JewelSerket

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

Cricket turned just in time to see Gamma Burn smash into a nearby tree. Then he watched the poor man crumple to the ground and cough. It was… difficult to watch. Cricket knew he should have moved immediately to try to capture Gamma Burn but he was just sitting there, wracked with coughs. It did not feel right to descend on someone like that. This was… what, the third time in the past week someone’s bumped into him and fell? That sounded right. He was honestly starting to feel a little guilty about it.

”Hey…” Was all Cricket could manage to say.

Without much of a thought, he leaned in to just sort of… try to pick him up? There was no reason to attack Gamma Burn when he could just apprehend him like this. It felt wrong, though, for the battle to go this way. Hell, not even really a battle. As Gamma Burn stood and stumbled again, Cricket rushed to catch him before he fell. The poor thing was laughing. He must really be hurt–

Fuck!

Pain blossomed in Cricket’s right shoulder. He could feel hot blood bubble up between the gap in his armor. Panic shot through him. It hurt. It burned. This was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to be impenetrable! His soft insides were being damaged. His whole mind reeled on red alert. If that bastard even so much as twisted the knife wrong, the way it would peel up his carapace could leave a weak spot he was not prepared to cover.

Whatever gentleness there had been behind King Stag’s gaze had disappeared. Cricket had become a cowering figure, hiding behind the silent power of his super-sona. The air was quite suddenly filled with the sickeningly sweet scent of pheromones. That fresh wound poured not only blood but a wave of insects. Beetles washed down the blade and rushed towards Gamma Burn, hungry for meat. King Stag did not pull away from the wound. He had no desire to waste the opportunity of being close to the villain. Instead, he reeled back and threw a punch.

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

By the time Li had a moment to react to Gamma Burn’s mystery appearance and subsequent disappearance, he was at the edge of the food forest, alone. Well… Alone was not the right term. There were plenty of skittering critters and rapidly growing plants to keep him company.

”Put your hands in the air. You’re coming back with us.”

Oh, and, as it turned out, several rapidly approaching police officers. The officers were skirting the edges of the food forest, clearly afraid of the plants. Likely, they feared some sort of radiation effect. The police officer at the front had spoken through a megaphone. His two officer buddies were carrying handcuffs and a gun respectively, though the gun was not aimed at Li.

---

Damn that green haired bastard. Radiation nightmare. Pain in the carapace mother fucker. Gamma Burn made Cricket reconsider taking boxing lessons. Cricket managed to catch himself before he careened out of control. Gamma Burn was frustratingly good at redirecting the massive hero’s momentum. By the time Cricket spun around, there was already a wall of thorns between him and his prey.

”I would not call myself predictable!”

Even if you are.Cricket’s shell opened as he prepared to take flight. It would be awkward and not particularly efficient in the rapidly growing expanse of vegetation, but if Gamma Burn took to the trees, there was little else Cricket could do. It was only at that point that it clicked that Gamma Burn called him dear. He sputtered a little, his pace slowed considerably. It was only slowed more when firefighters were mentioned, which caused a little shot of panic to dance through his veins. It took him so long to process what had just happened that, by the time he flew into the air, Gamma Burn was already gone.

3:28 PM: Panic because that cute boy was taken

”Shit!”

It was not very hero-like for Cricket to swear like that. Not that it mattered. The only people around were darting away from him.

He’s going to kill him and it will be your fault! Cricket dove back down and dashed into the brush in the direction the two had gone. Damn his big ass frame! It was difficult for the massive man to dodge around the plant life. It slowed the already slow fellow down and left a large hole in his wake. Just as he saw a break in the distant trees– Something bounced off his carapace. Something large enough to slow him to a stop.

”Huh?”

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

Oh, good. It looked like Gamma Burn had some pep in his step today. Cricket was not sure if he would call that a bad or good thing. He leaned towards bad, though. Especially when Gamma Burn started shit-talking him. Cricket scrunched his nose. He would hardly call saving people’s lives a waste of taxpayer dollars! He clenched his fists.

–The rustle of bushes tore Cricket’s attention away from Gamma Burn’s words. His heart stopped when he saw Lilian. Of course that little rat was here! He was everywhere! And now he was almost certainly in danger. Cricket prayed that Gamma Burn had not seen him yet, attempting to cover his looking over with a small cough. His glare cut back over to the villain. He just needed to draw Gamma Burn away from the scene.

It caught Cricket off guard when Gamma Burn approached him. The flighty bastard rarely acted this tough and upfront. Cricket hated to admit the taunting was working. He matched Gamma Burn’s stride forward. The handprint on his back, still not fully healed from when Gamma Burn had scorched it into him, burned. ”There’s no need for murder. Besides, I’m not here to stop you from making a food forest.” That part was pretty cool actually… It reminded him of the man he had been texting recently. Those thoughts would have brought a smile to his face if he were not so worried about Lilian. ”Besides, I like to think that saving people from your reckless actions is more than enough for the taxpayers. The fact that you jump to murder says everything it needs to about you. You’re a monster in sheep’s clothing, Gamma Burn. Don’t pretend like your little schemes aren’t excuses so that you don’t have to feel bad about killing the innocent.”

With that, Cricket dashed forward. He charged the ghastly visage of his arch nemesis. His goal was to push Gamma Burn back. Maybe draw him away from the scene. Really anything to distract Gamma Burn from the one person truly in danger here. He guessed Gamma Burn would leap over his back so, when he attempted to grab the radiated man, he prepared himself for the possibility of that vault.

From the Egg - A Dragon Training Rp

The massive beast lowered its entire body onto the surf. Its body bobbed up and down with the gentle waves. Gwynn could feel its gaze diving straight into her soul. It was scanning her. Sizing her up. Despite that, it showed no signs of aggression. When Gwynn did not respond for a moment, it readjusted to settle its head on its paws.

There is no pressure, young one. We have all the time in the world to make our choices. Soon enough, your lifespan will be extended to match the length mine once was. Then minutes and days will seem ever so miniscule. As will most other mundane things. Ah… but I suppose that may take a while. I forget that one does not become aware of their agelessness immediately. It has been many years since the War of Darkness wiped out our kind.

---

Though she did not say it, Mother Dula was glad to see someone enter this with a practicality that rivaled the frustrating brattiness of her last testee. Unfortunately, it was another human. She let out a sigh through her nose.

”Your urgency is appreciated. I will not mince words with you, wise one. Present yourself before us and tell us your name. Then we will get started. At that point, you will choose your weapon and prove yourself before the eggs.”

The table that had been dedicated to Gwynn was moved by two monks and quickly replaced with the table full of weaponry. Everything from spears to bows to swords and daggers. It lacked any form of armor. They were, most certainly, real weapons. The blades were sharp and the spear tips sharper. Unlike before, the two monks that moved the tables did not step away. Instead, they stood on the opposite side of the table to Trevor. Their hands were behind their backs. One was human and the other an Undine. They wore no armor but they were easily the most muscular and toned monks around.

𖤐 Hell's Renegades 𖤐

The Doctor dodged Sabriel’s flirting as deftly as ever… if not more so. She seemed to avoid talking to him alone. To the point that she purposefully steered the conversation off towards anyone else around. The morning continued that way, with casual conversation that kept her from being alone with the murderer. It was better than going to bed. Not as if she would get anything resembling sleep anyhow. If she did not know any better, Dr. Gate would swear that the caffeine was still buzzing in her veins.

Dr. Gate took her medicine as subtly as possible. She had not started taking any until halfway through her brief stint in solitary, which meant that she had only been taking them for about two days outside of solitary. The Doctor preferred not to broadcast her new need for depression medication, especially around a bunch of literal villains. Once they were taken, the Doctor looked over to Roy and gave him a nod.

Roy’s request to go to the couch was met with cautious curiosity. She tried to make it subtle when she leaned on the opposite side of the couch from Sabriel. It did not help that, before her solitary, the Doctor preferred to be near him. After… everything, it was difficult to handle interacting with him. There was a level of guilt to it. He had been knocked on conscious because of her and she still owed him an apology. An apology that required privacy they did not have. She told herself that she would get to it… eventually.

“I have heard of the kinds of things that happen at Disney world. It seems utterly boring.” And by boring, she meant motion sickness inducing and generally loud. Not to mention miserable. “Though… going to the beach and taking a dip in the ocean might be nice. Now you’ve got me thinking about swimming, Casey.”

𖤐 Hell's Renegades 𖤐

General Doctor/Surgeon || Clearance Level - 2

A321231

Legal

Last Name: Velasco
First Name: Girasol
Middle Name: N/A
Apparent Age: 38
Actual Age: 33
​DoB: 03/12/1979
Sex: Female

Personal

Preferred Name(s): Firn, Dr. Girasol
Gender: Nonbinary
Pronouns: They/Them
Nouns: Masculine/Neutral
Sexual Orientation: Demisexual
Romantic Orientation: Panromantic
Status: N/D

Overview

Firn, also known as Dr. Girasol, is a laid back person known for their relaxation whilst in stressful situations. This plus their numan capabilities allows for Dr. Girasol to be a calm and level head when handling drastic surgery. They playfully take on the monacure of Hippie and often prefer herbal remedies when possible. Dr. Girasol plays the role of on-site doctor and surgeon, as the hounds rarely make it through a week without some form of harm. They take the role well, and have even befriended a few of the hounds that regularly enter their office. Their relaxed nature makes them appear lazy, but they are far from it. They often take on the role of five people, literally and metaphorically. They are rather physically frail, but make up for it in intelligence and kindness. They are known for playing games with other staff members, especially favoring Dungeons and Dragons. While they are not overly talkative, they tend to like to tell stories. They have taken on the Hippocratic oath and refuse to do harm to any living being, including insects and, if able to avoid it, plants. The only exception is food, though they do their best to eat all-natural and cruelty-free. They are a vegetarian.

Physical

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'09"
Weight: 152 lbs
Skin: Mocha
Notes:

• Scarred spots along arms and legs from injection sites.
• Numerous small scars from blades along arms, legs, and torso

Skill Set

• Blood Bond - Firn possesses the capability to share telepathic messages with their siblings.
• Fractured Soul - Firn is capable of using soul energy to create up to four duplicates of themself (totaling five bodies). Each fragment of their soul, including the original body, take on an aspect of their personality. While separated, all pieces maintain their own level of energy and damage. Once combined, the main body takes on whatever the ‘lowest common denominator’ is. This applies to physical harm, emotional harm, and illness, but does not apply to exhaustion. The main body receives all exhaustion from the clones together. These clones are incapable of healing injury or exhaustion. When working in surgery, Firn refuses to work with any nurses other than their clones in almost every circumstance.
• Body Bond - Firn is capable of passing exhaustion, illness, damage, and the like to their siblings. Additionally, Firn is capable of absorbing exhaustion, illness, damage, and the like from other people. This is in great part due to their overly large, fractured soul allowing for the manipulation of energy into and out of itself. This passing and absorbing must be done through bodily contact. Any damage they receive applies to their own body. This is, in large part, why they no longer absorb damage on a whim.
• Doctorate in General Surgery - Firn has spent many years studying in the medical field and is capable of performing General Surgery.
• Cool Head - Firn is extremely calm in the most dire situations, to the point that he has been accused of being intoxicated on the job.

History

Firn’s youth was plagued with strife. Their siblings and them were put in foster care during their early teenage years. They and Sic, their sister, became notorious trouble makers, due to Firn passing damage onto Sic for nefarious purposes. While much of their trouble making was done to force themselves into the same foster home, it evolved quickly for young Firn.

Drugs meant Firn was able to take on more damage and, in their eyes, keep their siblings safer from harm. It was a rabbit hole that Firn fell into hard, though they kept it as good of a secret as they could. They absorbed their eldest sibling’s exhaustion (as Trip often took on a major workload to support the family), Sic’s harm from getting into fights, as well as whatever sorts of harm they could take trade for more drugs. These mostly consisted of painkillers, but also drifted into anything that would allow Firn to escape reality for a while.
It all came to a head when Firn had taken on more than they could heal in any reasonable amount of time. They went to go purchase speed in order to make up for the exhaustion they were handling, and had to heal their dealer in exchange. They had thought they could have taken the wounds but they and the effects of those drugs proved to be too much. Firn overdosed when attempting to walk home and collapsed on the street. It was lucky that Trip had found them, or they would have died that day.

After several weeks of hospital recovery, Firn was sent to the Saint’s Haven Rehabilitation Center. This was chosen due to it being free, though it resulted in some significant religious trauma that Firn has not expounded upon. Firn was there for ninety days but entered an education program whilst inside. They have stated that this program was the only good thing to come out of the Rehabilitation Center. It allowed them to enter a two-year degree path for a bachelor's, which led to the realization that they were naturally skilled in the medical field. It was that skill that led them to become a surgeon, where they then were chosen to join the DNCC.

When they heard about the Hounds program, Firn jumped to join. They compared their journey of recovery to the Hounds and have gone on record to state that they think anyone is capable of getting better.


Agent Ella Nostrus
Head of Surgery
_{Clearance Level - 7}

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

By the time Cricket had gotten to the bottom floor, he had wished he had jumped out a window. That would have saved him several minutes. People never moved out of his way fast enough and he had certainly bowled over a poor intern or two. Luckily, with all of the commotion and hearing the news report as he ran out, Cricket gathered the general direction Gamma-Burn was headed. Once he was outside, Cricket leapt into the air. Despite his clumsy flying, it was easier and faster than trying to push through an anxious crowd of people.

Cricket soared through the city air. He did his best to ignore the pointing and calls from the people below. He would never get entirely used to being recognized by so many people. His head buzzed with both bug wings and his roaring thoughts. We can go back and talk to Li later. We can reschedule the interview. It’s fine. He’s not going to be upset with us if we reschedule– Why do we even care about him being upset?! Cricket let out a frustrated groan. He knew damn well he should he focusing on hunting Gamma Burn than whatever frustratingly homosexual thoughts had filled him.

When Cricket got to the scene, he froze in place. This… did not look like a dangerous scene. It just looked like… well. Flowers. Plants. There were very few buildings. Nobody was in danger. Hell, most of these looked like native plants. He was no plant person but the rather incessant buzzing of his insides told him the pollinators enjoyed the smell. Cricket landed and stared around at the so-called devastation. This… did not look all that bad actually… Plenty of food… It reminded Cricket of his conversation with Sorel and he could not help but smile a little.

--Focus. Doing one thing does not make up for murder. Gamma Burn is still bad. You’re here to capture him, not fix this.

Cricket strode forward through the field. He tried very hard to not show that he was avoiding stepping on the plants. It wasn’t easy given the sheer amount of them. He could not help but enjoy the smell of it. He blamed that distracting bliss on the infestation. Just as Cricket was about to do a flyby to try to find Gamma Burn, he spotted the villain. He had arrived behind Gamma Burn, though he doubted stealth would be his friend with the kind of noise he made just from walking.

Cricket could not explain his hesitation. There was something familiar about Gamma Burn that he could not put his finger on. He chalked it all up to the annoying, buggy hesitation. ”Well, well, well. Gamma Burn! Just what do you think you’re doing?” Cricket put on his big super hero voice. It covered his hesitation, though his slowed movements were doing little to help his situation.

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

Maybe it was his interviewer’s anxiety that made Cricket’s anxiety worse. He watched Lilian flip through the pages. All the while, Cricket drummed his fingers against his leg. He had always been rather terrible at hiding his nerves. When an actual question was asked, Cricket perked up.

Good. Okay. I can work with this. It could make me come off as more normal if I– His heart sank when Li slapped his forehead. Shit. Now he was just making the poor reporter more nervous! Cricket wanted to shove the entire donut in his mouth and run. He did not do that, of course, but it was a tempting thought. ”Oh– No, don’t worry about it. That question is alright. I just really like to knit and hike and–”

The sound of chaos cut him off. Damn it! Not now, Gamma-Burn! I just had a handle on things! I don’t want to scare this hot guy off!

Cricket did not have time to process that he had called Lilian cute in his brain. He locked eyes with Li, ”I apologize but… well, duty calls. I’ll see you at the office, Falcone.” Cricket nodded to Falcone, then dashed out the door and outside.

𓆣 ☢ Middle Man ☢ 𓆣

Cricket never understood why cute men hitting him with ‘Technically…’ and then coming up with a long tangent had made him so enamored. If he had a nickel for every time that happened, he would only have two nickels. It was weird, though, that it had happened twice. The strangeness of it did not stop Cricket from staring at this man and rapidly developing a blush. Unfortunately for everyone else in the room, his ‘helmet’ covered his face, which meant he read as just silently, emotionlessly staring at poor Lilian.

It took Li clearing his throat for Cricket to snap out of his stupor. He was slightly disappointed by Li brushing it off as ‘science crap’. It was a rather intelligent and fascinating argument. He poorly forced a chuckle. ”Ah, yes. Breaking through windows is not my preference but it would be nice to reduce the amount I have to do that, wouldn’t it?”

That was stupid. You didn’t even add anything to the conversation. Say something better. You’re supposed to know how to interact with people. It’s no wonder mom made you stay out of fancy events for being such a mess.

Cricket quickly nibbled on another donut, attempting to think of ways to break the silence. ”Sssso… yeah. Super speed would make my job a lot easier. Especially with uh… all the reasons you listed."

From the Egg - A Dragon Training Rp

There was that tension in the air again. As if the storm that had started outside of those clay halls had gone entirely silent. Gwynn was drawn forward to the egg furthest stage left. It was, perhaps, the smallest of the eggs, though it still rivaled a halfling in size. The scales of it were slowly pulsing with heat.

That heat seemed to transfer to Gwynn. It started in her toes and danced up her body. Each wave held the warmth of a hug. Her heart was filled, and was her stomach. Aches and pains were temporarily swept away in a sea of blissful comfort. The world similarly seemed to melt away. Before Gwynn realized what was happening, she was floating in a distant, sweeping purple ocean. Twin suns glowed high above and seagulls could be heard far away. In the sky, a long serpent danced. It leapt between clouds and let out a low, rumbling call.

The massive, serpentine figure dove down and landed gently on top of the water. It walked upon the purple ocean as if it were flat ground. Its paws barely made a ripple. The beast was difficult to look at. Unlike the rest of the world, the serpent was foggy. It was difficult to make out much more than the beast’s vague shape. As if one was looking at it through a fogged up mirror. It lowered its massive head, easily twice the size of Gwynn, and settled it on top of the water.

Hello little one. The voice seemed to come from all directions at once. The beast certainly did not open its mouth to speak. You have come from rather far away… And proven yourself of great interest since the moment you entered the room. My child has taken great interest in you… and for that, I will grant you a gift. A prophecy. It may be about anything you wish… though, if you would prefer, I could simply tell you of your future.

To the outside world, there was a swirl of energy. Of light. Then, all at once, Gwynn disappeared. The crowd murmured in concern. Mother Dula blinked, but seemed otherwise unconcerned. She turned back to the rest of the crowd. ”Number two, step forward.”