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Kaifeng, Squire of Saturn

Although it bore consideration that the early bird got the worm, Kaifeng personally felt like there was also something to be said in defense of patience. This was not normally his strong suit, but ever since Helene had come into his life, he’d been trying to work on it with more dedication.…… Not always succeeding, granted, but Kaifeng had been putting in effort. He knew without needing to ask that his zhiyin loved and accepted him exactly as he was—not least because Huan-ge did so much to show how he felt and always left Liánlí feeling safe and loved—but having someone who loved him as a mess didn’t mean that Kaifeng wanted to give up on trying to improve and to be his best self.

Trying to learn some balance from the ways that he and Helene complemented each other had been the kick Liánlí-Kaifeng had been on recently. As the other competitors all rushed off after the jackalope, this manifested in Kaifeng deciding that he and Helene should hold back for now. They did set out before too long—couldn’t delay too much or they really would lose out on their chance to catch the jackalope—but even then, they moved slowly. Deliberately. With purpose, pausing regularly to observe the scenery (and look for signs of where the other contestants had been and/or signs of jackalope presence), to take in the sounds and smells (though the latter was probably less useful than Kaifeng wanted, since he really didn’t have a bloodhound’s sense of smell and hadn’t gotten a good whiff of the jackalope anyway), to try and avoid clustering up with too many other erstwhile jackalope-hunters (being with too many people would probably scare the poor creature away and then no one would get it).

Huan-ge was the senshi of inhibition, and as they progressed in the hunting grounds, Kaifeng wanted to try to practice that for himself. He may not have known very much about Huan-ge’s homeworld yet, nor about the many, many rules that their culture had instilled in Huan-ge while he’d grown up. But the ones Kaifeng had heard about so far, they seemed to have an undercurrent of urging people to take care with their actions and use cautious consideration rather than running into things willy-nilly. It was proving a meditative exercise for Kaifeng today, honestly. Lots of deep breathing and keeping himself grounded in the present moment, working to focus his thoughts and be aware of his surroundings, from the idyllic forests of Cybele to the ever-steadying presence of his zhiyin beside him, to the distant sounds of other would-be hunters getting up to whatever they were doing. For all the challenge working like this posed for Kaifeng and his naturally more free-spirited style, it did feel nice to work through this process and to do so with Helene.

………It just wasn’t bringing them any closer to finding the jackalope.

Hearing something rustle in the bushes around the clearing where they’d stopped, Kaifeng had really hoped it might turn out to be something. After handing his weapon to Helene for the moment, he’d moved slowly and carefully, hoping not to scare the poor creature if it was around. Yet, when Kaifeng had gotten to his knees and searched the bush, he had found a whole lot of nothing. There hadn’t been a breeze just now, so it couldn’t have been that, but……still.

“Alas,” Kaifeng said with a soft sigh, looking up at Helene and shaking his head. Smiling hopefully, though, he held out a hand, so Helene could please help him back to his feet. “Missed it this time, but I’m sure we’ll find it, Huan-ge.”

Connie, Squire of Chronos

“There was this operation to blow up a bank!” she gasped at her own explanation and then paused and shook her head. “Wait, no, that wasn’t exactly what was happening,” she frowned and placed her palm thoughtfully against her chin.

“There were some Negaverse people doing things they probably shouldn’t have, which would put people in danger, so we joined in to help make sure that didn’t happen.” That sounded a little better.

“Oh, wait, I think I saw you there!” she chirped and felt her cheeks burn a little. “Sorry, I think we ended up getting separated when everything started happening or assigned to different things.” And she was pretty sure Belmont had been there with another pretty knight so it was probably best that she didn’t bother him.

Besides, if she had followed after Belmont, she wouldn’t have met Perdita or Meninix.

“It was pretty crazy. I hope everyone got out okay.”

Beira, Super Senshi of Loneliness

“Ah, not recently,” he said, and seemed sorry to report as much. “I saw it a while back, but it’s been eluding me for the most part. It’s nice to meet you, Illyria. If you’re working on conserving energy, do you want a ride? I can carry you while we look. You might have a better view from up in my arms.”

No pressure, of course. He gently scratched her fur, working his way behind her ears.

“Of, you can nap. I don’t mind. I could make sure no one steps on you, at the very least.”

And he might have an excuse to go a little slower and not have to explain why he wasn’t bolting after this jackalope. If a Mauvian was having a hard time keeping up, why should he pressure himself too much? It was all fun and games, anyway.

Squire Irkalla

Looking a little more decked out now with flowers adorning her brown locks of hair did Irkalla meander back to the clearing where the jackalope had been released from its cage. Was there even a chance that the critter considered the cage to be a form of a safe space? Upon reaching the clearing and seeing nothing but the empty cage still mocking a lot of hunters did the squire of Cosmos give the softest of sighs. It seemed the animal was still free, which was good, but it also gave rise to the question of what happened if no one caught the animal?

Emain Ablach, Squire of Earth

It could be going worse, he reasoned with himself. As the jackalope bounded away into the underbrush and Emain Ablach saw the irritation in the narrowing of Imhotep’s eyes, he decided the wisest course of action would be to stay quiet. He didn’t walk off, though.

Instead, he kept a reasonable distance and stayed near the two of them. It would be just as weird if he walked away as it would be if he didn’t. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t, and he was going to pick his own circle of hell, thank you very much.

He didn’t say anything to them, though. That way, they were free to continue to ignore him if they wanted to. He hoped that at least Promethei didn’t want to, given Promethei was at the point of texting him sometimes, but Imhotep was another matter entirely. Emain Ablach rubbed his jaw, wishing again that Tobias was there. Tobias would be able to run interference. Imhotep wouldn’t have to acknowledge Emain Ablach, but Tobias wouldn’t let him be so blatant about it—

Alright, so Emain Ablach’s feelings were a bit hurt. That was reasonable, though, wasn’t it?

Promethei, Squire of Mercury

From the lack of concrete response, he was going to presume that Imhotep either had an idea or had lost the jackalope again. Where the hell had that thing gone that even Promethei's scouting background was entirely failing him? It wasn't like he had never searched out things in the wilds before, just not these woods, and just not in these ways. San Antonio was a completely different animal than a wild wood on a completely different planet.

For multiple obvious ******** reasons, but-- maybe that way?

Imhotep picked a direction and turned in that direction, so Promethei turned himself to follow him, but Imhotep suddenly stopped and turned his head toward Emain Ablach to address him himself.

Oh.

Well, he supposed that was one way to dodge around the awkwardness.

Promethei cleared his throat again, glancing toward the ground for a moment. Should he even say anything, or should he just let this be between Emain Ablach and Imhotep? He wasn't sure if he should encourage this one way or the other. In a way, at least three people working together would be better than just one or even two. In another way, would it just be him awkwardly walking between two people where one person wished the other would vanish?

He took a deep breath, centered himself, and at least half-waved this time as opposed to just letting his hand awkwardly drop. Not a verbal direct address, but he didn't just follow with Imhotep ignoring him this time, either. Was that as close to a middle ground as he could get?

... Tobias would be proud of him, hopefully.

Dumuzi, Page of Pluto

Okay, the whole climb a tree thing didn't seem to be working.

There were no rabbits up here. Or antlered rabbits. Whatever the ******** they were. He left them behind on the ground. Or in the ground? Where did they go when he couldn't see them?

He supposed that standing at seven feet, a lot of things were harder to see from standing in a literal tree. The people down below looked a bit more ant-like, too. Dumuzi let his eyes scan over the people he could see, watching for anyone who seemed to have an inkling of where something actually was. Looked like a lot of people trying to find a damn thing as much as he was.

Someone grabbed at something and he felt a spike of anger as he thought that might have been a jackalope. It looked like it might have been, but there was no cheering, so he was going to guess it wasn't the winning jackalope.

... Mighta' been time to get back to the ground then...