isleofavalon | OTA | September Catch-All

Entry tags:

OTA | September Catch-All

🧙 WHO: Gokudera and YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: Birthday stuff/ Open and closed prompts/ Catch-all for September
🕒 WHEN: Throughout September
🗺️ WHERE: Various
⚠️ WARNINGS: foul language; mentions of murder; will update as necessary

A. A boy and his leopard

Gokudera doesn't let Uri out very often. For starters, the teenager does not have animal magic and can't tell when his weapon-turned-pet is feeling any sort of way. The young adult leopard is well-fed, growls a lot, and stalks about in his attic apartment, climbing the indoor tree, but he won't deny it freedom. He could put a leash on Uri, but that doesn't seem right. Maybe because he has a collar about his own neck, and this animal is not just some house cat. Uri is... or was an extension of his spirit. To have the Storm Leopard now just a leopard feels unfair. Their connection is lost, and he won't demand the creature stay inside.

Uri hesitates to leave the apartment at first when he welcomes the cat outside, but once he coaxes the cat out, it's staying close, hunkering down, and growling at anyone they pass.

He can be seen walking down the streets of New Camelot with the leopard sticking to his side. Once they are out on the training grounds, Gokudera is sitting down with the big cat, trying to talk with it.

"I hid some food out here for you earlier. You want to find it and take it home to your tree, or should we look for a new tree out here?"

The leopard licks at its paw and gives a rumbling purr before rolling about.

"Uri, you can nap when we get back home. You're supposed to have fun out here..." He pleads, looking apologetic. The leopard doesn't seem upset, though, and gets up before jumping at his back and pinning him down. It's licking at the back of his head, and he's letting out a muffled, distressed yell. That tongue is rough and his neck is sensitive. To anyone who knows anything about his problems with his collar, they can probably tell that this activity probably isn't pleasant for him.

B. Wild accusations | TL;DR Gokudera is accused of being a Selkie

[Gokudera is talking to a man at the Lake, and there seems to be an argument. It seems the boy is arguing that he saved a selkie woman and the man is accusing him of murdering a fisherman who had trapped her.

Aggravated, the boy throws his hands up and turns. He stares out at the water and then stops talking and just walks into the water, further and further in. A few bubbles rise to the surface, then abruptly stop. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen. The boy does not come up, there's no sign of him.

But the real Gokudera is looking for anything that may have been left behind by the selkie he and Yamamoto saved some months ago. The late fisherman's house seems in a state of disrepair, relatively vandalized, but still standing and sturdy.

He leaves carefully and quietly with a bag of fabrics, his old bloodied clothes he'd hidden from before. It'd be a sneaky escape, but the man he'd fooled turns and catches him. He's accusing Gokudera of all sorts of things, and then backing the boy into the water of the lake. Gokudera turns and dives in, swimming off as far as he can go until his familiar cloaks him.]

If I ever see you again, I'm taking your skin!

[Gokudera can hear that angered yell over the water and he can be found later on bobbing about in the water. Try to convince him to come out? Ask him what happened? Swim right up to him? The weather isn't cold enough for the water to be too unpleasant, and the angry man is leaving so maybe the boy will get out of the water. He's going to take out his device and ask for help.]

What should I do to prove I'm not a selkie?

[Feel free to put up your own prompt. Also! Prose/brackets are fine! I'll match whichever]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, we're doing pretty good so far. Let's keep going," Tsuna manages to smile. With the nature of the VR, it's hard to remind himself that this is a game sometimes. He'll just have to keep that as a mantra going forward.

Although as they progress, it looks like there are plenty of alleyways for enemies to start coming out again.

And an enemy does come out. Gokudera had been moving forward, so they essentially emerge between them. The bomber turns and hey, they flank them. He blocks a hit, ducks, sweeps out an ankle.

"I'll trip him up, you hit him over the head!"

Is that how it works? Who knows!

"Got it," Tsuna replies. It should work. What's the point of a co-op game if it doesn't. After all, these games are a bit more advanced than the old school arcade games.

As the enemy is tripped, Tsuna swings the staff down on his head hard, causing the enemy to fade away as another one comes to take it's place.

Gokudera gets up once their enemy fades, and then rushes up to the next one. It's probably not a great idea for him to try button-mashing when he doesn't have a weapon, but then he's suddenly got tonfa in his hands when he reaches back.

"Oh!" Not his usual type of weapon at all but he's been hit with tonfa enough to understand how they work. Gokudera swings and ducks, striking the next enemy across the face and then jabbing into his stomach. Then he finishes him off with a kick.

"Tenth, I'm getting the hang of it!" He says with a bright grin. When did he pick up the tonfa...?

"Yeah! Good job!"

It's weird for Tsuna to be saying such things, but it's a video so it doesn't count. Or so he tells himself. He winces slightly at the sight of the tonfa, but that's more an involuntary reaction as the memory of Hibari sets in.

"How's your health? I think I'll go look for some more items!"

"I picked up a heart earlier! How's yours?"

Gokudera will keep an eye out and walk around, breaking crates to help expose any items his boss can use.

"This feels so weird..." He says as he swings the tonfa. Unfamiliar in his own hands, he wonders if Hibari is on another world as well. It's hard to be a good right-hand and care about the other guardians when he doesn't like most of them, and they aren't even here. Dare he say he worries about them? Hibari included?

"I think I'm okay for now. But if you see another one, let me know."

Tsuna keeps walking, keeping an eye out for enemies and anything else. They must be close to the end of the level.

"Maybe if you practice enough, you'll be able to show Hibari-san."

Not that Hibari would care likely, but still. Common ground is a good thing.

"Oh I'd hate that. You know how quickly he'd have fun destroying me..."

Because Hibari likes a challenge and Gokudera knows he'd look like a fool trying to show the Cloud Guardian. It's just asking for a beat-down with a hungry, angry smirk.

"Tenth, there are more enemies up ahead. Watch out."

"Ahaha, I suppose that's true to...He definitely wouldn't go easy on you."

If anything, he might also be insulted that someone was trying to use the same weapon as him. It was always hard to tell.

Tsuna jumps back in a panic as three of the enemies try to corner him. It's not the most graceful action, but he's basically button mashing them away.

"When does he ever?"

Gokudera replies with something almost like a fond smile. Pissing Hibari off is easy and keeps him from feeling too rusty. Even if the bomber gets his ass handed to him every time, it's rewarding to fight the prefect.

"Keep an eye on your ten!" He swings his tonfa at the enemy directly behind Tsuna, leaving him facing two of them, but whatever he can do to help. Gokudera's swipes go through his boss, so there's that. The hitbox on these foes seems a bit smaller than before.

It's a weird sensation, to have Gokudera's swipe go through him, rather than actually hit him. But it's also probably a good thing that friendly fire isn't on. The surprise causes him to un-equip his weapon for a moment, resulting in a flurry of punches towards the other enemies.

Not the most effective, but it's pushing them back at least.

Gokudera is having way too much fun, and he's not really using the tonfa well. It's the same swipe in the same area unless he jumps and combos it, or crouches while striking. There's no good flexibility for him where he's able to strike.

"Do you think we're getting-"

He knocks the enemy down and they vanish before he's helping to take care of one that Tsuna is being flanked by.

"close to the boss?"

"We should be. How many waves of enemies have we faced? There's usually a pattern, like, three and then the boss."

It might not be that amount for this game, but that's usually how it works. And since it's the first level, they're probably not going to encounter a mini-boss or some sort of extra challenge.

"These guys seem tougher. My guess is the boss of this level is up ahead."

Gokudera looks to Tsuna, to see if he's picking up any dropped items or more health.

"Most likely, considering all these health items."

He definitely grabs a few, noticing that his health is starting to get low. Not low enough for a sound effect but definitely getting there.

"I'd like a different weapon though, if you see one."

"Can we trade weapons?"

Gokudera walks right up and tries to offer it, or drop it and have Tsuna pick it up. It just ends up in him striking, and the hit goes right through his boss, but that feels startling.

"Sorry! Drop it, maybe..."

Another swipe.

"Drop..."

Nope, swiping again.

The rezzing feeling that goes through Tsuna is a weird one and he startles with each swipe.

"Doesn't look like it. We'll have to just keep our eyes open for more items on the way."

He looks down the street.

"Ready?"

"Maybe something better will show up once we defeat the boss." That makes sense, right? Gokudera is still staring at his own tonfa in irritation, as if they were swiping at the Tenth and not him.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Tsuna nods. That's usually how it works, but to do that, they'll actually have to beat the boss. He grips his quarterstaff, and with a deep breath to try and steady his nerves, he heads down the street. He shouldn't feel nervous, but he does and tries to remind himself that it is just a video game.

They reach what seems like a dead end until the wall in front of them cracks and a large, burly man bursts through, flexing his muscles and stalking towards them.

"Okay, he should have a pattern of some kind. We just need to catch on to that!"

Gokudera is probably going into this underestimating the boss they have to fight. It's the first boss! How hard can it be?

He can't even figure out his attack combos, so they may be in for a real challenge. The bomber checks his health and wonders how many strikes from this boss either of them can take. If his health runs out, will he regenerate, or will it be game over? He can't let his boss fight this guy on his own!

"He looks bulky... We should stay out of his reach."

"Right, yeah," Tsuna says, a little wobbly, and he backs up. He might have taken a hit, trying to rush in with his quarterstaff.

"There's gotta be something we can throw at him then, or a way to get behind him?"

"Oh! I can get behind him using one of those crates as cover, then we can flank him!"

Gokudera points to one of the crates, suspecting it may have items in it, but right now it can be useful unless the boss destroys it. He rolls forward and crouches behind it, the water in the dish of his head splashing about and leaving some of the ground wet. He grins at it and watches the boss target Tsuna.

"If he tries to hit you, make sure you block!"

"Right!" Tsuna calls back and there's a weird moment of his sprite running through commands as Tsuna tries to remember what button that is. Now it's just a matter of timing and figuring out attack patterns.

The boss lets out a laugh and then charges forward in a rush attack and Tsuna can only yelp and throw his hands up to block.

Gokudera isn't going to waste his time in attacking while the boss is distracted. He's landing some pretty smooth melee combos that utilize the tonfa. There are moves his kappa avatar lands that he has never attempted before, and now he's wondering if he could perform some of these acrobatic hits.

"When he turns to me, take your chance, Tenth!" Gokudera encourages, then glances about, as if searching for a health point bar above the boss.

"Right!" Tsuna yells, wincing. While he'd managed to get the block up in time, he still lost some health and has to dive out of the way to avoid a couple punches before the boss turns his attention to Gokudera.

He lets out another laugh and then uses the same charging move. It seems to be a set pattern.

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