forgivetheinsubordination | IC Contact

FROM: vakarian.garrus@cdc.org

It should be. I think it's just the raw materials they need.

[There's a short delay as he tries to figure out the second 'name.']

FROM: vakarian.garrus@cdc.org

November 11, yes. Please call Vegeta vegetable regularly. It would make my day.

[ There's a longer delay while Red's face turns into a beetroot after double-checking and realising that name wasn't Vegetable. ]

FROM: red@cdc.org im sorry i didnt know. i thought it was vegetable i didnt check in a long time. do they get that a lot. dont tell them

FROM: vakarian.garrus@cdc.org

I won't tell them. He could use people messing with him, but he's not that friendly.

[A part of him wants to ask if Red wouldn't mind using apostrophes... but this is making him practice his English and he needs to do that.]

FROM: vakarian.garrus@cdc.org

He just got here, same time as you, so I have no idea if he gets that a lot.

FROM: red@cdc.org ok im going to message one of the people and ill get back to you. thank you garrus.

FROM: vakarian.garrus@cdc.org

Anytime, Red.

[ After sending out messages to the relevant individuals to prepare for the trip out (or as best as Red can figure to), the next day comes and a quick trip to the beach is taken before Red sends out the one to Garrus confirming they can go through with a food gathering trip out, and they both agree to meet near one of the outposts.

Red gets there first, and possibly before noticing the boy Garrus will spot first a rather boldly orange winged creature beside him, standing at around six feet with its head bent over the boy's shoulder as it watches him engrossed in his blackglass, a long thick tail with a fire upon the tip curled to the front of its body, both to keep his trainer warm and to make it obvious its there to any passerbys.

A wooden basket about the same height as Red - but the width of the creature's body - sits nearby as well crafted by Alphonse Elric's alchemy, and other than that a standard CDC backpack is slung on the boy's shoulders, looking rather flat. ]

[That's... well. That's definitely a small dragon. And its tail is definitely on fire. Garrus is a little more impressed with it at first glance than by Arcanine, but he'll never tell Green that. What it can do on the field will be the real test.

He's got a backpack as well, empty and ready to be filled, as well as a few guns strapped to his back and his crossbow.]

Hey, Red. Hope you haven't been waiting long. Let's, if this is all?

[He doesn't know if there are others invited, but if there aren't, Garrus will be ready to head out and start looking.]

[ It's Charizard's head turning at the approach of Garrus that alerts Red to their company, and the kid smiles at the sight of the guy - a big difference from their meeting yesterday - before he turns to his companion. ] It's okay, that's Garrus!

[ There's a fondness in his voice, and he lets the blackfall fall to his side as he steps away to meet the other. ]

Yeah, this is all! I've got everything. [ Being near the basket, he places a hand on the rim. ] Alphonse made it pretty big for us, so Charizard's going to have to walk with us and carry it. He's my pokémon, by the way.

[ He gestures over to Charizard, figuring that Garrus would've already guessed but wanting to give the introduction. The pokémon gives a huff, his natural appearance looking not the most friendly, but it's noticeably relaxed around the eyes than what it could possibly be. ]

I figured we could see how far we can go out. If everyone's going out for food, there's probably less near the camp.

Charizard.

[Garrus nods a greeting to the pokemon, feeling a bit silly. There's clear intelligence there, but it isn't to the level of Temeraire, or even 1. It's a trained, powerful pet. Green may be cool with Arcanine doing most of the work, but in Garrus' mind it's Red and Green who are his teammates, not Arcanine or Charizard.]

Makes sense to go out some, but I don't wanna go too far. We're Green. If something happens at camp, we're needed. That's our responsibility.

[Especially with him being a senior recruit. He starts walking as he continues talking.]

Don't wanna range out more than a half-hour. That'll already give us a slow response time if something happens and we're called.

[ Red's listening, quickly motioning as Garrus starts walking for Charizard to pick up the basket, which he grabs and holds out in front of himself. It's a silly-looking thing, but pokémon will keep it up, joining at Red's free side while the boy catches up to be by Garrus's. ]

R-right... [ Admittedly, Red hadn't been thinking at all about any duty of being a Green, vastly more interested in going other and food gathering, and it's strange to even think now that he has any obligation like that. ]

But I told them we'd get food for everyone, and they sounded okay with that. Isn't that important too? And if you want, we can drop the basket and Charizard could get us back quickly. [ Here, he gives Garrus a quick look up and down. ] He should be able to carry the both of us.

It's important, yeah. But we can't possibly bring back enough food for over a hundred people. We'll bring back some. We're not the only team hunting, though. Don't worry.

[Whomever Red had told that to can't possibly expect the boy to feed everyone. They have to know it's youthful exaggeration and optimism. Garrus isn't worried there.]

Though if Charizard can carry us...

[Garrus glances at the pokemon.]

Let's test it, quickly. See if he can lift me, if it's not too hard. If he can, then we can go further. A thirty-minute flight's worth.

Alright. [ He can agree to that. Red stops walking and the pokémon does as well, and the boy steps out of the way of the two as he turns around. ]

Charizard, put that down and let Garrus get on your back. See if you can fly with him.

[ Righty-o, captain. The basket exchanges hands and Charizard sits it onto the ground, then backs up as he lowers himself to allow Garrus easier access onto his back. Red's rather interested to see how it'll go. ]

Have you ever flown like this before? It feels funny, but you want to keep your legs against him.

[ Well, depending on if Charizard can lift off at all. ]

I just meant...

[Fuck. He'd thought Charizard could simply lift him and figure it out. The prospect of taking flight already hadn't crossed his mind. But nothing is ever easy. Garrus climbs onto Charizard and braces himself.]

Been on a larger dragon. Temeraire.

[The name brings a flash of pain to mind. They hadn't moved quickly enough to save him, and it's a regret Garrus may carry for a time yet. It gets pushed back, though. He can't focus on it right now; he has to focus on riding a smaller dragon.

When Charizard manages to get in the air Garrus feels mostly relief, though he's still clinging to Charizard as if his life depends on it. Even just a few feet up.]

There, then. Okay. Let's land and move forward, and hopefully not have to turn to that.

[ Did you see your life flash before your eyes, Garrus?? Welcome to the CDC. Charizard brings down Garrus as gently as he can when he lands, though the man is the most largest weight he's ever had on his back. The fact that he's heavier than him means nothing, but it's something Red notices for the small time that they both hover up, and he tucks the idea that he should get the pokémon to practice supporting larger weights from above.

Later. The boy catches as well how uncomfortable Garrus appears with the idea, and when Charizard goes to take his basket again, Red gives Garrus a small smile. ]

We can walk out as far as you wanted to go for today. Thirty minutes is still pretty far.

If you're sure.

[Garrus doesn't want to make the boy feel like he's breaking his word to whomever he promised to bring back a lot of food to. Yes, he's nervous about the flying, but he can get over that. Charizard could manage. Though he's also not going to rush it.

The ground feels good under his feet when he climbs off the pokemon's back, and Garrus takes a short second to enjoy that before nodding toward the area outside of camp.]

So how big of a thing can Charizard take down? And watch your step to the right there, the purple flowers. Not something we're gonna want to stop near, though the flowers are tasty enough. The vine likes eating people.

[ Red gives Garrus a reassuring nod. It wasn't like they couldn't maybe go out again, or Red could go with another person. He'd read the file on how much time until it'd eventually get dark, and then everything would be lit by the lights of the wildlife (not a time he intended to go out in, but he was curious about it).

He planned to do as much as he could, one way or another.

Red watches his feet first before getting to the question, and then the information distracts him further to his blackglass, booting it back up. ] Oh, I read about them... Charizard, you watch your feet.

[ A sound comes behind them, and Red brings his attention back to Garrus. ]

It doesn't matter how big it is really - just how strong it is and if we can figure out a strategy to take it down. He could probably knock the hydrocoose over, if we tried. We found out how they can't stand flashing lights when the stampede happened, so [ and he gestures now with his hand holding the black glass, making a circular motion ] if we confused the heads and then attacked the legs, we could make it trip itself up.

[ That was one idea, anyway. He brings his arm in again to glance at the blackglass and then around them, back to those purple flowers and vines. ]

Are you worried about whatever's still around after the stampede?

If there's gerol, yeah. The others... If you think we can take a hydrocus down safely, then we'll do so. But they're not aggressive right off the bat. Haisuna, we know what they look like and we can take them out fast, before they can latch on.

[Garrus shrugs. He's had a bad experience with the gerol, and he's not looking for a repeat. They're not even edible. There's nothing worthwhile about that animal.]

Optimally, we run into a solo kyrie. Though we're gonna have to be careful with what it can project. What sort of mental defenses does Charizard have? Anything?

[ Honestly, if they don't have to touch any of the hydrocus at all, that would be the best option. He nods to the comment of the haisunae. ]

Right, keep a distance. Do the haisuna scare easy? [ It worked during the stampede; hopefully it would work when they were calmer too.

Red considers Garrus's question however. ] Well... if it's the same, he's gone up against psychic attacks -- they're more mental than physical. [ He's guessing, anyway. ] He's not weak to them, but they can still get to him.

[ A pause. ] Would attacking from a distance help keep out of the range at all?

They might scare easy. I don't know. I haven't run into any, personally, outside of the stampede when everything was panicked. Unless you count the things in the camp that might or might not be haisuna.

[He still doesn't know. It worries him when he considers who is bonding with them and might lose those bonds, too. But there's nothing he can do except be around and support if things come to the worst-case scenario.]

Distance is a good idea with the kyrie. When I ran into one before, I didn't feel anything until we were close. Might not mean anything, but I can snipe from a distance, and if Charizard can do fire from a distance we could do well.

[ He had been wondering about those in the camp, mistaking them on arrival for those from the stampede and that leading to a near-unfortunate incident with a group of them later on. The file spoke that they shouldn't be allowed to get too close, but then there were those in the camp kept as companions.

There was still the want to learn more about them, but- later on. Red follows the conversation taking place now. ]

Sure, yeah -- Charizard can aim his fire from a distance. If it's safe enough he can trap them in a ring of fire too but [ he shakes his head a little ] I don't want to risk that if we get caught in a dense forest. I don't want to burn the trees.

[ Hard to put out fires with no water pokémon on hand. He thinks after saying that though, back to all the creatures he had read about. ]

Won't the bigger problems be the gerols? I remember reading they're meant to be hostile, and there were plenty of them during the rush before. [ A pause. ] There was another entry about nests in the forests about another creature too. Do you remember that one? [ What was it... ] Something like... asshu, kesshu...

That'd be why I said if there are gerol remaining, I'd be worried. The other, the...

[Garrus trails off as he looks through the bestiary.]

Khesau. We could bring some of those back. Might be much easier than a kyrie. Eggs, smaller in size, no empathy issues going on. I can take them out with headshots easily enough, and Charizard can likely flip them over. Should we see if we can track some of those?

[Not burning the forest down might be a rather good idea. Especially since they're in it.]

W-- wait. [ Red stops in his steps at that, Charizard doing the same with a small huff as he watches his trainer curiously who stares at Garrus with wide eyes. ] You want to kill them? Why? I thought...

[ He thought they were talking about keeping up a defence, but then suddenly, with that, it clicks to Red the answer as to why without Garrus needing to say it. Why else, and there's a muffled sound as Red looks down, feeling all at once stupid for not getting it sooner, and unsure about what he wants to do. ]

[Garrus stops too, surprised, confused, and then he gets it. Red had meant to gather plants for food, not hunt animals. There's a long beat, and then Garrus looks back the way they'd came.]

...Let's backtrack to the vines, pick the flowers there. There should be plenty of plants to gather that can be eaten in this area, and we shouldn't have to kill anything to eat.

[Red is going to have to face killing soon, seeing as he's on Green, but they can take slow steps.]

[ It's a smooth and easy solution to the issue. Red could agree, and they could head back to the vines and the flowers, and he could bring up about the berries he'd seen in the catalogue and search for them as he'd intended. There were all sorts, and if they were lucky they could find enough the fill the entire basket to the brim.

But his feet stick stubbornly to the ground, his eyes not staring into the ground any less. He remembers the supply of kraken that had helped to feed Charizard before, and the creatures brought in from the stampede. His world wasn't a world that lived only on vegetation, but there were stores where food could be brought, where hunting wasn't a necessity.

Except there was no store to go down the road to, no trainer was recommended to feed only greens to all their pokémon. Not enough nutrients, or something. Charizard was like that too. ]

...Should we? [ The hesitation doesn't leave him any less, not in his words or his silence. ] If we don't... others will. Right? People need more than flowers...

[ It's still a hard thing to convince himself over. ]

[Garrus takes a breath before kneeling in front of the boy, bringing them to about eye-level. Or it would be eye-level if Red wasn't staring at the ground. He reaches over and rests his hand on Red's shoulder.]

Back on the last world, Green was-- Green team was assigned a mission to kill the local wildlife along with Red team.

[He'll... omit that the wildlife was the apex species. That can come later. He's probably going to do enough damage to Red here. Garrus' voice and subharmonics are as gentle as possible.]

There isn't any avoiding it. And we will be destroying this planet. Maybe it's better that more animals die now, are given the chance to be useful, rather than wind up panicking as the gravity on this world goes haywire before it's disintegrated. But I'm gonna leave it up to you for this particular errand. If you want, we'll gather plants instead.

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DAY 108

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