April Catch-All

[leatherdaddy]

who: Gladio and a lot of scrawny dudes YOU
what: Two missions, and a whole lot of bad decisions social interactions
when: April catch-all means... all of April!
where: Various
warnings: Warnings will be in subject lines!




Mission: Brownout (closed to Reaper, Sans, McCree, Gladio)

Mission: How to Train Your... (closed to Gladio, Sans, Gooeygetsu, Eichi, Sasuke, McCree)

I Never (closed to mission-goers; tag in with your I, Never and threadjack away!)
 
Training Sessions (OTA who wants to play out survival, weapons training, etc)

Comments

[liquidate]

"Eeeehh?! What do you mean by that, Gladio?!" More shouting that riles the Behemoth up, but Suigetsu's agape, offended, and irritated. "You're the one who told me we were gonna tame it!"

A click of his teeth, snapping them together with a sharp tch. He should've figured this would happen, wanting to call them all out on being hypocrites where the game of 'I Never' is concerned; they're off to kill an animal right now, right in front of him. Yet Suigetsu doesn't deceive himself here. There's no goddamn way he needs to intervene with Sasuke standing on its hulking head and he hasn't had the opportunity to stick around to watch Gladio fight, so he takes his time in following the two combatants. Mostly admiring the appearance of that stellar greatsword, almost preoccupied enough to forget about Sans and Eichi.

Suigetsu turns to shoot a look over his shoulder at their retreat, raising a hand to rub at the back of his head. They're really going so soon? Eichi didn't even get to have his heart attack, something he counts as a pity while heaving a sigh at them.

"We'll meet up with you guys in a bit. These two just wanna show off, but I'll make sure they don't kill it. Maybe. If I make it over there in time. Which is doubtful." With the most hollow promise made to the more monster-sensitive Sans, Suigetsu whips away from them with a low giggle of a laugh, rocks onto the balls of his feet, and makes the leap into the fray.

Fighting without a sword feels like fighting without a limb, but it's been a couple of years since he lost Kubikiribouchou to the war — a shame that leaves him far from helpless, however, eyes tracking the Behemoth that's now trying in vain to buck Sasuke off of the crest of its skull and avoid Gladio's greatsword with a great swing of its own. Those talon-like claws of the Behemoth's would be terrifying weapons to avoid in anyone else's opinion, the swipe making plants bend away with the followthrough of wind such a massive motion stirs up, but to Suigetsu they don't even tickle.

Distractions are his strong suit, as is holding things at bay while Sasuke deals with them more promptly, but in an attempt to dissuade the Behemoth from bothering his teammates, he tears past Gladio with the minimal shake of a tree branch. And grabs one of the claws coming down in a powerful strike, swinging onto its forearm, bringing it immediately into a bow with one simple point of a devastating finger at the soft flesh and crucial vein of its right front leg.

Bang.

Its jaw and injured chest slam into the dirt, dry leaves, and moss, upheaving other critters in the vicinity with the sudden vibration. Suigetsu rides it down with a huff and glances up to Sasuke with what looks to be a wordless nod, before turning his head to Gladio.

"Alright, she's wide open!" Suigetsu's eye narrows with his shout, motioning to a now-growling, slowly recovering beast, "Give this ugly face your best shot, Gladio, if you wanna kill it so bad!"

[eyeforaneye]

The materialization of a broadsword in flecks of crystalline light is of greater interest to unnaturally keen eyes than even the beast below him is, one whose enraged cries and wild thrashes garner no response from a particularly unsympathetic ninja. To him, this is just one more living thing that's become a dangerous inconvenience for others, and thus it needs to be removed. That much has been made clear, and while he was willing to defer to the loud wishes of his teammates, he's at least glad to know that this won't be made more complicated than it has to be.

So the end result is settled. What isn't settled is how they'll get there.

That red stare goes from Gladio to Suigetsu and he understands the look he's given immediately, shifting right back to Gladio again. Right. Let's see what he's got.

When the behemoth crashes into the earth Sasuke finally moves back and out of the potential firing line, taking several steps further along its spine with a shallow slice of his sword into flesh. This time it serves another purpose, with the tip of that chokuto stabbed down into thick skin just to stream a low-level current throughout the beast's massive body to keep it still.

[leatherdaddy]

Gladio's charge loses steam as his eyes grow wide and that determined scowl relaxes into genuine amazement. Several reasons why the Shield is diverted from his goal - all of them revolving around the pair of them. First, there's the casual ease of their strikes, the lightness of their movements that seem to defy gravity and glide through the terrain as if their bones were hollow and impossibly unbreakable things. The calm or knowing stare in the wake of their attacks, confident and completely at ease with what would have otherwise been a daring fight.

The beast is struggling, but held at bay by some invisible force or effect, twinging and twitching. Whatever Sasuke was doing to that Behemoth, it was hugely effective.

Gladio finds himself within easy striking distance, squaring off to a position where he could easily throw his weight into his greatsword to hack off the massive head of the beast. But he doesn't. He holds his breath, never once ever considering standing so close to something like this for this long with it fully aware of his presence and yet unable to move. Some strange guilt twists in his gut, like he can see himself twisting in the bonds of some Niff and forced to endure the indignity of being toyed with and while he doesn't compare the creature to a human in any way, it just doesn't sit well with him.

"What are you waiting for?" Kill it.

But no, they're looking at him, aren't they - Suigetsu even calls for him to deliver the final blow and Gladio stares back at him hard for it. All the fight has been taken out of the beast and he's left with expectant looks and the foolishness of being given the task of ending it's suffering. With help. As if he were a child on his first hunt.

"This ain't a game so quit playing around." Gladio raises his weapon from his shoulder and lets it disappear into the air, his pride standing solidly and resolutely in the way of him delivering the killing blow. He misses out on acquiring some choice cuts of the beast as a result of turning away, but the sacrifice is worth it. The price to his pride is too steep, particularly after witnessing the staggering differential of power between himself and the two shinobi.

Gladio tries and fails to hide his disappointment by turning away to search for tracks, can practically feel that scorecard reading all D's for his failure to participate. His tone is low, but sharpens into a shouting rebuke as he goes.

"...I'm gonna look for the flock that Chocobo belonged to. Just put it out of it's misery already!"

[liquidate]

Clearing the Behemoth's gigantic front leg to avoid even a tiny dose of that electrical current, feet finding grass beneath its great head. What he finds when Gladio approaches isn't a praise-worthy strike, though, rather some kind of sentiment he can't quite grasp. It's the backpedal that slaps a look of confusion onto a fairly honest face, eyebrows raising as he's address and—

"Playing around?"

Suigetsu looks over his shoulder at the paralyzed Behemoth, wondering if that's what they're doing. As far as he can tell, they'vfe subdued and are using it for a skill test, something that can give them the information they desire without having to risk much. To be construed as 'playing around'...

He raises his chin to look at Sasuke after the disappointed Gladio flees the area, lips a firm line.

"What, was he scared or something?" Asked obtusely, sandals grinding into loose dirt and dry leaves as he prepares a jump that takes him directly to Sasuke's side with a light step and a test of the electrified flesh.

Subdermal. Should be alright.

"Guess we'll have to wait."