for the first time since he was very little), he could tell he was getting stronger. He wanted to make sure his father saw his improvement, wanted to see if Beetle would be proud of him for hacking his way through the forest more efficiently than he would have two years ago.
He was also excited by the possibility of hearing the end of the Demon Bear Hunt at Golden Lake. "Mother could never remember how it ended," he said. "Maybe being in this forest will help you remember some of the parts she forgot. It was a great story. Especially when you found out that the mayor of the one village in the forest WAS the demon bear in disguise!"
He took a swing at a sapling that was on the verge of not being a sapling anymore, and the blade of the Sword Unbreakable stuck deep. The sword was unbreakable, but that didn't mean that, compared to it, everything was automatically cuttable. Especially not when wielded by a boy who was, though recently stronger, still on the small side for his age. Kubo grunted as he jerked at the stuck sword.
no subject
Or was that at the story?
"Maybe if you start at the beginning, I'll remember the rest?" Jog his memory and all. Though at Kubo getting stuck, he had to chuckle, bending over a little to help brace him. "C'mon, here you go, give it a good pull-"
no subject
He helped Beetle pull the sword free - at least, he had his hands on the sword and was exerting himself when it came away. He kept the sword, not ready to concede that maybe the trees were getting too thick for someone without superstrength - or even a grown adult's strength - to cut through.
"I hope so," he said, taking a double-swing at a branch in his way. "Sometimes when Mother couldn't remember an ending to a story I'd make up an ending that seemed like it could happen, but that story ends with one of your warriors in the pit you dug to trap the bear, two others swept down the river, and you in a tree with all your arrows spent and the bear demon waiting at the bottom. I don't know how you got out of it alive!"
But obviously Hanzo had, so the mystery remained as suspenseful as ever without actually being scary.
"Anyway, it starts with a messenger coming to the castle to ask for your help -"
He went through the story from the beginning. The tale passed the time well, even without music or pictures to back it up, but about an hour in, Kubo was breathing heavily from the exertion of cutting their path, his storytelling slowed down.
He paused in front of several fallen trees, an unstable wall across their path, overgrown with vines and moss. He certainly couldn't cut through it.
He glanced over his shoulder at Beetle, ready to relinquish the sword, but too proud to suggest it just yet.
i am the slowest 8|;;;
Nonetheless, his strength in storytelling- now that was still Kubo's forte. Beetle listened eagerly as they moved, trying to visualize it as Kubo spoke. Something distantly crowded at the edges of his mind, dancing just out of reach, it felt like if he reached a little further he could grasp it...
Happening quite a bit more often, recently. Sometimes he could, sometimes he couldn't, but he always, always tried. And as Kubo paused right on the edge...
Beetle perked up suddenly, raising a hand. "...but then one of them said, 'We'll dig out way out'!"
He was so proud to remember this he didn't quite notice he was walking right in to those trees.
WHUD.
Counterargument: no I am the actual slowest
First - "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" The many peaks and river valleys in the Forest of the Golden Lake meant that the trapped soldiers could have far less to dig THROUGH than climb UP.
Then - "You remembered something!"
It was exciting and encouraging - and interrupted, as Kubo giggled at Beetle walking into the wall of fallen trees. But even with the giggling, he didn't give Beetle much time to react to the impact before letting loose his flood of questions.
"What happened after that? With the bear climbing the tree, and the warriors downriver, what happened to them?" Kubo jammed the Sword Unbreakable into one of the logs, grabbing one of Beetle's left hands to keep his attention. "When you remembered, was it just a flash, or the rest of the story? Did you see it, or did you just . . . know that's how it went?" He hesitated a moment before adding, "Did I tell the rest of the story right?"