The Four Stooges
[X] Punching at the solid stone wall that suddenly appeared at their backs wasn't making any sort of dent at all; despite Hector's strength, all this effort amounted to was getting his knuckles all bloody. He hissed, half annoyed and half hurting, then turned back to Verity, Tayron, and Akame, shaking his head. You see, this wall used to be a path; Verity and himself were out and about, looking for more clues to their missing leaders when they had suddenly spotted a brown yeti tokota bolting off into the horizon. They'd been warned about this wild tokota, and had subsequently given chase- the two of them weren't very bright in that whole 'trap and tame' thing that they were supposed to do when they saw one, they just... went for it, bringing along a tokota each. Unsurprisingly, they got lost; getting lost lead to an impromptu adventure, which lead to finding ruins and subsequent tokota tracks leading into the ruins. Connect the dots and you get Hector and Verity climbing through winding caves in search of that brown yeti. Things were going smoothly- they were having fun just chatting and looking at all the old crud... until the paths behind them just seemed to vanish. Not in a 'we've lost our way' sense, more so in a 'the path behind us literally turned into a rock wall and now we can't find our way out' type of sense.
"I can't hear the outside either!" Hector exclaimed after a prolonged moment of resting his ear against the 'exit'. Gently, he reached down and pet Akame, who nudged his injured hand back with a look of worry for her handler. A skitter of noise caught his attention for a second, but then he quickly ignored it and walked back on over to Verity.
"So... where do we go from here anyways? D'ya think there's another way outta here or something?" He asked as he took a roll of fabric out of his back pocket and began wrapping his bloody knuckles.
[O] It was no secret that Verity disliked being out in the wild - it's why she normally asked others to take her tokotas out when it wasn't show-themed. So, needless to say, now that the cat-like woman was out here, she was less than pleased. Her perfectly glossed lip was curled, showing a sharp fang that normally only showed when she laughed. Taryon beside her seemed fine hiding behind her; she'd only ended up with the tokota following her since Nym had assured her that he knew what he was doing. Some good this cowardly tokota was doing! At least Akame seemed to have some grit to her. Crossing her arms, long tail lashing, Verity sniffed.
"I bet this was that weird person's fault. You know the one, the stick-like one that always keeps to themself?" She snipped, flicking dirt out from underneath one of her claws. Verity wasn't upset with Hector, more that this had happened. Now she was going to get her dress all dirtied and she would end up needing to hem it back up, no doubt. Taryon whined softly, nosing her own had and she merely pat his head before turning to look again at Hector. Oh, the poor dear had hurt his hand punching the wall. Whatever was he thinking? Pursing her lips, she sauntered over, touching one of his large arms as best she could with her small stature in a comforting manner.
"Hm... I suppose we could check for other paths or some sort of deal. Or, we could climb or something... But my little legs couldn't bare the strain." She was the one whining this time, stretching one of her feline-esque legs for emphasis. "But let's not punch anything else, okay sweetie? It'd be terrible to catch an infection out... Wherever the hell we are."
[X] Again, Hector looked around the area; really, there was only one way to go from here- wind coming from multiple directions cued that there were more branching paths up ahead. There was a long way up if you looked up from the wall he punched, but... no, they hadn't fallen; it surely would have left bruises, even on him. Turning away from looking at the path above them, Hector watched Akame walk up to Taryon inquisitively. She wasn't even interacting with the other tokota, but maybe her natural stare could be taken as intimidating. Maybe she was concerned because Taryon seemed so scared; alas, Hector didn't speak tokota, so he would never know.
"You mean Andy? I think they were... uh... well, earlier I saw them with Cecil, somewhere near the tribe before we left! They looked like they were arguing over something again, but if they were there then how could they be here? Unless Andy can run really fast like me... does that mean they eat their brussel sprouts?" Hector shrugged. Ah, to be a dense man that can't easily read the tone of others. "But, uh, Miss Verity, if your legs hurt, or if you sprained an ankle or something, I could-"
Hector cut himself off as he heard another scuffle that caught his attention. That wild brown yeti tokota from earlier! It looked at the group, made a curt little whine, and then bolted off in a direction. Panicking, Hector immediately threw Verity over his shoulder and whistled for Akame to follow as he started to chase after the wild. She obliged, but not before pushing Taryon to see if she couldn't prompt him to run fast too. It was easy to follow the brown yeti for a little while... until the caves started getting narrower, and Hector was forced to squat, limiting his mobility. In a narrow opening that branched out to several paths, Hector carefully set Verity down again with a bashful 'sorry'; hopefully he didn't bang her around too hard.
"We lost it... uh, which path, I guess?" He said, bringing Akame to his front.
[O] Taryon's eyes met Akame's for only a moment before he went back to hanging beside Verity. There was something unnerving about Akame, and he wasn't about to figure out what it was. Verity gave the long-mane a pointed look, but didn't say a thing to him. His cowardice would have to be talked about with Nym later, if at all. It technically wasn't her problem, if you asked her. And to think she was told Taryon would be good help! And now they were out here, lost as hell and that wild tokota nowhere to be seen.
Her small nose scrunched up as he spoke of Andy. They were something entirely... Unsavory. They didn't even spare her a complimentary glance! She opened her mouth to reply to him, to tell him to 'yes please carry me away!' but was cut off by the exact same noise that he was. Her ears perked, pupils growing wide for a second. Oh, that reserved seal was something of a dream, and she felt longing in her heart for a moment before being swept off of her paws with an undignified squeak.
Her vision was jostled quite a bit - as was expected from being handled like a sack of potatoes by the largest man she'd ever seen. It took her a lot of strength to hold her glasses onto her face, both trying not to get sick on the back of her companion and to keep watch of the tokotas behind them. At least Taryon was smart enough not to get caught up by Akame. They were keeping good pace. When she was finally set down, it took her a few seconds to readjust to a world not bouncing around everywhere. Verity took a few moments to flatten down her formerly prim and proper hair.
"'s alright, dear," She said gently, giving him a curt glance from the corner of her eye. Verity used Taryon to steady herself better, who seemed more than alright with the physical contact. "... I imagine taking any path will lead to a dead end or some sort of trick. This all is some kind of trick, magic, probably? ... Don't see much of that." The neko hummed softly to herself, tapping a clawed finger to her chin. "Maybe straight? Nothing ever went wrong with going straight, right? That way we don't end up going in circles until we bite the dust."
[X] As Akame started to sniff around each of the openings, Hector sat criss-cross-applesauce so that he could think better. Magic? You mean... like a parlor trick? At least that's how his butler, Cecil, always explained it; there was always a cause and whatnot. Akame lifted her head momentarily, looking over at Taryon... was she proud of him for keeping pace? Her face still looked as stoic as ever, so Hector could only guess.
"Well... you're right, yeah. Lemme go first to check; if the caves get any narrower than this, I'm gonna have a hell of a time trying to get through, you see, so..." Hector made a disgruntled noise with a wavy hand motion- that was just how it was, being tall like him. deciding that duck-walking made him look funny, he opted instead for crawling on his hands and knees forwards into the passage. Akame sat by, watching him with Verity and Taryon. Soon enough... Hector came back, crawling much faster than he was originally going.
"Don't much like that path!" He said, alarmed as he pushed the group to the side just in time for a nicely sized boulder to roll right on through... and subsequently slam and crumble, blocking the way that they came from. Just peachy!
"I don't think that's gonna work... oh but hey, what if that yeti tokota actually knew the way out? That'd be funny, huh." Hector laughed dumbly to himself before looking at Akame, then Verity, then Taryon in that order. Well... maybe that tokota DID know the way out. The problem was finding it again.
"Oh hey wait! Miss Verity, you have cat features. Can you like. Smell our way out??? Or wait do dogs do that- wait maybe Akame and Taryon can!!! But then we'd need like... a source??? I don't know what I'm doing..." Again, Hector sat with crossed legs, puffing his cheeks out and thinking twice before he punched a rock after using his brain for too long.
[O] Continuing to use Taryon as some kind of leaning post, Verity attempted to think of something, anything, that might help them through this. She was far too pretty to die here, and she was close to getting successful - at least, she HOPED she was. How embaressing would it be, dying somewhere silly like this and not fulfilling the purpose of going out here in the first place. Taryon eyed Akame warily, and decided instead to focus on the paths in front of them.
Her hand hadn't moved from her face, though a brow arched as she watched Hector move away. It was... A nice sight, but this was a thought that of course she'd keep to herself. That didn't stop the catty smile from erupting on her face, of course. She let out a small noise when he came back around, then watched the boulder come crashing through the area. She couldn't hear anything above the beating of her heart, and she didn't realize she'd started to clutch at Hector's arm - the one that had saved her and Nym's tokota.
"H-ha, yea. Funny. Real big old chuckle." Verity quipped, carefully untangling her claws from his sleeve and dusting herself off once again. "I am going to be very cross if we're going on a wild goose chase. God forbid if the tokota is just a trick for this whole maze thing. Whatever. Whatever! I'll figure it out. Fuck this Indiana Jones bullshit." She waved her manicured hands dismissively, squishing herself past Hector and Akame, arms crossed and tail roiling about like a venomous snake ready to strike.
"I may be cat-like but the only real features are... What you see, really." She wasn't about to go into details with him about it. None of his business if she could see really well or her pupils got big when she saw something she liked. No, that was really none of his concern. "I... Honestly, I don't really know how dogs work. And besides that if I did, I'm-"
He punched a rock again. Verity spun around, giving him one of her looks. "Hector, dear, if you keep doing that you won't have a hand left to punch with. What if something comes and tries to hurt us! I can't very well fight my way out of here. I'd die first, no doubt about it." No, if something had to be done, she was going to do it. Rolling up sleeves that didn't exist, the woman stomped her tiny paws on the ground and sauntered her ass to the path furthest on the left. It didn't seem too bad at first, but she couldn't stop the whine that came out of her lips once she felt something touch her back. Swiping it away, it was... A spider. A very large one.
It didn’t seem to be interested in her, just happened to catch her body, but… She was still very disgusted, and she felt herself shiver. From what she could see in this side, it was mostly spiders. She, understandably, despised this but continued to press forward. Verity didn’t get this far just by dicking around. Or, well, yes she had, but not this way.
Back with Hector and Akame, Taryon was very displeased about this whole situation. He hated being in this tunnel, and didn’t really like either of Hector or Akame. But the golden tokota did raise his head when he heard four pawsteps - not the two pawstep stride of Verity - coming from the far right. His ears perked, and he looked back to the other two hesitantly.
[X] Even though Hector had half a thought to grab Verity's tail as she passed by him, he decidedly kept his hands to himself as he watched Verity just crawl about to one of the leftmost exits. Well... he did keep his hands to himself, he thought; yeah, his arm was now extended, having slammed itself into the wall. Thankfully it was his other hand this time, but it didn't make up for the fact that it kinda stung when the pain just sprung itself on him. He hissed again, and as Akame was walking over to lick it, he quickly pulled his wound away.
"I know you're concerned, girl, but Cecil told me to be careful with my injuries... 'coz the blood is nasty, he said. It's so nasty that only me or him or my maman should be touching it, and that means you, girl." With his better hand, Hector gave Akame a pat on the head and just simply bandaged the wound before turning his attention back to Verity. She was going Off! Hey, wasn't it dangerous to just go off on your own like that? Hector had been mostly silent up until that point, just watching Verity with a dumbfounded expression, but quickly got up and began to crawl in Verity's direction... until Akame stopped him.
As Hector was observing Verity, Akame was watching Taryon... do less than interact with the two of them. Was he just scared or something? Despite that though, Taryon had looked in a direction, then made a move to get anyone's attention. At least Akame was upfront about interacting with the other tokota... albeit blunt, being more of a 'standing and looming over Taryon until she understood the situation' type of interaction. Hey, she was nice when she wanted to be. Before Hector could get any farther, Akame had tugged on one of his pant legs in the direction Taryon was looking towards; Hector was about to go off too, but then squinted. Wait... was that- yes it was! The yeti wild, coming back for round two- or at least, to look at them again. It was dark, so it didn't immediately register that Hector was looking at it, but once it did it bolted.
"Taryon found it!" Hector quickly gave Taryon a gentle ruffle behind his ears, then clumsily stumbled over to Verity, grabbing her tail and yanking her back into his arms as he began to move back towards the other tokota. What could he say, he was excited... and never learned how to act around cat ladies. This time, Hector made sure to let the Akame and Taryon go first so that they could effectively tail the yeti; voila, they were keeping right on the wild's heels. Hector didn't even realize where they were until the sunlight blinded him as he ran out into the clearing... and then he promptly tripped on a rock and fumbled Verity into a pile of leaves, just like a football. Touchdown!
"... we did it? I'm so, so sorry!" It only just clicked in Hector's mind how he was treating the little lady, and even though he didn't know how he could make it up to her... so he just dug around in his pocket and handed Verity a pretty ruby ring that he was carrying for some reason... with an awkward smile. "I found that before we got lost. Take it."
Looking around to avoid eye contact, Hector noticed that Akame and Taryon were off having a staring contest with the yeti wild. It still didn't look like it wanted to approach people, but perhaps it was having a nice conversation with the tokotas. In any case, it just ran off once Hector noticed it; it'll come back around one day. Awkwardly turning back around to Verity, he pulled her out of the leaves and dusted her off as the tokotas made their ways back to their handlers. With Akame by his side, he just... stood there with one of those 'please don't be mad at me' smiles.
[O] One of her ears moved towards where she came from, as though that would help her monitor whatever was going on. A round hand touched the wall, trailing down it as she took another tentative step forward. Cobwebbed. Verity recoiled, holding her hand as though it had been burnt. If we live through this, I’m never going to leave my bathroom. She thought, feeling her chest tighten at this idea alone. Alone with spiders, Hector, and two tokotas that weren’t even her darlings. What a miserable death it would be.
Taryon, on the other hand, seemed happy that Hector and Akame had noticed that he’d noticed something. His chest puffed out, and he gave the red tokota a quite cheeky look. His look immediately melted when he heard the yowl from Verity, who had just gotten dragged out of the spider hallway by her tail. Sure, she didn’t mind being in the big strong arms of Hector, but her tail was sensitive and NOT to be tugged on! Taryon, of course, took the noise as a cue to just bolt after the wild yeti.
Verity was lost for words, but if looks could kill, Hector would have died a thousand times over. Not once, but twice today was she manhandled!! She was okay with it sometimes, but if there was one thing that she hated it was painful surprises. Verity was unable to really see, but just as soon as she was scooped up haphazardly, she was tumbling out. It was a deafening few moments as she tried to get her bearings, glasses lopsided and tail bristling. Taryon had stopped running now, as had Akame, and he was hesitantly going towards her. She just gave him a pitiful look, and he nosed one of her ears, as though that would help any. All she wanted to do now was pout and scream and curse and possibly drink.
Her odd eyes snapped up to Hector, pupils pinpricks, but expanding once she saw the jeweled ring that he handed her. Delicately, she took it, looking it over while glancing up at him every few seconds, as though he’d drop her again. It looked to be an expensive ring; why the hell would he just be carrying something like this on him? Rubbing a grimy hand over her nose and sniffling once, she huffed.
“All! All is forgiven,” She said, voice tight. It was clear she was still in pain. God, she’d have bruises for the next CENTURY from how she felt right now. “Just be more careful, please. If you need to grab me, grab around my stomach. Never the tail. Please.” The please was quiet, as though she was embarrassed to say it. Verity looked over to where the tokotas were, who were still staring at the wild tokota. The wild tokota stared right back, though her eyes flickered to Hector and Verity herself before realizing that Hector had been looking at her and racing off. Weird. None of her business. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought the tokota had done all this.
As Hector helped her up, Verity just sighed gently, allowing him to help her. Taryon looked sheepishly at her, but she gave him a tired smile, which seemed to reassure him enough. The long-mane seemed a lot more confident now that they were all out of there, and if she didn’t know better, she’d think he was grinning at Akame, who seemed to be having none of it.
Verity looked up at Hector, lips drawn in a thin line as their eyes met. There were a lot of thoughts on her mind, but mostly how much pain she was in. She was small! At least he was looking all guilty like he was. “You’re alright, big man. Just… Gotta be a little more gentle with your dear friend Verity, yes?” She finally gave him a faint smile, patting him on the forearm awkwardly before stiffly moving back to Taryon and getting onto his back. He seemed alright with it, and she leaned forward on him until she was practically laying down on the tokota. That would be alright.
“Time to go home, then. Wait ‘till the others hear about this; they’re going to hardly believe it!” She laughed airily, gaze growing distant as the four of them started moving again - hopefully towards home. “At least we can get home. Together.”