Scene #7689: Indiscretion of Youth

Owner	Pose
Hiromi	The warpgate to which Hiromi directs today's adventure must have been a recent addition to the network. It opens out into a thicket, with barely any indication that someone's been here before. There is one thing, which is a small area of cleared, bare earth, on which sits something about the size and shape of a closed pocket watch. It is, conspicuously, clean. Inspection will reveal it to be compass, though matching it against the motion of the son above, it's not pointing north, but west by northwest. There's a needle in the inner rim of the compass, where one might, perhaps by accident, press a finger, if it were held a certain way. There's no need to do so. Someone else has already let their blood coat the floor beneath the needle. It has a faint glow, though only if heavily shaded. Outside the thicket, this spot proves to be part of the blurry edge of several geographic features. To the east, the coastline, and past that, an ocean that may as well be endless. To the north, the elevation dips more gradually, letting one see far out to where the increased vegetation becomes an actual jungle. To the south, it's the opposite, with rolling hills, a Mongolian style steppe. Finding mountains, in any direction but the sea, is just a matter of seeing far enough. Hiromi isn't here. That's a bit different. There's no indication of any danger, in fact, unless the sheep on that far hill are more bloodthirsty than they appear, or one leapt from the cliffs into the river that flows, not so far from here, out to sea. Determining the danger of a jungle, which is the direction the compass will prove to point, is more difficult, but at least from out here, this place has the feeling of somewhere humans could live, without worrying about monsters or fae.
Hibiki Tachibana	Beyond what Hiromi has already explained - that the test is one to rescue the 'pair of pups' straying into danger in order to prove herself - there's no idea what to expect before it's time to take it. The Archwolf has a very unique way of doing things. But there's no choice but to tackle it. Especially when the stakes involved have already been put down. Out the gate, Hibiki has since cleaned herself back up, and is back in her usual clothes. Her right hand is still missing, with her jacket sleeve pulled down past her wrist, but that doesn't seem to be giving her any pause. Especially when she's indeed not as alone as she thought she'd be. The sights however, only a little. "The middle of the wilderness...?" Only a little, because the single object sitting just ahead is their starting point. A bloody one. Could that be...? 'Remember why you act'. With those words in mind, she scans things from the edge of the thicket. It's not really to get a lay of the land, which she just gets a vague idea of; it was to see if she could pick up on Hiromi's presence, which would stick out like a sore thumb in a place otherwise so...serene and untouched. She's not here. "--Can't say I've ever had to follow a compass before, but I'm sure that's different for you, Captain. Looks like this is the starting point...!" Despite her words, her expression is a little tight with tension, and she doesn't waste any time starting in the direction it gives. Towards the jungle. And she's keeping track of the sights as they go, and for anything that would look like evidence of someone passing through. Something like that would probably stand out, she hopes. Her pace is pretty quick.
Captain Hook	"You're free to call me Will, if you like," Captain Hook says as they make their way through the thicket. Slash, slash, carve, carve; the cutlass chops away a path to make it easier for both of them to get beyond it and into the great vista. "And, yes, I've followed a compass or two on my adventures, though I much prefer having a map with an X on it. Something romantic about a map with an X on it, Princess. Something...romanticized. You really have to appreciate a good, simply-drawn red X." He keeps talking as they make their way up, and then towards the jungle. It is, in large part, to help her with the tension. To calm her. To keep her focused. Tension leads to anxiety, and anxiety breaks thoughts. He pats her on the shoulder with his hook hand (he's very good at that, not hooking people if he doesn't want to) and continues. "The best sort of red X has a little bit of a swoosh at the end. Two strokes in the same direction, and a little flourish. That's the sort of map someone put some effort into. That's the real sort of treasure." As they head towards the jungle, Hook slips the flintlock at his side onto the hook hand, spinning it casually. "Or the sort guarded with magic. That's real treasure, too. The sort where you've got something in the way, or something mystical to lead you on your journey. That's always bound to be good." He purses his lips as he moves to keep up with her, though he's not nearly as fast. He does indeed seem to be nothing more than an ordinary human being. "Unless it's cursed. Then it's a troublesome thing indeed. But a curse is just an adventure in waiting, I think."
Hiromi	Keeping straight on the line the compass points is somewhat difficult on the ground, simply because it cuts a shallow angle across downward slopes, more generally descending to the north than this west-northwest direction. The lower one gets, the heavier the air, and the more humid, despite the path taking one farther from the sea. There's other water, this way. Likewise, greener grass gives way to taller, vine-choked trees. In turn, these shield the path from the sun, giving the illusion that the sun is setting too quickly. It does take time, though not so much as that, for something else to happen. It's quite a hike, with nothing but animal trails to follow, to find more than those gradual changes of terrain. But then, the direction of the compass noticeably changes, turning slightly to the right -- to the north -- and from there it again slightly reorients every so often, turning the same direction. One with quite an excellent sense of direction, despite the increasingly rough terrain, would be able to tell for certain that the compass now points closer to directly northwest of the warpgate that was the starting point. Finally, there appears something resembling a trail, if still one likely to have been begun by animals, rather than humans. There's a variety of prints in the dirt, where undergrowth has been worn away. This leads closer to due north, from the steppes to the heart of the jungle, down the quickest path of descent. And that's the way the compass points, more or less. As much as it's a trek, a journey in its own right, it's several times clear that this compass doesn't point to some distant landmark, and needs no map -- though a map could, still, have been rather useful. And from there, what had been gradually building becomes harder to ignore. Its not just humidity in the air, bust a growing mist. Somewhere, water streams quick and low through a gully. There's no smoke, but still a sense of heaviness in the air the mist alone can't explain, nor the growing darkness, against which distant fireflies do little but distract the eyes. Where the stepp had had the feeling of a place lacking in danger, a land of safe predictability, the deeper jungle holds a sense not unlike stepping across a threshold into another world. It sneaks up on the senses, at first, but grows only stronger as one approaches the river. It's a broad and low thing, sluggishly flowing to the west, with trees hanging over its every edge, leaving sun to reach only the center line of it. Wooden posts have been driven into the ground here, and also on its far side, with ropes tied to each. The ropes hang limply, dropping into the water, and disappearing there. Folded, white, paper streamers still survive on the portions of the rope outside the water. The compass turns, pointing downstream, more sharply than it had before. The buzz of insects gets louder the closer one gets to the water, though the source of that noise isn't visible.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Romanticized, huh...?" Hook is better suited to carving through thicket and brush, but Hibiki does her part to help make a path forward through forcing what she can aside and finding the easiest spots to push through. She only pauses, briefly, at the reassuring (surprising, considering what it is) hook-pat that causes her to look back over her shoulder, briefly, and then visibly ease up some with a small smile. "...I get what you mean. It gives you that 'adventure' feel, right? It lets you know what you're in for without anything else needing to be said." When following the path straight is rough--Hibiki still tries to manage as much as possible without going completely off-course. Even without her Symphogear and down a hand, trucking it in the wilderness doesn't seem to bother her enough to complain. Part of that might be because of the small talk. "A curse, a trap...jumping right into it would just be exciting for you, wouldn't it?" Though the heavier atmosphere is definitely being felt. That's what to expect from the jungle alright. But the compass reacts. "Eh? ...It's moving?" That puts a lot more insight on what the compass might be keeping track of. But rather than thinking on it, she leads on in chasing it. Down into the gully, where the sun on barely reaches, with sweat beading down the side of her face. "This place is...I've never been in a place like this..." She murmurs with a sense of awe. Her attention goes to the loose ropes and their posts. "...How long ago were those...?" Trailing off, Hibiki furrows her brow. Her feet start taking them down the river, at first at a tentative distance from it. But as she moves along it, she steadily moves closer, both to try and pick up better on the noise filling the air, and to better keep eye of what's further along the water. "...No human tracks I've seen. But if they were using this..."
Captain Hook	"Quite right," Hook says as they walk. He returns her smile, though his is much broader, much more genial. A man starved for conversation, and all that. He'd rather smile and enjoy life than anythign else. As they walk, Hibiki asks him a question that causes him to pause in his stream and purse his lips. "You know, it would. I spent so long grey and half-dead that I think I would enjoy seeing just how far I can push my luck." Hook also isn't great at moving down the slopes, but he's got Concord tech and his own hook, both of which help him stay stable. The grapple in his good hand is invaluable. When the compass starts to move, and the mist starts to grow, Hook doesn't tense, but his eye starts flicking left and right even as he keeps talking. "I take it you don't feel the same," he says, "I imagine for you everything is do-or-die, life-or-death, struggle on the line in the sand, Princess. No unnecessary risks - only necessary ones, or things you've convinced yourself are necessary." The streamers, and the sounds of insects. Now Hook's lips purse tighter. "It's not worth thinking about how long they've been here but where the occupants have gone, and what tore them down." He's barely sweating, but that's hardly something superhuman - even with his coat over his shoulders, his hat provides shade, and his dress shirt is light and airy. Just good sense, really. The coat's probably more a windbreaker than anything. "Nor is it worth wondering on human tracks. That we're looking for a human...is that what she said, the lady, or did she not use those terms?"
Hiromi	Those are really loud insects, is what would one likely think, on getting close to the water. And then the trees lining the water erupt, shaking and scattering leaves. The cloud that rises isn't really one, for its constituent parts are just enough like locusts to be called them, though only if locusts had bodies the size of housecats, and fed by long and curved proposcises. The first moment could be confused for a startle reflex, but they're not scattering randomly. They're moving in an enveloping formation some twenty meters all around Hibiki -- and Hook, as well, if he comes within that same range -- and then descending all at once. None of them flee. They have tongues, of sorts. They're longer than one would reasonably expect to fit in those mouths, about wrist-thick, and covered in thorns that could tear human flesh to so many ribbons. They are, also, very loud. Loud enough that one might miss the angry shouting from downriver.
Captain Hook	Good gracious but that's fascinating. Hibiki is absolutely right. Hook is Loving This. He has a broad grin on his face, and the flintlock's whirling in his hook hand, and the cutlass is in his right. One might expect the Pirate Captain to be a dashing, swashbuckling madman, using his grapple to swing about the jungle. One might expect him to swing from tree to tree, blade in his mouth, firing wildly into the swarm. One might even expect him to dash in heroically, diving and slashing and rolling and shooting. But Hook does none of these things. No, quite the contrary. He moves slowly, methodically. His feet feel out the ground beneath him. He avoids puddles that might make him slip. That slow motion has a sort of aura to it, a menacing, ominous feeling, as if a great shadow was moving under the water over the side of a boat. Is it a harmless whale? A vast, impossible shark? A squid, a kraken? Some horror yet unnamed? It's that sense of the unknown that gives Hook his ominousness, that sense of an unknown shadow moving ever so slowly, building in the anticipation. And it gives Hook time. He spins the flintlock in his hook idly, letting it whirl on the trigger. The cutlass occasionally spins in his good hand, like a gun in an old western. His eye is focused on the movement of the beasts - on the movement of the locusts. They're a swarm. It's not chaotic - it can't be pure chaos. No, no. There's got to be a pattern. He steps backwards as they advance on Hibiki, and she might even think he's abandoned her until the flintlock rings out. It's one shot aimed to bound off one of the insects and into another, and then another, and then another. As the shot's rolling the hook's already spinning it against his pouch - catching black powder and shot in the barrel, slamming the hammer with his hip, and taking another shot. This one's aimed to go through eyes - to go through one eye and out the back of one of the leaders. He's focused on covering Hibiki, on giving her room to work.
Hibiki Tachibana	'Yes, but that doesn't mean they're human pups, Princess. -by the way, watch out for the water.' Hibiki hadn't considered that before. It was just a default assumption, with how often Hiromi uses the word as part of her way of speaking. --Wait. The water? Not the water itself. The trees. What sun manages to pour down into this part of the deep jungle goes unseen with the cloud that pours out, and the couple moments of her raw surprise are enough for them all to surround her. "They're coming in on me...!?" Not running. Not flying away. These are movements with purpose. There's a glance over her shoulder. Hook backs off. ...That's fine. If they're all concentrated on her, for whatever reason, she wouldn't want him to... Duck. She doesn't think about it. She just hits the deck as the ricocheting shot rings out overhead, and she keeps her head low as she takes a knee with raised eyebrows. Only for a split second, before she grins. "Thanks, Will!" Her expression tightens up right after--at the faint sound of screaming beyond the deafening buzzing drawing in. Her hand tugs down at the collar of her jacket. "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..." An eruption of light ends with her Symphogear materializing around her with the span of a second, and her initial stance as she rises after is one like she still had use of her right hand - she adjusts for it quickly though, raising a boot and stomping downwards. A great amount of the muddy earth beneath her explodes upwards to keep the swarm at bay. And between that and Hook's supporting fire, she follows up with a jumping, 360-degree kick to clear as much of the air around her as possible and start forward. If they're focused on her and not her companion, she can try to fight them with each step while pressing on. She can't get too caught up just standing here when just down the river--might be where the 'pups' they're looking for are.
Hiromi	Captain Hook's caution in the matter of slow-moving jungle water allows him to back out quickly enough to avoid being surrounded, and that lets him fire with little impediment. They're certainly larger targets than real locusts could be expected to be, and slower relative to their length, though that's hardly enough to explain the success of the kind of trick shooting he manages, hitting several at once. They're not especially sturdy, at that, even avoiding the muddy spray from Hibiki's stomp lest it coat their nearly transparent wings, and the flying menaces go down handily when shot through. Knocking them with a kick likewise sends them tumbling to the ground, though these ones are as likely to get up again, after they regain their senses, and orient on whichever target is closest. That still clears things out well enough for Hibiki to start moving. The ones that haven't been injured are quick, and dive bomb her from every angle, trying to get hooked legs around her and, in all likelihood, eat her alive, with their thorned, whip-like tongues. If she's focusing on moving, it might be only Hook's cover from the rear that can delay a test of how well her armor holds out against them. Moving downriver very quickly answers an earlier question. Two figures, each probably fifteen years old, though looking somewhat older for being dressed in stripped-down steppe hunter leathers, with bows slung. The girl's in front, and doesn't stop on rushing up to Hibiki's position, but slams the short of a stout, dark tonfa into the face of a locust, the impact sending her rolling back and the oversized insect dropping to the ground. The boy follows up with a straight, double-edged sword in a two-handed grip, piercing the thing's throat with a spray of ichor, which he leaps back away from as the girl gets to her feet. "What are you doing here? Don't you know not to get close to the waterline?" "Ow, ow... oh, watch out! Get back!" Given the effort they took with a single opponent, that the two of them are circling back and away from the enclosing hemisphere the remaining insects may be immediately understandable. But some of that sphere are reorienting to swoop down on the two, regardless. There's still no sign at all of the swarm having a sense to flee, even among its injured. There, it's only a question of whether there are still humans in range of its senses when it's no longer stunned.
Hibiki Tachibana	Move, and fight. Hibiki is counting on Hook's support, but she won't rely on him completely. This was something Hiromi issued to her, after all. Tongues are allowed to scrape along the metal of her Symphogear with shifts of her body, but when they try to go for skin or grapples, she responds. Forceful hooks with her left arm, good-enough elbow strikes with her maimed one. At least one of them, she grips by barbed muscle to swing through its swarm-mates before sending it off into the river. It's inevitable she'll still take slices and gashes when she's not putting all her focus on fighting back. They mount up, little by little, following the river - but she almost forgets about them when they run straight into the pair. They're not even that much younger than her, and they're scrappy. "Sorry, I picked up on that too late!" She looks back briefly. Is Hook still safe? No, he's the last person who needs to be worried about here. But now these things aren't just focused on her anymore-- These things are too persistent. It's unnatural. Protecting them while fighting back will be even harder than just getting herself over here was. There might even be more hidden away. But beating them isn't the point. Then... Hibiki comes to a stop in front of the pair, turns around to face the half-sphere of locusts, and glances up at the canopy and then back forward. Her feet dig in, and she makes ready to batter the first ones incoming towards the duo away the moment they come in. But it's only to give enough time for her to speak to both of them. "It'll take a while to explain!" She calls over her shoulder. "But I need to know--...can you trust me to get you to safety? If you can, grab on tight!"
Captain Hook	It's good that she won't rely on him completely. Hook couldn't possibly do everything at once. As Hibiki's already finding out, the man is, in fact, just a man. He's not superhuman. He's not super-strong, nor super-fast, nor super-tough. Hell, he's not even peak physical performance. She probably outclasses him even without the Gungnir active - her sheer martial art skill and training probably means she's better overall equipped for the rigors of more active combat. What Hook has is his slow, methodical style. What Hook has is skill, but not the kind of all-encompassing skill Hibiki has - a very specific sort of slow, methodical skill. So as Hibiki runs ahead, Hook moves to follow behind in her wake, letting her take the brunt of the attacks. Occasionally he fires over her shoulder - which is unfortunately probably pretty loud, because it turns out flintlocks are pretty loud weapons - but for the most part he's using her as a shield. Quite literally standing (well, running) behind her. But she's faster than he is, and soon she's outspeeding him, and he's left to fend for his own devices, taking his own array of cuts and bruises. He's minimizing the damage with his hook and his blade and his gun, of course - parries with pistolshot, stabs through the head, even using the hook at one point to grab into an insect's mandible and rip it open for another pistolshot - but he's just a human. Hibiki's superhuman. He's going to take considerably more damage than she will. So when they arrive in front of the pair, Hook is looking a bit...worse for wear. Still, he's in fighting form, and he offers that dazzling smile to the pair. "And a good evening to you." He spins, letting the coat-cloak slung over his shoulders flourish with him, and then steps back, raising the flintlock again. "They seem far more interested in you than me," he says to Hibiki, "If you need to get them out, you may safely leave me behind. I've my own escape routes."
Hiromi	A running battle may have been the more difficult choice, as the wounds mount, but without more opponents joining the field, even the suicidal hostility of the locusts isn't enough to make their victory likely. It becomes easier to track the swarm as it thins out, and harder to be surprised by them, balanced by the degree to which both Hook and Hibiki are affected by their own spent states in reaching this point. "Trust you? But who are you?" "We can't leave yet, we've only just reached the goat's den!" That's not to say it isn't still terribly dangerous for these two. It's only from Hibiki getting in the way that the sudden rush of flying beasts doesn't overwhelm them. They grab onto her, instead, as the boy slices wings off one that makes it past her, and the girl blocks a charge with tonfas crossed, leaning into it and kicking the locust to the ground to stomp. Stomping isn't, unfortunately, extremely effective on those exoskeletons, outside of preventing it from moving. These two don't have much in the way of superhuman ability. "I don't know why you're here, but..." "We still have our own mission to complete! We'll just save you, too!" He sounds like he thinks they can, at least, though they aren't showing signs of having a plan to do so.
Captain Hook	"Captain Wiliam Hook, at your service." William's smile is, indeed, dazzling. The pirate moves in to cover Hibiki's back agin. He slashes one of the bugs to the ground, puts his boot on it to keep it from wiggling, and shoots it in the head before he pulls the spinning reload trick with his hook again. He glances at Hibiki. "I think, Princess, that this ought be left to you, don't you think? You're the one with the power here." Which is certainly true. He also winks at her, as if to say, 'besides, it's your test, not mine.'
Hiromi	"I'm Taro!" "And Suke!" They introduce themselves, shortly, after Hook does, with a couple syllables, each.
Hibiki Tachibana	"They sure are," Hibiki says under her breath in response to Hook, on the subject of who's had more of the locust's ire. He's only human compared to her, but he's so incredibly skilled. And when he's still able to flash that smile, she knows there's nothing to worry about when it comes to him. But the two - Taro and Suke - explain how things are. They still have something to do here. They don't /want/ to be saved, whether or not they need it. That also wasn't something she expected would have happened. "Wait, you'll save me--?" But they can hardly even... ...Oh. So this is what it feels like to be on the other end of that. As she grits her teeth and takes strikes to the locusts that have grabbed onto her, the magical girl catches Hook's eye, briefly, and that wry wink seems to both instill some focus in her and help her relax a bit despite the situation. Her eyes go back forward, and a sudden twist of her body is used to throw off any of them still holding on. "...I'm Hibiki. Hibiki Tachibana. Sixteen years old, behind on my homework at home after so much laying around, and I came here wanting to protect you guys, but...!" She steps forward, with the pistons in her leg armor pulling back at the same time as her opposite leg coming up-- Towards one of the locusts in the center of the swarm, where they'll slam in and create a rippling shockwave meant to sent the whole lot of them scattering and temporarily disorient the lot of them. She knows they won't stay down, so she turns right back to the pair and gestures back downriver with a hasty nod of her head. "...I kind of put you guys in danger in the first place, so it's not me saving you. And you shouldn't waste your energy on these guys when you have your own mission already, right? Let's get away from these things and let them calm down, and then you can worry about what's really important!"
Hiromi	"'Hibiki,' huh...?" With the pair behind her, and Hook's support, it's the best chance that's appeared for getting the remainder of the swarm all at once. Hibiki strikes hard, and it works, scattering by force what had refused to scatter by sense. That won't last terribly long, but long enough for all four to get well away. Despite those big eyes, they don't seem to have really good distance vision. Or maybe it's something else that limits the activation range of their aggression. "You actually are strong. And you've got that armor..." "Captain William, are you from the Queen's land?" "He's got the accent, doesn't he?" "What are you talking about? We've never even had a Westerner visit! I'm talking about his coat." "Oh, I guess so. Anyway. We still have a goat to catch. You both can come along, but this is our fight. Got that?"