007} i don't care if heaven won't take me back

[theresalwayshope]

[Public Video]

[When Allison's video feed comes on, she's visible in a corridor somewhere on the ship. It's necessary, okay? Because she may have ended up sleeping in a cabin that wasn't her own, and the owner of said cabin may have werewolf hearing, and may not be awake yet...

She's not talking about what did or did not happen, though nothing happened. She swears...she is, however, looking far better rested, and a little more like that relatively cheerful girl that first showed up on the Barge.]

So...I saw what the last port did to my friends. If you know me, check in with me when you get ashore. If there's trouble, I'll be there. I don't want to take any chances.

...but if this port's as nice as it looks? And I honestly hope it is...I'll be bringing hunting gear. Maybe there can be a cookout at some point.

[Private to Vergil - VIDEO]

Hi! I just want to let you know, I think I'm going ashore. Are you? If so, we should meet to leave together. I heard some nasty things about the last port, I don't want you alone until we're sure it's safe.

[Filter for Needy, Duke, and Tig]

Be safe, and check in ASAP if you're going ashore. After what I saw from the last port when I arrived, I don't trust what we're seeing. I'm not taking any chances. I'll be armed in case things get hairy.

[Pack Filter]

When we go ashore? I'm taking the lead. I do not intend to die, but after what I saw from the last port? Everyone is being careful.

I will knock out anyone that tries to beat me off the gangplank. After that, everyone better check in regularly. This is not a request.

...and if this place really is as benign as it looks? I'm going hunting. There will be a cookout. Bring anyone you want.

[PORT SPAM]

[Ultimately? The port is just that: tropical, lush, and just plain gorgeous.

...it's also a little much for someone just coming off the death toll.

Satisfied everything is safe by the middle of the first day, Allison puts her weapons to good use: she goes hunting, and brings in a nice haul of fresh game: creatures she's never really seen before, but still recognizable as rodents on par with rabbit, various water fowl, and even some fish. True to her word, she gets the word out and has a nice big campfire cookout the first night, and it's...well, it's amazing.

For the next few days, she goes exploring, with and without friends (inmate included among that number). She tries not to push herself...but she does anyway with far more climbing, swimming, and hiking than she can probably handle. The weather is beautiful, and on more than one occasion she breaks away by herself to enjoy bathing in one of the warm pools with its own waterfall and caves. It helps with the fatigue and soreness, and makes her feel more like herself again.

The last couple of days, Allison stumbles across one of the native villages. It's a little awkward at first, given that she's armed to the teeth, but the tiny, furry, chittering creatures stand down when she does, and are soon enchanted by her archery gear and high end weaponry.

She stays in touch with her friends, even invites some of them to join her in accepting the hospitality of the villagers. She wiles away her time in joining the natives on a hunt or two, playing with some of their young, and later letting them test her skill by trying to find impossible targets for her to hit in the trees. Eventually, several of them gift her with her own set of weapons: namely, a little native-sized spear, a wooden bow, and a quiver of handmade arrows, gifts she accepts as respectfully as possible...gifts that will promptly be displayed in her room to remember the trip once she gets back to the ship.

Physically, she's a wreck by the end of it...but knowing she's meant to die, and soon, she's never been so happy to be so exhausted.]

Comments

[godsays]

[ Zane is hard to notice.

He can move as quiet as the breeze, the stir of leaves masking his motion. He can jump from tree to ground and land lightly. He tests the plants that look edible for poisons by eating them and burning pewter to resist any effects, and he finds several that are edible that way.

Maybe the best way to notice him would be when he's still (though hidden away, and deliberately not drawing attention to himself), and with his two rabbits. One grey and fluffy around the neck like a lion's mane, and one orange, with dark fur on the tips of his ears, his paws, and his nose. Also fluffy around the neck. Zane himself sits watching them, feeding them once in a while, stroking their ears. Letting them nose around.

If an arrow comes at either of them, Zane will move fast enough to catch it before it reaches them, or he'll deflect it Allomantically into the bushes. He won't be pleased. ]

[theresalwayshope]

[Allison is enjoying the hunt.

It's nowhere near as challenging as taking on werewolves, kanimas, and dark fox spirits, but it satisfies the itch she's had lately to go out and do some damage...and hunting in the wild, killing for food...there's something about it that's very purifying. Using all her skills to take life in the name of sustenance, it makes her feel a little less like a monster.

She's been at it for a while, and she's almost considering taking a break to go for a swim in one of those pools she's seen when she catches sight of orange fur darting through the brush. She draws an arrow and raises her bow...but something isn't right.

She hasn't seen an actual rabbit on this world, and that looked like something from Earth.

Keeping her bow raised, she follows the rabbit...and spots him.

Allison sobers, lowering her bow, but keeping her arrow notched, pointed at the ground.]

You could have gotten shot.

[godsays]

[ He flares the steel reserves in the pit of his stomach as soon as he hears the sound of a person moving, and, as always, the little faint blue lines appear in his vision, showing him where every source of metal is nearby in relation to his center of gravity. If her voice hadn't been enough, he could have followed the vector straight to the arrowhead. His hands are tight.

He moves to his feet, and scoops up Kel, the rabbit. ]

I would have seen it before it hit.

[ The arrow.

His posture is protective, though. It's clear he doesn't want to risk Kel. ]

And anyone who could have gotten as close as you are knows to be careful when they shoot anyway.

pack filter

[freezerburns]

Do I get to ask what happened with the last port?

[Also hey, while he's not planning on trying to try to beat her down the gangplank, guess who's totally making plans to be like three feet behind her when she disembarks.]

pack filter

[theresalwayshope]

I'm not even entirely sure. All I know is that Scott was a walking mud clod, Lydia was so out of it she thought I was a ghost and I thought she was an inmate, and inhalers like the one Scott used before he got bitten keep popping up at weird intervals.

[And because she knows her werewolves...]

I've got an inmate temporarily assigned to me. I don't know yet if he's going to visit this port, but I'll have to escort him off the ship if he does. Promise to do exactly as I say, and you can disembark with us.

Pack Filter

[voluntaryapnea]

I requested the inhalers from the Admiral. They're still popping up? That's...okay probably normal here actually.

pack filter

[freezerburns]

Yeah, yeah, I promise. [...] You get temporary inmates?

pack filter

[semifreakingnormal]

Underground caves. And like. Mole people.

[And hallucinations!!! but Scott is keeping that one very close to his chest, okay.]

pack filter

[freezerburns]

Mole people?

[visetvires]

[Clementine stays on the outskirts of the campfire. Free food is free food, but she's also wary - perpetually, of everything, and of Allison specifically. She doesn't know the exact nature of her connection to Scott, but there is a connection, which makes Allison approximately as trustworthy as Roman was. Although perhaps a little more sensible.]

[Still, she can't help but be impressed. This is a lot of game to have caught in one day. She leans over the spits to inspect the rodents and birds, trying to identify exactly what they're most analogous to, Earth-wise, while keeping a careful eye on everyone else around the campfire.]

[theresalwayshope]

[Allison notices the young woman eyeballing the spits, not with open hunger, but with curiosity. She can understand it: she'd been just as curious while hitting and cleaning the game.

Looking up from the larger spit she's turning, holding one of the shrub turkeys she'd landed with Stephen, she smiled as the girl surveyed a smaller creature that had green fur once upon a time and small, supple ears edged in brown.]

That one was some kind of tree rabbit. Get a load of the claws on the front feet...perfect for clinging to all this thick tree bark, you know?

[visetvires]

[Glancing up at Allison only briefly - she knew roughly where she was, so she's not terribly surprised by the girl's sudden proximity - she looks back at the tree rabbit with a new eye for detail. The claws are--]

Interesting. But would make going down headfirst fairly difficult.

Did you see any on the ground?

[strangehistorian]

I'm glad you're being cautious!

[theresalwayshope]

Damn right. I arrived after everyone came back from the last port. I won't let anyone go through that again if I can help it.

Thanks for appreciating a little common sense on my end.

[private]

[hearrrtofgold]

I'm armed too. You get in trouble, you call me. You settle down, you call me. You get bored, you call me.

[private]

[theresalwayshope]

So in other words, you're inviting yourself along to either kick ass or chew bubblegum as the situation warrants?

[private]

[hearrrtofgold]

More or less.

[diealone]

Be careful.

[theresalwayshope]

I will. I'm leaving the ship with every weapon I can carry.

[ewok spam]

[notsoneedy]

[Needy did her due diligence, thank you very much. She checked in after she made landfall, letting Allison know approximately where she was and what she'd likely be doing throughout the next couple of days. Since it seemed pretty clear the other girl was going to worry out of her mind about the people she thought it was vaguely her job to protect otherwise.

(She's not really used to being on the receiving end of this - with her and Jenn. it was usually her that was the responsible one. The one that might spend a few hours pacing the floor if Jennifer said she was going to call back and never did; even though nine times out of ten it only meant she'd gone off with another guy. But what if this one turned out to be a psycho, what if they took the wrong way home and got lost, what if...)

When a day or so in Allison said she had stumbled across some 'natives' and that they had to be seen to be believed, of course she was going to come by and check it out.]

Oh my god. Would you just look at these little guys.

[ewok spam]

[theresalwayshope]

[Allison was delighting some hunters from the little tribe she'd befriended with one of her folding combat knives when Needy emerged into the clearing. Looking up, she grins at her, having acquired a single small braid in her hair at some point, a tiny decorative bone adorning the end of it.]

Aren't they adorable? [Turning to the male in front of her, Allison pointed at Needy.] Needy. [She follows by patting her chest, right over her heart, a gesture they've managed to negotiate into meaning 'friend' before she beckons to Needy.] They don't speak a word of English, but you can kinda communicate with gestures...they let me stay in their village last night. These are hunters, I'm trying to see if they will let me join them today.

[ewok spam]

[notsoneedy]

Oh my god. [Yeah, she's repeating herself. It bears being repeated. And she grins.] Look at you. You're totally like the Jane Goodall of...whatever these guys are.

[She raises her hand, palm out, in what she hopes is an understandable gesture of 'hi' as she smiles, hopeful and only mildly wary at the little furry bear people. She comes a bit closer to Allison, making a point to move careful and slow. They seem reasonable but who knows what might happen if she's perceived as a threat.]

Are these the natives the Admiral was warning us about? This is not what I ever would have guessed.

Private

[walkthedarkpath]

[ He actually chuckled some at that. She got a laugh out of him.]

Alright, I will met you if only to ease your mind that I am not in need of worry. Where shall I met you, Madame?

Private

[theresalwayshope]

[She has a feeling she's being laughed at a little bit, but he's being agreeable...and she hasn't really heard him laugh before, so she's calling it a win as she flashes him a smile.]

At the main exit, I guess. Pack sensibly, but I did hit up a guy for survival gear, so don't stress to hard. I'll pick up our stuff from him on the way.

And please call me Allison.

[She pauses, her smile growing good-naturedly.]

Also, don't laugh. I'm not funny.

Private > Action

[walkthedarkpath]

I do not need much in the way of anything.

Alright then Allison, and I will see about refraining from laughter. Either way, I am on my way.

[ He cut the fed But he is not leaving the sword behind. He never really fully lowers his guard.

He did not bring much of anything, a katana on loan from Sylvannas in it's sheath and a book. he wore his usual battle outfit since it honestly seemed more sensible then a suit. So he stood looking for her then.]