Wellspring Attack

[npc_kun]

Characters:NPC Nothing, NPC Charger, NPC Steve and OPEN
Date/Time: Friday, September 23rd, midnight
Location: Wellspring Island
Rating: PG-13 and up
Summary: The beginning of the end.

Questions and general plotting can be done on this post. You can also page the NPC muns on that page or on our mod contact post. Please remember to forward date

Comments

[longnosedliar]

After separating from Cloud, Sniper began to rethink his plans. So the Clinic was surrounded by monsters, and was apparently under attack and he decided to stay? Being brave and trying to help sounded good, but the temptation remained to simply hunker down at home and wait until this all ended

[longnosedliar]

"You, maybe," Sniper said. "I don't have a change of clothes, but I'm covered in eye-monster guts

[getsome_sleep]

“As badges of valor go, there are better ones,” Huo agreed pleasantly, taking the time while Sniper washed himself to finally pull on his clothes. Soaked through, his hair would not cooperate with the usual topknot; he braided it instead with the speed and efficiency of long experience, letting it hand, dripping, past mid-back. Now they could breathe for a moment, now he could potentially see about the issue of having a proper conversation with Sniper. Now it may be a different kind of explosions altogether

[longnosedliar]

"Yeah," Sniper said, smile dimming immediately at the prospect of what was actually going on in Wellspring, though he didn't know. A shiver ran through his body, both from the chill of wet skin and clothing in the cool night air and from the tales he was working around in his mind regarding the attack.

"There are more monsters than these everywhere," he explained. "I ran into Cloud already, being attacked by a snake, and there were more on the way here. And those explosives are no accident," he added on grimly. "I would know. And the lanterns along the paths have been extinguished."

He crouched beside his bag and did an inventory check, moving all of his possessions around so that his weaponry was easily on hand. "There's no reason for anyone to target the Spa, so unless it's a random explosion, the Clinic's gotta be under attack or something." He straightened up. "There are huge monsters everywhere. You shouldn't be here unless you have something to protect yourself with. I'll take you to the bridge."

[getsome_sleep]

The Clinic? Though he may have concluded as much already, Huo still felt his heart quicken at hearing that confirmed. This was not one of the Sphere's habitual tricks, it could not possibly be - far too brutal and far too focused. And a periodic event like the ant or zombie invasion would have seen alerts beforehand. This was something else, someone else.

Let is be Orca, he thought, before even realizing that he was, let it be Orca, and not the end.

He could not let Sniper take him away, not even for safety's sake. He needed more information. If it was Orca's doing, somehow, then it would be unthinkable of him to leave a situation in which he had a stake, a clear one. If it was not... if it was not...

He wanted to see. He wanted to know.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "I cannot leave. I need to understand this. You should go ahead, fight and help as you are able - do not be held back on my account. But I must go to the Clinic and see for myself, even if that puts me in danger."

[longnosedliar]

Sniper looked at Huo as if he had just grown two heads, exasperation written clearly on his expressive features. He crossed his arms and sighed. "For someone so clever, you can be awful dumb," he said, momentarily looking more housewife than teenage boy.

"You seriously think that after I come out here and save your ass, I'm just supposed to let you wander right into where all the monsters are that'll crunch you up in a second? Without even a weapon?"

He picked Kabuto from off the ground and used the tip of it to poke it lightly into Huo's chest. "If you don't end up dead, one of the other fighters will from trying to keep you safe."

[getsome_sleep]

Wincing back just slightly at the poke, Huo knew that he probably needed to concede the point. Heading in the direction of any monsters at all was almost definitely going to end badly for him, and the comment on one of the fighters dying in order to protect him hit yet harder. The bridge is safety. Get out. You do not belong here.

But heavens only knew what was happening and what an hour's delay in learning crucial facts, a split-second's delay, could mean. If it was Orca. If it was the end. He needed to know. He did not, now, have the privilege of sitting safely and awaiting news, to give advice or directions from a calm distance. Not anymore.

"Sniper-jun, please." It was the wrong honorific, the one that implied closeness, friendship. He had no right to it. Urgency and desperation were talking. "The only way in which I'll be of any assistance here is if I understand the situation. That will not happen from another island. I have friends in the clinic as well." Stellaris' face flashed up in his mind's eye, very much against his

I-IT'S NOT LIKE HE STILL SORT OF LIKES YOU OR ANYTHING HUO. JERK. >|

[longnosedliar]

“Friends that won’t like it if you get yourself killed trying to make your plans while a bunch of monsters who want to eat you are running around where they are,” Sniper snapped. “You won’t be any help at all if you can’t think ‘cause you’re too busy running away from this and that

SNIIIPER DDDX I swear this tag was delayed because I was intimidated about replying to it X_X

[getsome_sleep]

Heroics, courage - they were the last thing on Huo's mind at that moment. If only. Instead, as he stood there listening to the distant fires, hearing Sniper's perfectly true and sensible arguments and feeling them fail to reach the part of his mind supposedly in charge of good sense, he realized to his horror that he had simply become that kind of man - the kind who would walk open-eyed into danger. The kind who would act even if he had no foreknowledge whatsoever of how things may fall. This was the second time, now, that he had been forced to play an active part in a tactic, and it was clear to him that it would not be the last. A weapon, he reflected suddenly. I shall need a weapon.After a long, long year, Edensphere had finally gotten that far under his skin. He could no longer keep his distance

Aww well I'M GLAD YOU LIKED IT (if that is indeed what you meant) <33

[longnosedliar]

"If we wanna stay alive, then you're not gonna be of service, we'll work together," Sniper retorted, then pulled a sheathed knife from out of his bag, inside of one of the outer pockets. "Here. I just use it for whittling, so it's not a great weapon, but you can probably use it to take a monster's eye out if you're in a tight spot

LOL yes that is what I meant~

[getsome_sleep]

He saw that moment of judgment, that decision, and understood it - there was nothing Huo could do but agree. His hand was clammy closing about the handle of the knife, even in its sheath. I shall need a weapon, and now he had one; he may well bloody it before the night was through. It was simple, really - the man that he had to be now, had to become, could not afford to be frightened of steel. He tried to resolve himself to that, to breath in and breath the fear out as had once been so natural to do, but in this neither body nor mind would obey him. He could not even properly conceal the fear on his face as he took the weapon from Sniper, though he knew that the last thing the other man needed to see now was another's fear

[longnosedliar]

Will you trust me? Huo couldn't have found a worse way of putting it, Sniper privately thought, for trust was no longer something he chose to invest in this man. Yet wasn't it merely days ago that he had told Ginko that he would think about forgiveness and that Huo's plots had a tinge of desperation to them?

Besides, this man would never throw him knowingly to the dogs, he knew. Never would he intentionally toss him into battle to execute a plan. Oh, a treacherous corner of his mind entertained the idea, but that wasn't him. He wasn't the type of guy to suspect such things from others, and more importantly, he never wanted to be.

And, well, they defeated a dragon together. That was worth something. Sniper held Huo's gaze right back and merely said, "Okay. Let's go."