These woods are nice for a casual walk or even if you have a more adventurous urge. Bubbling hot springs lie just around the bend, fruits can be found to suit every taste bud, and rumor has it there are talking Tali who can speak Lambastian! (+2 Precision)

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Shooting Stars [P]

Postby crow » 07/04/2014 2:40 AM

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Analaise scowled as she read over the assignment a second time. She nearly threw the papers back into the face of the man who had handed them to her. Only years of practise at holding her temper kept her from doing so. Still, this wasn't the sort of work she had in mind when she apprenticed to become a bounty hunter. She had chosen her career out of a desire to escape the fate of becoming some rich idiot's lapdog, and yet here she was, with this.

Even in the world of the freelance hunter, money still talked. The marks on the posts were about half and half in terms of their sources, some posted by the government and others put up by private parties paying the reward money out from their own pockets. Hunting poachers was still technically hunter work, since they were committing crimes and there was compensation for bringing them in, but the man who had put this up had the audacity to ask for her specifically; and it had been years since she'd pegged a mark for such a small-time infraction. She liked choosing her jobs, and chasing pests off the estate of some lord with too much money on his hands wasn't her idea of a good time.

But she looked at the reward again, counting up the zeroes, and sighed. Work had been slow lately, and much as she hated to admit it, she was short on cash. Pride wouldn't keep her belly full. “Tell him I'll do it, but I'll cut his hands off if he asks for me again,” she said to the contact, who nodded so hard his glasses slipped. It felt like a weak attempt to prove her independence, but the lords didn't need more encouragement than they already had to order her kind around.

~

She could see why the poachers had been tempted onto this man's land. She'd seen four bucks and two foxes already, though there was no sign of the poachers themselves. It was no easy task, making her way through the underbrush without giving away her location. The grounds were expansive, and most of it thoroughly wooded; she figured it would take a few days to search the entire area by herself, which she might well have to do if she didn't get a lucky break soon. A few days was nothing compared to the time she'd spent on some of her other jobs, but in that time the mark might get wind of her presence and high-tail it out of here, and she would have wasted her time traipsing through the forest for nothing.

She had set out at dawn, and thus far she'd been following a creek that threaded its way through the woods. Water wasn't much of a lead, but it was better than nothing, and the poachers had to be getting theirs from somewhere. It was late afternoon now. She was tired, her hair was matted with leaves, and her mood had been souring steadily over the course of the day.

That was when she found it: a strange, smooth... rock? No; it lay in a patch of dappled sunlight, where the canopy was thinner than the surrounding wood, and the surface of the thing glinted where the light struck it. Ana approached carefully, deftly palming one blade and keeping her other hand close to the holster where she kept her pistol. She had never seen anything like this before, and her first guess was that it was some new kind of trap the poachers had set up, but it was too conspicuous to draw the wildlife in. As she neared it, she could see that the space above it sported several broken branches, while the dirt around it was raised, and some of it singed. The trees had begun to close the gap, but it looked as if the thing had crashed down from above not too long ago.

Touching an unfamiliar object in the middle of a forest, while on the hunt for an armed mark, was never a smart idea. Ana shouldn't have been nearly green enough to make that kind of mistake. However, the surface of the pod had a mesmerizing sheen, and it looked so strange. Before she quite knew what she was doing, she had placed one hand upon it. She jerked back as soon as she realized what she had done, and backed up several feet, her own weapons held at the ready. She had no idea what she was dealing with, but in her line of work, it was always better to shoot too soon than too late.
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby ToxicShadow » 07/06/2014 1:22 AM

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Nearly a month had passed from the moment that an unidentified flying object had crashed down, unregistered, seemingly, by everyone. If anyone had witnessed the strange spectacle, late in the night, the alien craft would have looked like little more than a shooting star hurtling down toward the world's surface. It had not made itself out to be all that suspicious and, even then, with the convenient coincidence of landing on private property, those that were simply curious had remained deterred. Others convinced themselves to believe it was only a trick of their eyes, nothing more, so that it never crossed their minds again.

Additionally, the peculiar objected emitted a very large magnetic field around itself, designed to scramble any and all technology in a several mile radius around its landing point. Anyone on the hunt for it would have to put forth genuine effort to find it, as it was designed to do. All the circumstances considered, it remained guarded even against those seeking it, likely to be officials of the government or crackpot alien hunting agencies.

Before the dust had even settled, unseen, undetectable roots grew out from the pod and into the soil immediately after impact, stealing nutrients and information as they spread out quickly, shooting out several miles underground. The silvery, yet seemingly glowing metal of the nearly egg shaped object, even while covered in a thin film of dust, was a miraculous sight. Something about it, the way it went entirely unscathed or the way it shone made it seem alien to the world, unlike any of the known metals. In fact, it would not have been out of the question to say that the pod was living, just as much as the precious cargo it contained within its impenetrable walls.

With only a touch from Analaise, the touch of a female of an intelligent species, the pod soon began to react. Little did she know, that it absorbed a shred of her very DNA, triggering a wake up call for the being slumbering within. After a moment, it began pulsate, similar to a throbbing heart, and veins of purple, glowing light erupted on its once sleek surface. The veins, themselves, appeared to mark different panels of metal, some of which slipped inside itself to create an opening.

Out from the doorway, stumbled a creature that looked very much human, although it still had several tube-like structures attached to its flesh upon immediate release. Crouched on its hands and knees on the forest floor, the tubes detached, retracting back into the pod, which closed itself back up and returned to its lifeless state as soon as its passenger was released. Indeed, it appeared remarkably human, although it seemed to lack pigment. Its flesh was incredibly pale, while its roughly shoulder length hair was entirely white. Modestly, it was covered in a skintight, black bodysuit, which covered its body from its neck all the way down to its feet. Whatever sort of fabric it was, didn't have a hole remaining from the tubes previously attached.

The strange man coughed at first, a few times, it being something of a painful experience for his long unused lungs to adjust to the various levels of gases in the air. He was too weak to muster the strength to stand just yet, so all he could do was turn his vivid, violet gaze all round himself until his eyes landed upon a woman, pointing a unknown object in his direction. Part of him sensed that these things which she carried were dangerous, but not knowing for sure and being unable to move, what could he do?
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby crow » 07/11/2014 9:50 PM

Ana's hold tightened on the trigger as the pod began to glow and shift. Somehow, she doubted she was dealing with a poacher trap now. Her whole body tensed when the panels on the pod opened up, but she didn't shoot just yet. She kept her gun trained on the figure that emerged, squinting as she tried to make out just what it was.

Slowly, she realized that it was a human... more or less. A male, from the looks of it. His shape was right, but he was uncommonly pale, and his clothes were like nothing she'd ever seen before. With that in mind, she had to conclude that he couldn't possibly be her mark. He didn't match their descriptions in the least. There was still plenty of reasons for her to be suspicious of him--- or there would be if he didn't look so pathetic. He seemed to have trouble breathing, let alone moving about. It was hard to take someone seriously as a threat when they looked like a newborn fawn.

Ana sighed, and put the gun back in its holster. She shouldn't have felt disappointed, but somehow, the man's appearance was a little anti-climactic. She opted to keep her knife in hand, in case he turned out to be faking, but most of the tension had eased from her frame. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” she asked curtly. He'd seen her pointing the gun at him, so there was little use playing around with social niceties. Even if he wasn't a threat, he was still on private land, and he still looked decidedly strange.

She hoped he could talk. This was going to be much more awkward if she couldn't communicate with him.
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby ToxicShadow » 07/14/2014 9:10 PM

It took a long moment for his body to considerably adjust to the new environment, but the mysterious man eventually managed to push himself upright and onto his two legs once his coughing subsided. His legs, long unused, were shaky and weak, so he braced himself against the pod that he had been expelled from. There he stood silently, sucking in a few deep breaths. The use of his lungs was still painful, but more tolerable after the few breaths he had taken. Somehow, his eyes managed to never stray away from the woman, even during these movements of his.

After seeing him, she seemed to relax, although not entirely, and she lowered one of the dangerous objects that she carried. Did that mean she considered him to be less of a threat? She spoke to him, and he stared at her without a change in expression as his mind processed the words. His mind broke the words down, searching through what knowledge that had been implanted and stored within him over the duration of his comatose state.

"My... name...is Singit," he finally answered, each of his own words containing a pause between them, as if he had selected them carefully. From what he could gather, these words would adequately answer "who," he was. The second question was much more difficult to answer, and left him rather puzzled. He had no idea where, "here," was, and since she had witnessed his release from the pod, wasn't his purpose evident? He wasn't certain why was it was necessary to say what she had seen, as it should have been obvious, but his eyes shifted briefly behind him, as if gesturing toward the pod he braced himself against. "I was... awakened." She had been the one to awaken him, he knew that much. "By you. I landed...in this...place."

Once he said these words, he repeated her question back to her, "Who are you?"
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby crow » 07/30/2014 8:46 PM

The strange man took his time before he finally spoke, but even then he wouldn't stop looking at her. There was something in his gaze that unnerved her; even though she had mostly dismissed the idea that he could be dangerous, she couldn't quite relax in his presence. If he was searching for something from her person, she knew not what it was. It was a relief when he did speak. His voice sounded strange too, his words slow, as if he had to reach down a great distance to draw them out. Still, they were words she understood, and they provided a welcome distraction.

His name sounded foreign to her ears, but then many names did. The name itself didn't tell her much, beyond giving her something to call him by. Unhelpfully, he didn't claim any association to a family or an organization. It could have been that he was hiding something. She wanted to believe that was the case. The alternative, which had been nagging at her with increasing persistence, was that he really was like a newborn fawn, and had no associations to claim.

The rest of his speech made even less sense. “Awakened? What do you mean?” she said, brows furrowing in confusion. Landed, he'd said. That... did explain the signs of impact around the pod, but then what did that make him?

A part of her was already regretting having asked. She had a job to do, and whatever this 'Singit' was, she had a feeling the answer wouldn't be a simple one. And yet, the idea of cutting her losses and leaving didn't sit well with her either. Normally she wouldn't have any qualms about walking away from a stranger in the woods, but Singit was too much of an unknown. With her luck, if she left now without trying to get to the bottom of this, it would come back to bite her in the ass later.

“I'm... Analaise,” she said. He had answered her query with a name, so she did the same.
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby ToxicShadow » 09/24/2014 10:57 PM

From what he could gather, the woman was only more confused and uncertain as he tried to answer her questions. He was answering to the best of his understanding and abilities, but evidently, things were not clear enough. Singit found this very frustrating. Could she not understand the circumstances by considering what had happened thus far? Or, was it that she just couldn't believe her eyes?

The strange man heaved a sigh, before trying his way with words again, no matter the amount of mental struggle it caused him. "I... apologize. If I am... not... clear. Your... language... is still... difficult... for me." Hopefully, the words he had chosen to construct a sentence with would grant her some patience with him, or at least some understanding, if she found his answers to be vague.

After that, he decided to try to get to the point, a further explanation to answer her continued questions. "I was... asleep. I must... have been.... for a... long time. Inside... my... vessel. Did... you... not... see me... awaken?"

He was thankful that, at least, the woman that had awoken him had granted her own name. That much was evident when he suddenly smiled. "It is a... pleasure... to... meet you... Analaise." He didn't think much of her name, not knowing if it was unusual or not in comparison to his own. He didn't even know if his name was odd! However, given his immediate attachment to her, he was fond of her name.
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Re: Shooting Stars [P]

Postby crow » 09/27/2014 11:52 PM

The longer he talked, the more it became clear to Analaise that the process of speaking pained him. Or maybe it was that it was beginning to pain her to listen to his laboured speech. She preferred to attribute that to her own impatience, rather than any sympathy for his plight. He was too strange to pity, surely. Either way, she made an effort to school herself not to ask him a question again, if she could avoid it.

She looked him over once more. This was what she knew: he was a foreigner of some sort; he had arrived in that bizarre pod and had, by his own explanation, been sleeping for goodness knows how long; and he clearly didn't realize he was on private land. She wondered just how long 'a long time' was. Had she stumbled upon some sort of relic?

Then he smiled at her, and Ana remembered herself again. Her hands clenched, and she reached for her belt, her movements quick and sharp with displeasure.

"No, no. Oh, gods, I have no time for this. Here," she said, and tossed him a small bag of coins. "That's money. You trade it for... food, water, clothes. The fastest way out of here would be in that direction." She pointed roughly north-west from where they stood. "If you can find an inn, that'll buy you a week's lodging." With bartering, or maybe a bit of pity-mongering, it might have got him twice that much, but she wasn't sure that he would be up to the task. It unsettled her that she was providing even this much aid, and she didn't want to think about why she had. All she knew was that, with this, she was washing her hands of this encounter. She had wasted enough time.

Turning, she trekked back into the forest. Her steps were faster and more reckless than was safe, but she reasoned that if her enemies were near, they would have trounced her by now anyway. She wasn't even sure of where she was going, and tried to force herself back to calmness as she walked. She was being sloppy. In the city, she wouldn't have been nearly so surprised, but she hadn't been expecting to find such a strange thing in the middle of the woods.

Analaise thought determinedly of poachers.
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