breaking news: handler tries to get her hunter, who has an entire guild record about being horrible at feelings, to talk about her feelings (and her 99% dead village)
i find mhwilds ocs that are shipped with olivia so funny cause i love seeing their dynamics and then my wilds hunter and olivia are literally just neytiri and ronal from avatar
hunter oc fic below.. with some hunter x alma sprinkled about
(small content warning for dissociation)
——
The Firespring is, generally, a time of celebration. Avis and Astrum were both sent to the Oilwell Basin under the objective of tracking an Arkveld that’s been stirring up the ecosystem, albeit, that’s for later. The trip to the basin all the way from Suja was a bit of a hassle, after all. Thus, both units have hunkered down at base camp where they’ll rest until morning.
As of now, Werner, Gemma, Olivia and Alma are discussing the whereabouts of the ashen blade - Erik’s already asleep, having sworn he’d get as much rest as possible to observe such an interesting specimen.
“It should be further down,” Alma informs, “based on what we already know about Arkveld, it could be looking for the apex. I hope we’ll be able to stop it before it gets—“
“Why don’t we go after it now?” Werner cuts in. “We go in, kill the thing before it stirs up any more trouble, and boom. Azuz saved.”
“Werner.” Olivia orders his attention, “we’re tired. Besides, Erik’s asleep. He’d be upset if we went on without him.”
Werner shoots Olivia a look, before sighing, crossing his arms, and giving her a grumbled ‘you’re right’.
“I also need time to—“ Alma looks over in the direction of the Avis Unit tent, “—make sure we’re ready.”
“Something wrong with her?” Olivia asks.
“No.. or, well, I don’t really know. Hard to tell.”
Gemma speaks up as she moves to rest her arm on a barrel. “She does get really weird whenever we’re here. In the Firespring, I mean.”
Olivia hums, hand on her chin. “Must just not like this place.” or she has bad experiences with fire, but—
“Well, I don’t think it’ll be nice to gossip about that.” Alma finishes the thought. “I’m gonna go check on her.”
—
Saneka’s been sitting in the hammock, rocking it back and forth with her feet as she stares outside. She’s not really processing anything, rather feeling like she’s watching someone from a camera she has attached to their right eye. Everything feels flat. Like the outside world is some sort of giant photo.
A giant photo’s better than realising that she’s stuck in a place that’ll be constantly on fire for however long.
She sees something moving closer, but her vision’s still fixed on the outside world. She has..no clue how long she’s been staring out into the open, but she doesn’t really care.
She’s still staring, even as the figure enters the tent. It’s Alma, her dear quest handler. She swears she can hear her say something, but it’s muffled to her.
“Hey. Hey—“
She flinches and snaps her head in Alma’s direction. Alma sits next to her.
“Sorry. Are you alright? You’ve been like this since we got here.” Her voice is still a little distant-sounding, but at least it’s coherent.
Saneka blinks, looking out again before looking back at Alma. Finally, she can actually move her mouth.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Nothing important.”
Alma sighs and looks down, brushing a hand against Saneka’s. With no objection, she slowly curls her fingers around the other. She looks over to Saneka, where her hunter immediately averts eye contact.
“If you don’t wanna talk about it, then..” Alma gives the other woman’s hand a squeeze, “just know I’m here.”
“Thanks.”
Alma nods. “Now, how about we get some rest? I don’t doubt you’re tired, too.”
A chuckle. “Yeah, yeah. Get your beauty sleep. I’m gonna need a bit.”
There’s a pause, before Alma shrugs and pulls off her coat and backpack, getting up and resting them on the floor on the other side of the tent, and taking off her glasses and placing them on top of the pile. When she lays down, Saneka doesn’t follow..but she will. Eventually.
—
It’s the morning after - thankfully, Azuz didn’t erupt into chaos in the middle of the night, so the Arkveld hadn’t attacked them. Alma wakes to an emoty hammock - Saneka must have gotten up early, then. Or hasn’t slept at all. She hopes it’s not the latter.
She rises, yawns.. hopefully she has time for tea. It’s difficult to tell during the Firespring, with how the smoke billowing out of the pillars blot out the sun. Saneka would have woken her if she thought it was time to go, though.
Grabbing a cloth and her glasses, she cleans the lenses before sliding them onto the bridge of her nose. She slides the clotch back in her coat, which she then grabs and pulls over her body - repeating the same with her backpack.
With nobody calling for her, she makes herself some tea, and after that, she finally heads out of the tent. Astrum’s waiting outside, all near Gemma’s forge, and she steps toward the group with a wave.
“Morning.” Gemma’s the first to say, followed by Olivia and Erik.
“Good morning to you too—“ Alma looks around for a moment, eyes quickly fixing on the lack of both her hunter and her hunter’s seikret. “Have any of you seen Saneka?”
“We haven’t…”
“We were about to ask you that, actually.”
Olivia, Erik and Alma all share a glance before sighing. Werner turns away from his work and clicks his tongue.
“Saw her leave a good bit before I went to bed. Didn’t care enough to ask where the hell she was goin’, so I just watched her leave. That way.”
He points out of base camp. Oh. Oh dear.
“You’re tellin’ me she hasn’t been here all night and you didn’t say anything!?”
“Just said I didn’t care, Gem.”
“Gemma.”
“Well, this is.. a predicament.” Alma can only sigh and look around nervously. “Makes it all the more urgent for us to move.”
Olivia gives the handler a nod, before looking over to her own—
“Right. Our first priority is to locate Avis Unit’s hunter, then we’ll commence the Arkveld hunt.”
“Knowing Saneka, the two very well could be in the same place..” Alma comments, before turning back to the Avis tent. “I’ll go wake up Kit.”
“And I’ll get Athos.”
Alma moves back into the tent, lightly tapping Kit’s sleeping form. “Hey, we’re gonna start moving.”
Kit bounces up onto her hind legs, and shakes the sleep out of herself. She flicks an ear. “Usually San’s the one waking me up..”
“She’s.. not here right now, actually. It’s why we’re starting the investigation now.”
Kit’s pupils shrink into slits. “Wait, what?”
—
A cold drink collectively downed and seikrets mounted, both Avis and Astrum move out. Except for the smiths, of course. They’re staying at base camp. Alma looks at her map.
“Arkveld should be down in the more cavernous areas. We’ll check there first.” She speaks, closing up the map. “Hopefully we’ll find our missing hunter, too.”
Olivia and Erik nod, with them both slowing their seikrets to be behind Alma. “Lead the way.”
Alma’s seikret follows the scent of Rio, trotting into the ancient forge before taking a right and sniffing at the ground. Then, she resumes moving, down into a crater-like area. She stops at the pit elevator.
“I thought she didn’t like firey things.. why would she be down there?” Kit whines from atop the tail of Alma’s seikret.
“Tracking the Arkveld, no doubt.” Athos replies. “If we’re lucky, this elevator will lead us right to them.”
Stepping into the elevator, it makes a creaking sound as the chains slowly lower the cart toward the limestone cavern. They go in one-by-one, and once Olivia and Athos are in the cavern, she speaks up.
“You’ve got one hell of a reckless hunter.” Olivia sighs.
“She’s not like this normally.” Alma responds. “I..think it’s probably something to do with the fire.”
The group stay silent until they hear something - the undoubtable footsteps of a seikret, with the clinking of a metal caparison.
“There!” Kit points up. Atop a fallen pillar of sorts - now acting as a bridge - a familiar Seikret nearly canters straight past. “Hey, we’re over here!”
Saneka tugs Rio’s reigns and halts, looking over at the group. The looks back forward, and after a pause gently ushering Rio forward, letting him glide down to the others.
“I’ve been keeping the Arkveld away from the Nu Udra. It—“
“How long have you been out here?” Alma cuts her off. Saneka shrugs.
“The Arkveld’s just over where the bridge leads.”
Alma has half a mind to scold her hunter at this very moment, but after a pause, she nods. “Alright. Lead the way.”
Saneka and Olivia glance at eachother. Albeit, not in a considerably friendly manner. Olivia mutters something under her breath as the other hunter merely steers her seikret back to the start of the bridge.
—
The Arkveld, in and of itself, was pretty easy to deal with. It was exhausted, having been constantly forced away from its prey the entire night, and had been put down with little injuries sustained. As of now, they’re heading back to Suja.
Saneka’s been on autopilot the whole time. She’s not listening to any of the conversations happening, rathering to stay alert, and ignoring the sizzle in her side. She can deal with that later.
They get to Suja with no interruptions, thankfully, and Nata’s quick to greet them all. Saneka gives the boy a hair ruffle.
“These Arkveld samples are fascinating.. even in death, the chainblade fragments are still crackling with Dragon energy,” She overhears Erik, “And the way it fights! Its—“
Saneka’s entered the tent, already, and thus Erik has become a distant voice. She is, admittedly, tired. Closing up the tent, she changes into her casual clothing, and sets the armor in a pile on top of her weapon. Pulling up her shirt, she winces at the fresh wound.
See, she may or may not have gotten hit. Obviously, that’s what happens when your career happens to be facing the most dangerous things the world can offer. But she had been so pumped with adrenaline that she ignored it, and she’s not keen on letting anyone know. She’ll just treat it herself.
Alma opens the tent and walks in. Saneka quickly lets the shirt go. Her handler wordlessly sits next to her - unfortunately, a gesture she knows all too well to be a sign of her being forced to talk very soon.
“Listen. I know you don’t like talking about it, but…” Alma gives her a nearly-pleading look, “you’re acting so strange.”
“You read my record. You knew what you were getting into.”
That sounded far harsher than she wanted it to be, but she doesn’t apologise. She just looks down, to the right, anything but at her. Alma wraps an arm around her, and she winces at the contact with the wound. Just as luck would have it, the injury crackles and she feels Alma flinch, before putting both hands on her.
“Let me see.”
Saneka opens her mouth to object, but closes it nearly as fast. She moves closer to the center of the hammock and lets Alma inspect her.
“Saneka, you know the risk of—“
“Don’t give me a spiel. Please. I knew what I was doing.”
Alma sighs. “Are you okay?”
It’s a stupid question, Alma knows she’ll just answer with ‘yes’, but when she sounds out the ‘y’, she’s cut off.
“Don’t lie.”
A pause. Saneka exhales. Can’t keep anything from her, huh?
“Not..really. The basin’s inclemency brings bad memories, and I couldn’t—“ Alma lightly pats nulberry powder against the wound, and she winces, “I couldn’t rest. Knowing everything’s on fire right outside.”
There’s a good bout of silence, Alma’s thinking of a response as she wraps the hunter’s torso, then pulls the shirt back down and makes eye contact with her hunter, tilting her head.
“It’s.. a stupid fear. Sorry.”
“I understand. Nata reacted badly to stuff resembling Arkveld’s attack on his village, too.”
“He’s fourteen. It’s been, what, two decades since my village was wrecked?”
Alma cups her face with her hands and moves up close.
“You still saw it all happen. It’s okay. I just.. wish you’d communicate with me more.”
Saneka looks at her like a blinded Shamos. She retreats on herself a bit, slowly moving her knees closer to her chest. When she looks down, or, really, anywhere but right in front of her, Alma gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“Let’s get some rest. We can talk about it more next morning, if you’d like.”
Saneka responds with a small nod, watching as Alma puts away her coat, backpack and glasses, before untying her own hair. Alma lays in the hammock, and she does in tandem. She hugs her close, and within a few minutes she’s out like a light. Kit finds her way on top of the duo and curls up on them both, shortly after.
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