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 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:19 am
OOC: PATROLLING/ STANDING ON GUARD - Your trainee can choose to ICly do patrols, with others or simply by themselves. If they wish to SOLO or PRP, simply copy and paste the mechanics below to their own thread and label it PRP/ SOLO IN THIS SUBFORUM. If you are wandering closer to base, this thread is the ORP. Anyone is free to interact with anyone else "patrolling" in this ORP thread. - Simply ENTER the base patrol area when your trainee feels like it and EXIT it when they need to leave ROLLING DICE: (you can roll up to 3 times per patrol) - 1- 20: You see nothing, but you hear the sound of something rumbling, of clashing noises in the distance. - 21- 40: You encounter a large, oversized insect. It screeches and hurls itself at you! You manage to barely fend it off but you take -10 damage. - 41 - 60: You see a strange hole in the sand, walking closer towards it. It's a trap! A giant six-foot scorpion springs out and nearly disembowels you with its tail. You barely avoid the attack, but take heavy damage while taking it out. -20 damage - 61- 80: You hear screeching noises a little further away, and see a Moon Hunter battling with an oversized scorpion. You go to help them, but take damage in the process too. -10 damage - 81 - 100: You walk around and suddenly hit something odd in the ground. They look like strange flecks of dark red, but the sand quickly sweeps it away.
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kuropeco rolled 1 100-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:11 pm
Gale Gentry was talking to himself.
"I've decided that it's really unfair, you know. For you to just...up and leave like that. It's unfair. And really very selfish of you, since you weren't taking anyone else's feelings into consideration."
Jinhai remained silent in his head, as though he were simply letting Gale get everything out before he said anything himself. The dragon was listening, curled up in the confines of his partner's mind and waiting.
Outside it was blazing and hot and smelled of sand - a scent that made nausea rise in his throat as he walked around the base, the sniper rifle held in his hands in the case that he would need it. He hoped he wouldn't, but that hope was pathetic and irrational, especially after what they had just walked in on earlier.
Chaos. A battle. Horrible, gut wrenching, spine tingling screams from enormous, horrific creatures that thrashed and spit and sent furious shockwaves of pain everywhere. Gale did not want to think about what would have happened if they had not beaten those creatures. And who knew what else lay in wait beneath the sand?
He kept talking.
"It's unfair and it's wrong. What gives you the right to decide when you leave, anyway? Since when do you get to make that decision? I'm right here, and I haven't decided to leave yet, because that wouldn't affect just me."
His voice, naturally quiet, was already lower than usual, kept to himself in case anyone else walked by and thought he was going mad.
Sometimes he thought he was. Sometimes he wished he was, because it meant that he wouldn't have to think anymore. The pain would have been still there, but distorted and twisted and smeared until nothing made sense and he wouldn't have to think so much about the ache in his chest that seemed to have become a permanent part of his being.
Being crazy would have been an excuse, a way out. Copping out, as his dad would have said.
But Gale was not the type to make excuses and now seemed hardly the time to start.
He kept talking. It distracted him from his own churning thoughts while simultaneously keeping him focused on the task at hand - namely patrolling. His eyes were alert, trained, only his voice audible - and even then it was quiet, only for his own ears.
And for Jinhai, who was still silent.
"I really can't see why you thought it would be fair to just up and leave like that."
A rumble sounded in his ears, low and distant. It wasn't close enough to rattle the ground where he stood, but it was prominent enough that Gale paused in his ramblings to look towards where he'd heard it, squinting his eyes against the harsh sunlight for the source of it. His fingers gripped the gun, poised and ready to take action if needed.
But he saw nothing at all, and heard nothing more, other than his own footsteps, slipping across the hot sand.
[ HP: 50/50 ]
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kuropeco rolled 1 100-sided dice:
24
Total: 24 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:18 pm
He kept talking.
"...and then we're here, back in the Sahara, back where everything started. It's like being back in hell, being back in the place that you try to forget because it hurts too much to remember."
Gale slowed a little, his voice quieting. He had been talking aloud because it helped him to say it, not because he wanted to look odd - and because thinking the words in his head was not as cathartic as actually sounding them out. Thinking became messy, distorted, and sometimes if he told himself something enough he could almost believe it.
Almost.
But saying it out loud - hearing his own voice, listening to his own words - was something that made him feel as though he were still here, still moving forward.
Still alive.
There was a rumbling sound beneath his feet. Gale stiffened automatically, and his fingers tensed on the gun, one resting instinctively on the trigger. He did not know what was out here, but he could feel something - something other than a normal set of footsteps - shuffling around.
There was a horrible screeching sound from somewhere behind him, sending icy chills up through his spine despite the abysmal heat. Gale spun around, but he was not fast enough. A blur by his cheek, and something struck his shoulder, sharp and fast.
He gave a gasp of pain, staggering forward. Twisting where he stood, he caught sight of something large and black, glistening in the hot sun from overhead. He could not identify the species, but it was some sort of large insect, one that was a good ten or twelve times the normal size of insects. It towered over him, giving another screech, and lunged.
Gale threw himself backwards, holding the rifle tightly. He fired off several shots, and the creature shrieked, the sound reverberating in Gale's mind. One of its stingers stabbed into his upper arm, the same arm that they had hit before, and the shock of the impact sent slices of pain ricocheting up and down his entire body.
He kicked out. One of his feet landed in the center of the creatures smooth underside and it fell backwards, making an awful, keening wail. Gale grabbed his gun, and ignoring the pain, lifted it to his shoulder, already taking aim.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three shots, all in succession. The creature fell, twitching for a few seconds. Then it stopped moving altogether.
Gale lowered the rifle slowly, still cautious, but the insect was no longer alive.
...Jinhai?
<< Yes? >> The rifle sounded somewhat surprised, as though he had not expected to be addressed quite yet, and not in this manner of silent communication.
What was that?
<< ...I'm sorry, I don't know. >>
Gale closed his eyes briefly, but he opened them again almost immediately, scanning the area for signs of more trouble.
But the creature was dead and there was nothing else around. Nothing but the base, the hunters, and lots and lots of hot, brown sand.
[ HP: 40/50 ]
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kuropeco rolled 1 100-sided dice:
96
Total: 96 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:44 pm
For approximately ten minutes after his encounter with the large insect, Gale remained silent, moving quietly through his patrolling without saying a single word. Jinhai did not speak as well, keeping any thoughts he might have had to himself. He seemed to instinctively understand that Gale would speak when he wanted to speak, and that he would talk to him when he wanted or needed to.
And he also seemed to realize that Gale was not talking to himself, but to someone else entirely.
More silence. The wind shifted, bringing with it an odd, metallic scent that had nothing to do with the natural landscape of the desert.
Gale made another round, circling around the base to make sure that there was nothing else out there. His footsteps on the ground were flat, sand crunching beneath his feet unpleasantly.
He hated the smell of the sand.
More silence.
"You know," said Gale quietly, after about fifteen minutes of conversation-free patrolling. In his head, Jinhai stirred a little, the dragon listening, but he did not speak, and he knew that it was not him being talked to.
Not yet.
"It's funny," Gale continued, as he started another round around the base. "Because I never thought I'd be coming back here, you know? I didn't think that that time would be anything than just what it was - a one time mission."
A laugh escaped his throat, short and bitter.
"Stupid of me, I know. Everything connects. Limiting myself to that kind of naive thinking was useless, seeing as how we're all here now, and we came back that second time. But I was young...younger,, I suppose I oughta say, and I was gullible. I wasn't thinking clearly."
His voice softened a little.
"But you took me along anyways. You said I was capable, even if you knew I wasn't going to be doing anything other than filling in to get the correct number of people for the mission. You let me come with you, and you even stood in front of That Man and defended why I was there."
There seemed to be little mystery as to who exactly That Man was. Gale continued his ministrations, walking carefully, slowly, his eyes moving across the desert for any sign of movement, any indication as to something being not right.
"...maybe that's why I still can't forget you, even after all these months," he said. "Maybe that's why, even though I hardly knew you, I can't seem to get your death out of my head. Because you were the first person to ever show any of us trainees any sort of confidence at all.
"And because..."
Something red caught his eye. Gale stopped walking, crouching down slowly to rest on his knees. There were small red flecks in the sand - dark red and very odd against the contrasting pale brown of the ground. He reached out his hand as if to touch them, but a gust of wind rifled through the air, shifting the sand, and they were gone, lost within the desert.
Gale stood again, closing his eyes. A voice rang in his head, sharp and angry, filled with frustration and irritation:
"...before you lot botched three months of my work and killed off your current squad leader."
He opened his eyes again. Lips pressed together, he turned and made his way back to the base camp, the rifle held tightly in his gloved hands.
Because after all this time I still blame myself for your death.
[ HP: 40/50 ]
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