(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

[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. ]

[scholiast]

(Hey, having nosy friends is important. Somebody has to push conversation.)

The 'Resistance'? (Psych, it's the first time she's heard of them! So Finn is fighting on the 'good guy' side, realistically.) And what exactly are you resisting?

[bythehand]

Oh. [ When you're so used to your CR and your CR's CR crossing footpaths that you're not even 100% about whether or not your friend knows stuff about the wars in the stars. idk what he expected realistically when he's a cagey dumbass all the time, honestly, the fact that he's a dumbass is why he's even surprised.

Like, oh how do you not know about the War! Says local man who never mentioned the war to his friend? Is he some obnoxious dudebro looking at vinyls in a used bookstore? No, so he has to rectify this. ]

The First Order. Bigger army. Better funding. [ Not that it's hard to get there when the Resistance is like 15 people in the last rebellion's favorite beat-up scooby doo van. Finn is very turn down for what for freedom but he's not delusional. ] They go on a lot about how the galaxy is negligent and chaotic. How they're gonna "restore order". Order looks a lot like killing anyone who doesn't do what you want.

[ Or who, in some cases, haven't done anything at all. ]

[scholiast]

(In all honesty, when so much of the CR has War going on in their life it's hard to tell who is fighting what and for whom and also where? Lucretia tries to write all of these things down to keep track but sometimes even she gets mixed up. Thankfully, what Finn is saying about the First Order is blissfully unfamiliar to her. This is brand new information!)

Ah, (she says,) that kind of 'order'.

(Sometimes the big bad isn't as comically evil as a monstrous entity trying to swallow entire planets whole. Sometimes the big bad is just a bunch of people with really terrible ideals and better weapons than you.)

How... is the fight coming along?

[bythehand]

[ He pulls a face. It might be a near thing that he doesn't do the hand-teetering ehhhhh gesture about it. ]

Well. We're down to one ship and maybe fifteen people. But we're alive and we're pretty stubborn. [ Arguably the most stubborn collection of people he's ever fathomed, which is saying something. ] I've liked my odds a lot less for things that didn't end up killing me. I think we're gonna make it.