凶 seasons change

[liveandforgive]

🧙 WHO: Cloud Strife & You!
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-All; Quests from the QuestBoard (Don't Lose Your Head & BUNKER DOWN). Will add future prompt(s) for the end-of-month event.
🕒 WHEN: Throughout October
🗺️ WHERE: Around Camelot (Celliwig for the "Don't Lose Your Head" quest)
⚠️ WARNINGS: Inevitable fighting in the "Don't Lose Your Head" prompt

Don't Lose Your Head • Celliwig

[ It didn't take much convincing for Cloud to make his choice; he was going to Celliwig. What very little remained of it after the catastrophic damage was done. Was it dangerous? Yes, if only for the task he'd opted to sign up for through QuestBoard. Many of the jobs he took on were odds & ends within the city of Camelot and just outside its borders. So when reports of darker Fae shrouding the ruins of Celliwig in deepened anxiety became public knowledge, tales of a Headless Horseman taking...well, the heads of those who lingered too long, also came with. By the time Cloud arrives in the once ethereal city, it's all he can do to suppress the sense of dread that creeps up his spine.

He's here as hired muscle, fending off the Fae, especially this supposed Headless Horseman whose been culling the unfortunate souls scrambling to pick up the pieces of a fallen home. Despite his job... ]

Ready? On three...

[ That didn't mean he wasn't going to lend a hand whilst waiting for trouble to start. Volunteers that struggled to move glassed rubble from a destroyed home were aided by the blond swordsman, moving hefty slabs out of the way alongside them so they can do their job and either find survivors inside...or more likely, those who couldn't make it. Besides aiding in the movement of rubble or standing guard around groups who exhausted themselves digging and cleaning up, Cloud keeps his distance. His expression was stoic, but the morose in those faded blue eyes of his was palpable.

For all the headway he's made in elemental spellcasting and awakened kinetic magic... Could he have made a difference if he were as strong as he was before? It's a thought, fleeting despite it coming and going from time to time. Something that he can't afford to dwell on for long. ]

No time for doubt.

[ Said to no one in particular as he surveys the damage and keeps his attention both on his surroundings and device for any updates on the Headless Horseman. Night was falling soon, which meant it was only a matter of time... ]

BUNKER DOWN • Broceliande

[ Cloud may not have much to concern himself with for space, living out on a farm with Weiss for as long as he has been, but that didn't mean the problems stopped for the populous as a whole. Another task through QuestBoard, something closer to home, and it's...something he's not exactly skilled in. Carpentry. He wasn't about to go preparing the most illustrious beds, but he's no stranger to following instructions. Somebody was gonna hafta carry all this lumber too, right? So... ]

S'cuse me.

[ Cloud returns to the woodworking site just outside Broceliande, but not emptyhanded. In fact, he's...carrying an excessive amount of wood over his shoulder. Long planks of sturdy wood stacked at the base of the arc of his arm. At least ten of them. Stacked atop those? Sizable logs waiting to be cut down and carved for bedposts. He wasn't the biggest, musclebound laborer out there, but it looked like he was carrying at least triple the amount that others were (or should be) carrying. Cloud's strength was absurd!!

...is what he wishes he could say. But he doesn't have access to that monstrous strength he once possessed on Gaia thanks to the mako enhancements made by Shinra. And as he approaches the unloading area, sighing with relief as he starts to kneel down, some of the logs atop the pile of his shoulder almost slide off. ]

!

[ Suddenly, the wood stops halfway off the end of one of the planks he's carrying. Yup. That's Kinetic magic alright. He's totally cheating. Still... ]

Hoo boy. Almost there...

[ One wrong move or his concentration slips, he's gonna lose his focus over the wood he's lifting with his magic. Maybe there's such a thing as working too smart instead of working hard. ]

Wildcard

( ooc; This prompt is for anything you wanna play out that's not above! Got any other prompts or ideas in mind, either from the TDM or QuestBoards, or even just something unique altogether? Go ahead and ping me either at my journal here, Discord (Kuraudo@0214) or PM me on Plurk at Clandon. )

Comments

[liveandforgive]

[ Whatever the spirit was made of, the black substance that spills from Cloud's attack dissipates into the ether eventually, giving the swordsman some more confidence in being able to go in and take it down. Gritting his teeth, he hadn't anticipated Izutsumi actually succeeding to leap up onto the rump of the large horse to catch the monster's blindspot. His grip on his sword grows lax for a moment as he watches with amazement at her rather lithe attrack and split-second reaction to dagger a weak point in the horseman's armor.

He's gonna hafta give her a lot of points for that one. Because he was prepared to brute-force his way through this, likely in failure, until she gave him the opening he needed. Brows furrowed and eyes focused, Cloud bursts forward with a release of wind magic as he closes what little distance remains. ]

Taah—!!

[ One clean slash that sees him charging through and behind the stunned horseman as Cloud slides to a stop in a kneeling position, holding his anime sword pose posture until he finally exhales. Her idea works, this time rather than profusely bleeding out that black oozy substance, the horse dissipates into black smoke, leaving the compromised fae to land unceremoniously on his back as his armor makes loud crumpling sounds.

Grasping at the spot where its underarm was stabbed, even without a head, it almost feels like as if it was glaring at the duo.

It...wasn't exactly in a position to be taking heads any time soon. Rising to his feet, Cloud keeps his blade at the ready before looking over his shoulder to Izutsumi. ]

Doubt I'd have gotten if it weren't for you.

[ Not easily any way. As for what to do with the downed spirit... Negotiations? Slaying? The mission never specified, only to protect the people of Celliwig from this problem. ]

[catfax]

[ There was something she was supposed to say in situations like these, probably. Like 'thank you' or 'you're welcome' or something of that sort. Of course, she didn't know what it was, so instead she'd just go with ]

Good thing I was here, then. What do we do with it now?

[ She didn't think the posting had said to kill the horseman (if this was possible), only to keep it from taking heads. But... what did one do with an unhorsed headless horseman? She'd have to settle with finding herself a broken branch and poking it at the creature from a bit of a distance. ]

[liveandforgive]

[ Thankfully for her, Cloud's not the type to go fishing for gratitude. Whether she appreciates it or not, they got the job done and she was reliable! ]

Well...sans killing it, we could try that whole...negotiation...... [ The Dullahan swats at the broken branch and points accusingly at both the feline-like woman and then in the general direction of the blond. ] ...thing.

[ Sighing and shaking his head, his weapon laxes in his grip but he doesn't sheath it either. Yet what he realizes is that the monster wasn't pointing at them in a "YOU JACKASSES" kind of way. ...he thinks. But more specifically, he realizes that he's pointing at their heads specifically. There's only one thing left to do now that they've got the advantage. ]

Hey! [ Yeah he's gonna try talking to the very same horseman they beat up. ] You looking for a head?

If we get you one, you leave and don't come back.

[ ... .... ..... ]

Slap your hand once for "no". Twice for "yes".

[ Cloud was so close to telling it to nod instead. ]