Levi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewingsoffreedom) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
spira_rp2020-04-28 05:35 pm
thewingsoffreedom) wrote in spira_rp2020-04-28 05:35 pm
The lines are blurred, you keep rubbing your eyes.
Duscae was one of the more pleasant regions that the Kingdom of Lucis controlled. Or, at least, "controlled".
Politically, Lucis was a reasonably large Kingdom. Its territory stretched from the east coast of the northern portion of Eos all the way to the desert in the West and was divided from the neighbouring country of Niflheim, now a self-styled 'Empire', by only a skysea inlet and a small land bridge in the sand. It was comprised of different biomes, with dry eastern scrub transitioning into plains, wet fenland and reasonably temperate forests in the valleys of Duscae and Cleigne. Cleigne also included, nominally, the lands that used to be the independent Kingdom of Glenys, but that one, with its self-governing exception and distant capital, was definitely a political inclusion more than a territorial one.
Realistically, Lucis was just the City of Insomnia. Outside the Walls of the Crown City, there was a general feeling of alienation and Othering from the people within, a separatist mindset that meant that those from inside the walls considered those from outside of it to be Foreign, in spite of the Kingdom's borders and the nationality of all from the north to the Skysea being, ostensibly, 'Lucian'. This wasn't helped by the fact that the majority of the Kingdom outside the walls was empty. There were a few settlements, the main ones being Lestallum, Balterossa and Galdin Quay, but for the most part, outposts and service stations aside, it was uninhabited except by farmers and ranchers.
Governing it was considered unimportant to the short-sighted ruling Class who never passed through the city walls and they all operated independently, either officially as with Balterossa, or effectively, like the others.
It was no surprise, though. A periodic, unpleasant phenomenon that caused an uptick in the number of Daemons had plagued the Kingdom for centuries, and the uninhabited land that came to be the Kingdom for centuries before that. It seemed to be a focal point and that made living outside the protective, probably magically enhanced walls dangerous. Attempts had been mounted, mistakes had been made and now the countryside, fen or forest or plain or scrub, was littered with the bones of towns and villages, all abandoned, all empty and most ruined or well on their way to it.
Levi didn't mind it. He liked the empty country. The Daemons were an issue, but they tended against coming out in the sunlight. As such, days were a risk only by dint of the local wildlife, larger and more aggressive than that of countries with similar emptiness due entirely to its empty period between the Solheim days and those of Lucis.
The nights... they were different.
All over Spira, both Ivalice and the floating continents, Daemons roamed the night, preying on people too weak to fend them off, or each other in the absence of their preferred food. They weren't too common in civilised lands, with only small fry appearing near population centers on account of the measures put in place to keep even the small numbers down. In the more remote spots, where people had died away from others, unable to be Sent and with regrets or anger tethering them to the Seen world, or the Daemons had moved to escape those who hunted them, they grew bigger and more ferocious, able to take more punishment in a fight and deal more accordingly. Unless they strayed across people and caused a problem, they were largely ignored.
In Lucis, they retreated to the old ruins, those that opened only at night, and infested them. Then they emerged when the sun dipped below the horizon to hunt. Elsewhere they could be rooted out in the daytime, when they were at their weakest, by organisations dedicated to the killing of them, but Lucis's interesting local history kept them safely sequestered during the day and their anti-Daemon force had nothing on those of other countries. It made for a strange situation and took away the single advantage hunters had during the day. The Daemons had no such disadvantage during the night, they could roam freely and had, at various points, ruined the chances of colonisation.
These days, there were wards that could keep Daemons away from ranches and service stations, bright lights that could be affixed to poles near the edges of the grounds to keep them away and keep those in the houses safe, but that didn't help Hunters. Hunters and, by extension, the Kingsglaive, only had their wits to keep them alive.
Well, their wits and Havens.
Havens were their single lifeline. Not quite the fortresses the Daemons had in the Solheim ruins, they nonetheless provided small bubbles of protection on rocky outcrops marked with symbols, the meanings of which had been long forgotten, the composition of the paint unknown.
Levi supposed that books existed somewhere, in some library or repository of tedious information, that gave names to them and their meanings, but he didn't give enough of a shit to go looking. As far as he was concerned, they gave the Glaives and Hunters somewhere to bed down if they needed to, allowed them to keep watch and take a break from putting their lives on the line to protect the pricks who were already safe behind the walls of Insomnia.
He could see why the Pulse party had been given the wider Kingdom of Lucis for their training. The land had been abandoned for centuries before the Lucians landed there and had then been ignored for centuries more. Other places, though wild, had been visited or inhabited at some point, or left as real areas of wilderness, unplagued by Mist except after the relatively brief Saturation that had covered the world after some war or other.
The only other landmass apart from Lucis that had been treated in a similar way was, undoubtedly, Pulse. Unless Levi just didn't know about another one that was the sort of monster-filled, Daemon-ravaged spiritual shitshow that Lucis was, at least.
It was the only logical location for their training to take place, the only approximation of their destination, not that they could know for sure. Somebody had mentioned the Wildlands, but somebody else had poo-pooed that comparison with superior experience, or so it seemed. Levi hadn't paid that much attention to the bickering of his charges. It helped, of course, that Lucis owned the land the training was taking place on, were funding the mission they were training for and had expendable Daemon killers with criminal records to try and keep the similarly expendable foreigners alive.
Levi didn't like some of them, but the majority were all right. Most had come with skills that helped and were just expanding their skillsets, others ... were a liability.
Still, a good number, liabilities or not, were equipped with Zanpakuto. They were apparently the best weapons against Daemons, equal to Innocence, and outstripped Levi's own weapons considerably. They were, from what he understood, magical bullshit soul-blades, uniquely specialised in cutting through the ridiculously hard Daemon skin.
He, conversely, had a sword that had been forged with magic. It was an old technique, and some families had ancient exampled each imbued with a different element, but these were relatively mass-produced, included small amounts of Holy magic and, while they cut through the Daemons and allowed them to do their job, weren't a patch on the historical blades or, of course, Zanpakuto.
They could do some of the heavy lifting.
They were camped in Duscae, in the camp that would be their home for the next week or so, and were in a reasonably comfortable Haven thirty or so miles away from the Wiz Chocobo Ranch. The air wasn't too humid, the temperature was neither too hot nor freezing cold and the levels of Mist were good enough to bring the risk of Daemons, but not the certainty of them. That the local wildlife was big and edible helped.
"So, today... some of you are going to go hunting," Levi said. "Who's shit at it?"
Politically, Lucis was a reasonably large Kingdom. Its territory stretched from the east coast of the northern portion of Eos all the way to the desert in the West and was divided from the neighbouring country of Niflheim, now a self-styled 'Empire', by only a skysea inlet and a small land bridge in the sand. It was comprised of different biomes, with dry eastern scrub transitioning into plains, wet fenland and reasonably temperate forests in the valleys of Duscae and Cleigne. Cleigne also included, nominally, the lands that used to be the independent Kingdom of Glenys, but that one, with its self-governing exception and distant capital, was definitely a political inclusion more than a territorial one.
Realistically, Lucis was just the City of Insomnia. Outside the Walls of the Crown City, there was a general feeling of alienation and Othering from the people within, a separatist mindset that meant that those from inside the walls considered those from outside of it to be Foreign, in spite of the Kingdom's borders and the nationality of all from the north to the Skysea being, ostensibly, 'Lucian'. This wasn't helped by the fact that the majority of the Kingdom outside the walls was empty. There were a few settlements, the main ones being Lestallum, Balterossa and Galdin Quay, but for the most part, outposts and service stations aside, it was uninhabited except by farmers and ranchers.
Governing it was considered unimportant to the short-sighted ruling Class who never passed through the city walls and they all operated independently, either officially as with Balterossa, or effectively, like the others.
It was no surprise, though. A periodic, unpleasant phenomenon that caused an uptick in the number of Daemons had plagued the Kingdom for centuries, and the uninhabited land that came to be the Kingdom for centuries before that. It seemed to be a focal point and that made living outside the protective, probably magically enhanced walls dangerous. Attempts had been mounted, mistakes had been made and now the countryside, fen or forest or plain or scrub, was littered with the bones of towns and villages, all abandoned, all empty and most ruined or well on their way to it.
Levi didn't mind it. He liked the empty country. The Daemons were an issue, but they tended against coming out in the sunlight. As such, days were a risk only by dint of the local wildlife, larger and more aggressive than that of countries with similar emptiness due entirely to its empty period between the Solheim days and those of Lucis.
The nights... they were different.
All over Spira, both Ivalice and the floating continents, Daemons roamed the night, preying on people too weak to fend them off, or each other in the absence of their preferred food. They weren't too common in civilised lands, with only small fry appearing near population centers on account of the measures put in place to keep even the small numbers down. In the more remote spots, where people had died away from others, unable to be Sent and with regrets or anger tethering them to the Seen world, or the Daemons had moved to escape those who hunted them, they grew bigger and more ferocious, able to take more punishment in a fight and deal more accordingly. Unless they strayed across people and caused a problem, they were largely ignored.
In Lucis, they retreated to the old ruins, those that opened only at night, and infested them. Then they emerged when the sun dipped below the horizon to hunt. Elsewhere they could be rooted out in the daytime, when they were at their weakest, by organisations dedicated to the killing of them, but Lucis's interesting local history kept them safely sequestered during the day and their anti-Daemon force had nothing on those of other countries. It made for a strange situation and took away the single advantage hunters had during the day. The Daemons had no such disadvantage during the night, they could roam freely and had, at various points, ruined the chances of colonisation.
These days, there were wards that could keep Daemons away from ranches and service stations, bright lights that could be affixed to poles near the edges of the grounds to keep them away and keep those in the houses safe, but that didn't help Hunters. Hunters and, by extension, the Kingsglaive, only had their wits to keep them alive.
Well, their wits and Havens.
Havens were their single lifeline. Not quite the fortresses the Daemons had in the Solheim ruins, they nonetheless provided small bubbles of protection on rocky outcrops marked with symbols, the meanings of which had been long forgotten, the composition of the paint unknown.
Levi supposed that books existed somewhere, in some library or repository of tedious information, that gave names to them and their meanings, but he didn't give enough of a shit to go looking. As far as he was concerned, they gave the Glaives and Hunters somewhere to bed down if they needed to, allowed them to keep watch and take a break from putting their lives on the line to protect the pricks who were already safe behind the walls of Insomnia.
He could see why the Pulse party had been given the wider Kingdom of Lucis for their training. The land had been abandoned for centuries before the Lucians landed there and had then been ignored for centuries more. Other places, though wild, had been visited or inhabited at some point, or left as real areas of wilderness, unplagued by Mist except after the relatively brief Saturation that had covered the world after some war or other.
The only other landmass apart from Lucis that had been treated in a similar way was, undoubtedly, Pulse. Unless Levi just didn't know about another one that was the sort of monster-filled, Daemon-ravaged spiritual shitshow that Lucis was, at least.
It was the only logical location for their training to take place, the only approximation of their destination, not that they could know for sure. Somebody had mentioned the Wildlands, but somebody else had poo-pooed that comparison with superior experience, or so it seemed. Levi hadn't paid that much attention to the bickering of his charges. It helped, of course, that Lucis owned the land the training was taking place on, were funding the mission they were training for and had expendable Daemon killers with criminal records to try and keep the similarly expendable foreigners alive.
Levi didn't like some of them, but the majority were all right. Most had come with skills that helped and were just expanding their skillsets, others ... were a liability.
Still, a good number, liabilities or not, were equipped with Zanpakuto. They were apparently the best weapons against Daemons, equal to Innocence, and outstripped Levi's own weapons considerably. They were, from what he understood, magical bullshit soul-blades, uniquely specialised in cutting through the ridiculously hard Daemon skin.
He, conversely, had a sword that had been forged with magic. It was an old technique, and some families had ancient exampled each imbued with a different element, but these were relatively mass-produced, included small amounts of Holy magic and, while they cut through the Daemons and allowed them to do their job, weren't a patch on the historical blades or, of course, Zanpakuto.
They could do some of the heavy lifting.
They were camped in Duscae, in the camp that would be their home for the next week or so, and were in a reasonably comfortable Haven thirty or so miles away from the Wiz Chocobo Ranch. The air wasn't too humid, the temperature was neither too hot nor freezing cold and the levels of Mist were good enough to bring the risk of Daemons, but not the certainty of them. That the local wildlife was big and edible helped.
"So, today... some of you are going to go hunting," Levi said. "Who's shit at it?"
no subject
Aerith, Szayel, Ignis, Even and Ienzo. They'd work. He figured it would be a minor disaster, but he rather hoped they'd make an effort to prove them all wrong. If not, well they'd have to starve. Or just eat vegetables.
"Piss off then, go catch some dinner."
no subject
Worse, Szayel was supposed to respect him because he was one of Lucis's resident Hollow hunter force, the Kingsglaive. As far as Szayel had been able to work out they were a ragtag bunch of undesirables with some talent at felling your average Hollow. The Arrancar could have wiped them out. The Gotei Divisions made them look like a laughing stock.
And he was supposed to take instruction from this?
"And what are the rest of you going to do?" he challenged. "Shine your shoes and flex your muscles?"
no subject
Some of them had been out with Fang on the first night, so they had a rough, very rough idea of how to find animals they could eat. Between them they could probably even manage to kill something. Bringing it back would be no problem with a float spell or two.
But... "Do we have to bring him?" she asked, giving Szayel a sideways glance before fixing Levi with a pleading look.
no subject
Szayel was easily the worst member of the group. Truth be told, Levi couldn't fathom why he was even there, even with the healing aspect. He was whiny, reasonably useless apart from being a healer, and an aggravating fuckwit who would probably be better stuffed into somebody's locker and left there until he transitioned from Bullied Nerd to a literal Skeleton in the Closet, though he half suspected he was already that for the Granz family anyway.
Him being a healer seemed a sillier and sillier reason to keep him around, with the silliness growing in intensity every time he opened the whiny hole in his face. They had two perfectly good healers, one in training, a little shit who claimed he could make potions because he was studying some ancient art of drink mixing or whatever it was -- Levi had stopped listening after the word 'reagent' had been used -- and would be given a job lot of potions besides.
What was the point of Szayel? Bait, maybe. The one they all had to outrun? He stopped thinking about it. It wasn't his problem and if he went missing on Pulse... well, it was Hell, wasn't it?
"You do," he said. "Half because he's always going on about how analytical he is and whatever the fuck, that should help you, and because I don't want him here sulking like a bitch." He turned to the sulky bitch himself. "Never mind what they're going to do, it's none of your concern."
no subject
He'd heard that Hollows could be frozen for a surprisingly long time and survive. He wondered if it would work on a Hollow clad in a human skinsuit. Perhaps. Perhaps not. He wondered, vaguely, if it was ethical to experiment to that effect. He doubted it. But then again, would anybody object to ethically dubious experiments where Szayel was concerned..?
"Let's go, then."
no subject
He didn't really relish the idea of killing something to eat it, but he didn't usually have to. If he went out, he went out with Ulquiorra. He couldn't entirely put a finger on when that transitioned from 'escort' to 'companion' but it certainly had at some point. Once upon a time Ulquiorra had been there to stop him running away, now he asked him to come along whenever he left the Palace and tended against it when he wasn't available.
He'd have to stay behind now. He didn't need a helicopter guardian stepping in if things got hairy. Not that they should. Between himself, Even, Szayel, Ignis and Aerith, they should be able to handle catching dinner, even if they were all primarily mages and none of them specialised in hand-to-hand combat, with weapons or otherwise.
Besides, taking Ulquiorra would be like using a tactical nuclear strike to dispatch a snared rabbit.
no subject
If nothing else, Szayel had certainly mastered the 'provoke' technique sufficiently well that he could be used as a distraction. As parties went, they could do worse. Aerith wasn't naturally combative, but she could get closer to most wildlife than the rest of them as a result. Meanwhile, between himself, a mage of Even's purported calibre, and an alchemist they could take down some fairly sizeable prey.
And for all Szayel's whining he was an Arrancar, and having one present in the unlikely event they ran into Daemons or happened upon something unexpected, even if that Arrancar was Szayel, could save their lives.
He made his way across the camp, towards Even, flashing Gladio a quick nod of reassurance, and Levi a slight smirk. Doubtless, Levi had the same ideas about Szayel's potential usefulness to a hunting party. "I expect we'll find plenty of creatures in the vicinity of the Slough."
no subject
"I'm the only going on this hunt that can handle a sword," he pointed out, tucking his glasses up his nose. "Unless you want to bring back ice cubes." He dragged his fingers through his hair as he gathered himself and stood. "Although I doubt freezerburn will make any practical difference to Ignis's food," he added. "It might even improve it."
no subject
She retrieved her rod and made her way to Even with a spring in her step. "It sounds like Szayel's volunteering to cook tonight," she said, flashing the offending party a too bright smile. "For himself, at least," she added, turning to Ignis. "I'm enjoying the catering so far."
no subject
Ignis managed to make a decent meal out of very little. He seemed to know what plants and herbs and spices to add to something to make it more than just a pile of ingredients. He'd wondered if his ability to top notch cooking began and ended with a stocked kitchen and modern conveniences, but his time at a campfire had made it clear that wasn't the case.
no subject
If the worst came to the worst, Even could probably kick Szayel into the lake and freeze him in there. It might not kill him or hold him for long, but it would give them time to get away from him for a while. He might even get eaten on the way back.
no subject
Besides, Szayel wasn't the only one that habitually carried a weapon. Ignis could use a sword; he'd trained with one, but his preference was for lances and daggers, both of which could readily dispatch any animal they chose to hunt.