Octeuril Catch All

[long_live_the_queen]

Who: Kaede and you! And people doing quests.
When: All month where convenient
Where: Within the City, The Slums, Outside the City
What: Another monthly thread container!
Warnings: Goose. Will update as needed.



I. Duck, duck...duck? [River Temese Bridge]

[One of the bridge's occupants doesn't seem interested in an argument, at least for the moment. Nor the lanterns, nor the decorations. No, Kaede's leaned over the rail and staring over the side, her scarlet feathered tail lashing in agitation behind her. She isn't being too mindful of where it's going, and smacking people in the ankles with it is a very real possibility. There's a stiff core to the tail, under all the fluffy feather.

Get close enough—an easier proposition this time, as she's distracted—and one can hear her mildly distressed muttering.]

...those ducks have shells on them.

[What the fuck. How long have they been this way. How long has this been happening.

This is messing her up.]

II. Garden Troubles [Slums]

[Seeing a garden—one that wasn't a mess of weeds, or a vandalized sunflower field—was nostalgic, in a way. As was...seeing parts of it all torn up. At least the pawprints around kept it from reminding her too much of that.

Kaede had split up—the better to flush the wolves out of whatever burrow they were hiding in. She could be quiet when she wished, her senses were sharp despite the rain, and she could get into places someone more human-shaped couldn't.

Something rustled the plants in a row nearby, and Kaede stilled. She couldn't see through to the other side—there was a heavily laden trellis in the way—but she could pinpoint the sound quite easily. The Chimera gathered herself, coiling her legs and back like a cat about to pounce, and sprang up, almost ten feet up, until she could clear the trellis and come back down on the sound.

...and, hopefully, what was rustling on the other side of the trellis was one of the creatures they were after, and not a person. That would just be dreadfully inconvenient, wouldn't it.

At least the Chimera's on the smaller side.]

III. honk [Outside the City]

[Kaede didn't choose this quest. It chose her, with a yank on her tail. And a sharp pain from a few of her feathers coming away, but mostly from the sheer indignity of it. The Chimera roars—a proper one, not a grumbly mumble—and whirls about, but the culprit was already dashing away down the dirt road, a few of her scarlet feathers clutched in a clawed hand.

The goose-feathered Harpy finds this all quite hilarious, shrieking with laughter as he dashes off, the Chimera hot on his heels. He's quite fast, though, even without flying. The Harpy occasionally makes a few fluttering hops when she gets too close, but he doesn't take off.

Occasionally, Kaede's chased the Harpy up onto some building—a barn, a cottage, a stable—and is sitting crouched at the bottom, tail lashing like a frustrated cat. The Harpy looked fairly smug up there.

Sometimes Kaede doesn't make it that far, though. Her knees had been prone to aching lately, sometimes going a bit numb. And this time they crumpled entirely, sending the Chimera toppling facefirst into the road. It wasn't raining today, but the ground was still plenty damp—and mud got on her clothes and once-bright feathers immediately. Kaede tried to get back up, but only pins and needles answered where her legs should have been.

Worst of all, the Harpy was impossibly far away down the road now. His off-white feathers were mockingly bright against the fading summer colors.]

Get back here you little shit—

[Kaede's opinions were intact! She'll probably live. After she gets back up.]

Wildcard

[For prompts or closed threads not seen here! My plotting post is here for ease of use. ]

Comments

II

[whomthebelltolls]

[She supposes it's a bit like... rabbit hunting with ferrets. Whatever these things are have buried into the dirt and leaf litter of the garden, and Maria is... definitely too big to go stick her head into a warren, or den, or whatever this thing is. But she can make sure there are no other exits, as Kaede wiggles her way into it.

She doesn't dare raise her voice to call to the chimera from here, so instead, she listens, and watches, and keeps her Hunter senses on high alert. These should just be animals, but she has no idea if they're some kind of Monster, instead. Though, perhaps, if they were, the old lady would have just talked them out of digging up her garden.

Then, the rustle starts, and she sees Kaede spring an almost distressing distance into the air, before coming down. The thud of her landing is enough to startle whatever was rustling under the leaves and dirt, and whatever Kaede caught doesn't matter because there's a blur of pastel pink that darts out toward Maria, and it's basically only quick wits and even faster reactions that lead her to heave herself bodily down and... catch whatever it is.

A thing which turns around with a yelp and a snarl and bites down ineffectively with milk-teeth on her thick leather gloved hand.]

Ah-... got one!

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede came down, claws first, on empty ground. Was there a--no, just grass. Nothing larger than an insect in there. But she'd made quite the racket doing so, and succeeded in flushing something out. A rabbit? An ordinary one, not a Puca--unless they were very small. Or maybe a fox--

There was a yelp--only one, and Kaede could feel her heart stopping. And then--a little puppyish growl, like a young dog worrying something in its teeth. The world slowly started turning again, and the Chimera exhaled a breath she'd drawn in without noticing.]

Is it a dog?

[Despite the uprooted plants, there were still enough standing to obscure Kaede's vision.]

[whomthebelltolls]

I... think? It may very well be a plant in the shape of a dog. [No, she's pretty sure it's a dog of some kind, just covered in plants...

... Or maybe not. The puppy continues to whimper and whine and growl and fuss in her hands as it wiggles around and tries to get out of her grip, but she holds on tight.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[A...what? Kaede frowned, tail swishing about thoughtfully.]

...so those weren't just a dream.

[This she had to see for herself. The Chimera found a place to at least stick her face through enough to get a look, though too many vines threatened to get snarled in her antlers if she actually came through the row that way.

That was...definitely a puppy Maria was holding. At first glance it seemed like one that had just been rolling in leaves, but they weren't inclined to dislodge themselves, even while it tried to wriggle and escape.

The expression on Kaede's face wasn't predatory or even harsh, only gently perplexed.]

Did you bring something to put it in?

[Where's that funny man with his reality bending suitcase when you need him?]

I

[topslug]

... ducks with shells?

[ Yako steps over to take a look for herself, trying to catch a glimpse of where Kaede’s attention is focused. Not that previous experience has indicated Kaede is much of a person to make up things, but ... maybe she’s mistaken? ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[The Chimera doesn't budge at the approaching voice, too engrossed in her latest headache. The river itself wasn't so well lit as the bridge, but there's several birds paddling about down there--they were used to people throwing or dropping tasty things from the bridge. Kaede could make them out more easily--they had a definite pattern on their backs. Maybe it was feather, or...no, it was shiny.]

They look like there's shells on them. Like turtle shells. But they're ducks.

[???]

[topslug]

[ Yako squinted, spotting them now -- and blinking in surprise. ]

I don't think they were like that before. [ She volunteered, tentatively. The longer she looked at them, though, the more another thought occurred ... ]

... do you think they'd be any good to eat?

[long_live_the_queen]

I never looked at them much before. [Kaede admitted.] Now it's the only thing I notice.

[The Chimera's tail swished, again.]

I bet a goose would be tastier.

[Vengeance is delicious.]

iii

[beariot]

[ What a time to check in on Kaede... Chariot couldn't help a sigh as she leaned down to help Kaede get back to her feet, a familiar gentleness to her touch as well as some of her usual calming warmth as she got a hold of her bonded. ]

I guess this answers whether or not things are going well...

[long_live_the_queen]

[The Chimera's growls stopped suddenly when she felt a familiar touch on her shoulder, but she couldn't sweep her irritation under the rug so easily. The Bond didn't work that way. The Witch's intervention was still welcome, just...

Kaede sighed, an irritated noise, and stood--but didn't shake herself off. That'd just throw mud on Chariot and that would be rude.]

...hi, Chariot.

[beariot]

[ There there, babe. Chariot gave her shoulder a pat once she was up, and a slight smoothing of her hair, before stepping back, looking about at the situation in general. ]

You know... I could probably help. [ Assuming Kaede wasn't stubbornly insisting on doing this on her own. Which was always a possibility. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[The Chimera rumbled slightly when she stroked her hair back into line, ears twitching.]

...if you want.

[Kaede had been considering going alone as usual, prior to her patience being frayed away by the mud and her frustration. Chariot's presence was a much more welcome thing than having to slosh through puddles.]

Don't know where the stupid thing went.

[The Chimera rubbed at a still-stinging knee while she looked up and down the lane in vain for white feathers. Her arm was long enough that she almost didn't need to bend at all to reach, and thought even less about it. Her ankle had that pins and needles feeling in it too, like it had just woken up from sleep.

Maybe that ground she'd landed on was harder than she thought.]

I

[integrous]

[ There's something vaguely familiar about the person on the bridge. And it's pretty attention-grabbing to begin with that there's only one person on the bridge right now, considering Asahi has only seen people go up there in pairs. So she can't help but stare when Kaede is standing there all by herself, and then.. leaning over the rail..?

Maybe Asahi is a little dramatic (she's definitely dramatic) and a little instinctively emotional (she is also definitely that), but she can't help but want to make sure this is not a case of someone about to fall or jump.

Her feathered wings flap in surprise as she quickly sprints over to the other. ]

Hey, are.. you okay?!

[ Apparently she didn't even hear the thing about the ducks. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[no, she's having a crisis!!]

What?

[That voice sounded a little familiar. The soft flutter of wings that weren't her own, less so. Kaede's ears twitched before she looked up, red eyes reflecting like embers in the lantern light.]

I'm fine. I think. Or going crazy.

[The Chimera's tail swishes again, but the rest of her agreeably stays still.]

[integrous]

[ Thankfully Asahi already noticed the tail, so she isn't standing directly in its path and risking getting hit by it..

But less thankfully that answer only makes her even more worried. So Asahi was totally right and the other is having some crisis! Good thing she stopped by before something worse could happen!

(Of course she has no idea what the other truly was worried about..) ]

.. How so? [ She frowns, unable to keep the concern off her face. ] There's a huge gap between "fine" and "going crazy", you know.

[long_live_the_queen]

[One's Kaede's favorite lie, the other is honest speculation?

The Chimera pointed down at the water, though it might not be the easiest to see without night-piercing eyes. There were a handful of ducks gathered around one of the bridge's support pillars, entirely unaware they were causing a problem.]

Down there. The ducks. They have shells on them. They didn't before.

[...or did they? The pattern on their backs looked like a turtle's interlocking plates, and it was quite shiny. But the ducks weren't doing flying or diving, just...being ducks, idly swimming about and waiting for someone to drop some bread or something else edible from the bridge.]

If I forgot that, what the fuck else did I forget?

I

[princessascended]

[Kairi's kind of lost in her own thoughts and not paying too much attention to where she's going, so perhaps it's not too surprising when she gets whapped in the legs with a very fluffy tail.

It's not like it's super painful or anything, and honestly she's a little relieved she didn't accidentally step on the tail, because that would probably have seriously upset the... person leaning over the railing. Who doesn't seem to have noticed her, or is just ignoring the fact that her tail just hit something. Kairi would ordinarily come up and greet her, but she's not really feeling all that up to it at the moment.

At least, until she hears that muttering. Curiosity strikes, and she makes her own way over to the railing to get a look.]

Where?

[long_live_the_queen]

[Yes, a very good idea not to step on the cranky Chimera's tail. She's had enough of people messing with it this month.

Kaede doesn't swish her tail again, but one of her ears turns toward the sound of another person's footsteps. She didn't begrudge another person existing so close to her either, her attention focused elsewhere.]

Near one of the columns in the middle.

[The Chimera even helpfully points! ...it might not be so easy to see small shadowy lumps on unlit water to human eyes, though. But there were ducks down there, with patterns on their backs passingly similar to the shell of a turtle. They might have been shells. They might have been very shiny feathers.]

[princessascended]

[Kairi appreciates how quiet the woman (yes, definitely a woman, it was hard to tell under all those additions at first) she's standing to is right now. It makes her easier to approach, the way she's feeling right now.

Following the pointing finger, Kairi squints to stare at the ducks. Huh. They do shine strangely...]

Weird... I wish I could get a closer look.

[Please don't grant her wish by throwing her in, Kaede.]

wildcard: accidental home invasion

[unholey]

[There are a lot of things that are weird about jumping from one world to the next. The time period is one, from the clothing to the architecture. Literally everything about magic and monsters, which he supposes he'll have to have a private freak out about on his own. But right now, the weirdest thing has been sliding back from 6:30 in the morning back into the middle of the night. Between everything that's happened, breakfast has been put on the backburner until this second morning of the day. He really needs to stop thinking so hard about the time, because it's giving him a headache.

So. Breakfast. Frankly, he's not that hungry. If it was just him, he would have forgotten. But Giorno didn't forget: make sure you eat a good breakfast before you leave, is what he was told before Giorno slipped back into his bedroom, closed up and dark, in a tone of voice that was more of an order than a friendly reminder. It's weird cooking in someone else's kitchen, but-- orders are orders. Maybe he'll get lucky and finish before Giorno's housemates wake up.]

[Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, luck is not on Fugo's side. Someone is awake. Kaede will likely be able to smell what he's working on before she enters the room. First coffee, dark and bitter. And then-- butter, onions, garlic, and peppers. Fugo is currently in the middle of chopping some greens; he's already cracked and whisked some eggs, which are set off to the side. Once the guts of the dish are finished, it will all go in the oven to eventually become a frittata.

As he works, he thinks about writing a note to leave behind with the peace offering-slash-leftovers to explain their existence and his presence. Would that be strange? Should he just leave it to Giorno? Ugh. He bites the inside of his cheek, then anxiously taps the toe of his shoe against the floor; his posture over the cutting board is tight, anxious, and defensive. Although he's not short, he holds himself in a way to occupy the least amount of space possible. This coffee... needs to be ready faster. He is not caffeinated enough for all of this.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[The weakest of Kaede's senses was her nose. But it wasn't nonexistent, and the scent of coffee and vegetables fizzling away in butter would have been hard to miss even when she was human. Cooking smells weren't that strange in this house, even if they usually weren't so elaborate.

The time, though, was. The Chimera's sleep schedule was all over the place these days, but she was generally aware of the other habits of people in this house. No one usually made hot food this early in the morning, just the coffee or tea and whatever simple thing Kaede had made for herself the previous night. Or bread, or cheese, or other easily acquired things. So there must be a stranger in the house. After the incidents with vandals tearing up Maria's garden and painting wretched things on the walls. the Chimera was a bit...antsy about strange people in the house. But she'd made the rounds of the outskirts already—no broken windows, no torn up plants. That just left indoors, with the burglar in the kitchen.

...who'd break in just to use their kitchen, though? That merited some further investigation. The antlered Monster slipped in through a side door leading to the kitchen, not the main one with light leaking through its doorway. Her red eyes reflected the dim light in the attached dining room, making it a simple thing to pick her way past the chairs. Another shadow amidst the others, this one red-eyed and moving.

There was someone in the kitchen, a human? Unarmed, unless the knife he was chopping those vegetables with counted. Not a vandal, probably. And he...didn't seem to have noticed her. Kaede stopped before she walked into the kitchen proper, hovering around the end of the table.

Finally, the Chimera spoke, a low voice rumbling out of the dark.]

Who the fuck are you.

[unholey]

[Fugo freezes. Just goes totally still, not even to breathe.]

[Icewater snaps and cracks in his veins as something raw and violent surges in him. Fight or flight. Before he processes the question he has been asked, before everything that this morning has been catches back up with him, his brain registers the implicit threat in Kaede's voice. He's been caught out. This place isn't safe, but at least he has a knife--

Fugo closes his eyes. Forces himself to breathe. Reminds himself that Giorno would not willingly send him into danger; that Giorno trusts him to keep himself safe.]

[He lets go of the knife. More than that, he pushes the cutting board, knife and greens and all, out of easy grabbing range. And since he has to deal with one of Giorno's housemates, he moves the pan he was cooking with off the fire. It would be stupid to let it burn. Then, and only then, does he turn around to face someone who is-- even though his own heart is pounding painfully between his temples, he knows he's the interloper here.]

[Stiffly:] Pannacotta Fugo. I'm an associate of Giorno's. I arrived last night. He brought me here, but had to-- [His throat works. As much as he wants to keep his face still, his expression twists.] He had to go back to his room. Because of the light.

iii

[usurpers]

[ one of the jobs eren's picked up for cash was aiding another stretch of farm not so far away from the beginnings of the bright wall: monster troubles, they said they were having, the occasional shade or wild animal after their livestock. a day with a dragon stalking your lands is a safe and productive day, they'll find. especially with that horrendous harpy flying about—

and there's the honk of an intruder nearby, in territory it was no longer welcomed in. eren has pulled apart one of its many nests as a show of a home usurped, and unhappy it was!! bright white feathers stand on end in ruffled agitation when the harpy finds a dragon where its bedding hay, fur and feathers used to be. where would it hide and rest now? where would it sit and watch the disgruntled chimera on its tail with smug contentedness? nowhere, says eren's drumming growl as his own new tail, pricked and spiked with spiny needles, curls around the rather sharper objects the harpy has taken for fun.

these are his now, inspecting each fine point and pointedly ignoring the disastrous honks, eren looks down below from the roof he perches from. the harpy attempts a fluttering hop with an exasperated flap of its wings— eren simply douses it with a ribbon of flames the second it rises into his sights. ]

He's all yours.

[ honk, it cries, tail feathers a crisp emptiness where volume used to be. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[The Chimera's ears perked up immediately at the sound of Eren's voice; the growl of a predator bigger than she was put Kaede on edge (more than the harpy had), but his appearance soothed her worries immediately. The harpy's appearance, less so. But it was still a bit too high up to reach--

Spying a stone, Kaede seized it, hefted it--it was a bit small, but searching for a larger one would take too much time. She threw it anyway, with barely a pause for thought. Kaede might not have the pinpoint accuracy of her vectors, but she had the strength of a Monster to make up for it. The stone hit the harpy's arm instead of their head (like she'd meant) or their torso (a close second), knocking them off balance as they burst out of the loft with a panicked cry. The harpy yelped, falling a few feet--

Just enough for the Chimera to reach. She gathered her aching legs under herself, and leaped--like a cat seizing a bird. Feathers burst away from the Harpy in a cloud as it immediately started to thrash, and keep Kaede from getting a firm grip. In a scratching, biting, hissing ball of feathers, both Monsters tumbled back to the ground below.]

[usurpers]

[ eren only leans sideways to watch the rough tumble of the two monsters roll to the ground below the barn's roof. he's rather well situated and spends a moment or so to get a front row seat, pointed edges still wrapped into at least two fingers as he uses the rest to cling to the slightly slanted surface he's on.

the more he watches though, the more the tip of his tail begins to sway, draped along the building's top. not to prey, because he's plenty satisfied and does not have much of an instinct to hunt if he wasn't hungry. it's the socialization just in reach, bobbing his head as he decides on crawling down the walls the same way he scaled up them.

he'd play volley with that bird if she would. ]