master of disguise

[fintastic]

Who| Feferi & Dave, Venus
What| Feferi engages in "creative" camouflage techniques, finds friends, and slays geese with them
Where| the forest and then the pond
When| week 2
Warnings/Notes| violence against geese?

[ closed - for Dave ]

After a few days in the Arena, Feferi realizes that her technique of trying to hunt others down isn't going so well. Maybe they hear her coming, or maybe it's just bad luck, but it seems like she always winds up somewhere after someone else has moved on. Her tracking skills could use quite a bit of work, so she decides to come up with a new strategy. It takes some effort to put it all together, but she winds up with... something special. It's getting on into the evening by the time she's done, and she's failed to run into anyone yet, but she's come so far that she can't just give up on it.

Settling herself between a couple well-placed bushes, she's pulled a mass of branches and leaves up to cover the rest of her. With a sharpened, pointed stick, in her little pile of forest refuse, she has built herself a rather conspicuous fortress. From the outside, while it might not seem too off from a distance, once anyone gets close, it's pretty obvious that it's been put together by someone. But that's what the stick is for. She listens closely for anyone to approach, ready to jab the stick out at them.

If they wanted her to be better at this, they would have given her a little more warning, or maybe put them on a tropical island with a beach nearby instead.

[ goose hunting - for Dave and Venus ]

It's a good thing that Feferi is a light sleeper and an early riser, otherwise sleeping outdoors like this would take a tougher toll on her than it already has. As it stands, waking up cold is unpleasant, but this morning she has a little extra warmth that she steals from Dave. It doesn't take her long to get up and on her feet and get her things stowed away. She's wary of staying resting in any one place for too long. She'll remember her way back to the little alcove of rocks, but also be mindful that someone else might find it and get the same idea.

First order of the day is to find something to eat. She's had moderate luck slaying animals and either eating them raw or building a little fire to cook them over, and armed with her trusty stick-- rock-sharpened at one end and heavy at the other-- she's almost as perky as ever. You'd never think she was here to murder people, but that comes after breakfast.

"Come on, time to get going! Those honkbeasts are not going to hunt themselves!" There's no need to announce it-- she tells Dave she's going to go hunt some geese as soon as he's awake-- but it's worth repeating to try and get him to follow along once she's ready to go.

Comments

[celebrityskinned]

There's something deeply charming about how simple it is, and that part of Venus' heart that's felt squeezed since before this Arena started tenses even more. She feels it more in her throat than her chest, so tight that she wonders if the blood on her cheek is spitting out harder for all the pressure.

"We'll make gooseburgers. I got some cheese in a can, we can add that and a little wishful thinking."

And with that, she starts to wade into the water, thinking as the adult in the group that she should be the one to approach the animals first. Just in case the geese get frisky again.

Feathered motherfuckers.

[shenunigans]

"If we fuck that much up, we probably won't be here long." He adds darkly, despite the fact that he's pretty confident they'll do fine. The added allure of makeshift burgers makes it easy to wade in after her, but he pauses to extend a hand for the person who is probably more adept with water than he'll ever be. It's a courtesy thing, and it's also great for the cameras. Not that he needs cameras to think about Feferi, but that's another thing entirely.

"Do we know goose calls? Should we know goose calls? Heh, goose calls." To his credit, he's trying to whisper, but he's going to babble anyway. "God damn it, Percy. I told you to stop honking this number."

[fintastic]

"You're going to get wet like that." Feferi nods in Venus' direction, sincerely stating such an astute observation. "Don't humans die if they get cold and wet?"

Still, she follows along, and doesn't head for the water herself. She could easily dive in and come up under one, but that won't do her any good if she scares them out of the water beforehand.

"I think I saw it land over there, through those bushes. There might be more over there!" If only Nepeta were here-- well, she wouldn't exactly wish this on Nepeta, but of all her friends, she's the most talented hunter. She'd have no problem in the wilderness, and Feferi guesses she's hunted a few honkbeasts herself. Just think like Nepeta, Feferi tells herself. It shouldn't be so hard, they did share a mind once upon a time.

[celebrityskinned]

"You think a little temperature's going to take me out? Have you met me?" Venus teases, pretending that Feferi doesn't have a point. Still, her eyes drop to Dave's ankles, the water creeping up past his knees, and she clenches her toes, already going numb, in the unseen mud.

"Hell yeah. Goose massacre. I can get behind this." Sure enough, there's a flash of feathers in the reeds.

Venus crouches forward, her butt only just staying out of the water, her shoulders tight and pumping invisibly like a lioness' creeping through tall grass. If she were to move forward, it would be an artful lunge, not a lurch. She turns her head almost without moving her body at all and holds a finger to her lips at Dave.

[shenunigans]

"We're going to need to shrivel up into pink, puckered man-prunes before we actually die. It's a slow process." He says that, but he's having mild regrets the deeper he goes. His legs are already telling him this is a bad idea, he's not sure he wants to experience the high definition sensation of cold swamp water against his dick.

He falls, surprisingly, silent for a while as he steels himself for it. He fights back an unpleasant noise and instead makes a face, a face that Venus turns around in time to see. He nods in understanding, turning from side to side as he tries to locate Feferi behind him. He then copies the gesture, raising a finger to his lips at her even if he's the one who keeps talking to himself.

[fintastic]

Feferi follows along, staying closer to the shore and trying to move ahead, in hopes of cutting off a potential retreat route for the goose. She stays towards the shallows, but does a good job of not making too much noise splashing. She knows how to splash, but more importantly, she knows how not to. She's done her share of hunting for snacks in tidepools and shallows, where crabs and snails like to congregate.

Stalking around, she hunkers down low, not quite in the water, but like she's ready to pounce at a moment's notice. All in all, she looks sort of ridiculous. She doesn't have the required predatory grace to make this look cool, but she stalks their prey functionally. At least she has that much going for her.