Entry tags:
- *mission log,
- aloy [horizon zero dawn],
- annie westwind [original],
- asuka langley sohryu [evangelion],
- bellamy blake [the 100],
- damon salvatore [the vampire diaries],
- elena gilbert [the vampire diaries],
- gildor helyanwe [original],
- lexa [the 100],
- matrim cauthon [wheel of time],
- misato katsuragi [evangelion],
- rust cohle [true detective],
- ryohji kaji [evangelion],
- sam wilson [mcu]
[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!


((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.))
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 :016I. 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 GAMESPURSUIT
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.))
OTA
[ Asuka's solo event had not gone nearly as well as she would have liked. She'd been prepared to be able to peg targets. She was good at that - what she hadn't been prepared for was the stalking and hunting part. She grew up in a city and she'd never actually gone hunting - so she'd blundered through on her Elin, chasing after her targets with increasing frustration. She'd shrugged off attempts to help. She needed a solo win - and she'd come up empty. Worse, she'd taken a tumble off of her Elin in the process and she's fairly sure she's going to bruise (or worse). She's carefully picking her way back through the tents, head down, unseen features creased in a frown.
The buzz and emotional high of the last few days has worn off and now she's back to feeling isolated. Funny what a few bad moments can do to you. She elbows past someone before realizing it's another Host. She pauses for half a moment before she speaks, voice sour and reluctant. ]
...Sorry.
[ Which is better then it might have been. At least she's not yelling. ]
...did you see the last event? [ Maybe her humiliation wasn't spotted by other members of the Nest. ]
B. Wildcard
[ You know the drill. ]
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she was best left alone, his better sense had replied. the robbers who'd ransacked her life were those very presumptions of adults who thought they knew better, his better sense had replied. a group to which he belonged, his better sense had replied. after this, he was going to hell, his better sense had replied.
and yet here he stands, only moments away from having a conversation with asuka soryu, for reasons as yet unknown. he catches her at the camp enclosure. it is not so much her height but her posture, spine perpendicular to the ground, those stubborn shoulders, that tip him off. ]
You've been really putting yourself out there, Asuka. [ so this is how a young girl will interpret his challenge, forget or die already. it is no marked departure from her coping mechanisms from before. any changes to her tried and untrue routine were perfunctory, cosmetic alterations that didn't even pretend to interrogate the dissatisfaction in her heart. kaji doesn't understand. it wasn't as if she had a lover that kept her from reprieve. her life was truly her own, no strings attached, her own to consummate.
he guesses, that's part of the problem. ] How's it finding you?
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it goes from being large, from being determined to take up space to something that's slightly more recognizable as a teenage girl. There's an undercurrent of excitement and her movements are quick, fueled by the spark of joy that bursts at the back of her mind. ]
Kaji!
[ There's no mistaking the happiness in her voice, either. She makes a move as if she wants to give him a hug or embrace - and then seems to stop herself, fingers curling as she forces her hands behind her back, swaying on her heels. ]
I'm doing great!
[ Well, not so great on her very last attempt, but an effort was made. ]
Learning how to ride has been kind of fun, actually. Even if it's nothing like what I'm used to.
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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.
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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? ]
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[ difficult as it is, kaji succeeds in avoiding any changes to his tone. that was his tactful and politic answer. fighting angels was one thing, self-contained incidents that began with klaxons and ended with a deluge of blood, but the thought of asuka on the road, accountable to often purposeless traffic laws, without a crisis looming... some thoughts were just too terrible to contemplate.
it didn't matter anymore. kaji wonders if it ever will. ]
I've been known to swing by here and there, [ like comet viewings, these events were widely known but no less rare or isolated. ] without special reason. So, I'd appreciate if you'd drop the suspicion.
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[ It's direct and blunt and she sends that spinning straight at him, because there's nothing here to stop her from doing so. There's no structure, there's no fear that Kaji might leave her, because she knows that he's already made his choice. She's already lost him once. Never had him in the first place. So why bother trying to appease him anymore?
Even if he does make her happy.
It's complicated. ]
Adults always want something. [ The cheerfulness had been relatively genuine. Now it's falling away. ]
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[ she throws and finds her aim hitching, because while the accusation spins straight it does so straight over his head for all his reaction shows for it. for example, people can show their care with distance. and kaji would argue that distance was the best care he could offer her, given the nature of their relationship and the illusions she held concerning it.
he hopes, that they could now talk about those illusions as something of the past. something held then abandoned, like a parting hug before boarding a plane. like old love. ]
That may be true, but the same can be said for children. The relationships between people are inherently reciprocal. There's nothing wrong with that, provided there's a fair give and take.
[ look at him talk, as if his own relationships came close to making the grade. but frankly, there was not a single thing he wanted from asuka. ergo, the distance. ergo, her suspicion. ergo, his need to justify it with axoims. ]
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Do you care?
[ It's quiet and it's direct. She wants to believe. She desperately, horribly wants him to actually care. She knows that he's never going to love her, there's never going to be a romance. But she still craves his approval. ]
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I flubbed my riding event too.
[ A shrug. ]
What can you do? Some people spend their whole lives mastering this shit, and we got a couple days.
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It wasn't my fault.
[ She needs to accept that responsibility, honestly. But to do that in front of others would risk her fragile, budding sense of self-esteem. ]
If I had more time, I would've cleaned up!
[ More time to... what? Hunt? Learn? Train? ]
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[ It's probably not exactly helpful that Asuka's outrage slides right off of her. Sometimes there's nothing more enraging that someone standing there unflappable in the face of your hurt. But, well, she gets it. ]
Can't be the winner every time.
[ Annie glances off at nothing, her own thoughts wandering. ]
( It's pretty hard, going from a setup where you know all the rules and shit and exactly how to be the best at everything, to this. Pisses me off too. But gotta take your lumps and let the other fucks clean up this time. )
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I should be able to, though. I'm better than that!
[ Saying that doesn't mean it'll happen. And it sounds a touch petulant, but Asuka doesn't really know a better way to express it. She settles for letting her words do all the talking for her this time, choosing not to respond via the link.
Yet. ]
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She rubs her mouth through the rough fabric of the hood, feeling the urge for a cigarette. Fighting it because she's in the middle of something here. ]
Nobody thinks any less of you right now, that shit's all in your head. You went out there and did it, more than I can say for myself.
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It's not that easy, though. ]
How do you know that?
[ Asuka's reply is surly. As if Annie needs to convince Asuka that she's not trash. ]
I wasn't good enough.
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And she looks at Asuka and thinks... she can't even know. She can't even know how much worse things can get for you on the inside. Doesn't even know how much more disgust and suffering there is to go as the world shits on you, as you lose more and more loved ones, as the spark to keep fighting drains out of you and you have to keep going.
She bites at her lower lip, wearing at it. ]
This time, doesn't make it permanent. Maybe there isn't time now, but we can go over it again.
[ It makes her nauseous to say that, to enable Asuka's need for perfection but Annie doesn't know any better way to ease that ache either. She has it. She has it because she knows that every imperfection can let someone down, can let someone die. ]
We've got backup, this time. It's ok.
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So she sort of thinks of her reassurance as being... empty. ]
It's still a failure.
[ She's being stubborn. Her mind is telling her that if she keeps making mistakes, if she keeps failing, she's going to end up discarded all over again. Just like last time. ]
People don't want failures.
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[ 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. ]
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[ She's brusque and a bit blunt, but that's how she normally is, these days. The happy-go-lucky Asuka doesn't come out all that often anymore. She rolls her shoulders in a shrug. ]
I just - I didn't do well. I failed.
[ She sounds sort of upset about that, maybe for good reason. ]
I should've been better.
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I didn't catch anything either.
[ Coming close didn't cut it in this competition. Bellamy doesn't bother appealing to the idea of near-misses. ]
But some of our people didn't fail. That still keeps us in the running, Asuka.
[ He can't blame her for feeling responsible. Bellamy doesn't know if Asuka feels the same crushing urgency towards this mission that he does. But he senses that she'd like to suceed one way or another, despite how flippantly she'd taken to Misato's suggestion of destruction. ]
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[ It sounds selfish and it really is. It's the cry of someone who wants attention, who wants respect, who wants so much and a part of her still sees stacking up victories as the way to do that, even if she knows deep down that the only way to climb out of the hole she's in is to drag herself. ]
I failed.
[ She could make excuses or push the blame on someone else and she'd like to, but it was an individual competition. And she knows that ultimately it does come down to her performance. ]
I shouldn't have.
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You're as new to riding Elin as the rest of us. You shouldn't do this to yourself.
[ This being make herself solely responsible, blow up a failure into a monstrous thing. Bellamy has some experience with having done that. ]
There's more than one way to be useful here. It's not as straightforward as winning a competition.
[ As much as Bellamy wishes otherwise. ]
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Sour grapes. ]
Shouldn't do what? Tell myself the truth?
[ Tell her she's wrong, Bellamy. Please.
It's what she wants. ]
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[ Talking to Asuka sometimes makes him think of unsteady ground, rocks shifting underfoot or a grounder-laid trap opening beneath him. He latches onto the thin thread of fear, follows it past the initial burst of scorn. ]
There weren't enough targets. We're doing this as a team. It doesn't matter if you or I missed the mark. We know other people didn't.
[ This assurance isn't enough. Not against the urge to prove herself he can feel thrumming in Asuka's gut. But Bellamy offers it anyway, steady and unflinching; maybe it will be enough later, when she hears it repeated from another person's mouth. ]
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I'm not other people. I'm not supposed to make mistakes!
[ Which is a lie, but everyone knows it. She knows it. So why not lie? ]
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wrap this y/n?
y!