heavyhitter | IC CONTACT (futuro & prisma)

I'd beat every one of those robed assholes anyway!!

[ Easier said than done but he's not even there yet. His dot cuts a straight path toward the wobbling one, as straight as the forest layout permits anyway. Plenty of minutes pass dedicated to navigating the trees, but as soon as he can rely on sound rather than watching the little tracking beacons, his pace almost doubles toward her and however many friends she's got romping through the underbrush with her. ]

Hey! [ Just short of bursting into her path, to cut down on at least a fraction of the startling it's worth: a 6'3 brick wall crashing into view and catching the nearest little hooded figure that turns toward him square in the chest with the top of his boot, flinging it backwards a good couple feet. ] Ramir!

[ His head swivels to find her before the startled little deer collect themselves. Better not be on the ground. ]

[ Now there's a welcome sight. Ramir is on her feet and just ahead of a deer or two, and she veers immediately at the sight of Sigma. The Nalawi aren't especially tall her strong, but they're more armed than she is, and they're ferocious. It's been enough to keep her running, at least.

She doesn't speak, she doesn't have the breath to spare on it. She just snatches for a hold on his wrist and yanks him onward, in the direction she'd been going. There's more running to be done, okay. These guys definitely have the upperhand as long as they're still in the jungle. ]

[ Alright yeah that's... god that's a lot more than he'd been anticipating. A lot more points, on antlers and on spears and on arrows. He'd gotten a good shot in, but running is definitely the way to go here. Especially now that his element of surprise has worn off and all (or most) of those points are aimed his way. ]

[ And so he surprisingly doesn't falter when she snares him round the (thankfully uninjured) wrist and tugs him along. He's at least a pretty stellar runner no matter his exhaustion levels; on top of his extra foot of height on her mostly in the legs, it's hard not to overtake her. At least until one of those aforementioned arrows streaks by just above their linked arms and embeds itself in a tree just ahead. ]

Oh come on! [ Yanking his hand free of her's, he ducks around the other side of the oncoming tree and pulls back up to her, more on her heels than at her side. ] Just— go pick on someone your own size, assholes!

[ I mean preferably don't, but you know, in the moment... ]

[ She darts a glance back as they pass the tree, just to make sure he's still with her. She'll be pissed if he trips and she's got to stop and defend him, or something. But he's there, he's fine, it's good. It would be better with like five fewer Nalawi. ]

Just gotta — out into the open. They won't be so fucking brave without all these trees.

[ That's about all the words she can manage, they leave her panting a little more. She's really tired of running. She vaults over a log, which an arrow thuds into a second later. That's another thing she's tired of, arrows. She can imagine it'd really suck to catch one of them.

Ah, wait, she's found a few more necessary words: ] Did you bring any — weapons?

[ Ye of little faith. He's at 100%, he can go 110%! Or you know, like, 95%/105%, but his arm doesn't affect his agility, does it? No. ]

Donno, I feel like there's enough of 'em to stay pretty damn brave if they've come this far.

[ Out in the open would mean they could really haul ass though, even if it did make them easier targets. Speaking of targets, if the arrow narrowly misses her on her hurtling way over the log, it practically grazes the side of his boot as he leaps in pursuit and the resulting thunk into the hardwood earns a little yelp. Five fewer Nalawi would be peachy right about now, preferably all the ones with bows. ]

[ But he lands unharmed, as well as... unarmed. ] Wasn't really thinking to pick anything up on the way, to be honest.

[ Not much forethought happens on the way from Point A to Point B for him... He's helping... ]

[ Okay, fair: it'll be easier for her to pin them down and stab them out of trying to kill them, when they're in the open. She'd say so, but that'd be too much. His yelp earns another alarmed glance back, and she drops back just long enough to snatch up his hand again. It'll be easier to make sure he hasn't gone down without a bunch of looks backward.

They don't have long to go, though. She pushes past a spray of leaves and ducks a branch, and then — a clearing, wide and defensible. Once they're far enough into it she drops her free hand to pull a knife out from where she'd shoved it into her belt and gives his hand a hard squeeze. At least one of them's got a weapon. ]

You ready?

[ Probably a good thing she foregoes her explanation, easier to focus on being hauled through the woods without the prospect of having to kill anything on the brain. There's already enough going on; crashing out of the thicket, skidding to a halt, she's got a knife— ]

Alright— [ This is happening, this got real, as if it wasn't real enough before. Things are clattering into the clearing on tiny hooves and he's got about .2 seconds to squeeze her hand back and form a coherent response. Most of it gets delegated to the squeezing. ]

Dude, they've got arrows—! [ No predictions required, about three of them whiz by and he jolts closer to her on reflex, crouching shoulder to shoulder. ] Not at all, come on!

[ She realizes, a little unhappily, that she has no idea what to expect from Sigma in a fight like this. He hadn't been too impressive on the volcano, but that was against crazy monsters, you couldn't expect a pretty normal guy to do much against crazy monsters. How is he with more evenly matched opponents? Can she count on him, or should she be protecting him?

She has no idea, and worse, likes him too much to find out by trial and error. She'll be pissed if she only learns he's bad at this after he takes a spear to the chest, or something. So she drops his hand and steps forward, moving a little in front of him, the knife held ready in front of her.

The first Nalawi bursts from the branches at a run and Ramir springs forward to meet him, looking to tangle up spear shaft in knife blade and force it out of the equation. They're not so bad when they're disarmed, at least there's that... But while she's working on the first one, another springs out shortly after the first, this one aimed with a sword. Completely unfair. ]

[ Crazy monsters, crazy headache, doesn't make for much of a first impression, but things are different now. Granted the closest thing remotely resembling formal training that he's got is a handful of elementary school tae kwon do classes, but that doesn't stop him being huge and resilient by nature. ]

[ So when she steps in front of him, it earns a bit of a hey, seriously?! but she's off and running before he can protest any further. Naturally he follows along to lend a hand... somehow. The swinging blades make it a little difficult to get a fist in edgeways, but he's close enough to quickly lunge at the next incoming Nalawi, bowling it over and pinning it flat. Good angle for twisting its arm until the sword comes loose, bad angle for taking the next charging, spear-wielding deer into consideration. ]

[ Halfway through punching sword deer's lights out, spear deer's got its weapon of choice in his face, and although he manages to lean back far enough to grab it below the point and keep it from going through his face, he does end up flat on his back. With, luckily, just enough time to wrangle his legs out from under him and catch the Nalawi square in the chest with both heels. Winded, it crumples back, and the spear wrenches easily from its hands. Spear's good, he'll take spear over sword. Longer range, harder to kill things. ]

[ So as it turns out, he's pretty scrappy when he needs to be. Scrambling to his feet, he takes a second to swivel around and find Ramir again. ]

You alright?!

[ She can't spare too much attention for keeping an eye on Sigma, what with this knife-versus-spear business. It turns out it's kind of an uneven battle when you pit something so small against something so long, mostly involving her knocking the spear's tip away before it can do any stabbing.

That lasts until she gets sick of it, ducks under the guy's range, and charges the Nalawi. This part is always awkward, it feels like beating up a kid. But that doesn't stop her from punching the guy straight in his muzzle, with just enough time to glance over and catch the end of Sigma's spear-getting victory. Which, honestly, is hugely relieving. She'd been worried he'd have distracted the sword-guy only to get himself skewered.

She aims a huge, delighted grin over, a confiscated spear in one hand and knife in the other. ]

Totally fine! Not so bad when you can see 'em coming, right? [ She edges over to him, flipping the spear to find a more balanced hold on it. ] And check it out, now we both got baby-sized spears.

[ See? He can get along just fine without her babysitting. And her grin's positively infectious, at least for the second he's got to shoot it back her way. ]

Better than nothing! [ Concentration's back on his face right quick once another volley of arrows peppers the ground at their feet and he jumps back a couple of feet. ] God—good thing they sent the storm troopers after you, isn't it?

[ It isn't. This time around, the shitty aim was merely a distraction rolled into an attempt to herd them back toward the opposite edge of the clearing, where two Nalawi had apparently skirted around to during the scuffle with the first three. Because with a rustling snapping of branches, they burst out charging, and Sigma spins just in time to meet the butt end of a spear with the side of his face. ]

[ The world blurs, lunges sideways, tastes a little bitter, but he's still upright by the time the deer flips the spear to its lethal end and jabs again. This one he deflects with the side of his own before winding up and returning the favor, clocking it right over the head with twice the vigor and—by all kinds of luck—managing to wedge the staff into its antlers, dragging the weapon down in their dazed slump. And leaving him pretty defenseless from the side for the second swordsdeer. ]

[ One of these days she's really going to have to sit people down and explain she doesn't get most their stupid pop culture references. If that's what that was. But presently she's a little too busy springing back with her heart in her chest and casting a glance over to make sure Sigma didn't get arrowed anywhere.

Ramir's got him covered from that second one, though. What she might presently lack in supernatural strength she more than makes up for in enthusiasm, and swings her spear like a bat to knock the sword swing out of the air. The weapons lock together and it leaves her spear with a good notch in the shaft and Ramir with the suspicion that it won't hold up to too much more, but it's done its duty. ]

Would you guys just — [ She keeps the tangled weapons born down and pushes closer, pulling the dagger out of her belt to plunge it into the deer's shoulder. Probably non-lethal, as long as he gets out of here to get it looked at soon. ] Fuck off! Holy shit, what's it gonna take to convince you this isn't worth your time!

[ She's got her dagger back again in a second, and abandons the spear as she darts back again, closer to Sigma. ]

You wanna keep running? It's sounding good to me.

[ Sorry to say trying to take the pop culture out of Sigma is probably like trying to take the water out of the Shedd aquarium with a five gallon bucket, but at least there's less security to yell at her if she ever wants to make an attempt. ]

[ But as if exertion and adrenaline aren't bad enough for his heart rate, once Ramir actually digs the knife into something and draws blood, it's thudding against his ribcage. For never having been in an honest to god knife-fight before (let alone a sword- or spear-fight), it was easy to lose the gravity of the situation in the action; everyone else in this equation is actually ready to do some serious harm, and here he hadn't even ever managed to turn the pointy end of his spear away from himself, had he? ]

Running-- [ He spits red, wipes the rest off his bloodied lip with the back of his hand and makes a grab for hers with the other. ] Running's good, let's go with that.

[ He'rll take the lead this time, tugging her back into the cover of trees in at least the vague direction they'd been heading before. ]

[ She hesitates just long enough to scan the trees around them, before Sigma jerks her into a run. There can't be that many cultist left in this particular chase. It's not like there were hundreds of them to begin with, and other recruits have been in to draw them away... god, she hopes that's about it.

She puts on a burst of speed to run abreast of Sigma, hand tight on his. ]

Kinda -- [ Okay, now she's getting short on breath. Embarrassing. ] -- sorta -- lost. Any idea what direction?

[ There can't be many left, just the ones with projectiles. No big deal. She's keeping pace with him alright, but her harsh and choppy breath isn't entirely reassuring. Not that he's doing too much better after the fighting, but whatever, he's not quite wedging words in between gasps yet. ]

Pretty sure it was this way--maybe... left, a little. Hey, you okay?

[ Herding the both of them in an appropriately slightly leftward trajectory, his hand squeezes hers again; after vaulting a small ditch, he can spare her a look longer than a fleeting glance. More than a little twinged with concern. ]

[ She is, with a little more inspection, generally battered. She's had long enough by now to remember that she's not still invulnerable, and the survival instincts of a perfectly squishy human are still pretty deeply ingrained in her, but it's been a long night filled with a lot of scuffling. But she nods at his question anyway, because it could be worse. ]

Just tired. You -- showed up late, remember? [ She glances over long enough to fire off a quick grin, meant to reassure. An arrow thudding into the tree left of her shoulder wipes it off again pretty fast, though. ] Oh my god, assholes!

[ So it's not quite as bad as his imagination out of the corner of his eye had been making it out to be, but it still isn't great. Neither of them are great, but it can't be all bad if they've still got the air to joke, right? That means they can still keep running. ]

Look, they invented city blocks for a reason, I can't find anything out here.

[ He's not built for this just around the riverbend life. Anyway, at the rate things are going, their luck's going to run out before the Nalawi run out of arrows. They're closing the gap on their targets now, the thud at Ramir's side drawing a startled turn to look that nearly meets his chin with a second shaft as it whizzes between them. ]

Dude, seriously--! [ Belatedly he jumps, then ducks his head, really throws some distance into his strides (at least as much as Ramir can keep up with). Fortunately and abruptly though, the trees are beginning to thin, and what looks like a cluster of buildings can be seen peeking through the branches in the far distance. ]

Hey! [ He points, a little unnecessarily, but very excitedly. And moderately apprehensively. ] What d'you think the odds are they'd still try to run us down in public?

[ She can keep up with Sigma, but just barely. Her lungs feel about ready to explode and her legs are ready to fall off by the time the buildings start to come into sight, little flicking oasises of torchlight. Ramir grins, exhausted but pleased. ]

There's no way they'll try it. This is -- secret society bullshit. [ She gives his hand another squeeze and charges on, and sure enough, as they break the last few trees, the cultists behind them split away and melt back into the trees. Ramir firmly hopes they're all gasping for breath, too.

She finally slows her stride once they're safely among the buildings, and wastes no time doubling over with her free hand on her knee, the other refusing to let go of Sigma's. ]

Holy shit. I hate running. I'm never running -- again.

[ Good enough odds for him. They're gonna break each other's fingers off at this point, but his grip matches her squeeze and holds all the way til the forest floor becomes a packed dirt street. A few houses in, he finally trudges to a halt too, a wave of delayed exhaustion finally catching up with his breaths and leaving him hunched and panting where he stands. ]

Me— neither... [ Sigma casts a glance over his shoulder for any signs of life, but they had definitely veered off back there. Right? Right, definitely... ] I give up—

[ He backs toward a darkened storefront, thuds to his knees, slumps to the side, and haphazardly sits against the wall. Probably drags her down with him if she holds on too tight, because he's not letting go. ]

—never getting up.

We're both still alive, I dunno how much better things could get.

[ That's only a little sarcastic, it's also slightly true. They're alive, no major harm done. That's good enough in her book. Still, though, exhaustion dims her smile as she leans a little more heavily into him. ]

Where are you staying, anyway? Let's do a sleepover. [ Because there's no way she wants to be alone, so the solution is to invite herself over. ]

Fair.

[ He sighs, a little deeper than necessary now that his breathing has evened out, slumping a little further down the wall under her encouraging weight. At her proposal, he snickers a little. ]

Just at the inn. [ (I think, is it destroyed? is it on this island?? I don't remember and it's hard to look up at work whatever roll with it) ] ... Sort of. Everything's too small but it's got a roof.

[ He shrugs. ]

What, you wanna do more pillow forts? I'm game... If I don't just pass out when we get back.

[ More pillow forts sounds great to her, just as long as it involves Sigma. She lets out a long breath of her own, holding an internal tiny debate between pride and good sense. She'd like to stand herself up and walk there, and she's pretty sure she could... but man, she is tired of walking on ripped up feet. Finally, with a sigh, she capitulates. ]

I'll let you get away with passing out if you carry me there. [ And so it sounds a little less like the earnest request it actually is, she adds on with a grin: ] I'm pretty sure you owe me some carting around, at this point.

[ Welp, even if she's just masking her break in pride, she's not wrong. He pulls a face at that. ]

Yeah, I got a lot of debt to clear on that front... [ Not to mention that she definitely shouldn't be walking around on those puppies much more tonight. He retrieves his arm from around her and gathers up his feet beneath him. ] But good, I'm pretty sure I actually won't get up again if I stay here any longer.

[ And so rocking forward into a crouch, he gives his shoulder a tap. ] Hop on.

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heavyhitter - 2016-06-15 05:46 (UTC) - Expand

and then they go fall asleep like old people the end

12inches - 2016-06-16 02:55 (UTC) - Expand

IC CONTACT (futuro & prisma)

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JUST STARTS HERE I GUESS

gently borrows your format and RETURNS FIRE

immediately sputters out and goes back to text, IT WAS A GOOD RUN

we did good team

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and then they go fall asleep like old people the end