lostcarnival | ⇨ THE HUNT

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⇨ THE HUNT

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 173, the Afternoon
Where: Heartstone Manor Courtyard
What: Everyone goes into the forest with arrows, swords, and horses and is told to hunt and the kill the biggest beast they can find. Best kills win a prize! Or, if you'd rather not, you can wander around the forest and pretend to hunt instead.
Warnings: Violence and ethical quandaries.

BEASTS OF BURDEN↴

Come the day of the Hunt, everyone will be brought to the courtyard forest and provided with arrows, bows, and blades as requested. Magic and other weaponry can be used to hunt, but it is suggested by the Prince that the best kill is the one done in a gentlemanly manner, which probably means he will be most impressed by those using the tools provided.

The "Best Kill" will be determined from a mixture or whatever beast the Prince decides is best, and the method in which it was killed. The less damage done to the body the better - tearing the body apart will receive poor grades.

The corpses are not yours to eat or keep, and all must be returned to the Prince at the end of the day for judgment.

The servants are especially nervous, tense, and solemn today, and unless they have no choice, most of them will be trying to give the courtyard a wide berth. Those that have to serve will have stony expressions, or at best will be trying to put on a cheerful face.

If casually asked why they are upset, most of them will say something vague about the Hunt making them nervous, and how dangerous it is to participate.

OOC: Those who make top levels will have a chance to be randomly selected for a couple particular plot events, so be prepared for that.

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If there's one thing Peridot wishes she could do right now, it's make herself smaller.

Fortunately, she's not enough of an idiot to risk turning into an animal in the middle of an event that revolves around killing them. Still, there's some temptation there. The whole atmosphere surrounding this hunt business has her hair standing on end. Peridot's not exactly one to shy away from violent sport (let's be real, violent sport is like, a favorite gem pastime), but something about the way the servants are behaving has her on edge. Not to mention that killing an animal is pretty different from watching two equally matched quartzes pound the snot out of each other...

So yeah. She's not exactly raring to go, here. She picked up a bow and some arrows for show before heading off into the woods, but she has no intention of actually tracking anything down. Her time so far has been spent wandering around in a state of constant fear, so Steven is definitely a sight for sore eyes.

"Steven!" she hisses, scrambling up to him. "I thought you left with Joker... What are you doing out here?"

He definitely had been with Joker and the others, at least initially. Yet, the longer they wandered, the more he felt something nagging in his gut - the feeling on inaction. Something was wrong here. He'd felt how upset the workers were. They were afraid and sad. Or angry.

So he started wandering, hoping that he could find one of the creatures to get close. He can defend himself. He doesn't need to be worried about that part, right?

Steven jolts a little bit when Peridot appears, but upon her presence sinking in, he will turn to her gratefully.

"I was, but... I had to see if I could find one of the animals, because..." He clenches his hand around his belly. "This seems really weird. Really really weird."

"Find one of the animals?" Peridot says with a start, her expression incredulous. "And do WHAT? They're supposed to be vicious! DANGEROUS!"

"I... I don't know if they are!" Steven says, starting to sound more distressed. "Why are all the servants acting so weird? The ones in the courtyard were all scared... or... or sad!"

He's clearly getting pretty worked up - it's not dissimilar to how he was on the radio a few days ago.

"...The corrupted gems seem vicious too, right?"

Gems sakes. She hates it when Steven makes more sense than her.

"Nnngh... True," Peridot admits reluctantly, ears drooping. She doesn't look happy about any of this. "I will concede that the atmosphere around the servants has me a bit... concerned. But how are you even going to find one? And what will you do when you DO?"

Steven looks like he's desperately trying to come up with a cool idea he can present for a long few moments, before he chokes it down and starts moving to head off into the forest again. He's not trying to leave her behind, he's just... moving.

"I... I dunno. I'll just have to think of something when I get there. If I can find out what's wrong, maybe I can tell the others."

"Steven?" she says as he starts to walk away. "Steven that's not--" THAT'S NOT A PLAN.

She's hesitant to follow, watching him get a little ways ahead. The sound of something roaring in the distance is what finally spooks her into scrambling after him. She stumbles a couple times, trying to fall into step.

"Well you'll have an easier time finding one if you have my help," Peridot sniffs, and there's a brief glow as she summons up some magic and puts her bat ears on.

Steven pauses to watch Peridot do that, stopping looking quite as solemn long enough to be surprised. In a pleasant kind of way, for once.

"Oh wow," he says. "I forgot you could do that."

"Nyeheheh... Yeah, it's pretty impressive," she says without a lick of humility. "But if you think that's good, you should see this other spell I've been working--"

The tech breaks off mid sentence, an odd expression on her face, ears twitching. Slowly, she looks up towards the canopy of the trees, and her eyes seem to widen to the size of dinner plates.

"S-s-s-s-Steven-- STEVEN..." she squeaks, clutching clumsily for his sleeve, not taking her eyes off the trees.

Steven looks at Peridot, an unnerving feeling creeping into his gut. Like, a sense of panic? Is it his? Or is it...?

He looks up. And there... is a giant bat.

"W- AHH!" Steven yelps as it basically drops on top of both of them like Batman. Thankfully, Steven is shield guy, which means that pink bubble is appearing nigh instantaneously.

Peridot squeals and ducks behind Steven, clutching at him and hiding her face. "IT'S VICIOUS! I KNEW IT I KNEW IT--"

She's just going to keep babbling like that for a second. What a hero.

On the bright side, them being in the bubble means that the bat's frenzied squalling is for naught, on the downside, it's sort of stressful having a giant creature basically mauling something a foot from your face. Still, Steven is mostly just riding on a wave of external fear - both from Peridot beside him, and the bat up above.

"It's... it's scared! Peridot, I think it's afraid of us!"

Peridot just laughs, and it's an unpleasantly bitter, incredulous sound. "It's scared of us!? But we didn't even do anything to it!" She dares to take a peek at it, and gets treated to the awful sight of gnashing bat teeth. Looking was a bad idea.

Apparently realizing that its attacks aren't actually doing anything, the bat abruptly lifts off back into the tree, casting a shadow in its path. Steven watches it go, trying to sort out what he's feeling from it.

"I think it's expecting to be hunted... so when it saw us it freaked out..."

So, it really is like the corrupted gems. Except... when those gems get poofed, they can come back later. He's not sure about this one.

"Oh thank the stars," Peridot wheezes faintly to herself when it finally pauses it's assault. She lets go of Steven and slumps to the ground with relief. "Great, so we found one. So now what?"

"Uh..." This is the part where having a plan would have come in handy.

"You can have bat ears and stuff," he comes up with, a moment later. "Can you talk to it??"

With bat language.

Peridot just. Levels an unimpressed stare at him. "What."

"With like... sonar or something!"

Steven doesn't know how bats work, but he's trying.

"Okay, first off, bats don't talk to each other with sonar. They use sonar to navigate and hunt." Don't be bat racist, Steven. "Second... I can't just AUTOMATICALLY TALK TO BATS just because I turn into one! I mean, I feel like I might have been able to back in Portland, b-but I definitely can't do it now!"

"Oh... rats," he says, frowning back up at where the bat went. "Or, I guess... bats. H-Ha ha." He officially has no idea what they are doing.

"But... it's gotta be like working with the gem monsters! We've just gotta work with that will make it comfortable. Do you remember what bats like?"

He's just so sure that Peridot's bat essence is key to this scenario.

There's a pause while she thinks, mind still reeling from the thorough startling the giant bat just gave them.

"Fruit?" she suggests uncertainly after a second. "Fruit and... I don't know. Trees?"

This is dumb. But it gives her a different idea. One that she's not exactly keen on suggesting, given the risk it poses to her own person, but. It's all she's got.

"Maybe... I could try transforming? Maybe if it sees me with you, it'll see us as less of a threat."

Steven gloms onto that suggestion immediately, and it is clearly the best idea he's ever heard regarding bat taming.

"Oh, yeah, yeah! Do that!" he says, pumping his fists enthusiastically.

Peridot takes a step back, holding her fists up in determination. She nods, cracking a tiny grin. Steven's enthusiasm is infectious like that.

"Alright... Stand back and watch me work! ...and uh. Maybe keep the bubble up."

There's an even brighter glow than before, and Peridot's shape warps and shrinks slightly, until the light fades and there's a fluffy round bat sitting on the ground where she was just standing.

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⇨ THE HUNT

TIME TO TALK TO A BAT (closed to Steven)

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