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SABL (Ashen Wolf x LittleCloud)

Whatever camaraderie Meg might have felt towards Sable after dealing with Lance began to die almost as soon as it had begun, she thought her offer had been perfectly reasonable (but of course she did), generous even, but if that was the way he wanted to act then. Honest she was starting to feel naive for even thinking that he was going to act in what was obviously in both of their interests when he could simply be a pain instead. Already chiding herself internally for being so foolish, her gaze drifted back to her Scroll, reminding her how she was going to be stuck like this until they finally handed in their assignment.

Why oh why did bad things have to happen to good people?
Meg would of course have plenty of time to ponder the possible karmic implications of all this as the week progressed and she had to adapt to her new frustrating living situation, at the very least she was grateful that their combat teacher had given them enough slack on their leash that certain indignities could be avoided.

She had a feeling however that today that things weren't going to get any better, huntsman and huntress often found themselves spending extend periods away from the comforts of civilisation in the course of their duties as defenders of Remnant and so the academy felt it best that survival training found its way in to the curriculum. Which is why team SABL and the rest of the class found themselves at the edges of a small snowy village (more of a trading post really) with a pair of tents between each team and four packs each filled with everything they would need to survive in the frozen wastes.

"Okay class, listen up!" Their teacher yelled to ensure that her voice reached the back of the gathering where Lilac, seemingly unbothered by the pack that was almost as large as she was, was building a snowman "I want SABL and HNTR on one side, GLNT and WNDA on the other!"

Professor Crimzon swung the enormous axe she wielded one-handed to either side just in case there was any confusion as to who was supposed to be where.

"In your pack each group will find a map that will lead to a marked destination. You are to follow that map, take a photo with your Scroll as proof and then return to this outpost. Do you have any questions?"
 
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They hadn't made especially significant progress on their remedial assignment, and now they were in the farthest place from working on it: outside. Normally, Sable would've loved the opportunity to spread his wings, but the frozen wasteland was not his idea of a good time. And present company was not improving the situationm either, Megara had a mysterious way of being the coldest thing in any given room, but unfortunately, Sable's ability to hang out with anyone was stymied by the second binding that Atlas had somehow shoved him into. He couldn't even remember the last time he had the chance to talk with anyone from SABL, let alone WNDA--with the big shark acting as goalkeeper, not even Wanda or Lilac could shoot their shots!

In any case, it seemed they would not be making any progress on that assignment today, either. It wouldn't be his fault this time either. No, it'd be everyone else's. Sable was no stranger to cold nights with no roofs. Mantle may not have been as frigid as the rest of Atlas by any means, but her streets were still far from a pleasant place for a dirty orphan to dwell in. These Atlesians with their thermally-regulated households? If it weren't for the miracles of aura, there was no doubt in Sable's mind that they'd all be popsicles by now. He'd be a popsicle too, granted, but he'd complain about it less.

"This a race or can I take my time to enjoy the wonderful weather?" Sable asked dryly, ferried to one side of Professor Crimzon along with the rest of his team. He shot a sympathetic look over in the generation of Team WNDA, but as bad as he felt for them, he wasn't complaining about the arrangement. At least it wasn't his team having to deal with the creme de la creme. His team was partnered up with Team HNTR, which he might've found funny if he wasn't the butt of the joke. He didn't really interact with them in any significant capacity, but he could feel the smug aura radiating from their lab coats and top scoring academics. All Atlesians were cut from the same cloth, after all.

"By the way, 10 lien says we get heckled within the first 30 minutes," Sable remarked off-side to Megara.
 
"There's no prizes for completing the assignment early but if you are not back within 48 hours it will be considered a fail." The Professor replied as Wanda caught the look that Sable was throwing her and mimed wrapping a rope around her neck before pulling taught and lolling her head to one side, which while it wasn't going to get her out of having to spend the next two days with GLNT, did seem to be enough for Lance to get the message that she wasn't interested and send him slinking off to try his luck with Nikki.

"15." Meg made a counter offer, somehow eshewing winter gear for her gi and multicoloured coat without shivering in the slightest (the answer involved a lot of money), in constrast both of the HNTR siblings were bound up in enormous winter coats with their hoods pulled up tight around them. She didn't know the other two members of the team beyond what she'd managed to pick up between classes but she still liked her odds and anyway it wasn't really about the money, Megara Aegean had enough of that already, but if she could make Sable poorer then so much the better.

She didn't have much time to enjoy that particular fantasy though as their new partners joined them on their side of the axe swing, the leader of team HNTR also eshewing most of the academy's winter gear for his own coat but apparently doing a much worse job of staying warm if the way he was shaking was anything to go by. Walking beside him a girl who was easily a head taller than him was carrying both his and her own pack with seemingly no difficulty gave the others a silent nod while the siblings brought up the rear in their hefty winter parkas.

"So I guess this means we're working together." Val Helsing spoke, offering one hand to his fellow leader "Before we depart we should make sure we have all the information can. Do any of your team have any kind of transportation semblance?"
 
Sable was, as usual, much more plainly dressed by comparison. One account of not having much in the way of a personal wardrobe, he was yet again stuck with the same sort of uniform gear provided to the Atlesian rank and file. Aftermarket modifications--torn-off patches, his usual gear peaking out from beneath--pulled their weight in distinguishing him from just another one of Atlas' many faceless students.

"I knew you could have a little fun," Sable said like a broken record. Given how many times he'd said the exact same words in the past couple of days, there was no doubt that Meg was getting tired of it--especially because the result was never quite as hopeful as the phrase would lead one to believe. Usually it ended with a lot of exhausting back-and-forth, and not the fun kind either. He eyed the approaching leader. "Here they come. Time to see what their boss has to say."

But rather than what he said, Sable was more concerned with what he did. The faunus stared at the offered hand like it was some type of foreign species, then like it owed him money. His red-eyed gaze flicked upwards, then back. There were a dozen social calculations being solved per second behind his eyes. Atlesians didn't just touch Faunus, after all. 'Specially not unprompted. Immediately suspicious of any angles. Poindexters loved angles, and his team had two of them.

"'Suppose it does," Sable said with his best poker face on. He gave Val's hand a firm shake, hands binding with a clap, and shaking with the tell-tale rustle of winter coats. He'd shaken on it, so he may as well act with good-ish faith. "Unless the place you wanna be driven is crazy, we don't have any of those here. You?"

...Well, Lilac could teleport, but it didn't seem like she could carry much at all when she did.
 
Val shook Sable's hand with none of the sort of vice grip power play that Sable might have been expecting had they been unfortunate enough to be paired with GLNT before turning his head back to look at his team and going mentally through the formality of counting off their abilities in his head, HNTR might have had some powerful semblances between them but none of them were the sort of thing that was straight forwardly useful.

"Looks like we're hoofing it." He said, offering Sable an apologetic smile, slipping his hands back in to his coat pockets and hoping that focusing on his aura would help keep the bitter cold at bay better than his long leather coat.

"I uh...think I've found a route." Henri finally spoke up having been buried in the map more or less since they'd been given their packs, trying very hard not to think about what had happened last time she'd been out in the snow "We can head through the woods. Even if we get lost as long as can find this river we can follow it round and we'll be fine." She explained, showing the map to the two leaders and tracing the path with one gloved hand.

"OR!" Suddenly Lilac was in their midst causing Henri to yelp and drop the map which was quickly snatched up by the energetic girl "We could go over the mountain!" She jabbed excitedly at the map showing a straight line between their current location and the target with only the rocky mountainous terrain between them. "It's way faster!"

Val blinked and looked at the suddenly appearing pink gremlin with bemusement, the girl next to him remaining stoic and sentinel-like beside him, starting to think that maybe Sable hadn't been joking about that whole 'crazy' thing.
 
"Looks like," Sable agreed, tucking his hand in his pocket immediately afterwards. People could play nice. Hell, Sable had been playing nice for weeks now, wearing that devil-may-care smile and wry charm like sheepskin. The other shoe was always looming, just waiting to drop when it was most opportune, and the thing about people way up high? They could stomp really damn hard. He would know. He got hit by the big one's hammer two weeks ago!

Henri's convenient navigational planning yielded a very reasonable solution to their problem, which was fine and all, but Sable could not help but to think about the last time she saw her in that outfit: on her knees, with his cock in her mouth. Granted, that kind of thing couldn't happen with Meg looming over him... Well, it could, but that was a risk he wasn't willing to take at this moment. Then Lilac decided to pipe up.

Lilac was good guide if you wanted to get lost, but sometimes her diversions could reveal an alternative path. He was about two seconds away from bonking the purple girl with the side of his fist, but then he had a revelation, something he wouldn't have thought of had she not chosen that exact moment to cut in with something insane. The corners of Sable's lips perked up. Maybe he could make these Atlesians earn their keep. "We could go through the mountain," Sable suggested, as if it were any less ridiculous than what Lilac had suggested. "You two like holding hands and manipulating terrain, yeah? Just dig a hole through the mountain like it's that video game Lilac likes to play. The one with the blocks."

Admittedly, it was a bit of a long shot, but if it worked, it worked. If they let some limitations slip, that was just more data for later. Let is not be said that Sable was above doing exactly what he expected others of doing.
 
Unaware how close she had come to a bonking Lilac just stared at her leader awestruck, did this mean he watched her Scrolltube channel?! Was he a subscriber?!

"Idiotic." Nick pulled his hood down and scoffed, causing Meg to sigh audibly and reach inside her gi for her wallet, he had seemed perfectly cordial the two times they had clashed but he had to go and spoil everything by having an ego (no she wasn't to self reflect at all), wordlessly she held out the notes to the other faunus while Nick continued. "Even with my help Tori would run out of aura before we made it 100 meters and then we'd both be defenceless."

"I thought it was a great idea." Lilac reasurred Sable, hugging one of his arms to her and sticking her tongue out at Nick, who didn't seem at all that bothered by it, taking off his glasses and cleaning them before pulling his hood back up.

Nick's comment barely even registered with Val at this point, he was a nice enough guy once you got to know him he just...wasn't much for social graces. He knew it was just best to just keep things moving, GLNT & WNDA had already gone. "I don't know about you guys but I'm thinking I'm probably the only one here who brought his climbing gear."

"Does it really matter?" Meg chimed in with her usual arisocratic tone "Professor Crimzon made it clear that time is not a large factor, both are as likely to be crawling with Grimm as the other and I hardly see how a lack of equipment should be an excuse, we are Hunters."
 
"Damn, that's crazy." Sable remarked as if hearing the impossibility of his plan was the least crazy thing in the world. Without even looking he swiped the lien from Megara's hand and stuffed it in his pocket. He wasn't much of an optimist, but if you expected the worst, you could always make your own silver linings. For example: now he wouldn't feel bad for kicking Nick's teeth in later. Granted, Sable wouldn't have felt bad for it in the first place, but after that show of attitude? He really wouldn't feel bad.

"At least someone appreciates my genius," the faunus theatrically swooned against Lilac, wistfully watching his breath float away just like his dreams and aspirations under Atlas' yoke. He let the beat pass, then he straightened out. The drama was over; it was time to get down to business. If his plan didn't work, that simply meant they'd have to go with one of the suggested options.

"I'm good to take my sweet time," Sable shrugged, willfully oblivious to the fact he was clearly the one least affected by the cold. "No prize for first place. The outpost isn't that warm, so we'll be out in the snow for the same amount of time whether we finish first or second."

He pointed at the map, following the path from here to there that Henrietta had proposed.

"Over the river and through the woods. Just like going to Grandmother's house."
 
Lilac may or may not have been in on the gag (I'll leave that for you to decide) but she seemed to enjoy it anyway, hugging Sable close to the soft curves hidden behind her Academy issue winter gear and beaming brightly, stopping just short of leaning up to give her leader a reassuring peck on the cheek. Like a lot of the things the small pink girl did the rest of the assembled students weren't exactly sure what to make of her behaviour between the stuffily socialised Atlasians, stoic giants and the bundle of anxiety that was Henri.

Frankly they were all just a little bit relieved when it was time to get moving, leaving the village behind and making their way into the woods. It wasn't too long before the sight and even the sounds of the settlement disappeared behind seemingly endless rows of trees that stretched out in every direction, closing in around the students and reducing visbility to an eerie twilight with their thick branches whilst the snow beneath their feet seemed to muffle the sounds around them except for a few lone bird calls.

Now this wasn't a problem if you happened to be Faunus, but since they were all humans team HNTR seemed to have planned for, or at least discussed, a situation like this before. Falling into a loose formation with Val at the front, the girl hauling his backpack bringing up the rear and the twins somewhere in between.

"Better than being in class right?" Val asked as he marched forward.

"Yeppers!" Lilac replied, skipping through the snow and weaving in and out of the trees with gleeful abandon "We're gonna put up tents and make a fire and then we can tell spooky stories!"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea..." Henri offered whilst she used her cane to feel the snow in front of her for any hidden pitfalls "Wont that attract Grimm?"

Henri may have been right to worry about Grimm, up in the trees they're being observed by a bunch of strange foot-tall black and white humanoids with pointed ears and large bulbous heads.
 
With Lilac roaming, Henri taking her sweet time, and Sable doing nothing about either, it was clear Team SABL wasn't nearly as organized as their partners in Team HNTR. Sable didn't have an excuse, though. He knew all about unit tactics; he just didn't seem to be willing to enforce them.

Logically speaking, in this situation, it would be best to have one faunus scouting ahead at the vanguard while the other serves as rearguard, but with the annoying little program in his scroll governing the distance between him and the only other faunus on both teams, that particular arrangement did not seem fated for success, especially since the marching pace was all over the place. Instead, Sable was forced to keep pace with Megara and Val, which was kind of irksome since his fellow faunus was much more hurried than he was.

"Even when we're not in class, we're still in class," Sable quipped dryly, brushing snow off his jacket. "Only when we graduate can we shed those chains, comrade."

(The statement was a bit optimistic in his case, but if he said he'd get out enough times, then maybe it would come true.)

"Oh, Henri," He grabbed the girl by the scruff of her jacket and pulled her closer to the front of the pack for her own good. "I wouldn't worry about scary stories attracting Grimm."

His gaze flicked upwards, counting off the Grimm in the trees as the party trudged through the snow. If he knew his facts from class, those were Swindlen, little monkey-like Grimm. They'd been following for a while. He didn't know if any of the others had noticed them, but neither side seemed to be making moves just yet. The fact their party hadn't been ambushed yet meant these Grimm must have been waiting for something, but what could that be?

Sable didn't plan to find out, though. He was nothing if not uncooperative, Grimm or not. "Don't look up. Keep moving," the faunus ordered everyone casually. "You ever lumberjacked before, chainsaw? You think you and big girl drop a trees before those Swindlen jump us?"
 
Wordlessly Marine nodded to Sable before turning to look at the large hammer that Tori was dragging in a furrow beside her, the academic having been forced to reluctantly carry her weapon whilst she still had her rucksack on her back. Without saying anything the pair locked eyes, the taller girl flicked her eyes upwards and a plan was set.

Guess what? I actually had rules ready for knocking down trees for a completely unrelated reason!

Knocking down the trees is a DC15 Check that uses Strength or Damage and if the girls get 4 successes between them then HNTR and SABL get a surprise round!

Marine Damage vs DC15: 1D20+12 = [4]+12 = 16 1 Success
Tori Damage vs DC15: 1D20+10 = [9]+10 = 19 1 Success

Oh well...

Sable Initiative: 1D20+8 = [8]+8 = 16
Meg Initiative: 1D20+8 = [15]+8 = 23
Henri Initiative: 1D20 = [18] = 18
Lilac Initiative: 1D20+16 = [4]+16 = 20

Val Initiative: 1D20+8 = [9]+8 = 17
Nick Initiative: 1D20 = [7] = 7
Tori Initiative: 1D20 = [20] = 20
Marine Initiative: 1D20+8 = [5]+8 = 13

Swindlen Initiative: 1D20+12 = [14]+12 = 26

Initiative
Swidlen
Tori
Meg
Lilac
Henri
Val
Sable
Marine
Nick

Swindlen aren't a big challenge individually, especially not for 8 Hunters, but there are a lot of them so the mobs are going to be represented by 4 seperate enemies but because they are supposed to be big groups I came up with a few houserules for them. They auto-fail saves the save for half from an Area attack, anyone with Takedown 2 can treat all their attacks as if they had Multiattack against them and any attacks that normally have Multiattack need one less degree of success to work.

It could have gone better...

Now matter how tall or thick the trees around them seemed to be, no matter how long they had stood in the forest, they didn't stand a chance against the two Huntresses and as the sound of a revving chainsaw filled the cold air the closest trees had already been reduced to splinters by a swing of Tori's galvanic hammer. Unfortunately the nimble Grimm were faster still, their high pitched chittering almost sounding like laughter as they leaped down from the trees to attack and descended on to the Hunters.

It was a small silver lining to the situation that the humans among our heroes no longer had to worry about the dim light of the forest as the Swindlen opened their large round eyes, each one glowing with an unnatural white light that neither of the would-be lumberjacks seemed to be able to take their eyes off. Both Huntresses lost their combat ready stance and stood rooted slackjawed to the spot even as the little monsters swarmed them, scratching and biting and pulling at everything their grasping hands could reach until they had wrenched Marine's weapon out of her weakened grasp.

"Get off her!" Nick called out, the slightest hint of worry creeping into his normally calm and clinical demeanor as he ran to his sister's aid, pulling off and batting away as many of the diminutive black creatures as he could, taking the brunt of their ire and loosing the strange looking pistol device he was brandishing in the process. To his relief he notcied that at least his sister had snapped out of her fugue, giving him a greatful nod and tightening her grip on her hammer.

It would have terribly impolite to watch team HNTR get mauled by swarms of Grimm and take even a tiny sliver of satisfaction in their misfortune but luckily for Meg she was wearing a mask so she could just enjoy the moment and nobody was going to notice right? Still she couldn't just stand around and do nothing. "Oh no, it looks like I don't have a weapon either." She said smugly before her hands both ignited with fire dust "Oh wait nevermind."

Thrusting her arms out with open palms she launched the twin balls forward sending them pinballing through the mob, adjusting their trajectory with elegant sweeping motions and leaving a trail of ash and smoke in their wake.

Normally excuberant even in a dangerous spot Lilac seemed to just appear by Sable's side which wasn't really anything new but the mixture of confusion and disappointment on her face certainly was, the hum of her twin hardlight blades joining the chaos of the battle around them as she drew her paired katars.

"Don't worry, I wont let them get our weapons." Henri reassuringly squeaked at her leader, sending a swirling vortex out from the tip of her cane to scatter the Swindlen around her and keep any that thought about getting too close for comfort off balance, trying to keep her focus on the angry monsters in front of her and not think too much about the equally angry throbbing in the back of her head.

"Nick where do we hit these things?" Val watched everything go to hell very quickly but his team had weathered it well, Tori was still armed and standing and Nick could contribute just as well to a fight even without half his weapon, that just meant they had to get Marine back in the fight and he trusted her to power through any weird grimm voodoo he could think off. Which just meant making sure she had a weapon to come home to and he dived after the shotgun/chainsaw, slashing out with his hooked swords even as the Swindlen threw the other weapon around each other, their chittering laughter sounding almost taunting as they kept it just out of his reach.

Swindlen Mob #1
Move Move into Close with Marine
Standard Attack Marine with Glowing Eyes, DC20 Will Save vs Impaired&Entranced/Disabled&Stunned
Marine Will vs Impaired&Entranced/Disabled&Stunned (DC20): 1D20+8 = [4]+8 = 12 Disabled&Stunned

Swindlen Mob #2
Move Move into Close with Tori
Standard Attack Tori with Glowing Eyes, DC20 Will Save vs Impaired&Entranced/Disabled&Stunned
Tori Will vs Impaired&Entranced/Disabled&Stunned (DC20): 1D20+8 = [8]+8 = 16 Impaired&Entranced

Swindlen Mob #3
Move Move into Close with Marine
Standard Attack Marine with Pilfer: 1D20+10 = [10]+10 = 20 DC25 Toughness vs Damage & DC20 Defence/Strength vs Disarm if that hits Hits
Marine Toughness vs DC25: 1D20+12 = [3]+12 = 15Dazed&Bruised
Marine Strength vs Disarm (DC15): 1D20+7 = [5]+7 = 12Disarmed

Swindlen Mob #4
Move Move into Close with Tori
Standard Attack Tori with Pilfer: 1D20+10 = [8]+10 = 18 DC25 Toughness vs Damage & DC20 Defence/Strength vs Disarm if that hits. This breaks Tori's Entranced either way. Hits
Nick Interpose!
Nick Toughness vs DC25: 1D20+8 = [10]+8 = 18Dazed&Bruised
Nick Defence vs Disarm (DC20): 1D20+8 = [7]+8 = 15Disarmed

Tori Frankincence
Delaying until after Nick

Megara Aegean
Move N/A
Standard Attack Swindlen Mobs 1-4 with Fire Dust Beam, DC23 Toughness Save vs Damage with Secondary Effect
Swindlen Mob #1 Toughness vs DC23: 1D20+8 = [20]+8 = 28Resists
Swindlen Mob #2 Toughness vs DC23: 1D20+8 = [7]+8 = 15Dazed&Bruised
Swindlen Mob #3 Toughness vs DC23: 1D20+8 = [9]+8 = 17Dazed&Bruised
Swindlen Mob #4 Toughness vs DC23: 1D20+8 = [16]+8 = 24Resists

Lilac Langley
MoveTeleport in to Close with Swindlen Mob #3
StandardAttack Swindlen Mobs 3 & 4 with Combat Time Stop #2, DC18 Strength/Defence or be Disarmed
Swindlen Mob #3 Defence vs Disarm (DC18): 1D20+12 = [11]+12 = 23Resists
Swindlen Mob #4 Defence vs Disarm (DC18): 1D20+12 = [15]+12 = 27Resists

Henrietta Bronze
MoveN/A
Standard Attack Swindlen Mob #2 with Dust Barrier: 1D20+8 = [4]+8 = 12 DC23 Toughness vs Damage if that hits. Sable is Deflected at 1d20+??? Miss

Val Helsing
Move Move into Close with Swindlen Mob #3
Standard Attack Swindlen Mob #3 with Sword Flurry: 1D20+8 = [5]+8 = 13 DC23+Multiattack Toughness vs Damage & DC18+Multiattack Defence/Strength vs Disarm if that hits Miss

Initiative
Swidlen
Tori
Meg
Lilac
Henri
Val
Sable
Marine
Nick

Status
Sable: Deflected (1d20+???)
Meg: Fine
Henri: Fine
Lilac: Fine

Val: Fine
Nick: Dazed/Disarmed/Bruised x1
Tori: Fine
Marine:Disabled&Stunned (DC15)/Disarmed/Bruised x1

Swindlen Mob #1: [DC23SE]
Swindlen Mob #2: [DC23SE]/Dazed/Bruised x1
Swindlen Mob #3: [DC23SE]/Holding Slayer/Dazed/Bruised x1
Swindlen Mob #4: [DC23SE]/Holding Lazarus
 
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