Crisis on Tournament Isle!

[Crisis]

Chryseis “Crisis” Estoban stood in a tree over-looking Fairy Tail’s soon-to-be campsite. She made sure to arrive before her teammates in order to assess their observation skills. If they were to have any chance at winning this tournament of survival, she needed to know what they had to work with. The tests she had been springing on Tatsuma and Verity since she was accepted into the team had mixed results, and mainly consisted of hiding in unusual places and popping up to surprise them unless they managed to find her first. Which they sometimes did, leading to awkward situations. Also, not all of her hiding places were that good. These tests probably weren’t necessary - this is Fairy Tail after all - and it probably would’ve been a better idea if she just talked to them for five minutes instead trying to be all mysterious.

She wasn’t entirely sure how she got roped into this, although she was fairly certain a raffle was involved. Or maybe she had just hung around the guild hall so long, waiting for someone to take her request, that they assumed she was part of the guild. However it happened, she was so caught up in the “That Girl” moment of it all she couldn’t question it or point out that her name was misspelled on the roster. Well, she was pretty sure it was her name, since no one else spoke up about it. Either way, she was here now, on this team, and come Hell or high water she was going to help them win this.

…

This is where the campsite is supposed to be, right?

[Verity Lohlepher]

Throughout Jora's speech, the blonde had been staring into space. The words floated meaninglessly through one ear and out the other. As a result when it was time for the competitors to head to the isle, she blinked in surprise when she was pulled by one arm into the boat. She didn't know who had done so but it was disturbing for one to find themselves on solid ground one moment and swaying on the deck of a boat the next. She didn't understand how she had ended up in the team. It was surprising that no one besides her and that psycho ended up inside. She would have thought at least one more person joined or maybe even one more team! But alas no, she was stuck with a psycho and some creep. She didn't mind that Crisis was a creep but it was slightly unnerving to be spied on. Like why? Couldn't she have just talked to her? As for the psycho aka Tatsuma Shinju, he was a strange one. She didn't know what she thought about him. She never did since she didn't think it mattered. Oh well, all they needed to do was work together. How hard could that be?

As soon as the boat touched land, she jumped off the deck - only to wobble and have her knees buckle under her after landing back on solid ground. This was promising. She gritted her teeth and struggled to get up without a support. Once she was on her feet, she lifted her arms to steady her balance. She didn't wish to fall on her face and so she clumsily took the broom in her hand and stuck it in the ground. After she managed to reorient herself she decided to head to the supposed campsite. Wait...where was the supposed campsite?

While Verity attempted wandering aimlessly it never occurred to her that while she hopped off the boat as soon as she could, it wasn't the designated area for competitors to get off. As a result, she was lost.

(In terms of posting: Don't expect me to post next Thursday or Friday, I might but there's a good chance I won't)

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma hadn't exactly enjoyed the boat ride to the island but he was here nonetheless and teamed up with his new roommate and a random girl he just saw in front of the guild a lot. All in all he was no where near as excited as he probably would have been about spending time out alone in the woods with two ladies... Mostly because Verity was about as interested in dating as a blizzardvyrn was in tanning at the beach, and the other girl... Well she was just not his type. Plus since his fight with Kotone he was exactly looking for random girls these days. If he could have entered this survival challenge by himself he would have, though he still managed to grab a fish from one of the fishermen on the boat. 

His body felt stiff from the boat ride but he managed to work it out a little before heading back to the beach area to see if anyone else had managed to get there and saw Verity. It worked out that he met up with her first and handed her the fish he had finished flash frying with his magic. 
"you know if you fall for me after this I'd understand." he joked with a wink as he handed her the fish.he figured the chances of that adrenalin to none but he stillthought it might at least make her smile. She seemed to be under the impression that he was a psycho. This was not going to help his chances. He reached down and helped her up and held onto for support so she could steady herself. They needed to go find their third team mate before something happened to her.

[Crisis]

(("Would you like a fish?"))

Crisis sat down on the tree branch.  What was taking them so long?  The campsite wasn’t all that far from the shore.  Assuming that this was were the campsite was supposed to be, of course.  Crisis wasn’t all that good at navigating through forests.  Too many trees.  You were always walking around them and they blocked your field of view.  Crisis grew up in the desert, which offered an unobstructed view of miles and miles of sand in every direction.  All you had to do was walk in a straight line until you found civilization.  Or died of thirst.  Of course, there were sand dunes, which could be difficult to climb sometimes and you’d have to go around them.  And sandstorms.  Not only can those things can turn you around real bad, but they completely change the landscape making it difficult to tell if you’re even in the same place once it blows over.  And apparently people have difficulty walking in a straight line for very long if they don’t have a point of reference and will wind up chasing their own footprints in hopes of finding salvation.

Alright, so maybe forests weren’t that much worse than deserts.  At least the trees give you shade and it’s easier to find food and water.  You just have to know what to look for.

...

Crisis sniffed the air.  What was that?  Fish?  Is someone cooking fish?  Are they eating without her?  Gods dammit!  Is this not the right place after all!?

[Verity Lohlepher]

It was a good thing the psycho saw her when he did. If he didn't, she'd have started exploring the great expanse of wilderness that lied just beyond the beach. As it was she did see him about a second after he saw her and was about to wave when she was promptly handed a fish. She stared at it. It was cooked. A Tatsuma special if she could say so herself. She blinked at it before shrugging her shoulders. Food was food and all food was delicious. Vera looked up from the fish and smiled at the boy before her. It never really occurred to her before that she was probably older than him. He acted like an old man. An old man who really liked fighting that is. Maybe she was exaggerating. Meh, who cared? Her smile didn't last for long though, warping into a scrunched up expression when she heard what he said. "You can't say that! I gave you a fish first so if anything, that should have happened ages ago if it were possible. Also, reverse." she objected playfully "Plus, you're ALSO copying my idea which I think is pretty unattractive." she added with a nod, placing a hand on his shoulder briefly before whirling around to head towards the forest, broom held like a walking stick, not waiting to see if the psycho was following.

When Verity called Tatsuma a 'psycho' inside her head, she wasn't really calling him a psycho as in a psychopath. He wasn't that psychotic. Maybe a little. She just mentally referred to him as one because her first impression of him was as psychotic and after meeting him again, her opinion didn't change and really, he only became more strange in her head. If someone asked her to describe him, she'd say strange. She couldn't find any other way to describe him.

The blonde held the fish she had been given in one hand, reluctant to store it away and wondered where Crisis was. She turned around to face Tatsuma. "Do you know..." she trailed off mid-sentence. She looked to the sky thoughtfully. "Do you even know where we're going?" she asked before turning back around and biting her lip in thought.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma looked, around, observed the sky and then shrugged.
"More or less, wind is blowing to the east so we need to head that way." He said, pointed south west toward where he thought the camp would be. Plus it wasn't like she was going to set up camp in the center of the forest.
"So what exactly do you find attractive, since you find things unattractive apparently?" He asked as he walked past her in the direction he was suggesting that they go. He resisted the urge to pat her head since it was kind of cute when she mounted up like a calvary unit and then asked for help. Come to think of it he thought a lot of her quirks were cute... That was atypical, he usually got tired of people pretty quickly, though he shoved the thought out of his mind and waltzed forward.

A fair distance later he hit the edge of the camp sight and caught sight of 'Crisis'. He had more or less invited her to join their team because he figured they stood a better chance but he had no idea what her magic or her skill set was so for all he knew she could even have been another dragon slayer... or a normal person without any magic. Whatever the case may have been, he wanted to get the show on the road.
"Well ladies, are we ready to begin this little camping trip of.. what I can only assume is going to end up being more difficult than it seemed... but still camping trip of team building exercise." He joked as he looked toward the entrance of the forest. The advantage here went to him, he had spent almost all of his time in the forests of Fiore training, and even living since Rhidran left him when he was 9. No reason to tell either of them about that, nor about his fairly limited sense for other people's bio electricity which he was dead set on improving at some point if he ever got the inclination to train it out instead of simply combat oriented training.

[Crisis]

Crisis was about to head back to shore when she heard voices coming up from the way she came. She was fairly certain is was the other two people she had been teamed up with. She had heard them talking to other people on the boat a number of times while she was waiting to ambush them during the ride. In her line of work, it was to her advantage to be able to remember details like that. They were visible soon enough, verifying her hypothesis.

Also, yay! She was in the right place after all!

She decided to continue hiding in the tree and wait to see how long it would take for them to notice her. She didn’t have a target time for this, really. She was just going to wait for one of them to wonder where she was and step out of the shadows all cool like. However, they weren’t there for more than a few seconds before Tatsuma said “Ladies,” and unless they picked up a fouth while she was hiding in the shadows that probably included her.

Crisis didn’t particularly want to get out of the tree, for she had an ulterior motive for hiding in it. This was a pretty big event, and as such it was televised. That meant cameras. Cameras always made Crisis feel uncomfortable, and due to training she had undergone as a child she was intuitively aware of when one was watching her. And this island had cameras up the wazoo. She couldn’t just ignore them, as in the back of her mind a camera may as well be the scope of sniper rifle. She couldn’t quite tell where they were, but she was pretty sure the cameras would have a hard time picking her out amongst the foliage.

She sighed. Superstitious fears aside, there was no reason to continue hiding. She was just going to have to step out into the open and try to act natural.

“Very good,” she said out loud. “You noticed me in no time at all. We will need perception like that if we are to win this contest of survival.” She jumped down from the tree and stepped towards the two. “I do not believe I have properly introduced myself yet.” She put a hand to her chest and bowed slightly. “Mi nombre es Chryseis Estoban, but everyone calls me Crisis.”

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity was in 'deep' thought so she actually didn't here Tatsuma's response. She nodded and murmured as if she had listened though. Her deep thought was only 'deep' because she wasn't thinking; she was thinking. Thinking about what she was thinking about that is (there was a big difference). It was only natural that the blonde would have flat out walked into a tree if the blonde-white haired boy hadn't walked past her, breaking her out of her thought process. She turned around blinking and had to jog slightly to catch up with him. "I never said I found things unattractive. I don't think I'm unattractive. You're not unattractive as in looks, can't say about personality" -she poked her tongue out at him- "But for things I do find attractive, I think food rates pretty high. Especially that gourmet food in all those shapes. Talking about food, lucky me and Crisis! We have our own microwave/toaster/oven/stove!" Unlike Tatsuma, Vera very rarely controlled her urges so she patted him on the head when she referred to the microwave etc.

When they reached the campsite, she grew weak at the knees. It was like a dream come true. It was your average typical campsite but not. What made this campsite all the more special was the rubbish it contained. It just lay everywhere for them to clean up! Tears pricked in her eyes. The smell was rank. Was she the only person who noticed it? God the others were dense if they didn’t!

She decided to distract her mind from the future task she’d find herself doing and instead, turned to face Tatsuma. The only thing that managed to make her central nervous system was the word ‘ladies’. She stared at him like his hair had turned into an array of bananas. “WOAH WOAH wait. Ladies? Seriously? That’s the weirdest thing you could ever say. I am not a lady. That girl in the tree is not a lady. Save the word for a person who actually acts like a lady.” She pointed to Crisis in the tree whom she had noticed.

Not very soon after her dialogue, the girl in the tree herself decided to make an appearance. Verity wasn’t known for her listening skills. “I already knew you were there. Anyways, why were you in the tree?” Her blue eyes were stretched wide with curiosity as she looked at the cowgirl. She asked this question when Crisis begun to speak. She realised this a second later. “Oh sorry, you were speaking,” Her sorry held no meaning. This probably cut off the rest of her sentence. “And hi! Verity, you can call me Vera,” she said with a smile.

[Crisis]

“There’s a very good reason for-” Crisis stopped in mid-sentence as she was interrupted, her mouth still hanging open as if she were a photograph of herself taking while she was talking. All except her eyes, which slowly slid in Verity’s direction as she was now the one talking. Once Verity finished introducing herself, her face and body slid into position to catch up with her eyes and formed a genial expression, her palms pressed against each other in front of her like an obsequious hotel clerk.

“Nice to meet you Vera,” she said. Crisis turned towards the huge pile of garbage. “Obviously, our first order of business is to set up camp. First things first, the elephant in the room. Now, clearly, we can’t camp on the garbage, so we’re going to have to move it all out of the way. I say we move it to the perimeter of the camp and build a wall of garbage to ward off predators and defend against enemy attacks. The horrendous stench will probably help on both those fronts.” She turned away from the garbage to the path they had come down. “Next, we set up camp. One of us will set up tents, one of us will gather up firewood, and one of us will gather food. This would be a good time to look for fresh water, too. Getting these things now will allow us to save our supplies and magic for later when we really need them.”

Crisis stood there a moment, stroking her chin as if ruminating over something. She glanced back to Verity and asked, “We did bring supplies, right?”

[Tatsuma]

(hey ave normally you're supposed to keep to post order. It's my fault since I didn't wake up to my alarms last night and couldn't post but it's no biggy. Post order is now: Ave, Tatsu, Vera as of now :) )

So Crisis wanted to take on the position of leader? He typically had no problem following if the person he was following was more qualified... in this instance that was not the case.
"There's a few points here, one; we having garbage anywhere near us with any kind of scent won't keep predators away, it will draw them. Any animal with a heightened sense of smell will smell food over any other type of non edible refuse. It will draw predators from everywhere and we'll end up getting over run. It's basic survival 101 and it's why when you go to the bathroom out here you need to bury it. Point two; a fire will keep predators away but anything curious will get drawn in, this means racoons, monkeys, whatever happens to be on this island, and the fire will only keep predators away if there have been enough humans here for them to have a reason to fear it. Lack of human presence at all means that fire will draw those in too. Point three: this is a bad camp site thanks to the garbage, but it makes a great place to trap our food. Animals drawn here can be eaten, for the most part we should use this place as a trap area and move somewhere down wind. Lastly, we don't need to start a fire in the first place, I can cook most of our food with my magic, we should probably go over our magic and get to know each other as we find another camp." He said, glancing to Verity as he said the last part.

He wasn't entirely sure whether or not she was going to be on board with everything as her default seemed to be to just tune people out completely, but once she started listening she was fairly adept at doing whatever needed to be done. Still, there were a myriad factors he started considering, and he didn't like the idea of having any of them go into this whole mess from a blank perspective. In addition he wanted to go over combat drills, but a look towards Verity suggested she wasn't going to want any part in that, and the new girl may not have been a huge fan of them either. Decisions were going to have to be made, but at this point he wasn't even sure how effective he was going to be as a leader since Verity was far too familiar with him. Shaking his head he spoke simply and voiced his concerns, deciding to see how they reacted and go from there.
"Speaking of getting to know each other we may benefit from team tactics since I don't know about you guys, but I'm not exactly experienced with team work." He admitted.

[Verity Lohlepher]

If Verity could read Tatsuma's mind, she'd be giving him more stares suggestive of his lunacy - worse than the ones she gave him when she first ended up in his apartment. He thought she wouldn't like combat drills? And they lived in the same apartment! It didn't make sense. She loved combat drills - and she wasn't even being sarcastic. Combat drills = More power, more power = more strength, more strength = more motivations in life being complete and when it came to Vera's motivations in life, she worked hard at them. While she was a complete lazy, distracted and destructive slug at most things, if she wanted it bad, she got it done hard. It was alright for him to be concerned with her listening ability though. She hadn't proved to be entirely reliable in the past. However, today was the day of change!...not really, she was more thinking Kuroha would have enjoyed such a challenge and thus she would enjoy it and complete it with zest (and win of course). This included listening to wise (she used this word flippantly) people who knew about their stuff and taking mental notes for later use. Both Crisis and Tatsuma fitted in this role.

However, what was going on the inside, did not necessarily seem obvious on the outside. When the psycho talked, Vera appeared to be staring off into the distance. This was because staring off in the distance actually helped with her concentration and pondering ability. She was also fidgeting with her broomstick by twirling it around with her fingers. She learned best by moving at the same time.

When the two finished their respective speeches and instructions, she decided to point out a very clear point that the others would most likely never say. "Both of you gave contradictory opinions on what we should do so that makes me the only person who has not shared lest we be stuck doing nothing. Here's what I think," She beamed at both of them. "In this case, my personal opinion is that let's just store all this junk away and continue on with getting this camp ready. I can do that pretty easily." She looked at Tatsuma. "I don't think it is a good idea to move campsites mainly because a) You said the rubbish would attract wild animals so I'm going to guess that means if they haven't already attacked, they will be lurking around somewhere. This defeats the purpose of saving mana. Moving on to b) If I removed the rubbish, this campsite becomes not bad. While the scent will linger, you're the wildlife expert so I'll say you know how to get rid of smells. I mean, I could just go and dump all the rubbish onto another spot. Chances are this campsite is ours for a reason so not a good idea to move," She finished her mini-speech with a nod and turned to face Crisis. "For your idea while the rubbish, I'm a little bit hesitant on spending that much time with bad smells." She now was talking to her teammates. "Now teamwork. We need teamwork to win. I want to win so we'll just figure out how to work with each other later." She grinned brightly before turning to the rubbish. If they disagreed with her idea about getting rid of the rubbish, she'd just dump it all back. Unless the rubbish had mana, it was free of charge to store in her pocket world.

[Crisis]

((If possible we should "accidentally" dump the trash at a competitor's campsite.))

((Oh, and sorry about skipping you, Tatsuma. About four days ago, I received a PM suggesting I be prepared to skip you if I had to, and I thought we each had to post on the same day.))

Crisis continued to stand there, stroking her chin in consideration as she listened to the Fairy Tail mages state their cases. Before long, right about when Tatsuma was talking about curious animals, a monkey climbed onto her head and adopted the same pose. “Hmm. A fair point.”

The presence and sheer number of cameras had clouded her judgement. Normally, she would’ve caught on to the idea that animals were attracted to strong smells rather than disgusted by them, but the cameras made her self-conscious to the point of distraction. The smell wasn’t helping, either, quite frankly. On that note, it occurred to Crisis that the presence of the garbage itself was odd. Who would go out of their way to dump all this trash on this one spot on a supposedly uninhabited island when it would probably be easier to dump it in the sea? Probably harder to find, too. Crisis had some theories of her own about that, but she figured it would be better to keep it to herself for a while until she found more evidence to support it. For all she knew, it was probably nothing.

“Getting rid of the smell is one thing,” she said as she and monkey gestured back to the pile. “But that doesn’t change the fact that the ground is likely contaminated now, as well. Dirt is a little harder to clean, after all.”

Crisis slid her arms under her poncho as the monkey put its hands behind its back. “I also agree that we should learn to work together. Otherwise, the teams that can already work together will have an advantage over us. Also, the kind of magic I use is mainly for assisting others, but it’s been a while since I’ve been on a team so I’ve mainly been using the magic on myself.”

[Tatsuma]

((Evidently everyone got that email so it must be naturally assumed I'm going to be lazy))

Tatsuma thought about what Verity said for a moment. Deal with wild beasts or other teams. If Kade, Astra, Raven, Kotone, or Fayte were on the island he didn't really want to tango with them in a group especially when he wasn't so sure exactly what his team was capable of. She seemed to have wildlife expert confused with wildlife magic.
"Okay just because I know how to survive doesn't make me a trashmaster. I can't magically make the scent of random carrion and garbage disappear. I don't use trash magic. We could burn it and I guess the smoke smell might overcome that, but reference aforementioned commentary on why that could potentially cause more problems. I'm more for setting up camp up in a tree or finding someplace high up. Better visibility, harder to sneak up on, and it'll be easier to start a fire if it gets cold since we still would have the visual advantage. And another thing-" He was cut off when he finally noticed the money sitting on Crisis' head and just suddenly had a desire to give up on reality.

"Okay all of that aside, we should still probably go over exactly what magic we use. I know Vera is a requip mage, but besides that I'm not super aware of what all she can do. If we figure that out we can develop team tactics and work on something that will give us an edge in combat. As such, I'm going to suggest combat drills, I know it may not sound like fun, but I think if we have a set of team techniques we'll be much better set than if we surprise each other." He said, agreeing with them on that last point. If they managed to do it here, they could compromise and the magic energy might draw others which would give them to chance to ambush.

[Verity Lohlepher]

((I like to think of it more as a concern for your health and well-being rather than your laziness XD Also, may not post tomorrow, I'll try though, if I don't before any of your allocated time slot for posting, just skip me, beware I might change the posting order though XD
EDIT: Looks like I can post today (on Monday) I got the wrong day...my bad))

As Verity said before, she was soooo not an expert on wildlife survival. Her capability stopped at making A-frame shelters which Kade, a real expert, had helped her make some months before. In any case, the others were more equipped. "Okay then, if we make a separate trash site would the smell be stronger over there and so the animals and all the rest get more keen over there?" Camera's didn't bother her. In fact, ever since that play Kenise pseudo forced her into doing she was more than happy to have some screen time if she absolutely had to. "Wait, you're talking about the dirt right? I guess spraying fertiliser won't help then," she grinned despite the fact she probably made next to no sense.

When Tatsuma suggested they camp in trees she gained inspiration. "I know! What if we sleep in trees like you say but we stick near here. Even if we don't end up staying here we do need somewhere to eat, sleep etc. for tonight at least before it gets too late," she said. The other things that he said made her frown. Why were they expecting other people to attack them? She had nothing against fighting but this was a teamwork exercise. Should they encounter other teams she'd think it made more sense to work together with them. Peace generally worked better for points in teamwork exercises. "Well as you said I use requip magic. My theme is called 'the Witch' but besides that, I don't think there's anything particularly defining. At the moment I can only user fire and electricity magic."

[Crisis]

“I always wanted a treehouse!” Crisis exclaimed, her eyes excessively sparkling almost as soon as the idea of sleeping in trees was mentioned.  The monkey on her head looked pretty excited, too.  A moment after she said it, she realized she probably looked ridiculous and reigned her expressiveness back in.  “I grew up in the desert, so there weren’t a lot of trees you could build a house in.  Sure, there were palm trees, but you couldn’t build a treehouse in them.  Not a proper one, at least.”

Crisis drew a pistol from behind her back and pointed it out to the side.  It was a gold-plated semi-automatic with a casing around the barrel that was modeled to look like the head of an eagle.  “My magic isn’t really all that great for moving trash, either.” She cocked the hammer back and what appeared to be a ovoid, stained-glass window about six feet tall and three feet wide appeared, bearing a design that looked like three red, upward-pointing chevrons materialized in front of it as space expanded vertically like an eye opening.  It hung there in mid-air as if the area behind it was a mural painted onto the wall it was built into.  “The traditional name of my magic is ‘The Chthonic Gates,’ but it’s also come to be known as ‘Defenestration Magic.’  Each gate produces a different effect when something passes through it.  This one here is the Chthonic Gate of Acceleration.”

To demonstrate the effect, Crisis picked up a tin can and casually tossed it at the Gate.  The Gate shattered on impact and the can rapidly accelerated, embedding itself in a nearby tree.

“This is my strongest spell right now,” Crisis continued as she uncocked the gun and reholstered it.  “The other Gates are just as self-explanatory: Magnification, Redirection, Multiplication, and Denial.  Each can only be used once per casting and I can only hold them open for about a second or so, except for Denial, which acts more like a shield.”  Her left arm trembled slightly.  “Any questions?”

MP 175/200:

[Tatsuma]

Electricity? That was right, she had told him that the dagger did that after their fight. It was a fairly important detail for him to forget. Acceleration was going be useful and Crisis was right, her other spells seemed like they all fit nicely into something of a theme, but he wasn't exactly sure how everything was going to fall in together... Not yet at least.
"Well then I suppose it's only fair that I share. I'm a dragon slayer mage, I use electrical magic, and it just so happens that Vertity can use magic that will recharge my own mana pool if I can eat it. After all electricity is my favorite food." He said with a grin. Now that they had that sorted out there was the matter of the campsites.

"We take to the trees in the wooded area near here, we'll have to deal with just hammocks at the very most since building a whole tree house takes time and energy we should be conserving. As far as the trash goes this will do fine as a way to see what's going on and if we start a fire we should do it here. Any predators that come to visit will give us the edge and if we just so happen to have wolves here we'll have an even better advantage." He added, setting everything in a row as he wanted it.
He was glad they were getting this out of the way now, but combat drills were going to be a little tricky for the same reason that he wanted to avoid building a tree house. Still, as far as magic came, Dragon Slayers were a little bit of a loose bunch. They weren't grouped together and it wasn't like fate was keeping anything in line.

"As far as combat drills go, i'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Obviously Crisis has the support role down pat, but any adept mage is going to see that the moment she gives anyone a boost, that means I want her to have some drills during which time she's in a primary attack role. Both of you use melee weapons, but Crisis uses a ranged weapon in addition so I want to incorporate that and Verity, you mentioned you had intended to throw that dagger at me when we fought so I'm wondering if I might be able to use it as a lightning rod with an attack boosted by Crisis. I'm a close and mid range fighter, Verity is close and mid range, sword and gun makes Crisis mid and long range with a weakness for close range, and I feel it's fair from my experience with Verity to say that she's not trained in a martial art, though Crisis dual wields so she might be. I'd like to create some strategies where one or more of use don't use magic to attack, but I know holder guns fire off rounds based on mana, and strikes from Verity's weapons will interfere with that if everyone is aiming for the same spot." He thought to himself as he looked at each one of them as if he was talking. There were too many variables involved with the planning and cohesiveness of such strategies.

"Well, what if we start by assessing what strengths we have outside of magic use. If we have to rely on mana too much we'll just drain ourselves dry. If one or more of us can get away without using mana then at least one person will be able to protect the rest of the group if it comes down to it." He finally said out loud.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity was a bit irked that no one bothered to comment on her suggestion. She was even more irked when the psycho had his big coming out. She probably cut through half his sentence. She didn't know. "HOLY ****! YOU'RE A FRICKIN' DRAGON SLAYER?? AND HOW COME I DID NOT KNOW???" She yelled, immediately stomping over to where he was and shaking him. Obviously while Tatsuma had thought the issue was over, she didn't share the same opinion. Her time of listening was up. She plopped herself on the ground and began pondering nothing for the second time of the day. When she snapped out of it, she stared blankly at the other two and decided she'd just follow along. It didn't matter. She'd deal with not knowing. She got the general idea anyways. That was close enough. After that, it was guesstimation time! She started listening again when he asked for other skills and she nodded her head.

"Well if you need me to store anything I can do that with no mana due to the nature of my magic. I can make an A-frame but I really don't see the use in that and...well I don't think I can do anything else," she said, grinning brightly. At least that was what came to mind when asked about what she could do. Vera thought that Tatsuma and Crisis were probably both going to be better than her at this whole wilderness survival thing. This made her wonder about other teams. Who were in the other teams? Did they know how to survive in the wilderness? Maybe if she'd paid more attention she'd have found out.

[PatriotArrow]

(Note: Encounters are intended to only take up a few posts at most, but have a possible impact on the direction the rp takes)

-ENCOUNTER-
Name: Wolves
Type: Hostile
Info: A small, especially aggressive pack of four wolves seem to have decided that humans are as good of prey as  any, and are preparing to attack the group.

There is nothing special about the wolves beyond their abnormal aggression until destroyed, at which time they fade into black smoke.

Note: Tatsuma did not smell or hear the wolves approaching as he normally would have. Upon fading into smoke, Tatsuma can smell a strange magic in the air.

[Crisis]

So Tatsuma was a Dragon Slayer, huh? That explained the burnt ozone smell. You can get a faint whiff of it from lightning mages sometimes, but it wasn’t quite as faint from Tatsuma. Compared to lightning mages, Lightning Dragon Slayers were practically made of it. Or maybe it was that fish he had been electrocuting earlier. Either way, this kid was getting a little more interesting. Although Verity’s response was also interesting in it’s own way.

“You two are in the same guild, and you don’t know that much?” Crisis scoffed. “I thought Fairy Tail was closer-knit than that.”

It was a little disappointing to say the least. Her own once-great former guild had compared itself to Fairy Tail numerous times and she held the institution in high regard. To see two of its members in disharmony like this was disheartening, especially since the bonds between its members was said to be the source of its power. But then again, these two did seem to be some of the more junior members, so maybe they just hadn’t found that sort of connection yet. They certainly didn’t seem to like each other, that’s for sure. It really wasn’t her problem and, besides, this was exactly the kind of thing your boss sent you on with your coworkers when you didn’t get along with them. She really didn’t have to do anything than play the game like she normally would.

“As for my martial prowess…” Crisis started, only to stop as a low, canine growling sounded from the forest. She turned back and, lo and behold, a pack of wolves emerged from the trees. She gave a sly grin as she unsheathed her sunset-hued sword with her left hand and drew her gold-plated gun with her right. “I believe I can provide a demonstration…”

Unless anyone had some objections, Crisis would immediately charge the wolves, ducking down low with her handgun braced by her sword arm. Rather than meet the wolves head-on, however, she would juke right and dash up a pile of garbage. At the top, she would kick off from a discarded door and dive past the wolves, crossing the pack diagonally as she spun like a corkscrew. This would allow her to slash several of the canine apparitions in rapid succession until she reached a tree on their opposite side. She would then promptly swing around the tree and up to the nearest bough as the antagonized wolves chased after her. Perching there, she would take a few quick shots at the wolves with her gun before disappearing into the foliage.

((That’s not too fantastic a move, right? I may have been playing too much Dream Drop Distance.))

[Tatsuma]

He listened to Verity speak her first thought, but the answer to that was simple.
"You never asked.." He said simply. To her second statement he let her talk, she didn't seem to realize that thanks to her humility on the matter she would most likely be the deciding vote in any arguments later on.

Tatsu shook his head, both as Crisis spoke and Verity accosted him. He would have to tell Crisis later that the reason Verity hadn't known yet was because the dragon slayers were supposed to keep it a secret. The fact was that while he didn't flaunt it, he had no intention of lying to people or just being some sort of recluse, afraid for people to know what he was. So when the wolves showed up he was naturally at a loss. He probably should have explained that he got along with wolves, wait they had sneaked up on him? Since when? He had lived in the forest with wolves since he came down from the mountains and he prided himself on his own stealth abilities.

He was going to go try to calm them down, but when Crisis took off and simply started to attack them he got frustrated. Then he smelled something weird. It was almost like the smell before a rainstorm, different, but it was similar in that it was both a smell and a feeling.
"Crisis no!" He roared, but it was too late. He took off to help, but two of the wolves broke off and attacked, one went after him, and one went after Verity. There was nothing they could do now but fight. He didn't envy the idea, but survival was rule number one. Then it hit him, wolves didn't break off and attack people individually, they singled out a target and then the whole pack would take them down. Additionally they went after the weakest target, this behavior was atypical. Still as one attacked him he simply dodged and rolled underneath the leap. He rolled forward and came up, taking a stance next to Verity. He was absolutely going to protect her if she turned out to need it.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Oh. She so asked. She clearly remembered him saying lightning magic. The blonde sniffed and turned pointedly away from him. Upon hearing Crisis's comment on Fairy Tail she turned and sent a death glare in her direction. She would have started an in-depth argument on why that was not so but the sound of wolves growling distracted her. Startled the blonde turned around. Her eyes widened. Was the trash really that bad? Maybe they did need to get rid of it - and fast. She immediately got to her feet and grabbed her staff. There were about four wolves; no there were four wolves. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't a whole pack. She watched Crisis begin her attack on the wolves and froze on the spot for a good few seconds. This act nearly cost her. If it wasn't for her quick reflexes she would have gone down with the wolf. She hadn't realised two had broken off to attack her and Tatsuma.

The wolf bit down on her staff. It was more than a little annoying. She'd have to store it later if it were to regain it's ability to be used. She guessed the time it would take was approximately 5 minutes. She sighed and restored her broom. The wolf yelped as it was left hanging in the air. It fell to the ground, taking a few seconds to regain it's bearing. Within that time space she requipped into Hauskor and plunged the dagger into it. She slid the dagger across its belly, steel meeting fur. The girl braced herself for the blood to come oozing out of its wounds but to her surprise, it merely disappeared into black smoke. She stood up and blinked in surprise. She was aware of Tatsuma taking a stance next to her. He had probably been there before but she'd been too distracted to realise.

The girl was still concerned about the wolf disappearing into black smoke. She pursed her lips. What could i- She grew aware of something menacing approaching. Her heartbeat quickened. She didn't waste time to see what it was and instead she dodged to the left, the side Tatsuma was not on. She saw after whirling around that she managed to evade the wolves outstretched claws by mere millimetres. It landed on its feet and quickly came after her again. She growled in frustration. Why did it have to attack her? The psycho was standing right next to her!

MP: 135/150 (Requipping Hauskor)

[Crisis]

Crisis could cite any number of reasons for believing that the wolves they had been confronted with were not ordinary wolves. The monkey on her head, for instance. Monkeys don’t get that cheeky when predators are about. Additionally, if they were real wolves, Tatsuma would’ve smelled them a mile away with those enhanced senses Dragon Slayers were known for. Both of those would’ve led her to believe the wolves hadn’t existed until just before they made their presence known, but there could be reasons why those two warning signs failed to materialize. However, the wolves’ behavior was further proof that they were an unnatural breed. Predators in general wouldn’t deign to hunt down humans unless they were desperate; The meat to risk ratio was way off, especially after Crisis had just displayed her magic. Those wolves didn’t look emaciated enough to want to eat humans, and if they were then they would likely hunt something a little meatier first. As said, that monkey was way too cheeky to be a scarce food supply. Territory was out, also. Four wolves were hardly about to intimidate three magic-using humans. They might as well try to stare down gods, as far as normal wolves were concerned. Their appearance was almost too convenient, as well, being right when they were talking about fighting, but that may have been a coincidence. And to top it all off, their fur was the wrong color; Wolves this dark weren’t commonly seen in this region.

If pressed, Crisis would likely give any of those reasons. Truth be told, however, she saw angry wolves and just thought this was a good excuse to show off. She could always manufacture reasons after the fact, especially since her actions were more or less justified. That always helped.

Crisis continued darting through the tree-tops, leading the two wolves who pursued her on a merry chase around the camp/dump site. To keep moving was her style, but she wasn’t about to go far without her teammates. They might need support, after all, even though she had no doubt that a mighty Dragon Slayer and his witchy not-girlfriend could handle a pair of wolves no problem. Crisis just need to make sure the wolves chasing her were in the right position. They might be be behaving quite properly, but they still had some idea of how to fight as a team.

She dropped from the tree, right into the path of the lunging wolves. She smirked as she brought up her sword and a small window about a foot in diameter with a blue X on it materialized between her and the wolves. A quick slash destroyed the Gate, and the wolves’ world was suddenly made of blades. Replicas of her sword sprouted from the air where the Gate had once been, spreading outward in a sunset-colored bouquet of death. A moment later the blades vanished, taking the wolves with them and leaving behind only wisps of black smoke.

Crisis quickly bolted back to the campsite in order to render her assistance if necessary. She clambered up a pile of garbage to gain a height advantage and aimed her gun at one of the wolves.

MP: 165/200:

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma slid his foot outward and as the wolf landed after having lunged at Verity. It was unfortunate, but he had to make his own decision. He had to protect his own pack. Bracing on the outstretched foot, Tatsuma swung a powerful kick, his shin aimed at the back knee of the wolf, the one that it used for jumping, and followed through with the attack in order to maim the beast. As Crisis aimed he chose to finish the job. He didn't like the idea of hurting a wolf, even if it wasn't ordinary. Given the smoke he assumed they were created by some sort of magic, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what exactly would have that particular ability. Still, he raised his foot high above his head and dropped the heel of his foot directly into the back of the injured beast's head, directly under the skull, and then forced his weight downward with the kick, again following through and making sure the kick was, in actuality, aimed at the ground instead of just at the back of the wolf's head.

He shook his head sadly at the act, deriving no pleasure from it and surely feeling as if he had just given up something important. It had to be done, but that didn't make it any better. The wolves were not actually wolves, and while that helped, it didn't remove all of his sadness and doubt.
"Whatever caused this needs to be put down permanently." He growled, mostly to himself, but loud enough that Verity should still have been able to hear it as close as she was. He hadn't told her about his pack of wolves, there had never been cause for it, but he doubted it would do anything for her opinion of him to know that he was pretty much raised by a dragon, blizzardvyrns, and wolves (the blizzardbyrns only insofar as to teach him what not to do from violent action towards him).

[Verity Lohlepher]

((In regards to posting, I previously mentioned that I'm most likely unable to do tomorrow (thursday) and Friday. Friday remains so but I think I can do tomorrow. That being said, skip me just in case I don't))

Verity was half glad and half pissed that Tatsuma intercepted the wolf - glad because it could be teamwork in the making but pissed because she was sure she could have taken care of it by herself. Whatever her personal feelings may have been though, she stepped aside and watched him work his magic...or martial skills...or feral beast instincts? She noticed he didn't seem very happy at having to defeat the wolf. The girl decided the threat was over and strapped Hauskor to the insides of her jacket. It was a waste of mana having to requip it again. She had to reserve her magical energy anyways. She didn't think the boy would have suffered any damage from his encounter from the wolf but came over just to be safe. He was shaking his head as if thinking some kind of sad thought. The girl had no emotional connection to wolves and thus she could not fathom what he was thinking but guessed at one point in his life he had encountered friendly versions of these beasts (not to mention non-magical).

She was indeed close enough to hear him say whatever caused the wolves to attack needed to be put down. Put down? She bit the inside of lip. That sounded worryingly close to saying he wanted to kill someone. Death...she didn't like it. She knew some people killed; she'd heard it mentioned once or twice in the past. Vera was less inclined to do so. Whether it was a mere inadvertence to bloodshed or the idea of killing someone precious to another, she didn't know. If Tatsuma wanted to kill someone...she didn't want to think about it. She shook her head slightly and instead came over to him and experimentally poked him. "You're okay right?" she asked, trying to appear somewhat concerned. However she couldn't maintain the expression and she let her troubled gaze wander to where Crisis was. Once she spotted the girl, she stayed where she was besides the other blonde and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hey Crisis! You can come down again!"

[Crisis]

By the time Crisis got a bead on the wolf, Tatsuma stepped in to finish the job.  Literally, in fact, by putting his foot down on the spectral canine’s neck so hard it must have snapped right in half.  Her initial thought was that such a curb-stomping was a cold act, but a glance at his body language told her it was anything but.  It was no act of mercy, to be sure; She doubted the apparitions were ever cognizant enough to suffer.  But the look on his face and the way he shook his head spoke volumes, and what she read on those lips (since she wasn’t close enough to hear) effectively clinched it.  This whole battle was a grave offense, one for which he could not, at least at this time, grant forgiveness for.  She couldn’t discern the whys or what-fors, but she could tell that whoever was responsible for this had, perhaps accidentally, made this extremely personal for Tatsuma.

Crisis had lowered her weapons already, now that the wolves were gone, and let Verity tend to Tatsuma’s emotional wounds.  Meanwhile, Crisis herself looked around to ensure there were no other hostiles in the area.  She felt it may be in vain, however.  She couldn’t quite see the forest through the trees and even the fabled enhanced senses of their token Dragon Slayer weren’t able to detect the enemy force until it was practically on top of them.  No matter how much she tried to assure herself that it was probably all part of the game, she couldn’t shake the dread notion of an enemy that could theoretically attack from anywhere at any time with little to no warning.  If it was part of the game, then there were likely rules to keep whatever illusionist or conjurer that control those so-called wolves from tearing them apart as they slept.  But if it wasn’t, they were at a disadvantage against an enemy they could neither see nor hear, at the mercy of an untouchable foe who, thanks to whoever was broadcasting this event, could see and hear everything single thing they did.  And it could be almost literally anyone, anywhere in range of the live broadcast.

“Damn I hate cameras,” Crisis muttered to herself.

She was snapped from her reverie by Verity calling out to her.  Acknowledging the call with a nod, she holstered her gun and slid on her feet down the trash pile.

“Hell of an event, huh?” she said as she sheathed her sword.  “What a way to spice up a competitive camping event.”  She turned to Tatsuma and tipped her hat down.  “Listen, I…GYAH!”

Crisis was suddenly interrupted by the pain shooting down her left arm.  She fell to one knee, grasping the arm with one hand and gritting her teeth.  Her left arm tensed up until her hand bled through her fingerless glove.  “...Dammit…”

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