video > text; un: white_lotus

[pummelling]

[Happy.... approximately.... 1 in the morning, Team Ophelia. The video greeting the network is tough to make out, but the faint cries of insects in the dark, otherwise still night seem to indicate that Kung Jin's outside. A small oil lantern near his feet bathes him and the farmhouse he's sitting in front of in a faint orange glow.

Anyone looking carefully will also spot a young boy in his mid-teens, head bobbing occasionally into the side of the frame as he nods in and out of sleep. Jin glances over at him, rolling his eyes.]

Hey, team.

[Jin settles forward in his seat, fiddling with his robe and continuing in a low whisper.] Some ronin geniuses, on both sides, are trying to overtake farmhouses in the Flowerlands and convert them into makeshift bases. If you're still up and not too far, I'm gonna need some help keeping watch out here.

[Jin's shrugging out of a sleeve, now; the fabric slips from his shoulder to hang loose at his waist.]

The farmers aren't exactly equipped to deal with this alone.

[Right on cue, there's a rustle of definitely not cicada-noise in the background. Jin's eyes narrow. On his way to notching an arrow, he swats the kid beside him in the shoulder with the longbow. (He comes to with a snort, looking around wildly and brandishing the farmer's scythe he has gripped tightly in both hands.)

He pulls his arm back, muscles taut and steady as the bowstring that's a second from letting loose--

annnnd he switches, abruptly, to text.]

And you might want to make it snappy.

Comments

[moneyballer]

[Fragile.

The word rubs him the wrong way, although this stranger has been nothing but kind to him so far. Asher says nothing about it.]

thanks again, 'preciate it

he's strong but... dumb lolz

[Foolhardy.]

see u soon, homies

deuces ✌️

[pummelling]

That means they have to be able to HIT me in the first place
which: they wont

[jin you should, like, explain yourself before you scare ur bf]

Don't worry I'll get some period appropriate armor later, it was just hard to get ahold of one before this
I promise

[pummelling]

Yeah. All they're doing is endangering both clans at this rate. No one needs to die over these squabbles. Especially not the people caught in the middle of it all.

Thank you. On both counts. I've been perfecting my bow since I was old enough to hold one. Let's hope when you get here you don't need to see me use it TOO much.

[pummelling]

[no... definitely fortunate.]

Damn. I don't even know who's still AWAKE right now. [gods know he doesn't want to be up either lmao he's hella gonna pass out later] I'll try to make some late night jewelcomm calls, but I don't think I'll get anything. If not for tonight, it'll always come in handy in the future.

[pummelling]

What, like good cop bad cop? Unless you're some kind of psychic, I think we're good.

[little does he know--]

text | un: lucina

[tolight]

[ Why is she up at 1am, who the fuck knows. ]

I'll be there. [ I don't need this to go anywhere just know she'll be a bro and keep watch o7 ]

[opensup]

I can read people's memories. It's painless and can be done within a few minutes. My technique is without flaws.

[ disclaimer: all of this is meant to be taken literally. ]

[pummelling]

[A BEAT]

how 'without flaw' are we talking?

[Because... holy shit, that could be really useful-- if he can manage to take down a ronin, that is.]

[opensup]

The only time a mistake could be made is if the target's memories were altered. In that case the results returned would be muddled. Otherwise my technique works on everyone with memories to read from.

[moneyballer]

i'm bringin it

[The armor, he means.

Guess who's on his way?]

@kansas [ text ]

[signifies]

I'm not far away.

Where should I meet you?

[ He is, but he's also very fast. ]

audio; un: wellsuited

[ofobedience]

Sounds like fun. I'm game.

[Of course he's game. He smells violence.]

action;

[wolfchild]

[ she doesn't bother with text. she just shows up.

with a giant fucking direwolf in tow. ]

[pummelling]

[thanks 4 da help...........bro]

I knew I could count on you. Thanks, Lucina.

[pummelling]

what, now???

Wait how far are you from the farms

[pummelling]

...If you can get here sometime tonight, I can catch one. That's too good of an offer to pass up.

[pummelling]

[At first, he's going to snap at her: it reads as throwing the common people under the bus, and their first meeting had already rubbed him the wrong way in that department.

But Veronica makes an unfortunate point.]

What's the chances we'll be blamed for sowing all of this discord here, d'you think? Be honest.

[pummelling]

[Hopefully setting down a pin on his coordinates will suffice.]

I'm with a local kid who wanted to help defend his family's farm. If you've got powers, don't use em while he's looking.

[moneyballer]

I'm already here

[Asher is not one to sit idly by either, not when there's work like this to be done.]

l8er

[pummelling]

[zokla jfc

If there are any more ronin hanging around, they're a lot more reticent about jumping in with, you know, the giant fucking direwolf around. Jin's handling it a lot better than the poor farmkid who only wanted to help-- he's cowering some steps behind Jin, what kind of forest monster is this ?? / ? ?? /?]

That works.

[he sounds mildly impressed.]

But we still need to be on our guard.

text;

[pummelling]

Easy, boy. [JIN]

Nobody's started shooting. Yet.

text;

[ofobedience]

[Luckily he's well acquainted with dog jokes.]

Then perhaps, when I arrive, that can be rectified.

[He's mostly joking? Probably. Maybe.]

[wolfchild]

She'll let us know if anyone comes close.

[ zokla presses a kiss to nymeria's snout heedless of the direwolf's teeth, then skips toward jin and the boy. she stops a few feet away, balancing easily on one foot. on her back she carries the bag lucina bought her, the red and purple swirls muted by dust. tied to her belt she wears a beat up plastic jack-o'-lantern to one side and her sword on the other. ]

Who else are we expecting?

[ yes. we. you're stuck with two children now. ]

audio; un: inuyasha

[boxedcrook]

Oh yeah? [He's having to talk over the distant drum of yelling and voices.] Tell us something we don't know.

Half of them are running around like chickens. HEY! [He's stuck several yards away from Jin's location, trying to herd frenzied, scared farmers and untamed, bloodthirsty renegade Clans.] Are you stupid or something? You can't fight them! Get out of there! [There's a burst of more scream to the right, filling up the audio momentarily. Women.] Dammit.

Where are you? They're just shooting anywhere, and it's starting fires!

[selfimage]

Do take a good look anyway.
You know, for appreciation.

Or I'll do it myself. :)


TTFN