INTO THE WOODS ♛ private

They had no reason to interact. A girl with pale pink hair had walked into the store just before the blond man, also purchasing food stuffs to put into a satchel grazing her hip. Her choices leaned a little more sweet than what was usual for survival, but she made sure to also get some granola and pistachios. A canteen of water should be more than enough, though she couldn't say she wasn't craving a frappe. Such a treat wasn't available in such a place as this. She paid for her items, not needing much more than that and the seemingly ill-thought out attire she currently wore. One didn't often plan to tromp the woods on a potential rescue mission in a dainty black dress with thin straps that fell gently against her upper thighs. The only thing about her that seemed truly appropriate were the black boots on her feet; thick soled, high on the calf, and great for aforementioned woods tromping.

After leaving the store, she immediately followed the instructions on her job flyer, making a beeline for the treeline. 7 was aware of the footsteps of the male from the store walking in her footsteps, whether intentional or not. If there was a way to turn off her attention to detail and general suspicions, she'd yet to find it. There were a plethora of reasons that the blond might or might not be following her, and all were rational. She wasn't alarmed just...aware. As she came ever closer to her destination of the guarded wall through which she'd reach the dangerous dark forest, the change he'd be darting off onto another path became less and less. It was only when she reached the gate that she turned to look at the person a few meters behind her. Her crimson hues weren't threatened or threatening, just merely interested in their identical plight thus far. He had a paper like hers in his grasp, had similar supplies, and a weapon. While she wasn't the exceptionally friendly sort, her drive to be useful as well as efficient lead to her spoken words. "Are you also hired to search and rescue the merchants?" 7 wanted to know. This would be the wisest course of action she could predict right now. Should be prove a burden, she could leave him behind.

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“I did,” the dainty-seeming girl replied, briefly glancing between their matching job papers. “Or rather, Dr. Raelin received it and dispatched me,” she corrected stoically, a stickler for details. Who knew when and what information was pertinent? It was best to be as accurate and concise as she could be, since confusion often spelled defeat on the battlefield.

Never one to be competitive over a job unless it called for “winning” to succeed, her crimson eyes focused in on the young man’s before her. 7 might be a bit blank, but she didn’t feel hostile or abrasive in any way. It’d be a stretch to call it friendliness, but her next words could be mistaken as such. “Since we are on the same mission, working together could yield the best results. Are you interested in a team up?” she asked, the need to be useful driving her onward, enough to engage a complete stranger.

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Soft rose petal locks shifted in the breeze as they entered the forest, restrained by loose pigtails. Though she didn’t linger on feelings much, she was vaguely pleased with the agreement. Just as much as Rain was an every man for himself, weaklings deserve to perish sort, 7 was the type to stay and help those who couldn’t help themselves. Not because she felt altruistic, but rather it was a matter of being useful to that person. Someone carries a weapon that can’t adequately protect themselves with just their body. The weaker the person, the more purpose she’d have being at their side. A different perspective, but both reasons were ultimately cold ones.

The two flesh robots, opposites yet the same, might end up being a good pair. Time would tell. But for now, like most she’d worked with, he wanted to know what her name was. What she had was less a name and more a designation. From prior interactions, she decided to modify her own introduction a touch. “I’m designated 7, but if you’d prefer, you can call me Syv,” she told him. 7 was an observant, ever learning girl, and she’d noticed the general populace found her given number to be off-putting. “I’m currently guildless until I aquire purpose. Are you from a guild?” countered the clone, turning to watch him for answer.


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Rude or not, such sentiments had little meaning to the girl. It was a fair piece of information to question. If anything, she was a little surprised he had. He was the first to do so, all others dismissing her concise answer whether the mulled it over or not. Without considering any other way, the slayer would give him the information he sought with little pause about implications. "I don't mind, sir," began Syv, turning her sanguine eyes to the path they followed between the trees. "I don't possess a name in the sense that normal people do. I was created in a lab, the last in a set of seven," answered the blush locked experiment, offering no personal inflection into the answer. Ideally she'd have no emotions surrounding her circumstances, but it'd be a lie to claim such a thing. "Dr. Raelin inscribed each of us with our designations to distinguish us for monitoring purposes so he could insure each of us functioned as intended. I've found that people are unnerved by that, so I've begun to offer my number in different languages to simulate a name. Did it help? Are you more comfortable with Syv?" the clone turned her interest on him, conducting a small experiment of her own in much the same way Dr. Raelin would. She gained knowledge this way, the nuances of the human condition.

7 had a long way to go before she mastered the humanness of humanity. While she was flesh and would bleed real blood when cut, her lack of childhood and sterile "home" environment had resulted in a bookishly well informed yet dry and awkward person. A general lack of interaction with other people aside from taking jobs and completing them promptly meant her demeanor was almost business like. It wasn't appropriate to offer her personal thoughts and feelings into things, just like now she had informed him of her situation, but left out the never spoken facts that she felt inferior to 1 through 6 for flawlessly performing as intended and being sent to accomplish their directives, or that her longing for a real name had lead to her little experiment to begin with. Speaking of names.. "What may I call you, sir?" inquired Syv, finding the information critical to a cooperative endeavor.


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"Very nice to meet you, Rain, sir. I find single syllable words and names most appealing as well," Syv replied with a small smile, perfectly capable of showing simplistic emotions unlike what most assumed about her. She may have been lab created, but she was human. Mostly. Even walking in the woods with a less strangerly stranger was somewhat pleasant, especially under the assumption that she could be helpful to the man. That was her prime directive, after all. Something so simple had proved to be hard to keep going for the long haul of her life. Her thoughts briefly turned to what Dr. Raelin must think of her, the bizarre train making her briefly wonder how close she was to decommissioning when thankfully something odd distracted her.

"You're walking in the woods, there's no one around and your iLac is dead. Out of the corner of your eye you spot him, Lia BaSheouf. He's following you about thirty feet back. He gets down on all fours and breaks into a sprint. He's gaining on you..."

Syv paused mid-step. Though it had been said in a whisper, her slayer hearing picked up the strange narration. Carmine eyes intensely scanned the threes..er...trees that surrounded them. Except the trees really were threes, that wasn't a word slip. That didn't make any sense. Pivoting on her heel, her search for the source of the odd words paid off. There was a humanoid form horror-movie crawling at them in a sprint with a jiggling oversized human head helmet on his shoulders. The ground felt a little unstable under her feet. Syv frowned. "It seems I've fallen asleep, though doing so mid-walk would be a new occurrence for me. Or maybe this person has cast a spell?" Syv inquired, gaining a distant and confused look in her eyes. She didn't handle nonsense well. This was certainly nonsense. Regardless of the situation, her trusty black unicorn horn appeared in her right hand and was promptly pointed at the approaching weirdo. "Is this the monster responsible for the merchants' disappearances, Rain sir?"


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It probably looked pretty epic, two people side-by-side in the thick growth of the forest holding swords up and looking pretty intimidating. But guess who wasn't intimidated? That's right, Lia BaSheouf. He and his big helmet head in all its bloody glory continued to scramble at them on all fours, though once he drew near he did raise to two legs in a confounding hunched shape, as if any moment he'd resume his animalistic method.

"Running for your life from Lia BaSheouf. He's brandishing a knife, it's Lia BaSheouf."

"But we aren't running," Syv felt the need to point out, finding the narrating even more confusing since it was blatantly inaccurate. Could this man not see though the soiled helmet? Despite the strong scent of death and sanguine, 7 seemed unaffected. Sure, the iron stench was unpleasant, but maybe it could be assumed she'd spilled much blood on her own and desensitized. Most of that wasn't untrue, but more accurately the extensive programs Dr. Raelin had run them all through would flush out such reactions. They were a hindrance to their purposes. Nothing was to alarm or deter them, no matter what it was. The smells and images and situations all units were exposed to from the moment they were activated were more than enough to allow 7 to stay calm. But...not as calm as 1 through 6. 7 mentally chided herself for stumbling on the lunacy of it all, which was ultimately what kept her from being purchased. This was the exact type of thing that threw her off, so perhaps she could overcome it now.

Anyway, Lia BaSheouf had apparently risen into the strange running position to pull a knife from somewhere, now dodging sloppily amongst the shadows cast by the leafy tops of trees. The girl's hold on Dimestrus's Horn tightened, readying her sword to strike once she could predict where the crazed man would strike. Unfortunately he barely seemed to think before he moved, making every motion chaotic and unpredictable.

"Lurking in the shadoooows... Earthland Superstar Lia BaSheouf! Living in the woods, Lia BaSheouf. Killing for sport, Lia BaSheouf. Eating all the bodiiiiies... Actual Cannibal Lia BaSheouf!!!"

In an impressive torpedo like body spin, he launched at the pink haired girl. Despite her black sword's size, she parried his small knife, though her heels dug into the soft dirt beneath her. He was quite strong, but she was stronger. Giving a forceful shove, she managed to send him staggering back into the bushes, where he resumed his dodgy dance in the shadows. "He ate the merchants. I didn't expect a cannibal," noted the girl, unfazed by the taboo nature of it. She held out her free hand, metal weeping from her skin and collecting in her palm until a metal rose grew, twisting impossibly into a vague gun shape. Squeezing a leaf, it shot sawblade petals at the man narrating his life in the middle of a forest, hoping to flush him out for Rain to get a shot at.


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