Vena Sera

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

Ethan had felt a similar pain before; haphazardly flying from a rope swing with friends and trying to show off, only to flop into the water with an audible smack. The wind had been knocked out of him and he'd been seeing stars for several minutes afterwards. This was akin to that pain, only slightly worse. Wheezing when air finally filled his lungs again he sat up slowly, patting down himself to ensure nothing was broken or out of place.

Blue eyes settled on the strange boy and he smiled. "No harm no foul!" Ethan laughed, cutting himself short as a pain shot across his chest. Nothing was broken but there would definitely be bruises later. "What a coincidence, we're heading to town too!" The boy's appearance was unusual and it had felt like he'd run into a solid wall, not another person. Given the events of the day however he couldn't quite find it in himself to care right now; sinking ships, rogue waves, tigers roaming around and now this. It was just a strange day all around.

Taking a moment to get back to his feet, Ethan peeled a leaf from his cheek and dusted himself down. This wasn't going remotely as he had planned. Setting up camp when they were barely away from the shore already made his head spin, now they had two new arrivals - three if you counted the big cat; having even one tiger in the immediate area spelled danger for the people at the beach. What was he supposed to do? They needed to go to town and get help, and they likely needed a Hunter to vouch for their request of aid. Someone should go back and make sure the survivors were safe too and, if need be, protect it from wildlife. Yet in their group of now five people none were Hunters save himself, and he couldn't send a civilian off on a dangerous task.

"We really need to get moving." Saying that time was of the essence was an understatement. If they didn't get to town and back in time there was a likelihood that more survivors could die; knowing a tiger was nearby made matters worse. Ethan glanced at the girl in rags and smiled sympathetically, approaching her and lowering himself to her eye level. It wasn't that he didn't feel sympathetic - he wanted nothing more than to help her, but there was so much more to do right now.

"Uh... We're going into town soon, if you want to join us you can. We can see about getting you cleaned up if you'd like!" The girl - Amuné as he'd learned, needed much more than a simple wash. But little steps first, then they could figure out where her parents were. "And you're welcome to join us too! I uh... I don't know if we can help you at all, but it's safer to travel as a group, especially with all kinds of animals wandering around at night." He added, smiling awkwardly at the boy who had nearly flattened him. "No hard feelings, huh?"

Adelon's roads were generally safe during the day thanks in large part to regular patrols. All but the most remote settlements had soldiers nearby to ensure the security of travelers; small towns had their own guards that protected the immediate vicinity. At night though people withdrew into their homes, and with it animals became active once more. Ethan's blood chilled thinking of the survivors back at shore, wondering if it had been wise to gather all the able-bodied people for this job.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

Reply coming from me tomorrow! Off two long days of family business and work, so it'll have to wait one more day ^^"

Dragon Ball: Legacy (Mogtaki and Vena Sera)

"Or maybe they're trying to act brave, when the reality is they're scared." Sasha smiled thoughtfully, throwing Viral a glance over her shoulder. "I think it's annoying too, but people tend to mellow out after they see combat for the first time. Usually." Ricken never quite grew out if it and she'd come to accept that just as the person he was. Not everyone was humble and quiet, there were plenty of abrasive, arrogant and cocky people in the universe. "Then prove to them you're not, instead of hanging your head and accepting it." She left it at that, it was not her place to lecture Viral. Besides, Ricken was getting into it again with Leto and they were making a scene.

Vegeta frowned, folding his arms and looking back to the rebels. "Are they? Sasha didn't seem afraid, and Ricken looked like he wanted to fight you. But then he's just as bull-headed as Takeshi..." Viral was internalizing too much and reading into the wrong things. Who was afraid of him, exactly? The only one who showed any real sign of fear was, ironically, Korian.

"Is it primitive to know the basics of combat? I got my butt handed to me today, but the way the rebel fought was... I don't know, stiff." He was out of practice himself but Vegeta could have won handily had he been keeping up with training. "Their movements are predictable, it's like they go through a list of moves in their heads. That's no way to fight; that's how you get yourself killed." Maybe it was a product of having so many troops. It would be logistically impossible to train everyone individually, so they needed a way to get as many people prepared as quickly as possible. On paper it worked - everyone would emerge with the same skill set, but not everyone could use those skills equally. "We should probably get back, I think we're done here. Let's grab some lunch, I bet mom has something ready for us." His stomach growled on cue, making Vegeta flush slightly. "Unless you'd like to get something in town...?"

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

It was a bit of a daft question in retrospect. Ethan knew everything that went into disaster relief - how could he not, having had it drilled into his head during training. Help the wounded, make sure people were safe, aid in the efforts of first responders however you could; he really didn't need to ask. They needed to be quick about this, open wounds had risk of getting infected and he doubted they had much in the way of medicine on shore. Maybe it would be a wise idea for him to use his magic, race ahead and get to town. That way they'd have supplies coming.

“Perhaps we should stop and take a short break.”

Come again? A short break was a fine idea. Surviving a shipwreck took a toll on the body, and none of them had really stopped since getting to shore; adrenaline alone drove them forward. But they didn't have the luxury of stopping - or setting up camp, not when people were dying. It stunned Ethan that not only did the Ydran suggest such a thing, but the others agreed to it.

"W-Wait, camp? We need to keep moving! There's people depending on us!" The Ydran woman was already off into the woods and everyone else settled. Unreal, were they not worried about the others? Contemplating going on ahead, Ethan looked down the road and sighed. Even if he got there could he do anything? Besides, his lack of direction made it certain he'd get lost, even if he followed path. Stopping wasn't an option, not when they had barely traveled that far from shore. If someone needed to go back or stay then fine, but the injured weren't going to stop bleeding because they wanted to take a breather.

Ethan didn't want to give orders - he'd never been terribly good at it. "10 minutes, then we need to go." Nowhere near as forceful as he'd hoped, it got the point across. Maybe. Too restless to relax, he began to pace back and forth, watching the forest for the Ydran. When she finally emerged he'd half the mind to say something, only to stop when she mentioned a tiger. Here? In this part of the kingdom? He'd heard of them being further south, sure, but he'd figured it was too... Not hot up here.

"If there's a predator lurking around is it a good idea to be eating...?" Shaela snarled at something just then, and something snarled back in turn. Unfolding his staff and looking into the forest, Ethan's eyes widened seeing a moorcat at the forest's edge. More alarming still was a child beneath it, cowering. His instinct was it had attacked her and he was quick to move, holding his staff out defensively and slowly approaching the animal.

"Are you okay?!" Perhaps a dim question to shout at a child trapped beneath a beast. As he drew nearer, a realization struck; the moorcat wasn't attacking the girl, it was defending her. Dirty but unharmed, perhaps she and it had strayed too close to camp, alerting Shaela. Ethan looked back at the panther and smiled uncertainly, holding a hand back and gesturing for her to settle down. The last thing they needed right now was a fight and more injuries, especially involving large animals.

He could salvage this, no problem. Giving the moorcat an uneasy smile he slowly lowered his staff, holding up his hands. "Hey there buddy, I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I'm your friend, see?" Crap, did he have some way of showing that? Ethan looked around and snatched a strip of meat from a trembling sailor's hands, offering it out to the animal. Tentatively, he took another step, lowering himself and keeping his other hand in view. He sure hoped this meat looked more appetizing than he did.

Ethan placed the meat down on the ground before the animal, glancing at the child beneath him. She looked awful, wearing ragged clothing and appearing in desperate need of a bath; how long had she been out here like that? "Hey uh... Kid? If you can hear me, it's alright. We're good guys, we're not going to hurt you. Come on out, okay? Let me see if we can get you cleaned up." Poor girl must be terrified - as was he, just not of other people. Ethan glanced again at the moorcat and smiled weakly, carefully nudging the piece of meat closer.

The clink of metal on metal was unmistakable, and out of place. It sounded like someone in chain or armor was running towards them, but all the way out here? Ethan frowned and turned his gaze away as the noise grew louder, puzzled to see a boy running towards him. In fact he was running alarmingly fast, and wasn't at all watching where he was going.

"H-Hey! HEY! Watch where you're going!" The only thing Ethan could think to do was hold out his hands to stop the boy, bracing himself. Hells did it feel like he'd been struck by a runaway cart! Before he knew it he found himself sprawled out on his back, stuck beneath the other boy. If everything didn't hurt before then it certainly did now. Dazed, he stared up at the darkening sky, smiling out of his mind. The universe was actually trying to kill him today. What was next? A land shark? "O-Ow..."

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

So I really should have said something earlier on the matter, which again, my apologies on not communicating.

But the sudden stopping for camp has kind of thrown some events into whack. Now not blaming people because I never shared anything, so that's all on me, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting pieces into place because of it.

Since deleting posts isn't an option in RPG, and I'm certainly not going to make everyone rewrite, my post is still coming, but I'm going to be trying to get things going back in the direction I intended.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

Hey guys, sorry for the lapse in communication or lack of posting.

With the long weekend here I'll be getting a post out for everyone. I'm also throwing together an outline (finalized version), and I'll be happy to share some stuff with anyone who wants to have some idea about where we're going, so you can plan your ideas around major points.

Again, apologies, we'll be trucking along again this weekend!

Dragon Ball: Legacy (Mogtaki and Vena Sera)

"That wasn't my intent..." She'd spoken poorly and Viral was upset. 'Blunt force' made him seem brutish; Sasha tried to imply that Viral's method of attack was direct. Taking Viral's arm she carefully pressed down, relieving tension along the limb. "I'm thinking of how to fight you based on what we've been told. Not as an enemy," she clarified quickly, looking up to meet Viral's gaze, "As an ally, for sparring. The way some of the people describe your and your fighting style... Well, it makes you seem like a top-heavy brute." Saying it aloud made her cringe and she shook her head. She'd been an idiot to rely on clearly biased information, but then it was all she'd been given.

Sasha pat Viral's arm before letting it go. "I think we can be finished with our sparring. Sorry I ruined it for you," she said, glancing at her brother and smiling, exasperated. "Besides, Ricken's going to try and show off until he collapses, remind you of anyone?" Kids wanting to prove themselves as the greatest seemed to pop up everywhere. It was no small wonder her brother and the Prince always knocked heads. By now Vegeta had finished his session, leaving only Ricken and his partner, stubbornly trying to outlast one another.

"Maybe it's not my place to say this, but... Just keep trying to prove Korian wrong. Once you stop trying you let people label you, and that's that. Nothing you can do will change it." Sasha smiled in amusement and glanced at Viral from the corner of her eye. "On our home world I was considered a bit of a bully. Though I only ever fought kids who were mean to Ricken. They called me all kinds of things and I let them, because if they were afraid of me, they wouldn't mess with him." She sighed and shook her head, watching as her brother finally won his match. The way he grinned and loomed over his partner you would think he'd just climbed the tallest mountain on Uuonoe. "I let it stick because it's what I wanted, and it worked for me. But you clearly don't want that... So just keep proving him wrong. He can say whatever he wants, but it only means anything if you let him be right."

Sasha returned to join Ricken - a good swat to the back of his head stopped his bickering. Vegeta took that opportunity to return to Viral, shaking his head and rubbing at his shoulder. "I figured I was out of practice, but hell that was a mess. How did your session with Sasha go?" Not great from the looks of things. Was it wrong he was secretly glad she'd been paired against Viral instead? He'd lost to the alien, and he was positive Viral was leagues more dangerous than the alien was. Ignoring Leto as he began some triumphant speech on a job well done, Vegeta turned to Viral and smiled faintly. "Be honest with me: do you even want to train the troops? I feel like you're again being forced into a role you may not want."

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

I more mean that some animals may exhibit magic abilities, not that things necessarily become magical out of nowhere.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

@Raylah I dropped the ball here, so apologies on that! I generally play the plot-card close to my chest, but that just leads to more problems than ever, so I'll try being a bit more transparent!

@TaroAndSelia Basically, think of it this way: the further from major settlements you get, the less protection there is. Less patrols, less rounds of making sure the area is safe, and less guard posts along the way. So the world, or the kingdom if you want to talk smaller terms, has beasts everywhere, but their prevalence varies depending on WHERE you are. Near cities it'd be more common to find minor creatures, or more "natural" animals.

If we're talking in the realm of like... Gryphons, just since you used that as an example, they're likely not hanging around cities or major towns - they'd be deemed a threat and killed pretty quickly. Humans (just using the broad term here for the sake of convenience) are the dominant species.

As for the magic of the beasts, its safe to assume mythological creatures have SOME "magical" qualities to them. And there is a system in the world for that, since right now we have it that only Magi can use them. If you think about the criteria for what makes someone a Magi - outside of being born one, obviously, you can begin to guess at what species of beasts might have some type of magical ability.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

@Shylarah Their journey would be even longer if they stopped on the way there, and they have injured. Plus if its midday why would they stop and set up camp, even after say... 2 or 3 hours?