(no subject)

[motivation]

Who: dutch (motivation) & open
What: october mini-quest + fallout
When: end of october
Where: wyver, josa forest
Warning(s): werewolf-y things. mentions of torture. alcohol + sex.



I ◆ PREP

[ this isn't the first time dutch has gone off to find someone. it used to be warrants, now she's doing it - not out of the goodness of her heart, no, because she still isn't convinced there's much goodness left in there, but because she doesn't like the possibility that the same people who kidnapped and tortured her are still out there. because it's something to do. because she's good at finding people.

so she's going to go out there and she's going to find those missing and she's going to come back and have a nice drink and call it a day and know that if johnny woke back up tomorrow, she'd still be able to look him in the eyes and say that she did her best.

find her in the streets of wyver, gathering supplies, or find her on the way to josa forest. lucy the dragon is by her side because she refused to be left behind, but dorian the kinkajou is staying in wyver. ]

II ◆ CAMPING

[ dutch doesn't much like the cold. that's always been true, but even more so after her kidnapping, after being doused with cold water and left with little and then no clothes on patches of ice and snow. that's what the cold reminds her of now and the blizzard doesn't help with it.

despite the blizzard, there's a fire (lucy coughed onto some wood long enough to set it ablaze) and dutch has a bottle of something highly alcoholic in her hands because of course she brought a drink. anyone with her or anyone stumbling upon her camp will be offered a sip and she's happy to trade the bottle back and forth.

eventually, as the last of the light dies, dutch asks: ] Want to cuddle?

[ it's obviously a joke. or is it? ]

III ◆ AFTERMATH

[ back at wyver, dutch feels - off. there's an itch under her skin, leaving her restless. she does all the things she usually does to combat it: find someone or something to fight, drink, find someone to fuck.

find her throwing knives at a tree, find her with an improvised punching bag that looks like it'll give out any second, find her in one of the fight rings, or find her in a bar, clearly looking for a partner for the night, or at least for a quick round in the alley behind the bar. in all these instances, she'll give off a certain air of danger, like a wolf stalking its prey. ]

IV ◆ WILDCARD

[ feel free to write a starter about any of the clues found in the forest, about arguing whether to continue looking or to go back, about dutch finding your character lost in the forest, w/e. anything goes! ]

Comments

II.

[beatupgrass]

I'd rather cuddle the dragon.

[Rocket chuckles darkly, looking miserable, himself. This is extremely familiar territory, and Dutch's gallows humor only eases the ache a little bit. His eyes keep darting around, as if expecting an ambush at any second, and every now and then, his hand reaches for the gun he's laid at his side.]

D'you think it ever gets warm here? 'Cause man, Nadril is my kind of place, but I can't deal with this weather.

[motivation]

[ they've been here before. not literally, of course - but they've been cold and miserable before. at least this time, they're here by their own choice and no one's abducted them. still, someone's been abducted, of that dutch is pretty sure, and it is cold.

she really, really hates the cold. ]

She probably wouldn't mind. Might bite, though. [ that's said with a curl of her lips, the expression meaner than her tone.

it smooths out almost immediately after. more thoughtfully: ] Maybe there's a day in summer when it's bearable. One day.

[beatupgrass]

And then the day after it's a week-long blizzard. [Rocket snorts, but eyes Lucy like he's considering resisting the bite he'll get if she's really as much of a furnace as that fire breath makes her out to be.] Nurray said this place was close to another city. Wonder what that's one like.

[In lieu of spooning Lucy, he scoots just a bit closer to Dutch. All right so maybe he's not desperate to repeat their huddle for warmth just out of anxiety if not necessity, but he is small and cold and fur does nothing. Especially not when you have artificial joints melded with organic tissue that hurt when they get too cold.]

[motivation]

You know it would be. [ lucy runs hot, but not as hot at the fire breath would suggest. dutch hasn't figured out how that works and doesn't really care overly much.

she also doesn't comment on the way he scoots closer. some things are better left unsaid and they both have their pride. dutch knows better than to point to something that could be a weakness, at least now. there are times when she'd prod at old wounds deliberately but not today.

not with him, probably, because he's seen too much of her past for her to use his against him. the past is a weapon and dutch hopes that it'll never come to a fight between them, because they're too well armed against one another.

she doesn't comment, but she shifts a little as well until she blocks at least some of the cold wind, until her arm is nearly behind his back. ]

It's probably got something wrong with it, too.

[beatupgrass]

Don't they all? Olympia's the only one that seems on the up and up, but they put a d-bag like Evras in a position of power. And they're just way, way too horny over there. Like humanoids, in general, are disgusting with that crap, but they're all over it literally and figuratively.

[He pulls a face and leans back so that his head hits the edge of her arm.] Guess it was the same back when I had the whole galaxy to travel. I always found something to bitch about.

[motivation]

[ dutch very deliberately does not move her arm or herself. ]

Plenty to bitch about 'round here. Though I'm not sure humans being horndogs should be high on that list. [ says the woman who uses sex as a distraction and a coping mechanism alike. ]

Olympia's got too many rules.

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket makes a noncommittal noise. He's functionally asexual thanks to the wonders of modern experimentation, so he'll never understand that one, and is content to leave it there. Still gross, though.]

Olympia also might still be pissed I never apologized for a thing I never actually did. Pretty sure I was the only one that didn't.

[motivation]

[ she can respect functional asexuality if he can respect horndoggedness. ]

Right. I remember that.

[ she doesn't, in fact, remember any of the details. ]

[beatupgrass]

That was so long ago. I can't decide if those early days were better or worse... Probably worse. That whole Wyver and Olympia conflict was irritating.

[Like their brief captivity, Rocket feels that talking will make things better. At least they have a fire and if they fall asleep, it won't be dangerous. That's nice.

But Rocket can't quite shake the apprehension that any moment, someone is going to come up and splash ice water on them. He flinches at almost any sound, even the far away howls that don't sound anything like chattering assholes eager to bring pain to their captives.]

II

[personalwar]

[ Quite a few people had replied to Nurray's message, and so when 76 sets out into the forest himself, he's expecting to run into one of his fellow refugees. None of them are too smart, heading to the exact place where a good number of people have already gone missing, but that's the nature of most of them, isn't it?

76 is no greater fan of the cold, having gone through the same abduction and rounds of torture that Dutch did. So when he spots the fire creating a welcome source of light in the dark woods, he isn't expecting it to be her.

The dragon with her seems surprisingly docile, and 76 looks the two of them over before Dutch poses her question. He doesn't know her that well, but he can be pretty sure she's joking. (He's not the cuddling type, obviously.)

After a brief pause, he goes to take a seat a few feet away from her, but close to the fire, where he can hold his gloved hands out and try to get some feeling back into them. ]

Guess we don't learn, huh?

[motivation]

[ at the first sound of someone's footsteps approaching dutch's little camp, her hand goes to her weapon - but when she recognises him, she makes that quip instead. it is a joke because her memories of him are tinged with even more cold, with johnny dying and with overwhelming anger.

not the best of associations. that's not his fault. ]

No clue what you're talking about. [ but her tone says quite clearly that she does know. that she agrees, even. ]

Drink?

[personalwar]

[ Both of them too stupid or too stubborn to learn. 76 doesn't know what he has in common with Dutch outside of their shared experience, but those particular traits stand out, at least. She'd gone to fight Ysevrai, too.

There's a brief pause as he stares into the fire, and then he nods in response to her offer. He reaches up to remove his visor; when he exhales, his breaths mists in front of him. ]

Not sure it'll do much other than warm me up a little, but sure.

[ They shouldn't linger here too long, but he's been walking for a while. A break isn't the worst idea. ]

[motivation]

Warming up isn't the worst it could do.

[ there's nothing in her expression or body language to betray that she's thinking back to the cold, the freezing water and the ice against her naked skin, but that's what she's thinking about. dutch has always hated the cold, but it hasn't exactly improved as of late. ]

[personalwar]

[ There's definitely some weight to her words, and it doesn't take 76 much time at all to read between the lines. Both of them chose to come here, but that doesn't mean that it was a good idea. He's never known what to do with his trauma other than face it head-on, and apparently he's not the only one. ]

No arguments here.

[ He smiles wryly, reaching out for the drink whenever she offers it to take a swig. ]

You came prepared.

[motivation]

[ she doesn't really know the difference between facing her trauma head-on or pretending it doesn't exist at all. in the end, it boils down to the same thing: she'll do what she does irrespective of any trauma.

so here she is. ]

Obviously.

[ her lips quirk up. ] Gotta bring some creature comforts with me.

[personalwar]

[ Right. And speaking of creature comforts...

76's gaze turns back to the dragon that's laid out by Dutch's elbow. His presence here doesn't seem to have bothered the beast at all, but it's rare for him to see one this tame. ]

So, how'd you get saddled with one of those?

[ He's a bit more traditional, using a horse to get around most of the time. He'd opted not to bring Apollo with him in this case, as he doesn't know what this forest holds and a horse can't defend itself nearly as well as a dragon. ]

[motivation]

She just followed me home.

[ for now, lucy's still too small to ride, so dutch and lucy have been walking. ] Stubborn little thing.

jim

[motivation]

[ it's not the first time she's shown up at his doorstep unannounced and it won't be the last, but it isn't a regular occurrence, either. still, here she is: a bottle of something alcoholic in one hand, the other raised to knock at his door. wyver isn't cold like the forest had been, but being there - coming across rocket and 76, two people who'd been abducted with her, well.

she won't say it rattled her, but it rattled her. so here she is, searching for a distraction. ]

[1701]

[ His old place is long gone, the new one - shared with Scotty - really only has the suggestion of a front door, but it's spacious, at least. The engineer is nowhere to be found when Jim answers, looking surprised to see her. ]

Hey.

[ Uh. ]

You look like hell.

[motivation]

Shut up.

[ it's not said entirely unkindly, at least. and then she steps in, the hand not holding the bottle going to his neck, curling there as she moves up on tiptoes to fit her lips over his.

she's here for a reason. this is it. ]

[1701]

[ Oh. It's this kind of a visit. Obligingly, Jim wraps his arms around her torso and returns the kiss, holding her with that masculine ease some people love and some people prefer to kick dudes in the junk over. ]

Hello, you look great.

[ Smooth. ]

[motivation]

[ so smooth that dutch breaks the kiss, opening her eyes just to roll them, before diving back in. hopefully he saw that. not that it really matters right now.

she's willing to love the masculine ease right now, because it translates into their bodies so much closer. she's not willing to leave it there, though, pushing him backward and following, kicking the door shut behind her.

it's absolutely this kind of visit. ]

[1701]

[ The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the bungalow, a strategic decision for active sex lives for all involved parties, but the whole structure is still under serious remodeling efforts - hence the uneven floor planks and tools and boxes scattered around. ]

Got a grip on the bottle? [ --is all the warning she gets before Jim uses her own pushing momentum to scoop her up in a bridal carry. ] Murder me later.

[motivation]

[ like dutch would drop the bottle. the murder bit is the more legitimate concern because bridal carry, really? really, jim?

she would have preferred her legs around his waist, if he has to carry her. but - ]

Fine. Since you asked so nicely.

[ she'll wait with murder until after sex. so for now, there's her arm around his neck and her head almost resting against his shoulder, fingers playing with the hairs at the back of his neck. ]

[1701]

[ Yeah, really, because this is easier - not as easy as chucking her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but also much nicer than that.

(She's cute. He makes a point of reminding himself not to say so.) ]

Thanks. [ For delaying his death sentence. Anyway. Around the various obstacles and into his bedroom, which is as spartan neat as his old apartment, just brighter thanks to the large windows and breezy curtains, bending to Wyver's uncomfortable climate.

Jim fakes out tossing her for a split second, doesn't, ends up dropping back on his ass with her still in his arms, laughing. ]