Post by Bastion on May 25, 2014 16:10:45 GMT
Sebastian Ashcroft the fifth, heir to the Lordship of Ashcroft Manor and up and coming high class business socialite. A handsome man, an intelligent man, a man to be respected and a man to watch for many believed he would bring focus back to the English nobility in the modern world. Reserved yet not proud, imposing but not cruel, what a man he was...
Bastion blew a strand of her overly long hair out of her face, in hind sight it was not really that long but considering that irl she....he had had a short mob of dark brown hair, this was not something she was learning to enjoy. Still time goes on, not that she had a choice on that. You tread on the path figurative or otherwise and you have to keep moving. If she wanted her old body back (and gender) she would need to level up. Before the rest she had been a powerful character, but dwelling on the past now was just annoying, she had no way to get that back right now and the Voral would wait.
She glanced down from her selected tree, no boars yet...well no new boars. She had tried her luck against one of the larger boars and it had been going well, though not great for early grinding. She had been about to finish it off when some of the younger boars came out and as she then learnt, post Apocalypse boars liked to hunt in packs. She had been in this tree for the last hour or so and the sun was starting to sink bellow the horizon, was she really going to spend another night out here?
She reached up and pulled off one of the larger leaves from a tree branch, she was almost out of actual food and was starting to worry about what she was going to eat.
"Scan," she muttered, activating her basic Apothecary skill to check over the leaf. Item: Oak leaf (large), Toxicity: +1, Nutrition: Unknown, Known Crafting Applications: Unknown. Same as last time with these things, a new item that had not been part of Elder Tales had no information or description information. It opened up an interesting field of possibilities but she was still not sure how she was going to test any of this. She stuffed the leaf into the side of her red stained leathers where it would be kept in place by her left breast, that least they were good for one thing. If she wanted something basic to eat she would need to forage for mushrooms, she would need scan each one but it was all experience of one kind or another.
There was a snap somewhere bellow and to the right, she shifted her position to get a better look. She did not see it at first but after a few moments a small boar stepped out of the brush. She squinted at it and after a moment it came in range of her hub display; Young Pittered Boar, Level 2. a young one yes but it was alone and it was small enough for her to have a good go around for her. She gripped the handle of her rapier, she hated the stabbing weapon but compared to the dagger it would have the best strike damage. The boar was getting closer, aiming ironically for a few mushrooms at the base of her tree, at least she knew those ones were edible now. She drew the rapier slowly as it gradually made its way over to the mushrooms that were its prize. She pushed herself up a little, holding the weapon up in one hand with her eyes fixed on the boars position.
One more step, one more. The boar sniffed the ground, shifting from left to right then moved greedily forward. No shouting, no show boating, she slipped sideways from her position and fell down on the young boar. The rapier was a stabbing weapon by nature, she put that to good use. The point pieced the back of the boars side a moment before her feet landed on the ground. While the damaged was great to boar, striking off fifty percent of the boars health and pinning it in place, it was not enough to kill the creature. It thrashed at her, causing more damage to itself and a shaving off a few of her hit points in the process. She had to finish this quickly, she drew her dagger, its curved edge better for the slashing she had in mind. Using the high agility of her class she struck at the boars flank once, twice, thrice and then one one last time. The boar shaved off the last of its HP, it gave one last effort to escape and caused the rapier to shift in it. The boar exploded in yellow bubbles, leaving her a little boar meat and the XP that came with it.
She reached down and picked up the raw meat that had been dropped, she sighed dropping it into her bag. She had no way to cook it as was, she would have to work with the mushrooms, provided they were actually edible. She was reaching down and pick some of the gladly non boar molested mushrooms when she heard another noise. She did not turn, to much movement could aggro some of the mobs here and those mobs tended to be in the higher level brackets. She glanced over her shoulder; Young Pittered Boar, Level 4. It was bigger than the last one, still a juvenile and therefore would not aggro on her, the perfect grinding mob for her at this point.
It looked at her for a second then went about its business, sniffing around in what looked like a search for truffles. She backed around it, watching its pattern across the clearing. It had not spotted the mushrooms yet, she guessed that was a condition that would cause it to break its pattern. The pattern it self was, now that it had sensed an Adventurer it was moving around in a seemingly random fashion. In reality it was making a figure eight on the ground, reversing on itself repeatedly in an effort to seem more alive. It was twice the level of the last one so this would take a few more tactics, she was no tank and she still lacked any useful skills at this moment. This would be a game of tactic and luckily the last boar had left her with a good idea, one involving an oak tree with slightly toxic leaves and apparently delightful mushrooms at the base.
The boar seemed to be shifting its position in relation to her to she placed herself opposite her tree, with the young boar in the middle. She encroached slowly, making the boar casually move its pattern of movement further towards the tree and the oh so delightful mushrooms. When it was close enough the boar suddenly stopped, behavioral patterns clicking into place as it "smelled" he mushrooms. It sniffed its way over the base of the tree, its large and meaty behind in her face. As soon as its had its nose in what would have been Bastion's dinner, she struck. She jabbed at its behind with her rapier to initiate combat. The boar aggroed at once but as it began to move to strike Bastion struck first, a swift kick in the behind would do next to nothing in HP damage but it did set it head first into the tree in its confusion. The best method for killing these mobs, confuse their preset mechanics.
The boar would know to expect a knockback effect and would respond to it as was preset, it would not know what to do with itself after being kicked into a tree. Non standard combat technique, no inbuilt recoil, it would recover but it would give her the time she needed to hack him down. She struck again and again with her rapier, stabbing into the tender flesh of its behind. Its HP began to go down but it was too slow for her liking and the boar was recovering. She back tracked keeping her rapier at the ready, the boar was turning slowly to face her. It had a slower turning circle than previous ones she has faced, it seemed that mass was effecting mobs the same way it was now effecting them. That was something keep in mind but for now she had a boar to deal with.
The boar charged her, it lacked the tusks of the adults but it was still large enough to cause her some damage. She wait till it had achieved full charge before moving in a large sweeping circle around its position, it could not turn like he could and that would be its undoing. Just as its passed she lunged to attack, she lead with a powerful rapier stab to the boars leg causing it to stumble onto its stomach. She followed up with two quick slashes with with the dagger and while jumping over the boars body a sharp jab to the boars face. She backed away again, her eyes remaining on the boar as it quickly got to its feet.
It did not charge again, instead followed her with its eyes, turning on the stop to keep her in sight. She dare not approach when it was in a defensive stance, he still had the edge on speed but any attack from this thing would cut through her HP like butter. She turned into a dueling pose, her body side face with the rapier in the lead. She was not fond of the weapon in general but she could still use it the way his grandfather had taught her to. She made to repeatedly jab at the boa from the maximum distance her size would allow, only half actually made contact but each one would server to refresh its offensive stance against her, making it more likely it would charge again. The boar stood its ground for a time, thrashing around with the scripted rage these creatures showed, it became easy to predict the creatures movements and land more strikes on the creature driving its health down to close to a quarter.
It seemed however that that the boar had taken all it was willing to take, with speed that surprised Bastion. She was forced to dive out of the way and in the process was caught on the arm sending her into a spin across the ground. She checked her stats, 25% of her HP gone in one attack. She had been right to keep her distance then though she had grown too cocky in her speed advantage. She pushed herself to her feet, keeping her gaze on the boar as it turned to make another attack on her. She remembered a line from one of Steven King's books "real fights usually only lasted thirty seconds, thirty seconds that feel like hours", at least that was what she thought it was, the message was there at least. Split second decisions that decided whether you live or die, what she did next would decide her fight with the boar. She had no more tricks to play, no more strategies saved up for this fight, now it was skill and strength that chart her course and the boar was the stronger of them.
She could use Discard, but the use of that technique was usually best with a group and she did not want to become reliant on it. That said the light was still fading and she was growing tired, she needed to end this and go and rest. Wanting to get this over and done with she took the initiative, she ran around the boar in a close circular movement. This would prevent the boar from charging and till she presented it with a chance. She dived into close range slashing with the dagger in her left hand dealing a small amount of damage, as the boar moved to retaliate she jumped back lashing out with her rapier as she did so catching the boar in the snout. Slash and stab, a basic but effective tactic to eat at the boars much larger HP. She repeated the tactic again a moment later, catching it in the side and in one of its red eyes. In the process however she herself was caught across her left wrist sending a spasm of pain up her arm almost causing her to drop her dagger. She had to finish this now before her health fell below the 50% mark.
She retreated further back, away from the boar and from the oak tree too give her room and to invite the boar to attack her. She was not disappointed, once the boars simple AI registered that she had stopped moving it immediately went on the offensive. It built up a heavy charge straight for her, it was now or never.
As soon as it was in striking distance she made the command “Discard” activating the technique. The process of the technique mostly took over at this point, guiding her body into the correct positions to execute it. But she was always sure to keep some level of control on her movements, it allowed her to push the technique further than normal and to learn how to perform the movements without the technique, an odd hope but also an interesting method of training.
Summersaulting over the boar just before its snout collided with her body, she landed behind catching it in the side with the blunt edge of her rapier and forcing to sin out of control. Now was her chance, the creature was confused and exposed. She advanced at once lashing out with her rapier, forcing the point into its hide repeatedly. As the boar began to aggro on her again she twisted on the spot slashing at the beast’s side with her dagger in long hard cuts. This brought the boar down to less than 10% health but unfortunately now within striking distance.
She backed off a few steps, not wanting to give the beast the room to work up a charge at this point. The boar tried anyway, attempting to the shove her to the ground. In a rather ironic twist she attempted to stab the animal at almost the same moment. The rip of her rapier went straight into the boar’s right nostril, digging in so deep that the rapier was now stuck in the boar.
The boar was done for, it had maybe 1% HP left and that was dropping quickly with the rapier still lodged in its body. Wanting to end this at last she raised the dagger in her other hand and brought it down into the boars back once…then twice. On the second strike the beast exploded into nothingness and loot like the last one, this one leaving him boar leather which was about as useful to Bastion as the meat was.
She sheathed her weapons, letting out a breath she had not realised she had been keeping in. Was that the tension you feel in your chest in the middle of a fight, a breath you cannot get out unless it was in relief? She did not know and it was too late to be thinking about this.
Her cave was not far away, well the old mages cave she had frequented before the Apocalypse. It had been a funny little Easter Egg in one of the least interesting parts of the Great Wood. The home of a weird old Lander mage that only ever had one line of dialog, it would have been a pointless place to go unless you went to the back part of the cave, where there was a bed that you did not have to pay too use.
It was Bastion’s Cave now she guessed, the old Lander mage had been gone when she had gone looking for it and despite looking she had found no trace of the old man. The poor fool had probably become sentient with the others and gone exploring, an old man in the Great Wood would have had a hard time of it. She hoped he was alive, somewhere maybe in a Lander village out in the country or up north. Maybe he had found friends or had gone looking for that thing he was always talking about.
“Welcome to my cave young traveller, please excuse me as my research is of the greatest importance. The lake is in the north you see, the kings and lords are looking in the wrong places.”
She remembered being excited about that line, convinced she had found the origin of a future raid or grand quest. No such luck, the old Lander was gone and had left all his books behind. If she ever got her own place back in the city she would have to move it all there, she would not have so bandit burn all of this. So much potential lore to be found or even a clue to find her Voral, vain hope maybe but if there was a chance…
She walked for almost an hour, the sun slowly sinking behind the trees first becoming a sea of in prick lights dancing around her small form before fading all together and leaving her in a twilight darkness.
The cave was set in a reassess on a small rocky rise, marked only by the dead tree that grew not that far away. If you knew it was there it stuck out like a sore thumb on the rock face but if you had no idea you could miss it even if you stood over it. She had only found it before because she fell into when she first found the rock.
She climbed the steep grey and yellow rock face, following a ridge on its side that lead up to near where the cave was. She had to roll herself into the cave, not because it was small but because the lip of the cave was more difficult to get into when you could not just walk up the side.
It was good to be back here, among the dark wooden shelves stuffed with notes and books. The cheery wood writing desk with the one broken leg, propped up by two stacked books with mouldy covers.
She weaved around the stacks of books on the floor, remembering the pattern without looking. She made her way to the back of the room where the largest of the book shelves seemed to end the room, save for a small gap on its right side. The opening lead to the hidden bed, Bastion’s old sanctuary in days when she was still a he looking at a HD screen in Ashcroft manor.
She sat down, removing her equipment from her belt as she did so. She pulled off her red stained armour, armour that hid her form from prying eyes and from her own. For once she was done she sat there in only her under shirt and underwear, night cloths yes but so feminine it made her feel not like herself. She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the bulge of her breast under the fabric. This made her remember the leaf she had picked up for no reason.
Reaching over to her armour on the floor and retrieved the leave that had fallen on the floor next to her. She lay back, looking at the leaf in the faint light. Just an oak leaf, like any she had found in Ashcroft forest as a child.
“Toxicity +1,” she repeated to herself, laughing to herself at the absurdity on it all. She would look into this in the morning, but now…now was the time to sleep. She let the leaf float down the ground and rolled onto her side, she let randomised sounds of the forest take her away, muted as they were by the cave. She drifted off, her mind lingering on the feeling in her chest. The captured breath of battle or the phantom oddity of her forced change of gender.
Bastion blew a strand of her overly long hair out of her face, in hind sight it was not really that long but considering that irl she....he had had a short mob of dark brown hair, this was not something she was learning to enjoy. Still time goes on, not that she had a choice on that. You tread on the path figurative or otherwise and you have to keep moving. If she wanted her old body back (and gender) she would need to level up. Before the rest she had been a powerful character, but dwelling on the past now was just annoying, she had no way to get that back right now and the Voral would wait.
She glanced down from her selected tree, no boars yet...well no new boars. She had tried her luck against one of the larger boars and it had been going well, though not great for early grinding. She had been about to finish it off when some of the younger boars came out and as she then learnt, post Apocalypse boars liked to hunt in packs. She had been in this tree for the last hour or so and the sun was starting to sink bellow the horizon, was she really going to spend another night out here?
She reached up and pulled off one of the larger leaves from a tree branch, she was almost out of actual food and was starting to worry about what she was going to eat.
"Scan," she muttered, activating her basic Apothecary skill to check over the leaf. Item: Oak leaf (large), Toxicity: +1, Nutrition: Unknown, Known Crafting Applications: Unknown. Same as last time with these things, a new item that had not been part of Elder Tales had no information or description information. It opened up an interesting field of possibilities but she was still not sure how she was going to test any of this. She stuffed the leaf into the side of her red stained leathers where it would be kept in place by her left breast, that least they were good for one thing. If she wanted something basic to eat she would need to forage for mushrooms, she would need scan each one but it was all experience of one kind or another.
There was a snap somewhere bellow and to the right, she shifted her position to get a better look. She did not see it at first but after a few moments a small boar stepped out of the brush. She squinted at it and after a moment it came in range of her hub display; Young Pittered Boar, Level 2. a young one yes but it was alone and it was small enough for her to have a good go around for her. She gripped the handle of her rapier, she hated the stabbing weapon but compared to the dagger it would have the best strike damage. The boar was getting closer, aiming ironically for a few mushrooms at the base of her tree, at least she knew those ones were edible now. She drew the rapier slowly as it gradually made its way over to the mushrooms that were its prize. She pushed herself up a little, holding the weapon up in one hand with her eyes fixed on the boars position.
One more step, one more. The boar sniffed the ground, shifting from left to right then moved greedily forward. No shouting, no show boating, she slipped sideways from her position and fell down on the young boar. The rapier was a stabbing weapon by nature, she put that to good use. The point pieced the back of the boars side a moment before her feet landed on the ground. While the damaged was great to boar, striking off fifty percent of the boars health and pinning it in place, it was not enough to kill the creature. It thrashed at her, causing more damage to itself and a shaving off a few of her hit points in the process. She had to finish this quickly, she drew her dagger, its curved edge better for the slashing she had in mind. Using the high agility of her class she struck at the boars flank once, twice, thrice and then one one last time. The boar shaved off the last of its HP, it gave one last effort to escape and caused the rapier to shift in it. The boar exploded in yellow bubbles, leaving her a little boar meat and the XP that came with it.
She reached down and picked up the raw meat that had been dropped, she sighed dropping it into her bag. She had no way to cook it as was, she would have to work with the mushrooms, provided they were actually edible. She was reaching down and pick some of the gladly non boar molested mushrooms when she heard another noise. She did not turn, to much movement could aggro some of the mobs here and those mobs tended to be in the higher level brackets. She glanced over her shoulder; Young Pittered Boar, Level 4. It was bigger than the last one, still a juvenile and therefore would not aggro on her, the perfect grinding mob for her at this point.
It looked at her for a second then went about its business, sniffing around in what looked like a search for truffles. She backed around it, watching its pattern across the clearing. It had not spotted the mushrooms yet, she guessed that was a condition that would cause it to break its pattern. The pattern it self was, now that it had sensed an Adventurer it was moving around in a seemingly random fashion. In reality it was making a figure eight on the ground, reversing on itself repeatedly in an effort to seem more alive. It was twice the level of the last one so this would take a few more tactics, she was no tank and she still lacked any useful skills at this moment. This would be a game of tactic and luckily the last boar had left her with a good idea, one involving an oak tree with slightly toxic leaves and apparently delightful mushrooms at the base.
The boar seemed to be shifting its position in relation to her to she placed herself opposite her tree, with the young boar in the middle. She encroached slowly, making the boar casually move its pattern of movement further towards the tree and the oh so delightful mushrooms. When it was close enough the boar suddenly stopped, behavioral patterns clicking into place as it "smelled" he mushrooms. It sniffed its way over the base of the tree, its large and meaty behind in her face. As soon as its had its nose in what would have been Bastion's dinner, she struck. She jabbed at its behind with her rapier to initiate combat. The boar aggroed at once but as it began to move to strike Bastion struck first, a swift kick in the behind would do next to nothing in HP damage but it did set it head first into the tree in its confusion. The best method for killing these mobs, confuse their preset mechanics.
The boar would know to expect a knockback effect and would respond to it as was preset, it would not know what to do with itself after being kicked into a tree. Non standard combat technique, no inbuilt recoil, it would recover but it would give her the time she needed to hack him down. She struck again and again with her rapier, stabbing into the tender flesh of its behind. Its HP began to go down but it was too slow for her liking and the boar was recovering. She back tracked keeping her rapier at the ready, the boar was turning slowly to face her. It had a slower turning circle than previous ones she has faced, it seemed that mass was effecting mobs the same way it was now effecting them. That was something keep in mind but for now she had a boar to deal with.
The boar charged her, it lacked the tusks of the adults but it was still large enough to cause her some damage. She wait till it had achieved full charge before moving in a large sweeping circle around its position, it could not turn like he could and that would be its undoing. Just as its passed she lunged to attack, she lead with a powerful rapier stab to the boars leg causing it to stumble onto its stomach. She followed up with two quick slashes with with the dagger and while jumping over the boars body a sharp jab to the boars face. She backed away again, her eyes remaining on the boar as it quickly got to its feet.
It did not charge again, instead followed her with its eyes, turning on the stop to keep her in sight. She dare not approach when it was in a defensive stance, he still had the edge on speed but any attack from this thing would cut through her HP like butter. She turned into a dueling pose, her body side face with the rapier in the lead. She was not fond of the weapon in general but she could still use it the way his grandfather had taught her to. She made to repeatedly jab at the boa from the maximum distance her size would allow, only half actually made contact but each one would server to refresh its offensive stance against her, making it more likely it would charge again. The boar stood its ground for a time, thrashing around with the scripted rage these creatures showed, it became easy to predict the creatures movements and land more strikes on the creature driving its health down to close to a quarter.
It seemed however that that the boar had taken all it was willing to take, with speed that surprised Bastion. She was forced to dive out of the way and in the process was caught on the arm sending her into a spin across the ground. She checked her stats, 25% of her HP gone in one attack. She had been right to keep her distance then though she had grown too cocky in her speed advantage. She pushed herself to her feet, keeping her gaze on the boar as it turned to make another attack on her. She remembered a line from one of Steven King's books "real fights usually only lasted thirty seconds, thirty seconds that feel like hours", at least that was what she thought it was, the message was there at least. Split second decisions that decided whether you live or die, what she did next would decide her fight with the boar. She had no more tricks to play, no more strategies saved up for this fight, now it was skill and strength that chart her course and the boar was the stronger of them.
She could use Discard, but the use of that technique was usually best with a group and she did not want to become reliant on it. That said the light was still fading and she was growing tired, she needed to end this and go and rest. Wanting to get this over and done with she took the initiative, she ran around the boar in a close circular movement. This would prevent the boar from charging and till she presented it with a chance. She dived into close range slashing with the dagger in her left hand dealing a small amount of damage, as the boar moved to retaliate she jumped back lashing out with her rapier as she did so catching the boar in the snout. Slash and stab, a basic but effective tactic to eat at the boars much larger HP. She repeated the tactic again a moment later, catching it in the side and in one of its red eyes. In the process however she herself was caught across her left wrist sending a spasm of pain up her arm almost causing her to drop her dagger. She had to finish this now before her health fell below the 50% mark.
She retreated further back, away from the boar and from the oak tree too give her room and to invite the boar to attack her. She was not disappointed, once the boars simple AI registered that she had stopped moving it immediately went on the offensive. It built up a heavy charge straight for her, it was now or never.
As soon as it was in striking distance she made the command “Discard” activating the technique. The process of the technique mostly took over at this point, guiding her body into the correct positions to execute it. But she was always sure to keep some level of control on her movements, it allowed her to push the technique further than normal and to learn how to perform the movements without the technique, an odd hope but also an interesting method of training.
Summersaulting over the boar just before its snout collided with her body, she landed behind catching it in the side with the blunt edge of her rapier and forcing to sin out of control. Now was her chance, the creature was confused and exposed. She advanced at once lashing out with her rapier, forcing the point into its hide repeatedly. As the boar began to aggro on her again she twisted on the spot slashing at the beast’s side with her dagger in long hard cuts. This brought the boar down to less than 10% health but unfortunately now within striking distance.
She backed off a few steps, not wanting to give the beast the room to work up a charge at this point. The boar tried anyway, attempting to the shove her to the ground. In a rather ironic twist she attempted to stab the animal at almost the same moment. The rip of her rapier went straight into the boar’s right nostril, digging in so deep that the rapier was now stuck in the boar.
The boar was done for, it had maybe 1% HP left and that was dropping quickly with the rapier still lodged in its body. Wanting to end this at last she raised the dagger in her other hand and brought it down into the boars back once…then twice. On the second strike the beast exploded into nothingness and loot like the last one, this one leaving him boar leather which was about as useful to Bastion as the meat was.
She sheathed her weapons, letting out a breath she had not realised she had been keeping in. Was that the tension you feel in your chest in the middle of a fight, a breath you cannot get out unless it was in relief? She did not know and it was too late to be thinking about this.
Her cave was not far away, well the old mages cave she had frequented before the Apocalypse. It had been a funny little Easter Egg in one of the least interesting parts of the Great Wood. The home of a weird old Lander mage that only ever had one line of dialog, it would have been a pointless place to go unless you went to the back part of the cave, where there was a bed that you did not have to pay too use.
It was Bastion’s Cave now she guessed, the old Lander mage had been gone when she had gone looking for it and despite looking she had found no trace of the old man. The poor fool had probably become sentient with the others and gone exploring, an old man in the Great Wood would have had a hard time of it. She hoped he was alive, somewhere maybe in a Lander village out in the country or up north. Maybe he had found friends or had gone looking for that thing he was always talking about.
“Welcome to my cave young traveller, please excuse me as my research is of the greatest importance. The lake is in the north you see, the kings and lords are looking in the wrong places.”
She remembered being excited about that line, convinced she had found the origin of a future raid or grand quest. No such luck, the old Lander was gone and had left all his books behind. If she ever got her own place back in the city she would have to move it all there, she would not have so bandit burn all of this. So much potential lore to be found or even a clue to find her Voral, vain hope maybe but if there was a chance…
She walked for almost an hour, the sun slowly sinking behind the trees first becoming a sea of in prick lights dancing around her small form before fading all together and leaving her in a twilight darkness.
The cave was set in a reassess on a small rocky rise, marked only by the dead tree that grew not that far away. If you knew it was there it stuck out like a sore thumb on the rock face but if you had no idea you could miss it even if you stood over it. She had only found it before because she fell into when she first found the rock.
She climbed the steep grey and yellow rock face, following a ridge on its side that lead up to near where the cave was. She had to roll herself into the cave, not because it was small but because the lip of the cave was more difficult to get into when you could not just walk up the side.
It was good to be back here, among the dark wooden shelves stuffed with notes and books. The cheery wood writing desk with the one broken leg, propped up by two stacked books with mouldy covers.
She weaved around the stacks of books on the floor, remembering the pattern without looking. She made her way to the back of the room where the largest of the book shelves seemed to end the room, save for a small gap on its right side. The opening lead to the hidden bed, Bastion’s old sanctuary in days when she was still a he looking at a HD screen in Ashcroft manor.
She sat down, removing her equipment from her belt as she did so. She pulled off her red stained armour, armour that hid her form from prying eyes and from her own. For once she was done she sat there in only her under shirt and underwear, night cloths yes but so feminine it made her feel not like herself. She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the bulge of her breast under the fabric. This made her remember the leaf she had picked up for no reason.
Reaching over to her armour on the floor and retrieved the leave that had fallen on the floor next to her. She lay back, looking at the leaf in the faint light. Just an oak leaf, like any she had found in Ashcroft forest as a child.
“Toxicity +1,” she repeated to herself, laughing to herself at the absurdity on it all. She would look into this in the morning, but now…now was the time to sleep. She let the leaf float down the ground and rolled onto her side, she let randomised sounds of the forest take her away, muted as they were by the cave. She drifted off, her mind lingering on the feeling in her chest. The captured breath of battle or the phantom oddity of her forced change of gender.
