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fightagainstthedark:

“It was described as coming from ‘nowhere.’” Susette’s answer was soft, unperturbed by Hiko’s lack of what many deemed courtesy. If they did not wish to supply their name, then they did not need to.

“The creature burst from the garbage, so it is likely either dark in coloration, or buries itself within it.”

Either a dark colored creature or one that hides in refuse. Neither description narrowed it down fully, but it was enough to go on for this particular hunt. If it was something Takehiko hadn’t encountered, at least they could record it.

Turning a corner, Takehiko considered the way, then turned to follow a flow of water. They were silent for a while, following some unseen path, then huffed. “You fight, yes?”

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fightagainstthedark:

Welcome to follow. Was that an insult? Susette couldn’t fathom it from their demeanor, and so took no offense, joining with light, quiet steps. She had no way to know the experience of this hunter, but most who still existed predated her time in active hunting. She best let them lead.

Even if it might be more dangerous to their health than hers.

“I am Susette.” She offered, quietly. A formality, though it would not truly be necessary for shouted warnings or identification. “What I know is it is a long-bodied creature with too many teeth and too large a mouth, large enough to swallow a human whole.”

Takehiko grunted in the back of their throat to signal understanding, but offered nothing in return. It was one thing to let a Regulator join a hunt, but they had no interest in lingering ties after this interaction. The last thing Takehiko needed was a polite regulator knowing their name.

At their hip was a sheathed sword, long and thin, and they wouldn’t take their hand from it until the sewer was empty.

“I have been told that as well,” Takehiko replied, pausing momentarily to check the stonework, then continued, “too many creatures I know of fit that description, so I am unsure of what it is. Identifying markers? Do you know it’s coloration?”

#fightagainstthedark #rp: dirty business

fightagainstthedark:

Susette regarded them a moment, quiet. They hunted a quarry, but were unfamiliar to her. Not another Regulator, not a comrade in arms. A monster hunter, a freelance professional. Her last interaction with one had been short and unfortunate, and with good reason.

She stepped clear of the wall once more, form solidifying as she did so. She let her eyes flare blue again, her dog-like ears perk. Two of a kind, and she had nothing against him.

“I am hunting the creature who ate the sanitation worker,” she said, finally. There was no tone of ownership or resentment, no suspicion one might expect. She knew many other monster-hunting Regulators would bristle at an outsider, even one of their own number, coming to ‘kill steal.’ Susette had no such hangups.

Takehiko regarded the woman in silence, quick to appraise every trait and feature that may be a threat. Small but controlled, tough looking, not an ounce of bothersome, unruly emotions. The ears — volph? The prickling, uncomfortable sensation — Regulator.

It was very rare to share a hunt with a Regulator, but Takehiko was new to this city and its workings. One concerned with the hunting of monsters was something new, at least to their knowledge. There was no reason to be ornery to someone who was only interested in making the city safer.

“I believe it was last down this hall,” Takehiko replied, pointing down the stretch of sewer they had been scouting. Even over the sound of rushing water, there was something deeper into the system that pricked Takehiko’s sensitive ears. “I am unsure of the species. You are welcome to follow.”

With that, Takehiko turned and sloshed further into the sewer.

#fightagainstthedark #rp: dirty business

fightagainstthedark

Dirty Business

The sewers stank. They stank of so much refuse, bodily waste and literal garbage, that Susette despaired of disentangling the lot of it. Not that it would help. The vaporvolph did not have a smell to go on, only rumors and a death.

Something in the sludge down here had emerged and swallowed a sanitation worker. The description had been frantic from the living witness, something long-bodied with an unnaturally large mouth and jagged teeth. The Regulator agents who had intervened had a difficult time both wiping his memory and recreating the body of the missing individual so it could be buried by the grieving family.

For Susette, it meant more chasing ghosts and stories, and not the one she was here for. But with months of dead ends and disappearances weighing heavy on her heart, she would take a solid distraction. Even if that meant skirting burgeoning fatbergs of tossed medication and baby wipes.

She started from the point of attack and began a careful investigation outwards, returning to that point after she’d gone far enough in one direction to want to try again. In such an environment, she stayed human, though she was lax with the disguise. Her eyes glowed and two pink ears pricked up at the top of her head.

Around one bend, a shadow in the lowlight gave her pause. It was not correct for the assailant–it was large, yes, but humanoid in shape. Unlikely to be a worker…

Rather than startle them, or call out, Susette hung back. Her eyes dimmed, and she shivered her form into half-phased with the wall, better to break up her silhouette and remove any possibility of sound from her physicality. She would stalk them, if she could. If not, a confrontation was inevitable.

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The title of monster hunter always seemed much more glamorous than the reality. Many in Takehiko’s lifespan had been dazzled by the idea of slaying beasts and being rewarded with gold by thankful civilians and realized, quickly, that it was usually not the case. Nobody dreamed about the blood and guts of it all.

Or, in this case, the waste and refuse of it. Takehiko wasn’t a stranger to it, sloshing through the sewers on the search for what had been described to them. The creature sounded like a few number of things they had faced before, though it had been vague and mostly unhelpful. Despite the fact, at Takehiko’s hip hung a satchel of items that might be useful, bait and parts of a trap that even this creature shouldn’t be able to slip out of.

Standing at the bend in the sewers, Takehiko surveyed the surroundings. Anything out of the ordinary was difficult to see in the murky waters, but there was enough to go on to a trained eye. Dark trails of slime on the walls, bites of stone that looked to be carved with rows of razor sharp fangs. Interesting.

A sound, though, drew Takehiko’s attention at once. Their face was as pale as ash, eyes a glossy black save for a burning pin prick of gold at the center. Veins at the edges of their face were dark and prominent, and like this, the sewers were as bright as day.

“You are either lost or hunting the same quarry as I am,” Takehiko said in the direction of the half-silhouette, “which is it?”

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