dinosize: (Default)
Stephen Hart ([personal profile] dinosize) wrote2014-08-08 01:57 pm

04th Anomaly . spam

[ Stephen never quite relaxes. Even though he's in his element, even though it gives him a thrill every time breathing in the thick, pure air. Even as he finds himself smiling at the sun trickling down through the leaves. He can't quite stop expecting a monster to break the spell.

Find him:

At night, he makes campfire. Flickering light and shifting shadow. Follow the sight of the flames, the smell of wood smoke and cooking fish and meat. He will be close by his pack, rifle within easy reach, curled up in a hollow or against a log.

During the day: fishing. Careful hunting, making sure the shots he takes are to animals, not the little sentient bears or people from the Barge. (Try not to get in the way of a bullet, please, everyone.)

He pushes out and explores the forest.

Wades in the streams.

Swims in the pools, not particularly worried about nakedness. (This is probably the only time the rifle ends up away from his hands.)

Once, early on, he finds he's being followed by a group of creatures like little bears rustling the leaves around him. He calls out hello, and they burst out of their cover, brandishing spears. He raises his hands, slowly. - Help him? ]
theresalwayshope: (hunter} peering / curious)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-08 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[Allison was in the middle of tracking something for dinner later, a nice, fat little creature that reminded her of a rabbit, when she came across someone else who may or may not have been tracking her kill.

Bow slung across her back, Allison moves cautiously towards the guy with the rifle, coming from the side. She doesn't want to scare his target if he's not aiming for hers, and she doesn't want to get shot, since she's just finishing her own death toll...but she doesn't want to lose her own prey, either.

Nearing his side, she makes sure she's in his peripheral vision, rustling just enough leaves to alert him to her presence...and only then recognizes the guy she talked to just after she woke up in the infirmary. He looks a lot like the man who killed her, but less...hard. There's a color in his cheeks, a spark in his eyes that Zane doesn't have, so the momentary leap of her heart calms relatively quickly when she notes the differences.

Extending a hand, she touches his shoulder, and when she has his attention, uses hand signals to ask what he's hunting.]
theresalwayshope: (smile} big / laughter)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-08 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Allison is antsy to pick up the trail of her prey again, so she's not totally sure what he's trying to show her...

Then one of them shakes its head. One of the bushes.

Suddenly, she sees it all over: numerous birds, all of them with beaks and twig-like legs in muted earthtones. It's the perfect camouflage, and as Allison finally catches on, her mouth drops open and curls in a smile.

This beats the hell out of alien rabbit.

Turning to him, she beams, then with that same careful, noiseless movement, removes her recurve bow from across her back. She gestures with it, silently asking if he minds her joining the hunt.]
theresalwayshope: (huntress} raise your bow / a soldier i w)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-08 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Allison nods, and the friendly light in her face grows still, not quite cold...it's the stillness she draws on to hunt, the razor focus and inner silence that ensure she never misses.

Scanning the right side of the flock, she picks out three potential targets. All were healthy looking, and if she can time her shots right, there's no reason she can't land all of them, maybe one more if she were lucky, before they scatter.

Sighting her first choice, Allison draws an arrow from her quiver and deftly lines up her shot. Glancing over, she notes he's done the same, rifle at the ready.

Strike as one, equal chance to hit their targets before the rest of the birds run.

She nods, silently agreeing to follow his lead, then refocuses on the bird she's chosen to taste her first arrow.]
theresalwayshope: (hunter} archer / target in sight)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-10 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[Allison breathes on his count, timing the rhythm out in her head as she refocuses on her target. She straightens her back, focuses on her own heartbeat, slows it so she can shoot between each beat of her own pulse.

When she counts one in her head alongside him, she looses her arrow.

The rifle shots barely register, she's so focused on her target. The first turkey goes down. The rest are swift, but not quite as fast as a werewolf on the move. She notches another arrow in a single, graceful movement, tracking her second target as it scatters.

It falls.

She takes a third down the same way, and lines up a shot for a fourth, weighing whether or not she actually needs the additional kill at the same time.

She thinks of her impromptu hunting partner, and looses the arrow.

Not bothering for a fifth, Allison glances at him, the coolness of the killer instinct fading as she smiles, speaking for the first time.]


Good shooting.
theresalwayshope: (soft} smiling / or laughing)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-12 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Most of my life. [The cool and calculating huntress is gone, and in her place stands a humble, pink-cheeked seventeen year old girl who's ducking her head with a smile at the praise while she falls in step beside him to go collect their kills.]

I was nationally ranked as a kid, then I gave it up professionally...I didn't go for the Olympics or anything. I...sort of hunt actively? But the stuff I go after is a hell of a lot faster than these things.

[She gestures with the shrub turkey she's just picked up, having spotted the gleam of its beak with an eye trained by stalking things hiding in plain sight...like kanimas in the form of her best friend's first love, or a dark fox hiding in her best friend's skin.]
theresalwayshope: (hunter} suiting up / ready to go)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-13 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
My parents encouraged me to get into archery? But they never really pushed me towards going pro. Once I'd picked a sport, they let me sort of...find my own way.

[And it wasn't like they'd driven her to pick a sport, per se...more a weapon. Everything they'd urged her towards was combat adaptable...the gymnastics, track meets in grade school, even the firearms lessons she got in the name of safety were always laced with offers to teach her how to shoot when she got older.

Archery had been her only real say in the matter, and looking back, she was fairly sure it was merely a means to an end...a stepping stone. That, and a crossbow with a bolt dipped in wolfsbane could always do the job...

She shakes it off, moving to peer at another dead turkey. This one was another of Stephen's: the head was still attached, but most of it was gone. She gathers it up all the same, moving on to another felled bird she spots a few feet away, calling out over her shoulder so they could still converse.]


How hard did your folks push you?
theresalwayshope: (jawdrop} OMG WAT? / NO WAI)

[personal profile] theresalwayshope 2014-08-14 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[Allison understands that. All the demands her mother made on her to be strong, to forsake everything a normal, healthy seventeen year old girl could want from life in the name of being strong, powerful, a leader among her own. She was relentless and unyielding, always expecting more from Allison than she could provide...and if she hadn't been so aware of her mother's pride and her devotion, she would have done a lot worse than sneak out or break curfew now and again.

And now, looking back on Alan Argent's memories, Allison can no longer muster the same respect she once had for her mother. Knowing how she would have been treated if she were born a boy...at least her father still tried. Her mother...

...wait, did he say dinosaurs?!?

Looking up sharply from a third bird she gathers up, Allison's eyes go wide and her jaw drops.]


Hang on, do you mean...like, animal life that's directly related, like sharks and some of those weird...bats or something? Or do you mean actual Three Horns Never Play With Long Necks, T-Rexes and...wooly mammoths and...actual dinosaurs?!?