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( She evaluates him for a moment after the comment about tattoos here not hurting as much as the blessed ones do. Sounds typical. Granted, his actually also sound blessed, what with the angels and demons thing, but she could also turn into a giant skinless woman because she inflicted limited self harm, so really. Titan Shifters have nothing to offer in commentary. )

I'll stay grounded until we're dealing with the mantises anyway. I have backup for the fuel, but I'd rather not use it unless I need to.

( That said, she inclines her head to him when he asks if she's ready. )

As I can be. I still can't believe the locals vacation out here...

( And as they head out: )

As far as you know, does this Maple forest or whatever it's called have any unique, weird magical issues of its own?

( Magic. Treat it like a natural disaster. Surely this will make it make sense. )

{ to be fair the 'ink' is also from a crying statue and is essentially liquid manna. it's pretty different to regular ink. but really he hasn't exactly had regular tattoos to compare. every inch of skin is kind of kept on the off chance he gets more blessings in the future. }

Same, same. Really I'd get it closer to the city but this far out seems insane. It's my first time coming to this area as well though, in the past I mostly went to the summer one. We'll have to keep an eye out just in case.

{ at least the walk to the edge of the maple forest isn't far, once they're at the edge and heading inside to find the clearing though he'll give annie a nod. }

The camp site shouldn't be too far in I don't think...

( A statue wept and y'all tattoo'd yourself with it. Annie would not actually be able to say that's too wild considering her home if she knew, but everywhere be wilding. )

It's still far enough from the Darkness people must mistake themselves as safe.

( She hums acknowledgement, rolling her shoulders back a touch. She studies the the woods they're passing through, then abruptly goes still. In the middle distance part of a cabin roof is visible, but that's not why she's paused. The mantises aren't as large as many of the Titans she's dealt with, but they're much more a natural part of their environment.

And she's just spotted two moving slowly and carefully through the trees they seem to tend, turning their attention toward the campgrounds. Where's the third? She gestures for Ezra to lean closer, mostly because he's taller than she is (why is everyone tall) and she's speaking in a murmur that should carry to him but not across the entirety of the distance to the visible mantises. )

Two southwest of our position. Can you see a third?

{ can he at least say that originally his first set of that was from gabriel directly forcing it on him, not a needle? because... yeah if that hadn't happened maybe he'd be living blissfully unaware and not inking himself up with this still- }

Likely, but anywhere out here should be dangerous compared to the city.

{ he'll at least peer over at her when she indicates, leaning down as requested before he finally spots what she sees (unfortunately while he can react well, he is not the most observant...) }

Shit. Okay let's--

{ it's not seeing it this time that gets his attention, considering it comes from behind them this time but there's a rustle of the trees leaves before he's grabbing annie by the shoulders to spin her out of the way and getting cut on the shoulder himself. }

...Guess we found the third.

( Any movement she would have taken is interrupted when she's grabbed and spun around, leaving the strike from the third mantis to come down with a glancing hit to Ezra's shoulder. Annie curses, wrapping an arm around Ezra's waist and shoving him backward before she manages to shoot the grappling cable out of her other hand's grip, dragging him along with her as the recoiling pulls them both suddenly and sharply out of the mantis's path.

All three are clearly already agitated and ready to thrown down at anyone moving in the area, the one that'd lashed out lifting both scythe-like forearms in a clear threat. Only a strange, breathy call from the other two turns it away, and it scuttles on creepily silent feet toward the rest of its group, moving on the cabin and the wood kept by the fire surely near there. )

Well isn't that great. How's your shoulder?

( Letting go and abruptly starting to jog after the mantises, listening for an answer even if she doesn't appear to be waiting for one. If she needs the speed her gear can give her, so be it. The mantises aren't yet moving as lightly as Titans of the same size, but they were more solid too, and she doesn't know what their armor will be like under her blades.

Also, there's no sound of civilians screaming, so it's likely this particular cabin and site isn't one of the ones more dangerous for these creatures to be around. They have time, if that's all true. )

{ it isn't too deep, at least, and while it stings he can live with it. annie's shorter than he is, that could have very well have been her head instead. he yelps as she grabs him in return, her gear pulling them out of harms way. }

It's not that bad, really! { even though he's wincing, he can live with it. } Promise next time I'll be ready enough to use a shield.

{ while he runs he's already summoning camael's chain from his arm, his arm glowing gold as the handle seems to materialise from the skin itself. }

If we get on top of the cabin it'll make them easier to fight. Probably.

( ... Right, her own shield. Annie leaves off activating the Safety Pin for now, since she's not fully sure how well it works covering herself and someone else. As it is, there's not a lot of time to think and plan, just to move. )

I'll meet you up there.

( She says, and then she's deploying her cables into the trees and is up off the ground in a whirring rush of sound and motion. Jamming the hilts down onto the blades at her thighs, Annie descends on one of the mantises and aims for the joint at the back of the head, slamming down with both blades and gouging through. Then angle seems right, but she can feel the resistance even at the joint, and knows she'd need more momentum and force for severing.

Manipulation of cables leads to her touching down on the cabin's rooftop, slowing her run to its peak and whipping around to face the direction the uninjured mantises are coming from. Sure, she didn't manage to kill the first one yet, but it is significantly injured enough not to be doing more than flailing around where it'd been hit.

Also, she just punctured multiple trees doing this. Annie has become Maple Mantis Most Wanted all in about a minute. One charges the cabin roof, and she's already off again, baiting both into trailing after her and scything their front arms at the sky. GET DOWN HERE AND DIE FOR HARMING THEIR WOOD, WOODPECKER THING! )

{ his own is a different one to the safety pin--but barachiel can still offer something when he needs it. }

Sure. { he may not know how her gear fully works, but there's some understanding of it from how she pulled them back before. his own movements take less effort as he runs towards the mantises. when he's paces behind though it slows to a walk, the wing at his back expanding out and letting his feet lift off the ground gracefully. it's a lot less of a destructive start than annie begins, but it's probably a strange sight to see when he finally rises up to tower above them all. his right hand reaches for his left arm, pulling the chain whip he summons from inside. }

Hey, ugly. Up here too, don't forget about me.

{ it's the only warning before that chain whips through the air though, swinging around the one's neck that annie injured to use as an achor until he can pull himself in. it helps him pick up speed, essentially soaring through the air until he flies past it, that wing at his back cutting through the same spot annie hit before. at first it isn't enough, but as he keeps flying forward while gripping onto the chain the final tug as he flies too far to make it reach its tether is enough to snap it off. }

( This is why a safety-pin will be in his future. Just, well, weeks away and for other, related reasons.

Annie hits a tree with the bottoms of her boots and adjusts her trajectory out, catching some of how Ezra moved and making a mental note about the wing being multi-functional. Possibly some property of what it was, tattoo-and-blessing wise.

What's more relevant is the decapitation of one Mantis, right as she launches one of her grappling hooks right into another Mantis, puncturing through its exoskeleton. It allows her to arc over the range of its long, scythe-like arms and come down with force on the juncture of its head and neck, this time cutting through completely while her one cable retracts and she jumps back off the twitching creature, starting to collapse onto the ground.

The problem isn't with the two now dead Mantises. It's not even with the third that Annie is blocking a strike from even as she's changing direction and pulling herself back out of reach. No. The problem is the third Mantis slams a leg down into the banked fire where wood had been burning and sends sparks flying into the air, which are then caught and pulled further along by the breezes winding their way through the forest.

This will not be a noticeable problem for a good five minutes yet. But it will end up being a reason for a larger number of Mantises to show up in defense of their forest trees if those sparks, now settling partly onto the dried grasses around the cabin, don't end up snuffed out.

The third Mantis lashes out with one arm in the direction Annie swings past in, hitting the ground with both feet and running immediately to keep momentum, balance, and her knees happy; lashes out with the other arm in Ezra's direction, objecting to both of these horrible things and all the dangers its wood faces. )

{ everything is fine, annie, in fact his shoulder has probably half healed already by now. the blood drying to his skin as he moves through the air. some of it will stick to the front part of his top but he's clearly not bothered about it at the moment while he's stuck on thinking of how to keep them both safe.

luckily, despite not seeing the fire, the sound of smell of sparks and smoke from the mantis hitting the fire is enough to draw ezra's attention. summer's powers is a blessing here, since he can control that from spreading too far--but also control where it goes. }

Don't get too close to it!

{ ezra's right hand reaches up to swing the chain up and around the mantis' arm, the chain wrapping around to hold it in place. his left hand spreads out as he concentrates and suddenly that fire will bulge. it doesn't go for the forest itself, but seems to crawl up from the ground and up along the mantis' body itself. it takes merely seconds before it is engulfed in flame. }

( Annie's own Summer control is far weaker, being far more new: she doesn't try when she sees the flames responding in a way that doesn't align with nature. In fact, she shoots a cable higher into the trees and perches there on a branch, out of his way in the moment and scanning the forest for anything else incoming.

There, there, and there. Fine. Looks like a mantis party.

Annie's cable punctures the flaming mantis as she swings back down and decapitates it in a smooth motion, hitting the ground running after and gesturing in two directions. )

At least three more incoming, and I think there's a second set behind them! Can you kill the flames?

( The blaze is already beyond her ability to quell right now, though she has enough ability to render flames temporarily harmless to herself. )

{ to be fair he's been here 2-3 months and still only has a handle of some of the basics. he is not the best guide for this. the fire part though, that he has down well enough for this.

that mantis goes down and the fire gets snuffed out this time, smoke rising in the air from the wood that was set aflame before. while controlling the flames the wing at his back will fade away. }

Done. I uh... can't do anything about that though.

{ he indicates to the smoke. }

Maybe if we stomp on it?

( It'd help if they had more of the usual campfire suppression equipment around: dirt in buckets, sand, things like that. Annie jogs over while keeping a mental calculation on the speed of the mantises running in the back of her mind, kicking some dirt up onto one of the larger smoking parts of wood. It does technically help cut down on the amount of smoke it's issuing.

Somewhat.

But the sounds of large bodies moving through undergrowth are right on them again, so she's using her cables to get back up to higher ground, pushing off one tree and then another as she hits them to reposition as two more mantises enter the clearing, both aiming straight for the smoking cabin. )

Can you see anything like a bucket around here?!

( She calls out as she heads into another dive, the mantis's sudden shift in position meaning she slices through the joint of an arm instead of its neck. Annie flips herself out of the way of its other arm, cable shooting into the mantis's thorax to help her swing around and shoot off in another direction, avoiding the second mantis's attempt to cut her out of the air. )

A bucket?

{ annie's running and zipping around like crazy, while ezra stands in on the spot, turning in circles as he squints to see around the smoke. }

Where am I supposed to find a bucket?!

{ she's doing okay at the moment, but he'll get closer to the cabin to start going through the camp supplies that had been left behind. there's a mug, some spoons, a deep pan and an ...egg? }

Would a big pan work?!

{ honestly he probably shouldn't be staying on the ground while the mantises are still trying to murder them, but he has an easier chance of getting out of the way since he doesn't have to rely on wires. annie will see him step back into the clearing, one hand holding a big pan, the other... a pokemon egg. 😔 }

( Annie isn't able to answer until she's finished taking down the mantis she relieved of a limb, using her cables to tangle up the legs of the second one momentarily as she whips past, grimacing.

Her blades catch and slide along the scythe-arm of the mantis when it falls and lashes out, and she's doing a short cable lift into the air before she shoots both into the mantis and drives down again, cutting through the neck joint once more. She lands, flecked with mantis ichor, and sees... )

Are you... you found an egg?!

( Still, she's racing over to snag the pan and not even bothering to gather dirt in it. She just flat out slams the pan down over the largest smoking section, trying to suffocate the flames. )

How does a dedicated camp site have no fire safety measures!?

{ honestly they probably should have switched places but since annie is here now, he can finally see why she needed a bucke--

or not.

his eyes go wide as she grabs the pan and starts hitting the smoke with it. }

Oh. And uh yeah this was just left on the side. I'll just shove it in my bag for now. { pretty much while she's hitting the smoke away actually. } But I guess the people here didn't take camping very seriously.

{ he is going to leave his backpack by the cabin itself though, rather than trying to fly around with it. they don't have the time for him to figure that out better than before. }

You said more were on the way? Do you remember which direction?

( What's probably as absurd is the pan-suffocation actually works to some degree. Annie leaves the pan to continue its best efforts in breath-play, grimacing and wiping the back of a wrist over her forehead. A streak of ash marks her skin, but it does get rid of some of the sweat beading there. )

Neither camping nor pokemon eggs.

( It's no direct match to the one she's carrying, but it has a similar shape and size, regardless. A question to examine later. Maybe a pokemon just... laid it? )

Two were coming from there, and another two spread out but arriving from that side of the clearing...

( The one that'd been part of the group of the two most recently slain mantises comes bursting out of the foliage and waves its scythe-like arms around. )

Yeah. That way.

( She says, running forward and sending a cable flying to embed in a nearby tree, starting up another momentum-gathering cycle before she attempts to decapitate or incapacitate the most recent mantis arrival. )

You wouldn't happen to want twins, would you?

{ ezra don't make annie a single mother of two. one is enough. 😔 }

But yeah, we can find out what to do with that later. Two from--oh.

{ and then annie is off. he barely has a chance to notice they're there before she's running again. } Shit. Okay.

{ while annie goes up this time he stays closer to the ground. he resummons the chainwhip, this time flinging it until it wraps tight around its legs to trip it up while annie is up there decapitating the thing. it may flail a bit more because of it, but at least it isn't aiming for her when there's a pest on the floor as well. he grits his teeth and then concentrates on the palm of his hand, willing fire to appear again but forcing it into the shape of a sword--something that can be thrust right into its leg. }

( For about as much time as she can spare, Annie shoots Ezra the flattest look. Single Mom Annie is denying any accusations of motherhood. )

Finders keepers.

( He's an Egg Daddy now.

Right. His fire makes her remember what she's been working on, and instead of fire, she concentrates on telekinetically shielding herself: it actually deflects dirt sent flying up by the mantis as it hits the ground. If it would do more, she's not planning to test in the field as anything but a last resort.

It means she touches down safely, checks on Ezra with a glance, and is ready for the sixth mantis this afternoon: slightly larger than the rest, it pauses on the outskirts of the cabin clearing.

Then, seeing any fire in Ezra's hand, comes charging like an angry bull right for him. Shit. )

Ezra! Incoming!

( Annie manages to get one of her cables launched and thrust into one of the larger legs, but it's a small injury and she's left running at an angle after the thing before she can shoot her second cable and try to use the combined angles to pull the mantis off stride, sending it stumbling down before it reaches Ezra. )

{ they can come back to the eggs once this is over. for now though the fire itself doesn't engulf the mantis, just focus on burns and injuring the one area until it topples over backwards, crashing into the trees it loves so much.

as soon as he hears annie's voice though he whips around, summoning his chain whip at the same time so that he can fling it towards the section that seems more fragile, holding its head in place. he yanks the chain tight, holding it in place with his right hand while his left hand reaches out towards the air, willing a massive sword shaped flame hold before it comes crashing down into where the chain is holding this thing to decapitate it properly. }

( With the final head hitting the ground, Annie stands there, intently listening for any other creatures coming. With the smoke having died down, and the fire used by Ezra not doing any extended burning, there's less of a draw to this particular campsite than before.

She holds herself still, then points to herself and up, briefly running at then pulling herself up and up into the trees, perching up high enough to survey what's around. Nothing else in the vicinity that she can see is moving like the mantises. She doubts that's the last in the whole forest, but it's very likely at this point they've cleared out the nine who'd been in the nearby region.

She makes it back down to the ground at speed and with perhaps a surprising amount of grace, swords reholstered, cables retracting to rest at her sides as they had been originally. )

Was there some number of these things we were supposed to thin out? I don't see any evidence of more groups in the immediate area.

{ while annie heads up, ezra starts looking around the site itself to see if anyone had been left behind and hid in the cabin, checking for whatever else may have been left behind. all fires are made to disappear and he finally takes a deep breath once he's checked around and no one seems to have been left behind. }

I don't think so, they just said any that are in the area I think. These types of quests tend to be reoccurring though, like some may turn up here in a few days or something. They probably really should set up wards here.

( She sighs, but doesn't find what he says so odd really. )

Those things are native to the forest. If they want to keep them from doing this over and over, they absolutely should be setting up wards.

( A pause, and she wonders: )

Think anyone sells wards like that back in Nightwake? It seems like that's a form of magic that shouldn't be limited to Otherworlders.

{ he shrugs }

If they do I don't know about it. I think I remember seeing Riki's shop having something like it, but I'm pretty sure that shop's just for people like us.

Huh.

( So strange to her. Unless... )

Maybe he has a line for the locals too?

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