(open) i made a sucker's prayer

[scholiast]

who: lucretia & you
what: tdm prompt + catch-all
when: late march/early april
where: oot n aboot
warnings: warnings for violence re: monster fights

01 everybody was monster fightin' (ota)

(Lucretia has always fought better in pairs than alone.

Its to do with her defensive capabilities; she's extraordinarily good at buff magic, at covering those with more destructive power, keeping them safe as they dive in head first. She can at least hold her own when she needs to but it's trickier. It isn't as fun, either! She likes being in a team.

Regardless, she's grouping creatures together with lightning spells and the odd fireball, trying to keep an eye out for other fighters or innocents about to be caught in the line of fire, anybody who needs a hand or a quick shield. Her elemental magic isn't at the same level as her abjuration work; eventually she falls back, starts to conserve her higher level spell slots.

Anybody who has just found themselves in a sticky situation or just looks like they need an extra hand will suddenly find a neat shield of faith being cast about them.)

Comments

time to join space jam's mon-stars

[bythehand]

[ As luck would have it, Finn's always been more of a team player than a solo runner himself. Nothing wrong with people who like to lone wolf it, objectively. It's just not his style. Better to have backup and company.

What he lacks in magic he's making up for with the power of guns... have. Like most Perimeter Guard members who don't come pre-loaded with powers. Bullets seem a lot messier than blasters, but at least they're effective. He's trying to fall back to reload without getting himself bitten in half when the shield appears.

Finn's first instinct is to cheer, only he figures he should make sure this isn't some next-level monster ziploc bag before doing that, for lack of a better term. So he kinda turns in Lucretia's general direction and gestures towards it with both hands while he's putting another cartridge into place. ]

Please tell me this is yours!

[scholiast]

It's mine!

(He might notice she's got a wand out, held casually by her side. He'll have enough time to reload and then some; even if the monster brute forces through what she's got up (unlikely), Lucretia's pretty proud of her ability to quick-draw shields and wards.

His gun looks a bit like Beverly's blaster. The bullets are different though, and they remind her of Lup and her tommy gun, and that makes her smile.)

You mind if I stick with you? I can cover, you can pick them off.

[bythehand]

[ Crisis averted, it's Lucretia and therefore no one can criticize this magic shield thing. Finn, who has never in his life had chill, immediately goes from looking ass-pained about the prospect of monsters who trap prey in magic bubbles to looking at Lucretia like she might have personally hung this quarantined moon in the sky. ]

Please.

[ Okay look. This is a gift horse whose mouth is not to be looked upon. Hell yeah he's going to form this alliance and shoot these monsters. ]

When were you gonna mention you could do this?

[scholiast]

(His bewildering, wondering expression makes her laugh. People here often have this kind of reaction to magic and she's assuming his surprise neatly falls into this category. Also, she's really down with his readiness to team up!)

Uh, when necessary? It's a weird thing to just uh, bring up– come here?

(She reaches out toward him, resting her fingertips on his shoulder so she can cast stone skin. That'll give him a good boost.) Bit of mobile projection there. Okay Finn, I'm going to lift this shield, but there's plenty more where that came from so just... go for it.

[bythehand]

I'm pretty sure I remember telling you I'm a good shot. [ He's not actually salty about it. There's no salt to be found. This is the best possible river monster outcome.

Plus Lucretia is readily on the shortlist of people Finn trusts wholesale when they say "come here" and reach for him, so. Hell yeah, whatever the hell she just did. It doesn't feel like it's going to kill him, and he has the luxury of some optimism about that. ]

I'm ready when you are. Let me know if you need me back closer, I'll keep you covered.

[scholiast]

Yes, I can see that.

(She does finger guns at him, then realises how goofy that looked and clears her throat, straightening her shoulders.)

Anyway– I'm ready now. I'll handle what's behind us if you take out everything ahead. (And she drops the shield, turning to keep him mostly at her back. She's missed fighting like this. Feels natural, feels organic.)

[bythehand]

[ It's too late to pretend the finger guns didn't happen. They happened and they made Finn smile. He loves them. They should be treasured. ]

You got it.

[ The good news is he would literally rather die than fail to hold up his end of the monster-killing bargain.

I like to think they've made a silent arrangement between friends to go to lunch after this. ]

[scholiast]

(Oh, there is absolutely going to be lunch. They'll deserve it, after all the work they're about to put in.

Lucretia spots something huge and hulking stalking them from the back and to the side; she freezes it swiftly in place with cone of cold. This is the best compromise between stopping and outright killing the creatures that she can think of. If Beverly were here, she would have probably tried to communicate with it.

She turns her head to shout to Finn.)

Where did these come from, anyway?

[bythehand]

[ Lucretia: a good and noble woman. Finn is here indiscriminately murdering. He can worry about the ramifications later. ]

Somewhere upriver! [ It's deadpan. But not inaccurate. ] Flooding just gave them more room to operate. If you can get farther out than you could yesterday, find a little more food than you usually do--

[ He shakes his head a little. Then you're going to. That seems like an animal thing to do. ]

[scholiast]

(Hey, Lucretia's just overthinking it. Don't prescribe any nobility to her just yet, because the moment one of these things gets close to hurting either of them, all bets are off. She's also completely fine with using hold monster to group a couple together, make it easier for Finn to get his murder on.)

Yeah, I know but– why. I've been here for a long time and I've always enjoyed being down by the river but... I've never had to fight anything before.

(Finn's guess does make sense, but... it seems strange they've all popped up out of nowhere, that's all.) I wonder if the Guard are looking into it.

[bythehand]

[ It's too late, she's a gift. A target-providing gift. ]

As far as I've heard, they are. Be nice if they came up with an answer that was something we could fix. We can put these things down all we want, it's not gonna cut them off at the source.

[scholiast]

No...

(That does make it more stressful, more high-stakes. As easy as this now, she can't realistically keep up forever. Eventually she will run out of spell slots and Finn will run out of bullets and then they'll be sorry. Lucretia takes quick stock of their environment; they're down by the river but they've been moving downstream steadily towards the waterfalls.)

Maybe we should head the other way. Just so we don't paint ourselves into a corner should anything go... uh, awry.

[bythehand]

That's one way to put very bad, Lucretia.

[ No illusions between friends here. He doesn't say it nearly as irately as he'd say it to Taako, though. Finn's salt levels are relatively contained right now. He finishes shooting a monster real quick-- that completionist life. ]

But the closer we are to the other teams, the better. If things do start leaning that way.

[scholiast]

(She raises an eyebrow, but she also looks like she's about to laugh.)

Alright. (It'll be fine. She'll reserve a sixth level slot for teleporting them out if something gets the better of them.)

I'm– uh, I'm really not used to fighting with so many other people at once.

[bythehand]

[ It's normally such a victory to get the almost-laugh. The jury is out on whether or not this counts as a victory. ]

No? My training was all small-unit tactics. Four soldiers or less. But we'd get a lot of practice in for coordinating with other squads. Formations and stuff.

[scholiast]

Oh, four or less is my jam. Usually less.

(When you've got seven on the general team it's pretty unwise to risk four in a fight, after all.)

Were there lots of other squads?

[bythehand]

[ So many squishy magic users in the IPRE.

Finn "cagey" lastname sees no reason not to give a straightforward answer to this question. He's a soldier, soldiers come from armies, ipso facto. Overthinking yes or no questions is his special ability. ]

Yeah. The idea was to pretty much always mobilize more than one at a time. Did a lot of simulations. You know, make sure everyone... knew where to be. Military thing.

[scholiast]

(finn you have no idea

He does pause for a strange amount of time before answering, which Lucretia finds vaguely suspicious, but clearly not enough to bother following it up. It's fine. He's valid.)

What's it like being in the military? (She's never been involved with it before; the IPRE was a completely different sector.)

[bythehand]

[ This is why she's on the easy to talk to scale. Lucretia can be chill as hell. ]

Honestly? Depends on the military. Perimeter Guard's better than my old one.

[ Even after getting the canister and catching up with a few things from home, he's hesitant to count his time "with" the Resistance. A couple of days, most of which featured him hoping to get something over with and get away, don't count for much compared to a lifetime. Or to a few very eventful months in the Quarantine. ]

[scholiast]

What do you mean? Does that depend on what I consider military? Or that you've personally been in several?

(america explain)

I'm glad you're enjoying the Perimeter Guard though. I know a few people in their ranks; they're a good group.

[bythehand]

Perimeter Guard makes two. Maybe two and a half. I haven't thought about it much. [ But I mean tbh like. Now he's wondering. ]

What would-? [ HOW DOES SOMEONE ASK THIS. In fact, he's not gonna make it a question. Forget asking, he's going with Opinions. ] I'm pretty sure a military's a military even if people don't consider it a military.

[scholiast]

And a half? (She prompts, curious. america, please explain some more)

I– well, I've already made the mistake of thinking that magic systems were the same universally, which they decidedly aren't. So I didn't want to assume anything of your military systems too? But that does make sense, yes.

[bythehand]

Oh. There's just-- one I've only been with for about a day back home. I don't think I'm with them? I mean, I joined, I just don't know it well enough to count it. Officially.

[ It's Weird. Like what's the deal with life, it's Weird. ]

But I appreciate the... not assuming. For the record.

[scholiast]

Gotcha. Who are they?

(Clearly she doesn't think of this as sticking her nose in, more like casual conversation.)

[bythehand]

[ It's nosy friends 2k18. Poe gets like that sometimes. Not too often. Usually with a lot more impulsive curiosity than anything. ]

Just the Resistance. [ You know. Those dudes, apparently. Does she know? It's always a toss-up. ] I'm gonna stick with them once I get back. You know. Finish the war out and everything.

[ He has no fucking idea what he's supposed to do in that mythical "not in a war or waiting to go back to a war" state of being. ]