Welcome to Gaia! ::

Soren waited in the catacombs for the group to finish forming. Today was unusual. Another task to collect Fear for the Lair, which in itself was not all that strange, but this group was going to have representatives from all four of the clans. A couple of them he knew, at he recognized them when they arrived. The tall Conquest clansmen that he saw around Lifen...Mengyao or something like that. His eyes glanced over his golden eye, knowing what it probably meant, not entirely sure because the stallion could have had dual-colored eyes at birth. And Mmur, the Famine clansmen that he had met in the forest. He was still not entirely sure what to think about him. The other names he had been told meant nothing. Zhiqiang, one of those bizarre Conquest names it sounded like. And Jaida, was more than likely from War as the other clans had already made their appearance.

He stood waiting, arms crossed loosely, ready to go whenever the others were. He had no intention of leading the way, they were doing something that was not in his area of expertise. Creating a blight. It seemed more like it belonged to Famine, so he looked toward Mmur before addressing the group with his low, rumbling voice. "Who's in charge?" It would be better to establish this now before they all got out in the field and someone started squabbling because they refused to obey orders from someone else.

The Famine soldier advanced through the catacombs quite slowly, despite his excitement over the prospect of this outing. A Blight! He hadn't participated in one of these since before the whole hunter genocide thing. Mmur was looking forward to this, but, understandably, he was also a bit worried. From what he had heard, he was the only horseman of Famine going on this little day trip of terror, and seeing as how Blights were kind of Faminey, Mmur knew he was going to be doing some heavy lifting. Figuratively. He didn't make a very good leader on his best days, but he was determined not to let anyone down.

Mmur approached the gathering horsemen, waiting until they had all arrived before giving them a once over. Soren was the only one he knew, and even then, he didn't know him very well. To be fair though, the soldier didn't know anyone well, not anymore. Perhaps this trip would change that. He nodded as the War horsewoman addressed him, a happy grin spreading across his face as she greeted someone she knew—ZhiZhi... he'd have to remember that. Mmur rushed off down the tunnel for a moment, squinting through the wavering portal into the human world. This particular location looked kind of swampy, although he could definitely make out a drier settlement a short distance away. He was best at sandy and sunny, but he was confident he could do a bog.

The horseman knuckled at the corners of his glowing eyes. Boggy, boggy, boggy. Squid? No, from what he could recall, there were no squids in swamps. Mountain lions were probably out simply for being too big. Elephants too. Finally, Mmur settled on something. He gathered and separated a small amount of fear into four clusters, then sent the wisps of bright blue light hopping their way back to the group. A greater amount of fear went into a fifth, which eventually coalesced into a more solid, if incredibly derpy, frog. He scooped it up, cradling it like a small, slimy baby as he rejoined his kin.

"Frogs," he said matter-of-factly. "It looks like frog territory."


(( Imbue away, doods! No whammies explosions! ))

With the exception of Jay, Zhiqiang honestly had no idea who any of these people were. Well, Mengyao might have been vaguely familiar, seeing as they were both conquest horsemen, but Zhi was drawing a blank with everyone else.

...Not that he had a very good memory in the first place.

"JAYJAY!" The horseman greeted Jay in kind, his arms already spread out and ready for when she jumped at him. He gave her what was probably an overly tight hug, grinning at the kiss. "I missed you too! And--hey, do you think anyone else here likes kisses as a greeting?" He proceeded to look between all the other (male) horsemen present before turning his attention to look at Mmur.

"Oh ho, frogs, huh? Okay! Let me just..." Reaching out to let one of the balls of light settle in his hands, he focused on imbuing it with just a bit of his fear. Not too much, but just enough to...

"BAHAHA LOOK AT MY FROG he is awesome!" Zhi held up his hands proudly to show off the frog that sat in his palms...a frog that looked quite a bit like him, even down to the expression.

(ʘ‿ʘ)

He knew no one here other than the tall one who was very nearly his height that was called Soren, and even then the only thing Mengyao knew of him was that he was a friend of Lifen and Lan's. He vaguely recognized the one being called "Zhizhi," seeing as how he was from the clan of Conquest as well - but other than that, the rest were unfamiliar.

Mengyao did not wish to dwell on it too much. Nor did he have any particular desire to hold the small, slimy creature that had been created by the one named "Mmur."

"No," said Mengyao, giving the creature a look of utmost disgust, but he adopted a serenely sweet smile and added, "Thank you."

Then he let the frog sit on the ground while he merely touched one finger to it, imbibing it with a bit of his FEAR. He quickly drew away after a few seconds with a strong desire to wash his hands.

"Are we quite finished with this particular aspect of our mission?" he asked, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated he was quite ready to move on.

“Hmmmmm. Good question.” Jay stroked her chin upon hearing Zhi’s question. Eyes slightly narrowed and lips pulled into a thoughtful frown, she eyed the rest of the group before answering with a flat, “Nope, nope, and uh—nope!” Looking a bit disappointed, she chose to busy herself with the bluejay-colored frog in her hands. “So we just set them down?” She curiously looked over at the Famine horseman, her green eyes watching his actions. Eventually, she too knelt down and let the frog slide out of her hands before she poked it. “Go on!”

She stayed on her knees—spread herself out on the dirt even—as she keenly watched the bright blue frog hop away. It did not however, have a very good beginning. As it began to cross a road, it stopped suddenly when a light was cast upon it. The frog turned and was run over by a car. At least it was still twitching, which meant it was alive still.

Open-mouthed, Jay slowly turned toward the others. “Guys. I think I just got squashed….Q~Q”

Frog: 4+1=5
Human: 6

FAILURE

Soren nodded at Mmur before setting his frog down. For a moment it just ballooned out its throat without making a noise, almost seeming confused, and Soren glowered at it.

It hopped away frantically, past a human that did not even notice it was there until it was past and the lazy thing just muttered something about frog legs for dinner, but the frog was already safe.

Somewhere was the sound of two frogs flirting, and a while later it became apparent that the small swordbutt frog had managed to pass on its parasite as it hopped off, leaving behind a marked female frog.

Sorefrog: 4
Human Filth: 1

Sweet, sweet victory Success~