Drakes in Danger

Drakes in Danger
Date of Scene:	11 October 2012
Location:	Mist Plains
Synopsis:	Shiki and Faruja take on a mission to earn some cash for the development of the Shard Seekers.
Cast of Characters:	Shiki Misaki, Faruja Senra

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Shiki Misaki has posed:
SHARD SEEKERS: MISSION START!

Having hopped on an Airship from Fluorgis to Lindblum, it's time for the first 'make some crazy money' mission for the Shard Seekers. Well, two of them, at least! And what better excuse to get to know one another a little better? Shiki and Faruja have probably been talking quite a bit!

Although to summarise, she's asked him what he wanted to know of the Reaper's Game, at least from her perspective- that it's a competition made to toy with the recently deceased, with the goal of protecting Shibuya from the shadows while simultaneously challenging and hunting them like prey for the Reapers' advancement.

But that's neither here nor there, because we've got some drakes to save. The location of their nest: Pipos Heights- is a raised steppe that can be accessed through a short trip through a cave. The obligatory flans, bats and giant bugs shouldn't be a problem for these two!

Faruja Senra has posed:
To say the whole idea of the Reaper's Game disturbed the Burmecian would be an understatement. Poor Shiki would have had to endure a rather perturbed Templar, and the wood siding of the airship quite a few scratches from claws making ruts. Most tellingly, his thoughts voiced on the Reapers make them out to be little better than the Heartless, or anyone else who tries to control them. With assurances that his superiors will learn about this turn of events, as well as a few pious sayings for the souls of those lost to them, he'd give the young Seamstress the floor after a bit to calm himself down.

That's not to say he's all rants though. Aside from that bit, he's as polite and friendly as ever, though perhaps a touch stuffy from more modern perspectives. And he's more than happy to explain about his kind! She might just notice his chest puff up a bit proudly. She'd soon learn of the nezumi, and the two cities that make up his people; Burmecia and Cleyra. Art, dance, and a proud warrior tradition being the hallmarks of Burmecia draw long-winded praise from the rat, though his thoughts on Cleyra's pacifism and hiding behind a sandstorm much less so. Reluctantly, he goes into his service as a Lancer in the Burmecian Army's aerial corp-those focused on riding wyverns, and his own origins as a wyvern raiser on his family's ranch. There's more than a touch of sadness here, as much as he tries to keep a straight face. Any questions on what happened to his home, would simply be answered with a glance towards the Alexandrian Mountains, and a glare that way. "Alexandria and her demons."

As for the Church? He's rather candid. Plucked from his falling world 'by the Hand of Faram' as he puts it, his life was saved by the Church. With that came a debt, and the rat's conversion and joining of the Temple Knights. That, as they say, was history.

Faruja, and his own wyvern Arista, both manage looks of equal worry and excitement over this particular job. For once, the wyvern herself is talkative...in her hissing draconic language, which Faruja deftly returns. "How fare you, Lady Misaki? 'Tis your first true field operation, correct? Nervous?" He inquires as they make their way towards the cave. If she wishes, she could catch a ride on Arista's back, though the wyvern doesn't look too happy about the idea if she does.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Well, Shiki can concur with that. She's quite confident that she'd be happy to see another Reaper as long as she 'lives'. But she takes comfort in Faruja's piety; because she's not of any particularly strong religious affiliation (not that she voices this out loud (not that it would be technically correct anyway if she knew what was really going on behind the scenes)), she takes comfort in the faith of another person.

Hearing all about his people pretty much leaves her rapt, though. It sounds amazing, culturally, although she's quick to know when she should stop talking about certain things. So it all ends up being a rather thrilling story for her, tinged through with sadness naturally. She's sorry that they ended up coming close to this place... but at the same time she can't deny the natural beauty.

And there is certainly natural beauty to be had here, for once you get above it's immensely impressive to step out and see, through the trees, the cloud of mist blanketing everything nearby.

"Me? Nah. Even though it was pretty savage, I think it's pretty easy to switch over from doing missions for the Reapers to doing guild missions," Shiki replies as they walk around the steppe, trying to scope things out.

This is not to say she doesn't flinch when a large, draconic shape cuts through the sky above them, though.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Shiki's confidence earns her a smile, and a nod. "Good, good. To go from your own home to...well, a place like this...you have adapted remarkably well. Perhaps your true calling lies not in making rainments but in adventuring." He muses, before a trio of eyes shoot to the sky. A clawed hand grips his spear as he gazes upwards, Arista doing the same.

"Aah. There we are. Let us see...be this one friend? Lady Arista, if you please..." A pause from the Burmecian. "And be /polite/."

With a hissing snort towards her handler, the wyvern flaps her wings, taking a few feet into the air with a blast of wind that has Faruja's hair and robes fluttering. Arista roars out a greeting to her fellow draconic being.

'Oi! Got a minute? Heard ya lot was gettin' turned into monsters!'

One fuzzy ear twitches. "...Oh Lord in heaven, Arista. Next time /I/ am doing the talking."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"I... guess it's just because Shibuya changes fast. Gotta be socially flexible in a place like that," Shiki offers lamely. "Uhh, I dunno? There's a lot less chance of getting stomped on by a roll of denim. I like to help other people, but I don't know if I've got the stomach to do something like this full time..."

And as Shiki confronts that ideal, Arista's going to confront another drake. It's a little difficult to see in the mist exactly what is going on up there, and objects seen through mist may be closer than they appear. In fact it's only once they're almost nose to nose...

That you see the Emblem.
http://www.khwiki.net/File:Wyvern_KH.png

The muscular, purple beast with its tattered wings hisses in response, raw aggression, and then curls its wings around itself and barrel rolls away in a flash.

Down on the ground level, a breeze runs through the trees! All of the plants, be they bushes, grass or otherwise, seem to bristle in hostility!

Faruja Senra has posed:
The Burmecian rubs his chin thoughtfully as Arista takes to the air. "The Lord will show you the way, M'Lady Misaki. If nothing else, you will have seen and done things few others within Shibuya can claim."

That is not a normal wyvern. Arista is quick to return to the challenge. Knowing her like he does, Faruja grunts, and turns to Shiki. "This one is corrupt. Shall we?" A glance around has the Burmecian shivering even as he casts a Wall spell around the both of them.

"Come! We are safer in the air!" Then, without his usual bit of asking, he'll simply try to sweep up Shiki in his arms then leap into the sky! Wyvern and rat manage a picture-perfect meeting, Faruja landing on her back and releasing Shiki should she wish to get off of that malevolent ground.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"Woah!"

We are in the air! That's pretty sudden! Shiki doesn't have time to comment on it as the three of them take to the skies, and just as well, too;

Because coming out of the soil:

http://www.khwiki.net/images/b/bb/Dire_Plant_KHD.png

Dire plants and all of their poisonous ilk seem to be infesting the area there, and as they appear the plants seem to become visibly more thorny and unpleasant to look at. They'll try spitting all sorts of nasty seeds at Arista, and while Shiki places a finger on The Eyes Have It to try and shoot at them, it may perhaps be more easy to evade!

"Should we chase after it?" she asks. It's possible, but from up here you can also see something of a pattern to the appearence of the corrupt plants...

Faruja Senra has posed:
Frown. Faruja watches as the Heartless wyvern tears away. Teeth grit, before he's doing his best to ward off what seeds try to plink off of himself and Shiki. The shots courtesy of Shiki's pin helps, but the majority of it all comes from Arista's deft aerial maneuvers. The rat's tail curls about Shiki's waist tightly as they too do a tight barrel roll, only to level out then break upwords in a steep climb.

"Hold tight, M'Lady!" Faruja is grinning despite the situation, exhiliration in his features as they fly. His gaze turns to the plants, and a stabbing motion with his spear has a column of holy-infused ice rising from beneath some of the plants.

"No. Thought it galls me, that one is but a symptom of the problem. 'Tis a disease, a cancer M'Lady, these shadows. We must cut it out at the root!" He remarks.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki Misaki is just going 'eeeeeee!' like it's a rollercoaster!

Adventuring: it's fan-tastic.

Funnily enough, the nest of the wyverns is roughly the same place as the place the corruption is spreading from. FUNNY, THAT.

Speaking of rollercoasters, it's time for some hairpin turns and loop de loops. The Heartless Wyvern can be shaken, but not without difficulty- thankfully you can hide yourself in the mist just as easily as the vines can if you get a little bit of a lead on it.

Wait. Vines?

Yep! The closer you get the more vines there are, and they're very long ones that are reaching up out of the plant cover below. Covered in unseemly purple flowers, they're more like tentacles, adding another complication to the flight.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Somewhere in the midst of combat, the ratling makes a mental note to teach Shiki how to ride a wyvern. Seems the girl enjoys it! Most of his mind is on the situation at hand, however.

Finding themselves in the mist, both Faruja and Arista both rely more on smell and hearing that sight. The encroachment of the vines, including a scratch on Faruja's cheek, has them dropping altitude. Better to face a wyvern than an unknown set of flowery vines. As for the ones still in front? Spear-tip and cutting blades of energy rain upon them as the rat tries to cut a path, Arista assisting with sharp claws where she can. "M'Lady, let us clear the way! Mayhap the cause lies within the nest itself." Looking behind him, he tracks the heartless wyvern. Should it get below the vines, he'll try to use his Holy Spear skills to have the things fall upon the beast!

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki couldn't manage up to something like this. Faruja displays his sheer experience by evading both the assaults, and where he can't evade them he just slashes through them. That's one thing, Shiki thinks to herself, that a lance lacks for.

Everything goes by in a blur- Faruja pushing forward and between and THROUGH the vines, leaving them to slap the Wyvern Heartless in the face. It tries to shoot a fireball, but it just ends up hitting one of the vines itself!

It pushes itself into a spin, but it's the same trick as before and it'll leave it open to the holy strike. Very effective against Heartless, that sort of thing. And once it breaks off, we can get close to the problem...

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070621225333/finalfantasy/images/2/25/DragonGrass-ffv.gif

This Dragon Pod, a known predator of dragons, has grown quite huge due to the power of the Darkness. Displaying its own Heartless Emblem and yellow eyes on the biggest flower, it is surrounded by many of the other pod of wyverns which it has been forcing to eat the purple flowers. They don't look too healthy, but none of them have been transformed yet.

Faruja Senra has posed:
With the wyvern dealt with for the moment, the party is free to make their way to the true culprit! Faruja spits over the side of Arista at the pod. "Abhorrant abomination! Demon! Support me from here, M'Lady Misake. Arista shall protect you. No longer shall I abide by this corruption!" With that, spear flaring up with holy power, he takes to the sky with a leap. When gravity catches up, and he begins to fall, the small Burmecian is a pointed bullet with spear's point aimed straight for the center of the Dragon Pod. Arista circles, keeping hopefully within range of Shiki's pins' abilities. And more to the point, this gives the Burmecian a better look at the wyverns.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
These guys are kind of like people on the Super Size Me diet: they're not in any danger of turning into monsters any time soon, but an extended diet of what is presumably soul-destroying, disgusting forced food will eventually cause them to crack. Animals can fall into despair and become Heartless, just like people(?!).

The thing is, the Dragon Pod, despite its size, is mostly sessile. Shiki notices before Faruja that there's an awful lot of Dire Plants spawning as he rises and falls; and therefore, she checks herself and begins blasting them with ice crystals. When they start barraging her with seeds, she realises they're ranged attackers...

But one of them hits her right above the temple, covering her eyes in some sort of blinding ink. Likewise the other plants open fire on Faruja, and those seeds, from the various colored plants, could do any number of unpleasant status effects.

Hopefully Arista can keep the wounded Wyvern off their backs when it reappears...

Faruja Senra has posed:
Those seeds indeed land on the ratling. They sting, but, the armor takes most of it. The worst part is the effects! Feeling his stomach churn, and his veins beneath fur and flesh turn an unsightly shade of purple, he struggles to not lose what lunch he had before coming here. Insidious poison starts to have its effects, the normally swift Burmecian's movements noticably slowed as he does his best to stab, slash, and offer a good compliment of falling beams of Holy. All the while, his cries of 'demon', and 'abomination' seem a little bit weaker than usual in volume.

Zig, zag, drop, climb! Arista does her best to dodge and weave, snarling as she tries to avoid shot seeds. Hopefully shiki's holding on tight! But the wyvern certainly looks out for her counterpart should it return! Unfortunately, this leaves her with little time to heal Shiki's ailment.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"Can't see," Shiki helpfully informs Arista, which is going to make things awkward because here comes the Wyvern!

"Ugh," she says, holding on tight (and with Mr. Mew holding on tight to /her/.) "Give a sec."

She tries to put the adrenaline out of her mind and concentrates on the sound of the wind to calm herself a bit. Then, Shiki turns her thoughts inward and concentrates on the Player Pin...

And sure enough, though her eyes can't see, her Scan ability can help her target the Heartless. So she's going to do just that! And pick off the Dire Plants for Faruja.

With that under way, Faruja will get the breathing room he needs to heal himself if necessary. The Dragon Pod can't do much other than thrash at close range.

Faruja Senra has posed:
'Useless human! I'll get to ya!' Comes Arista's hissing words in draconic. They're filled with derision and general irritation. About par for the course! As her wyvern counterpart returns, she'll do a wide banking turn, trying to snap jaws into the other flying creature's neck! Hopefully Shiki doesn't get dizzy.

"Much obliged!" Faruja calls out, having at least mastered his stomach if not the rest of himself. A person more possessed of self preservation would indeed heal themselves. Instead, with the Dragon Pod so close by, he chooses to charge and incant. White lightning forms around his spear, and he'll stab at the root as best he can! "Absorb power in the sky and strike! Lightning Stab!" A spark of lightning will descend from the sky as Faruja thrusts his spear, blade and sword-shaped lightning burst meeting as it rises from the ground in a great clap of thunder.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"Well thanks for that!" Shiki says back, pouting as she goes. Yes, she does that thing. You know the one.

Shiki is concentrating on her telepathy at the moment, but it's good she hasn't eaten recently. It's not her spinning, it's just the symbols she can see in her mind! Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

The Wyvern can't do much at close range. It's designed for ranged and hit-and-run, so when it comes to real claw and fang stuff it can't match up. Arista will be able to finish it up in short fashion.

Energy gathers, and discharges through the Dragon Pod's vines! Various flowers and Plants connected to it overload and pop, and the huge plant can't do anything to stop it.

Except SPAWN MORE MINIONS. One last bed of flowers rises up, even huger than before, surrounding Faruja completely.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Aww, crap. Faruja frowns as he's suddenly surrounded by horrible flowers. Doing his best impression of a dancer, or alternatively, a gardener, he'll try to slash and stab those minions away. But there's quite a few! And with the poison running through his veins, he's pretty damn tired by now.

"M'Lady! Tell me you have something expansive!" Area of effect, Shiki! Do it!

The amount of relish Arista takes in tearing the throat out of her fellow wyvern, corrupted or not, might be a little scary. Even more so with Shiki's pin. Surface thoughts would indicate Arista to indeed enjoy the act. Scary!

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"You're gonna have to be light on your feet!" Shiki yells back.

But she does: Blizzard Cool, the best Piercing Pillar pin she's got in her pocket. She can't aim, can't even see where Faruja is;

So she unleashes the psych blindly, creating one huge ice blade stabbing up along with smaller ones around it.

All she can do is imagine the pin slashing through as many Heartless as possible; and otherwise she's blind, caught up in the maelstrom.

And when she's blind it's kind of scary to realise how much your ride enjoyed doing /that/. So Shiki just holds on tight as she can, and hopes---

Faruja Senra has posed:
Faruja leaps up as the myriad of pillars rise. The Templar is satisfied to see many of the creatures skewered and destroyed. They're almost dealt with! Of course, he now has to clench his teeth. Too slow thanks to the poison, he takes a nice stab to the side from the great ice blade even as he Jumps. At least the cold freezes over the wound, so he won't bleed to death.

Up...and down! Faruja stabs into one of the remaining flowers, down to but a handful. Arista, ever mindful of her Burmecian charge, is now quite free to attack as well. Dive-bombing expertly, she covers the ratling's rear, and even blasts him with breath that alleviates much of his symptoms. In turn, Faruja spares enough concentration to Esuna Shiki! They're almost gone!

"Victory to the righteous!" He calls out encouragingly. We can do this!

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Good thing Shiki couldn't see that!

She's still stuck on Arista's back... but now she can see! So!

"Mr. Mew-" Shiki calls, but the cat's too lightweight and can't jump off at this kind of velocity. "Arista, let me down! I need to help!"

She's already preparing Nikkari as she does so. Hey, maybe she can do her own Jump?

The Pod's pretty much on its last legs, smoke rising off the frazzled plant and completely out of options. It shakes itself intimidatingly! But that's not really going to do much.

When Shiki arrives at his side, it'll just take one more attack from Faruja-!

Faruja Senra has posed:
Let her down? Arista grins toothily, and banks hard to the left as she descends. Shiki will get a bit of a drop, but not fatal. The wyvern's not quite /that/ murderous. Right now, anyway.

Faruja stalks up to the fizzling plant, and raises his weapon! Stab! Stab stab stab stab stab! Never one to do things half way, the Burmecian sets about ensuring there's little left of the plant. Even after it stops moving, he'll beckon Arista over, who will start to claw into the ground. Digging up the roots of the plant!

Gasp. The now quite tired Templar gathers enough energy to flash a curaga over the pair, lessening the worst of their wounds. "Lady Misaki. A job well done. Ser Seatlan chose well, to recruit you." A bow, and after a glance to make sure she's not suffering anything potentially life threatening, he'll move to the afflicted wyverns. "Now. We must see to our friends."

Whispering comforting words in draconic, he'll start to tend to them as best he can, antidotes, cures, and esunas as necessary. He'll even direct Shiki to assist, telling her where best to rub in comforting them, or helping administer medicine.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
OK, I decided! I don't like you! This is going to be a thing with Shiki and dragons.

Her knees are shaken and skinned, and there'll be grass skidmarks to wash out later, but she can't think about that right now. She's going to lunge in with her Lance and crack this plant open!

Sufficient pummelling will cause it to emit a high-pitched sound, and a rapid hissing as the body dissolves in a haze, releasing someone's strong heart. As it goes, the corruption reverts, the dragon grass turning back to normal and the evil flowers wilting.

Shiki sucks in air. "Ah ha! We did it! We did do it, didn't we?" she asks, the curative magic- and Faruja's quick attention to the wyverns- stopping her from noticing his frozen injury. The wyverns are going to be pretty sick, and some are indeed poisoned- eating Heartless flowers can't be good for anyone's constitution- but a little R&R will get them at least back on their feet. They'll have to adapt and go back to their usual diet, but nobody's in danger of transforming or dying, fortunately.

And Shiki gets a crash course in tending to wyverns.

MISSION CLEAR!