daybreakacademy | Hunt: Take Me to the River

Entry tags:

Hunt: Take Me to the River

When: April 1st,
Where: Scotland
What: Hunting Kelpies
Who: Michael

eudaimonikos, Naoki Kashima

gaiarage, Fakir

schwanenritter, Kano

suddenlybees, Nana Daiba

playitagain, Adelaide

transfusionem, Jailbreak

nor_iron_bars

A particularly vicious kelpie has been sighted in numerous places near popular bodies of water in Scotland, and reports of strange and sudden disappearances near them are starting to emerge. There are also signs it may not be working alone, and traveling in a herd or group of similarly-minded creatures - students and faculty are advised to approach with caution.

After questioning the locals, the group would be directed to the nearest loch, where the last disappearances were reported at, around dawn and dusk - when the fog would be rolling in.

Ear plugs, and cold iron are suggested weapons to be brought against fae creatures.

((OOC Notes: up to 3 characters to be kidnapped during this hunt - all volunteers. A rescue mission will ICly take place a few days later so characters won’t miss spring break, and will find more information that ties into the game’s plot, and in particular nightfall.))

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Okay, so here's how this is gonna work.

[Michael rarely fights with any sort of weapon, but he's got an iron crowbar today that he's tossing lightly from one hand to the other as he speaks. There's no sense ignoring the most obvious weakness of a fae just because he's a daemon, right? He even accepted some earplugs before leaving the school - though as he was mainly the one questioning the locals, he hasn't put them in quite yet.]

We're all going to stick together. Earplugs stay in, but if any of you gets hypnotized anyway, I'm gonna wipe your memory of the past few seconds so you forget being hypnotized. [He's just sort of hoping that works, but the logic feels plenty sound to him.] So if you feel like you lost a little bit of time, just start swinging iron around, hopefully you'll hit it. Questions?

[Fakir was dressed a little differently from normal, wearing all dark clothes with a half-cape, swing his sword with practiced ease, there's a sensation - not quite bloodlust, but a grim satisfaction at dealing with fae]

None.

[Naoki's decided to go without a weapon this go around. Fae may be weak to iron, but there's nothing stopping him from beating them into submission, and if that doesn't work he's always got magic to fall back on. He paces around the shore of the lake like a caged animal, fists clenching and unclenching.]

Can we just hurry this up? I want to go back to the Academy.

[He'd decided he hated Scotland as soon as they landed and so far his outlook hasn't changed.]

[ Ugh, he's tired. He nearly killed somebody yesterday, nerves frayed and anxiety screaming at the back of his mind, so it's great that Michael can't hear his thoughts and can get a word in directly into Kano's mind even with his ears plugged. There's a sharp glace his way at he mention of having his memory wiped— don't you dare, a downturn of his lips seem to say— but he shakes his head at the rest of it, iron short sword at his side because he'll need something with an edge where he doesn't have the physical strength to back it up. ]

We're not going to just beat it up and call it a day, right? More important is to find out how it's taking people away, and where...

[ If there's anybody still alive, versus immediately drowned and eaten or whatever kelpies do with human prisoners. Overall, Kano's not too keen on fighting; he just wants to see the kelpie and see how it operates, try to understand whys and hows. If they're splitting up at any time (bad idea in a foggy bog), you can count him on a non-combatant team. ]

[Adelaide's nervous for this mission, but it's not like you can tell looking at her. She presses her lips together at the mention of memory wipes, but she's not going to protest.

Instead, she leans her head towards Kano.]

I agree with Kano. [Shockingly.] Especially if there might be more than one at work...

[Beating up one might send a message, but it's not going to stop the problem.]

Yeah, we don't know exactly how many we're dealing with here.

[Jail looks pretty calm about the whole thing, although that might be because of the large cold-iron hammer she's got casually resting against her left shoulder. She appears to have forgone the earplugs entirely, instead relying on a pair of noise-canceling headphones from her workshop, currently slung around her neck so that she can actually talk to people out loud.]

[Admittedly, anything that can block out the construction noise you get in a magical forge is probably up to the challenge.]

Looks like more than one, probably less than nine. Dunno about you, but I don't wanna come back here a week later 'cause we missed one.

[Why the school decided that these two were the best option for responsible adult supervision this time around is... unclear. But at least they're somewhat trying?]

There's a panic button app on your phones, hit it if shit goes down and you want backup.

-—There's a panic button app?

[ IS THERE REALLY... in his old brick phone, a Nokia... he could have used a panic button app several dozen times over the past three months, why is this the first time he's hearing about it? ]

As of two hours ago, there is.

[Sure enough, if he checks his phone, there will someone be a small icon on the screen helpfully labeled "OH CRAP", with a little image of a bright red button.]

[When Jail decides to program something, she doesn't let little things like 'is this actually physically possible?' stop her. You're welcome.]

Edited 2019-04-02 00:17 (UTC)

[ Kano immediately presses the app on his phone— one, because it's there, and two, because he needs to know what it'll do, whether Jail had somehow programmed Michael's sigil into people's phones (unlikely? he wouldn't imagine Michael would give out his "number," so to speak, so easily and freely), or if something similar would happen to call her, he needs to know how immediate the help is. ]

[That's fair, honestly.]

[I mean, she handed him what was more or less a big red button, what was he going to do? Not push it?]

[When he hits the button, both Jail and Michael's phones immediately start vibrating strongly, a note popping up on the screen with Kano's name and a set of GPS coordinates for his phone's current location.]

[Everyone else's phone just gets a brief, small buzz and a notification that says 'shit incoming, brace yourselves'.]

[Jail casually slaps her phone's screen to shut the alert off.]

Thanks for the beta-testing.

[Adelaide pulls out her phone when it buzzes, before raising an eyebrow at Jailbreak.]

Did you...seriously not know if this worked before now?

Nah, that's the alpha test. [AKA, the field trip to the mine.] Today we find out if it works in a live combat situation. Fun times.

[She's tested it in the labs, too, but it's just not the same.]

[It won't be fun if it doesn't work, but Adelaide isn't nearly pessimistic enough to point that out.]

Well, hopefully it does.

[She slides her phone back into her pocket, grimacing.]

So...where should we start?

Here's hoping everybody's phones are waterproof~

[ He waves his in the air before sticking it back into his pockets, where it's definitely survived being underwater for a couple minutes at a time, but never around thrashing kelpies and swinging swords. Survive, little phone. ]

Anyways, starting is pretty easy, right? How about everybody lies how and lays in wait to ambush, while somebody go out and bait it? Somebody who looks poor and weak and defenseless...

[ He claps a hand on Adelaide's shoulder. In this group, it's her or him. ]

[Fakir was already clamoring towards a stone, and it becomes apparent why he switched to such dark clothes, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword]

Let's hurry up, we might miss our chance.

[Naoki declines to mention that he broke his phone something like two months back and hasn't gotten around to replacing it, because he probably doesn't even need the stupid panic button. He skulks around some more, toeing the water's edge until he comes to a stop right behind Kano.]

No. You first.

[Nobody's allowed to throw anyone under the bus but him, god damn it. He plants a hand right between Kano's shoulders and gives him a not-too-friendly shove. ]

[ NO—-

Kano startles at the touch, but that isn't enough to keep him from toppling over into the water— stupid stupid stupid idea it was to stand right by the water, when at any given moment an arm can shoot out and grab any one of them by the ankles and haul them into the water. But this isn't even a kidnapping, it's good old fashioned human sacrifice and after two seconds of a struggle underneath the surface of the dark murky water, everything goes still and quiet again.

Bye. ]

God fucking dammit- [Jail is already sprinting for the water, swearing as she goes.]

[You are the reason she's not getting paid enough for this, Naoki, she hopes you know that.]

[She's honestly guessing there's about a sixty percent chance that Kano is faking this just to fuck with them, but the remaining forty percent is shouting "IF YOU LET A KID GET EATEN YOU'RE SUPER FIRED", so straight to the river she goes.]

[ 60% is really low-balling it, because Kano is definitely fucking with them. Or, at least, he was at first, until a webbed hand clamps itself over his mouth and he flips around and there's just darkness, cold, pressure all around him and pain in his chest because he is a fool who did not take a deep breath before going under.

But kelpies aren't the only thing waiting for them in the bog; before Jail can get very far, she's met with a school of fish— with rows and rows of razor sharp teeth going straight for flesh. Just try to hammer through all of them. ]

[Jail pulls on her headphones as she dives in, sees the fish, swears audibly, and then kicks back up to the surface.]

[The enchantment on her boots helps her narrowly avoid losing a chunk of flesh to snapping jaws, as she pulls herself up onto the surface of the water itself and begins to run on it like it's a frozen pond instead of a running river.]

[Dodging leaping, sharp-toothed fish and trying to pinpoint Kano's location at the same time may take some doing, but it'll give her a better chance if she tries to figure out where he is and then drop down on that spot from above than she'd have trying to get through to the area underwater.]

Oh.

[That's all he can get out at first. Just "oh", like Kano falling in and vanishing is just a little surprise. He didn't mean for that to happen, he really didn't, but will anyone even believe that? Naoki's not even sure he believes it. It wouldn't be the first time he's killed someone on accident. Was it an accident?

No, no more standing around in shock. This is his mess and he's going to clean it up. He lurches forward not long after Jail, wading until he's waist-deep in slimy Scottish pong water and there are fish nipping at his exposed flesh. He barely even feels it. Their teeth don't even break the skin.]

Come on, come on...

[He bends down, fingers brushing the loch's bed, looking for something, anything. A hand or part of his clothes or Kano's neck so he can wring it for pulling this stupid prank. Please let it be a prank.]

[Oh, things went from zero to one hundred real quick. Adelaide's not expecting for this to happen - she knows there's danger here, obviously, but she was kind of expecting it would be more...

Well.

Obvious.

Not that a playful (well, it didn't seem that playful, but-) shove would end up with everything going tits up.]

Be careful!

[She hovers at the water's edge, not sure what to do. She needs to not be so useless-]

Damn it-!

[He flips from the rock and lands near the edge, sword unsheathed, and he strikes towards the kelpies, with full intentions to cut, but at least hoping the fact it's an iron sword will help to drive them off]

[ The murky water seems to thicken, whether that's with blood or mud kicked up from the bottom is difficult to tell, but the fish snap at the bottom of Jail's boots and Naoki's legs and don't give up even if they aren't very successful in devouring either of them, water churning angrily around the entire bog.

Whatever had grabbed hold of Kano and is keeping him underwater doesn't seem keen on staying very long either, content to pick off its victims one at a time and so when Fakir slices at the water with his sword, there's a brief stilling of the water— and then of something plunging deep, deep down and away.

Points at Adelaide, give it a few minutes and it's coming back for you. ]

Son of a bitch -

[And why exactly did Michael decide to hang back on this?

Well, he was covering the back of the group so no students got picked off, but all the same. Into the fucking water after Kano he goes, bye other students!

At first, he's not paying a great deal of attention to the fish. What, are they gonna bite his human flesh? Nah, he's just gonna realize that he can't see underwater with human eyes very well at all, get angry about that, and let off a general slash of destructive magic towards the bottom of the lake. He doesn't actually bother checking Kanovision for a moment - he doubts he can see anything either right now, so it would probably just be disorienting.]

Stay back!

[He calls out to the others, still standing on the shore, sword raised]

I'll lop your heads off next, you damn fairies!

[Where is it- there- no, dammit, it's too fast, even when she catches onto its' location for a moment she can't get to it in time.]

[But she still has to try.]

[Jail gestures sharply at the students behind her.]

Everyone not an active combatant, out of the water! Don't give it more targets!

[Using her powers in the middle of a fight like this is a bad, bad idea, she knows- but she doesn't have any faster or safer options, so she waits for a split-second break in the tide of pointy murderfish and focuses her Sight.]

[She doesn't need to see the kelpie, just to See it, just long enough to get one good shot...]

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Hunt: Take Me to the River

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I hope this is okay.

yeah! o7

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