gameofmana | [log] Sword of the Skeleton

"Tell me if I move too fast, or if I shift in a manner that causes you to loose your grip? This is the first time I've actually done something like this without any kind of rope or harness..."

Skyfire is clearly a bit unsure about this, but he's still willing to give it a try. While he had given the odd human a ride before, it wasn't 'bareback' and when he was much larger. Depending on how observant Tsukishima is, he would eventually realize that Skyfire isn't quite as organic as he seems. His breathing is too regular, and some of the muscle movement may seem 'off' from what one would expect.

When Tsukishima seemed settled, Skyfire would start to walk slowly in the direction of one of the more open fields.

It’s definitely hard to ignore the strange shift of something not organic beneath his body, all the more telltale whenever he has to grab on tighter or straighten his position and there’s something sturdier than bone beneath his fingertips. Less flexible.

It raises up a lot of questions, but Tsukishima tries to keep them to himself for the time being. It’s something to ask later, when there aren’t more important things to focus on. For the rest of the afternoon, he focuses on working with Skyfire to find the exact right seating arrangement for both of them, pointing out if something doesn’t feel right or ways for either of them to improve. Only when the two of them find something that works does he call it quits for the day. So by the time the next day comes, he’s…. Somewhat confident that they’ll be alright.

Still. On the way to the caverns, he insists on walking there. His body will be sore if he stays on Skyfire bareback for too long, he’s pretty sure, so it’s better to stretch his legs out when he can. A good thing that it doesn’t really take that long before the cavern opening is looming before them, and he adjusts his sports bag that he’d brought along. “I’m pretty sure this is the place.”

It's easy for Skyfire to tell that Tsukishima has questions, but he won't pressure him into asking. While he's more than happy to answer nearly any question, he's aware that not everyone is comfortable asking said questions.

After they separated for the night, Skyfire spent some time looking around and scrounging for supplies. Managing to find some old canvas and some rope of questionable strength... but it would do as something to pack anything up they collected to haul back.

Even if he has no issues with Tsukishima walking for as long as he wishes, he does offer to carry his bag... since it weighs nothing to him. When they actually got to the cavern, Skyfire tilted his head and tried to get a sense of just what sort of task that they had in front of them.

"What are we looking for exactly? I don't want to accidentally bypass it or destroy it..."

“Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘the walking dead’?” Tsukishima asks, even as he presses his hand along the stone and peers into the darkness. To his surprise, it’s not that far from what he can see to get into the cavern itself- just a couple of steps downwards before everything opens up into enormous areas composed of plateaus and steps, all made of that same deep green rock. “It’s a walking skeleton, apparently. They wear armor and have swords, and it’s the latter that the person in town was interested in getting. I asked, and apparently they’re no bigger than most normal humans, so…”

Nothing compared to a dragon, is what he’s saying.

Skyfire grimaced at the words 'walking dead' and then sighed as Tsukishima finished the explanation. Really, after the monster pumpkin he shouldn't be surprised but...

"Lovely..." Peering into the cave a bit more, he huffed and drew attention to his back with a ruffling of the feathers on his wings. "Climb on up then. I'd rather not see what will happen if you go in there without any armor... and then we'll see just what's in here."

His claws leave a few deep gouges into the stone as he tries to settle himself, because who knew what else they'd find in there? Skyfire wouldn't say it, but he's actually a bit nervous. If it was just himself going in, he'd be less worried.

Well, this is already the whole point of why they teamed up, so Tsukishima doesn’t complain as he carefully makes his way onto Skyfire’s back once more. Already he can tell that the descents and curves of the cavern isn’t going to make things as easy as simply travelling along on the flat grassy areas of Home, but… Well. They’ll manage.

Although it’s not escaping his notice how unsettled his companion is. Gouges in pure stone are kind of a dead giveaway. So as he shifts into position, he gives an awkward pat to the dragon’s long neck. “We’ll be fine, if some of the things in there are anything like the pumpkins from that one weird event. I have a friend who I know has never used a sword in his life, and he was able to deal with them just fine. If anything bad happens, even if I can’t fight, I’ll be able to get out of here if nothing else.”

That much, after all, he can do. Sure, he’s not a fighter, but he’s an athlete. He has good reflexes, stamina, and knows how to run. That’s all he needs, as far as he’s concerned.

Skyfire settles himself a bit and nods, it's a bit of a mental fight to calm himself, but he manages. The terrain in the cave would make things a bit more difficult, but nothing he didn't think they couldn't manage.

"Alright... but the first chance we get that there's a weapon and armor that you can use, we'll find a way to rig something that you can wear. Even if you can run, I'd feel much better if you had some kind of defense besides hiding under my wings."

Still, once Tsukishima is settled on his back, Skyfire is very cautious as they enter the cave. He pokes his head in and looks around before ever stepping in. He looks for any kind of visible traps and not seeing any asks "So, you ready to get this show on the road?"

No traps are in sight. The further inside they go, even just a few steps, and the massive depths of the cave become more obvious. Certainly large enough in some places for a dragon, although there are just as many routes that only a smaller creature like a human could go through. Tsukishima hopes, as his eyesight adjusts to the gloom of the cave, that it won’t be necessary to do that however.

“Yeah, I’m good to go.”

Huffing a deep 'breath' Skyfire started walking, keeping his pace slow and steady. While he didn't see any traps, he was going to treat exploring the cave as if he'd seen signs of them. Making a mental note of the smaller tunnels, he sniffed at the air and tried to search the area for signs of 'traffic'.

"Did you happen to ask what the sword is made of? I might not be as good at tracking as I could be, but I can still sniff out metal fairly well." He wasn't that great at it, since he couldn't translate the information as well with so many of his systems still down, but it was better than nothing...

Good thing he’s the type to ask follow up questions. Making sure to keep an eye out for anything low hanging, although it doesn’t seem like a problem with how massive the caverns are, he starts to answer.

“I wasn’t expecting to recognize the metal on sight, so I just asked what it looked like. He said that any armor and weapons on them would likely be covered in rust- they’re apparently ancient, and this place can be pretty wet.” The soft dripping in the distance, echoing throughout the caverns, seems to support this fact. Tsukishima has to wonder about it. He hadn’t seen any sort of river above ground, so where was the water coming from? Is there a lake under the earth?

Maybe he shouldn’t think too hard about it all. Just getting to this place at all seems like it’s impossible, so what’s one more impossible thing? Instead, he looks around, raising an eyebrow as he sees the shell of something dull pink peek out from amongst the many rocks: a large crab with a doofy looking face on it, although not large enough to be of any threat to either of them, really. “I guess at least we know creatures live in this place…”

Tsukishima won't really have to worry about anything low hanging taking him by surprise, as Skyfire is mindful not to walk anywhere with anything hanging down at his height. Still, Skyfire is already thinking of planning a return trip to do some investigation into places not safe for humans.

At his comment about rust, Skyfire gets thoughtful and nods. "Rusty weapons? Well that should make them a little easier to track down..." He sniffs the air, then puts his nose near the ground to sniff there as well. "Rust on forged metal does have a fairly distinctive odor..."

Skyfire does stop when he sees that crab creature and looks at it curiously for a moment. He'd never seen anything like it before and he was curious, but then again, they weren't here for him to investigate the wildlife.

"Do you know anything about the creatures here?" The crab didn't seem like it was anything to be concerned about... but sometimes the smallest things could be the most deadly.

“The guy was from out of town,” he explains, watching as the crab creeps back further into the rocks after apparently deciding to not get involved, “so I don’t think he knew as much, but Mark, who sells weapons in town, he mentioned some things. There’s some wild animals that live in caves like these, like something called Bloodsuckers- basically big bats from what I can tell. The most concern he showed was that there might be bigger creatures way down at the deepest parts of the cave… but I don’t think we’ll have to go that far.” At least, he hopes not.

Watching the crab retreat, Skyfire lets it go, not wanting to disturb it further as it clearly wasn't interested in starting a confrontation.

He starts walking again, occasionally stopping and sniffing both the air and ground to try and find the scent of rust. He hoped that the scent of rust would let him track it and would lead to finding their objective sooner.

"Hmmm... well the bats shouldn't be much of an issue at least. Hopefully we won't have to go that deep the."

In the cool wet environment of Mekiv Caverns, it’s easy to pick up scent and, soon enough, Skyfire should be able to find the bitter smell of rust winding faintly into his nose. It’ll take a bit of a journey, but it’s definitely somewhere nearby, and doesn’t seem to go farther down into the cavern. Small blessings.

“We can only hope,” Tsukishima says dryly, keeping an eye out for things possibly flying through the air any way. It’s better not to put all his faith in just one other person, even if that person is a giant dragon. He can watch after himself too. “It’s probably not the best idea to go deep into these kind of places anyway. I’d rather we not get lost just trying to find the exit again.”

The moment he scents the tang of rust, Skyfire's ears perk a bit and he sniffs at the air again to make sure. "I can smell rust, and I believe it's coming from that direction." He turns towards the scent and moves to follow it. Having the ability to track light, almost nonexistent odors came in handy sometimes.

He did pause a moment when Tsukishima mentioned getting lost and looked sheepish a moment. "Ah, as long as we don't go running around blindly we should be fine." Turning a bit so Tsukishima could see behind them, where he could see that Skyfire had been marking their path with small arrows gouged into the stone floor or walls as needed. They weren't large or deep, but he thought they should last long enough to help them find their way out later.

Twisting back to look where they’ve been going, Tsukishima has to admit that the dragon has a point, one that makes him grin dryly. It looks like, through complete coincidence, he managed to get the perfect partner for this little journey.

“I guess I can’t complain about that… They’re a lot more reliable than bread crumbs.” A pause as he considers something. “Although I guess you won’t get that reference..” Shaking his head, he adjusts himself again and watches the gloom up ahead. Now and then, he can hear the click hard crab legs against stone off in the distance, echoing from the cavern walls, and sometimes the flap of wings-

Actually, those are definitely not off in the distance, as something about as big as his torso and a dark purple suddenly flaps down from the large ceilings and starts to shriek at the pair of them, soon followed by a few more. Grimacing as he clasps his hands over his ears, Tsukishima glares up at the creatures.
So. Bats. It looks like that’s unfortunately a thing.

"You're right... I don't get the reference. Why would anyone use breadcrumbs? That seems, a rather odd choice." That was going to be something for him to ponder for a while if it didn't get explained.

The screech of the bats has Skyfire fluffing his wings and moving them to protect Tsukishima if needed. All he'd have to do was flatten himself against Skyfire's back to let them cover him fully.

When it came to the bats, Skyfire started to growl and swat at them with the fluffy end of his tail, trying to drive them off without hurting them. He'd actually attack them if they didn't back off, but he figured that they were just startled... how true that was though was up for debate. Until they did more than screech at them, he'd keep his actions defensive and non lethal.

Curled up against Skyfire’s back, Tsukishima tries to bite back the feeling of annoyance that flickers through him. Not at his companion, or even at the bats, but how much he needs to be protected for even just a journey through a cave. Now, he’s starting to understand why Kuroo was so intent on figuring out how to use a sword. When you can defend yourself, at least it feels like you’re doing something. At least he could see what’s going on.

Meanwhile, the bats flap about ineffectually, shrieking all the harder from being swatted at. One makes a daring dart to to try and bite the mechanical dragon, only to meet hard metal. Bewildered, each Bloodsucker starts to slowly retreat, although not without loud protest.

It’s when the screeches start to quiet, seeming suitably more echo than anything else, does Tsukishima slowly start to raise his head. “It sounds like they didn’t know how to deal with someone so big.”

The bats might not do a lot of damage to him, but they still managed to take a few chunks out of the 'fake' flesh and leathery hide of Skyfire's neck and rear flanks. He shifts his wings so that Tsukishima could see again, and checks him over quickly. Noting he's not injured, Skyfire curls himself a bit so that he can check on his left rear flank to see the damage.

"Well, they might not know how to deal with me... but they do seem to have a rather nasty bite. I can always come back later for myself, anything extra that I get is going to go for at least a bit of light armor for you. If you were planing on coming back in here you're going to need it..." Worried dragon is worried.

The 'flesh' underneath Skyfire's 'leather' skin is showing where a chunk, about the size of one of Tsukishima's fists, had been gouged out. There is just a hint of metal showing through in the deepest part and Skyfire looks around in an attempt to find where the fallen 'flesh' had landed. There was no 'blood' of any kind, and he wasn't missing any other chunks.

"Do you see where that part of my er... skin got to? I'm hoping they didn't try to eat it..."

With the wings rising away from him, Tsukishima takes a look over everything else and pauses when he sees the dull shine of metal in what light is available. Well. That certainly explains a whole lot about things. “Listen, don’t worry about it- I don’t want to trouble you more than necessary,” he says with a shake of his head about the armor comment. Besides, he’s not entirely sure he’s ready to wear something like armor, or if it’ll do him any good. It feels like something he should get to know how to use instead of just shoving on.

The point about Skyfire missing chunks off of him is a lot more pressing, and he shifts until he’s sitting up with his knees digging into the other’s neck so that he can be as tall as possible without trying to stand up. “Hold on…” Thank god he has his sports glasses on for this and has decent sight with them. After a moment, he gets back down and pats Skyfire’s neck. “I think it’s over there, past a couple of those stalagmites. One of them must have grabbed it by accident.”

As he waits for Skyfire to get moving, he glances down at him. “...So. Metal, huh?” It’s the most he can really get himself to say. Just the fact that he was a dragon was amazing enough, but… a robotic one?

Skyfire chuckled a little at the mention of returning being 'trouble'. "Nonsense. I'll be returning anyways, so it's hardly a problem. You need something for protective gear." If not armor, then even just a good set of leather clothes. Skyfire's hide was about the same strength as hard leather, that said, for him it was mostly decoration and gave him better tactile input. Human skin on the other hand...

The pat to his neck is a surprise, but yet it also relaxes him a bit. Tsukishima not freaking out about this was good. It was something Skyfire really wasn't used to, but it was good. 'Golems' were even less liked than dragons at 'home', not that he was one, but it was all they could compare him to. "At least they didn't try to eat it..."

He moves to go collect the part of his hide, and winces a bit at the question. "Ah, yes..." Picking up the chunk, he wipes it off and puts it back in place, holding it down just long enough for the edges to cling to each other again without it falling out, before resuming the search for the skeletons. "I suppose you have questions?"

“Considering they’re called bloodsuckers, I doubt you have anything they’d be interested in.” Now tiny squishy him? Probably a different story, but one he’s not going to have to worry about right now. As long as he’s with Skyfire, then he has a feeling nothing will go after him in particular when he’s behind a pair of giant jaws and big metal wings.

Speaking of which.

Watching the process of Skyfire putting back his- skin? Hide? Exterior covering?- Tsukishima gives a slight nod. “More than a few, actually, so it’s going to take me a second to get it all sorted together in my head. But… So you’re not actually a- organic creature?” It’s not exactly the gentlest thing to say, but it is the truth, and not too offensive, he likes to think.

"Well, you might be right on that... though sometimes you'd be surprised what some creatures will try to eat..." Skyfire chuckled softly, though the look on his face suggested that story was maybe something to not ask about.

"Don't feel the need to rush, I'm willing to try and answer whatever questions you have..." The question about not being organic doesn't seem to bother him in the least, and it's reflected in his voice. "No, actually I'm not... but trying to explain what I am when in most cases the words do not exist in a language makes things... difficult. The closest translations your language has is either mechanical or robotic, but neither is correct either."

On some level, he thinks there’s a ridiculous part of him that’s actually a little disappointed that he’s not riding a real dragon, but Tsukishima is more than willing to acknowledge that part is from when he was six and watched Jurassic Park multiple times in a row until his older brother had to gently pry him from the television.

The rest of him knows how amazing all of this is, and he glances over the entirety of Skyfire again in quiet amazement. By no means is he a robotics expert, but he keeps up with the news well enough. He knows the level of advancement the human race has, at least on the Earth he’s familiar with, and it’s nothing like this. There’s always that little thing that’s a bit off, that’s strange in appearance or doesn’t move entirely right, all that. But Skyfire, from a distance, had looked like, well, an actual organic creature like anything else, besides the fact that he was a distinctly mythical one. Robot or whatever he is, it’s…. Unbelievable.

“What’s the difference, then?” he asks, remembering to glance around so that they’re not surprised again

Skyfire sniffs the ground a bit, trying to figure out the best way to explain with what he finds is a rather limited language at times, while also trying to track the scent of rust.

"Well, a spark for one, sentience, sapience, and as a 'species' we weren't 'built' in the same sense as you associate it with those terms..." He pauses and shakes his head, obviously struggling to find proper words. "It's like you trying to explain how you're different from trees or rodents, when the only words that translate are 'organic' and 'biological'. It fits in a broad definition or is close, but doesn't help much when trying to explain the details."

After pausing a moment to leave another mark on a wall he adds. "Technically the root term of biology applies to me as well, at least when it comes to the origin of the word, as the root 'bios' means 'life'... The translation trouble begins with, and is compounded by, how 'life' is defined in your language." He's not trying to be insulting, just that the way 'life' and related terms are defined, as well as implied to refer to only organic beings, it's a bit frustrating to him.

Do we want to do a bit of a time skip to get them to the adventuring part of things?

sounds good to me

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sorry about being horrendously slow on this. >.<;

hey no problem

<3 Thanks. Also, Tossing in some G1 Transformers headcanon here so... jsyk.