The "Life Finds A Way" Test Drive Meme

[letsgolegion]

THE "LIFE FINDS A WAY" TEST DRIVE MEME

The Time Trapper, the being responsible for bringing people into the Legion's universe, is up to some strange tricks! It's now creating illusions of alternate universes and dumping the Legionnaires into them to try to test them as Legionnaires. Each time this happens, the captives -- er, participants have knowledge of the scenario, their role, and what they're supposed to accomplish planted into their heads, but still remember who they once were. To complicate things, the Legionnaires from the 31st century aren't the only ones pulled into this adventure. Strange people from many worlds are being yanked in and finding themselves thrust right into the heart of these conflicts. These universes technically are just illusions (probably!) and all the participants have an inherent knowledge of this placed in their heads, but it's up to them if they believe it -- and the danger is real. If you die in one of these scenarios you stay dead. This time everyone is being dumped into a scenario where they're dealing with... DINOSAURS THE SETTING At its opening, the Cretaceous Days amusement park was considered one of the most technologically advanced amusement parks ever created. The technology of the United Planets was advanced enough to allow for the cloning of a variety of prehistoric species from many worlds, from Earth's ancient, feathered dinosaurs to the scaly pretorians of Colu's past. Now the park has broken down and the animals have gone out of control! With electric fences failing, forcefield walls going down, and all protective technology being mysteriously disabled, everyone in the park is in danger. Dinosaurs from Earth's ancient history are running wild here, but prehistoric animals from other worlds are just as vicious and ferocious. While this is possibly one of the Time Trapper's strange pocket dimensions, this dimension is very similar to the game universe, and whether or not the sentient beings in need of saving are real or not is impossible to tell. It's a bad idea to risk not helping them in case real lives are on the line. Based on player preference, for the purposes of the meme, characters can either lose powers, retain their canon powers, or find themselves with new powers. It's up to you. SCENARIO A: RAPTORS Forget velociraptors, herds of larger Deinonychus are now freely roaming the park. Dangerously intelligent, they're hunting in packs, and smart enough to use various tactics to herd and surround their prey. Places like the vast indoor food court and gift shops can sometimes be used against them, since they provide hiding places, vents, and areas that can be closed with doors. The deinonychus aren't the only things that can work in numbers. Perhaps if you team up against them you'll have a chance of survival. SCENARIO B: GIGANOTOSAURUS The T-rex's bigger cousin, a Giganotosaurus is now rampaging around the park, and it has one hell of an appetite. Perhaps you can escape by climbing up a tree taller than it and jumping from tree to tree to safety. Or maybe you might figure out a clever way to trap it once more. Whatever the case, if you don't successfully stay out of its reach, you'll wind up its dinner. It's a good thing you don't have to face the hulking monster alone. SCENARIO C: ALIEN CREATURES Dinosaurs aren't the only prehistoric animals rampaging around the park. The tentacled let'ek of Omiclon 6 might try to choke the life out of you. Or you might find yourselves mesmerized by the hypnosis powers of the blue-billed Stenothians from Winath's ancient times. (Players may make up any ancient alien creature they like for a scenario and make up ways for it to be defeated.) SCENARIO D: PROTECTING CIVILIANS Personal survival is important but most of the civilians trapped in the park don't have a chance of escaping the many creatures that are now loose -- unless you work together to give them one. There are shelters and safe places they can be taken to, and even places where you can find small escape ships to evacuate. SCENARIO E: WILD CARD! There are all different threats and objectives possible within the park. Perhaps you have the technological skills to turn on the safety protocols in each of the sections of the park, one by one -- but only if you can get to the manual consoles. Perhaps you can tame some of the more docile creatures and use them as mounts or convince them to attack the predators threatening you or civilians. Maybe you can find a way to safety through some of the automated systems that handle feeding (or waste processing) but can't get through the dangerous obstacles in them without the help of a new ally. OOC INFO ✦ Current players in game can jump into this and do starters if they like so they can play with new players and each other. This meme will count as part of the game canon for those that opt in, though they'll find their memories somewhat fuzzy afterward. These threads can count toward your AC, however the "new CR" credit cannot be applied since not every character joining in is guaranteed to join the game. This takes place before "In Brightest Day." ✦ Potential players can use this as a standard test drive and may use these threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice. ✦ Potential players can also opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, so that their character remembers the scenario and then suddenly finds themselves in the game universe. However, this is opt in and players can choose to introduce their characters fresh if they'd prefer that and no other characters will remember they were there. Please just note which you'd like in the additional info field on your app. ✦ If you are considering apping to the game, currently 25 of 50 player slots are available. The character limit is 4 characters per player. You can also scope out some of the game's upcoming plots here to get an idea of what kind of plots are in the game and what's to come. ✦ Non-players who like the meme but aren't really considering apping to the game are free to jump in. The more the merrier! The Time Trapper wants a confusing situation and will enjoy the chaos of lots of strange people trying to figure out what's going on.

Comments

Julian Bashir | Star Trek: DS9 | Scenario D

[asklepian]

A theme park with bloody dinosaurs. Whoever had considered that a good idea needed to have their head checked, because in his professional opinion something was terribly wrong with it.

Of course, he'd found himself there just as everything was going merrily to hell in a handbasket, and without so much as a medkit, much less a phaser rifle.

His uniform sleeves rolled up to the elbows, Julian was gently examining the leg of a young alien girl who'd tripped in the chaos and hurt her ankle as they hid in one of the darkened rooms in the visitor's center with a group of frightened park visitors. Her mother was watching him work with a nervous expression, eyes and antennae flicking towards the barricaded door every so often, obviously frightened of the roaming packs of ancient beasts.

"It's alright. You'll be right as rain in no time," Julian says soothingly, rubbing the ankle joint. It's not broken, just a mild strain.

He hears voices on the other side of the heavy door, too low to make out words, but--well, dinosaurs can't speak, so he feels fairly confident in presuming that these are people.

Leaving the little girl to her mother, Julian gets up and goes to the two men who'd volunteered to guard the door.

"I'm going to head back out there. Keep everyone else in here, and don't open the door to anything that can't tell you who they are."

Julian pulls open the door just wide enough for him to slip out, keeping an eye and an ear open for things that wanted to eat him as well as people who needed help.

Re: Julian Bashir | Star Trek: DS9 | Scenario D

[fingerwiggle]

"Whoa, hey. You can't just go out there by yourself," said the young man who'd helped bring several of the tourists inside.

Bridge paused, reconsidering that statement. "Okay, so technically you could. There's nothing making you incapable of leaving by yourself. What I actually meant was it would be a very bad idea to go out there by yourself. I'll go with you."

Mabel Pines | Gravity Falls | B. Giganotosaurus!

[bleventeen]

"Wow! They have 3D!"

Probably not the exclamation one would expect to hear during a dinosaur related crisis. The thing is, Mabel doesn't yet understand that there's anything to be worried about. The gift shop of the Cretaceous Days park may have an abundance of dinosaur merchandise, but somehow it doesn't seem out of place to her. She's also not really worried about the fact that she woke up inside of it. Or how dark it is. Or how empty.

Without a care in the world, she plucks a dinosaur postcard from the rack, shifting it in the one remaining light so that the brontosaurus depicted on the front seems to dance. Snorting an overly amused laugh to herself, she heads for the candy section, not noticing the huge creature looming outside the window.

Using the front of her sweater as a makeshift basket, she slides an armload of candy from the shelf just as there's a booming footfall from outside that shakes the walls and rattles the windows. Somewhere, a glass of water ripples ominously.

"Oh, excuse me!" She laughs sheepishly, going for more candy. "I guess I'm hungrier than I thought."

[asklepian]

Julian waited until he corrected himself, eyebrow raised. He was an adult by any measure of the word, bad ideas not withstanding.

This wasn't exactly a fight he wanted to get into--if said young man wanted to go out with him, Julian wasn't going to argue.

"Suit yourself."

Shiro | Voltron: Legendary Defender

[spaceblam]

Scenario A

Shiro is tense. He keeps his back against the wall he's pressed himself against as he steps carefully. When he got thrown a wormhole, he wasn't exactly expecting to suddenly be stuck without his Lion and surrounded by dinosaurs in...a food court?

He can't even be confused because his life has been a hilarious train wreck since the Kerberos mission. Dinosaurs are pretty wild, but he also has been traveling space trying to save the universe. Things have been kind of wild for awhile.

His hand glows a light purple as he lets out a careful breath. He knows the creatures are intelligent. Knows that he can't just stand here. He has to fight if he wants to get through this. Shiro turns to see who might be with him. "We need to be quick, quiet, and efficient. These obviously work together in packs and know what they're doing, but so do we. If we work together and well, we can get through this," Shiro says with no sign of fear. It isn't the time to be scared. There are plenty of other people that need help and he can't stay here being scared when people might be dying. "If you're ready, we'll move on my count."

His hand that's been replaced with Galra tech begins to glow.

Scenario D

If there's anything that Shiro can't stand by, it's people getting hurt around him. As a leader of a team who's supposed to defend the universe, he has to make sure he can protect the people around him too. The odds are stacked against him because there's a lot of people that need help and there's a lot of predators on the loose too.

He has to find people who might be able to work the tech around the park, but he also has to evacuate people where he can. The latter takes precedence in his mind. The former can be sought while he tries to help people and he wouldn't know how to work anything around them or where they are.

All he can do is fight. He's still garbed in his Black Paladin suit, which offers a decent amount of protection in comparison to civilian clothes. He uses his Galra prosthetic to block scratches and bites and the strengths behind it was lethal. He slams his fist into the creatures attacking people with a bit of a heavy heart. He knows that they're working on instinct and this was just the dinosaurs being as they were, but he can't let them hurt the innocent civilians around him.

Champion.

Shiro shakes his head a bit, trying to get thoughts out of his head. It's different now. It's not like back when he was captured.

As he shakes himself out of his thoughts, he doesn't see one of the creatures approaching him.

A

[iamresponding]

It's been a very, very long time since someone's gotten all commanding at Rich. That was what happened when you were General McImportant, unifier of species and grand high poobah of kicking evil, bug alien butt. Even after the war, whenever the shit had hit the proverbial fan, people still always looked to him to figure out how to save the day.

That's why seeing this guy is almost like looking in some alternate dimension funhouse mirror. There's the facial scar. (Rich's is vertical, not horizontal, on the right side, but still). There's the cybernetic arm. There's the body armor, complete with helmet. There's the very sound and reasonable tactical assessment and leadership. It's surreal.

It's also a delight, if Rich is perfectly honest. As long as the directions make sense, there's absolutely no need for him to get all command-ey himself, and sometimes it's nice to kick back and let someone else take charge for a change.

"Aw hell, I wish mine could do that," he says of the clearly weapon-like glowing that Shiro's arm is doing, unhooking and shrugging off his own right arm. His isn't an actual proper cybernetic, just a robotic prosthetic that remotely reads his nerve impulses to move rather than being directly attached. His powers burning through electronics means he needs to be able to take it off to fight.

So he does, dropping it to the ground, and looking rueful over trashing yet another one. There's a crackle in the air as he forms a crude energy tentacle out of golden Nova Force energy to replace it.

"Ready," he says quietly, dropping his voice, because he needs to tell this guy what's going on, but Shiro's right that they have to be careful about not making a ton of noise. "Also, hi? If you're looking for the guy with all the answers? I'm it. But we need to be on the move before we get to that."

Fortunately, this isn't even Rich's first time fighting dinosaurs because well...that's just a thing that happens to superheroes sometimes in his world. You know. Every so often.

[couldputitback]

"Wait a moment, please!"

Faiza hurried up behind the other doctor, looking...well. A little strange. The white coat and white hijab probably wouldn't be that strange to Julian, but the sword on one hip? Probably a bit incongruous. Still, she's quick enough to get to the door "You probably shouldn't go out there on your own. Two people can keep an eye out better than one."

[captainbuzzkill]

One of the automatic doors to the gift shop suddenly opens, and the sound is followed by the patter of running feet -- a sound that suddenly stops as those feet leave the ground. Before Mabel has a chance to look at whoever's come running in, however, the entire glass facade of the store is smashed in by a giant, scaly dinosaur head.

Then before she has a chance to react to that someone comes flying towards her in a blur of blue light, tackling her out of the way just as the dinosaur tries to chomp down on her.

"People. Aren't. Food!" he yells, crouching protectively near her, flinging display stands of merchandise at the dinosaur's head, one by one, with glowing blue tentacles of telekinesis. "You -- you -- overgrown carcharodontosaurid!"

A pause.

"Or is it tyrannosaurid? I mean, size-wise, the difference is really subtle and it's not like anyone's ever -- whoops."

He doesn't have time to muse over the fact that artist reconstructions of dinosaurs not being 100% accurate makes it hard to figure out what kind of carnosaur it is, because said carnosaur is still trying to eat them, so Dipper tosses another display with his teke and makes sure that it jams the dinosaur's mouth open this time. It gags and struggles to chomp through the display, giving them a little time to regroup.

Naturally, he's accidentally thrown the display with the candy. Aw.

"That's such a waste of perfectly good candy," Dipper laments, watching it spill out onto the ground under the dinosaur, hopelessly mixing with dinosaur drool. Clearly this battle isn't without its casualties -- so many chocolate bars, lost before their time. "Tragic. Tragic waste of candy."

At least he saved the girl, right? He didn't get a good look at her yet. He spotted someone moving in the store and saw the dinosaur moving towards the windows, but then there'd just been a blur of bright colors and the vaguest impression of glitter. While that would've clued him in that it was Mabel back home, people in the glorious space future like wearing bright colors and glittery things, so it doesn't really mean anything here. He's long since had to train himself out of assuming every brown-haired girl wearing blinding neon that he sees out of the corner of his eye is his sister, because it just kept leading to heartbreak.

Even before he turns to face her, Mabel can potentially see enough to realize this is not the Dipper she'd seen last. This is a Dipper that's several months into being a bona fide superhero. This is a Dipper that's spent those several months in superhero practice and actually working out in the Legion's gym (admittedly only because it was pretty much required to survive all the stuff the team has faced). This is a Dipper that's already saved a few lives and carries himself like someone who knows how awesome that is.

He's still pretty twerpy (and, to his eternal dismay, he still smells like baby wipes) but in his superhero costume, shrouded in a blue aura of telekinetic energy, he strikes about as intimidating a figure as is actually physically possible for someone at such a noodly stage of their life.

"Fear not, good citizen!" he says, trying to make his voice sound deeper as he turns to face her. He hopes he's exuding confidence, because hey, he's dealt with dinosaurs before, right? "The Legion of --" his voice cracks in surprise as he finally really sees her "--Mabel?"

[bleventeen]

Dipper's heroic rescue had sent Mabel sprawling to the floor, spilling her sweater candy. There were a few seconds spent flipping her hair out of her face as she watched her candies slide in every direction. Then, there was the standard 'crisis-allotment' of lost candy grieving time, which clocked in at around seven seconds. And finally, she was ready to sit up and turn to face the situation that started it all: Good old dependable Dipper and a Dinosaur.

At least that's what she'd assumed she would be greeted with when she turned. She'd actually seen the dinosaur for a split second, and she caught all of Dipper's Tyrannonerd speech, so what else could be happening? Besides maybe seeing her brother in a weird costume he wasn't just wearing on the bus. And seeing him sporting some freaky new powers.

That's kind of a lot to take in, especially after a major candy loss.

When Dipper does finally turn and manage to squeak out her name, he's met with an equally shocked squawk of "DIPPER?"

Mabel scrambles to her feet to get a better look at him, and to try to figure out what's going. Without giving him a chance to actually explain (of course), her barrage of questions begins.

"What happened to you?! Did the bus leave without me and crash into a costume shop? Did you find another amulet like Gideon's? Wait, no! Were you--" She breaks off to give a scandalized gasp. "TIME TRAVELLING WITHOUT YOUR SISTER? Is that where you got him?!" She motions frantically to the dinosaur that is getting closer to chewing through his makeshift gag, before she continues in a more admonishing tone, "Why did you bring him here, Dipper? He probably doesn't have any money!"

[captainbuzzkill]

Seeing his sister again, he doesn't know what to say at first. It's not exactly like he's been completely lost without her, but with the two of them having spent their whole lives in lock step with each other, a few months apart seems like an impossible amount of time, especially with everything that's happened. It's the longest they've ever been apart, and he doesn't even know how to start explaining what's going on.

Also, a dinosaur is trying to eat them.

The crack as it finally bites through the display, and the ensuing terrifying roar, is enough for him to grab Mabel's hand and tug her along towards the door that leads to the rest of the visitor center. By bending down low, the Giganotosaurus can fit in the gift shop through the broken windows. It won't be easy for it to move around but it'll only be slowed down for so long.

They have to move. Maybe to a higher floor? He's not sure if that thing can handle stairs.

"I didn't do it!" is the first thing that pops out of his mouth because he knows how totally uncool it would've been to time travel without her on purpose. "I mean, I did time travel, but it wasn't my fault!"

That really doesn't explain anything, though.

"I got kidnapped by a cosmic being to fight against another cosmic being, and taken to another universe 1000 years in the future, and now I have superpowers? And I helped free the spirit of God's vengeance -- like the actual God, apparently? I'd rather not think about it -- to fight a planet-eating, giant purple man with a really stupid hat -- "

None of this makes sense. It happened to him and it sounds like nonsense.

"--and I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but my point! Is that I definitely didn't time travel or go on any interdimensional adventures without you willingly. I was kidnapped. Space kidnapped."

If there's one thing he's learned during his time with the Legion it's that it's space everything. They're in the space future, they use the space internet, they're space superheroes. It's just a thing they all do. Everything is 'space' something now.

[fingerwiggle]

"I will." Bridge said, holding out a gloved hand to shake.

"If we're going to go out into a dinosaur-infested theme park together, I should probably introduce myself. Bridge Carson, SPD Red Ranger...Which might not mean anything to you considering we might have been interdimensionally kidnapped. Or we're having some sort of collective dream. Possibly both."

Bridge had a habit of going on and on and on. Regardless of the babbling, he at least carried himself like someone who knew what to do in a crisis. The badge on his chest might help with that impression, if his chatter didn't manage to destroy any impression of competency first.

D

[isthisapidge]

Pidge is already on the tech work, trying to find a way to contain the dinosaurs. Stop new ones coming in. Anything to reactivate the security measures before every single carnivore escapes and ignore the sinking feeling in her gut that this is completely un-salvageable.

At least she can trust Shiro to hold them off while she-

There is a giant dinosaur about to bite his head off.

"Shiro!"

Pidge doesn't even think. She grabs the metal panel that covered the inner workings of the park's security and flings it as hard as she possibly can. It bangs off the dinosaur's eye, which distracts the beast from Shiro...

And turns it's attention to charge at her. Whoops.

[asklepian]

"Not so much, no," Julian acknowledges, reaching out to accept the handshake.

"Lieutenant Julian Bashir, Starfleet." If we're going with full titles - which, Julian has to assume they are. "Which, I presume, is equally meaningless."

A few years ago, before the war, Bridge probably would have gotten the same impression from Julian--a motormouth, who honestly didn't know when to stop talking. A natural tendency he'd played up, but it meant that he certainly wouldn't fault the other man for it, or presume that just because he had a habit of talking, he was totally without sense.

[bleventeen]

It doesn't take long for her to fall into step beside him after she's pulled along. Running from a hungry dinosaur was almost a walk in the park after running from Bill. Sort of. At the very least, this last summer had made digesting his explanation while weaving through a cluttered shop and away from certain death a lot more possible.

If it had been anyone else, his story might have sounded like nonsense to her. But, coming from Dipper? She knows it must have been serious. Even if the image of a giant purple guy taking a bite out of a planet was a little funny.

There is something nagging at her though, as they slam the shop door closed and turn to determine their escape route. She glances at her brother, looking vaguely hurt.

"They didn't space kidnap me too? I could have helped..."

Sure, she gets it had nothing to do with Dipper. He was taken against his will, so it isn't like it's his fault. And it's not like 'space adventure' would be her first choice of places to be kidnapped to. But, if Dipper was chosen to save something, she should have been picked right along with him! They saved the world together after all!

[asklepian]

Julian stops just before the door, turning back towards the woman speaking.

"...true. But we could also use someone here." Is it the best division of labor to take two doctors out into the field, where one could do good here?

He glances down at the sword at her side, looking obviously confused. While he would have appreciated having a weapon himself, he'd been hoping for a phaser personally...

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper shoves down an information kiosk with his teke to help bar the door and buy them some more time, but when she says that, he looks like a cat that had someone stand on its tail. He suddenly looks like he's going to rattle out of his own skin.

He knows she doesn't blame him for it, so it's not that. It's more like an internal scream rings inside his head, "YES, YOU COULD HAVE, THE TIME TRAPPER SHOULD HAVE," that he has to hold in -- that he's been holding in, for quite some time now.

So much of what's happened has been good. He's made friends his own age without nearly as much difficulty as in the past -- and without needing Mabel as social glue for once (even though he definitely wouldn't have minded her help). He's found mentors that've taught him cool things -- cool, adult, dork mentors even! (There is a light at the end of the awkward nerd tunnel!) He's solved some mysteries, helped save a whole lot of people, done the kinds of things that he hoped to do as Ford's apprentice.

But then there was the yellow ring. Initiation. "Conditioning." The fight with Hiccup and Hal. The telepathic treatments. The crazy drawings on his Medbay walls that he used to sort out his mixed up mind.

And he knows it all would've never happened if she'd been there. There's no way she'd have tolerated him holding onto that yellow ring long enough to get captured, and even if he'd been captured and brainwashed anyway, all it would've taken was her telling him to knock it off and he would have. Just like that.

Even without her being there, it hadn't mattered.

"You did help," he says enigmatically. And then he uses his 'I am totally not telling you something and I'm hoping you won't notice because I'm focusing on something important' voice. "Mabel, let's just focus on not getting eaten by a dinosaur right now, okay?"

His whole brainwashing escapade -- and what broke him out of it -- isn't something he wants to get into until they actually have a moment to breathe.

Mostly because she already has that betrayed look now, and he's almost afraid to see the expression on her face when he tells her that someone actually managed to make him forget she existed, even if only for a little while.

[bleventeen]

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine," she sighs it out like a deflating balloon, "we'll do what you want, Dipper." As if she also doesn't want to be eaten.

She's not going to forget to bring it up again once they're safe though, especially since the idea that she somehow helped without actually doing anything is perking her up a bit again. Enough to get her back into the 'running for our lives' spirit anyway.

Also helpful is the very sudden and loud slam coming from the door that Dipper just barricaded. Their new friend has apparently managed to claw his way through the shop.

"The bus! The bus can drive us away! And Waddles is there! He really hates being eaten, Dipper. We have to hurry!"

So, on one hand, she's still under the impression that this is just a terribly run pit stop on the way home and that Dipper brought the dinosaur. On the other, she's darting around now, looking for the best way out. Which may or may not actually be helpful.

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper just rolls his eyes at her acting like not wanting to get eaten is allll him. Right. (It's an affectionate eye-roll, though. He's missed rolling his eyes at her.)

"The bus isn't here. Time travel and interdimensional travel, remember? This isn't even where I was. This is a thing that one cosmic being does. The Time Trapper creates these little mini-worlds to throw us into to challenge us. Waddles and the bus are back home."

It's important for her to understand that so she doesn't think Waddles is in danger.

"We need to get to higher ground," he says, running towards the staircase. "It's too heavy to climb stairs so as long as we can get above its head --"

A completely alien prehistoric animal, some kind of land squid with three mouths filled with razor sharp teeth, suddenly appears at the top of the stairwell. It spits acid that starts making the flooring of the stairs bubble and smoke.

"Oooor not. Outside. It's inside right now, so let's go outside and then try to find a way to get higher."

He turns to the nearby door to see four feathered Deinonychuses walking in.

Dipper balls his hands into fists.

"Oh come on!"

This isn't fair. But there is a way the odds can be evened out. He turns to his sister and grabs her by the shoulders.

"Mabel, do you randomly have superpowers?" He knows that happens sometimes, to the people that show up in these weird bubble universes. "Try blowing something up with your brain!"

A pause. "Wait."

Realizing she's looking at him at the moment, he pivots her to face the raptors.

"Now try blowing something up with your brain!"

He has his teke but this will be a whole lot easier if she's developed powers, too.

[bleventeen]

"But, I have my grap-- Euggh!" Okay. Nevermind. She's being pivoted.

Maybe he's right! Maybe she has powers too, and she just hasn't realized yet. It's like when a car falls on someone and you can magically throw it off them or something! You have to have the right circumstances.

She scrunches up her nose, while staring the raptors down. She's concentrating, trying to blow them up... And still trying...

"Um, Dipper..." She's starting to panic just a bit here. "Nothing's happe--"

That's when it happens. Nothing blows up, but the twins are knocked off their feet as a translucent pink ball of energy forms around them. It rolls a bit as the two of them topple to one side.

Mabel gets to her knees, and clasps her hands in front of her. She looks up at the top of the bubble and whispers, "DREAMS ARE HAPPENING."

And now she knows what she must do. Start hamster running at the raptors at full speed to smash them! She can think this through after taking action.

[captainbuzzkill]

A hamster ball. Her power is making a giant hamster ball.

He laughs. It's a good laugh. It's a "my sister is making me laugh by being my sister, and I missed that" kind of laugh.

"I totally, definitely, possibly, maybe knew that would work!" he crows.

Like he so often is, he's immediately on the same page, so he starts running the same time she does, adding speed to their rolling instead of just being knocked over.

"Raptor bowling is a new one. Think we can manage a strike on the first try?"

It seems a little more difficult than mini-golf, but only a little. Generally speaking, the two of them are good at hitting things with other things.

[bleventeen]

"Sure we can! They'll never know what hit 'em! Because they don't have magazines, so they haven't seen one of these before. Probably." She shrugs before trying to shake away the image of dinosaur magazines. Too distracting.

Luckily, the raptors don't seem frightened by the hamster ball. They can still see the kids inside, and that's all they're worried about. And Mabel, driven by the idea of getting the first ever raptor strike in history, pushes harder.

Working together, they've picked up an impressive amount of speed considering the short distance. And when the ball rolls straight into the group it actually launches each raptor it hits into the air. Each raptor toss is accompanied by a strange buzz. Kind of like pulling two staticky socks apart.

"Dipper, we're doing it! We're winning!" She cries, raising a fist triumphantly.

[spaceblam]

Shiro didn't mind being the leader, but he can't say he was completely expecting it. Getting captured by aliens trying to collect a chunk of ice on a moon? Kind of not exactly what one would expect. Suddenly saving the universe with a giant robot made of space lions? Also something that came completely left field.

Stuck in a park (what park has dinosaurs???) and trying to not die to dinosaurs. Must be Tuesday.

He glances at his hand and grimaces. "It's convenient, but I can't say if I always recommend it." He still knows very little about it and it eats at him in the back of his mind. It isn't the time for him to worry about it though and he looks at the other. "I feel as though you don't really require the ability. It looks like yours is fine as it is."

Shiro looks like he's getting ready to bolt. They need to be fast just like the dinosaurs they're gonna face. "Shiro. If we're working together, I think that being able to refer to each other by name will be important. As much as I'd like to know about my situation, there's a lot of civilians that need our help and a lot of dinosaurs. There's not a lot of us."

[spaceblam]

Shiro immediately snaps out of his thoughts when he hears his name called. He recognizes that voice and looks to see the large dinosaur aiming for her. He curses to himself for letting his thoughts ensnare him. It's not the time for him to get stuck in his head.

He wasn't going to let Pidge get hurt. He was going to protect her.

Before he realizes, his feet are moving and his hand is glowing. "Pidge! Come towards me!" He can't quite catch up to the dinosaur. It's too big and makes larger strides than someone his size can make. What he can do is get Pidge to come to him and have the dinosaur approach him that way.

[captainbuzzkill]

There's an incredibly loud roar behind them and a crash as the Giganotosaurus breaks into the visitor center.

"And now we're running! Runrunrunrunrun--" He looks back over his shoulder briefly. "Oh, huh. That's convenient."

The squid monster apparently attacked the dinosaur and is clinging to the dinosaur's head while the dinosaur thrashes around.

"I can't figure out if the squid-thing is trying to eat the dinosaur's brain or make out with it," Dipper says, looking both confused and disgusted. Then he shrugs and shouts out to both creatures, "Mazel tov! I guess?"

Good for them. Love is probably hard to find for dinosaurs and weird squid monstrosities.

"While they're distracted with starting their new life together, let's roll out."

They're almost in the clear!

[bleventeen]

"Aww, but I want to see the wedding!" She laments, also glancing back at the happy couple. "It could be my..." She she gives a labored huff mid-sentence. "most popular scrapbook."

"Dipper, does the ball feel heavier to you? Maybe this is why hamsters have such puffy cheeks. I NEED CARBOHYDRATES." She's poking her own face as if expecting treats to appear inside of it. She's slowing down a bit too. After the adrenaline rush, it turns out that keeping up the ball is kind of tiring. "HOO! Do you think my snack pouches will come in soon?"

And yet, despite the energy drain, she hasn't stopped.