[Open] Hunter becomes the prey

[tantailizing]

🧙 WHO: Zidane and you!
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-all for August
🕒 WHEN: August (until events and stuff)
🗺️ WHERE: Around Camelot
⚠️ WARNINGS: Culling and fighting, mainly vigilante stuff

I. Don't Treep, Man

Warm out today, but Zidane continued trudging about, working on this bit of fence or tilling this other section of land. For a few, he'd been left to water, but only up until more materials had been brought. Honestly, he was surprised just how much damage the zombies made, but their response to their numbers? Could've been better, but oh well.

"Ready to get back to the fence?" he asked the other worker nearby, not paying much heed to the fact they could currently either occupied by a task or looking for something more to do. If they hadn't been helping with the fence before, this might be slightly confusing.

II. Invasive Species

Ehehe, well, he'd say the season served the local wildlife well - and maybe too well like the task had said, but he wasn't going to be mature about it.

Anyway, cull some of the older animals, spare the ones that just had offspring or raised in a community (then it was open game), and also get the Carcinuses back. That second part might be the bigger challenge really, but maybe using one part to lead to the second, they could make good progress.

He'll think of a few more plans if that fell through.

"How you doing over there?"

His companion on this task could handle themselves, right? No issues with a few woodland critters?

III. Open House

He didn't know what to expect of Camelot's castle, but it was definitely dolled up for company. At least, he doesn't think the public bath normally has a water slide - not that he was really feeling a bath right now. Instead, he decided to stalk away and have a look around further; he could be found briefly having a taste of some new foods, seeing what books would be in this royal library, curiously watching the magician perform as he strolled by, and then heading out to the gardens.

Hm... roses had been one of her mother's favorites.

He could be found there soon too, lying around near the roses and pretty much chilling.

IV. Animal Mage Hunt - Reverse Card

Zidane had an animal tail, big whoop, wanted to fight about it?

Apparently, someone does - someone did, and it was the same someone that was going after others with Animal Magic once he got someone to squawk. Making them spill further details, the barely tech-savvy young man checked the Dark Web and found the posting, and was immediately both unimpressed and actually angered.

It was one thing to basically put a bounty on him, but any Animal Mage, huh? Worse, he'd heard about the murders happening and he didn't know if they were related. Even if they weren't, the knights were likely occupied by them instead.

So, he'll make himself look quite conspicuous donning his cloak and mask from home. Hood drawn, he thought he looked like a suspicious mage type; and with enough of his tail just appearing from beneath, that outta do it. He doesn't really mind how it might look to others - he had to figure out how to track down the guy behind the Dark Web post.

[OOC: Note that this is open for him to aid characters being attacked, for people looking to attack a supposed animal mage, or wondering what the hell he's doing at all. Maybe they'd like to come along, he's open to forming a party.]

[V. Wildcard]

[OOC: As always, want another prompt not present? Hit me up at demidemonLove and we can write something new out!]

Comments

IV

[beefaroni]

Other Animal Mages were indeed being hunted - some more viciously than others. Asterios was a six-foot monster, so it took at least three men to even try going after him, throwing chains around his body and arms and an attempt to wrestle him down. Not that he's having any of it - and his roar can be heard across the town.

"RAAAAAAUGH!"

Lol I was wondering which prompt to tag in his open log

[tantailizing]

Plenty of six foot people around, but they gotta take extreme measures with the odd one out, huh? When Zidane hears the roar, he's zipping his way over, his speed greatly helped by his practicing to finally float. The less he has to touch the ground, the more he can worry about stopping whatever's going on.

And when he arrives, he pipes a sharp whistle at the people trying to wrangle Berry up.

"Three seconds to back off the bull and no one gets hurt."

Though, an interruption and three seconds could buy Berry the time to do some damage if he wants, or keep ripping himself free.

[beefaroni]

The hunters pay Zidane no mind - when there's money to be made, who cares about people interrupting their task? One even snorts derisively at Zidane's attempt.

"Get lost! The bounty's ours!"

Asterios, for his part, is starting to have trouble telling friend from foe.

"RAAAAAUGH!"

[tantailizing]

“Had your chance. Too bad.”

Drawing his hands from his cloak, one hand holds his thief sword - and he had the blades prepped for this. Maybe another Hunter would notice his tail? Awe, too late for small details like that anyway.

It only takes a cut as he darts by, even shallow ones, and clothes weren’t going to stop his blade work. The paralytic concoction he got from Izuku acts fast once in the blood, seeping into their bodies and knocking them down. After fighting Bakugou, he has an idea how long they’d been stuck like that, and he’ll have time to get Berry out. But if any of them wanted to try gurgling some more insults, maybe he’ll give them mind? Eh…

“Hey, Berserker, easy…! I’m gonna get you out, okay?”

iii, i'm gonna let these two chill for once

[starshower]

[A respite from all of the commotion is something that Tifa could really use, so hearing about the open house at the castle with the opportunity to explore the inside of it was too enticing for her to pass up. She's never been in a castle before, and Avalon itself is a far cry from any place she'd been on Gaia, so it was a no brainer that she would be at the open house. In the baths, in the library, among the crowd applauding the magician, and then into the rose gardens where she could sit down and take in the flowers.

She didn't think that she would find a familiar face among them when she goes to press her nose to a rose. Her voice is coloured with both surprise and amusement when she lets him know she's there.]

Pretty sure there're better places to grab a nap around here.

[If that's what he's doing. From afar, he looked like he was asleep.]

woohoo relaxation time

[tantailizing]

[Zidane remains kicked back and relaxing, arms behind his head while his foot bounces, legs crossed over each other, and his tail waving lazily next to him. He opens an eye briefly to look at Tifa, but then shrugs with a grin.]

It's a nice day out and it's comfortable here. Why go inside to take a nap?

[He's not actually napping, just lazing, but he might as well be.]

[starshower]

Not one for big king-sized beds and luxury sheets made only with the finest silks?

[Zidane has always struck her as too laid-back to care much for that, but you never know! Though she does admire that he can find comfort out here, in the flowerbeds, on a stone bench or a gravel path or whatever spot he happens to find.

She wanders up to a bush of roses and, after a glance or two over her shoulder to make sure no one's looking, she plucks one from its stem to hold out to Zidane, her eyes glowing with a playful glint.]

II

[dragongrrl]

[Culling animals isn't something Barbara experienced at home, but there were no humans to throw the predator-prey balance out of whack. Living in the woods as she does, she's certainly noticed how cramped things are getting--moreover, how the verdant forest has been getting rather patchier in spots.

She's been using the logic of "if it can get away from me, it lives," and at Zidane's inquiry she rises from the shrubbery, holding a dead pheasant. It's clearly seen better days; she doubts it managed to breed this season.]

Old. Still meat. Want?

[tantailizing]

[It did feel crowded and he didn't even live in the forest. Normally, it was just hunting with Razor or briefly popping in to check on Berry. The Carcinuses did not help either and were pushing animals to pack more places they shouldn't be.]

Yeah, we can still use it. If it has a stronger smell, it can work as a better lure.

[dragongrrl]

[Barbara stuffs the pheasant in the sack that she has mentally designated the Bait Sack, as opposed to the other (empty) sack in her belt for things that she could eat herself.]

Carcinus big. How good Zidane at fight?

IV

[flamekthunder]

[Conspicuous indeed. After being attacked a few times, Eustace has gone out to try and hunt down the mage hunters with varying success. It's during one of these hunts that he spots the cloaked figure that looks similar to the one he had been following previously, so he immediately keys in. Of course anyone could wear similar hooded cloaks, but this was acting suspicious enough to make him suddenly jump down from the rooftop he had been watching from, Flamek drawn and pointed at him.]

Hold it.

[His voice is ice cold, glare hard and hostile. It's just unfortunate that from his initial perch he couldn't see the bit of tail poking out from the behind the cloak to indicate he had been mistaken.]

[tantailizing]

[Not the first time Zidane's been accosted because of the cloak, and it wouldn't be the last either. Friend or foe, everyone's just on edge. He could probably learn to raise his hands when a gun's pointed at him because it's another weapon, but it's a friend so he's not gonna. At least he did stop walking to look back at him.]

Hey Eustace. On the roof for lookout or travel... or both?

[Nonchalant as usual and his tail sways more under his cloak.]

[flamekthunder]

[He blinks and stares for a moment before he lowers his gun.]

Zidane?

Invasive Species

[feralhumanity]

"Holding out just fine."

Nanaki was no stranger to the ways of the wild. Hunting was natural, yes, and sometimes when populations grew too large, it was the responsibility of hunters to weed out the sick or elderly and help keep the numbers in check. Too much of one species, whether predator or prey, would throw an entire ecosystem out of balance. Sometimes, steps like this would be needed.

Nanaki, fortunately, has plenty of skills at his disposal for such a task. He shakes out his fur and steps forward, sniffing the air around him.

"Are you handling yourself out here?"

[tantailizing]

"Good to hear!"

Between the two of them, they'll probably have the numbers down in this section of the forest, but only this section. There was plenty more woods that needed people combing through it.

Looking back at Nanaki, he nods.

"Yeah, I'm good. I've been taking some of the meat to try luring the Carcinuses away, but I think they like the hunt too."

[feralhumanity]

"Well, as convenient as free meat is, there is no greater thrill than that of the hunt."

He says that both as someone who understands animal nature, and as one who has himself hunted for sustenance. Free food was nice, but there was something satisfying about hunting your own food.

"Though, if that is proving to be difficult for us to track them down, perhaps we should adjust our strategy."

I

[markedfordeath]

"Look at you getting all command like." The amusement in the tone was evident, and even without turning around, Zidane would know exactly who had spoken... he'd also know that if he was looking for help, he would be out of luck when it came to this particular gunner. She may have been friendlier than some of her other guild companions but she was far less helpful than they were.

Instead Elza stopped approaching a few paces from where Zidane was working and sat down. The hood was up on her cloak to shield her face from the sun and she placed Sturm down on the ground beside her. "You're looking well, kid."

[tantailizing]

He looked back and then grinned Elza's way. Always seemed to be her, but it's cool - she's cool. He can take a break for a moment while others get back to working on the fence. If they kept on schedule, there wouldn't be much left for tomorrow to finish.

Turning her way and stretching, he brought a hand to his chin. "Oh yeah? I try... but not really. It's been a while; how've things been going for you?"

After the excitement in Celliwig, doing farm repair work must feel so mundane and slow.

[markedfordeath]

What was it like to wear emotions so openly like that? That grin that spread across Zidane's face felt like it should have made his cheeks and jaw ache from the effort and she could feel an echo of it just thinking about it.

Moving Sturm from her back, the gunner smoothly sat down in the patch of grass near where he was working.

"I've been keeping myself busy," She offered. It had been years since she's taken on any work at all let alone paid work. It felt normal to her but that in itself was part of the problem. Did she want things to feel even close to normal?

"Cleaning up a mess you made or did you actually feel the need to come out here for manual labor?" There was amusement in her tone while she lay the rifle down next to her.

a fashionably late IV

[eikobby]

One of the amazing things about being a small cute girl is that it's so much easier to overhear other people's conversations. On the rare occasion she gets caught snooping, she can just flash a smile and curtsy and everything will be fine. Eiko has used this to her advantage on many occasions.

When she overheard a group talking about wanting to hunt down animal mages, it was a bit shocking. She wasn't particularly worried though, because she hasn't been going around announcing what her talents are. In all honesty, she's been more worried about Zidane. He's not even an animal mage as far as she knows, but the monkey tail does make him easy to pick out in a crowd.

Case in point-- some movement up ahead catches her attention, and she hurries to attempt to catch up with the familiar hooded figure.

"Hey! Wait up!"

never late :3

[tantailizing]

Probably helped that she was a 'proper lady' too Zidane would tease, but he wasn't around at those times. No, each night when most of the attacks were occurring, he was out, stalking down hunters and trying to see if anyone knew the poster on the Dark Web.

So far, nothing.

He's not the only one doing this, but he's been on his own for the most part. Which is why he's a little confused when he hears someone yelling in his direction? But he glances back, raising his hood a bit.

"Eiko? What're you doing out right now?"

[eikobby]

To her credit, Eiko's been pretty good about not going out much at night since the attacks have started, and being as careful as she can manage when she is going to be out and about.

Tonight, though, she's a proper lady on a mission.

He's not the only one she's spotted out here, but he's definitely the only one she's attempted to approach so far. It's either the fact that she knows him or the fact that she knows he's likely to be targeted by whoever's responsible for the chaos.

"Yep! Were you expecting someone else?" It's not exactly an answer, though.

"I heard there was someone hunting animal mages... and they shouldn't be."

belatedly IV

[flapsin]

Someone else was patrolling the night in search of any leads in regards to the mysterious murders. Any suspicious person had to be looked into! Including any shady fellows wandering around at night.

He hoped to confirm his suspicions before anyone else could get hurt. So Darkwing tried to trail the stranger! Doing so just involved zipping back and forth between alleys while the cloaked stranger moved forwards. He's probably not the most inconspicuous with his movements, either...

[tantailizing]

Walking along, it didn't take that long to get that funny feeling that he's being followed. Who was it? What do they want? Heck if he knew...

... but he wondered if they're ready to run.

He's start by walking a little faster, making sure to still keep a relatively low profile with the few people still out. Hey, don't wanna spook them - this was his problem.

[flapsin]

As Darkwing continues his frantic following, he notices that the target seems to be picking up speed! A surefire sign of a guilty conscience - or perhaps they're nearing their diabolical destination?

Either way, Darkwing isn't going to let them out of his sight! So he tries to speed up his movements to match, even rolling on the ground here and there to make sure this target stays within his sight!