awashlogs | (no subject)

[He seems to know what Vriska's thinking given how she used to talk to him, but he will just...ignore that. Geese are important and the loud honk is weirdly encouraging. On the other hand, she says "go get it" and he looks marginally offended as the three of them come upon one of the geese.]

Wait why me? [But he just makes a face and nods, crouching down low like he's in a secret agent movie and flying close to the ground to sneak up on it.

Granted, the goose must have sensed something because there's an alarmed, irritated honk as it whips its head around, shuffling on six legs and flapping its wings.

A large burst of flame appears and John yelps, dodging to avoid being burned as the tip of his hood catches aflame and said-fireball heads right toward Shouto and Vriska. Someone should maybe stop that?]

[Did... Did the goose just launch a fireball at them?? There's not enough time for being bewildered, so instead he just creates a huge wall of ice- it doesn't fully stop the fireball, but at the very least it manages to slow it down. Time enough to get out of the way.]

Where did that come from?

What the fuck!

[ like Shouto she isn't fully prepared, so the best the both of them can do is just get the fuck out of the way. She'll stare after the fireball for a hot second before making a vague gesture with one hand.

At which point a tree branch above the goose's head will snap, plummet to the ground, conk the goose right on its stupid goose head, and knock it out cold. ]

[The wind blows out the flame and he watches the wall of ice get thrown up. He's already willing Vrillyhoo into his hand to just smack the damn goose, but then a tree branch breaks and there goes the goose.

He just...kind of pauses long enough to stare. He approaches the goose, poking at it with his hammer before he just casually shoves it up into his sylladex.]

Okay. So that was a good warm-up. One down, eleven to go. If we keep going this way I bet we'll find more of them. [He has no idea what to do with fire-breathing geese, someone else please talk now.]

I thought they were normal weird looking geese.

[Turns out that's a definite lie.]

Do you think they all have different powers?

As if anything is normal in this godforsaken fucking shithole town!

[ IRRITATED, DEFINITELY. what if that fireball had singed her hair. WHAT ABOUT THAT, HUH? ]

God. Who knows. Maybe we should just start taking precautions, like knocking all of them unconscious before we get too close? Or whatever. Just incapacitating them somehow!

She has a point. [Still relatively calm about this and yet.] I really hope they don't have different powers, but how do we knock them out and incapacitate them without killing them on accident? Any bright ideas?

I mean I have my hammer, but that might be a little much.

I don't know about knocking them out, but I could freeze them all to the ground. At least they wouldn't be moving around like that.

[ presses her fingers to her forehead, sighing as she thinks. then, businesslike: ]

Let's go with Shouto's idea. Once they're pinned down I can distract them, and John, you can grab them once their attention is off you. Sound good?

Sounds good. As long as they don't all breathe fire that should work. [And as long as the geese don't try to melt the ice they'll be fine.] I think I have enough slots in my 'dex to keep them there until we get back to town, too. Let's keep going.

Maybe some of them breathe lightening.

[It would be nice if he could find a charger. Ah well, too bad Kaminari isn't around for that.]

The next time I hear honking I'll freeze everything down.

[ Taking a moment to dig around in her pocket, Vriska pulls out a set of what looks like ... eight eight-sided die? John will recognize them, at least. They clack gently in her palm. ]

Shouto, if you jinx us saying shit like that, I am giving you bad luck for a week.

[ dryly. She'll start them walking again, her head cocked to one side as she listens for honking. ]

[He looks at his hammer and at Vriska's die but he just shuts up and floats along to keep an ear out for honking. It seems to be coming further up ahead so they're on the right track, at least.]

The thing is that wouldn't even surprise me. Have you noticed that the quests lately keep involving messed-up birds? Like the harpies.

I'd probably deserve it.

[But now that he can hear the honking, he just ices everything ahead of them down. Good thing John and Vriska float.

The honking gets much angrier.]

I never saw the harpies.

[ The angry honking. Oh god. Vriska tries, she really does, but in the end she cracks up laughing, more like a cackle than anything. It is a delighted sound. With an indelicate snort she reins herself in enough to say: ]

Harpies? Someone want to explain?

[There's a disgusted noise as they approach the geese from behind. The ice was enough to trap at least three of them, mutated and honking as they struggle. He slows his approach to figure out how to sneak up on them.]

Yeah, like. Half bird half person? We had to kill a bunch of them on the cliffside but when that was taken care of we got a bunch of knives as a reward. Why am I the only person who knows about this?

I could freeze them solid, but that's very dangerous. They'd probably die.

[He didn't want to murder things that might have consciousness. It just doesn't feel that heroic.]

... Is that why a bunch of people had knives around?

Because every single thing about your life is ridiculous, John. Anyway shut up, both of you.

[ Vriska is still smiling when she tosses her dice in the air. The pips glow bright blue.

and then a bunch of like

... weird looking things?

appear.

Eight of them.

They run out, twitching and generally being small, strange assholes, pretty successfully distracting all the geese if the angry honking is any indication. ]

[What the fuck are these? He recognizes Vriska's dice and his eyes widen a bit as they roll before the weasels appear and begin running amok. The geese honk and flap, distracted by the creatures and chasing after them. John watches for a few brief moment before he vaults into action, immediately tackling and throwing the three geese one by one into his sylladex. One, two, three.

The weasels continue running back and forth and he floats high enough to avoid them.]

Four down, eight to go. What are we supposed to do with these things? [A gesture to the new creatures.]

[Shouto just squints at the weird creatures. He's never seen anything like them before, but they seem like they're distracting the geese well enough.]

We need to bring them back to the town. I don't know if we need to do anything else with them.

[Shouto approaches one of the angry geese and just. Picks it up.

It's incredibly unhappy and squirms in his hands.]

It's a finite attack. It'll go away on its own.

[ casually gathering up her dice.

she's not gonna help the boys, you two can catch geese on your own. hasn't she already done enough to help? they should put in at least SOME effort.

so she'll just float here like a useless asshole. ]

Cool, can we get them to follow us? Shouto's right, we just have to bring the geese to town and if the attack goes away eventually we will not have to worry. Also I can take that, it looks kind of pissed. [He'll hold out his hand for the fifth geese, waiting for Shouto to hand it over.]

Which direction should we go next?

[He'll very happily hand this goose over to John. The goose however is mad enough at being picked up and now it's suffering the indignity of being passed off.

It tries very hard to bite John.]

... Maybe further forward? There could be a hoard of them somewhere.

[ The two of them may or may not see Vriska's hand wave, but John will, very fortunately, not end up getting bitten at all. How lucky!

Vriska will set her feet on the ground. ]

Sure. Let's keep going. We're doing pretty well so far, after all. Just follow the honking until something tries to kill John again.

[ a smile. ]

[He worries about the geese, but he doesn't get bit. Wow!! That is lucky!! The goose disappears into his sylladex with a final, annoyed honk.]

We're already halfway there! Between me and Shouto catching them and Vriska distracting them we are getting them faster than I thought. [There's a bright grin and he floas forward to lead the way.] Forward's a good start.

[They only get about fifteen feet ahead before he pauses.] Honking. That way. [And he moves forward brushing past a thicket of bushes where there's another cluster of geese.]