Logs:Hounded

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Hounded
Dramatis Personae

Haruka, Joachim, Shawn, and Darcy. James as GM.

8 February, 2008


A beach party goes to the dogs.

Location

Pokai Bay Beach, Leeward Coast

Plot(s)

Plot:Beyond Zebra


Pokai Bay Beach is a little bit off the beaten path. No tours leave from it, and there aren’t any main docks nearby, so tourists wouldn’t necessarily come here on their own. It makes it the perfect place to have a ‘secret’ beach party. Of course, is a party ever really secret? Probably not. But it definitely has an exclusive feel to it, and the people who are already there do not look like tourists.

There are about twenty or thirty people there; some are dancing, some are drinking, and one is grilling various things which end up on a fold-up table that has been set up for food purposes. There are plenty of drinks in a few coolers, too, and one of the guys seems to be the de facto bartender, passing out drinks to whoever wants any.


Darcy is sitting on a beach towel with a small group chitchatting, her bare toes buried in the sand while she holds a plastic cup in one hand. She is wearing a pair of board shorts and a dark blue Yale hoodie that looks well-worn. Under the cuffs of her hoodie the long sleeves of a rash guard are visible.


Making her way down from the parking lot is the youngster, Haruka, her kit-bag slung over her shoulder as usual, her dress casual - shorts, t-shirt, and sandals are more than sufficient for the moment. She pauses to take a look around and see if she recognizes anyone - and seeing no familiar faces right off, decides to make her way over to the bartender for a soda.


Despite being a bit leery after the last one, Joachim had found himself willing enough to go to another, having heard about it via some of the interns at the observatory. He'd come directly from there, still wearing work clothes, which meant in this case a pair of cargo shorts, sandals and a short sleeved shirt. Looking around for anyone he knew, he also certainly looked up more than a few times, making his way over to the bar to grab himself a beer. Spotting Haruka as he made his way towards the bar he gave her a wide grin and a wave. "Hey there Haruka! Good to see you again. How have you been? Put any thought into that internship? There are a few spots open at the moment."


Shawn is making his way through the party a cup in his hand and the sand in his toes... What better way to have a party as long as there isn't a flying beast attacking it... Spotting Joachim, Shawn makes his way over towards him, "Aloha Joachim. Hopefully this party isn't crashed like the last one."


"Wooo!" A couple of guys have gone up to where the 'bartender' is pouring shots and lighting them on fire. They each pick up a glass, lifting them up, and they clink them together, then blow out the flames and knock the shots back. They may be drunk, but they're not totally stupid -- yet, anyway.

When Haruka comes over, the bartender grins widely at her, and gestures to the various drinks. "What can I get you?" he asks, giving a friendly nod to Joachim as well, and the other guys there give various levels of appreciative glances.

"Come on," one of the group is saying to Darcy, and he holds out a hand to her, "let's dance. It'll be fun, I promise." The music is some sort of upbeat pop-y number at the moment, generic but fun.


Haruka nods to the 'bartender' and asks, "Got a pepsi in there?" She waits to be handed one and smiles. (She'll take Coke if there isn't Pepsi, but will be disappointed.) She pauses in the act of opening her soda, turning about with the tab half-cracked at the sound of a familiar voice. "Well hey, if it isn't Mr Astromazing himself! Sure an' of course I've thought about it, who wouldn't?" She grins, finishes opening the drink, and takes a deep swig of it. She saunters over towards him, still looking about at the crowd. "How's the stargazing biz?" While walking, she glances out across the beach and into the darkness nearby, apparently looking for something.


"Oh, you /promise/ it will be fun?" Darcy says in response to the man inviting her to dance. She laughs a little, and takes a swallow from her cup before she plants it into the sand, and takes his hand. "Alright, but if I have a bad time that means you're a promise-breaker." She uses her hand to pull herself up out of the sand, and as soon as she stands her eyes seem to look towards the darkness over his shoulder. "Actually I need to pee. Gimme a moment?" She smiles at him charmingly before saying, "I /promise/." That said she walks past him towards the darkness.


Joachim smiled, giving a friendly nod to both Haruka and Shawn. "Oh great. Stargazing is going great. Get some really amazing sights in. How about you Haruka? How goes?" He laughed, shaking his head. "Aloha Shawn! Oh man hopefully not. Glad you're here though. It's not like we got to party last time right?"


Shawn takes a sip from his cup and chuckles nodding, "Exactly time to enjoy a party." He looks around a bit at the folks enjoying the party, "Really just wanna enjoy the beach music and drinks this time."


"Uh huh, sure do," the bartender replies, and he tosses Haruka a Pepsi. "If you want anything stronger in there, just let me know." With that, he starts to pour another drink for one of the shot boys.

The guy who'd asked Darcy to dance looks a little disappointed when Darcy tells him to wait, but not so much that it breaks his smile. "All right," he says, "but I'll hold you to that. Don't leave me hanging." He watches her as she walks away, his grin widening a little bit, before he turns back to the group, though he hasn't forgotten her. No indeed.

However, now there definitely is something to be heard over the music. It's difficult to make out, but it sounds like a low growl, and now that one mentions it, there seems to be something moving in the dark, in the direction of where Darcy's walking. Most of the partygoers don't seem to notice it, though.


Haruka nods to Joachim, smiling casually. "Oh, you know. Classes and such. At least all the placement tests went well. Sometimes I wonder if they had some issues with my transcript." She shrugs and looks out into the darkness again. "You hear that?" she asks the astronomer, then takes another swig of soda and starts padding out towards the edge of the firelight. Her eyes narrow as she focuses towards the source of the growls.


Darcy doesn't look over her shoulder at the guy who asked her for a dance. She seems intent on whatever it is she has observed in the darkness. When she hears that low growl she stops in her tracks, and her eyes narrow a bit as she peers into the darkness. Whatever she sees causes her to tense up. She lifts both hands up in a defensive position, and takes one step back slowly. Cautiously. Her eyes remain trained on whatever is in the darkness.


"Well glad to hear it. I'm sure that's probably all it was." Smiling, Joachim nodded to Shawn. "Yeah me too. Last time I was a little to no I didn't hear anything." He looked to Haruka, his eyes going from there to where Darcy was walking into the woods. "Well... maybe it's just a pig. A pig not being chased by anything." He started following after Haruka, still holding his beer bottle.


Shawn shakes his head, "Didn't hear a thing." And then he follows Joachim, "Stinkin pregnant pigs being chased by stuff. If this party gets crashed I swear I'm never going to another one for the rest of the night."


The party continues to go on, the music still loud, the bonfire still burning brightly. No one else seems to be going over in the direction that the four of them are going. Maybe they imagined it? But no, surely not.

Their curiosity is rewarded -- punished? -- when they get further down the beach, toward whatever it is. What it //is// morphs from back shadows to an extremely large, dog-like thing, with a slavering muzzle. But it's much too big to be a dog -- it's too big even to be a wolf, and its eyes are glowing red. It growls low in its throat, and then another one seems to materialize out of nothing behind it. The first pulls back a little bit on its haunches, showing its teeth.


The one further toward the front has its eyes locked on Joachim, and all of a sudden, it lunges, jaws snapping.


Haruka stares in momentary horror as the huge canine charges at her friend, the can of soda falling from limp fingers. Then she explodes into action, running straight at it. She stoops on the way in to grab a handful of sand, tossing it at the beast's eyes just before she leaps on its back... but it doesn't appear to do any good, and even though she manages to get a hold, the beast throws her off within seconds. She lands on the sand with a thump and a cloud of briefly-flying particulates displaced by the impact.


Nope. Darcy ain't about to jump into that. Instead, when she sees the giant nasty looking black dog jump on Joachim she turns and runs back towards the party. When she gets closer to where people are she yells out, "HEY!" And then when people look her way she blurts out, "The cops are coming down the beach! They've been cracking down on people having parties here so they might arrest everyone! Scram! Scatter!" Then she reaches for her bag abandoned on her blanket, and grabs her flip phone, and opens it up to get to the camera.


Joachim was in the middle of speaking when the Darkhound came charging out at him. Thankfully, what he'd been told earlier in the day held true, and it did he launched himself backwards into the air, a huge pair of tawny wings extending from his back to flap him to safety a few yards away. He watched from above as Haruka moved to tackle the beast only to be thrown off, and he called out as loud as he could. "Shawn! Haruka! Eyes!" Speaking in an ancient, forgotten tongue, the air filled with the smell of ozone as electricity crackled along his wings. From his open mouth extended a red beam of brilliant fire, melting the ground to slag even as the darkhound dodged. He landed with an unceremonious thud and grunted, spitting. "The damn things are hellhounds! I... think! Be careful!"


Shawn blinks as he shakes his head, "Freaking beach parties." He makes a motion with his hand, calling out "Duin." Before releasing a blast of fire from his hand at the giant hounds, "Annnd BBQ time!" He glances over at Joachim flyin up into the sky and blinks, "More wings?"


The darkhound that Haruka was attempting to grapple with shakes her off as though she's so many droplets of water, and then lunges for Joachim. Sadly, it doesn't get a bite, perhaps due to Haruka's intervention. It howls, and then bares its teeth, just in time to get hit with Shawn's fireball. This time the howl is mingled with pain, and its attention is now on the source of that pain. Namely, Shawn. It lunges again, attempting to grab any limb that is within reach.

Well, the party //had// been going on, but when Darcy starts yelling stuff, people stop, and look over at her with confused expressions. "Let's go, man," one of them says, but then Shawn's fireball lights up the sky, and anyone who's looking in that direction can see what's happening. Screams ring out as there's an unmitigated panic as all the partygoers suddenly try to be anywhere but here.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"RUN!"

"Kara, where are you?!?! Come on!!"


It seems that Haruka has had enough of the hounds of hell annoying her party time. She looks up at the moon, and lets out a wild shriek... then drops her kitbag and her entire form -blurs-. In moments there's a girl-sized red fox where she was standing, and it leaps out at the darkhound, slashing and skittering, never staying long enough to seriously engage... but most certainly enough to annoy.


Darcy grabs her blackberry, hits the record button, and then instead of running away like the rest of the partygoers she runs in the direction of the strange hounds and the stranger people fighting them. Instead of joining them she crouches down low and sneak-runs to the side. Her phone is held up to record the event as it happens. It probably would have been super sneaky if she managed not to trip over her own feet and faceplant into the sand with a little shriek.


The second darkhound has been lying in wait behind the first, but it’s still there. And now its attention is on Joachim. Ooh, flying thing! It may not be a cat, but it’s certainly distractible, and it winds itself back on its haunches, then jumps, attempting to bat the man out of the air, presumably so that it can bite him. Alas, it can’t jump quite high enough, but it’s certainly trying, and its attention is focused on him for the moment. Lucky for Darcy, flying trumps shrieking.


Shawn glances around at the hounds then the others fighting them deftly dodging the one he'd burnt before he gets knocked over and dragged out by one of the fleeing party goers... At least he's not a chew toy right?


Joachim tensed as the first darkhound got into a fight with the suddenly GIANT FUZZY FOX Joachim kept himself from yelling anymore as he gaped, wings flapping as he tried to line up another shot on the first one. As the second launched itself up at him he managed to avoid it, surprised when Darcy fell out of the bushes and landed on her face. Sympathy and concern had to be pushed aside however, as he yelled to her. "Duck and cover!" He repeated that same Coptic phrase again, once more spewing a beam of plasma directly at the darkhound, burning away what flesh it had to leave it a charred and blackened form, the ground around it already molten.


The distraction seems to have worked; the first darkhound is keeping all his attention on Haruka. It feigns one way, before lunging in again, jaws snapping, in another direction to try and catch her flank.

Meanwhile, the party is total chaos. Most people have been able to leave, but some are too drunk to get far, and one person is perilously close to the bonfire that no one has bothered to put out.


The Hound has, apparently, annoyed Fox-Haruka a little too much, and she twists about as she dodges and leaps. A quick snap at the hound's rear ankle misses by inches, and she has to leap away quickly to avoid another attack by the larger canine.


Darcy picks herself up, and spits sand from her mouth. She pushes herself up from the sand and picks up her phone to record it all. Her blackberry camera is probably crappy, but evil hounds and a fox lady along with people shooting fire would be quite the scoop. She lifts her phone up to record...and then out of the corner of her eye she sees the guy about to stumble into the fire. "Shit!" She drops her phone, and runs off in the direction to grab the drunk.


The second darkhound is occupied with Joachim -- it, too, does not see Darcy's fall and splat. Instead, it snaps its jaws a couple of times, growling low in its throat, and then lunges, in an attempt to get a hold on Joachim's leg. It can't quite get a purchase there, however.


Joachim snarled as the Darkhound latched on to his leg and bit it. Choking back a cry of pain, he kicked it free of his leg and dived for it, grabbing it to pin it down to the ground. Once more he spoke in an ancient tongue, and the beam of plasma that erupted from his both burned clear through it's head, leaving the ground beneath it a smoking pit. He got up, flapping his wings to steady himself and looked to Haruka. "You ok?!" His eyes scanned for where Darcy had gone, nodding to her as she helped the drunk get away from the bonfire.


The darkhound that was on Joachim barely has a chance to bite down, before it's hit by that second bolt of plasma, just like the first. It lets out a howl, before it falls to the sand with barely a whimper, and does not stir.

The first darkhound dodges Haruka's attack, and then lunges for her again, this time attempting to go for the throat.

The drunk guy is nearly in the fire before Darcy's interference stops him, and he looks down. He's //very// drunk; he clearly doesn't get what's going on. "Hey, you're cute," he slurs, throwing an arm around her. "Wanna go back to m'place?" At least he's not on fire?


Haruka dodges lithely away from the snarling hound, and shares a barking laugh as she hops to one side before hurrying back towards the guy throwing fireballs. 'Come and get me', she taunts the hound with a flick of her tail, and nimbly dodges another strike as she crosses the wizard's path.


"Do you not see the fuckery happening behind you?" Darcy says a little urgently, but she doesn't push the drunk guy away when he puts an arm around her shoulder. Instead she starts leading him towards the parking lot near the beach where the cars are. "C'mon, let's get out of here, dude." She glances over her shoulder at the strange sight happening on the beach, and then she leads the drunk off.


As Darcy managed to get the last of the witnesses away, Joachim gave Haruka the Fox an appreciative nod, reaching a hand out to draw strength from the nearby ocean. He also drew a great deal of water as well, which hurtled through the trees to crash against the darkhound, smashing it against the ground.


The darkhound is, at heart, a dog -- and dogs like to chase. So, it doesn't follow Darcy saving the drunk, but instead goes right where Haruka wants it to go. Toward Joachim, that is. It gets slammed down against the ground, hard, and it lets out a very doglike whimper. However, it's up again soon, though it's limping, and maybe this is why its lunge toward Joachim to bite is not quite as full of verve as it was in the beginning.


Haruka pauses and turns to watch as Joachim flames the hound. Good work! Even if it does stink like burnt dog. But this is the perfect time to go for the throat, so she does! And even if it bats her away quickly enough, she still gets a piece of it.


Joachim flew out of the way again, landing a few feet away once more, looking thoroughly beat. He still had a bit left in him though, speaking in a hoarse voice as he blasted the Darkhound with plasma, sending it reeling as demonic flesh was peeled away. He waved a hand to Haruka, looking exhausted and ill. "Can't... push it anymore... I'm out of juice."


The darkhound howls in pain when Haruka latches onto its neck, and it shakes its head in an attempt to dislodge her. But it just can't -- not with Joachim burning it with plasma again. It howls again, sinking into the sand and trying to bite, but it isn't getting anywhere, really. One more bite mite do the trick on this one.


Ewww. It stinks of burnt dog. But it's got to be finished. Haruka whines softly, then bares her teeth at the much-scorched hound. She ducks her head back to flick her tongue over Joachim's nose in reply to his words, then leaps at the beast, fangs going straight for its throat.

Good thing her clothes aren't here to get all bloody.


Joachim gave Haruka a grateful look as he slumped against a tree, breathing heavily. "Well shit... that was a close one. Thanks Haruka." He smiled weakly at her. "When I don't feel like shit, you want to talk about this over coffee or something?" He chuckled, looking rather tired.


It is enough. The hellhound whimpers, and for a moment it seems very like a normal dog -- except bigger, of course. Its fiery red eyes close, and it doesn't stir.


There's a swirl, as the fox leaps back to Joachim's side, and then it's Haruka once again, helping him up. "That sounds like a great idea. Can I help you to your car?" She pauses briefly to pick up her kit bag.


Joachim nodded, smiling to Haruka as she helped him up. "Please. I would really appreciate that thanks." He gestured towards the road and where he had parked, looking better but no less exhausted. "That was impressive."


The girl nods and stumbles on along with him. "Thanks. You didn't do half-bad yourself." She considers for a moment as they reach the car, then leads him to the passenger side. "You're in no shape to drive."


Joachim looked down at himself and laughed, shaking his head as he reached into a pocket to pull out his keys. "No... I don't think I am." He handed them to her sheepishly. "And thanks. Magic is just... a little draining really." He smiled.


Haruka catches the keys with ease and slips into the car, nodding. "Come on... party might be over, but pizza and a soda'll perk you up a bit, I bet."