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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Foster is bleeding.

This is not unusual, nor in this case unexpected, because he did it on purpose. The knife is still in one hand--the pads of both ursine paws dark with fresh blood, claws wet, kinked blond fur matted with it.

This is probably not what anyone was expecting when he said he had something in mind already. Or when he pulled the mice out of his pockets. The two extremely dead, extremely expired mice--which had been trapped (and dispatched) back on Carnival grounds, so it was only to be expected that they weren't in the best condition, even with a minor charm to keep them from going too off.

But now...

Now they were much, much more bigger. And much toothier. And a bit less foul. And... well, rather more animate. Watching them sniff the blood-dampened earth, they were almost--almost doglike, but their torsos were a little too long, their heads a little too sloped, their paws a little too... handlike.

"Hunting dogs," he comments simply, wiping the knife off on a nearby bush. But for as little as he's saying, his face betrays a rare, genuine smile.

He hasn't felt this good--this confident before. Or not... no, well, not in a long time. A very long time. Even if he hasn't eaten, he feels like this could nourish him for a day. Days, even.

He's not used to success.

He doesn't bother to wonder how long it'll last.

Instead, he mounts his mare, whose pinned ears and tight mouth say she's not feeling as thrilled with his inventions.

He doesn't bother to try and keep his blood off the reins.

"Shall we go?"

Edited 2017-10-13 03:37 (UTC)

Both Carly and her own mare, a shining, tall thing of seeming gold, seem equally uncomfortable with the 'hounds', but the wardrobe manager wisely says nothing about the matter. When they encountered the other, there was plenty to make her uneasy about what they were doing.

But as she said then, and as she will say now-"Yes; we should all be ready, right?" she asks, glancing at Miko before continuing on. "...We're on shaky ground-too shaky to risk anything, right now. With any luck.... ...Participating in this properly will win the Carnival some reputation and sway back." Her horse stamps the ground, and Carly holds her bow a little awkwardly. She's not Too good with this but....

Well, she was practicing, and there was a reason for it.

Miko glances uncertainly at the hounds - while trying to keep her horse from just backing the fuck away from them, which is sure as hell what he wants to be doing right now. "I think we got different definitions of 'dog', dude."

She nods eagerly at the question. "Let's do this thing!"

Technically, neither of these two have ever seen what a dog looks like in his world. Perhaps these are dogs to him!

They're not, of course. Which is why he shakes some blood off his fingertips and smiles brightly as he settles into the saddle, then looks down at the two 'dogs.'

Undead or not, his creations mill about, still sniffing the ground at his horse's restless feet.

"Search."

There was no need to say it out loud, of course, but it's satisfying. And if he learned anything in school as a child, it's that presentation is an essential part of magic.

Either way, they start to move, handlike paws leaving strange tracks as they circle and then break their way into the undergrowth, furry heads lifting every few seconds to scent at the air.

He kicks his mare into a walk, then a trot; she tosses her head, clearly unhappy, but complies.

"If they find anything--when they find something," he corrects himself with an unusual degree of certainty, "I'll know."

"Good. ...If this is anything like a hunt from antiquity, it's better to find them that way," Carly admits, chewing her lip. "....At least in my world, when hunting even for food, the less damage done, the better... ....If you're in control of them though, you can keep them from biting whatever they find, right?" Carly adds, following after the other.

Miko urges her horse forward, and he follows eagerly behind the others. In fact, he kind of seems to want to move further up, but she does her best to keep him in position. Even she can tell that it would make no sense for her to get ahead of Foster.

"Oh, yeah-- we're not supposed to damage whatever we get too much, right? 'Cuz the Prince wants their skins or whatever." That's the reason rich people usually want to hunt things without damaging them, isn't it?

"The... the servants wouldn't... actually tell me why," Foster replies--he's trying to organise his thoughts to speak them, one stiff ear flicking at the too-close buzz of an insect. "But apparently whatever we kill still belongs to the manor."

Carly's question is much easier to answer, at least.

"But they are under my complete control, yes." His tone shifts from reserved to... smug, maybe. Condescending? Maybe he's just proud, for once, and really bad at expressing it. "I can use them to track our... uh, prey and run it to the ground, but after that..."

Even with them behind him, his smile is audible. "If did this alone, it would be mincemeat."

He owes them... a great deal simply for allowing him to join them, let alone permitting him to contribute. On his own, Foster is aware that his odds of... doing anything more than pointlessly tearing things to shreds were frankly abysmal. Thankfully for anyone trying not to think about that, his 'hounds' are moving faster now, and he lowers his head, leaning forward to focus as he urges his mare into a trot--then something a little faster.

"A 'trophy' is probably the reason," Carly admits, chewing her lip. "Even at home, 'trophy hunting' is...something that lots of rich people do." She urges her horse after Foster's to match speed, somehow holding herself straight despite sitting side-saddle.

"So....he probably wants to stuff it, or something like that....AHH-B-But definitely, it's best that we work to not do that then..!! So it's good we're working together," she coughs, pulling out her bow.

"...Anyway....I had an idea to use my fire magic, because of that. It doesn't burn anything...but it does steal energy! So it'll help to weaken, and maybe even more peacefully....finish things," the woman adds, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"....It'll brighten our image with the Prince at least, I'm sure..."

It's not long before the maushunds find some sort of trail. Large prints that look like they were left by a dinosaur -- or a giant chicken. The tracks lead deeper in the forest and soon, there is a dusty spot where the ground is disturbed and the shrubs are broken. There's blood on the ground, too; blood and feathers. There's also some sort of sticky black-blue substance that might also be blood, of another creature.

Not too far off, in a small clearing, the cockatrice can be seen. But it isn't alone. On it's back there is another... "thing". It has its teeth sunk into the cockatrice's neck, and the chicken monster has a few large chunks missing out of its tail and legs. Thankfully, it looks like the cockatrice still has the upper hand -- between its larger size and thick, scaly skin, it continues to fight even as it bleeds. It seems to be trying to get airborne, in order to dump the assailant on its back.

So much for a clean kill.

But it doesn't seem like the white creature is trying to just kill the cockatrice. It's trying to eat it.

Edited 2017-10-16 02:49 (UTC)

"Energy? How's that work? It--"

She cuts off when they come up on the clearing, fuzzy ears flipping toward the cockatrice and the-- whatever that is. "--Hey! Crap!"

Foster can listen and lead--so to speak--at the same time, but only just; he definitely can't chat while he does so, so Carly and Miko have their conversation to themselves. The trail is easy to follow, though--the maushunds lead them through the undergrowth at a brisk pace, their undead bodies immune to pain or branches whipped into their faces.

The blood, though.

The blood--

Foster's heart sinks and his pulse quickens all at once. Excitement, dismay, hope, fear, anticipation--

The moments between finding the blood and coming upon the clearing have his chin streaked with drool, his mind in racing fragments, but he actually recognises one of the beasts in the clearing. He recognises it, and he remembers it.

One piece of his brain recalls, distantly, that attacking Carnival members is forbidden. But that piece is not the whole, nor is it in control, and his undead beasts set upon the fight in a flash, rushing the white beast with jaws snapping to drive it off their prey as Foster runs his horse around the edge of the clearing, briefly too preoccupied to remember the reined command to 'halt.'

"Well, basically, it just burns-" Carly doesn't really get to answer. As they come forward, her horse immediately whinnies, and freezes in place. Carly's eyes widen as she looks ahead, and Foster is the one who moves first-sending the dogs forward, while he himself ends up running around, around, and-

Something clicks, in the back of her mind. This one isn't looking to boost reputations with the Prince.

But they could use this- "...HEY..!" she shouts, drawing her arm back as it coats with violet flames. She thrusts her arm forward, and a small comet of the fire is launched onward, her face twisting with anger. "GET AWAY FROM THAT..!"

Hahah. The Prince? Who the hell is that? Maybe Zangetsu remembered when he started this adventure. But now, he doesn't remember at all. All he knows is he is hungry, and this beast seems to have a particularly strong and tasty soul. Almost human! Strange, that. But not something he is thinking about right now. Right now he's trying to figure out how to get through the creature's thick hide.

But then there's more spiritual signatures, and these are certainly human. Fuck. More humans, here to spoil his hunt?! After those others had chased him away from the winged deer? He was not going to let go of his quarry so easily!

The maushunds rush him, biting into his skin with their sharp rodent teeth. Zangetsu releases the cockatrice to deal with the undead hounds, and he takes a big bite out of one of them in turn--

-- only to be met with a familiar taste like sawdust, or chewing on oak bark, like all the water was sucked out of his mouth at once. Foster's magic. The hounds are thrown off with a ferocious roar, but then Zangetsu is met with another onslaught. Strange purple fire that doesn't burn so much as it drains. Where it contacts his skin he can feel the energy being sucked out of his body, and his limbs getting heavy.

Well fuck.

He's not quite ready to give up, though; he raises his hand toward the group and forms a sphere of red and white swirling energy in his palm, then fires it in the form of a nuclear red beam accompanied by a unique sound

Ooooh Miko's horse does not like that at all. In fact, he dislikes it so much he's decided he's about ready to go now, thanks, and it's only through years of practice being a squirrely little fucker who can't stop climbing on things that Miko manages to jump off and out of the way of the beam before he bolts.

"--Crap! You kidding me?!" She leaps to the side, then back at Zangetsu from an angle, aiming to bowl him over.

Foster's horse doesn't throw him, but only because he, at the time of the laser fire, is somewhat diagonal from its path--and even then, she starts and bolts, running several yards into the woods before he can turn her around. Which does make one less obstacle to Carly's aim.

In the meantime, though, his undead beasts have no fear, let alone sentience. Even with a large, oozing wound in one of their sides, they charge back in--the damaged one setting back upon Zangetsu, the other harrying the cockatrice's heels, snapping and slavering as it screeches fury and beats its wings, throwing a spray of blood from Zangetsu's bites into the air.

Evidently, that initial shout is not working. Carly doesn't dismount however-when the laser fires, she scatters into feathers and light, taking the form of a hummingbird to narrowly dodge. And while her horse assuredly starts to panic, bolting from the spot she actually manages to calm it down with those very violet flames; returning to her seat in human form again as she does so, before moving the fire to the air again. Miko is doing great to try and tackle the other, or at least create distraction though...not to mention the 'hounds'. The cockatrice is still very alive, true, but now Zangetsu is the bigger worry.

Which is why, with a deep breath, she gathers a lot more fire above her.

"I said... GET AWAY..!" she shouts, the flames splitting into a number of 'whips' as they hone in toward the other. "We're taking this one..!"

Lots of things happening at once. Lots! Most importantly, his Cero doesn't hit anyone, but does manage to spook the horses.

Miko tackles him at full force (was she fucking crazy?). One of Foster's weird flesh golems bites into his flesh again, and his healing can't keep up -- because Carly's flames are sapping his energy as he fights furiously against the onslaught.

Damn. Again. Again he was going to be chased away from his prey! But here, he was strongly outnumbered, and outgunned. If he kept going like this, he would die.

He can't die, not here, not like this.

So with huge, ferocious roar, he lets off a burst of dark energy from his body, a concussive wave of pure spirit energy, meant to knock back.

Once he is free of his tormentors, he'll make a break for it, back into the deep woods. Giving chase to him doesn't seem wise, because with that predator gone, the cockatrice turns its foul (or shall we say, fowl) gaze on the hunting party.

One could definitely make the argument that Miko is, in fact, fucking crazy. She definitely has bad judgement one way or another. The burst of energy throws her off pretty efficiently, and her shoulder smacks against a tree trunk before she hits the ground.

"--Agh, crap!" She rolls to sit up, testing her shoulder, and her gaze jumps after Zangetsu - then back to the cockatrice. "Oh, hey."

CONVENIENT???

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⇨ THE HUNT

Cockatrice hunt: Miko, Carly... and this guy. (Later: Zangetsu!)

ohboy

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skootches in here

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rolls a dang 15 on this unofficial dex check

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