kaisou | ~*Dragonspine Misadventures*~

Scenario I. Frigid Days

[ Following Childe's commentary regarding the Black Order's new mission, he either doesn't listen to people warning him to be careful, or is just flippant and outright petulant about people's admittedly reasonable responses to his nonsense.

It's probably not too surprising that he doesn't really so much as intend to remain in constant contact about his activities. Not many people are familiar with his previous activities in the Black Order, as those who were are either dead, left for real, or only have vague details. In the end, though, it's clear he just flat out doesn't care.

So, for those wishing to find him early on, they can try to track him down. Except, this is hard. Yet if someone is observant enough, they may spot a fresh trail of tracks leading towards one side of the mountain. Does this person dare to take this path...?

(Interactive-CYOA type option to track Childe down.) ]

Scenario II. Fighting Days

[ So, Childe seems to be making it purposefully hard on people trying to track him down, or maybe he isn't thinking anyone would really come after his ass.

Point is, that doesn't matter.

Because one moment it is all silent on the frigid mountain, and in another moment, there are a bunch of heartless rolling down the mountain as if they were hit in this very direction thanks to someone else. Better get out of the way! ]

Scenario III. The Harbinger (Combat Option)

[ Near somewhere higher up the mountain is one Childe finally glimpsed. Except despite the frigid cold he seems unfairly prepared. He does remember his past life growing up in Snezhnaya, after all!

Though, there's something else notable as well.

There are a bunch of beasts (boars?) silenced and felled all around him in the snow. He almost looks bored, but when his dull eyes turn to whoever happens upon them, they seem less devoid of light, and more unnerving hungry. In a way that's like a creature sizing up a potential meal no matter who has approached him. ]

Oh. You came?

What for? There's nothing left for you here.

[ One Electrical-Delusion dagger is out and about, seen easily with the naked eye. Looks like somebody isn't feeling foolish enough to go full Hydro Element here. Though, it isn't like he cares about not doing that either.

Also beware, this may just be near the cube's lair... ]

Scenario IV. Playtime in the Mountain

[ Childe can be glimpsed on the mountain climb happily somehow snowboarding down it.

...

Wait, snowboarding?

If he passes by he will wave...

...and also refuse to stop. The nerve of this man, huh? ]

Scenario V. Fishing for ... Something

[ It seems as time goes on it becomes particularly difficult to find this annoying twink of a man, but if someone searches near the watery edges of the mountain, where there's a little fire that has been set - perhaps near where it should have been bordering Liyue - there would be a familiar sight. Childe is fishing.

Yes, that's right.

In the cold, he is sitting around near a little fire, fishing in the cold. He smiles with a wave. ]

Hey there! Did you want to join me? Better take the chance before I get all of the good ones.

[ To think that finding Childe was this easy. Getting him to come back, though? Is going to be a challenge. So why not stay awhile? ]

Scenario VI. Lost in the Snow

[ So, someone's bound to get sick of hanging around here.

Except...

Dragonspine's pretty big and it's been a really long time since Childe has been here.

So, now he's wandering in one of the expansive caverns, arms pulled around him, the cold finally starting to get to him. Past life experience or no, he's only human.

Though, he's also stubborn too, and refuses to ask for help. ]

Scenario VII. Wildcard

[ None of the prompts here strike your fancy? Feel free to do as you would please and come up with another scenario. ]

[ his first foray up into the mountain alongside maxima had been an... interesting one. And while he didn't want to go alone on his second foray, the Duke seems to have gotten separated from the party he was with--with the second time he's come to look at the mountain himself.

He doesn't... expect to find Childe. Yes, part of his reason for coming up here was definitely to make sure the ginger-headed idiot was safe--but finding him wasn't something he'd expected. Honestly.
They were both Black Order though, so for better or worse, Childe's wellbeing was something he concerned himself with.

So imagine the Duke's surprise when he finds the fucker... fishing. He's. Fishing?? ]

...You're...

[ you can see the disbelief on the Duke's face. All that concern for the guy and... ]

Did you not bring food with you when you came out on this insane journey? Is this how you've been feeding yourself?

[ literally how do you exist. ]

[ Childe still has no idea he's actually really worried anybody. After all, he's not really taken too much to the idea of people showing concern in his general direction.

Even for the sake of basic, logical reasons such as "he is an ally and it is only natural", because he is just like that.

So now here he is, looking at someone looking back at him in disbelief. ]

I brought food, but not enough.

[ Which says either a lot about his appetite or his preparations (not in a good way!!) ]

You're right about it being how I've been feeding myself. What's wrong? Wish you had thought of it first?

[ That's clearly the problem... ]

[Edward, the collar of his coat pulled up to shield his neck from the wind and the hood pulled up to keep the snow off his face, just watches Childe snowboard right down the mountain climb. Then he shrugs and trudges into the trees.

A minute or so later, Childe might find a snowball headed directly for him from somewhere in the branches. If he looks closer he might spot a flash of white and blue hopping deftly from one branch to the other, never holding still.]

[ Huh, what a reaction. Childe doesn't think too much of it, and...

Wait a damned minute is that a snowball?! He twists himself out of the way but he's also snowboarding, so that requires a lot more finesse than he's capable of in terms of last-minute maneuvers to keep himself balanced on the snowboard and evasion.

So, Edward gets to see Childe faceplant into the snow.

And then pick himself up, shaking his head. ]

...Alright, that's it. Someone's getting it.

[ Balling up a snowball himself and turning his head towards those branches...! ]

[Except it seems like there's no one there (16 stealth), with only the barest sway of a branch giving any indication that anyone had ever been there at all. Edward's an Assassin, and stealth is his bread and butter. He keeps Childe in his eyeline, silent as a mouse, and scrapes together a bit more snow.

Chucks it and misses (7), the snowball whiffing past Childe's head, possibly even giving away his position.]

[ How strange...can it be that there is nobody there at all? Just the wind?

But, there is something else that makes him think twice. Damned rouges and their stealthy attributes. That's fine, the snowball whirling past his head is enough to clue Childe that something is amiss. ]

Well, well...what do we have here?

[ The ginger turns immediately towards that direction, hurling that snowball hard and fast (yet accurate) where Edward has hidden himself, rushing towards that direction himself as well (17) ]

Edited 2024-12-04 21:04 (UTC)

[There's a yelp from the trees, but Edward manages to stay on his feet, already using the branches to stay ahead and keep Childe guessing. He doesn't respond because he'd like to keep the man off-balance, so that when Childe gets into the trees, another snowball rushes at him from a different direction from before.

And whiffs past his head again (2).

Up in the trees, Edward hisses out:] Bloody hell. [He's having an off day. He'll blame it on that and not the sheer cold.]

It's strange. Having another place show up like this--not just a building or a landmark, but an entire mountain? I thought Meropide showing up here was insane, but this... this is...

[ he shakes his head. He's sitting in his office, mulling over the Network--photos that Childe had sent and that others were posting over Zodiac as well as Gemini.

Across from him sits Maxima--one of the newer people to the city, but a welcome face in Meropide since he arrived. A pot of tea gently steaming between them as he considers his phone for a moment longer. ]

I'd like to go up there.
Going alone is a terrible idea--that's how you go somewhere and never return alive.

Would it be a huge ask to invite you along? There's a posting here, a researcher wants to know more about what's up there. And personally, I'd like to go see what it's like, myself. You know? Despite it being from my own world, I've never been there.

When we first met you were wearing clothing that looked pretty equipped for cold weather, so.

Sorry to assume things, but. I feel you'd be a good person to have along with me.

[Maxima just smiles back at the duke, cradling his cup of tea in his hands as he listens.]

You've surmised correctly. My homeland was in the frozen north, so I'm more experienced than most with ice and snow, and ways to travel on them safely. ...You're also correct that going alone is a good way to end up not coming back. It's all too easy for the ground in such a place to become treacherous, and if you find yourself trapped, you can't just wait until someone realizes you're missing and tracks you down.

[His tone is as mild and neutral as ever, but the canine ears on top of his head are half-alert with friendly interest. He hasn't figured out how to hide his moods with them yet.] So, I'd be more than willing to accompany you on a brief scouting mission. If anything, it will be a nice change of pace to have nothing greater at stake than curiosity.

[ he's definitely noticed the ears, but given his own experience with the things that hide neatly in his own hair? he at least won't tease or call out the very recognisable motions of them as they discuss. he's at least polite like that, while being very observant. ]

Sounds like we agree, then. I'm definitely all for a trip that doesn't involve a crisis-at-hand. And seeing places aboveground is still a commodity to me. Back home, I barely had time for forays out into the wilderness. So I'll indulge just a little.

[ a low chuckle escapes him as he moves to set his teacup aside, shifting to stand up as he considers. ]

I have a--acquaintance who's gone off on his own up there, and I think he's a fool for it, honestly. I won't make the same mistake, so I appreciate the company.

I'll put together a supply pack with things we'll need for the trip. And warm clothing. I'll meet you topside in about two hours, then?

[A quick nod, still with the same neutral smile as usual.] I'll see you there.

[As he packs his own things for the trip, he thinks that it's interesting to get out and see what this world has in terms of adventure, now that he's really starting to feel settled in. And he really does want to get to know Duke Wriothesley better, the man who belongs to this fortress as much as it belongs to him.

After some debate, he decides to leave his armor at home: it interferes with use of magic and it's not the best for sneaking around. The mountain is dangerous, but they aren't going looking for a fight, and if one finds them he's probably better off being able to dodge around and use fire than being able to take an extra hit. He ends up heading for the surface a little early, dressed in his warmest clothing and carrying his gunblade, and he'll greet Wriothesley when he sees the other:] I hope you didn't have too much trouble finding supplies.

It's fucking cold up here. Edward hates it. Deeply hates it, thanks, and bundles up in as many layers as he can get away with without sacrificing agility. He's even wrapped a scarf around his face so that the only thing visible under the parka's hood is a pair of blue eyes squinting into the snow.

"I should've dropped by that Goodwill," he mutters into his scarf. "Maybe that shopkeeper would've been willing to part with something just magically warm. Ugh."

He rubs his gloved hands together, then flicks his wrists, mostly just to make sure his hidden blades aren't frozen up in their housing. They still work, thank god. "Ritsuka," he says, "you doing all right there?"

Ritsuka nodded.

"I'm good, yeah."

She wasn't just saying that, either. Her mystic codes had some protection against temperature extremes to begin with, and that was *before* adding on proper cold weather gear over that. Plus, that scarf Yasuho gave her last Christmas that also had a warming spell woven into it to top things off.

It was probably a little unfair, really.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay, though?"

Edward, all wrapped up, coughs a bit. "I'm fine," he says, and hopes to god that he looks fine. He doesn't feel it, instead he feels miserably cold, but he's gone up against worse things than this and won so he's not going to let this goddamn mountain defeat him. He said he was going to climb it and by god he will.

Never mind how the chill is so strong he can still feel a touch of it even through his layers. He catches himself wondering if this is a problem that plagues dragons, because Ritsuka looks like she's doing just as good as she says she is.

"So what do you want to try and find first, then?"

It helped that this wasn't the first time Ritsuka had ventured into extreme cold, either. Which, well, maybe that wouldn't be reassuring to hear, considering, but there you have it.

"Good question... Do you think it'd be better to start with something easy, or just do the hardest part first?"

There were definitely merits and drawbacks to both approaches, after all.

If it were just Edward, he'd want to do the hardest part immediately just to get it out of the way, and never mind a little thing like "safety" and "good sense". But with Ritsuka around, Edward's considering those factors now too. She's a capable enough girl, and much warmer than he is, but...well, he's supposed to look after her! That's his job!

"Let's start with something easy," he says, after some thought. "Then if you're up for it we can try something a mite harder than that."

Ritsuka nodded. Edward was probably the more experienced here, having had to do any climbing feats on his own without the aid of Servants, so she'd defer to his judgment.

"Alright, so... What would be considered 'easy' around here?"

He rubs at his chin thoughtfully. Then: "Can't be too hard to spot those Crystalline Blooms, yeah?" he says. "They're flowers made of crystal. That's odd enough to stand out." And even if it's not Edward's got Eagle Vision, the second he spots a flash of gold through it he'll gun right for whatever it is in complete confidence it's exactly what they're looking for.

"Sure, but where do you think we should look first?"

A pause as she considered that a bit, herself.

"I mean... I guess where to look and where to start climbing is kinda the same. If there's monster lairs we can try to avoid them, but if someplace is easy for us to get to it'll be easy for monsters and wild animals, too."

In other words, they should be prepared for things to be tricky either way.

~Dragonspine Misadventures~

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v. fishing

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playtime in the mountain

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Closed to Maxima

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closed to ritsuka

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