Naughty Kitties (Closed)

[ragnarsson]

who: The team assembled for the mission (Ivar, South, Sif, Aeacinos, Ronan, Shiro, Osomatsu, and Lauren)
what: The Pride of Pestilence mission
when: Nowish?
where: Out in the farming area
warnings: Animal violence, human violence



When it came up that there was a group of predators wreaking havoc out in the farmlands just inside the secondary fence, it was clear something was going to have to be done. The animals had only been attacking farm animals and pets thus far, but if they got a taste for human flesh, things could turn disastrous. So a team was swiftly assembled to deal with the problem.

After some observation, a few simple facts emerged. There were three females and two males, plus three cubs. While the cubs didn't present much of a challenge, the pride of cat creatures did. They were highly territorial and difficult to deal with. They were also intelligent, making it hard to predict what they were going to do next.

It was clear something was going to have to be done about these creatures. Let's just hope the team could manage to work together long enough to subdue them.

(OOC: Feel free to tag into any of the parts written up below! It's just rough outlines of what's to be done, feel free to interpret that however you see fit!)

Comments

[ragnarsson]

Really, the whole reason Ivar had deemed Osomatsu good to go for this mission is he wanted to toughen the NEET up a bit. He figured that anything involving fighting other people or some of the bigger monsters was out of the question. That's not to say these cat aliens weren't large, but at least they seemed manageable with the amount of people they have.

Ivar was currently lying down on the ground with a pair of binoculars pressed up to his eyes in the long grass downwind from the pride. He'd left his wheelchair a ways back, afraid the cats might spot something large and shiny from where they were at. "Focus here. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in one of those cats' bellies."

The cats appeared to be feasting after a successful kill. The smaller male tried to approach, but was quickly knocked down by the bigger male, who bared his teeth at him. Two of the females didn't even contest the largest and what looked like the oldest female, who had a large scar running parallel to her left shoulder. "It looks like those two might be the leaders of the group. We can work with that. Take them out first and the rest might be confused long enough to take them down without too much fuss."

Ivar was already thinking about his personal agenda. He wanted to acquire one of these beasts for himself. The fact the acquiring process would put any of them into a trace that would leave them open to be tranquilized was also something to take into consideration.

[relieable]

Right. Focus. Osomatsu could focus! Maybe! He swallowed thickly, then hunkered down beside Ivar to watch the scene. For some reason, that smaller male feline made him think of Ichimatsu. He wasn’t sure why.

“You’re sayin’ we’re gonna kill ‘em?” he whispered nervously.

[ragnarsson]

"Kill them? No, I hope not. It would be a shape to have to destroy such spirited beasts. If we can sedate them all, that would be much better. I can put any one of them into a trance if I can touch them." Only Ivar would consider trying to touch an animal that looked like a cross between a lion, a hyena, and a bull with saber-tooth teeth as long as his arm an acceptable risk. He was just as fearless as these alien animals were.

"Here, you take a look, and tell me what you see." He passed the binoculars over to Osomatsu, continuing to squint at the animals with his own eyes. A pair of fresh eyes would be good to get a full grasp on the situation.

[relieable]

Ivar could... put the animals into a trance? Sounded fake, but okay. He took the binoculars and then turned his attention back on the beasts. It was a lot easier to see them now! He could see the bigger ones feasting, while the smaller ones waited.

"Heeeh... those leaders sure are greedy," he muttered, as a plan began to form in his mind. "Maybe if we left them some food as bait, they'd be easier to take down. That's how it'd work with me."

[ragnarsson]

"There's an idea. I wonder if they'd take bait that has tranquilizers in them or if they'd smell them out." It was definitely an idea to consider. That way they could get these creatures wrangled without too much fuss.

Then Ivar notices what appear to be three little fuzzballs peeking their heads up from an outcropping of rocks not too far away from the adults. "Huh. They have cubs." That'll add a new wrinkle into this plan. "At least they shouldn't be too difficult to deal with." Sure, they had claws and teeth too, but they were also a lot smaller

[relieable]

Osomatsu turned his head and the binoculars in the direction Ivar was looking. He saw the cubs, and his heart melted instantly. They couldn't kill this family!

"Maybe we can subdue th'big ones, an' take them somewhere else. Then the little guys'll follow."

[ragnarsson]

"That might work. Baby animals will generally go where they see their parents going." The little ones all tumbled down from the rocks pell-mell and ran over to the kill. The leaders made way for the cubs, allowing them to gnaw on the meat with bright white needle-sharp teeth that had only just recently come in.

"If we split up into a couple of different groups, and all focus on taking just one of them down, we should get the whole group of them fairly quickly." He knew not everyone in the group was going to be happy with the idea of relocating them, rather than outright killing them, but they couldn't just orphan these cubs or kill a trio of little ones just because their parents had developed a taste for cattle and sheep.

[relieable]

Osomatsu nodded and handed the binoculars back to the viking. He liked the sound of this idea much better than just killing everything. Ivar was really a good guy!

"Should we report back with our idea, then?"

[ragnarsson]

"Sounds good. Go slow now. Don't attract their attention." The last thing they needed was for the cat aliens to notice them now just as they were about to head back. He hung the binoculars around his neck after giving the cats one last look while they continued to gnaw on the fallen cow they'd taken down.

Ivar shifts around, crawling back towards where he'd left his wheelchair further back in the long grass. He's surprisingly adept on the ground for someone unable to use his legs, able to crawl nearly as fast as a able-bodied person could walk.

[relieable]

Osomatsu stayed low, as well, crawling away from the scene on his hands and knees. Slowly. It made him a little nervous to turn his back on those beasts, but they gradually put distance between them, and Osomatsu felt safer.

Once they were back at the campsite, Osomatsu flopped down and sighed. "Man! That was super scary!"

[ragnarsson]

Ivar had an amused grin when Osomatsu spoke of their little adventure as being scary. "Spoken as a man whose never had to face anything truly fearful." The words weren't meant to be particularly cruel, just the cuttingly blunt way that Ivar always talked.

He pulled his axe out and began to sharpen it on a whetting stone with slow, careful strokes. "Try being on a battlefield where your life could end at any time, knowing your fate has already been decided for you, facing down enemies that all will kill you or be killed in turn. That's true fear."

[relieable]

Osomatsu turned to stare at Ivar with a flat expression. "Uh. I think I'll pass on that." Coming to Riverview, getting a job, getting asked out by someone, being separated from his family? Osomatsu was already scared enough as it was. At least he was starting to get used to those things by now.

Ivar's words did make him think, though, as they always did, about the tough life the viking had come from. Osomatsu couldn't imagine it. He was so young, and had already done so much. Landing himself in the quarantine must have been a cakewalk for him........ er, a cake ride.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar tests the blade's edge with the side of his thumb that didn't have a callus on it. "Probably for the best. You'd last about five minutes in a battle." Of course, that might have been a generous estimate.

That's what pawns in chess were there for. Weak little things that could be put into the fray ahead of everyone else, so that it didn't matter too much if they got taken out. It's how Ivar viewed everyone around him. Not as human beings with thoughts and emotions, but pieces on a chess board, there for him to maneuver around and manipulate as he pleased.