paixaorpg | A-Hunting We Will Go [Completed]

Entry tags:

A-Hunting We Will Go [Completed]

Character(s): Gaston, Jack, Blue, and anyone else joining in!
Content: Gaston leads an intrepid band of explorers out to hunt in the wilderness outside Paixao!
Setting: Niflheim gates (and beyond)
Time: Evening
Warnings: No one says no to Gaston. This includes gatekeepers.

"What do you mean we can't leave the city?" Gaston demanded, pushing aside the people crowding around the table at the edge of the city gates. The line was growing even longer now that it was unable to move, but the hunter didn't seem to care. All those pansy people could get inside the city once he and his fellow hunters were done!

The unfortunate gatekeeper, who apparently hadn't heard of Gaston's amazing reputation, gave them a meek smile, "It's too dangerous outside the city. It's much nicer in here. Everything you need to live is inside these gates. Why would you want to leave?"

"Why would we want to ~stay~?" Obviously, this poor pathetic excuse for a person had no idea what real men thought of such flimsy excuses for cowardice. Gaston snorted derisively, glancing over at Jack and Blue, "This poor sap thinks we're afraid of a little bit of danger and wilderness! How about that!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jack had long-since shaken off the bewilderment River's cryptic words and sudden departure had raised, and found himself distracted and mildly upset by the conversation about "halfways" (was that the right word? He didn't care to look again and check.) he'd had with Farllee, and the journal post by Sora. Even if it hadn't ended in an entirely negative note, well..... well, those halfways and MuZz sounded an awful lot like him and Halloweentown..... Had he really had a "crap-hell" life, or however Farllee had described it? He certainly hoped not! That would be just.... he had to believe he was a good person in this life and the one before it, that he'd had a good life to go with it. He just.... had to. What else was there to think if he didn't?

And then Sora! Who was he? He seemed.... remarkably sweet. An adorable boy for sure, who seemed to know and like him pretty well. Well enough to be unnerving, in fact, because Jack had been positive at the beginning of their little conversation that they had been perfect strangers. Now, though? Now.... he wasn't so sure. Sora had been so certain, had been able to talk about a specific incident.... and he didn't remember it. Not in the slightest. It was impossible, wasn't it? He'd faced down against Oogie Boogie conclusively once before, and it hadn't proven to be so conclusive after all--he'd just driven Oogie back into hiding, pretty much. But by Sora's words, it sounded as if they'd defeated him, really soundly destroyed the threat once and for all. But Oogie was definitely in Paixao now, so....

Jack was terribly confused. At least it had provided him something to think about on their trip to the gate, even if it hadn't been pleasant; he'd been singularly quiet from trying to mull it over.

He'd done his best to banish those unhelpful thoughts as they reached the gates, standing patiently behind Gaston as the larger man argued for their right to leave. Jack couldn't help but laugh at the exchange, clasping one of Gaston's powerful shoulders with a skeletal hand and unknowingly drawing from the great collective unconscious that is Disney. "If you ask me, Gaston's well suited to walk on the wild side; he'd laugh in the face of danger. It is nice in here, but don't you ever want to shake things up and have a few--chills?" He popped his skull off at the prompting question, offering a smile and chuckle that seemed almost sinister as he casually tossed his head from hand to hand.

Blue frowned. She hadn't expected anyone to try and stop them from leaving. Shouldn't they have a right? It's not like they weren't going to return... Surely the domed city could be seen from quite a distance; it wasn't as if they were going to get lost.

A little bit of danger and wilderness? Blue may not be have been a full-fledged wolf, but she had her share of danger towards the end of her 'life'. That life, anyway. Insane, crazed, rabid-like danger. Ending of a world, really.

She wasn't afraid of whatever lurked outside the gates.

She stepped forward, weaving her way around the confused-looking people waiting to pass through. At one time Blue had been one of them... It's not that she had accepted the city of Paixao, but she had settled, just a bit. After all, she was alive.

"Sir, you must understand that we are aware of these 'dangers' you speak of. We're fully prepared, and I believe we'll be back in one piece." And laughing in you face, too. "Unless you have been outside the gates before, then I don't think you have a right to stop us. And certainly if you have been out, you're back in one piece. No worries, I'm sure."

Blue turned away and walked a bit from the booth, glancing back at the man narrowly, as if challenging him to get out from behind his safe little 'cage' and stop her himself. She sincerely doubted him to, but if he did, Blue knew she could take him.

[OOC: Thread invasion, part I! Nice to see y'all. :D]

Sylar stretched uncomfortably as he stepped off the train. Those things were uncomfortable enough without riding one twice in one day.

He plastered the friendly smile back on his face as the rest of his party emerged from the train. "You two - uh, three," He noted the new girl with little surprise, "-have a good time back there?"

His attention turned back to the gate, where three people were clearly arguing with the guard. Sylar watched in mild surprise as one of them removed his own head - what was next, Shakespearean quotations? - and began to casually toss it from hand to hand, like any other guy would do with a baseball.

Well, this would certainly be interesting.

"C'mon." He nodded at his traveling companions. "Let's go." Not waiting for an answer, he turned and strode towards the gate, fully intent on getting in on whatever was happening.

If it got him out of here, so much the better.

Alice shrugged and walked near Robert, making sure to keep up with Sora and Chizuru. They had plenty of fun conversation, but now Alice was curious to see what this particular venture would bring. Absentmindedly, she hiked her dress a little to the thigh to see if the blade was there, and nodded gently went she felt the familiar cold steel against her skin. Robert had asked a question but had hardly seemed interested in the answer, which was fine as Alice was even less interested in answering it. Her attention was geared more toward the people at the gate. Not the gatekeepers of course, they were no different to Alice than the insane children. No, her attention were towards the others trying to get into the gate.

One of the figures was rather lanky, and Alice managed a small smile when she saw him remove his head and toss it easily from one hand to the other. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that this character was Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King, and he looked every bit as regal as he sounded. While Alice was a rather independent and at times disagreeable to authority, there were a few she respected, and she could tell that a king that inspired fright gave off a rather delicious feeling of nobility.

The other man seemed fairly gung-ho and, from what she could tell, the type of man Chizuru would loathe. He had a demeanor of overconfidence, brevity and swagger. Had he said "off with your head gatekeeper" Alice would have thought him the male version of the Queen of Hearts.

Alice walked up to the new crew, and, standing in front of Jack, curtsied. "It is nice to finally meet you, Mister Jack. I offer you services on behalf of me, Alice, former Queen of the Looking Glass Realm. I shall be with you in a moment."

Alice dashed off, but only enough so that she was unseen by the others. Without a moment's notice, she pulled out the weapon that was sure to get the guards to neglect their duties: the jackbox. It was a favorite of Alice's, and she was only sorry they were a diversion tactic. They were so good at putting down pets.

She threw the jackbox several feet away, and heard the familiar childish chime before BOOOM! The explosion happened that had everyone's attention. It spread to maybe ten feet, but did enough crater damage that people were jolted from their previous thoughts. Alice quietly sneaked back to Sora and Chizuru, trying to look completely innocent.

If Alice had ever had any doubt in her mind about who the man tossing his own head around was, Sora wasted no time in exclaiming, "It's Jack!!"

It was really nice to see a familiar face in this world (even if said familiar face no longer remembered a thing about him). He grinned widely as he and Alice and Chizuru (and Sylar) darted towards the small party, and he had to remind himself that Jack really didn't remember him, so he shouldn't be grinning like an idiot.

So, he settled for a grin and rocking on his feet, trying to examine all the preople present. He only knew Jack, but he wasn't sure what to think about the others. One man looked like all he ever did was work out (was that who Riku was trying to look like??) and then a woman.

Sora opened his mouth to say something to the group (were they headed to the same place, he wondered) but then Alice's wonderful explosion caught him off gaurd and he started.

It didn't surprise him when the guards ran that-a-way, and he grinned, giving Alice a thumbs up. "Is everyone going outside? 'Cause that's our cue, let's go!!"

Chizuru's first reaction at the gate, to the big man-shaped pituitary case, was to recoil and briefly pantomime retching off to one side. Her next reaction, to watching a skeletal-looking guy take off his head and start juggling it, was to spaz-- until she saw that both Sora and Alice seemed to know this person. Her third action was to check out the boyish-looking girl, finally deciding that she might be worth investigating more carefully. Fourthly, she glanced over the man Alice had described as suspicious. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him aside from the obvious Y-chromosome, but... better to be safe than sorry?

Then a bomb went off somewhere, and Chizuru spazzed again until Sora announced that they were actually getting out of Paixao! She checked to make sure Alice was with them (not quite realizing that Alice had set off the explosions as a distraction to the guards), then joined Sora in the iminent departure!

[OOC: And here's Thread Invasion, part II!]

Death watched the conversations and ensuing explosion at the gate with no surprise. Humans tended to do this sort of thing regularly. THEY SEEM TO BE LEAVING THE GATES, he observed, turning back to Jintetsu. DO YOU WISH TO FOLLOW THEM?

Without waiting for an answer, Death set off after the group, curious and intent on meeting his look-alike.

This was... completely out of nowhere. Jintetsu wouldn't argue with the convenience of all these people suddenly showing up, though. He could just slip out at the back of the group and then go his own way - preferably not the same way the rest of them were going, of course.

He jumped at the sudden explosion by the gate. The hell was that?? Yeah, it was time to get out of here. Granted, he wouldn't be surprised if somebody in that group was the one that set it off, but he didn't plan on sticking around them any longer than he had to anyway.

Death didn't give him a chance to answer, so he didn't; he just tilted his woven hat over his face and headed out with the rest of the group, close enough that it sort of looked like he was with them.

At the sound of the explosion, the gatekeeper had gotten to his feet, looking perplexed and anxious. Gaston snorted derisively, casting only a brief glance back at the smoking crater before helping the Paixaoan along with a shove in the general direction of the chaos. "You'd best go take care of that. Your 'safe' city is blowing itself to little tiny pieces... I'm sure you'll have that cleaned up by the time we get back."

Ignoring the gatekeeper's plea to reconsider, the hunter marched outside the gates, shaking his head at the sheer idiocy of it all. This city really was run by a bunch of lunatics and morons...

It hadn't escaped his attention that some other people had chosen that moment to leave the city as well. That was no big surprise. It only proved to Gaston that more people were bored out of their mind by the city and wanted to actually live a little...

"It's Jack!"

The exclamation would have made Jack turn his head if he were wearing it properly; instead, he spun it in his palm, turning it back to see who was shouting his name. That was Sora, it had to be. He looked just like the journal icons, energy, grin, and all--and from the tone, sounded just like him, too. Such enthusiasm! Smiling, he plopped his head firmly back onto his own neck, turning to see Alice approaching. "The pleasure is mine, my dear. Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, at your service as well." Extraordinary height and long limbs made his regal bow even more theatrical than it might have otherwise been, and he beamed after the girl as he straightened, wondering just what she had in mind. The question was answered soon enough, and he marveled at her little trick--exploding jack-in-the-boxes! Absolutely ingenious! With that explosion, he didn't need to be told twice to leave; Jack bounded off as the gatekeeper left his post, out of Paixao and into the unknown.

~*~

(OOC: This part is an IM log, done between me and Raina; we did it presuming that the two of them had a head start on the others getting out; please feel free to have everyone else catch up! Since it's so long, I'm just going to make replies to this post for the rest.)

Sora slowed down, once they were far enough away from the guards, and it was obvious that the guards weren't following them anymore. The others must have been a bit further behind (Sora had never realized he was that much faster than them) and he straightened himself.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, eyes wide in amazement and slight disbelief. "I never realized Alice had explosive stuff!!"

Jack had kept up with Sora easily--beyond easily, in fact; having legs long enough to cover a few meters with each running stride definitely gave him a nice advantage over most in the speed department. He slowed to an easy stroll so he could pace himself with Sora, grinning fiendishly at the thought of Alice's explosives. "Handy, aren't they? I'll have to ask her how they're made sometime; I quite like them."

"I wanna know where she hid them!" Sora said with a slight pout, as though he'd been duped, but he really wasn't upset about it. It was just a slight wonderment, but his grin returned a moment later. "They are really cool, though, aren't they!"

If they were in Wakka's hands, he'd be a bit more afraid. It wouldn't be unlike Wakka to use something like that in the dead of night to scare everyone awake! He snickered at the very thought, even though he'd probably be pretty mad when it happened. "You could play some really mean pranks with them!"

Jack chuckled, spreading his hands wide. "I haven't the slightest idea. It's worth asking, though; they are clever." Cool. He knew it was current slang, but.... well, call him old-fashioned, but it just felt odd to try and say it.

"Mmmm.... they might be mean, yes. But wouldn't they be fun?" He tapped his fingers together thoughtfully as they walked, too used to the hollow click of bone against bone to pay it any attention. "And if you were really creative with them, you could probably keep from causing any damage at all, but still get some wonderful gasps."

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed. "I was just thinking of what my friend Wakka would do..." He trailed off and laughed. "He'd get us all with one while we were sleeping!"

With that, he laughed. "It wouldn't be funny right then, but it'd be hilarious afterwards! Man, the look on our faces, it'd be priceless!" He could imagine the look on Riku's face, and it made him crack up all over again. Riku would try to pretend he hadn't jumped or something, because he was just that cool!

Jack had to grin at the suggestion. "He sounds like he puts the trick into 'trick or treat.' I do hope he'd have the foresight to take pictures!" Because really now, what picture could be more fun than someone caught completely off guard? "Is Wakka one of the friends you were with before you came here?"

"Well, he was one of my friends before I left the island! That was a few months ago..." Sora shrugged. "But he was the kind of friend who liked to throw balls at your head for fun, so I think he'd like a bomb!" He grinned at Jack.

He was reminded of how Oogie had thrown exploding dice at his head by the conversation. And he cringed a little bit. That had really really hurt, actually! And it reminded him that this Jack didn't actually know him. But that was okay, Jack had promised him candy. Well, if Santa Claus weren't real he was promised candy!

"Ahhh, I see. So you live on an island, then?" Jack beamed back, privately amazed by just how easy it was to talk to Sora. He was used to being glib, of course, socializing had always come easily to him.... But this just didn't feel shallow, like so many interactions did. This wasn't a King and his subject; this was two people, two friends, enjoying each others company and getting to know each other.

The image of throwing balls at Sora's head earned a chuckle, though Jack offered his companion a mildly concerned look as he noticed the cringe. "Is anything wrong?"

"I was thinking about exploding dice," Sora commented, glancing down and rubbing the back of his head. "They really hurt, especially when tossed at your head!" And then there had been the saws flying around! How many cuts and scars did he have from those stupid things? But he could talk about his Island with a grin.

"But my Island is a great place!! Me and my friends were building a raft to leave it, before the darkness took it... I hope Kairi told my mom where I am," he said with a sigh. "I skipped dinner before I left... Mom's really strict about being there for dinner, too!" He made an emphasizing gesture with his hands, because he wasn't kidding, either!

"Exploding dice? Where did you encounter those?" There was a quiet creak of shifting bone as Jack raised a nonexistent eyebrow. What did his island friends have to do with....? Oh. Oh, right, the jack-in-the-box.... "I'm sure they must! Balls are well and good, but explosives aren't something to toy with like that."

He nodded attentively as he listened to the story, a ghost of longing flickering where no eyes had ever been; had he ever had a mother chiding him for being late to dinner? Had he left one somewhere to visit his grave and remember better times, ones that he'd never be able to recall? "It sounds like a wonderful place; I'll look forward to visiting sometime. I'm sure your mother understands--after all, Kairi probably did tell her, and you had important things to do." Not that he was sure what those important things were, but.... well, darkness overtaking the land usually tended to imply something important taking place.

"Oogie Boogie threw them at me!" Sora frowned, because he really hadn't liked Oogie. "When we were, uh, fighting him." Sora grinned and shrugged at it as there was no point in really thinking on it anymore (besides the fact that that had hurt). He looked at Jack, a smile on his face as the skeleton-man tried to reassure him.

"Yeah, I think my mom will forgive me! That'd kinda suck if she didn't, cause I... kinda don't think I would have gotten to eat dinner anyway!" He glanced ahead at the fields, his attention wandering from waiting. "What do you think is out there, Jack?"

In his voice, very obviously, was excitement and anticipation. He'd been waiting to go there, even if the two groups hadn't been headed for the same spot.

"Oogie Boogie.... why were you fighting him?" Jack frowned a little as well, thinking about the last time they had fought--and for that matter, the last time they had met, not long ago at all. "He's here, did you know that? I ran into him recently."

"I certainly hope she would!" He pushed the unhappy thoughts back as far as he could get them, smiling as he gazed out across the fields. "Once you go home, maybe you two can have an extra-special dinner together to make up for it." He hmm'ed at the question. "Well, the book that we found didn't tell us anything in particular about the outside, except that it was so dangerous that everybody was discouraged from leaving the domes. I'm willing to guess that means there are at least more lumens out here, and they might be larger and more feral than any found inside the city."

"I told you I've met you before, haven't I?" Sora asked, blinking once and then again. He frowned at the idea of Oogie being in Paixao though. "Hmmm, well I hope he can't do any damage here!" Like absorb heartless and grow to be a huge tower thing. That would suck!

Sora smiled at Jack's suggestion for his mother, but said nothing more on it. He was more concerned about the lumens, and the nobodies! "I think they're hiding something from us... I bet these Lumens aren't so scary! ... Er, well, I hope anyway." He laughed and glanced back up to Jack. "What were you guys headed out here for, anyway?"

"Over the journals, yes." Jack nodded. "I don't think he can do much damage here--I hope not, anyway! The last I saw him, he was frozen solid through and through, thanks to the awful weather we've been having." The thought was amusing, and more than that, reassuring; Oogie wasn't nearly as easy to take seriously when he was a large block of ice.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were.... they didn't have very much information on lumens in the book. What they did have was interesting, though.... they apparently aren't living or dead, and sometimes attack without being provoked; their bites and scratches supposedly burn people and cause giddiness and euphoria. We came out here because Gaston wanted to hunt them, actually--though if they really aren't alive, that might be easier said than done. Why did you and Alice decide to come?"

"Me, Alice, and Sylar?" Sora asked, adding Sylar in, since it was entirely possible Jack hadn't noticed him. (He'd snuck off really quick!) Sora looked away from the fields and back to Jack, his face determined, and serious. "There was a church that I read about over the journals." He clenched his fists, trying to contain his excitement. "It sounded fishy, so we went looking for it!"

He glanced back at the fields again.

Oogie as a block of ice. Why hadn't he thought of that, anyway?!

"Sylar?" Jack blinked--notably without eyelids--at the name. "Oh, he must have been that young man with you, I'm sorry." There had been someone else, though, hadn't there? A young girl, wasn't it?

The determination was a little surprising to see--after all, it was only a church, right?--but he couldn't help but approve. It was always a good thing to have that internal fire! If it burned out.... when it burned out, like his had seemed to for Halloween..... well, there wasn't much left, was there? Nothing to spur him on. No quest for the next great scream, no endless tinkering with spooks and scares to get them exactly right.... It had all gotten lackluster, and he'd gone through the motions.

But this was different. Here, he was somewhere new, with people he had yet to meet (with some possible exceptions, in Sora's case) and things he had yet to discover. It was an adventure! "How did it sound fishy?"

Sora looked up at Jack again and shrugged, a wide grin crossing his face. "I dunno! But there are lots of lumens and nobodies around it! And my gut told me to follow the trail of bad guys!"

He sounded bright, and a bit mischievous. It was true. That train of thought never really had failed him, and he was sure it wouldn't here, either.

"Nobodies? I've never heard of those." Jack tilted his head curiously; they sounded a bit like ghosts. No bodies, right? And ghosts were entirely spirits, with not much of a physical body to speak of. "But you're right--if a place is guarded like that, there's probably a reason it's worth going to!"

"Yeah, they said lumens were usually with some things called nobodies... I've never heard of either." He was looking out for the heartless, though. His head swiveled around once, to survey the area and then back to Jack, where he asked (that same scamp of a grin on his face), "You wanna come with us Jack?"

He had to resist adding on some mention of the last time they'd fought together.

"Neither had I, until I came here." For that matter, he'd never heard of Heartless either, though Sora had yet to mention them. He grinned back though, one hand coming up to lightly clap Sora's shoulder. "Count on it. And if there are lumens there, Gaston and Blue will probably want to come too."

"Awesome!" It was going to be a good trip, Sora could just feel it.

(OOC: kldgfsdgdldsgfoih ONE MORE POST. Okay. Sorry, Kiaxet~~! <3333 We screwed up in our log and forgot that Sylar is going by the pseudonym "Robert Johnson" right now! XD So guys, please remember that, and read the log as if that was the name being used. Mkay? =3)

(( ... eeef ... ))

Blue blinked, suddenly distracted herself. What was going on? And then she realized that the people she was traveling with had disappeared. Her senses flared. A strange smile came across her face when she looked back towards the gate attendent -- his fear, his panic. Perhaps the Paixaoans had emotions. They weren't just dead puppets.

A sniff to the air and she managed to sort through the smell of the explosive and detect (with a bit of a flinch in distaste) Gaston. She darted for the others, missing Gaston completely and finding Jack with some others. Ah, so they had gathered a few more for their little hunting party? Well, no problem with that. She was keen on returning, and perhaps with some sort of "prize" to show the people of Paixao just what they seem to be afraid of.

She looked to Jack, and then to the others. "Hello there," and she smiled. "Perhaps we should get a move on before we're noticed again?"

A bomb? Alice certainly had some tricks up her sleeve.

Well, whatever worked, worked. Sylar shrugged lightly and headed through the gates with the rest of the group, slightly surprised at how far ahead of the rest of them Sora and the skeleton had managed to get. He hadn't thought anybody would be able to walk in those gigantic clown shoes, let alone run that fast.

"Good idea." He nodded to the woman - another woman? How many girls did this place have anyway? - who had suggested moving on. "No point staying in there anyway."

Alice wasn't sure why, but something in her made her glad that Chizuru hadn't seen her throw that jack bomb. It was no big deal to her: well, it was in a way, but she had done it plenty of times, had rehearsed the thrill and the pure adrenaline that came from the fight. That sort of thing were easy to know in your head, but who knows how others might perceive it?

Alice had more of a problem on her hand, the more she thought about it. She wasn't supposed to be worried about the ramifications of her actions! For pity's sake, if there's an enemy running at you, by Jove, you don't stand by! You let him have it, and you make sure he remembers your face so he has second thought about it again! Crude, yes, but something to rely on, wasn't it? That made sense! Even that Larxene saw the logic of it!

Yet there was that other part of her that wondered if it wasn't ok to try to back to being Alice again, the one before any of this. The smart, witty little girl that had created her own world of vibrant characters and colours beyond any reason. What was left of her? Alice looked in the mirror and saw a blurry reflection, an echo of the girl she was. There was no shine in her hair, no twinkle in her eyes, no sort of real kind of person to connect with others.

Alice walked alongside Chizuru, and realized she was going to ask a question she could barely believe would be coming out of her mouth. However, if there were anyone who would say what they thought without being biased, it was this rather odd but likable girl.

"Chizuru," Alice asked delicately, and very quietly, "Do you think I'm pretty?"

Sora relaxed as everyone started to catch up, his micheivous grin remaining on his face. He looked back towards the field, once more, eyes searching for the church in the distance.

He could see it beyond some trees, and the wind blew past them. There it was, and he couldn't wait until they got there.

Chizuru had not been expecting that kind of question out of Alice. That was something the more image-conscious girls of Karakura High asked of boys, not a question heard from a mature young woman who had battled her own inner demons-- violently, if her journal's contents could be trusted-- and won, and especially not of Karakura High's "token lesbian".

Chizuru found herself feeling much more awkward around Alice than she had ever felt around Orihime, and that was saying something!

"At my school," she said slowly, "I'm notorious for having rather... indiscriminate taste in women. Yes, Alice, I think you're very pretty, but I... I think a lot of girls are pretty."

Then, in the hope of avoiding awkwardness, she added, "Let's hurry up! Look how far ahead Sora is!"

THAT SEEMS TO BE OUR DESTINATION, Death noted simply, regarding the small church perched in the grass and idly wondering which of the many gods it worshipped.

His look-alike - Jack, he noted - seemed to be having a conversation with the small boy - Sora. Death, as polite as ever, decided not to interrupt them and turned instead to his original traveling companion.

YOU SEEM TO BE FALLING BEHIND, he noted in a voice that sounded not unlike an anvil being lightly struck with a hammer. For Death, this was as quiet as it got. DO YOU NOT WISH TO TRAVEL WITH US ANY LONGER?

By this point, Jintetsu had lost any illusion that he might still be in Japan. The ruins outside the city, going on for miles in all directions, were almost more foreign than the covered-up city itself. Far in the distance the ground turned bright white, and it almost looked like it was snowing over there - even though it was summer as far as he knew. But then, this freakish place wasn't exactly good on having sane weather.

The rest of the group was already ahead of him, heading toward the snowy area. He could just make out a small building at the very far end of it, if he squinted. If that was where they were ultimately going, late as it was already, there was no way they were gonna make it there before nightfall.

"Death" had figured that was where they were all headed, too, apparently. Jintetsu found he actually had to think about the question for a second - or at least about what might happen if he was honest and said he didn't. It wasn't like he had a better idea where to go, in any case.

After a moment he fixed his hat, as sort of a barrier between himself and the others. "I'm not traveling with anybody," he said, politely enough. "I'm just going the same direction. That's all."

Gaston frowned slightly when he realized just how many people had followed him out of the gates. It wasn't that he begrudged them a journey outside... But if he was going to go hunting, having THAT many people around was going to make it pretty difficult. They did seem to be grouping up a bit, though. Maybe they all planned to do their own thing, and he could find a quieter spot to hunt once he got the lay of the land.

It really was a bizarre land, too... Strange ruins dotted the landscape, and the far-off grass in sight, was nothing like the normal grass he had back home. Still, considering he was hunting weird glowing creatures, the white fields in the distance weren't that much of a shock. That was probably their normal habitat. Gaston checked his journal one more time as they moved away from the city, and noted that it seemed to be malfunctioning. By the gates it had been working just fine, but it was rapidly degrading into nothing but static as a "no signal" notice erratically flickered on the screen. Obviously, the things were worthless outside. No wonder the people in the city never left... Their little inventions didn't work outside, and they were probably terrified that they wouldn't be able to call for help if they got into any trouble...

Approach and identify. ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six, GO.

Directly ahead of the group, not a few yards from Jack and the Keybearer, six Dancers dropped together out of thin air, twirling quickly head-over-heels before landing gracefully on their feet. Ah, but they paused for a moment, twitching in anticipation. ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six, SEVEN, eight, nine.

Outpartnered. Ah, well. This was only rehearsal anyway.

It did not matter to them if their partners were unprepared. The Dancers were always ready, and they skated toward the group as though the ground below them were slick as ice; one each to partner opposite Jack and Sora, and the rest passing them, bound for their other companions.

Let the dance begin!

(OOC: XP Short and crappy. I know it sucks.)

Jack nodded to Blue, smiling cheerily enough. "Oh, I don't know.... It seems like we're far enough out so that the Paixaoans won't bother us out here, and the others are just catching up now...." Personally, he was inclined to wait a little longer so that everyone else could join them. They seemed to be coming up nicely, too....

He noticed the flash of movement before he understood what was happening, and let out an exclamation of shock as he whirled around, staring at the Dancers that were heading toward them. He'd never seen anything like these before.... "Are these the Heartless or Nobodies you mentioned?" He directed at Sora, fumbling to pull his scythe out of his ribcage and get it ready to defend himself. He'd never used it before, but it felt better to have something in his hands; these things obviously didn't look friendly, and seemed to bear an unsettling resemblance to those white things Gaston had shot earlier--in mannerisms, if not appearance or movement.

Jack had a point, they did seem to be far enough away. The gatekeeper probably wouldn't want to go too far out of his way to try and drag them back, although, he was most likely afraid. And the others were catching up... so there really wasn't a problem.

At least, that was Blue's initial thought.

Her following one -- her senses lurching -- was remembering the strange white creatures that she had chased a while back and that was when she had met Bakura. But these were... different. Yet she could assume they were alike.

Heartless? Nobodies?

She had stumbled back, nearly falling over when the blossoms of energy brought forward the creatures. She braced herself into a defense position, trying to keep intent on what they may do, other than attack.

She remembered barely being able to tell about those other creatures... these ones...

Well, Blue wasn't sure what to expect.

Sylar wasn't really paying attention to the casual (and useless) chatter, so he wasn't as surprised as the others seemed to be when the strange white creatures suddenly warped into existence. He'd figured there would be some sort of retribution for leaving the gates, and here it was.

The real shock came when he looked into them to see what they really were. They were structured like nothing he'd ever seen before - how the hell did something function (let alone live) without a heart?

He was so engrossed with the beings in front of him, he failed to notice the one sneaking up behind him, only realizing it was there when it grabbed him by the head and tossed him high in the air, as Dancers are wont to do.

As if to lift the ice and confusion from Alice, these twirling creatures suddenly surged Alice's adrenaline. All doubt and fears were gone, and in its place was Alice's cold sanity. She knew the drill and she knew how to make her current feelings go away. What that didn't mean, however, was that she'd let her less-acquainted-with-weapons companion to face an enemy she couldn't find.

Alice ran over to Chizuru and went towards the enemy. She was a good ten feet away, and that was all she needed. She opened her hands and let loose the auxiliary attack of her jacks of death, ensuring that the jacks pummeled her target several times with the spikes contained within the "toy." She turned and, spying Robert's predicament, let loose with another volley of Jacks, hoping that Robert's rather sudden descent wouldn't be too unpleasant. She turned quickly, her face contorted in concentrated fury.

"Sora! Cover Chizuru! I'll see if I can get a few more from a distance. If they keep coming, well, let loose with your keyblade. I have no doubt in your abilities!"

Alice took out her croquet mallet, and a determined smile came to her face. "Shall we dance?"

"No, those aren't heartless!" Sora exclaimed quickly, the keyblade appearing in his hand with a soft clink. It's ornate design looked as though it should be cumbersome to swing around, but Sora didn't look affected by it.

He reacted quickly, striking two of the dancers in one gracefull arc of a swing. He couldn't hold both of them forever, and one of them slipped past him. He frowned, at that, but it didn't take long to have his attention jerked back to the dancer he'd been fighting.

His arm had been grabbed roughing as the dancer started to swing him around. "Hey!" he shouted, in surprise.

She tossed him into the air and kicked, and oh it had hurt. He gritted his teeth, managing to gain some control of his movements and he kicked against the air. He looked focused, an entirely different face from the goofy boy he'd been only moments earlier.

He hefted the keyblade, waiting until he'd managed to land before tossing it at the dancer who'd thrown him. As soon as it hit her, he called the blade back to his hand, and he jumped again, gliding towards her for a finishing blow.

That was when Alice's words sunk in and shock seeped onto his face. Great, he'd forgotten! And one of those creatures was headed towards Chizuru as well! He landed and held up the keyblade. "Thunder!!" he shouted, enough to stun the dancer before he could glide there.

Gliding was so much faster than running (and it was fun to fly, even in battle). He landed in front of her, between her and the dancer.

"Don't worry, you can count on me!" he said, crouching down, prepared for more.

He hoped Jack could manage. But, then again, he'd fought against tougher enemies with the skeleton, so he wasn't entirely worried.

Sora could fly? Chizuru hadn't even realized she was in danger until the brown-haired boy had confronted the lanky creature stalking her, whereupon she promptly screamed and cowered like an idiot. Later, she'd no doubt look back on it and wince at how stupid that kind of action was, but now, her first and only goal was surviving to regret it later.

Likewise, later, she'd probably hate herself for thinking the enemy was pretty, but it was-- she was; Chizuru could pick out the slightest hint of a bust only barely covered by a darker pattern than the being's pale gray-white skin. And her movements had all the grace and presence of an actress or a dancer.

Still, for now, she was content to back away from Sora and the creature he was fighting, whirling to see everyone else. The skeleton called Jack had retrieved an archaic-looking scythe from his ribcage. Sora was swinging a giant key like nobody's business. The man they called Robert... would have some serious bruises later. She didn't see the muscle-freak, and was partially grateful for that. The tomboyish girl looked like she was still sizing up the opposition.

Alice had rather conveniently turned into a steely-mannered fighting machine, and was whipping spikes, explosives, and a wicked-looking mallet out of nowhere. But she still looked great-- and Chizuru briefly hated herself for thinking that when she was in such obvious danger. Well, she did...

Death had no time to ponder Jintetsu's answer to his question before the strange beings appeared. Death turned unhurriedly to watch them, noting in slight surprise that these beings had no names or lifespans.

NOT UNLIKE THE PEOPLE IN THAT STRANGE CITY, he mused, wondering if any connections existed between the two. These thoughts were short-lived, however, as the strange nameless things began attacking his traveling companions.

Far be it from Death to be overly protective, but this simply wouldn't do.

Pulling his scythe from midair, he issued a simple command to the nameless creatures, a command in the voice that demanded - no, expected - obedience. STOP.

He then attacked the nameless nearest him, swinging in a wide horizontal arc.

Jintetsu halted in his tracks as the strange creatures literally dropped out of midair and started attacking the group. A second later, he had Haganemaru out of his sheath, ready to defend himself. But what were those things? Their movements were just - unnatural. Wrong.

"Ghosts??" his sword suggested, just as startled as he was. Jintetsu didn't respond, keeping an eye on the one gliding effortlessly toward him. It was about to engage him, but when Death spoke, it froze in place, suspended in midair. He barely had time to be surprised at that before the blade of the man's scythe struck the creature, as it happened to be the nearest to him.

Jintesu afforded Death a quick glance - where had he been keeping that thing? - before turning his attention back to the other Dancers. They'd all halted just like the first one, but a couple seconds later they were all on the move again, and he wasn't going to be caught by surprise.

It wasn't fair, not one little bit. Gaston should have been ecstatic about the opportunity for a good fight. Unfortunately, this one was shaping up to be anything but. There weren't enough of the things! Their group outnumbered the beasts, and not only that... They were attacking everyone ~except~ him! It just wasn't right. He couldn't exactly shoot the ones that tthe rest of the group were already fighting. Not because he was afraid of hitting anyone, because he knew he wouldn't... No, it just wouldn't feel satisfying, seeing as everyone else had already started bashing them up before he'd even gotten a clear shot at one.

Scowling as the others battled, he finally took aim and blasted the one that had thrown Robert, even though Alice had already badly wounded it. He figured it was about the best he was going to get from this fight, unless some more of the things showed up and they had a real battle. He didn't think the girl would mind him stealing her kill... Anyway, it was her own fault for going after two of them instead of leaving some for the rest of them!

At least it was now obvious that he wasn't traveling with a bunch of complete wimps. Most of them seemed to be able to hold their own in a fight pretty well.

Blue slipped back, staring upon the madness that had begun. They barely had made it far from the city! And then this... this happens...

But... did it happen because they left? Or was it a coincidence? She hoped it was. Otherwise... otherwise...

Blue felt useless hanging back like this. Again she was wishing she wasn't human; that she was still the dog-wolf cross. But unfortunately her instincts remained and she lunged towards a strangler that had been creeping in jerky movements toward Jack. Her limbs wrapped around it to try and stop it while she sunk her human teeth into the shoulder of the strange creature.

She wasn't there for long and was easily tossed back to the ground, cringing at the pain in her back. Her eyes widened as she sat up, looking around at the group of creatures as well as her own. Were they... only targeting certain people? "Watch out!" she yelled, but she wasn't sure to who.

Alice preferred to use the weapons that made the least amount of noise. This way it made things efficient, quiet and everything was in the lines. This battle was getting out of hand and Alice wasn't staying in tunnel vision. She didn't want to continue fighting these poor substitutes. They had to be sent by someone and Alice wanted this person found. In order for that to happen, Alice needed to clear the field and give her would-be allies some breathing room.

Alice needed the Jabberwock's eye staff.

It wasn't a weapon to use foolishly and Alice preferred to only use it in an emergency. The reason for this was because even in a very open area, the target of the eye staff was not always just the intended victim. Nevertheless, Alice wanted these creatures taken out, and quickly. She'd have to worry about the consequences later.

She brought the eye staff out and started to channel it to the ground first. The low rumbling and shaking from the staff let her know that it was powering up, and Alice could feel that familiar thrill yet icy fear that came whenever she used this particular attack. In essence, once charged the eye staff would be held up by Alice, and like a lightning rod would summon a destructive attack in the form of falling meteors. The rather unfortunate drawback was that they fell indiscriminately, and could cause the summoner as much harm as a target if there was no room to run. Luckily, there was plenty.

Once Alice had brought the eye staff in the air, she ran quickly, colliding into Chizuru and Sora and throwing them out of harms way. The meteors came down, and one of them actually got her on the shoulder a bit. Alice winced but stood her ground and ignored the throbbing pain watching as the destructive rocks rained down upon her enemies. She hoped it got them all.

Jack stumbled back, defending himself--he wasn't too shabby at attacking, though he wasn't scoring any definitive hits; dodging was quickly becoming more and more a part of his dance routine with the creature attacking him, though it was making him rather painfully dizzy.

Dizzy enough, in fact, to not be looking all around like he should have--or most importantly, in this case, UP. The only prior warning to the fact that a small meteor was hurtling towards him was the rush of air as it advanced, and the shadow falling on his face--he looked up just in time to form an expression of shock. It blasted him point blank, and the skeleton fell to pieces with a cry, head rolling a few feet away from the main heap, and several other bones scattered here and there nearby.

(OOC: XP Sorry, short crap. Raina said I could post before her, though. \o\)

Besides being pushed safely out of the way by Alice, Sora turned in time to see Jack getting smashed by one of the meteors, and he gave out a pained cry for his friend, the skeleton. "Jack!" But any warning he could have given would have been far too late.

So he ducked under Alice's arm, to begin his dash to help his friend (because Sora couldn't stand there and angst about it, honestly). The meteors looked to have stopped falling for a moment, but he wasn't entirely sure, and he could dodge them if necessary, he figured.

A lone dancer waited for him, and he slashed the keyblade, but only as a defensive measure. He really wasn't out to destroy it. He was more concerned about Jack than this stupid fight.

However, suddenly without warning, the keyblade vanished from his hand, very unbidden, if one looked at the look of horror mixed with confusion on his face. "Wait, why'd it vanish?" It hadn't done that since... He looked around as a precautionary method, looking for Riku.

But it wasn't Riku that made the keyblade vanish, as he soon learned. His vision seemed to blur for a moment, and he pressed his hand to his head. Balance went out of his mind as well, and he fell to his knees. It wasn't pain, but more of an all-encompassing dizziness. He had no choice but to wait for it to pass (and hope that those chocolates on the train hadn't really made him sick).

Once it passed, Sora blinked and pushed himself up from his knees. Confusion, because he didn't understand where he was, or why there was so many burns on the ground. Nor did he understand the fighting that was going on. And it wasn't because he'd suddenly turned into a peacenik.

But he couldn't appropriately phrase his confusion. Because he'd look really silly asking, 'Who am I?' wouldn't he?

Sylar was furious. This, in his case, was often an understatement. How could he have been taken by surprise by one of those - those things? They didn't have hearts! They weren't alive! How could he have been thrown by one of them so easily?

Well, no matter. They'd all fall. He'd make sure of that.

He pushed mentally against the ground, using his powers to soften what would've been a very hard landing. By the time he finally hit the ground (feet-first, he noted with satisfaction), his rage was under control. There were people here who could fight, and under these particular circumstances there was no reason to blow his cover just yet.

He was off and running as soon as he hit the ground. If he didn't want to blow his cover fighting these weird creatures, then he definitely didn't want to lose it protecting himself from meteors.

As soon as he got out of this place, he decided, he was going to murder the person who'd created it. Brutally. And enjoy every goddamn minute of it.

Chizuru found that her throat had gone rather hoarse from screaming about the monsters and meteors, and so when Alice rescued her, she had a lot of trouble trying to thank the other girl-- only to realize that shortly after Sora had run towards the battlefield to help his friend the poor smashed skeleton... something happened, and then the boy was looking around like he didn't know where he was. On a battlefield, surrounded by falling, burning, dangerous rocks and whirling, dangerous creatures.

And she found the voice for one last scream: "SORA GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

A streak of most un-Chizuru-ish courage found the teen girl running back towards the fights and falling meteors as well, grabbing the boy by the arm and yanking him away from the dangers with as much strength and speed as she could muster, boosted by adrenaline from her terror. "Don't do that again!" she gasped and wheezed at him, "I know you're worried about your friend, but there's nothing we can do right now! We need to keep ourselves safe first of all!"

Today had certainly taken a turn for the bizarre. One young lady - Alice - had just summoned meteors, Sora was acting as though he'd lost his head completely, and Jack had literally fallen to pieces. On top of all that, those strange nameless beings were still fighting as though nothing had happened (although Death noticed with some satisfaction that several of them had fallen to the onslaught of the meteors).

Well, he'd never been much of one for battle anyway - only when he truly felt need for it did his scythe come out.

It remained in his hand, and he took an opportune swing at one of the creatures that moved too close to him. Otherwise ignoring the battle, he began to make his way over to Jack to see if he could be of assistance.

And just like that, things had gone from bad to insane. The good news was that the rest of the motley group had the ghosts' attention, so that they weren't getting close enough he'd have to fight them himself. The bad news was that that one girl was turning out to be some kind of sorceress or something and was now raining fireballs down on all of them. One narrowly missed him, forcing him instinctively to dodge, and kicking up a small craterful of dirt as it impacted only a foot away.

A second later he realized Haganemaru was yelling at him - the noise from the falling rocks was making it kind of hard to hear. "What're you doing, Jintetsu?! Let's get out of here!" the sword shouted, just as freaked out about the whole thing as Jintetsu was himself.

He'd get no argument on that. Before he was even finished talking, Jintetsu was off and running in a random direction - away from the fight and away from the city, that was all he cared about right now.

Gaston had been caught near the edge of the meteor swarm and beat a hasty retreat to safety as the rocks crashed down around him. He was narrowly missed by at least one huge rock, and he cursed inwardly at the lunatic girl that had apparently been the cause of the things in the first place. Who was she trying to kill, them or the stupid creatures!? There had to be a better way to take them out without wiping out everyone else in the vicinity!

Distracted as he was by the effort to not get squashed by a falling rock, the hunter almost didn't see the nobody weaving towards him. He noticed it out of the corner of his eye and turned, whipping up his pistol as it reached for him. Two things happened almost simultanously. There was the crack of gunfire, and Gaston was sent hurtling through the air.

His flight only lasted a moment or two. He hadn't seen whether or not he'd actually managed to shoot the thing, but in the brief time he was hurtling through the air, the hunter had himself fairly well convinced that he'd managed to get it. That gave him a little bit of satisfaction. At least, it did until he smacked hard into the ground and everything went black.

Seeing as this thread has gone on far too long, this is the summary of what happened (as agreed upon by Organization members and okayed by players):

Demyx, Marluxia, and Xaldin all show up, having received the lone Dancer's report. Demyx hits the party with rapid water attacks, meant to distract, confuse, and stun. Meanwhile, Marluxia uses an abundance of vines to separate the party and force them through portals of darkness. In the process somewhere, Sylar is dealt a blow to the head that knocks him unconscious, leaving Xaldin the job of transporting him, Jack, and Gaston to Lab A and into their cells.

Locations for non-experiment subjects are as follows:

Alice: Near Iriela Apartments II [J3]
Blue: Somewhere in [L6]
Chizuru: Somewhere between Matteus Academy and Aiches Memorial Hospital [I4]
Death: Inside Ecos na Catedral [M3]
Jintetsu: Inside the Wild Ginger [L5]
Sora: Inside Matteus Academy, may be mistaken for a student somehow (and, owing to his amnesia, may start to believe it) [J4]

Have fun in your new threads. :3

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A-Hunting We Will Go [Completed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

OOC: Final Summary Post