I whoch as the cricher steps in to the flames I frown in cunfushin. I wolk over to the others I ask them whot do you think it's doing. As I sit on my heils next to the wolf.
i pull Pyro back as we watch the him move into smouldering area. my hands hold onto pyro wondering what i had started. i flinch watching animals leave him as he heats up. the flames seem to dance on his skin even though fie should have died the instant i stopped pyro. the eerily fake lights dance out toward living vegetation but i sense they are reflections, pale ghosts and unable to do any harm.
muffin, nightray try to coral the creature towards the lake pyro and i will see if we can contain the damage.
i watch the two wolves herd the creature towards our lake as i inspect the charred spot of land, it's completely dead nothing living within it. i sigh and kneel and place hand a good six inches over it and taking deep breath i focus. Slowly surrounding grass invades until patch is sparsely covered in grass.
i glance up at pyro, "it's just not our day is it?"
i take his hand and we slowly head towards lake catching up to them right at edge of the murky discolored, swamp of a lake, i had hoped to take some time and clean it up but it seemed the best place to have our new guest. trash floated in the murky depths.
OOC: I understand, but I think this provided the best way of getting me to stop, plus it's actually a bit of characterization .
IC:
I collapse into the lake, rolling onto my back as the flames die upon my skin. My eyes flutter as a deep voice rumbles within my throat. "Wh--wh--where..." Slowly, my mind falls into a dark abyss of unconsciousness. You notice, as the filthy water laps up against my body, some of my charred skin flakes off and washes away revealing, in those small areas, a softer, healthier looking green surface. My body slowly sinks down under the water, and surprisingly, into the muddy bottom of the lake, disappearing beneath the ground. There is a mild rumbling of the ground around you, and then all is quiet.
OOC: Okay, my character is out of it for a bit, though I'll play the part of my cat for awhile until someone else asks to take over. Return to the lake after a day or so for the creature's next appearance. And feel free to try to name me ICly and I'll respond to one I like.
IC:
You suddenly notice the large cat trotting down past you and to the edge of the lake, nearest to where the creature disappeared, where she curls up on the ground, and lets out a quiet whining mewl.
I take one wif of the lake and my lips crerl in discost. but the crecher woks in and seems to be at home. I sens som of the pain eb as it sicks deper in to the merky woter. I still sens the big cat foloing at a destins. I wonder why it atacht it's self to that crecher. I tern back to my humin forme and say that is the odist crecher I hav ever seen.
"hmmm, looks like a little bit of a char was just what he needed." i eye the cat warily and wander back to house thinking after this morning i could use an afternoon off.
Violet mentions being hungry and my tummy growls almost obscenely. I bark a short soft bark, then pivot and race off into the wilds beyond the campus. Somewhere I'll find something to eat, then I'll eat it.
violet menchins food so I folwo them back to the main bilding to eat and mybe git to now thes pepal beter. I look back at the cat and frown in wery I don't now why I'm weryed thow.
i watch muffin lope off knowing she'll be back later and i move to kitchen, we fix sandwhiches and i munch silently wondering about our new guests.
"i noticed you decided to remodel your room, and i have some spare quarry stone if you'd like to make a grave marker." i avoid subject of the new guest so far just trying to unwind after a long morning.
I look up at the menchin of stone for the grave, I say thank you that would be nice. I look at the tabil as the ters start agen not wonting them to see.
When I hav the ters under control I git up and asask wer is the stone at.
I walk back to the kitchen with Violet and Nightray, feeling a bit embarassed by the extent of damage caused by the fire I started. "I'll try to be more careful in the future..." I mumble. We get back, but I'm no all that hungry, so I just drink some water.
"We need to come up with some sort of plan for the future in case we meet any enemies." I suggest.
"plan, do you have anything in mind?" i finsih eating and i tell nightray i'll show him the stone, we walk and muffin joins us and i toss her a robe like garment as she shifts back to human. i point at a pile of stone a few nice rose colored pieces, some more blue or violet, most in shades of gray.
"most are suitable for carving, try and pick something the right size." i sit on a pile of stones and ponder.
"so muffin, we were talking about forming a plan for how to deal with," i pause trying to select the correct wording, "hostile visitors."
Lifting my eyebrows in surprise, I look at Violet. "Well, the first thing you have to do is have a warning system. Guards or something. There used to be electronic perimeter systems back before the Blast. Well, we already have a passive warning system, you and I. Do you want an active warning system?"
"A what?"
"A perimeter that has booby traps and mines on it. It's considered an active perimeter, a good defense, if you're expecting an attack." I explain, she shudders. "I guess not. Well, we have to rely on our senses as the passive warning system, perhaps set guards at night, if you think it'd be wise. Number one is to define the perimeters. The main one, the outer limits of what we want to defend. The place where if someone crosses the line, we go and stop them, or welcome them, whatever. Then a fall back line, the defensible perimeter, the one we can realistically defend with our resources. Usually that is fenced or walled in. If theres a base nearby maybe would could scrounge up some consodino wire."
"Consodino wire?"
"Razor like barbed wire, kinda like they have on top of chain link fences around the prison? After that, we assign each member of the unit a position in case of attack, who does what and when. That way we don't end up accidently fighting each other. Once thats done, we practice. Like pyro there, whats his range? What can he do offensively and defensively? You should have everyone here, not just the men, drill almost daily in basic self defense and in unit style guerilla tactics. We need a tunnel."
I shake my head, "what you're talking about is nearly impossible, i have people coming to eat and get healed daily so we can't put up an active barrier. unless we do it on some of our less visible borders, where people can sneak in. Pyro currently has a good range but can only control is within about fifty feet. i'm not sure we need the kind of military training you're talking about, unless you feel we should expect a well trained assault."
I close my eyes for moment, "my senses of evil are only strong when it is towards the land, and i have a rather good sense of when anyone crosses onto land i've healed, my skills are, as far as I want to venture entirely positive. I can't drain energy, though I can focus Pyro's energy precisely without his consent." i look over him and touch his hand "not that i'd ever do it, but one night i wanted to light a candle and i simple held your hand out and lit it."
violet points to som nice stons I start looking trow them picing up stons and tosing them aside then I see it a stone that machis the coler of her faverit flower the red rose. I pick it up and see that I will have to smuth som rufegis
but other wise it is perfict.
I tern back to the girls and lesin to whot ther saying. I grin and say that all sonds good to me. I will tech any budy who whonts to lern the marshil arts.
"Hmmm. Then perhaps a small scale team would be the best. It looks like that would be us then. We would have to learn to work together as a team, one leader, the rest follow, can't have all chiefs and no indians. It would be rather like a strike team, when the need arose, we would go out and investigate, then deal with the intruder in the necessary manner, that is, either offer succor or defend the Campus." I scratched my head and considered. "I was on the Teams before the Blast, its a relatively simple concept. A small force utilizing guerilla tactics can succcessfully defend an area. Peacefully as well as aggressively."
Something I'd just said just hit me. The Teams? I knew I'd been military before, but the Teams? Me?
"Yes, that's a good idea. We should stick together as a team. Getting caught out alone could be dangerous. I think we should set up a schedule for roaming the perimeter, and also find a high point suitable for a watch tower. From now on we should tke turns keeping watch all night. I don't like the idea of someone sneaking up on us."
I take a deep breath; I hadn't realised just how nervous about all this I was.
"Muffin, you seem to know a lot more about this than any of us. Why don't you come up with a training exercise so we can practice."
after lisining to them I say I will whoch at nighet since I can see in the dark as if it wher day.
then I tern to go and shape the stone. I woke to the grave I put the stone doun and go to look for a chesil and hamer. I find them in the shed that I fond every thing els I look at it it's not made for stone werk but it will have to do. I go back to the grave and start smuthing and shaping it. which takes about 1 hour to do.
I stop to git som whoter and see if the others hav finisht ther planing.
OOC: Again, anyone reading and interested in getting involved in this thread can feel free to take over control of the cat if they first email me about it so I'm aware of it and so I can give them a brief background of why the cat's hooked up with the creature. In the meantime, I thought I might give the cat some character and have her interact with everyone else a little bit.
IC:
At least an hour after being left by the side of the lake, the large cat stands up and stretches, feeling playful and refreshed after the cat-nap. She steps over to the water and sniffs at it. The lake has a thin film of algae covering the spot that the creature disappeared into. Shaking her nose at the smell, she turns around and trots off in the direction of the people. With the creature gone, she no longer feels confused, though she does feel drawn to the lake.
As she enters the campus area, she crouches down, her ears propped straight up (for those who aren't aware, that means she's playful not mad or hunting). She crawls to the edge of a building, watching those who are outside enjoying the day. She moves quickly and silently, as low to the ground and she can get, considering her size. She moves around the campus and is not far away when she sees nightray returning from the garden (though she doesn't recognize him). As he reaches the building, she dart across the yard suddenly, pouncing on an imaginary prey (as cats at play tend to do. She's not coming at nightray, but does this in a spot that he can see her from). Her head snaps around and she looks at nightray who is at least 50 feet from her, her tail slowly wagging from one side to the other. She seems much more at ease than she did earlier. She stands up and walks around in a circle before flopping down on the ground and grooming herself as she lays in the sun. Occassionally she hops up and pounces on that imaginary prey again, and then returns to her grooming. Some of the people around the campus have gathered at a respectful distance, while some have retreated to the buildings, knowing the danger a large feline can present.
on my way to the kichin I see the cat playing. I smile and woch from a safe destins after awile I fel plafol my self wich dusn't hapin ofin. I smile and wolk over to her and crowch about 4 feet away from her and hold my hand out fore her to smell and send frendly thots out to her so she nos I mene her no harm.
Character description: A tall, gaunt, deathly pale-skinned man with a thick mane of black hair and bloodshot red eyes. Appears to be in his early twenties, though even DOA isn't entirely sure about his actual age. Favours predominanly black and dark reds in his clothing (usually made of leather), studs, chains, and skull motifs. His garments often look more than a little worn and tattered.
* * *
I alighted on the tip of a jutting rock, which gave me a great view of the surrounding terrain. Not that there was much to look at, after the war, or so I had been told by the elders, but there was something about the often harsh, barren landscape that I found... appealing. I could see the shimmer of water in the distance, a lake or river I thought, since I knew myself to be some distance from the coast. My throat always felt parched... though I had no need of food or drink, water soothed it.
I had been told also that I had a rather morbid disposition. Well, what do you expect? I was dead, after all. But death was something that my body had refused to accept. According to those... scientists... who had studied me, my cellular structure regenerated at a 'unimaginably fantastic' rate.
They had taken great pains in testing its limits... or rather, giving me great pain while trying to find the limit. They believed that it would require incinerating me completely to end my existence.
At least they never got to test that theory, though at times I wondered if that would have indeed granted me final rest. Maybe, one day, when I grew tired of... my 'life'... I would put it to the test myself.
I stood at the very lip, looking down at the ground far beneath me, and closed my eyes.
I could fly... but... sometimes I just decided not to bother. The rush of adrenaline as I plummeted downwards had become something of an addiction to me. Anyway, within a couple of minutes after hitting the ground, I would soon be getting up and dusting myself off.
If those scientists had done me any favours, it was showing me how to ignore pain. Not that, indeed, I always chose to do so. I spread my arms, and allowed myself to topple forwards.
No doubt my laughter would be quite perturbing to anyone who might be within earshot, who bore witness to my body as it fell towards the earth. I just hoped I wouldn't have to stitch many more holes back up in my jacket.
"All right Pyro." I said, "I'll think about it and get back to you."
"Good." Violet said, seeming relieved that we had a workable idea she could live with. She leaned over and kissed Pyro. I slipped from the room, leaving my robe at the door, and shifted wolf, slinking off into the brush to think.
I was disturbed and didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to dredge my memory, see what I could find about the Teams, other than the words I'd just said.
After the last couple of bones popped back into their sockets, I sat up, and checked my jacket. Hmm, typical. Well, I had a couple more patches left in my pack.
Standing, I glanced about, and my eyes caught the shimmer of water in the distance again.
The ground parted from me again as I rose up into the air, heading off in that direction. I had swallowed a good chunk of dirt with that fall, and needed to wash my throat out.
Who knows, maybe there were people over there, if the water was clean. Water was a precious commodity, especially since a lot of it had been irradiated. Not that radiation bothered me much.
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere." I say. Violet leans over to give me a kiss, but I'm too worried about what might happen to acknowledge her. "I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight. Is there an easy way to get to the roof?" I ask, grabbing a roll to munch on.
The cat looks raises up a bit and looks into nightray's eyes, then moves her nose to sniff at his hand. She lets out a low, rumbling purr that would sound more playfull if she weren't so large. She stands up and walks around behind nightray. Suddenly, she rises up, placing her large, face-sized paws on his shoulders, and with one swipe of her tongue she grooms his hair...the wrong direction, leaving it sticking straight up in the air. She then flops to the ground and rolls over in front of him, before standing back up and shoving her large cheeks against his side, almost knocking him over.
"you might want to try some of the old stair cases, I never felt at ease up high so never bothered to explore them all."
I rub my temples a headache forming, anybody who told me I'd be at a college forming a fight plan with my lover, a wolfing and a changling, I'd say they were crazy.
"what time would be best for training? or a rotating time?"
OOC children tend to feel safe here so they like being here.