lucetilogs | Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

Who: All Draftees
What: This is your death. Followed by your time-traveling life and desperate bomb hunting.
When: From May 22 to May 20 to early May 23 (days 1-4)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the draftee-only portion of the Zompania draft--the day 3 death, time travel to day 1, and then the events until the arrival of the reinforcements. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Please note that there is a specific top-level comment thread for:

The day 3 arrival of the draftees and the 6 hours that follow until the bomb is dropped
Death--This thread can be treated as REFERENCE ONLY. Responding to it isn't necessary.
Threads prior to departing for Zompania--post resurrection freak outs, arguments over how to proceed, etc.

All other threading, from day 1 until the reinforcements arrive, should be conducted as normal.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

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[Ginia glances over at Jean and there's a second of hesitation before she nods. He fights Titans, if there's anyone capable of severing through something's neck, it would be him.]

/Can do. I'll go left, you go right, dog will smell us first so if it makes a move, go. I'll hit them from behind./

Roger. /I'll try to get it in one hit, but if I don't, be ready to defend./

[He readies his blades again and points his body toward his target, eyes sharp as he raises his right hand, tightly wound around the operating grip of his gear, to his lips for a kiss. Something of a good luck charm, although he would never admit to something as superstitious as that. But it's certainly never hurt before.

Then he shoots her a look and a curt nod, and he's off running.]

[Everyone has their superstitions or routines when it comes to going into combat. Ginia gives the dog tags hidden under her clothes a brief pat to steady herself. She looks back at Jean and nods before she beginning running. Her path takes her on a slight arc to the left, barreling down on the small patrol. They're twenty feet away when the Shift Hunter notices their presence, growling and braying as the owner releases it.

Ginia puts on a boost of speed and slashes at the nearest soldier, her machete striking down on their wing. The wing cracks and splinters from impact, incapacitating the soldier.]

[The instant the Shift Hunter so much as twitches in his direction, Jean is ready. He pulls the triggers to fire off the iron cables, aiming for the bony flesh of the beast's back - it howls as the sharp tips sink in and Jean is propelled toward it. When it snaps its jaws at him, he twists his body and pushes himself higher with another burst of gas.

Then he re-fires his wires to swing down for the kill. Aim for the neck, no different from a titan. As he comes out of his flip, both blades connect - but the Shift Hunter bucks at the last second, and the shoulder absorbs enough of the blow that he fails to make a clean cut. He quickly retracts his cables and braces himself to land on the muddy ground a few feet away.]

Dammit...!

[With one soldier down, Ginia turns to face off against the second. A machete is good for slashing and hacking, but it's not a sword and she's not eager to test how durable it is against one. She ducks back as the soldier slashes at her with their sword, moving in a circle and back-and-side-stepping, waiting for an opening. When the soldier lunges, Ginia ducks in low and drives her blade up and across the soldier's stomach. Blood and organs slop out as the soldier topples forward.

She turns to see how Jean is doing, instantly burning a bit of magic for a breeze to get the Shift Hunter's attention.]

[With the Shift Hunter's attention snapped away by that bit of magic, Jean goes in for a second - and hopefully last - attempt. This thing's regenerative abilities are nothing compared to a titan's. Again he uses the beast's body to anchor himself and gain air, and again he swings down with his blades glinting, and this time he slices all the way through its neck.

The severed head falls to the ground like a rotted tree limb and the Shift Hunter collapses in an expanding puddle of its own blood, as Jean skids to a stop in the mud.]

[Ginia braces herself, ready to dodge to the side and dash away as needed away from the massive beast. The smell of rotting flesh, the sharp teeth ready to rip and tear into her... not this time. Not again.

She steps aside as the head rolls on the ground and the ground soaks up blood. Better. Ginia nods her approval before walking over to check on the soldiers. While the soldier she disemboweled is dead, the soldier with a broken wing is hanging on. Crouching over the soldier, Ginia raises her machete and brings it down into the back of his neck.

There. All dead. She wipes her blade off on the soldier's armor before standing.]

[He wipes his blades off on the corpse of the beast before returning them to their sheathes. He cringes at the sharp sound of the machete cutting flesh and scraping bone, and when he turns back to Ginia, he avoids looking at the bloodied ground.]

You didn't need to do that...he wasn't gonna be able to stand and fight anymore. [His words are just barely steady.]

[Ginia straightens up and looks over at Jean, her own expression level.]

/I could have left him there. Wing injury, it's going to keep him down. Maybe no one finds him and he slowly starves or dies of dehydration. Or his friends find him and he describes us and they come after us for revenge. Mercy or pragmatism, take your pick. There's one thing for sure; they will never show us mercy./

[He understands the rational side, but he hates that he does.]

But it still-- [Doesn't feel right, that's still a person, isn't it? His words are choked out by anger, the kind of anger that results from confusion and fear that have no other outlet but to transform into something that's easier to wield.] I wasn't trained to kill people. This isn't the kind of fight I signed up for!

[And he starts to stalk away, because they need to keep moving, and because he can't stand still when he's wound up like this.]

[As if any of them wanted to be here. (No, some probably did, some relish fighting far more than others.) But Ginia understands. His enemies are Titans, massive monsters that want to destroy humanity. It's different when your enemy looks like you, thinks like you, lives like you.

Ginia has nothing to say. It's not a time for words of comfort, not that she has any to give or can give. So she catches up with him and moves in silence.]

[He knows it was a dick move to turn away from her without giving her a chance to respond. A curt sideways glance once she catches up with him shows that she isn't trying to say anything anyway, and for now, silence is preferred. He doesn't have much to say either. Just a heavy sense of apprehension settling down inside of him that has no shape to take.

They'll keep moving in the general direction of the Lucetian forces, groups of which dot the wide, flat terrain, and he'll keep his eyes on the look-out for any oncoming cultists. Stay focused, stay focused...]

[Not a word or a sign passes between them, only the sounds of their feet on the ground, the occasional snap of twig, their breathing as they run. Ginia keeps an eye on their surroundings, but also on Jean. He's young, but he's a soldier, but this is a different war than the one he's used to.

Ginia spots another patrol west of them, too far for them to engage with, still close enough to be a potential problem. She whistles lightly to get Jean's attention and nods her head over in their direction before running a bit more eastward. Best to avoid fights when they still can.]

[He eyes the patrol, warily debating the odds of being noticed by them, and follows Ginia's change in course. He wants to avoid fighting as much as possible, partially out of the pragmatic need to save his strength, and partially out of hesitation to face an enemy that is too human for him to know what to do with.

He won't be able to avoid it forever.]

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Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]

[Day 1]