Sapphire has sleeping problems so a midnight jog to attempt to tire herself out wouldn't be that out of character. I know I do it sometimes and it's usually helpful.
Ooooooh boy. Yet another look into the inner machinations of Oswald's mind.
If your character might reasonably be up and walking around at like midnight over this weekend after missions, let me know, because they may bump into Oswald doing a thing. He will be very, very noticeable. I have a little event planned for him.
As the group of Huntsmen traversed the forests that existed on the other side of the border, it wouldn’t be long before a small swarm of Ratatosks had managed to surround them. Hidden within the trees and bushes, their beady red eyes focused on them. They didn’t seem as though they were going to attack, however. No, instead they seemed completely content with their obvious observation of the group. Biding their time, they were waiting to see how they would respond to their presence. Watching for the right moment to make their first move.
Taking a ready position as the swarm of Grimm descended upon the team, Oswald looked between their foes and his team. “What are they waiting for?”
Cobalt took out the 27 Smasher and looked around at the enemies. “Be ready on the defense, but don't make the first move. Something is very wrong here.”
“Is there? They’re here, meaning they aren’t eating what we’re supposed to protect and we don’t have to search for several hours. Shall we call the air jockeys to rain bullets on this place and go home, lads?” Diamond raised an eyebrow. Although when she said it out loud, it did sound all too easy. Nothing ever went this smooth for them. There was probably a forced labor camp conspiracy hidden in this plot somewhere.
“Diamond, unless these Ratatosk are very, very old, they’re exhibiting anomalous behavior. If they wanted to attack, they would have either attacked or scattered to regroup. Not to mention….” His face scrunching up as he looked at the Grimm in front of him, Oswald cursed. “Fucking hell. They’ve all got those weird grass necklaces. I think that rules out the ‘pet’ theory…”
“Not only that, but we’re looking for Grievers. Not Ratatosk.” Cobalt looked at the grass necklaces and shivered. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have attacked that one Ratatosk.”
“So what, we just ask these to politely go away and kindly point us to the Grimm we feel like killing? Can we just do anything before they figure out how they wanna attack us? NOW you choose the careful approach, I swear I am going to hit you all one of these days.” Diamond growled, cane raised and ready to defend.
Sighing, Oswald rolled his eyes at the team before taking a moment to think. “These little bastards may be responsible for some damage, considering their….tendency to play with live wires, but I doubt these are our main target. To be honest, though, it might be worth it to eliminate them. Their very existence disgusts me.”
“Give me some fire dust and could burn those suckers up real good! Nice and toasty.” Emerald decided to cheerfully suggest, watching the Ratatosk carefully, her weapons at the ready.
“WITHOUT BURNING HALF THE FOREST DOWN, EMERALD.” This was more said playfully than angrily, but the idea was still there: burning forests was a bad idea. For now.
’Is it really worth it to attack? There are a lot of them and those are just the ones we see.’ Cobalt pursed his lips and let a heavy breath fall from his nose. “Let's keep moving forwards. I think we're outnumbered and surrounded at the moment and they don't seem keen to attack. They seem to recognize the threat we pose. But stay on guard.” He then proceeded to continue forwards, a bit more caution in his walk than usual.
Shrugging, Oswald followed after Cobalt, the Grimm left behind for another team to deal with. “Sure thing, bossman. We’ve got bigger fish to fry, after all.”
“Yeah. I see four fishes. In a very small barrel.” Diamond groaned. Her whole being screamed at her to make a break and run for it. “The fuck…” she grumbled for herself, backing away after them, watching the Ratatosks in the rear that seemed to just wait to pounce. “When you have time to think all you do is rush forward doing the first thing that comes to your mind, and then when you get surrounded by pissed off Grimm that seem to be smarter than usual, you have a discussion about what to do? The fuck is wrong with you people, you have it backwards!” her frustrations silently vented.
Turning to glare at Diamond, Oswald involuntarily tightened his grip on the supplies he was carrying. “Diamond, please, just shut up. These aren’t Itzamna, or Salamanders, or even Grievers. Ratatosk pose almost no risk, even to civilians. I’d bet any one of us could handle that whole swarm bare-handed. Pick your battles.”
The numbers of the Ratatosks had amassed to immense proportions. Potentially hundreds of them had gathered and surrounded the Huntsman from all sides of the wooded forests. In unison, the Grimm finally made their decision and acted. Letting loose a horrific shrill screech that would peal clearly for miles around. It was all merely a distraction. In force, they all zerg rushed out from the tree lines and made for the Huntsmen. It wasn’t a mad and disorganized swarm however, the army of rats had gathered into four concentrated platoons. One for each of the students. Internally, the creatures knew many of them would probably die. But they seemed to not care or hesitate any longer. They were dead-set in their mission, moving as if they were one writhing amalgam of a larger beast.
Closing the distance in a very short amount of times, the large swathes of rodents then lunged at all sides and attempted to blanket the Huntsmen with their bodies. The strangest part of all? None of them directly attacked. Instead, they were intent on biting/gnawing/clawing at whatever the Huntsman had in their possession. Feverishly trying to strip the Huntsmen of whatever they didn’t have secured to them. Weapons, ammunition, armor, articles of clothing, whatever their little mouths and claws could take hold of. Whatever held any inkling of importance to the Huntsmen, the creatures wanted. Just as quickly as they poured out from the forests to ‘attack’, grabbing whatever they could they then all ditched. The four semi-organized groups of Ratatosks then scattered in four opposite directions, running away from the Huntsmen. Swiftly attempting to steal away what they had and disappear forever, the little thieves.
“What the fuck just happened?” Oswald, now missing all of the supplies he’d had, save for his weapons and the turret repair parts, stared off into the woods where the Ratatosks had run off with his stuff. “They...those little shits just stole our stuff!”
Cobalt swung towards one of the groups of Ratatosks and began firing off multiple shots at them, killing a couple dozen. “Those little shitstains just took all of our supplies!” He exclaimed in surprise. He growled and began thinking. “Everyone head after the group who took Oswald’s supplies! He had the most stuff!” ’They even took my scarf and gloves… crap. Now that his scarf was gone, one could see a variety of scars all over his neck. Cobalt shook his head and ran after the group of Ratatosk that had attacked Oswald, firing at them while doing so.
“I hate always being right!” Diamond shouted as she skewered three grimm at once on her cane. One of the bastards tried to make a grab for her hat and was treated to the destructive effect her kinetic spells had on living organisms, causing black chunks of gore flying everywhere. She managed to protect the hat, but in the process the grimm somehow snatched the bag she took off of Oswald before. For once though she didn’t have a problem following his plan of action and went after the monsters. What they should have done with the first one, but she decided to point that out after the mission.
Awkwardly following after his teammates while carrying the repair parts, Oswald grunted in frustration. ’God damn rat bastard shitheads. Since when do they pull this crap?! They’re clever for Grimm, but not like this.’
Emerald’s weapons shook the very ground as she blasted Ratatosks as they went on their little thieving attack. The cat faunus managed to use her semblance to keep the rodents away from her before they could steal anything on her person, unfortunately it seemed her teammates weren’t quite as lucky. Emerald let out an angry, almost feral hiss before charging after the little thieves, blasting away with her shotguns as she did. They weren’t getting away on her watch!
The Ratatosks that held bits and pieces of Oswald’s equipment and supplies looked behind them at the pursuing Huntsmen with a sense of alarm. Realizing that they were essentially selected for death, they opened up their ranks as they began to weave in, out, and around the trees. Trying to break up their running patterns to confuse and slow down the young Huntsmen. Rapidly evolving their plans, the Ratatosks that held anything then decided to break off and split the platoon. Each going in different directions as they ran deeper in the woods and further away from the wall.
“Of course they would split up! We should just follow one of them, we can hunt the rest down later!” Since it was his supplies that the team was hunting, Oswald felt comfortable stating the obvious. If Cobalt wanted to give a different order, though, he would consider it, so long as it wasn’t colossally stupid.
Initially she followed, but now that the grimm split up again, Diamond wasn’t so sure anymore. The resources invested were starting to far outweigh the gains - she had no illusions about ‘hunting them down later’ - they’d never find a single grimm carrying a box, and she didn’t care what kind of hunting tricks her Oswald could have known - it couldn’t be done. The forest was too big and a ratatosk with an ammo box too damn small. “I don’t like this.” In truth, she didn’t know what was the correct thing to do, and that scared her more than a smart swarm of grimm did. “Focus on the loot-” she wanted to slap herself, “-the mission! Focus on the mission. Turrets are not why we’re here.” she said, more thinking out loud than actually suggesting anything, her mind working in afterburner mode, trying to see a method behind what the Grimm were doing.
Cobalt wanted to cry in frustration. This was insane! No Ratatosk should be this smart, let alone an entire swarm of them. He sliced down a few trees that were getting in their way and muttered obscenities under his breath. “We can't chase these fuckers down. They're too fast and…” ’Wait, where are we even going?’ Cobalt slowed down time and began to think. ’It's obvious that these things are crazy smart for a group of Ratatosk. They've tried to split us up multiple times now, but why? The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they're leading us away from somewhere or they're leading us to somewhere. The question is WHERE?’ “Hold up guys, something seems off here. They're trying way too hard to split us up? I think Oswald is on the right track, we need to track one of them to their nest. Unless anyone else has any suggestions?”
Oswald shrugged as he looked at his team leader. “Diamond’s right about the turrets. No point in carrying these things any more. I say we head back a little ways outside the forest, dump this crap, and go searching for our mark. Our job is to kill some Grimm. Fixing the turrets was a secondary objective. Unless we go back and fix them now, we’re probably better off leaving the parts for someone else to take care of.”
“your instincts have proven right before.” Diamond said in mock Oswald voice, “The ‘Shut up.’ And now ‘Diamond’s right’ again. Make up your mind you inconsistent man.” Diamond sighed. “But that’s not my point. We initially assumed that normally, Grievers which were said to be the problem here, are nocturnal creatures and will hit at night. Now, we’ve seen no grievers, and what grimm are here behave anything but normal. Which means, while we’re here, the farms… oh hell….” she facepalmed, hoping her pessimism wasn’t right this time.
“While it’s against my nature to assume intelligence from Grimm….this situation is far from normal.” Oswald groaned. “We can’t defend and attack without splitting the team.”
Cobalt thought on a plan of action for a minute and groaned mentally. This was such a clusterfuck it wasn't even funny. He was woefully unprepared for this type of situation on his first mission. “The best offense is a good defense. That's how the saying goes anyways. We need to defend, they want us to go after them.” Cobalt spoke his thoughts out loud and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Then again, maybe they want us to go on defense and we're playing into their hands. I hate intelligent Grimm.”
Emerald rolled her eyes at Diamond and Oswald’s bickering as she kept her eyes on where the Grimm were up ahead. “You guys are overthinking this...they clearly want us to follow them, so instead let’s just go back, drop of the turret parts, and figure out things from there.”
“Actually, if I were overthinking it, we’d be wondering whether this was what they wanted us to do after all.” Chuckling, Oswald nodded. “I’m mostly inclined to agree with that idea, Emerald. But we only have a limited amount of time to do this, even if that time seems long right now. Perhaps two of us should return the parts while the other pair investigates. We can use our Scrolls to communicate with each other and discuss our locations.”
“For the love of god here you go again, quit talking about it, DO IT!” Diamond said, massaging her temples as she turned around and walked away in the direction of the town, otherwise none of them would move an inch in the next five minutes.
Teleporting in front of Diamond with his arm out, Oswald growled. “Do not try to order us around, Diamond. I’d barely tolerate Cobalt doing it, but you? Not a chance in hell. Or do you not recall this team’s track record with just ‘doing it’?” His voice was calm and level, but his face gave off a great vibe of frustration and anger.
Barely able to keep herself from throwing a punch, Diamond took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Oh? So it’s ‘don’t order us around’ until shit hits the fan like last week, when it was suddenly fine while everyone else froze up?” She growled back, her tone far from composed. “And yes, I remember, but circumstances differ, that was my entire point earlier! At the time there was time to consider things, now there’s not! You can not take one example and keep applying it forever, that will never work.” she said a little calmer.
She couldn’t help but think this would have been wonderful topic to discuss in their prep time, as they should have had. “Now, we are facing an unknown, and the farms we’re supposed to protect are left unchecked when Grimm that are showing abnormal levels of intelligence are prowling around. What if this was a diversion, did you think of that?” She drawn a heavy breath, pushing past Oswald. “I can’t order you to follow me. I’m not the leader on paper, and I wouldn’t even if I were, I think I conveyed that much in the morning. But I am through doing things like we are until now - it obviously isn’t working. Look at us! Fighting like this in the middle of a task. I’m going to check up on the wall and farms, you do what you want.”
Letting Diamond pass him, Oswald sighed. “Adults discuss things. Children do what they want. I’m done playing diplomatic. Cobalt, prove yourself. Make a decision, and enforce it.”
Cobalt's eye twitched as Oswald and Diamond fought. He looked at Emerald and sighed. ’Can I make Emerald leader? She seems like she would be a lot better at it.’ Cobalt rubbed the back of his head and closed his eyes. “You know what? Fuck it. We're going back to the farm and we're going to wait for the inevitable attack from some species of Grimm. We're going to wipe them out like the badass team we are, and we're going to stop yelling at each other for something THAT HAPPENED A WEEK AGO AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!” Cobalt breathed heavily for a second and groaned. “I didn't mean to yell. I just have no idea what the hell everyone is so angry about. It's frustrating being left out of the loop. Let's just go to the farm and begin preparing for the Grimm assault.” Cobalt looked back to Diamond. “And Diamond. Please don't wander off without us. I understand that you think we have limited time, but walking away is exactly what the Grimm have been trying to make us do for the past hour.”
Oswald nodded at Cobalt and sighed. “Stay out of the loop on this one. For your own good, Cobalt. Suffice to say, our last mission ended much worse than it should have because the plan didn’t get followed. Alright, we’re moving out to the farm? Got it.”
Diamond slowed her pace down as she walked to listen, coming to a stop once CObalt raised his voice, only half listening to the rest of it. She took her scroll out of her pocket, and wrote a quick text.
To: Prof. Vanhomrigh Subject: Send help This team is falling apart. I’m worried we’ll fail. Send help.
She just couldn’t have that on her conscience. Last time it was couple dozen mistreated people. Thousands could starve here if they fucked up. Her thumb hovered over the send icon, but after she heard how the discussion ended, she saved it to drafts instead and pocketed the device again.
She wanted this to work. She signed up because she decided she wanted to bring some degree of normalcy (and legality) to her life, and this was one of the few options where people didn’t ask too many questions, glad for every recruit they could get. The ex-thief had nothing to resort to if she failed here. Who can blame her for being a bit on edge? Still, they were right about one thing, bringing it up now was doing equal harm.
Waiting for the rest to catch up, she couldn’t help but notice one thing: Somehow she always got people to do what she said thus far. Huh. Weird. Perhaps I could like being in charge? Well, not up to me. Only the three of them can put me there and like hell that’s happening. Sighing, she loosened up. “I’m… sorry too. I say too much of what I think, but… I mean well, OK?”
“Pretty sure we all do, Diamond. We just happen to disagree on shit.” Sighing, Oswald kept moving.
--
For a good while, the Ratatosks continued their ducking and weaving within the trees. After some time, the swarms came to realize that they were no longer being chased and all slowed to a crawl. Within the swarms, the few Ratatosks that held some semblance of authority and leadership signaled for a complete halt with a series of chitters and squeaks. They all fell silent, raising their noses to the skies as their beady little eyes feverishly scanned their surroundings.
The Huntsmen gave up. They no longer gave chase. Perfect. Realizing this, the ‘leaders’ of the swarms quickly reorganized their compatriots. Abandoning and discarding most everything they were able to temporarily snatch from the young Huntsmen save for one particular thing. Increasing their numbers around the crates of Dust Ammunition, they all focused on moving the explosives as swiftly as they could deeper into the forests and further away from the Huntsmen and the protective border.
It took them some time as the swarms had to travel quite a ways, but eventually they made it to their destination. The forests that surrounded the farmlands only lasted for so far. Where the treelines ended, a mountain range and network of cave systems started. Thanks to the natural formation of the land, sentient human and faunus life won the dice throw in the gamble for fertile farmland surrounded by natural protective barriers. The defensive line of automated turrets and massive border wall were just a simple addition to security, more for peace of mind than anything. Once all was said and done the residents of the area and the overseeing bodies of government saw that the measures they had taken were more than enough to stave off and ward away any Grimm that may have come knocking at their doors.
But, unfortunately for the parties involved, the particular ‘tribe’ of Grimm that took up home in the mountains and caves were well experienced in survival. They were tenacious, they were highly intelligent, and they were incredibly persistent. Of the Grimm encountered so far this ‘tribe’ consisted of near equal parts Ratatosk and Grievers. Only a few of the scores of Grimm were the true masterminds behind the survival of their ilk. Old, scarred, and battered. They shared their knowledge with the newborns and the fledgling Grimm. They knew they were neither the fastest or strongest of their kind and were hardly a blip on the radars of the Kingdoms of Huntsmen that they clashed with. All the better as it allowed them to learn how to remain undetected. To glide and fly under the watching eyes of the nations before it was time for them to act and make themselves known.
And it was most certainly time. Tired and exhausted, the swarms of Ratatosks stopped with their four crates of explosive Dust in front of a gaping cave mouth. The leaders of the swarms knew that the sun hadn’t yet fallen so their superiors were yet to waken. But, the early bird catches the worm so they say. Things were moving along rather well and quickly, all the more time to use to safely cushion and pad their plans. The leaders of Ratatosks, who bore woven grass necklaces stood and in unison shrieked their cries into the mouth of the cave. Sustaining their screech for a good minute. Falling silent, they then waited. Their kin who weren’t as old and knowledgeable as the ones who wore the grass necklaces were nervous. It showed in how they looked around constantly, quietly chittering and squeaking as they fidgeted in place.
From within the blackened caves, motion could be detected. Near imperceptible noises and sounds could be heard only by the ears of the Grimm and faunus. It was almost as if the cave itself was alive. Writhing and grumbling as it moved disturbed in its slumber. Then, a pair of glowing red eyes popped into existence from within the darkness. Then a second pair. A third. A fourth. Before long, hundreds of red eyes opened and gave the cave entrance an odd look like that of a tunnel lined with nothing but glowing red eyeballs. Pleased with themselves, the Ratatosks then slowly dragged the crates of Dust into the cave. As it rumbled with the sinister growls and snarls of their superiors, happy with how the way events were transpiring so swiftly. Soon, they would all be ready. Only a few things were left before it was time to act. They would wait until nightfall. They would wait for the Hunters. Then, it would be over. The crates dragging up dirt, sand and rock made echoes as they disappeared deeper into the abyss.
---
As they walked back, Diamond was in thought. Halfway through, she sighed. “We should call for help. I mean, this mission already far exceeded what we were told it would be, no? Swarm of smart grimm the size of an army, they can’t expect four rookies to defend against that now that we, admittedly due to our fault, lost the equipment to bring the defenses online. Which is something we should probably report in any event, uncommon behavior would interest at least Port.” she frowned. This would probably cost them their credits but she was beyond worrying about that at this point.
“I have to agree. Frankly, even back home where we had to worry about Grimm incursions every other week, our intelligence on them was extremely lackluster. There were basic behavioral patterns we were taught, but this suggests that the Grimm are capable of even greater things than we’d previously believed.” This mission was a mess overall, but it seemed that their team was doomed to suffer such injustices forever.
“Red smoke calls Vanhomrigh for an emergency. We can get her via Scroll as well, so once we come up with a plan, we should probably contact her. We have at least Ratatosks to worry about.”
Emerald sighed as they walked. “You sure it isn’t too soon to call for help? Maybe we can handle it just fine.” The cat faunus thought calling for help so soon was a lame idea. So what if the Grimm were a little smarter than normal? That didn’t make them immune to their firepower. “It’s your call of course Cobalt…”
“As opposed to not being able to handle it and having thousands of lives on our hands because we were worried our pride would get hurt?” Diamond said, mockingly spitting into her hands and brushing them together. “THAT, was me washing my hands of that, in case you’re wondering.” the thief frowned.
Emerald turned to look at Diamond slowly. “Look if you can’t handle a few rats that’s your problem, don’t lump me into it.”
Diamond shrugged, her tone calm, “I can handle a few just fine. Even a couple dozen. But a swarm who could crush me by their weight alone, which I don’t know where they will come from, while I have an area entirely too big for four people to watch… Yes, I can’t handle the unknown. And I couldn’t handle if I made someone freeze and starve in the winter so I can feel better about myself. Which is funny since probably unlike you I hardly have anyone left that I would care about so much.”
Emerald scoffed. “Use all the excuses you want, you’re all just scared and have zero confidence. No one has to starve we just do our fucking job and kill the Grimm. But none of you want to do that sooo…” Emerald turned around starting to walk back the other way. “You guys do whatever...I’m gonna do what we should of done in the first place.”
“You’ll be the first to die, kitten. If you go alone, that is. Cobalt, permission to form a strike team with Emerald and go find these Grimm bastards?” Oswald gave Emerald a harsh look, but stopped after a moment and smiled warmly at her. Lowering the turret parts to the ground, Oswald waited for a response.
“You can all go. I’ll be within the walls setting up defense, there isn’t that much that can possibly happen to me.” Diamond shrugged, walking the opposite way. She wasn’t sure just what she could do other than set up some lights for the night, but she would first have to see what the ghost town would have to offer.
Cobalt sighed and began rubbing in his forehead anxiously. “Permission granted Oswald. Report if anything goes wrong, and I do mean anything. I'm staying with Diamond to set up defense.” He turned away from Oswald and started following Diamond. A minute passed and Cobalt was completely silent. All he was doing was tugging up the collar of his shirt to try and cover his neck more. He looked back and sighed in both relief and irritation once he saw they were gone. “Am I a bad leader Diamond? I feel like everything I've done has led to the worst case scenario.” He asked quietly as he continued to tug at his collar.
“Alright!” Emerald cheered, looking at Oswald the moment they had permission to leave and started heading back towards the forest, not even giving Cobalt and Diamond a second glance. “You ready to kick butt?”
Looking back to Diamond and Cobalt as he started walking with her, Oswald gave the pair a nod. “Hell yeah! Ratatosk, Grievers, shit, throw a few Redcaps or something in there, too!”
Pulling out his Scroll, Oswald quickly sent a message to Diamond: I’ll take care of her. Don’t worry.
The most accurate description would be somewhere between "experiencing yet another existential crisis" and "being too depressed to have an existential crisis".
Frankly, I'm not sure if it's a good thing, or a horribly terrible thing.
More at 11.
Also might have found a new song that works for Oswald.
They're meant to respect and immortalize. They're well made and highly evocative. Even I got a pressure behind the eyes just looking at them in for a short moment. This art helps ensure that nobody will forget what will happen, and stands in tribute to the character.
For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee.
Yankee,
TruthHurts,
princess,
Plank Sinatra,
flat lovenote,
abc