psychoshenanigans | GRATIA // PSL

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GRATIA // PSL

So, here's what Irahl knows.

He's alone in a dark, cold cave. He has most, if not all, of his gear. No one is guarding his location. As he heads away from the spot where he came to consciousness, no one tries to stop him, and no one gets in his way. The few people he finds down there seem human, and not about to approach the nearly-seven-foot man that comes stalking out of the lower tunnels. Honestly, everyone here seems a surprised and a little astonished about his... Entire scene.

There is a way up. It's a maze of twisting corridors and confusing passageways, half of which feel too small for him. It's bigger and bigger groups of people, some of which scatter like schools of fish, and some of which have to be pushed through to get anywhere. It's climbing up into streets lit with dingy lights, graffiti-covered hallways, warehouses, weird holes in stone walls that may or may not be windows. It's alarm bells, it's people yelling at each other down the street. It's just an absurd number of stairs. A couple of people make an attempt to stop him somewhere, and it goes poorly for them.

Elsewhere, events are being set in motion where Irahl cannot see. But he's on his way out.

Eventually, more people try to stop him. At the end of another long stretch of Underground city, a group of official-looking folks are putting a real effort into blocking off the obvious exit, and some of them have weapons.

Down a side alley, into another tunnel, and then the space opens up into a... Plaza, of some sort? The floor is made of stone. The buildings surrounding it are made of stone and are hard to distinguish from one another. At at least the ceiling (also made of stone) is a lot higher than before. Cavernous. There's some kind of sculpture in the middle of it, some impressive feat of geometric stonework that gives the illusion of defying gravity despite weighing literal tons.

This is where someone finally catches him. Sounds have been echoing unhelpfully down every passageway, making it hard to tell if people are coming or going - but this series of quick footsteps comes from an upward direction before someone hits the ground about five feet in front of Irahl.

His clothes are different. His hair is better-kept. Maybe if the situation wasn't quite so tense, there'd be time to see the ways in which his face is different, the way his eyes don't have quite as vicious and sharp a gleam as they used to. But whatever Irahl can take in of him, there is Robin, having hopped down from a rooftop to put himself between him and the exit again.

"...Holy shit."

Kind of weird that he looks absolutely shocked to see the person in front of him, though.

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Irahl has never been one to take comfort in others with similar circumstances to his own. However, with how excessively human everything has been in this bizarre pair of cities, he now finds that a corner of his attention keeps drifting to the set of claws partially in his eyeline across the table. Whatever part of his brain is responsible for this, it feels slightly more like curiosity than loathing, which is an discomforting experience.

So, he's glad when the conversation around him becomes more actively interesting than only passively so. He'd been observing and absorbing the group dynamic all along, but this 'debriefing' session gives him a much more direct example of how this little machine really works.

The very first thought that he has on the whole thing, is that this habit of constructive criticism between them is going to be a problem. Of course, he has plenty of opinions on their various performances himself that he could share--and he even briefly considers actually sharing them--but he has zero interest in hearing anyone else's thoughts on his own work, unless it's a specific idea or plan on how they might work together in the field.

The only opinion he would consider accepting is if Seth feels compelled to bring up something to him in private. Otherwise, as much as he does have an adequate amount of respect for each of them, and hopes that they can all work well enough as a team, he could not care less about what they think of him or his work.

It's probably a dragon thing.

To play it safe and avoid encouraging anyone to begin including him in this critique, he sticks to judging things which are not his teammates when he does finally speak up.

"The stunt shouldn't have worked at all. Your radios are bad. Why don't you use earpieces?"

Perhaps an exception can be made for Irahl when it comes to feedback. After all, Seth was in both rounds and no one's said anything about his performance.

"Wow..." Nikaro remarks, shaking their head, "No mercy. Listen, if you're willing to hand over your fancy little earpiece, I'll get it straight to R&D myself."

Nikaro probably knows Irahl's equipment list better than they know Irahl, at this point. They have a copy of it in their shop. They're acting pretty casual about it, but they've been hungry to get a look at more than just Irahl's specific sniper rounds.

Finn looks curious about whatever this 'earpiece' could be as well, but they don't ask about it. And thankfully, no one else takes any of this as a queue to start in on critiquing Irahl's work today, just as planned.

Well, that explains the 'why,' then. These people really don't have headset radios. He'd be shaking his head right now if he ever emoted that much.

Nikaro hardly finishes their sentence before Irahl is leaning down to drag his gear bag out from under the bench he's seated on. If this will speed up getting some more quality gear into the team, he's more than happy to hand it over. It's not like a radio does him any good without anyone else using one too.

Without a fuss, the sleek little device is passed across the table. He's still wearing his visor so his eyeballs don't melt in the sun, but it's at least pretty clear how the headset would hook onto it when worn.

"Incoming communications are almost silent from the outside. But if you make it scream you'll blow someone's eardrums."

So, use your powers for good, Nikaro.

"Interesting," Nikaro says in such a way as to neither commit to being good nor fully broadcast that they're interested in being bad, "I'll see what we can do."

But they pick up the earpiece and stow it away somewhere safe, in a case that won't get jostled around like the rest of their stuff.

"Is the plan still to head out to the nest next?" Jandru asks, curious about whether or not Irahl's made it far enough to come with them for the rest of the day.

"Yeah," Nikaro replies, gesturing towards their sunglasses-wearing party member, "Finn, do you want to go ahead and break out the map?"

"Oh, sure..." Finn says, ducking down to grab something out of his gear before moving over some bags of potato-like sides and breaded-meat-nuggets to make room on top of the table to roll out a hand-drawn map. It seems to be depicting some kind of canyon, with a few notable side-caverns denoted with scribbled handwriting.

As everyone else leans in to look at the map (except for Seth, of course), Finn glances up over the rim of his glasses at Irahl with those bright-green eyes of his.

"You ever had to deal with a Canyon Crawler before?"

Nikaro has every right to be as cagey as they want. And now that the warning has been given, if they ever decide to make Irahl's radio scream in his ear, he will calmly repay them with violence.

As Finn unfurls the map, Irahl momentarily appears helpful by reaching across with one long arm to slide one of those deep-fried sides out of the way, but it's mostly to have an excuse to pull them much closer to himself. Three burgers were not enough, apparently.

Having something to casually devour also has the benefit of making it easier to pretend to ignore those eyes.

"Don't know." With how weird this place is, who knows what bizarre names they have for things out here. "What are they like."

Finn may have been a weak link in combat, but combat was never his specialty, even when he was a proper member of the military. This was much closer to what he was good at. His gaze lingers on Irahl for a moment before he pushes his glasses back up, putting that barrier back between his eyes and the rest of the world.

"Segmented reptilian types. They're known to climb up vertical surfaces and smaller ones can even travel upside-down on ceilings. Size ranges dramatically between individuals and we're not sure why, but they otherwise have a fairly predictable single form from generation to generation."

They point to one of the larger caves, which has been marked with a red X for emphasis.

"At the center of the nest is the mother, so to speak, and it spawns more Crawlers about once a lunar cycle. The mother looks kind of like a giant moth and a snake got fused with a pillar of smoke."

Then they point at the back of their own neck, tapping where it connects with their head.

"That mother will naturally generate a cloaking effect that puts it somewhere between here and the Haunting, unless you're able to pull it here with enough trauma to a spot right between its head and thorax."

For a few long moments, there is no acknowledgement from Irahl, other than thoughtful chewing while he stares vaguely through the map on the table.

With a description like that, there is a lot that he could ask or comment on. It's certainly more than would fit in his usual word-limit. So, it takes him a little bit of time to think through things and choose his battles. He'll pick a couple of priorities, and save the bigger questions and criticisms about the creatures in this neck of the world for later.

"Weaponry just teeth and claws? And what are their senses like?"

Especially while he's in subpar camouflage and gear for the desert, he would love to know how likely he is to be spotted or otherwise picked up on their radar while sniping, and how much it's going to hurt when he is.

While Irahl thinks over how ridiculous the creatures in this neck of the woods are, the silence is filled with a couple of other murmured comments about the canyon, a question about elevation, as the other party members also assess the situation laid out before them.

"Claws and mandibles," Finn corrects, miming some horizontal pincers with those weird hands of theirs, "They dig through stone with those things. The mother is less-armed but has some ability to kick up winds."

Which could potentially be very challenging in a canyon, where the wind can whip things off of any perches they choose to set up in.

"Their senses are... Largely smell, not very good eyesight. If we can stay downwind, they may not pick up that there are humans around until we're within about a hundred feet of them."

Which is good information for the rest of the group, but Finn knows that there was probably more to the question than just eyesight and sense of smell. He glances briefly at Seth before saying what he's really thinking.

"As for the rest of us... They usually mistake me for one of their own. And Seth is pretty good at staying off their radar. You, I'm not so sure..."

Irahl has been very difficult to read. He shrugs, trying to appear casual, despite this being one of his least favorite topics.

"I don't think you'd be confused for a human, but I also don't think you really ping as one of them, either. Maybe they won't care about you at all, but I don't think we'll know for sure until we're down there."

Likewise, Irahl pretends that his hunching into his shoulders as he leans forward is just him shifting to get a better look at the map. It has nothing to do with the uncomfortable topic.

He doesn't particularly want to get into the details of how creatures often don't seem to notice him at all, while sometimes they detect him much more quickly than they pick up on his teammates with diluted magical blood. So, he keeps it simple.

Now that he has gotten a better glimpse of--and been disappointed by--the level of technology around here, he's going to guess that he has another piece of equipment that they don't.

"The armor helps." He taps a finger against his own chest, right where an important electronic component is imbedded in his chestplate. "Have a cloaking charge if things get bad."

And speaking of things potentially getting bad and the scarcity of specialty equipment around here, he also needs to know how he should be rationing his less-replaceable supplies, such as ammo.

"Threat level of the mother?" Because he's pretty sure that a well-placed arcana round would pull her here real quick.

Nikaro glances over when a cloaking device is brought up, since that's another item of significant interest to them, but they're not about to interrupt everything for the sake of their own curiosity. If this guy ends up joining the team, they can grill him on how all his equipment works to their heart's content.

"Cool," Finn responds, eyebrows raising slightly in surprise. He's not as familiar with Irahl's gear as Nikaro. "Good to know. I won't worry so much, then."

Not that he... Would have been worried if Irahl didn't have the cloaking device. He's under absolutely no obligation to care if Irahl thinks he's a worrier or not and he's definitely not bothered about it. Hey, look at this cool map he drew. Yeah. Let's all look at the map.

"It's a modified level three. Which is... On a scale of one to five, five being of least concern. And one being inconceivably dangerous. Normally it's a four, but if it lives past being pulled here it becomes a three."

"It's good exercise," Rohen translates, looking up at Irahl with a scarred smile, "But no one's going to die, or anything."

"...Okay, well, don't jinx it..." Finn mutters.

To all of this, Irahl gives an all-purpose sound that is half grunt and half scoff, and it covers the whole range of reacting--from Finn's 'lack' of concern, to the supposed threat level of his upcoming target, and finally to the subsequent jinxing.

No arcana rounds, he decides. It'll be more informative if their fun isn't ended early.

It seems that this concludes his round of questioning, as he settles into finishing off his snack and focusing on the map instead of further engaging with his teammates. If there's anything else important that he should know, he trusts they'll bring it up. Otherwise, he's ready to go.

There's some talk of tactics and positioning, but no one really bothers Irahl about any of that. After all, they've come this far without a sniper and there's nothing to say they're going to keep the one that they're currently borrowing. They don't exclude him, exactly, but his role in this battle feels theoretical for now.

Eventually, Nikaro calls for everyone to finish their food and pack up. A couple people grab some sides for the road. Rohen grabs two whole extra burgers, one of which she hands over to Irahl with a "here you go!" as if he'd asked her to grab him one.

Even though the group had been fairly blasé about this mission, it quickly becomes apparent that the things they're fighting are extremely dangerous. They may not be as versatile or resilient as the dragons Irahl is used to, but their nightmarish proportions don't reflect just now fast or strong these creatures are, nor how eager they are to devour any humans that cross their paths.

Like any serious operation, the team aims to end the fighting fast, and from as far a distance as possible. Finn plans to go in and do something that will briefly make the mother visible. Irahl can then take advantage of that to draw it the rest of the way out of the Haunting and into this reality, where it can be stabbed and shot and otherwise normally dispatched. Other than that, the team's hoping he can keep an eye on things from above and provide cover fire for the guys on the ground.

He'll have front row seats to a very interesting show; the monsters are fascinating in and of themselves, with their own set of behaviors and patterns to catch on to, but here Irahl is really going to get a sense of what this secret special task force can actually do when they're fighting the things they've been trained to fight.

Seth is notably absent from the skirmish. It's not that he isn't participating--there is a very specific job that he's doing while the others fight--but from an outsider's point of view, it looks an awful lot like he's just waiting at the edge of this canyon, leaning against a wall with his eyes closed while his team risks life and limb out on the battlefield.

As everyone is taking their positions, Finn takes a deep breath, walks along the canyon floor, and simply vanishes as if he'd stepped through some invisible curtain. He appears again somewhere different about a minute later, then vanishes again. His presence and the use of this ability doesn't seem to have any affect on the idling monsters whatsoever--until he shoots a crossbow bolt exactly where he'd described to Irahl. Then all the monsters care a whole hell of a lot. Especially the mother, whose irritated nerves send it momentarily rippling into existence to confront whatever's dared to disturb its nest.

And that's where the distractions come in. Nikaro isn't well-suited to the position of a patient sniper, but they are extremely well-suited to being a pain in the ass. They deliver several well-aimed and devastating shots to the mother, if Irahl isn't already taking care of it, but otherwise to the biggest and meanest-looking guys left in the bunch. They continue to take out monsters from behind the protective wall that is Rohen for as long as they can get away with it.

Rohen is a mobile defense unit all on her own. She's found the best bottleneck they could possibly take advantage of. She's littered the ground and some of the walls in front of them with proximity mines. She's got these posts she drills into the ground in front of her position, which seem like they'd be only a minor inconvenience until something tries to crawl over them and suddenly has a hydraulic spike jutting through its thorax.

If these creatures get through all that, either by wits or sheer force, they get to contend with her heavy shield and even heavier-looking mace. The smile vanishes while she's fighting. Honestly she seems to go into some kind of feverish rage while smashing these bug-like lizard monsters apart. Whatever it is, traces of magic occasionally spark from her weapon, crippling whoever makes contact with it and giving pause to the others left alive around it.

Once long range isn't really an option, Nikaro switches to their real weapon of choice, a glaive. They target everything not immediately crumpled by Rohen, making up for her lack of speed with their own quick flourishes. Unlike her, Nikaro just can't seem to keep a smirk off their face once the fighting starts.

Jandru has been told to hang back and not get too far into combat, but they creep around the edges of the fight with their pistol and pick off any monsters that somehow survived the onslaught from Nikaro and Rohen. They and Finn seem to be on similar levels of 'do your job and then get the fuck out of there', providing cover fire for each other as they pop in and out of safety.

Edited 2024-10-31 20:27 (UTC)

Irahl really could not have asked for a better show. He spends some of the beginning of the fight just watching. As much as he's feeling uncommonly energetic, (maybe it's the extra burger fueling his system thanks to Rohen,) he forces himself to shake off the morning's lighthearted game of kill-your-friends, and fall into the patience and seriousness he needs in order to work.

There's a lot to see. It has been quite some time since he has dealt with either a new team or new targets, so he takes his time in beginning to work it all into his reflexes. He needs to ultimately be able to predict the movements of his allies just as much as those of the enemy, so he's observing them just as closely. Soon, all of the participants in the battle begin to make their imprints on his instincts.

Seth is counted in this as well. Irahl isn't planning on keeping track of him, given how far outside of his general eyeline that the other man is standing, but he can't help sensing the fact that he is doing something.

Whatever it is, there is a latent, dull pressure in his head that he doesn't love to begin with, and he knows that the way it begins to ebb and flow in a noticeable way has something to do with his new employer. It's especially distracting after how clear-headed he has been lately. After making a mental note to ask Vincent about it sometime, he cranks up the volume on his music player and really gets to work.

So, after the others have found their strides and settle in, their sniper suddenly makes his presence known.

His overpowered rifle remains mostly trained on the mother, but he also visits around the battlefield to take out whatever creatures are posing the most immediate threat to his various teammates, now that he has seen how they each work. He keeps the creatures from ganging up on either of the small, stealthy ones, though he heavily prioritizes Jandru over Finn. He mostly leaves Nikaro to their fun, but he does pick off a few that seem too big or too fast for comfort when the creatures charge forward in force. He only directly helps Rohen once, when a small and agile creature decides to climb straight up the front of her shield and stick there, which gums up their mobile defensive wall. When it leans to attack her over the top of her shield, that's when the thing dramatically loses its head.

The mother truly does remain his primary target, however. It isn't the easiest thing to hit, or to even know where to hit, but this is what he's best at. Since he knows this won't be a one-hit kill, he first spends a shot or two trying to take out a wing or otherwise cripple it, which should speed things up by quite a bit.

Jandru needs the help. They're a capable marksman, but they're not an extensively-trained soldier like Nikaro, nor do they have any magical tricks like Rohen or Finn. Once or twice they find themselves in uncomfortably close range to a monster only for it to be shot down from on high a moment later.

It's not only a relief to them, but to Finn as well. He's supposed to be keeping Jandru safe so Nikaro doesn't have to split their attention, but sometimes his own attention is divided between whatever's trying to skewer him in the normal world and however he keeps phasing in and out of the Haunting. Having an extra set of eyes on everything is a huge help.

Jandru makes sure to repay the favor; once they know about where Irahl is hiding, they keep an eye on the vertical canyon wall just underneath and quickly dispatch anything that tries to sneak up on their sniper from below.

It's hard to tell if Rohen notices the help, and Nikaro's not about to take their eyes off what they're doing... But if Irahl's paying attention, he'll catch a thumbs-up from the second-in-command when one of those monsters that would have dropped on them from the ceiling simply falls in a pile on the ground next to them, dead long before the impact.

Having a grounded target makes dispatching the mother much easier. Irahl's powerful shots make quick work of its upward mobility. As if on queue, Nikaro signals for Rohen to start wading in, and they quickly push their operation forward to go dispatch their main target. There isn't a weak point, exactly, aside from the pull-them-out-of-the-haunting trick, nor is there any obvious brain or organs to puncture. They just have to keep cutting into its body until it finally loses enough of whatever it's made out of to stop moving.

They can tell when it happens because suddenly, all of the monsters stop moving, all at once. Then, just as suddenly, they all begin to retreat further back into the canyon, disappearing in dark shadows and slipping back into the Haunting they came from.

Most of the team takes potshots at the creatures as they leave. In theory, each one they kill today is one they won't have to worry about in the future. Eventually, though, there is nothing left to shoot down, and the strange tension just under the surface of reality begins easing up.

Everyone got a little beat up, with Nikaro looking the least brutalized and Rohen looking the worst. Jandru goes to join them near the dead mother as they begin to check each other over for injuries. Finn should probably be helping with this, given that he's the one with the most medical experience, but he immediately scrambles over the mother to go digging around in its corpse with a hunting knife, looking intently for harvestable parts.

Being that Irahl had fully expected to be forced to temporarily abandon his post at some point to fight something by hand, he is pleasantly surprised when he catches Jandru taking care of the problem before it happens.

See... this is how to mind your sniper. Especially with the team that he's currently stuck with back home, (who he is realizing that he truly hates with each passing day), he can't remember the last time he hadn't had significant complaints after a battle about his teammates' sniper-related etiquette.

It makes for an overall pleasant fight, all things considered. He even has room at the end for a little more observation, watching how there seems to be little rhyme or reason behind where they're hitting the mother, and the exploratory holes that he methodically blasts into the creature all seem to be having about the same effect no matter where he shoots. It's interesting.

And then, all at once, the fun is over. He doesn't miss the creatures when they go, though. As enjoyable as the fight was, it's a relief when the pressure in his head begins to retreat along with the creatures.

Instead of wasting ammo on fleeing monsters, Irahl gets a head-start on packing up his gear. So, he's ready to rejoin the group at about the same time that he notices Finn deviate from the behavior he'd expected, to go wading elbow-deep in a giant corpse.

The scene immediately resurrects memories from back when he'd still bothered to take trophies of his kills--back before he'd kept having his things taken from him and the enjoyment of his work smothered. The nostalgia is surprisingly strong.

So, as soon as everything is safely packed away, he makes his way down the canyon, again dropping from heights that are a little beyond what is recommended for mortal ankles. It's definitely the most readily that he has returned to a team post-battle in years.

This unit may be a little touchy-feely for Irahl's tastes, what with their interpersonal relationships and structural group bonding, but it does make for a group that takes care of its people.

By the time Irahl drops down to rejoin everyone, Nikaro's helping wrap an injury on Rohen's upper arm, mostly to staunch the bleeding until Finn can get a better look at it. Rohen looks exhausted, and Jandru's leaning on a boulder-like chunk of rock and trying not to fall asleep where they're standing.

None of them really respond when Irahl comes over, though Nikaro does quickly glance over him and give him a nod. It could mean "nice shooting", or it could mean "good, you don't look like you're bleeding", but neither of those require them to stop what they're doing to converse with him.

"Hey! New guy!" Finn calls out from where he's struggling to pry open a massive set of jaws, "Wanna give me a hand?"

Finn's trying to get a couple of teeth for the road, and he knows Irahl's a lot stronger than he is. He also gets a feeling that Irahl's not as squeamish about digging around in a dead monster as Jandru or Nikaro. Rohen's never minded, but she's busy coming down from whatever she had to do to fight that hard. If he can just get a hand, he can be in and out of there in just a few seconds.

As much as Nikaro's shadiness is a little too charismatic and hard to read for Irahl, he does appreciate the fact that they also sometimes opt for the most efficient communication possible. He loves a thumbs-up or a brief nod standing in for words. There is no indication that he has noticed the gesture, of course, but it's noted all the same.

Without being stopped for conversation, he's free to walk past most of his exhausted and injured teammates and head toward the weird one with the corpse.

He doesn't directly acknowledge him either. He just walks up as if he'd been planning to do so anyway, moves in to grab hold of the monster's jaws, and unceremoniously wrenches them apart. Then, in goes a boot to stomp down on the lower jaw just behind the teeth, and he shoves up with his entire body until he hits the limits of this thing's jaw joints. This way, with his body acting as a jack inside the corpse's mouth, upper jaw resting on his shoulder, he even has a hand free if he needs it.

Finn now has all the room that he could possibly want. Go nuts, buddy.

This is a little unnerving to Finn, mostly because of the innate empathetic discomfort of imagining a jaw being wrenched open like that while the thing attached to it is still alive. But that said, he's also not nearly as freaked out by it as he should be, and ducks right in to pry out a few teeth with his knife.

"Hang on just a sec..." He says, hoping Irahl isn't going to suddenly develop a penchant for pranks as he steps fully into the thing's jaws to go scrape at some gland in the back of its throat. It doesn't smell good, but not in the way one would expect. It's less identifiably organic and more vaguely reminiscent of wet dirt, though even that description is too specific to do it justice. Once he's got a sample of that safely stoppered in a vial, he ducks back out.

"Done," he announces, "Thanks."

Though he's already moving to the next task... Which is to cut a small slice piece of the creature's meat out of its body and pop it into his mouth, then smudge some of its blood on his upper lip. He tries to do it subtly and not draw any attention to it--but it's clear from his expression that it tastes and smells extremely unpleasant. He doesn't chew, doesn't do more than maybe move it around in his mouth for a moment, until he suddenly spits the piece of flesh back out again. He does a commendable job of not gagging.

"Okay..." He mumbles to himself. If Irahl is watching, he's doing his damnedest to pretend he isn't, even though he's clearly having to take a moment to gather himself. One breath, then he repeats it, more confidently. "Okay."

Whatever he just did is apparently what he needed to do to be able to rejoin the group. He starts asking about people's injuries at about the same time Seth makes his subdued way over towards the group as well.

"We done here?" Nikaro asks him. Seth says nothing at first, gaze lowered as if listening for something. Whatever he's trying to perceive must not be there, because he eventually gives a curt nod and a short response.

"Yes. Go home."

"All right," Nikaro responds, moving to clap Rohen in the shoulder and maybe stir up a little last-minute liveliness, "Rohen, Jandru--help me get the rig loaded up."

Tired as they are, they both summon up the last of their energy to start unscrewing those portable spikes, carefully disarming any proximity mines that somehow didn't get triggered, and carrying all their scraps and gear back out to the buggies waiting outside the canyon.

Finn hangs back to talk to Seth, who asks him a question once the others are occupied.

"You saw nothing?"

"Nothing," Finn shakes their head, confirming. Their posture hunches up a little as they talk about it, "No visitors. Were you expecting they'd send someone this far out?"

Seth briefly shakes his own head and says, "No. It's not surprising."

"...Are you disappointed?" Finn ventures a guess.

Seth says nothing. Whatever emotion he may or may not be feeling is extremely difficult to read, but after a moment of murky silence he does briefly rest a hand on Finn's shoulder.

"Take care of Rohen," he says. Finn drops his shoulders as if suddenly remembering he has a body, nodding.

"Yes sir," he confirms, before heading off to go do what he were asked to do. That finally leaves Irahl and Seth as the only two not actively running around trying to do something. If any part of him was softened by his exchange with Finn, that disappears as Seth fixes Irahl with a steady gaze.

"You and I still have work to do," Seth informs him, "Don't let Jandru drive."

With orders given, Seth leads them back out of the canyon and towards their rides. Finn's beginning to get a good look at Rohen's arm by one of them, while Nikaro is sitting patiently on the trunk of their own vehicle to wait for Seth. Jandru's rubbing the back of their neck just to try to keep themselves awake.

The sun's gotten a lot lower all of a sudden. It's late evening, the air's cooled off significantly. Long shadows stretch across the dunes, soon be swallowed up by the encroaching nighttime.

The corpse's mouth is dutifully held open for Finn to get his teeth and his gland-scrapings, and Irahl intends to move in and tend to his own butchering work as soon as his teammate is out of the way... but the grotesque task that Finn settles into is completely distracting. So, Irahl doesn't say anything, but he does continue to just stand there, propping the creature's jaws open on his shoulder, and watch.

He stares, but he also does Finn a great kindness by not voicing any of the questions, comments, or exclamations that spring to mind. And there are a lot of them. Only when Finn heads over to rejoin the group does Irahl finally rearrange himself under the weight of the corpse's jaws so he get a good angle on digging in with his own knife to twist loose a tooth for himself. One of the big ones. The first trophy he has claimed in years.

When Seth finally addresses Irahl, it's while the sniper is tucking the tooth into one of the pouches on his vest, and wiping some of the gore off of his hands. He doesn't respond to his order, but obediently follows him back to the vehicles, and loads up his gear.

At the passenger door, he shucks off his bulky cloak and begins to tuck it into the seat as if making a padded cushion or wall, and looks over at Jandru.

"You still have work to do?"

It is very kind of him to not call attention to any of Finn's strange behavior, and that's something Finn is painfully aware of. Perhaps he'll pay Irahl back for this someday by politely ignoring something strange that he does. With this strange new world he's been thrust into, maybe that day will come sooner rather than later.

When Irahl gets back to the car, Jandru nods absently and moves to stow their bag behind the driver's seat. They kind of notice what Irahl is doing, but it either doesn't strike them as strange, or they're simply too tired to have a coherent thought about it at all.

Though... When Irahl asks them a question, there's an extended delay where they try to figure out why he's asking, what he really means, wondering if they missed something, and getting lost somewhere in formulating a response. On the outside, it's a couple of seconds of staring before they stiltedly say, "What? I don't-- I don't think so."

So that's a strong vote for 'too tired to have a coherent thought'.

Edited 2024-11-01 20:39 (UTC)

Good enough. He basically gets his answer.

So, he walks back around the vehicle, moves between Jandru and the door, and reaches in to move the driver's seat all the way back. And as long as they give him enough room to do so, he then opens the door and takes a seat behind the wheel.

He's acting as if this is something they had already discussed and agreed upon, and that he has ever done this before. The only thing that interrupts his confident and matter-of-fact demeanor is the way that he begins looking over the vehicle's unfamiliar controls, toggling and moving a few things while the engine is still safely turned off.

Simply waiting for Jandru to follow the cues and get into the passenger seat.

Befuddled, Jandru watches Irahl cut in and take over the driver's seat. Their first response would normally be to get offended that someone's essentially strong-armed a job away from them, but Irahl doesn't even say anything to make it seem like that's what he's doing.

They briefly wonder if they agreed to this earlier and just can't remember... Which they didn't, but they did joke about it, and... Honestly, at this point, they hit a wall and just give up. It'll be easier to just let this happen. They eventually move around to get in on the other side instead, plopping down in the seat that's still adjusted out for someone who needs significantly more leg room.

"Oh, your coat...?" As they realize what they're sitting on. Clearly this is a mistake. Does he want them to move it?

Once he has gotten the gist of the controls around him, as settled as he can be with this thing not having been built for someone his size, and Jandru is in their seat, he can properly deal with his passenger.

Reaching over, he tugs on his cloak almost as if he's going to pull it out from under them. However, he's only pulling the bulk of it out to either side, sort of wadding up a cushion of bulky material on both sides of Jandru. Soon, they're sort of built into a padded nest.

It's going to be a bumpy ride, it's cold, and they'll need to prop their head against something that won't give them a concussion, so this is his solution. With this task finished, (because he will absolutely ignore any question or protest his passenger might have until the work is done,) he settles back into his space and starts the engine.

"Sleep." One resolute statement as he shifts gears and prepares to roll them out of there.

When they finally realize what's happening, they mean to be offended. A scoff would have done well, but what comes out of them makes them sound a little more like a fussy baby. And it doesn't last long, either, because it is nice to be braced against the cold by something. They have a sweater, they could have taken care of it themselves, but...

They frown. They fold their arms against the order given. They have to fight the urge to sleep even harder with each passing second that their head is propped up.

"Just don't run us into a cactus or anything..." They mumble, again, meaning to sound far more irritated about this... Very kind gesture than they do. They let out a very big yawn, "It'd be a stupid way to end..."

The test? The day? Their lives? They never finish their sentence. The vehicle's controls aren't that complicated, and soon they're rolling over the dunes on the way back to the Capitol. It's going to be a quiet night, a good evening for driving. Jandru is out pretty fast and doesn't wake up until someone shakes them awake when they finally get back to civilization.

After some rearranging and some scattered "goodnight"s between members of the group, Rohen and Nikaro take off. A familiar driver is waiting to take Seth and company wherever they need to go. Jandru and Irahl share a carriage again, though Jandru dozes off for most of the ride. Notably, Finn gets into the carriage with Seth instead of striking out on his own to get wherever he's going.

They pass through the city of glass, underneath twinkling bridges and past gleaming, artfully-arranged symbols of splendor and defiance in an otherwise unforgiving and uncaring desert. Eventually they reach a quiet part of town and begin to ascend a spiraling tower. Various long driveways branch off past various gated, gardened, and domed platforms, almost all of which end at some sort of massive estate or complex of lavish-looking buildings.

They turn down one such driveway and pass through a set of gates onto the grounds of Seth's personal estate. Essentially a large, terraformed disk of land jutting out over the desert below. The entire area is protected from the elements by a fine glass-and-metal dome that looks a little like a bell jar, or perhaps like a birdcage.

While it seems like you can't walk twenty feet in the Capitol without running into a expertly-arranged planter of some variety, the garden lining path from the gate to his front doors is something else. It's carefully cultivated and arranged to be aesthetically pleasing in every direction, of course, but there's also something wild about it that has been missing before now. Maybe it's the fact that it isn't quite so carefully-manicured as everything else, or maybe it's in the way that things here have room to grow upward.

The plants here do make it hard to see exactly how big his house is, or what's being hidden on the grounds to either side of it. Actual trees break up the view between vine-covered trellises and decorative shrubs. A garden is a good excuse for a measure of privacy, after all. Maybe that's why all this is here. Practicality.

It's almost a sound enough excuse that one could overlook all the flowers. The garden is bursting with them. The smell of hundreds of blossoming plants tinge the air even at night. This place must be absolutely vibrant with color during the day.

Their trip ends not at the polished sandstone steps leading up to a set of double doors, but at a little gate off to the side of the main building. Irahl and Jandru are let out of their carriage at about the same time Finn and Seth are stepping out of theirs.

It has been a while since Irahl has driven something with four wheels, so it takes a minute to get used to. Luckily, a wide open wasteland is a very forgiving place for clumsy driving, and he's immediately zooming rather fearlessly over the sand once he catches on. With all the glare of the sun and the rippling heatwaves he'd seen earlier, he'd been worried about running into jutting ruins and rocks whenever it would finally be his turn to drive, but the sun isn't a problem anymore. Switching his visor to night mode, he can see farther than the reach of his headlights, so obstacles are spotted long before they become a threat.

There is also something about driving--actually moving around under his own power instead of merely riding along--that makes the utter vastness of the desert finally sink in. Flying over the dunes, he can't help but feel one of those rushes of freedom that he has been missing for a long time.

Just now, he finally finds something appealing about the desert. The only thing that he knows of that could be more boundless than this is the sky itself. He enjoys every second of it.

It's disappointing to return to the drag of gravity and looming, civilized walls. The ride does make him want to ask about the possibility of getting his own vehicle though, and that thought keeps his mood buoyant.

The plants help. It always makes him slightly wary to see so much greenery inside a city, but things in this city seem well-tamed. Besides, a little bit of wilderness rebelling would never be something he would actually hate to see.

In either case, he finds himself a little surprised and impressed by Seth's gardens in particular. From what little he knows of the man, he would have expected something much more manicured and regimented. The variety, the wildness, not to mention the abundant flowers, strike him as interesting. Even if it turns out to be the work of some horticultural planner disguising a privacy measure with a pretty face, his new employer still earns a few points with it.

So, he's glancing around more at the garden than watching what the people are doing when he exits the carriage.

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