Walking on the Borderline ((Mattie Densen))

[Deleted]

Set: May 18, 2016

Vising his friends and family in New Rome had been a very satisfying time for Jed. He had missed his mother, and all his old friends from growing up, so it was nice to have gotten caught up on everything he had missed the last few years. But, as nice as the visit had been, Josiah knew it was time to move on. He hadn’t outgrown New Rome, per se, but had rather suffered from a conflict of interests. He just couldn’t get caught up in the politics of everything. In some strange reoccurrence, Josiah always put himself in the middle of tense situations. When he had been in the legion, he was a medic for a group of militaristic Romans. Upon turning 18, Josiah traded one military for another by becoming a medic for the Army. As fulfilling as the experience had been, and as much as he had learned, Jed was ready to change this repeating pattern and distance himself from conflict.

Upon careful consideration of how to do this, Josiah had decided the best course of action was to join the Greens. They were a neutral party, had freedom in their activities, and didn’t have bias one way or the other. Beyond that, it was simply a more preferable alternative than striking it out on his own (for as asocial as Josiah was, he didn’t like the idea of spending all his time alone). He hadn’t had too much interaction with many of the Greens thus far, but as a newly-joined recruit (and their doctor to boot), Jed wasn’t worried. What would come would come.

So, after spending a few weeks in New Rome then signing up for the Greens, Josiah had hit the trail. After a few days, he found himself at the Roman border of their controlled territories, and soon crossed over into Southern Idaho. Was the boy nervous about leaving (what he considered) safe territory behind? Sure. But as a Green, he had obligations and responsibilities of his own, and it wasn’t just about what he wanted—it never really had been.

It was hot in Idaho. Having grown up in California, Jed was used to the heat, but it was of a different kind. The air in New Rome was humid in summer, and felt like it was pushing down on the campers. In Iraq, he had spent all his time in the medical facilities and had never really been out long enough in the desert to appreciate (or depreciate) the scorching heat. In Idaho (at least south of the mountains), it was dry heat, and there were no winds to circulate the air. If the boy had made it to Boise (he’d stopped short), he was sure it would be more bearable. But, at least he wasn’t alone. Another Roman had joined the Greens shortly before Josiah, and although the son of Apollo was slightly familiar with the man (Camp Jupiter wasn’t that large, especially when it came to a child of Jupiter), Jed couldn’t say he knew the other Roman very well. Still, it was easier to team up to hunt than to go at it alone, so Jed appreciated his company.

Looking around now, Jed brought a hand up to his eyes so he could try to see better. There wasn’t much to look at, so the boy fidgeted with his sword (yes, he’d spent six years in the legion, but he wasn’t a soldier), and adjusted the sword belt multiple times. They had come with the purpose of driving monsters away from the Roman border, but Jed wasn’t really sure how to go about doing that. He turned to the boy next to him. “See anything?”

[Mattie Densen]

Nothing left to say

What's standing in your way?

You had the chance to never walk alone

WORDS: 609 || TAGS: @josiah

[attr="class","nthlftsybdytxt1"] Mattie had left New Rome with another new recruit, Jed, in pursuit of the North. Their goal was to ultimately lead the monsters away from the Roman border, and getting the monsters nearby to follow suit shouldn’t have been all too much of a difficult task. With Mattie being a child of Jupiter, monsters swarmed to him just like moths to a light, so there were sure to be some followers on his trail. That wasn’t to say Mattie was unprepared however, as he had plenty of armaments on him, some even in the backseat. Of course, Mattie wouldn’t have been driving with a bardiche in the front, if he got pulled over… That would have been difficult to explain, the mist made most Celestial Bronze weapons look as they were machine guns anyways, so that would have made for an awkward confrontation with the Police, say Mattie ever got pulled over. They had a long way to go, that was for sure.

Currently, their route was going along Southern Idaho, below the mountains, the next destination for the pair of them was Boise. Mattie had parked, deciding to get out for a bit as they did each day, seeing if there was anything that had caught onto them for the duo to hunt. Mattie wasn’t wearing his armor either, it wasn’t the smartest decision but Mattie found it not the most comfortable thing to be sitting in a car and driving for long periods of time in. Mattie wasn’t one for camping out either, and thought that it would all be faster if he rented a car back in Oakland and dropped it off once they made it to Boise at least. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an Uber that would take a duo of monster hunters to Boise. Luckily for Mattie though, the car was rather comfortable, even if it made him look like a suburban white mom.

Mattie was not a fan of the heat at all either, he was born and raised in Denmark, a country notorious for its Scandinavian winter weathers, and as such, Mattie was not much of a fan of the heat. Mattie was currently in his favorite vintage leather jacket and crimson muffler scarf, not quite the attire for the summer, but Mattie felt the most comfortable in them. As long as he stayed relatively hydrated, he should have been fine. After all, the floor of the rental car by now was littered with empty water bottles, as well as those for caffeinated drinks like RedBull and canned Frappuccinos.

Mattie raised his eyebrow slightly, his sandy blonde hair blowing in the wind slightly, his hands gripped around his bardiche somewhat tightly as he scanned the periphery for any sort of monsters. One of the downfalls to this was Mattie’s poor vision, he was very nearsighted, so he couldn’t quite discern what the two blurs he saw in the distance moving towards him were. “Uh… Dude, I think we’ve got something over there!”, Mattie said, pointing a finger in the direction where two hungry desert scorpions were fast approaching the two of them. Mattie took his weapon out from where it was strapped on him, gesturing for Jed to stay towards the side. Mattie had his eyes set on one of the scorpions, using the blade of his bardiche to act as a form of barricade between the two of them. This was Mattie’s first hunt, and there happened to be not just one, but two? Mattie could have only hoped that there weren’t any more to follow, as he wasn’t all too sure how his partner could have kept up with any more.

NOTES: Hope this is good! Real excited for this thread [:

BOBBI

[googlefont="Abel"]



[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1]margin-top:-20px;padding:10px;border-left:#353f7d solid 4px;text-align:justify;width:400px;font-family:Georgia;font-size:11px;color:#c1c1c1;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 b]color:#9fa6da;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 i]color:#b9b2c6;[/newclass]

[Deleted]

Jed was honestly a little relieved to be out of the car temporarily. He was not a fan of being cooped up in one space for too long, and the mess in the backseat was starting to drive him a little crazy. The pragmatic part of his mind told him that he needed to get used to the mess (he was in this for the long haul), but since when did the rational mind control fears and quirks? Regardless, it was good to be out of the car. The heat was manageable (especially due to a lack of exertion thus far), and the boy had free access to his water bottle, anyway. He walked around idly for a brief period to stretch his legs, kicked a rock around until he lost track of it, then made his way back to the other boy (who looked decisively more heroic as he stood solid and looked out into the distance).

As nice as being able to stretch his legs was, Jed could see his partner was not handling the heat as well as he was. Josiah didn’t know what Mattie’s history was, but his features certainly resembled those of people in the North more used to the biting cold than the searing heat. So, while Jed would love to spend some more time outside in the open space, he was about ready to suggest finishing the trek to Boise. As a doctor, other people’s needs came first, and this situation wasn’t any exception to the rule. Still, before he recommended continuing, he felt the need to check the status of their mission. It was their main purpose in coming all the way out here, and Jed rationalized that he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t look around for monsters.

When he’d asked if Mattie had seen anything, he wasn’t expecting the answer to be ‘yes.’ It cramped Jed’s style somewhat, but the boy was flexible. He gazed out into the direction Mattie was pointing, and his heart dropped into his stomach at the sight of the two scorpions rapidly approaching. Had he mentioned he wasn’t a monster hunter and/or comfortable with using a sword? The boy hadn’t entirely known what to expect on his first hunting trip, but he was hoping for one monster at a time and then possibly retiring early so he could focus on his work (keeping the real monster hunters healthy).

But, at least right now, he had a job to do. A little jerkily (he’d get better once he remembered old techniques), Jed pulled out his sword, and followed Mattie’s hand motions so that the other boy could take front and center. “So…you take the one on the left, I take the one on the right?” Jed suggested, trying to stay light in a rather nerve-wracking situation. It wasn’t a serious idea; Jed would do whatever Mattie told him, and then he’d patch them up after the fight to undo whatever happened (hopefully). He wondered idly what the plan of attack was; would they approach this using Roman battlefield techniques, or was this more of a free for all? Jed readjusted his grip on his sword and waited for battle orders—wasn’t that was Romans did best?

[Mattie Densen]

Nothing left to say

What's standing in your way?

You had the chance to never walk alone

WORDS: 592 || TAGS: @josiah

[attr="class","nthlftsybdytxt1"] “Got it!”, Mattie said with a small smile on his face, although his grip tightened around his handle, his hairline lined in sweat. Mattie was taught well by James, the leader of the Greens himself, but he couldn’t help but be a little nervous. After all, this was his first real hunt. Back when Mattie was in the Legion, he found the biggest problems with his unwillingness to fight, as he was more concerned about the safety of everyone else, rather than the ruthlessness in combat. His technique was strong, that was for sure, but his Centurion had long since given up on trying to cooperate well in a main combat position. As good of a fighter as he was, there had to be some sort of willingness to fight in order to get anything done. Mattie looked back to Jed, the other man with him. He wasn’t much of a combatant himself, Mattie had remembered. That left Mattie to take charge of the situation. “I think we need to worry about keeping it off us, if they’re working as a group, we need to keep them from both ganging up on one of us. Try and keep it isolated”, Mattie said, with a small smile. Hopefully, he had done that right… He’d never given any sort of orders before.

When the first scorpion charged Mattie, he knew he was ready. Mattie stepped to the side of it’s charge, swinging the blade of his bardiche to its side, trying to push the head of the blade into it’s flesh. Mattie’s hit had landed somewhere that wasn’t necessarily vital, but the attention of the creature was all on Mattie. The scorpion writhed in pain, it’s barbed tail jutting out, attempting to strike at Mattie, while it’s jaws were bared, ready to sink into Mattie’s flesh. The tail made an attempt to strike Mattie but he parried the attack from the scorpion, holding against the pressure of the creature. Eventually though, the brute strength of the scorpion won out against Mattie’s blade, pushing both Mattie and his blade back, Mattie stumbling backwards, and that was when the creature took its chance, lunging after the Dane once more.

NOTES: Hope this is alright ^v^

BOBBI

[googlefont="Abel"]



[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1]margin-top:-20px;padding:10px;border-left:#353f7d solid 4px;text-align:justify;width:400px;font-family:Georgia;font-size:11px;color:#c1c1c1;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 b]color:#9fa6da;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 i]color:#b9b2c6;[/newclass]

[Deleted]

Although the battle hadn’t officially begun, Jed could feel the signs that his body was stressing. The boy was beginning to sweat, his sword hand was shaking slightly, and the boy gripped the inside of his sneakers hard for better traction. His mind had emptied momentarily while Jed mentally struggled with the stress, but a moment later he busied himself with remembering proper sword stance. It distracted Jed long enough that by the time he was sure his form was impeccable (although he could always do everything just fine in theory, his problem was applying those skills), the scorpions had almost reached them. Jed briefly glanced over at Mattie, long enough to take in the boy’s instructions. “Sure,” Jed responded, just to give vocal affirmation. Keep them isolated, sounded simple enough (although, didn’t it always?).

The first scorpion charged towards his partner, so Jed shuffled farther away from the two and caught the attention of the second. “Okay, it’s just me and you,” Jed muttered, increasing the speed of his shuffling as the scorpion lunged at him. In a brief panic, Jed slashed at the monster with his sword, a grazing shot that pinged off its armor. While the scorpion metaphorically licked its wounds, Jed racked his brain to remember a scorpion’s anatomy. Common sense told him to avoid the claws and stinger, but old (unfortunately unused) knowledge reminded him that its main eyes were located on the top of the cephalothorax (more quaintly known as the head), while the others were located along the front corners. It sounded like rather useless information, especially considering its eyes were around his eye level, but he knew they couldn’t see very well (although its sensitivity to movement was unbelievably tuned). Against his brain’s recommendations, Jed lunged towards the scorpion and landed right in front. Considering its eyes were on top and alongside its head, the only things he had to worry about were the scorpion’s aimlessly-searching claws. For now, it couldn’t see him.

Jed allowed himself one smug smile before he gave an amateur swipe at the monster. He gave a few shallow strikes, which didn’t cause much damage but hopefully over time would accumulate into damage.

Unfortunately, Josiah had a one-track mind. The boy was so focused on navigating the eyes and claws that he forgot about its rather sharp stinger. He always did hate his absolute inability to multitask. As he watched its tail descend, he backed away as quickly as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. The tip (thankfully) missed him, but the brute force with which the tail descended knocked Jed off his feet and knocked the wind out of him. The boy was breathless as he watched the tip pierce the ground right next to him before he began to scramble to his feet. In a distracting effort he swiped at its legs, but again only managed shallow scrapes. Now would be a great time for some awesome son of Jupiter powers, Jed thought as he snuck a glance over at Mattie, simultaneously dancing away from his own scorpion.

[Mattie Densen]

Nothing left to say

What's standing in your way?

You had the chance to never walk alone

WORDS: 543 || TAGS: @josiah

[attr="class","nthlftsybdytxt1"] To say Mattie was a bit preoccupied with the advance of a creature more than half of his side was a bit of an understatement. The scorpion had gotten Mattie down, and even for the moment that Mattie wasn’t on his feet it didn’t hesitate to strike at him. Mattie ducked, rolling away from the jutting barb of a tail threatening to impale his head. As he looked forward, Mattie noticed something, a chink of the armor in both a literal and physical sense, Mattie could see the pale flesh beneath the hardened exoskeleton of the scorpion, a soft bit of flesh between the head and neck of the creature. Mattie drove the blade of his bardiche up, using the length of the pull to push it all the way through the flesh, thick and dark blood running down the side of his blade. The scorpion let out a shrill shriek, before it’s form caved in on itself, crumpling into a golden dust, whipped away by the arid winds of the desert.

Mattie turned his attention towards his travelling partner, who seemed to be in a bit of a struggle himself with his own scorpion. He tried at whacking the side of it with his axe, but the blades chinks against the scorpions armor did nothing to deter the creature off of Jed. Mattie wasn’t even all too sure it noticed there was another demigod hitting a tit from the behind. Mattie needed it’s attention off Jed. Mattie wasn’t sure how well the other man could hold for much longer, and that was when Mattie had an idea. Not necessarily a smart idea, but an idea nonetheless. Mattie put his fingers to his lips, a loud and shrill whistle soon to follow, and that was enough to get the scorpion turn around, it’s eyes on Mattie. As soon as it pounced for the Dane, Mattie darted to the side, with a soft and quick roll, his next move to leap on the body of the scorpion, lodging his blade into its side to secure his position. As soon as Mattie was stable, that was when he made the last blow, in the form of a lightning bolt to the scorpion. The creature yowled in pain, a barbed tail lurching forward and skewering Mattie through the side, before it’s tail unfurled, yanking an exhausted Mattie from his hold on his blade and throwing him hard against the ground as it seized up, curling in on itself before seemingly shattering into a million fragments of gold.

Mattie hit the ground hard, his ears ringing and greyish eyes fluttering, his form rendered numb, until the adrenaline wore off, a searing pain coming from Mattie’s side in particular, though the through had him sore. The feeling of so much blood rushing out of his body at one time… Mattie hold only felt that once before, and being shot was far different than being skewered through the side by the barbed tail of a giant scorpion. Mattie’s blood stained the floor of the desert, and he shakily tried to push himself up, but he couldn’t do that on his own, falling back to the ground with a small yelp in pain. "D-Dammit...", Mattie muttered under his breath, shakily.

NOTES: Hope this is good! Real excited for this thread [:

BOBBI

[googlefont="Abel"]



[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1]margin-top:-20px;padding:10px;border-left:#353f7d solid 4px;text-align:justify;width:400px;font-family:Georgia;font-size:11px;color:#c1c1c1;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 b]color:#9fa6da;[/newclass]

[newclass=.nthlftsybdytxt1 i]color:#b9b2c6;[/newclass]

[Deleted]

Jed wouldn’t call himself an overly pessimistic guy. He was pragmatic, to be sure, and his realism often led to somewhat pessimistic thoughts, but he didn’t consider himself a negative person overall.

Even so, he would hardly call this battle one of the more successful ones. Jed walked into this knowing he wasn’t a fighter; it was just a fact of nature. Vulcan kids were scared of heights, his father pulled the sun into the sky every morning, and Jed could be counted on getting thoroughly wrung-out during a battle. Still, he considered, this was one of the more embarrassing and unsuccessful fights. Sure, he hadn’t yet sustained a life-threatening wound, but neither had the scorpion. In fact, aside from some shallow wounds and a slight limp, the scorpion looked great. He’d barely made a dent. After getting knocked off his feet and getting back up, Jed went in for a few more superficial strikes. The boy managed to get a few in, but to little avail as the scorpion retaliated.

The battle just went downhill from there. The scorpion snapped its claws a few times, and for the second time Josiah overly focused on the most immediate threat coming from the monster (read: the claws about a foot from his face). For the second time, the tail caught him unaware and sent the boy flying. He landed roughly on his back and spent a moment desperately trying to gulp in air. He lost grip of his sword, which landed a foot or two away from him, and he felt a headache coming on. Jed managed to sit up and look around for a moment before his eyes widened. Get your sword, man, get up! His brain was telling him to get up and move, do something, but the boy felt dizzy and getting up felt impossible with the scorpion bearing over him. Against more rational thought, Jed squeezed his eyes shut and waited for something to gut him.

Two seconds later, at the sound of a shrill whistle, Jed’s eyes shot open. Mattie, who had apparently finished with his own scorpion at some point, had come in at just the right time…Jed sent a quick prayer up while slowly getting to his feet. The ‘awesome son of Jupiter powers’ he’d been hoping for were soon out and whupping scorpion butt while Jed watched from behind. The scorpion soon joined its companion as newly integrated dust molecules in the desert. Jed might have just stood there all day, sword loose in his hand, if Mattie hadn’t collapsed in front of him.

Although previously battling with mixed emotions of relief and embarrassment, Jed sobered up. This was something he could do. He jumped into action immediately, dropping his sword and instead swinging his pack around so he could unzip the largest pocket and reach for his medical kit. He dropped to his knees at Mattie’s side after pulling it out, and took a few moments to rearrange the other boy so he was lying on his back. As a secondary thought, Jed slid his backpack under Mattie’s head as a makeshift pillow.

“Okay, you’re going to be fine,” Jed murmured as he examined Mattie’s side. All his emotions drained out of him (like water in a tub) as Jed was left steely calm. He identified the problem area as the torso and began to peel back the other boy’s shirt. “I’m getting a better look at the wound, but I’m going to need you to take deep breaths. We need to slow your heart rate.” Jed spoke quietly in his calm-doctor-voice, the same tone he’d used when he’d been enlisted. He popped open his medical kit and pulled out some nitrile gloves (he’d stopped using latex in an effort to avoid allergic reactions during a procedure). Slipping them on, Jed rearranged the glove around his bracelet so he could pull out his healing charm. It didn’t have any one particular use, but it was great at taking care of the smaller stuff so Jed could focus on healing. Now, he wiped away some blood and pressed the angel wing charm near the entrance of the wound, watching the swelling temporarily decrease.

Next step was to stop the bleeding and minimize blood loss. Jed pulled gauze out of his kit (sterile, of course), and began to apply pressure. He made sure to aim around the pressure point, the major artery leading to the wound. With one hand applying consistent pressure, the boy used his other hand to rip off a strip of medical tape to fasten the dressing in place. He needed to pack the wound to prevent infection, but he couldn’t do that with Mattie lying down.

“Okay, now I need you to sit up. I’m going to clean the wound and pack it to keep dirt out.” Jed moved to help Mattie sit up, but he needed the boy to do some of the work on his own (partly because Josiah didn’t want to leave the wound site, partly because he needed assurance Mattie wouldn’t faint on him). While he waited, Jed mentally ran through the next few steps of the procedure, which were simple enough. The real key was going to get Mattie into the car and keep an eye on him. But, that was something to figure out after Jed finished here.