Crankshaft Winter Part 2
You reached a point in the road where you find most of the area covered in a sheet of snow and ice. You feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Lex: That's so weird!
Dotty: Yeah no, never seen it snow like this around here.
Lex: Never seen it snow here at all, period. You think we got some oversea snow clouds?
Dotty: Absolutely not, shit wouldn't have lasted the trip to give us that much and like….. it just kind of trails and cuts off in a weird spot. It's some cryptid stuff.
Lex: Like, you're sure?
Dotty: The reports are all over the local news right now, it's Big Summit. Everyone saw his tall, lanky ass walking by as the snow fell.
Lex: He's like a continent away, how? That doesn't line up at all.
Dotty: Who knows, but I wanna meet him.
Lex: I don't think we have a big enough crew to take him on.
Dotty: You don't think the two of us can take him?
Lex: Not like this, we need people with a little more knowledge on this.
Dotty: You got a person like that?
Lex: I got two! We're in the area so like, follow me yeah?
Dotty: I don’t have the right kind of treads for this. No good in snow.
Lex: I’ll keep you from falling over, hang on.
You held out your hand, Dotty reached over and grabbed it.
Dotty: Lead the way.
The two of you run waded through the snow at a decent pace, holding each other to keep from slipping. After a point the two of you stopped in front of a familiar apartment building.
Dotty: Isn't this the witch house?
Lex: Yeah, I mean who else better for a cryptid?
Dotty: I mean, there's knights.
Lex: You used to be a knight right? You got this.
Dotty: Yeah, in another life I guess. Don't remember a thing about knighthood.
Lex: You still got the muscle, I know you won't let me get hurt.
Dotty: Long as you don't go picking a fight.
Lex: No promises. Hold on one sec.
You knocked on the door a couple of times. There's a yell from inside.
???: Gimme one sec! We're in the middle of something!
Lex: It's me!
???: Lex?!
Lex: Yeah!
???: Shoot, hold on!
You heard something fall over from inside.
Lex: You okay in there!?
???: Yeah I'm fine! Just- I'm opening up, hold on!
After the shuffling of some locks and chains, the door is pulled open from inside. It's Spice, with his usual carved gourd head and flames floating about like a jack-o-lantern.
Spice: Heyo! Hurry inside.
Lex: Yo! You see all the snow around town?
Spice: Yeah, I see all the snow, stuff's cursed. Scoot inside and warm yourselves up, we got the heater going.
Lex: You got a heater?
Spice: Had a heater for awhile, you need to check in with us more often.
Lex: I'm trying. Don't wanna bug you guys.
Spice: We miss hanging out with you, don't worry about it. You too Dotty, was fun having you around on Darkest Night.
Dotty: Aww, if you really don't mind.
Spice: Course not. You really blew us away with how you just dominated ring toss at the festival. Never seen anyone take on a funnel cake like you either, brought a lot of life to the party.
Dotty: Yeah, well…..
Spice: For real though, come inside, it's cold and we're gonna let all the heat out.
Lex: Right, sorry.
Dotty: Will do.
The three of you quickly hurried for the living room and huddle up around the sofa area.
Spice: You want anything to drink? Maybe some TV on in the background?
You heard shouting from the other room.
???: Don't turn on the telly right now! Might mess with what I'm doing!
Spice: Ah.. scratch that.
Dotty: Is that Targe?
Spice: Yeah, he's in the middle of fussing. Thinks the snow is some kind of supernatural phenomenon. People are saying it's some weird creature just wandering about?
Dotty: Big Summit!
Targe yelled again from upstairs.
Targe: It's not Big Summit! He lives in the South!
Dotty: How do you know it's not Big Summit?!
Targe: It doesn't make sense geographically! How the fudge would he get here anyway?! A boat?! Anyway, give me a sec!
Spice: Right so… he's trying to see if he can get a read on the situation. He'll clean up and be back shortly.
Lex: It is something though, right?
Spice: Probably! Right now we're unsure if it's dangerous or not but… absolutely not natural snow. Could be some kind of cryptid though? We're scared it's outright otherworldly.
Lex: Otherworldly?
Spice: Last time a supernatural snow fell on Plaza, an angel showed up and left an egg and… well you know how that went.
Lex: Ah…. I don't like that.
Dotty: Like… the angel egg?
Spice: Yeah… you're a rancher actually, right? You should know all about that, your model was the first wave of defense against them, yeah?
Dotty: Uh…. memory got wiped at some point, so don't remember a lick of it.
Spice: Ah, sorry about that. Maybe you weren't involved in combat against it now that I think about it, most who fought it got hit by the cornfield effect-
There was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.
Spice: Ah, hold on, I think Targe is wrapped up.
Targe finished his descent down the staircase, hands covered in a clay residue.
Lex: Ey!
Targe: Evening Lex, same for you Dotty. Two of you came at a perfect time because we might have a job to do.
Lex: Monster hunt?
Targe: No. Not yet anyway. If it gets dire though, we might.
Dotty: Taking security measures?
Targe: Yeah. All readings giving the feeling we're about to see a huge storm. One that most of the area isn't nearly prepared for.
Spice: That sounds scary.
Targe: It's… not great if I'm honest. Snow is absolutely supernatural, not from our world. Everyone should probably bunker down at home til morning at the least.
Dotty: I live kind of a bus ride away, will I be alright?
Targe: …No, not if you go out right now. Your best bet actually would be to stay with us or Lex for the night. You both can stick around honestly if you're willing to share the couch, might end up storming while you're walking back.
Spice: It sounds dire…
Targe: I mean it's not world ending… but it's also happening in a place that's absolutely not ready for snow. Guess it's practically the same thing at that point. It should just be a one off thing hopefully but there's a decent chance we might get a few layers of ice.
Dotty: Anything we can do?
Lex: Yeah like, there's gotta be something right?
Targe: Maybe, we'll see for now. Spice, check the window quick would you?
Spice peeks outside through the curtain.
Spice: It's actually starting to snow a little right now. You two should probably stay with us until it slows down, I don't want you to walk that far like this.
Lex: It's not that deep yet and it's not that far from my place.
Targe: It's a little over three kilos to your place on foot, might be rough on your friend if she's not built for ice.
Dotty: I'm really not. You can head home if you want though.
Lex: Nah, I don't want to leave you alone right now.
Targe: Make yourselves at home then, if you want some mocha we can fix you up some easy.
Dotty: That'd be really nice.
Lex: Yeah.
Spice: I'll go get you the blankets for later, only going to get colder and the heater can be fussy at night.
Targe: In the morning we'll talk game plans for this.
Dotty: Yeah.. Yeah sounds good.
You nodded.
Targe: If it gets bad enough we'll need the extra muscle from you. For now we'll just keep cozy til morning.