( closed ) said you would never give up easy

[gevurah]

Date & Time: from early to mid-january
Location: various locations
Characters: kate & various
Summary: doing things and running into people: the rp life.
Warnings: there will be some violence eventually
Notes: while there's prompts for those from the CR meme, if anyone else wants to do something don't hesitate to ask. feel free to PM me on this account or through plurk.


Raiden

[ Richard Lawson's parting words have left quite an impression on Kate.

Don't let them find you.

Her nights are a lot more restless than usual. The bottle of wine she gifted Ros is tempting, but she knows better than to turn to alcohol again while there are pressing matters. As usual, she dons her layers and boots and heads outside. She goes for a jog again today. Without any kind of workout facility she relies on the cold terrain.

The shelters are her first pit stop. They need to be cleaned out and stabilized, but at the forefront of her mind the UE's stash of bombs render shelters useless if they can easily drop another nuke on them.

If they know they're here, why haven't they? She stands with her hands on her hips, lost in thought. ]


Lightning

[ She's grown somewhat rusty with hunting. In spite of her intensive training that pit her around and against the world in various death traps and unfamiliar land, until last year she's lived a life of luxury.

The elderly woman she and Roslyn have been residing with lent her copper wire to ensnare rabbits with. She stalks the snow covered land for a rabbit trail, following their footprints into a good clearing where it appears they pass through.

As quickly and quietly as she can, she cuts down branches thick enough to hold any large rabbit. When she's done with setting up the branches and placing the wire, tying a noose and letting it hang in the center.

There are heavy footsteps in the distance. Yeti, she concludes, and hopes they don't frighten off the rabbits. ]


Seiya

[ Another grey and cold morning, but Kate's out for her usual jog. She warms up with basic stretches outside her current residence and half a minute after she's completed them, she's off. She sticks to a familiar path, edging along the outskirt of the town, but never wandering too far off.

She breathes through both her nose and mouth, but exhales through the latter only. Always breathing through the stomach or diaphragm to ensure she's getting enough air.

It's not always the most quiet run; there's always someone, be it Transport or one of the locals. A yard away from her she can hear dogs barking and the loud crunching of snow as the dogs run forward, pulling along a large sleigh with dead their master and his bag of what appears to be his hunt for the day. ]


Actual Damsel Martin

[ Today's jog is quickly disrupted by deep rumbling and the ground beneath her shaking to a point Kate nearly loses her footing. She stands with feet spaced out, applying as much weight as possible to keep herself upright while her eyes scour the clearing to spot whatever large animal it is stomping across.

It doesn't take long, but it's not exactly difficult to miss the mammoths bursting into the clearing. She's ready to hightail it out of here when she catches a glimpse of something else running ahead of the pack.

No, not something. Someone.

Kate's heart is almost ready to leap from her chest as she shouts: ]

Martin!

[ There's no hesitation, no second thoughts. She breaks into a sprint to meet the boy halfway, maneuvering with her bag to dig into its content, reaching for the grappling hook she always has on hand.

Cue. ]


Roslyn

[ Kate shudders one last time as she pushes the door in behind her. She notes the silence in the house, cocking her head to one side curiously and wiping excess snow off her boots on the rug. Then she begins to undo the buttons on her jacket, angling her head the other way. ]

Anyone home?

[ Home. It's almost laughable. God knows how long this setup will last this time. Lawson's disappearance reminds her the kind woman who owns this house may someday vanish before her own eyes. It's an unsettling feeling, not knowing it will happen and if it does. ]

Ros?

Comments

[pauldron]

[Without a word, Lightning moves. She doesn't bother focusing long enough for a spell and instead runs at the creature, using the arms it's reaching to its neck to try and dislodge the hook as steps to launch herself into the air directly above it. She doesn't stab downwards, but rather simply pulls the trigger. From this close there's little outward damage, but the bullet hits home anyway and she falls in a roll, spinning on her heel to watch the creature and make her next move.

But really, if that doesn't kill it? Nothing she has will do it quickly.]

[gevurah]

[ It does enough to force it down on all fours before it slips deeper into the snow. It writhes and groans painfully, red spreading into the snow beneath its form. Kate keeps her grip on her line a moment longer before receding it.

The hunting knife is still in her hand. ]

You okay?

[ She tilts her head in Lightning's direction. ]

[pauldron]

[Dead enough. Lightning nods as she stands, grip on her own blade tight and tiny sparks crackling in the fingers of her other hand. Better to be prepared than caught unawares.]

Better than that thing.

[The cold snow melts on her clothes, soaking through where it caught on the fabric, but she's unharmed. Just another battle, and she flicks her eyes to Kate. Doesn't appear injured and she didn't seem to take a hit, but...]

You?

[gevurah]

I'm good.

[ She takes a deep a breath, eyes darting to the yeti that continues to twitch and squirm with every breath it takes. It doesn't have much time left.

Watching it sends a prickling sensation down her chest and into her stomach which tightens. The yeti is essentially an animal here, but she's never had to kill something like it before. ]

Wonder why it came looking for us.

[ Did someone else out there upset the yetis? Spoilers: apparently someone has murdered a couple of them. ]

[pauldron]

[Good is...good. Lightning nods, then turns her attention fully back to the yeti in its death throes. She doesn't make any sort of move to put it out of its misery, and instead just frowns.]

We may have been in it's territory. [She remembers Fang's cautionary tales of Behemoths and their territorial issues. Is this the same? Maybe.] Or maybe it just likes attacking things. Hell if I know.

[gevurah]

[ Territorial issues sounds more likely. She nods, putting away the knife and lightly batting at her jacket to shake off the excess snow and whatever twigs or dead leaves were snatched up by the fabric. ]

We should probably get out of here. There could be more.

[ So much for rabbit stew. ]

[pauldron]

I think we'd hear them before they get anywhere nearby. [Not that she's making any argument for staying around here. She holsters her weapon, turning to go back the way she came.] They're too loud to not notice when it's this quiet.

[gevurah]

Point.

Don't want to run into anything else.

[ That may be adept at stealth. Lawson's warning rings in her ears. ]

Nice sword.

[ Or is it a gun? She's seen it before, but its design is completely unfamiliar to Kate. ]

[pauldron]

Pretty sure we could handle other things.

[You know. So long as they can see or hear them coming. She doesn't slow her pace, but at Kate's comment, she nods.]

It's called a gunblade. [Said in a downright conversational tone as she reaches back, pulling it from the holster once more. It comes out as a sword, but with a flick of her wrist and the metallic sound of well oiled gears, it folds in on itself to become a rifle. It's fairly quick these days, barely longer than a few seconds, and Lightning smirks to herself.] Comes in handy when getting in close to something is a bad idea.

[gevurah]

[ Kate examines it from her side, arching an impressed eyebrow at how easily it shifts from one weapon into another. Talk about useful. ]

I take it it's not from this world.

[ The Initiative's armory, or when it used to have one, was pretty ordinary from what she remembered. She had never picked up one herself. ]

[pauldron]

[A quick shake of her head.] It's from mine. It's my old military service weapon from a long time ago.

[Months now. She still misses it, a little. The sense her world made in comparison to this.]

[gevurah]

[ That is on heck of a registered weapon. ]

Military, huh.

[pauldron]

[It's certainly different from the rifles and automatics every other soldier in her world seemed to use.]

Yeah. I was a soldier before I came here. [Before a lot of things.]

[gevurah]

Do soldiers ever stop being soldiers?

[ She scoops her bag off the ground, swatting snow off it and slipping her grappling gun back inside of it. She looks over to where her trap had been set-up, nothing but a wreck now. The wire is broken and useless, no point in gathering that. ]

[pauldron]

Just on paper. You don't shake off that kind of training, even if you try.

[Ever. She can't think of anyone who'd want to. Even if they leave the military, even if they turn their back on that...the training comes in handy way too often.]

[gevurah]

[ A thoughtful hum, but Kate agrees.

After being discharged, she was a woman without purpose. Civilian life can only do so much for her. She's not made for it.

She adjusts the strap of her bag, then moves to her collar to straighten it. ]

I'm going to hazard a guess that time travel is above your paygrade.

[ They might be soldiers, but this isn't something she was ever prepped for. ]

[pauldron]

It's above everyone's paygrade. [She scoffs, holstering her weapon as if she just realized it was still in her hand.] We didn't have the intel or training to leave our world, forget jumping through time. [a soft sigh, then:] The most my unit ever did was fight monsters outside the city. My world never had to deal with anything like this mess.

[The Yeti or the zombies from the base are the only things that made any sense to her in her four months here, and that says a lot.]

[gevurah]

[ She files that information away in a section of her mind.

In the meantime, Kate cants her head, curiosity piqued. ]

Your military deals with monsters?

[pauldron]

[Lightning nods.] It's what we trained for. Keeping the populace safe from the local wildlife that encroached on the towns and cities. There hadn't been a war with people for over five hundred years, so there weren't any other threats.

[Not until...well. That wasn't the Guardian Corps' job, anyway.]

[gevurah]

It sounds almost peaceful.

[ Mankind not fighting amongst each other like that? If only monsters were the only problem they had to worry about here or back home. ]

They must be some monsters.

[pauldron]

It was. [A sigh, then she gestures over her shoulder at the yeti cooling in the snow behind them.] The biggest monster I ever faced was twice the size of that thing, but that's it. We had it pretty easy back then.

[Come to think of it...she's lucky, in that respect. In how easy it was and how well trained she is. She didn't end up thrown into the deep end by being brought here. Not really.]

[gevurah]

[ She's reminded of Armin's stories from home. The titans that eat humans and the armies they assembled to deal with them. It's strange to think about. ]

Monster slaying is also above the Army's paygrade back home.

[pauldron]

[Above their paygrade--she frowns. What happened after the Vestige wasn't a one time thing in Cocoon's history, and she understands what the Initiative is doing against the UE, but if she's got the right idea, then...]

So what does your army even do? Fight humans?

[gevurah]

[ A wry smirk that flickers out quickly. ]

Too clichéd?

[ Occasionally reserves are called in when dealing with a Crisis, but the capes and costumes do a good job of handling that. ]

[pauldron]

[Lightning's frown gets deeper, darker. She knew it.]

It's stupid. Why fight your own kind when you're supposed to be protecting them?

[Or at least, that's what the army and military she knows does. There's a reason they call them the Guardian Corps, after all.]