closed / come find me please? i'm in a ditch.

[cardtrick]

Who: Trucy & Qrow
When: Ehhh let's say now?
Where: the Wilde
What: Sometimes curious teenagers with no powers end up where they shouldn't and bad things happen.
Warnings: Sadness and injuries

[ Perhaps Trucy ending up on the outskirts of town, where the wall glistens with magic, was inevitable. Perhaps each step she took beyond that was simply stupidity, boundless curiosity she should have ignored, given that it's starting to get dark and she can't find her way back, every path seeming to take her deeper into the twisting wilderness.

She was sure she went left here.

Trucy sucks in a breath, one which shudders down her throat and into her lungs, and tugs her cloak around her more tightly. Just... Keep going this way. This is where she came from, right? It's fine, as long as she keeps walking.

The Wilde hums with occasional noises, with those of scurrying footsteps and what she thinks, thinks might be a person. A hunter? Oh, as long as it's someone friendly who knows the way. She ducks behind a tree, trying to catch a glimpse of what, or who, approaches, too engrossed in what's in front of her to pay attention to the noises behind her until a branch snaps as loudly as bone. ]

Eeek!

[ And she scrambles out from behind the tree, a hand holding her hat on her head and heart racing. Shrieking? Probably not the best way to avoid attracting attention. ]

Comments

[bolstafir]

[Somehow, Qrow finds himself more comfortable going out into the Wilde from time to time for quests and the like than staying in the city full-time. It soothes an itch under his skin that is used to being on the move, to staying just out of range of populated places to avoid subjecting them to his semblance, even if Aefenglom suppresses it now.

He's on his way back from one of these quests when he hears a shriek, and he's charging right in against the Shade that rears up in front in front of Trucy, Harbinger's blade clanging right up against its claws. He's at a disadvantage coming at the creature from an angle, though, and he loses his footing on a patch of ground muddied by the recent flooding. The Shade sends him flying hard into some bushes, the nettles scratching out a gash in his stomach from the force with which he tumbles through them.]

Ugh--shit...

[He mutters through a grunt, as he pushes himself to his feet. It's not the pain that bothers him, really, so much as the dripping blood from his midsection. He shouldn't be bleeding from falling into some goddamn plants, but his Aura is gone, and so is the protection it afforded his body. How unfortunate.]

--Hey! Stay down!

[cardtrick]

[ What the...?

It's one thing to know that the Wilde contains dangerous creatures, and quite another to actually see them, in all of their horrifying glory. She'd be shrieking and hiding herself behind a pillow, delighting in the terror, if she was anywhere but in the horror movie.

This isn't quite how she imagined her fame occurring, but her entire body freezes in fear, a crumpled heap on the floor, watching the scene in front of her unfold, helpless to do anything else.

No, no...

And her saviour — Qrow, she remembers him, he was really nice — is bleeding, and her throat is tight, choking any responses beyond the slight tremble of muscles.

Please. Please... They have to be okay, right? ]

[bolstafir]

[In the grand scheme of enemies he's faced, this one Shade is nothing, but fighting without an Aura is still an adjustment. But he's still a veteran Huntsman, and once he's back on his feet, his approach changes. If the ground isn't stable because of the mud, then it's better to fight from the trees instead. A few parkour hops get him onto a steady branch and a few shotgun shells to throw it off balance later, he's throwing himself at the creature with the full brunt of gravity on his side as he cleaves the Shade in two, right down the middle.

He grimaces a little at the blood and viscera staining Harbinger when it's over. Man, he misses Grimm crumbling to dust when they're killed. He'll have to clean it later, but for now it's replaced at his back as he reaches down a hand to Trucy.]

You okay?

[He's still bleeding himself, but ignore that. It's fine. Everything is fine.]

[cardtrick]

[ It's a problem of Puca instinct that there are only two possible outcomes in danger: freeze or flee. And she's frozen, watching all of this unfurl with wide blue eyes and quiet gasps at the fight which takes place.

It really is just like a movie or a TV show, but it stops being quite so fun when you're frozen and in danger and watching a familiar face fight like this to keep her safe.

And it ends quicker than she could anticipate, a wave of nausea rocking up into her throat as blood and guts spill out, the scent of death hanging heavy in the air. It was weird to see a crime scene, even hours after the fact, with investigations already underway, but now... This? This is way more than she ever wanted to see. ]

U-um. [ He has her checking over herself, breathing deeply until her heart stops hammering in her chest. Physically? ] ...Yep! No problems here!

[ Well. Nothing but a lot of dirt and trauma. No big deal. And more to the point— ] You're bleeding! We've gotta get help!

[ Hands scramble to her cape, unhooking the brooch and shaking it out, trying to get rid of some of the dirt and fold it up into a makeshift way to stem the bleeding. That's what they say to do on TV, isn't it? Just... make sure nothing dirty would touch the injury... ]

Here. Use this.

[ Inwardly, she cringes at the idea of getting blood on her special cape, but that's not nearly as important as helping someone in need. ]

[bolstafir]

[He doesn't have a lot to offer where the trauma is concerned, unfortunately; life inured him to violence when he was still a child, and he's only been collecting his own traumas ever since then. Teenagers, too, are frequently enrolled in a combat academy by her age, if they want to be Huntsmen or Huntresses. He's not blind to the fact that she's shaken, of course, but all he can do is be relieved that she's alive and uninjured, and accompany her back into town so she doesn't get into any more trouble.

It's when she reacts with alarm to his own injury that he's forced to actually think past the immediate concerns of safety--and he can't really bring himself to be worried about it. He'll probably have to keep an eye on it for a day or something to make sure none of the plants he fell into were poisonous or something (that'd be real goddamn embarrassing), but it's not deep. He rolls a shoulder in a shrug and waves away her cape.]

It's fine, it's just a scratch. I'll take care of it in town.

[cardtrick]

[ Blue eyes fixate on the injury, trying to get a look at it in the dark and through the blood. Maybe it is just a scratch, but the sight of that much blood has her stomach twisting in concern, with no idea as to how bad any injury could be in this strange place, with unfamiliar plants and creatures and... well. Monsters. ]

Well, you should still protect it! [ What if something else happens while they're stuck here? ] And we should go back. [ She agrees with that much, but there's a huff and a glower of teenage indignation of being brushed off like that.

But there's the rub. ] Uh... Do you remember how to get back?

[ She is still very lost with how identical everything looks in the woods, a meaningless maze of twisting trees and bushes. ]