Burgers And Pi

Burgers And Pi
Date of Scene:	07 November 2012
Location:	The Old Kingdom
Synopsis:	Avira is on the hunt, undergoing special survival training from Skoll Ulfang. During her trek, she runs across an unusual person....
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Sho Minamimoto

---

Avira has posed:
Today's weather: sunny! Though even in this particular world, a sunny day manages to look menacing, bringing with it an angry haze and oppressive heat. There had been a fierce thunderstorm all day and all night previously, so the ground beneath the thick blanket of trees and thorns is still extremely damp. What remains is a nasty sort of humidity for those beneath the treeline and an uncomfortable heat for those above it.

Avira had spent most of the day above the branches, carefully navigating from tree to tree. In spite of wandering the forest for hours, she couldn't find her way out, often ending up deposited back at the closed gates of the large, abandoned castle. After a few hours, she simply gave up looking for an exit, opting to relax, let her clothing dry out, and try to find something to eat.

So far the "something" has been grubs, scooped up from beneath damp logs and rocks. It doesn't even strike her as gross at this point, just as sleeping in a tree didn't strike her as hard last night. Avira was THAT hungry.

All the while, she's kept her ears open. There was a pack of wolves in this forest that would gladly eat her. Even now, as Avira crouches by one of the many streams she's found, she can hear them howling.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Hunger and danger sharpens Avira's senses, the desperate, endless work of survival purging weakness from her, bringing her more in touch with her primal, hunter self.

Or really just making her goddamn miserable. We'll call it a 50/50 shot.

As she creeps down the stream, Avira hears something. A familiar voice. It sounds like it might be... singing?

More importantly, there's a delicious smell. A smell of something far more tantalizing than grubs. The scene of beef, char-grilled with all of the toppings. The scent floats through the forest, as if to dare Avira to approach.

Avira has posed:
Pulling off one of her fingerless gloves, Avira starts scrooping water out of the stream to drink, uncaring of its purity. She recalls hearing once of the 'three-three-three' rule. Three minutes without air. Three days without water. Three weeks without food. The last one she didn't really think was even possible.

She freezes as she hears -something- out there in the woods. A familiar-sounding voice...singing? Nevermind that, something smelled DELICIOUS. Someone was having a barbeque in this forest. ...but it couldn't be. It was too good to be true! She clearly must be delirious from hunger and halucinating.

Her stomach growls, perhaps in agreement, but more out of desire for the flesh of cow.

Gritting her teeth, she silently stalks her way through the wood, not even really noticing how significantly quieter she's become. That, of course, could be chalked up to the wolves.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Avira makes her Stealth check. Or maybe whoever it is isn't bothering to make Perception checks. The singing begins clearer as she homes in on the delicious foodage. "THREE!"

"ONE! FOUR! ONE FIVE TO THE NINE TO THE TWO TO THE SIX! FIVE THREE FIVE, EIGHT NINE SEVEN NINE!"

She parts some thorny foliage, and sees a small rock shelf, where Sho Minamimoto, the Reaper, is busily drawing something that looks like really complicated graffiti. On the rocks behind him, there's a hamburger sitting on a wrapper, still untouched, steaming in the air with deliciousness.

He doesn't appear to have noticed Avira yet.

Avira has posed:
OH NO IT'S THAT GUY! THAT REAPER GUY!

Fear gathers in the pit of her stomach as she remembers her fight with Sho. This Reaper was dangerous and could summon those Noise things that felt far stronger than Heartless. It was /really/ unfortunate that he wound up in this forest. But dang it, doesn't that guy know that smell is going to attract the wolves? Indeed, some of the howls do sound a little bit closer.

But at the same time...that burger. That burger, left there, all alone, while his back is turned. Would she dare? She watches him for a few minutes, his rap through the endless digits continuing uncontested as Avira observes his behavior.

Ever so slowly and quietly, she inches forwards through the foliage, nearing closer and closer. Very soon, the burger is in arm's length. With one eye on the Reaper, she reaches for the tasty morsel.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
"THREE! TWO! THREE! EIGHT! FOUR SIX TWO, SIX FOUR THREE THREE! EIGHT THREE! TWO SEVEN! NINE FIVE ZERO TWO!"

Sho still appears to be consumed by his work, as he drags a hand through the air, his touch apparently searing the rock in the desired patterns. It /looks/ like paint, but it's not.

Finally, it is complete, and it seems to begin to.... write a bit, as something seems to come alive within it. Sho nods, smiling to himself as he turns towards his burger.

His burger which has just vanished, leaving a burger-shaped hole in the air where it had been. He stares at it for a moment...

And then pulls his bullhorn. "ALL RIGHT! WHAT CORPSE JUST DECIDED TO DERIVE WITH MY DINNER?"

Avira has posed:
That's some pretty elaborate graffit he has going, too. Looks like stylized numbers? Avira swears she can see an integral sign or two in there. There's something decidedly unsettling about it all, though.

Therefore, Avira quickly swipes the burger and withdraws. She's fast to stuff it in her mouth, if only so she has access to both of her hands-but moreso so she can taste its utter deliciousness. No sooner than she has inched back a little does Sho turn around to look for his burger.

Avira freezes, then cringes as he screams his disapproval through his bullhorn. Still, she doesn't move, not until he's turned away from her general area.

Then, and only then, does she bolt. Like hell she's going to shout back at this guy!!

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
There is no response. No challenge. No sense of a Player. Sho squints, silently cursing. "That's it, I'm going to ITERATE you!" He yells, forgoing the bullhorn as he turns to the graffiti.

Avira bolts, but that means she misses what he does next. Sho raises a hand, flicking pins into the streams of writhing graffiti rising into the air. The graffiti coealesces around them... And forms into the stylized black graffiti insignias of Taboo Noise. "GET GOING!" He yells at them.

A moment later, Avira hears the sound of Noise hissing through the air, and black, explosive Corehog quills firing after her. Looks like the Hamburger Hunter has become the Hunted.

Avira has posed:
Dude would have iterated the heck out of her if he found her anyway!! She doesn't look back, speeding through the undergrowth and bursting into that stream she was at earlier. From there she starts wading up it, eagerly taking bites of what was now HER hamburger as she moves.

It tasted so good. She never knew a burger could taste this good. Her stomach roars in approval.

Her victory is short lived. Avira hears a noise and looks up to find black quills fired at her. Unable to hold her tongue, she yelps in panic and throws up her arms to protect her face. The quills nail her, knocking her down to the other side of the stream bank.

Panic floods her mind and she scrambles to her feet, darting off into the forest again. Her run is short-lived. After a few steps she elects to stuff the remains of the hamburger (now a little dirty from her hitting the ground, oh well) back in her mouth and scale the nearest tree. She at least wanted to get some sense how many of those things were out to hit her.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Grunge Wolves enter the fray, stalking around the base of the tree Avira climbs. They look up with hungry eyes at her, much like she likely looked at the hamburger. Walls of Grizzly appear as well, looking up and grumbling with intense focus. For the moment, nothing aerial seems to be chasing Avira down... But maybe they're not trying to kill her.

They want to contain her. She hears something approaching, whistling in a mathematically even progression.

Avira has posed:
Nothing aerial yet...but Avira knows that this guy definitely has something aerial in his arsenal. As she takes stock of the noise gathering below, she knows it's only a matter of time before one shows up. She continues to climb as high as possible, putting as much distance between her and Noise below.

Once she thinks she can climb no more, she wraps an arm around the tree and holds on. With her other hand, she starts stuffing as much as the burger she can into her mouth.

If she's lucky, maybe she can finish it before HE arrives. Avira knows Sho is coming. She can hear that whistling.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho Minamimoto has several Taboo Noise available for use against aerial target. They haven't appeared because Sho has not wished them to.

He wants to deal with this himself. The whistling grows louder. It's slow. Avira has plenty of time to eat the burger. It's not about the burger anymore. IT was incidental. He has 8 more in his inventory.

It's about /her/. "I admit, I derive a bit of satisfaction in this."

There is a flicker, and a hissing noise of displaced air as Sho appears, hanging in the air as he stares at Avira. He has that same manic, menacing grin as always as he whistles a few more notes, and then stops. "Your inverse matrix isn't a high enough power to fool me." He taps the sides of his head, and then peers closer. "Huh. I remember you. SOH-CAH-TOA..." He shrugs. "What, is this some irrational attempt at revenge? Don't tell me a zero like you didn't actually bring enough food to travel on."

Avira has posed:
Strange that one of those drakes hasn's showed up yet. Gradually she begins to realize that one easily could have by now-seems the noise just wants to trap her. Stall as Sho got closer-which is taking an agnonizingly long time, much to her dismay. At least she gets to finish that burger, though, and once she has...

...she draws the Spine and waits. 'I admit, I derive a bit of satisfaction in this.' Of course, when he just POPS right in front of her, she nearly drops it in surprise. This guy could fly, why had she forgotten that? "Gah!"

She glares back at him, her jaw set, refusing to show her fear over this. "No, it's not that, it was just /convenient/." she says slowly.

The gears turn in Avira's head-how's she going to prevent this guy from just up and slaughtering her? Oh! "...I'm in the middle of a game. You wandered into the area, so I'm gonna take advantage of that."

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho Watches Avira, examining her demeanor as she responds. She then mentions she's in a game.

He actually looks surprised. "!!!" He expresses, somehow.

"A Game?" Sho says, thinking. "What kind of game? You're no Pl-" He pauses. "Oh, hah. Point outside of boundaries. You're not in the Reaper's Game. You're just playing something else." He crosses his arms and kicks up a leg, jauntily sitting in the air without need for such plebian things as 'support'. "Tell me about it, Yoctogram." Hey, at least he's not murdering her yet. Those Noise look hungry.

Avira has posed:
...whew. Well, he's interested. And not murdificating her. This is progress! "No, not a Reaper's game." Avira carefully stands, keeping her balance on the branch she was just sitting on. Notably, she doesn't put away her weapon. "My friend set it up. It's a game of survival. You get dumped in a forest like this with barely anything and you have to survive. There's a pack of wolves in this forest I have to avoid today and I'm not allowed to kill any of them."

Well, unless she /really/ needed to and her life was on the line. But Avira doesn't mention this. Sounds more exciting. "I was literally thrown into this yesterday so, to address your earlier...concern..." she says concern as if she would be putting air quotes around it, but doesn't actually do so. "...no, I don't have food on me. I've been scavenging today."

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
He's not /Uzuki/. He kills when he has a decent reason to do so.

Like 'annoying him'. He's generous!

"This Game actually sounds interesting." Sho says, a note of interest in his bored demeanor. "So how long do you need to survive?" He taps the side of his head, considering as Avira speaks. "And who is your... Game Master?"

Avira has posed:
At this rate, Avira assumes she might actually get off scott-free. If this guy is interested in making people play games and she's technically already in one...well, maybe he'll just go and bother her later, right? (Preferably around lots of other people to heal her so she doesn't DIE. She's not unaware of how close she came when she fought this guy!)

"Today included, four days. This is my second day in." Avira explains, still remaining on guard in spite of Sho's bored-looking stance. "Game Master? I dunno...maybe Skoll counts? He's checked up on me a few times so far. I'm mostly just left to do my thing here."

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho nods, smiling. "So you have two more days in your Game. A simple equation. A nice game, but far too direct. Let's iterate this Game to the next power."

He looks to the Noise, and gestures. There are no words exchanged. The Noise turns...

And departs, spreading throughout the forest. The howls of the wolves are joined by the sounds of Taboo Noise, either avoiding or consuming local wildlife. He chuckles to Avira. "Can you survive your game with the Noise too?"

Oh God. Dick move.

Avira has posed:
"Basically, I-" Avira pales a little. To the next power? "Wait a-" There's no stopping him! Sho turns away from her and commands the Noise to disperse into the Bramble Forest. Her jaw drops a little. THAT JERK!!

She knew this would happen!!! (Well, no, not really, but hindsight is always 20-20.)

Her grip tightens on the Spine, the familiar weight of the weapon comforting in her hand. At least she could fight the Noise, not that it was a good plan since by experience, that Taboo Noise was strong. Avira glares at him archly before...jabbing her finger at him. "Yes!" she declares, pointing right at his smug face, "Yes I can!"

The Spine is slotted back into the sheath at the small of her back and she climbs down the tree. TIME TO MOVE.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
"One more thing... 'Player'." Sho says.

He gestures. "The equation isn't balanced now. No point in increasing risk without increasing reward, eh?" He holds up a wrapped Hamburger. "I will drop (x > 3) of these around the Forest. Find them if you can. Maybe they'll help take the edge off... if you can survive getting them. And if you do, maybe I'll even factor in a prize for you." He says the last with a sneer.

"But since you're not Pacted, your chances of survival are approaching... zero! HAhahaha! Sucks to be U!"

Avira has posed:
Avira lands on the ground, crouched, but looks up immediately when Sho holds up one of those hamburgers. More than three, huh? She could hoard those for later. If they'd keep? And hey, this totally counts as foraging if she has to evade dangerous noise to get it.

"Yeah...you'll see!" She calls up at him defiantly, shaking a fist. Avira nonetheless looks intrigued. What kind of prize would this guy give out?

Survive first. Find out later. Avira takes off, following the stream downstream. As she goes, she plots to circle back to the rock face where she first saw Sho.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho laughs. "I don't have to see. I move faster than C!" Sho blurs out of his position, and reappears over Avira as she runs. The Taboo Noise swarms, growing in the forest. The density proves to be highest in the direction of that rock face. Could that be where the Noise are coming from?

As Avira races, the Noise immediately begin to set chase. They begin to fall away if Avira changes her direction, though, as if trying to keep her away from that area.

Sho continues to laugh as the deadly Noise harry Avira. "You're approaching your limit, Player! Don't be irrational, you can't fight that much at once! Well, one might be too much for a zero like you! Hah!"

Avira has posed:
This is bad. For now, Avira does everything she can to avoid actually stopping and fighting the Noise. She knows there's a lot here and as a single person, it'd be easy for her to really get swarmed. She can hear Sho taunting her and even looks up overhead every now and then.

An angry look crosses her face, "Are you gonna follow me the whole time?!"

Avira's quick to pick up on the patterns. Noise seems more numerous and more aggresive towards the rock face. This leads her to suspect that the graffiti Sho was doing earlier might have some kind of importance to it. She's quick to change her direction, though, because Noise this dense is a problem.

Sho taunts her, claiming that she can't even defeat /one/ of them and Avira immediately fumes. Angrily, she scales a nearby tree, ignoring any cuts the brambles make on her skin. Making her way through the trees (which, turns out, she's become VERY good at lately), she leaves the rock face area, going some distance before stopping.

Seems she's waiting. For a Noise, in fact, as she really wants to prove Sho /wrong/.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
The most infuriating thing about Sho is... That he doesn't seem to care. His laugh is heard as Avira turns away from the direction of the rock, and taking refuge in hiding.

Sho does not pursue, even though his laugh hangs on the air.

As she waits, a Grunge Wolf, the black, terrible creature half-forged of graffiti, with searing red eyes stalks through the area. It lifts its nose to the air, sniffing experimentally as it makes an odd, distorted sound. Could it be trying to hunt her down?

Avira has posed:
She's under no impression that Sho is gone. If he needed, she's pretty sure he could just bamf his way back over her head. He's still laughing and it's infuriating! Though this feels familiar-IVO was really infuriating around her when they fought.

Eventually, some 'prey' comes along. Avira knows these Grunge Wolf Noises and, given the situation, it's fitting that it's the first one she comes across here. As she observes it, she sees that it sniffs at the air and is perhaps unaware of her presence thus far. Maybe their sense of smell works differently.

She waits silently, until it has become close enough, then she rubs her palms together. Ice magic gathers between her fingertips, shaped into a forearm-length spike of ice. With a swing, she hurls it downwards to the ground at the Grunge Wolf's back feet and it explodes into a thick cluster of creeping ice.

Drawing her weapon, Avira jumps down shortly afterwards, letting gravity drive the stab she leads with.

Sho Minamimoto has posed:
Sho.... Isn't reappearing. Maybe he really is just going to leave Avira to her own devices in a forest rapidly filling up with Taboo Noise. Hope those regular wolves will be all right.

They're totally probably not all right.

The sudden combination of attacks, the ice strike hits first! The wolf howls in a distorted voice as it is engulfed, holding it perfectly still as Avira slashes down, cutting into its back.

The ambush is wildly successful, cleaving the Wolf in half with a single strike, causing it to explode into a burst of static.

The laughter, now, is gone. But the Noise aren't.

There is an explosion as several quills strike into the tree next to Avira, and explode, shattering it.

Looks like her forest exploration is going to be a bit more challenging than previously expected.

Avira has posed:
Technically, unless Avira is responsible directly for it, if some of those wolves happened to get "erased" by noise, that wouldn't count as she herself breaking any rules.

Under any other circumstance, she'd also be very excited about dispatching the dangerous taboo noise. Maybe a little victory pose or something like that...but she's too busy, grimly staying on the move. Her serious attitude pays off with a tree taking the brunt of a corehog attack instead of her. She's already running away before the quills explode.

It was going to be a long next few days. Sho will be well entertained.