deercountry | Luca catchall post - Fun vileblood issues!

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Luca catchall post - Fun vileblood issues!

Who: Luca Paguro and open!
What: Luca's memory flashback, as well as generally sneaking around the Disaster House/Town/getting caught in snares because he's a vileblood and there's two blood types hunting him this month
When: Throughout the month
Where: The Disaster House or anywhere in the Trench

Content Warnings: A thirteen year old boy getting hunted like an animal, both in his memory and in the 'present day' prompts

Luca's Memory – Trying to escape Ercole (OTA)

Whoever touches the Winter Mourning will find themselves witnessing a hunt. Maybe they'll see out of Luca's eyes, a passive observer forced to make the same choices he made, or maybe they'll take on the role of someone else in the setting. Alberto, perhaps, or one of the people trying to catch Luca. Maybe they'll even be able to do their own things, make their own choices.

Regardless, the memory starts with Luca and Alberto in sea monster form racing through the streets on a bike. They're terrified, desperate. Ercole has gotten in front of them, but the hill's too steep to try and turn back and go up. Besides, they need to get back to the water to be safe, and to do that, they need to pass Ercole. Luca stares in horror as he keeps pedaling forward, and Ercole lifts his spear, ready to throw.

"You should have left when I told you. Now...I'm going to kill some sea monsters!" Ercole says, and his cackles fill the alley as he balances on his bike, his spear raised in the air.

Then, just in time, Giulia, a red headed girl who had caught up on her own bike, rams her bike in to Ercole's own, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Luca and Alberto race past on their bike, but Luca glances back. Giulia bounces roughly on the cobblestones several time, rolling down the steep and rocky pathway.

"No!" Cries Luca.

"Giulia!" Alberto calls out to her.

Not willing to just leave her like that, not knowing if she's okay, Luca stops the bike and he and Alberto race over to her, helping her up. This was a mistake. They're surrounded now. Many of the townsfolk are just standing there, watching to see what happens next. Others seem more ready to participate in this hunt. Some have harpoons. Some have nets. They whisper.

"Look at that," says one villager.

"You're not going anywhere," says another.

Ercole, however, is quick to call dibs. "Guys! I saw them first! The reward is mine!"

Luca tries to be brave. "We're not afraid of you!"

"No," responds Ercole, "But we're afraid of you. Everyone is horrified and disgusted by you, because you are monsters."

The memory may end here. Or it may continue on for a few more seconds, so the viewer sees Giulia saying that they aren't monsters, and Massimo coming out of the crowd to tell them that the boys are Luca and Alberto. Either way, the memory wraps up soon unless the viewer is an active participant and was able to make a different choice in the course of events.

The Disaster House – Open to anyone who would be at/around the Disaster House

Luca's skittish. He's been hunted before, he knows the feeling. He knows the mortal terror, the constant hiding, the fear of discovery. The worst part is, this month even people he loved and trusted seem to be turning on him. Nowhere is safe. But this house...it's still home.

He sticks to the shadows, staying out of sight, easily startled if anyone spots him. Still, there are times he lets his guard down. Enamored with all the pretty antler decorations around the house, Luca decides to make his own. He takes a couple of antlers he's found tying them up with ribbons and decorating them with little twigs and springs from the greenhouse. At one point he even starts having enough fun with his crafting to relax enough to hum a little tune, enjoying himself as he pretties up the antlers, holding them up to see how they're coming.

Other times he can be found grabbing things from the greenhouse or the kitchen to eat. He doesn't know how to cook, though, and this month...this month he's too scared to find someone around the house to help him, so he might just start eating raw ingredients as is just to avoid coming out of hiding.

Out And About – OTA

But of course, living in a household with all bloodtypes can be quite stressful to a young boy during a season where he's doomed to be hunted by two of them, so he ends up spending quite a bit of time away from the house this month. Of course, he heeds the warnings he's been given about cold weather and bundles up. A dark grey wool coat, gloves, boots, a hat...dressed up as well as he can be as he heads out into the harsh winter.

Still, as unused as he is to this sort of winter weather, Luca does stop to marvel at the snow. It really is pretty, and he never imagined it looking quite like that. He stomps it down to crunch it, squeezes it in his hands, experimenting and examining it, fascinated...until he hears anyone else coming by.

Like a prey animal, he's likely to hurry off to cower in the nearest hiding spot, before staring in horror at the obvious tracks he's left in the snow.

Trapped – OTA

Luca is trying to be careful, staying out of sight, avoiding other people and obvious traps. Not all traps are obvious, though, and there are so many this month that he's bound to get caught at some point.

He panics when he feels the snare tighten around his leg, pulling him up. He struggles, and he wants to scream, but he doesn't dare to. He's helpless now in a place filled with people who want to hunt him. If he wrong person comes...he has no hope of survival. They'll just slaughter him right there. He has to get himself down.

He can't get himself down, he soon realizes. He can't get up to his leg. He can't do anything here. Tears well up in his eyes, and he wants to cry, but he's too terrified to be anything but silent. He'll die if anyone sees him...and he'll likely die here if they don't.

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[Luca stares in complete mortal terror. He knows his hiding place won't last. He's just crouched around the corner of a building with a clear and visible set of tracks in the snow leading to his hiding spot. He has to flee. So, like a rabbit racing away from the bushes, Luca gets up and races away as quickly as he can, conscious of how the crunch of his feet in the snow is likely drawing this man's attention to his location.]

[Michael's head snaps around, and he lets out a breathless, unhinged giggle as he gives pursuit. The fact that it's a child no longer registers as important - it's a Warmblood or a Vileblood, and either way they're perfectly acceptable targets. Small and nimble just means it's gonna be a fun chase!

With his long legs, and the heat leaking from his body melting away the snow where he walks, Michael is fast when he wants to be. Maybe he could even catch Luca pretty quickly - but he doesn't. He won't give up the chase, exactly, but there's no fun in it if he gets them right away! He'll run him out, get him tired, and then he can play with him a little.

There's no sound save the crunching of his feet on the pavement. He's given up on breathing; just some mortal affectation.]

[Luca's generally pretty fast and agile. He's good at dodging, turning quickly, and generally powering ahead at a pretty good pace. However, he's stuck trying to run through the snow, where Michael has only pavement beneath his feet. Not to mention the whole breathing thing. The cold, dry air burns Luca's lungs as he races away as quickly as he can, and he knows sooner or later he'll have to slow down and catch his breath. But he can't afford to. Not yet.

He should run to the ocean, he decides. Sure, the ocean here is much colder than what he's used to in the Ligurean Sea, but he has to risk the temperature. It's the only place where he'll have the advantage.

He turns, racing in the direction of the shore despite knowing it's a far way from where they currently are. Then, as he runs, his foot hits a patch that had been trampled down into ice and slips, slamming down to the ground with a loud thud. Luca lets out a wheezing whimper, as he desperately stares up at Michael, desperately trying to see how much distance they had between them, horrified at realizing how much of an edge he just gave to someone who already had the advantage.

[Michael makes a strange choked sound when Luca trips, something that quickly turns to laughter when he once more takes a breath.]

Shitty luck!

[Too bad! But not enough to make him let up - he’s going to pick Luca up, if he can get hold of him. Maybe try to get up pretty quick.]

[Luca scrambles to his feet, trying to get away, but he's not fast enough. Soon he finds himself being lifted into the air. Terrified, Luca whimpers and looks away, and all seems hopeless...but then something starts forming on his skin. Granted, he's all bundled up right now so it's easy to avoid touching it, but a clear, slimy sheen is soon visible on his face. It's not fatal, but it will cause blood pressure to drop rapidly, leading to dizziness and disorientation if someone who isn't a vileblood comes into direct contact with it.]

[Michael's got a hand fisted in the front of Luca's shirt, picking up the small kid easily. Yes! He wins! Granted, he...well, he doesn't quite want to kill anyone. Not quite yet. Throwing them around is just natural though, right?

Fortunately for Luca, Michael is also two things: curious and reckless. He's not touching Luca's skin right now, but when the kid starts oozing slime, he immediately recognizes it as a non-typical substance.]

Ew, what is that?

[And just touches it with his bare hand for literally no reason.

Slime! Gross! The ick factor wouldn't normally bother him - he's pretty accustomed to gross stuff - but then the sudden light-headness hits. He shakes his head sharply and tosses Luca to the side, practically whining:]

Ugh - why are vilebloods so gross?

[What the hell even is that? Michael's fairly new to the experience of having blood; he's really never experienced variations in its pressure.]

[Luca's mind is racing, trying to figure out how he can possibly get himself free, considering how to maneuver himself to get his toxic skin in contact with this man's skin, when...this guy just straight up touches the poisonous slime. Well, okay. Normally he'd be bothered by someone calling vilebloods gross (though it wouldn't be the first time someone's been disgusted by him, not even counting the vileblood thing), but right now all he cares is that he's been thrown to the ground. It's his chance to escape. Luca quickly scrambles to his feet and starts running, racing once more in the direction he knows the ocean will be.]

[Michael doesn't immediately give chase; he stands where he is and shakes his head again, trying to get rid of the sudden dark spots. Wiping the slime off onto his pants helps. Maybe he doesn't have much sense of what blood pressure is, but he understands cause and effect just fine - that kid just poisoned him or something.

Well! Now it's personal! He's too competitive to just lay off now, when they're both really in it; he puts on some speed and goes running after Luca again.]

Aw, don't go running off yet!

[Luca doesn't stop running. He won't stop running until he gets away. He'll run and run until he sees the distant shore, and sees that a lot of the water is frozen over...and then he'll run some more, because right now he only cares about getting away, and freezing in the icy waters barely registers as a concern right now. Besides, he bets if he can get there, the ice is more likely to hold his weight than his pursuers. Maybe he'll be lucky and the man will drop through the ice and Luca won't.

If he can make it that far without getting caught.]

[Michael lopes on after Luca again, but the kid's gotten a bit of a head start now. And he's headed towards the water.

There's a decision to be made, then. Michael's quite at home in the water - an icy ocean has nothing against a fire squid! He could catch a flailing human in there no problem...if he's willing to just go full squid mode right here. In public.

Michael's lost his concern for the opinions or well-being of most other Sleepers. He's not...quite over his old baked-in self-consciousness, though. Sure, he could maybe just kill the kid, but he'd only come back with the news that Michael's a big gross squid, and he'd definitely have no reason not to tell everyone.

Mmmh. It's a concern.

He's not afraid to venture out on the ice, at least. He'd be fine if he fell in. So he does, finally reining in a bit of that unnatural heat so that he can step out onto the frozen sea.]

[He's being followed. Luca's nervous. He's a sea monster, so he has no fear of drowning at least, but he's from a much warmer climate than this so he's still not sure how good it would be if he fell in. Still, he takes a careful step back. And another. And another. Then he stops, nervous that as he goes further out, the ice must surely be getting thinner, and therefore dangerously close to falling through. He watches Michael, waiting to see if he continues to follow.]

So what's the game plan here, anyway?

[Michael doesn't seem at all concerned with falling in. It's hard to tell if it's justified. Up close, talking, he seems too manic to pay attention to his own safety anyway; his eyes are wide and his hands are flexing spasmodically at his sides, empty though they are. He tilts his head down towards the water.]

You think you can handle the water? Humans don't usually do so well, when it's so cold. Just go into shock and sink right there, I've seen them do it!

[Well, he doesn't want to go into the water. It's cold and miserable, and he doesn't want to get his clothes wet, but he supposes he has to do what he can. Wanting to make sure he has something to change into and not wanting to get bogged down, and still feeling like he's far enough away to have some time before Michael reaches him, Luca takes off his hat, scarf, gloves, coat and boots, stripping down until he was down to just his pants. It's incredibly cold and miserable, but necessary if he wants to try and prevent hypothermia when this is done.]

Not a human.

[And with that, he turns and runs to the edge of the ice, diving into the water. Michael will just see a green tail with blue fins flick over the surface of the water before Luca dives deeper. Unfortunately, the cold does slow fish down, so he's not as fast as he'd usually be, but he's still faster than a human, and far safer than someone without gills.]

[Michael laughs in delight, high and loud.]

Not a human!

[He rushes over to the edge of the ice, leaning down to peer after the fish kid. Oh, that was neat! He's glad he got to see that! His amusement is enough to rather distract him from the current pursuit - although, hm, isn't that a tropical-looking fish kid? Maybe he'll freeze into a fish popsicle!

Ha, well, probably not literally. But Michael's gonna stand here and watch for a little while. He's gotta try to get back to shore sometime, right?]

[Fortunately for Luca, the waters where he's from aren't quite as warm as a tropical fish would require, but he's still a marine fish kid from the warm waters of the Mediterranean, which never gets close to freezing. He's nowhere near close to being adapted to this environment, and while he's grateful that, at least, he is a saltwater species, he quickly realizes he won't be able to stay in the water too long. He's having trouble moving quickly, and the cold is getting to him, so he swims under the ice, hoping to find some hole or opening so he can pop up somewhere unexpected to (hopefully) try to either sneak back and retrieve his dry clothes or run up to shore and get inside.]

[Fortunately, Michael spends some time pacing along the edge of the ice shelf, before abruptly deciding that this is taking WAY too long. He's bored! He wants to do some more fun shit! He kicks a clod of ice off the edge, and then turns to walk back to shore. He's basically just walking straight back, along the most obvious path - should be easy to dodge, if Luca's thinking about it.]

[Luca peers through a hole in the ice and, seeing where Michael is going, drops back down, swimming back to a spot closer to where he left his clothes. From the looks of things, he just has to wait until Michael is out of his line of sight, and he should be good to run, grab his clothes and get dressed, then get somewhere warm before he freezes.

Once he reaches the opening in the ice nearest to his clothes, Luca, cautiously at first, peers out of the water. As long as he doesn't see Michael anywhere, he'll climb out. He's slow and clumsy, disoriented by the cold, but he'll manage it, and then will start dressing himself as quickly as he can. He needs to get somewhere safe, after all. Safe and warm. Maybe after the dangers of this month have passed, he'll go to the Willful Machine and see if there's something more swimming appropriate that he can wear under his clothes. Maybe there are clothes that could be designed to keep people warm even when they're in the water?]

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Luca catchall post - Fun vileblood issues!

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