[Crystal_Diamond]

I smiled in return. “It’s all good. And yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the dog. Pleased to meet you Sandy!” I held up the bacon. “I was thinking this could attract it, but I dunno.”

[Peridot]

Sandy cackled a bit, holding up the squirrel. “Same idea ’bout the meat, but I haven’t seen anything yet.” He really hoped the beast would be appeased by meat, because otherwise how on earth could he be expected to retrieve a dog? It’s not like he could just carry it all the way back. “Alright, that’s settled then!” With an additional spring in his step, the cadet continued following the paw-print tracks. He paused in his step, hearing what sounded like it might be a scream echoing throughout the forest. Cocking his head to the side, Sandy turned to ask Crystal, “Huh. Did you hear something? Or was it just me?”

[Bell]

Of the conversation between Maylee and Bell

What a weird girl. Bell thinks to herself. I would say she is about 26 years of age. Tops, probably younger. About three inches tall than me and probably has a few dozen pounds on me too. Too skinny, She needs more meat on those bones.
“Well lets what I got here.” She says as she reaches into her pocket pulling out a tin of mints, a handful of dog treats, a small container of millet and bird seed, a small baggy filled with pieces of raw meat, two stalks of plants, and a small vial of dark fluid who’s label appears to have a drawing of a person vomiting into a toilet. Hmmm meant to slip that into Rei’s cup this morning. Oh well. “Well I guess you can have these mints if you want them. Or we could just go and get some Cocoa and cookies from the kitchen too…” She pauses. “Mmmm Cocoa” And with that turns and starts jogging towards the officer’s mess. “Well?” She turns back to look at the taller woman. “Arent you coming?”

[Tsukuyomi "Nichts"]

Reiji made it a habit for himself to keep on the move, even with a post as a sniper, making sure he maintained the 180 degree vantage point of all the scenery and the current positioning of the cadets. The generated atmosphere was pleasant to him in an odd sort of sense, as he was thrust into these kinds of scenarios countless times for who knows how long. His hands, also out of habit, went for his visor as it also doubled as a sort of heads up display. However, since he wasn’t able to prepare this far- much to his annoyance, the data was only live and he had to supply it himself with his own… particularly heightened sense.

The atmosphere shifted once again to an eerie lack of ambiance, foreshadowing ominous, and the blood of the officer-turned mercenary grew cold in anticipation. His breathing eased and slowed as his keen sensory skills honed in on one particular area as it was building his growing anxiety. He noted the cadet within the area of mention, but a different sort of presence was veiled, and, of that, his intuition was certain.

Without even a single thought, Rei shot out from his perch, his movements and form almost literally one with the wind and shadow. His perception sharpened drastically, and he swore fiercely at himself that he wouldn’t be able to make the scene in time, even at this speed. He narrowed his eyes and forced himself to severely drop his pace as he neared the scene, causing only the most subtle of disturbances. He noted that the nearest cadet, Max, had reached the unconscious girl whom he properly identified as Kissa and made off for her safety.

He nodded, then proceeded to follow them at a fair distance in further anticipation for a possible second ambush. He didn’t dare let his guard fall, vigilantly processing the immediate vicinity with his heightened sensory perception, his body prepared to respond to the slightest sign of a threat. He tensed sharply as he felt the presence return, his sentimental mind slowly backing off in favor for motor instinct as to let him assess the situation and not dwell on the thought. Max had left her out of harms way as he encountered the beast that had attacked, and already the officer cautiously moved in closer without giving as much as a hint. He couldn’t break Max’s concentration with a shot, so he had to play the waiting game and drop in when the time was right- a game plan that he was all too familiar with.

[Kit Apparently]

Kissa stands up, shaking in terror. The man approaches her slowly and cautiously, needle in hand.
“What is that?!Get away from me!” Kissa yells, backing away.
The man smiles gently, as if he cares dearly for her and is saddened by her reaction. “It’s just a sedative, not even very strong. I know you don’t like them, but the Director won’t see you unless you’re not a danger after the last incident….”
“NO! WHERE AM I? WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?! HOW DID YOU FIND ME?!
The man sighs,taking another step forward. “Kissa, I thought we were done making up these fantasies of another life. Or are they drugging you all the time now to prevent the episodes?”
“N-no….. I got out…. I-i was on the run a long time until miss bell found me…”
“You never left. Now come on, give me your arm.” The man advances forward, and Kissa stands there, numb. She feels the prick of a needle and then nothing. <em/>
✴Kissa’s breathing slows, no longer noticeable by just looking at her. Under her eyelids, her eyes flick back and forth sporadically.✴
(( she’s not dying just yet guys, her body just went into Eco mode basically.))

[BlueMoon]

Hot cocoa and cookies…how sickeningly sweet. Maylee couldn’t complain though. She needed some kind of sustenance. The raw meat looked better than anything else the girl had to offer. She wanted to know what kind of place this was that made her insides tingle. She knew there were blades somewhere in the near vicinity. She wanted to feel them slicing through skin.

Not yet though.

She accepted the offer from the girl and followed her. After a few steps she looked towards the forest. She smiled and said, “I smell fear and darkness in the trees.”

She turned once again and followed the girl inside.

[Ickle Wickle Dickle-chan]

“I think they’re dyyyyyiiiiiiing~” a little girl giggles.
She pops up between squirrel meat and bacon girl, leaves stuck in her hair. “I think that was a scream of scarediness and hurt. I don’t think it’s that’s surprising because this forest is full of mean animals!” She put her hands up like claws and roared in demonstration. “But that doesn’t matter. I think you have bacon? Can I have bacon? Pleeeasse?” You could swear she was pulling off the biggest puppy dog eyes anyone’s made in at least a century.

[Crystal_Diamond]

After a look of what could only be seen as astonishment, I looked at my bacon and reached out carefully, giving it up. “I don’t suppose you know the commander that runs this place, do you?” It was a trick question, because you would never know what the dog was, and I hadn’t seen her training with the other cadets.

[Ickle Wickle Dickle-chan]

After giving her thanks the girl noms on the bacon graciously. “Commander? I think you’re confused. I’m pretty sure master runs the forest but she isn’t a ship person!” she answers between bite-fulls. Finishing up the bacon she inquires for why so many humans came looking for her.

[Bell]

Inside the officer’s mess
Bell looks around for a minute before heading towards the fridge. From the fridges she gets out the following: Three large Steaks, a jug of milk, a bag of pistachios, and a stick of butter. From the cabinets she pulls out a frying pan and places it on the stove. After a minute of letting it heat up, Bell places a pat of butter in the pan and placing the steaks on top. She turns to Maylee. “How well done do you like yours?” Before turning back to the stove and heating up the milk.

[Max]

The beast slowly walked towards Max, throwing a clawed hand at him. Dodging it, he ran towards this thing. With a sideways cut, he landed the hit. Causing the beast to growl in pain, but he wasn’t done yet. Flicking his wrist, another sideways cut hit the beast. Right after that a upper hand cut.
He jumped back a few paces, and looked at his work. There the beast stood, growling at him in pain and hostility. Cuts from his sword were on the beast’s side. Now after doing some damage, he could tell it was slow. Putting his sword away he took out a couple of daggers. Running at the beast again he threw one, which landed in it’s arm. The beast howled in pain, and tried to slash him with those giant claws. Dodging it again, the beast howled in frustration. Max grinned, this’ll be over soon enough.

[Crystal_Diamond]

“I see… Hey wanna come with us?” I reached out with a soft smile.

[Kit Apparently]

✴The beast roars and collapses in on itself. Max grins in triumph, but it isn’t over. The creature slides across the leafy ground, changing shape and going into Kissa. Her eyes shoot open, completely black. She looks over at her hand, thightly gripping the black cross. She grins evilly, releasing Queen of Darkness into its weapon form, two pitch black chakkrams with black flame flickers.
“Maaaaaaax~” she sings launching a chakkram at him an standing in one swift motion.

[cedertree]

Arron from the moment he entered the woods decided he was going to skip out on this little exercise. He knew Bell all too well to fall for this one. The word “puppy” alone was enough to keep him away from this madness. Arron was very much a cat person. Cats didn’t bark when you entered a targets house to get the job done. They also generally did not bite into your leg as you try to escape. Yes, Arron was not going near this thing what so ever. He decided it was time to eat. He hadn’t done so in days. When you are a good assassin out of work, it is very hard to get more work. Because naturally, being a good assassin means very few people have actually heard of you. But now, he had work. He was still quite unsure what he was supposed to be actually doing, but the representative did promise that he would be able to feed himself. That is all he needed to hear. Though, had he known Bell was here he would’ve probably thought twice. That couldn’t be helped now. As Arron walked through the woods, he made no noise. His footsteps were always quiet. At last, he came upon a pond. Eventually some ducks came to the pond. Arron quickly drew one of the many knives he had hidden on him and threw it, hitting one of the ducks. The rest of the ducks took off, but the one that he had hit was too injured to run. It struggled. Arron walked up to it as silent as ever. With no emotion what so ever on his face, he slit the duck’s throat. He then set work on making a fire. After that he prepared and roasted the duck. As he was eating it, he could hear some commotion in the woods a bit away from him. It wasn’t any of his concern. If those morons wanted to get themselves killed they were welcomed to it.

[Tsukuyomi "Nichts"]

Reiji narrowed his eyes, his finger twitching to determine where and when to place a good, clean shot. With Max engaged in battle, even with his experience in providing sniping cover, it is always erratic and hard to read, especially when he was unfamiliar with the movements. He stiffened and scoped in on his rifle, scrutinized to what the creature was doing once Max had the upper hand. His reticle trained on the beast and was just about to fire a shot, only to force himself to cease when it seeped into the unconscious Kissa.

He hissed in his reluctance, but the instant the now chaotic girl threw an attack at the cadet, he aimed right on the flaming chakram and pulled the trigger. The piercing shot nailed right on the side edge of the metallic ring, the shock from the hit causing the weapon to lose its course and skittering to the forest ground, harmless.

In that same heartbeat, Reiji had closed the distance between him and the scene, and now he made no hesitation to make his ambush. He dropped down from the tree just behind Kissa, and with the butt of his gun he slammed right on top of her, the nape of her neck. He was careful to apply just enough force to completely daze her systems, but not enough to cause impacting damage. From the shock she recoiled forth, forcing the spectral beast to be released from her being and out in the open.

The mercenary smirked with vicious amusement as a glint flashed from his mask, locking on his target. There was no route to escape him now.
The withering monster staggeringly wheeled around, but already Rei had climbed right to its blind spot. He unsheathed a short sword with his right hand, holding it reversely, and with his left he drew a charcoal ebony pistol from his back holster. He made a shot right at the monster’s knee, it crying out in a curt roar and slumping forward. Just then he twisted around to its front, the pistol catching the chest of the beast and shot another blistering shot, point blank, to where its heart should- or would- be. There was only a terse grunt, the shock of the attack not allowing it to cry out in full, and another twist as he pressed his sword deep onto its neck, wrapped around to its back and cutting around as he went. Just as the tip reached the nape of the beast, he pushed all his weight down and drove his blade straight into its head, a ghostly satisfied grin splayed on the hunter’s face as his prey gurgled its last and fell to a hapless heap.

For the briefest of moments, a small flickering hologram displayed over the mask. It flashed with the numerical number of zero, blood crimson, before vanishing that instant later.

For the few moments that seemed to stretch out like a dulled decade, Reiji simply stood there, his form unmoved, his hands still clutched the hilt and grip that slew the creature. He let his mind, still churning mechanically from this quick dispatcher, finally soak and settle in, his sentience slowly ascending back to recollect and reassess the situation. He huffed to himself, but digressed any thought trains that dared to spring again.

He spun his pistol around to cool the heated barrel before re-holstering it. He then carefully withdrew his sword, twirling around out of habit to shake off any residue from the creature- if any at all- and slid it back into its sheath. He made a short leap away from the dead beast and slowly stood straight once more, head slightly downcast. After a brief pause, he lifted his head up slightly again, gazing at Max expectantly before shifting slightly to take a glance at Kissa.