Masters of the Hunt

[ziedrich_bearer]

WHO: Gladio, Hunting Teams, Some Open Posts so also You?
WHERE: Sh'Ka
WHAT: The Hunting Parties Are A Go
WHEN: Feb 15th to 19th
WARNINGS: Hunting, Violence against animals, Possible injury

OOC Notes

See here for explanations. All teams should start their threads under their headers below. Anyone can add open threads after that. Please note the teams and timeline here.

Comments

Forward Team (Bull and Gladio)

[ziedrich_bearer]

[OOC: Threads for the Forward Team Only.]

The Forward Team Sets Out - Evening Feb 15th

[ziedrich_bearer]

The plan was a go, and Gladio was excited. IT had been too long since he'd been able to go on a hunt, and he needed the rush of it. Not like Gladio was the sort of person to take what he had for granted, but this? This was totally what he liked.

So he'd had the Iron Bull meet him at the hangar, brought the man onto his ship, pointedly ignored the walls plastered with pictures of the He Rows, and put his weirdly acquired piloting skills to use, and had gotten them to this Sh'Ka place.

And now here they were, ship landed and Gladio came through the hangar and out, patting Iron Bull on the back even as Gladio shouldered the pack he'd put together.

"Alright big guy, let's get ourselves exploring out there. Gotta find a good camp so our team has a base to come into tomorrow.

[theirondragon]

Bull would be lying I'd he said he wasn't looking forward to getting out of the city. He'd also be lying if he said the cockpit of the ship was completely alien. He even remembered flying one of these things, though the mechanics of it were lost on him.

Implants. He was missing an implant. Okay, whatever. All the more reason to find a place to camp and a place to kill something. The fact that they'd be able to feed people was an added bonus. Finding a way to get rid of the nervous energy was more important. It made him feel itchy, like there was a place he couldn't scratch and violence was the only thing that ever worked.

He grinned at the pat on his back, nodding as he shouldered his own pack, hefting the polr that became a holographic ax as soon as it was in his hand, the blades humming with iridescent energy.

"Hell, yeah. We're looking for some place high and defensible."

[ziedrich_bearer]

Iron Bull wasn't the only nervous one. Fuck, Gladio was on several sorts of edges, and he needed this way to get the energy out of him. Especially away from his charge. No, they had to keep going.

"Well, looking at this place," he says, gesturing around at all the big trees around them, "high should be easy. But who knows how likely we are to get up high. Defensible is definitely my first goal. And somewhere that we can have fire out of sight. Ain't hurt a lot about people who would hunt us down from that light, but better to make sure.

[theirondragon]

"Yeah, wildlife I can handle. They're direct, and you know what they want." He shook his head. "It's the people you have to worry about." Which begged the next question, even as he cast his gaze around at their new surroundings.

"Are there people out here that we need to be worried about?"

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Animals are more likely to be honest about what they want too," Gladio says with a sigh as they walk.

The caution, though, almost has him wanting to grab his sword to protect himself. But no, that wasn't going to happen.

"I don't know. Haven't met anyone yet. But this whole 'He Row' concept? These Agrii aren't the brightest. Could be they got something really wrong."

[theirondragon]

"Yeah. A bear's not going to lie to you, make you think you're friends. It's just going to kill you for invading its territory, and you know that. There's a comfort in that."

He frowned, though, at Gladio's interpretation. "I don't know about that. Could be their language doesn't translate well."

Scouting Team - (Keith and Yelena)

[ziedrich_bearer]

[OOC: Threads for the Scouting Team Only.]

[tempredmental]

[Keith met up with Yelena at the camp after finding out he'd been paired with her for scouting. With him, he had a large blue wolf that definitely didn't look like any wolf from Earth.]

Hi. [He held his hand out to his new partner.] I'm Keith.

I'm so sorry! I never saw this. I hope it's not too late?

[havesomany]

(So, Yelena prides herself on being able to block out all distractions but the wolf? The wolf is something she never expected. She looks at his hand before looking at him with wide eyes.)

You have a Freaking blue wolf. That is so cool! Yelena. We should be friends.

Nope!

[tempredmental]

[Kosmo was quite popular. He wagged his tail when Yelena looked at him. Meanwhile, Keith was just amused. He was used to Kosmo getting all the attention.]

Yeah. He's gonna help us out with the tracking. He's actually from outerspace. A cosmic wolf.

[How they met was kind of A Story, but Keith had a short version, even if it did sometimes cause more questions than it gave answers.]

Distraction Team (Gladio and Rey)

[ziedrich_bearer]

[OOC: Threads for the Distraction Team Only]

Holding The Attention - Afternoon Feb 17th

[ziedrich_bearer]

The other teams were waiting on them. The Scouts had given them the location, the take down team was ready to strike and eager for it, and all of it depended on them.

"Alright," Gladio said, voice low as he hid in the bush that he and Rey had selected for cover as they watched the massive Bunnyboar (why had no one told him these things were almost the size of a small house, that was so fucking cool), "remember the plan. We've gotta keep this big fuck's eyes on us."

OF course there were the smaller members of the sound around it, but Gladio figured they were like Garulets back home, the young that were likely to scatter when the large male they were taking down was attacked.

With a smirk Gladio held his hand out to summon his blade.

"I'll hold left, you hold right, and we keep those eyes and tusks toward us. Can't wait to see that plasmablade of yours in action."

Gladio smiled and winked, holding up the fingers of his free hand to count down. Three. Two. One.

And then Gladio was jumping out of the bush with a loud roar, swinging his blade for the creature's nearer tusk. He was sure going to be surprised when he couldn't break the thing off.

[provenforce]

the Bunnyboar was bigger than Rey had expected, but she'd faced off against larger creatures. She nodded as Gladio goes over the plan, watching curiously as he summons his blade.

"That would be a useful trick," she commented, unclipping her saber from her belt. The lightsaber was lightweight and discreet but it could become cumbersome if you didn't have something to clip it to.

She answers Gladio's comment with a half smile, already focused on the moment of the creature ahead, her senses picking up on how it was moving, down to the beat of its heart.

When Gladio counted to one she ignited her saber and let out a yell of her own, breaking through the brush with a distracting spin of her saber, shearing small branches around her as she moved to it's right.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Magic, he would have said if they weren't only in motion. Stuff could be dreadfully useful sometimes, especially when you needed your weapons in a hurry and you were tapped in to a magical n-space. But that's for another moment.

The yell she gives is definitely a good one, earning an approving nod from Gladio. This, though, was a lot of fun already. His blade cut into the tusk, but sadly didn't, you know, cut through it. Fuck.

"Very shiny," Gladio called back out at her.

[provenforce]

The smile on Rey's face is brief and feral in response to Gladio's praise. She's already closing the distance between her and the Bunnyboar even as it rolls its massive head towards her, dodging between its tusks and bringing her saber down on the one closest to her, shearing it off.

The sudden loss of weight seems to throw it off a little and its head veers back in the other direction and she spins her blade again, hopping back several paces.

"I would have thought your magic sword would do more damage!"

[ziedrich_bearer]

What sass and energy. This was what he had needed, and Gladio laughs raucously at not only her success with the cut, but her snark.

"The summoning it is the magic. It's not magic itself."

There is a difference. He's just a man with a serious piece of steel. One that means he has no qualms being near the front of the beast, refusing to back up. The thing's head starts to turn toward Rey, recognizing her as more of a threat, and Gladio slashes at it's snout to draw attention.

"And you're the one showing off with the spiny stuff."

Take Down Team (Iron Bull and Noctis)

[ziedrich_bearer]

[OOC: Threads for the Take Down Team Only.]

Take Down Team

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis had seen this person on the network but never said anything to him. And the guy quite frankly reminded him of some of the monsters he and his guys had fought back home. But if Gladio trusted him, Noctis would too because he had faith in his shield.

Finally when he felt he had everything pulled together, he nodded to his companion. "Are we doing a particular strategy, or are we just going in and taking it down as fast as possible?"

He was used to fighting alongside a strategist, a shield and a marksman. This would be a different sort of hunt and even if he was excited about it, he was a little nervous too because of fighting with someone he had no experience with.

Evening Camps - Open

[ziedrich_bearer]

[OOC: This one is an open post. Team members can post top levels under this and tag out between them. Come, mingle across the teams, meet people, talk about both the night before and after the hunt.]

Keith

[tempredmental]

[ BEFORE ]

[Keith arrived at the camp the night before to finish helping with any set up that needed to be done. He would have preferred to have his Blade dagger with him, but his bayard would do for now, and he spent a good portion of the evening making sure Kosmo was ready for tracking. Not that he wasn't sure the wolf wouldn't buckle down when the time was right, he hadn't specifically been doing training tasks with him lately to keep him honed. Still, it wasn't hard to get Kosmo back in the right mindset for a job.

In between working, Keith would take a dinner break at some point, focusing on getting Kosmo fed and then sitting near the campfire to take in who else was there.]

=====

[ AFTER ]

[It had been a good hunt, and they had explored more of the area around Sh'Ka as well. It was time for resting, and Keith was settling down to enjoy a good after hunt break with food. He was sharing with Kosmo, of course, who also looked content with a job well done.]

[ziedrich_bearer]

Hey man.

[Gladio, having filled his bowl up with dinner, had moved around the fire to sit down close to Keith. Better to check in with his scouts earlier, make sure they had the confidence to really face the coming day.]

You and that pup of yours are pretty impressive, you know that?

[tempredmental]

Hey... thanks. [Keith handed Kosmo a piece of his meat, which the wolf took happily.] It helps that he's really intuitive. Made him easy to train.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Intuitive, or just intelligent? Main dogs I've interacted with regularly were sentient. Could teleport too. At least, I can't think of an argument for why Umbra and Pryna couldn't do that.

[No reasonable way that those two should have been able to travel how they did otherwise.]

[tempredmental]

I'm not sure... could be both or either, I think. He's just... good. [Keith shrugged.] He can read me and other people really well for a creature that started off wild. [It wasn't like Keith had found an already domesticated species of cosmic wolf.] He was hesitant about me at first, but he came around pretty quick after he healed up. We'd found him injured as a pup.