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Panakeia returned to the parking lot, Bert in tow, to find a little change in the weather. It was bone-chillingly cold, at least for someone who had neglected to bring a coat and was still wearing a lightweight lemon and orange shaded summer gown. Sleet poured down from the sky, battering the ground below.
They came up to the Cruiser to find the kamura crew from the van standing outside in disarray. They had been setting up to film an interview segment with Panakeia when the storm blew in unexpectedly, both ruining the lighting for the film and icing the van doors shut. Now they were struggling to shield their equipment from the elements. An assortment of griping grips and grumpy gaffers ran about snatching various instruments and searching for a place to stow them until the storm passed or the van opened, whichever came first. To the latter end, the orc who had pinned the my crow phone on Panakeia's jewelry blew on the frozen doors, hoping to defrost them.
Panakeia couldn't help being amused at their predicament, even though she had been starting to look forward to a moment in the spotlight. But the choice seemed to be between 15 minutes of fame on a reality program, most likely followed by a rapid descent into obscurity, and reaching her destination on schedule. Panakeia decided that she couldn't wait for them. She started to open the Cruiser, only to find that her doors were also sealed closed by the sleet. "This is awful," she wailed. "I'm soaked. And it's cold." Her teeth chattered.
Blowing on the doors wasn't turning out to be a particularly effective method of freeing them from the ice. "Bewt! Thee ith woo can open the doow," the orc called out.
Bert obliged. The side door to the BBC van sat in his hand, completely detached from the opening it was meant to cover. He set it on the ground. The crew hurried inside the van and huddled on the ground. Panakeia followed, happy to escape the chilly downpour.
"What did woo do that fow? Woo bwoke the doow, woo sthupid twoll!"
"Troll? Stupid? How dare you fling such sterotypical insults at me," howled Bert. An argument broke out. By its end, only three things had been determined. The van obviously could not be driven in its current condition. At the same time, there was no way to fix it. Nor was Panakeia's Cruiser accessible. Until some way of breaking through the frozen sleet could be ascertained, hopefully without breaking the Cruiser in the process, the group was stranded in the Wally Market parking lot.
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