onemind: (Default)
THE N E S T ([personal profile] onemind) wrote in [community profile] station722017-08-23 07:57 pm

[mission: hyrypia] then the holy paths we'll travel strew'd with rubies thick as gravel

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: Hyrypia - The Graze
WHEN: DAY :014 - 016
SUMMARY: Two days of horseback hunting training, followed by the second round of competition.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!






THE GRAZE
DAY :014 - :015

THE DAY FOLLOWING the festivities finds the majority of competitors and spectators still buzzing with the competition’s failures and successes, but there is little time to gloat or moan about the results. By the time the sun has risen over the graze there's a new announcement: there will be two days of additional training followed by another day of competition. Today and tomorrow will be dedicated to learning skills vital to the hunt.

0. TRAINING

THE TRAINING FIELD has become familiar, but the decor has changed- as have the the teachers. Unlike the previous riding and herding lessons which featured ropes and hooks, today's syllabus includes a series of more dangerous tools. The short spears that line the racks may be dulled but they still look painful, and the speed at which they're hurled from the intricately carved Sarvat - the traditional spear throwers - is intimidating.

At first glance, the slings of woven and stained Gryer leather are less impressive-- but the different ammo that can be loaded in them proves interesting: a bio-luminescent tagging liquid that stains the targets that it hits and leaves distinct trails, hard metal weights, and carefully handled poison globes.

Over the next day the envoys are are trained to use the weapons from Elinback in addition to being schooled in a number of simple traps and snares that leave little confusion as to the nature of the next challenge events...



THE GRAZE &
THE MINIATURE FINGER MAZE
DAY :016


I. THE CHASE

THE HERD of technomanced automaton Gryer sits idle in the knee-high silvery grass of the Graze. They're nothing like the Elin (who exhibit all the traits of live animals); these automatons seem to know only two basic concepts: don't run, and run. Right now they're practicing the former as the competing riders are divided into large, mixed hunting parties. Once the parties have been formed, they take turns taking their runs at the herd. Among the herd of thirty, four Gryer have been painted a brilliant sapphire. To strike one down requires either two metal weights to the head, a spear to the neck piece, or two spears to its midsection.

When the hunting parties take off so do the automaton Gryer. And they're fast, moving as of one mind - a school of mechanical fish through a sea of silver grass. It'll take cleverness, skill and a bit of daring riding to either cut the targets free of the herd or go crashing through among the running Gryer to strike a target down among its brainless brothers and sisters. Once struck enough times or in the right place, the sapphire Gryer will lose power and drive spectacularly into the earth.

The attentive audience (many of them armed with an array of binoculars from their personal belongings) might cheer when appropriate, but due to the distance at which much of the action takes place most of the observation is spent eating, drinking, and enjoying the shockingly pleasant weather.

II. THE 75th HUNGER GAMES PURSUIT

THE BREEZE GROANS through the shadowy pocket of the canyon system, whistling tiredly through the coral structures - along narrow bridges and between tight passages. Familiar to anyone who competed in the individual race on Day :013, this shadowy miniature canyon is crawling with automated creatures to 'kill.' The only problem? Beating everyone else to one of them. With the blare of that now-familiar horn, the hunters mounted on their Elin take off into the canyon and rapidly splinter into disparate groups or simply go off on their own into the tangle. It doesn't take long at all to lose sight of other riders, to begin to feel completely alone in the low light of early evening. Mist rises from the canyon floor and the breeze moans ominously through the pockmarked coral structures.

It'll take more cleverness and accuracy than high speed riding skill to claim a prize here. But best work quickly and quietly to avoid having your target poached out from under your nose…

III. THE AFTERMATH

THE SECOND CHALLENGE ENDS with a long, mournful cry of the now-familiar horn. All of the possible targets have been captured and to the victors go the spoils in the form of the accumulated scores, carefully kept by the judges. The losers are left empty handed-- at least until the spectators and competitors alike have made it back to the tent encampment. Then their hands are filled with the same liquor and a new spread of simple, filling, and delicious dishes expertly prepared by the servants of the manor.

There’s some ceremony to it - the meat they are eating is the same that they would have served if their hunt had been for something more than machines. However, mostly this seems to be a chance to relax sore muscles. That's aided by the addition of several leather-enclosed tents raised earlier in the day. Once the sun sets, these tents are filled with hot, relaxing steam and lined with benches: saunas! ...which might provide some comfort for anyone not stuck wearing a heavy robe. :(






((OOC Notes: This log covers the two days of mounted combat/hunting skills training and the competition which follows. You can find a full breakdown of the events/a place for mini-event specific questions HERE. Sign-ups will remain open until the next event log for the finale goes live, however going forward please make sure to either join the individual event or have a full team selected for the team events. Please be aware that signing up late won't give you extra time to finish your thread to qualify for the finale event.

Have more generalized questions? Drop them on the MISSION: HYRYPIA OOC POST or get in touch with us on the Mod Contact page.))







aluminumandash: (and then ask for another round)

[personal profile] aluminumandash 2017-09-07 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Rust turns to look at him, the eye stitched into his hood slowly going disembodied in the deepening night. He traces it with his gaze. ] ( I've had worse. ) [ It's not a brush-off, kicks up a few impressions: immobility and excruciating pressure, fingers latched to his skin like burrs. ] ( Those were vibrations, yeah? )

[ I owe you. It strikes him as abject, more pathetic than the alcoholism, and Rust wavers—between pity and contempt, no and yes. He could use a favor. He could use Gildor, maybe use him up.

The thing in their heads, was that supposed to make them equals? ]
Didn't do it for you. [ He tips his head back for a view of the stars. Strange-eyed constellations, he thinks, a measure of wonder seeping through the cracks. ] ( How bad does it get? )
redheadcarrier: (Fingers on the screen.)

[personal profile] redheadcarrier 2017-09-08 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Alright, so start teaching.

[ Asuka arches a brow. She should be a bit kinder, but it's not always in her nature. Like right now. ]

How hard can finding and killing an animal really be?
redheadcarrier: (Monochrome phone.)

[personal profile] redheadcarrier 2017-09-08 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ That's how it's always been for Asuka; she judges herself the most harshly out of everyone around her. She detests herself for being weak, for being forgotten, for being an unwanted child. She wasn't good enough and never has been, never will be. It's the gnawing self-doubt and self-loathing that eats away at her. The kind she admits to herself. Out of all the people in the world that she hates, she hates herself most of all. ]

Sometimes I think I might as well be.

[ She doesn't want to die. But sometimes she wishes she were. ]
ryohji: (pic#10951761)

[personal profile] ryohji 2017-09-08 02:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it was times like this that you had to give asuka langley soryu credit where it was due. whatever the girl's flaws in personality and temperament might be, her dedication to the great facade of i'm doing fine-ness could not be denied. she couldn't convince a blind-mute if her life were on the line, but there was something to be said about her persistence. and following that something, whatever it was, were the qualifiers maddening, hopeless, counterproductive.

under the hood, kaji's expression is less than friendly, but he refrains from any knee-jerk responses. drop the act, asuka. if she wants - needs - to play this game... well, she'd be hard-pressed to find a better athlete than in him.
]

You can say that again, [ from her lunges to her knife-work to her gun-work, asuka's piloting style was a macabre mixture of ballet, surgery, and demolition. ] And to think, you were too young to drive a car around Berlin or Tokyo-3. Seems silly to think about, doesn't it.
perroquet: (03 listen)

[personal profile] perroquet 2017-09-08 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
(Vibrations, yes. Otherwise known as drow-sense. I am... half drow.)

[ He hesitates the admittance of a half-heritage, but only by a second. Habit bred from caution that is slowly starting to break. There's no one here who has given him grief over having mixed blood between closed societies, and most are willing to accept him as an elf. He can continue to pass safely as that. ]

(How bad? Hm.)

[ That gives him more pause. His memories of when he was still drinking blend together in abstract sound and time, and there are so very many years. He could opt for the truth and tell his worst tale. Reopen the wounds of the worst mistakes and of his life and allow someone he still hardly knows to examine how much they still ache.

Or go for the second worst- ]


(I don't have clear memories of this since I had blacked out, but - a few decades back, the band of travelers I was with were called to exterminate a pesky adolescent dragon who'd taken up residence in the bell tower of a temple.

While they formulated a proper plan, I thought it would be a good idea to climb the roof myself and negotiate with the youngling. However, in my drunken state, my argument ended up being badly recited poetry. The dragon argued back with acid from its throat, which melted a hole in the ceiling. It then defecated through it, and quickly knocked me through as well.)


[ He huffs a sigh through the veils. The memory of the dragon poo-smell that clung to his hair for a week is somehow still better than thinking of the scent of alcohol back in the dining tents. ]

(It was, at the very least, a soft landing.)
sistershoggoth: (pic#10136239)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ She'd sat at the foot of Noctis's bed and told him as much, that she was always teetering there. That she felt used up, wasting away in her body, locked in to the past where everyone died and unable to cobble a future forward for herself. She tries to lay out the path for others, but as for Annie-herself... she's too full of guilt and mourning. The thing that stands her up now is--

What do you need me to do for you?

--Noctis. Nyx. Their fights continuing on even though they've both already given everyone everything, up to and including their lives. Her total devotion to making certain that the Nest doesn't use them up for nothing. ]


What do you want to do about it?
shiro2hero: (did you ever hear the one about lions?)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-09-09 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
(My spirit is leaving my body.)
Edited 2017-09-09 05:50 (UTC)
sistershoggoth: (pic#8730481)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
( Aw c'mon. Are you a vegetarian or something? )
shiro2hero: (eyyyyyy dad jokes are here!)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-09-09 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
(After poison eels and land crabs giving us hives? Yeah, just a bit.)
sistershoggoth: (pic#8730475)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
( Okay, that's fair. But what could possibly go wrong with space bunny meat? Besides all the tiny unknown parasites living inside of them. )
shiro2hero: (me @ god why me)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-09-09 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
(See... I was kidding.)

(And now I'm wishing we had the food goo back.)
sistershoggoth: (pic#10136189)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ He's so easy to fuck with. ]

( Th'fuck is food goo? )
shiro2hero: (SIGHS INTO ETERNITY)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-09-09 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
[It's sad how easy it is, sometimes.]

(Exactly what it sounds like...)

[But in between chasing robot boars, he'll pass along the mental image of... what looks like a pile of green jello. On a plate.]
wille: (* gtfo)

[personal profile] wille 2017-09-09 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ For all her talk of making her own luck and beating probability, all that seems to backfire on her the moment the witnesses begin to assemble. Visible or not, the heat in her cheeks begin to rise the more the people comment and criticize and judge, and it becomes more difficult to bite back her tongue, until she lets go of Gildor entirely to stand, feet apart, one hand on her hip and the other pointing the spear like a spectre. ]

It would never have hit him, he's a Carbauschian priest!

[ Her insistence is her own defense, letting them fill in the gaps of what the holy men of her supposed people may or may not be capable of. She has reached places she doesn't belong by striding in with sheer confidence alone, and this is no different. Her outburst settles into a steely decree. ]

Take your ignorance elsewhere.

[ Whether or not the other envoys leave is of little concern afterward when she turns her full attention back to Gildor. ]

( Well damn, they've bought your cover wholesale. )
greentech: (hide behind space dad)

[personal profile] greentech 2017-09-09 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That's interesting to think about, but she's not really a biology expert. She's more into machines and general science and physics, so she's not entirely sure that she can tell him that with any degree of certainty. She frowns (even if he can't see it). ]

( I... don't think so. But I don't know enough about biology to say. Uh, here, let's try something- )

[ She tries for the color green. Imagines it, remembers it, and lets it flow into Gildor. Grass on a summer day, fir trees, her armor (her lion). Just... the color. She can't define it in words, so she tries to define it in thought. ]
redheadcarrier: (glasses)

[personal profile] redheadcarrier 2017-09-09 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She has to keep pretending. It's only partially for the benefit of everyone around her that she does. Quite often it's for herself. If she can only fool herself into believing that she's happy, maybe it will be true. Although deep down, she knows she isn't. Never will be. So she keeps moving forward, keeps trying, keeps pushing for the sake of finding a space where maybe she won't hate herself as much as she does. ]

Little bit. Why don't they let us start driving younger? Especially people like me.

[ A pilot before she was even out of grade school. ]

To what do I owe the honor of a visit?

[ There's a touch of suspicion below the surface. As happy as his presence sometimes makes her, she knows that he's always avoided entangling himself with her. So why is he here? ]
Edited 2017-09-09 17:24 (UTC)
redheadcarrier: (Darkness)

[personal profile] redheadcarrier 2017-09-09 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Should she really be talking about this with anyone? Does she feel comfortable talking about it? It doesn't really matter, does it? Because here she is. She tightens up, not sure what to say. She should storm off, end this conversation right now. Before she gets hurt. ]

I want to live.

[ She fears dying. She doesn't want to face up to the end of existence. ]
sistershoggoth: (pic#10136230)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's taking everything in her to keep her hands off Asuka. She's just tactile. She wants to take her shoulders and squeeze and stare her in the eye, but that all feels muted in these stupid costumes. ]

Fucking up is part of life.

( I'm a fucking hypocrite, Asuka. I'm not any better at this shit,
you know that, but-- yanno, if I can help make anything better for you, I'd do it.
)
sistershoggoth: (pic#8730478)

[personal profile] sistershoggoth 2017-09-09 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
( Well, I mean. As long as it's hypoallergenic, maybe we oughta be bringing it on these missions. )

[ She's stopped teasing and gotten pragmatic. ]
perroquet: (09)

[personal profile] perroquet 2017-09-09 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[ An unsettling silence falls on the small group, though none are so unsettled as Gildor. His heart was just beginning to ease its pounding, and now he's somehow been branded as indestructible by a nest-mate who can't seem to handle criticism.

He has to think and act quickly to dispel that notion - and remember the role he now plays. ]


Oh my dear, even I would never assume to have the Devine eye so closely on me as to consider myself impervious to disaster. However, I do believe the Creator is always looking out for us, and it was by their hand I was spared by yours.

[ It seems like more scolding. He approaches, parting the crowd with a slow swipe with his staff, and stops and in before the accusing and sharp point of her spear. ]

And now that I know it, that ferocious hand is why I'll be betting on you to win in the competition today.

[ He extends a gloved hand towards her, trying his best to keep the shakes from overtaking him again as he reaches both physically and mentally. ]

(I try to blend the truth in every lie we are forced to tell them.) [ And the truth is plain in his thoughts - that he meant what he said about betting on her to win because of what happened. ]

(Please, come away from here with me.)
deployed: (092)

[personal profile] deployed 2017-09-10 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't end up seeing much from the middle of it.

[ The prickly emotion Asuka radiates don't strike Bellamy as particularly out of the ordinary. Asuka is combative. Bellamy's accepted this and prepared to roll with it; he'd handled Jasper nearly the same way. He's had practice. ]

Are you okay?

[ He hadn't heard anything about injuries, but that doesn't remove the possibility. And it's hard to see for sure with the robes covering every inch of skin. It'd served Bellamy well after using his powers before the last race, but the drawbacks he'd considered when Rhan had first showed them the robes persisted. Keeping their cover was still an inconvenience. ]
deployed: (046)

aftermath / closed to rust.

[personal profile] deployed 2017-09-10 04:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ All Noctis and Lakshmi's advice and instruction had kept Bellamy on his Elin. But it's clear, very clear, that he's not an adept. He's likely more useful in the individual event as a disruption than as an actual force to be reckoned with. It suits Bellamy fine. He's very aware of his limitations. The singular time he gets close to a target, he loses out to a hunter from another faction. Emerging from the canyon after, dusty, sweaty and exhausted. He'd have liked to wash his face and sample a few of the drinks, but the veils—

Just one more reason why this particular disguise is awful, basically.

He weaves through the crowd instead, envious of each person disappearing into the sauna. It's likely to early to retire to his own tent, but Bellamy's still entertaining the idea of it when he treads onto the robe of the Host in front of him. ]


Sorry.

[ It's echoed immediately between their minds. Bellamy latches onto Rust, false familiarity gained from Clarke prompting the reaction before Bellamy can circumvent it. ]

Sorry, [ He repeats, a little useless as his mind withdraws incrementally. ] I was paying more attention to the tents than the crowd.

[ Envious, wistful attention, but still not an excuse. ]
shiro2hero: (seriously no fuck my life sideways)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-09-10 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
(No.)

(No way. The less I see of it, the better.)


[And now he's being dramatic.]
deployed: (010.)

hangry games.

[personal profile] deployed 2017-09-10 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[ Bellamy's frustration flashes hot between them as his Elin nervously skitters two steps to the right. It's a mark of how he's improved as a rider that Bellamy isn't immediately dumped onto the ground. He looks down at the creature and exhales a short, irritated breath. ]

You couldn't have interrupted someone else?

[ Once the initial indigence fades, it won't matter to Bellamy who landed the killing blow. The objective has always been to see anyone from their team succeed. But the wasted effort rankles in the moment, and he can't completely smother the hot pulse of annoyance that surges when he wheels his Elin around to face Sevilia. ]
wille: (& cage)

[personal profile] wille 2017-09-10 11:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ More verbally gifted minds might easily catch on to the many facets contained in Gildor's words, but as it is the convoluted scolding just leaves her confused, settling on the more immediate fact of earning yet another investor in her victory. She is flattered, of course, this is the quickest and surest way to her heart, even as she accepts the compliment readily, as if it is her god-given right all along. ]

And I'll make you proud. [ Too uncomfortable to mimic his talk of devinity. ] Now if you'll excuse us.

[ Complete with a glare around the crowd that absolutely nobody can see, she lets Gildor lead the way. ]

( Why? To ease the guilt a little bit? )

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