2019-08-25 - Clever Girls

Minerva was out and about today, mainly she was looking for anymore stray puppies and the news of some wilf bird being out might have drawn interest as well, "Maybe it's a cassowary that got away from some circus or something. Who knows." she'd muttered into her phone as she talked to someone as she went along. But then she was hanging up as she needed to do more searching. She's dressed in her usual black clothing, her black hat on her head and there's a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. Or well, it's mainly to protect the good eye. She doesn't bother anyone as she goes along the trail.

Itzhak and Fincheleh have been talking excitedly over text about this mysterious birdy critter roaming around in Firefly Forest. Finch is a bird scientist, and Itzhak, well, he's just a dumbass like that. The two of them have brought Ignacio along, because reasons. Itz has his phone in one hand, hoping he gets a picture of whatever-it-is too, as he breaks trail in front of Figgy and Inch.

Finch has a few of her notebooks with her, a small camera, and writing implements all in a backpack slung over one shoulder. No way was the Ornithology student going to miss out on this. If it's a wild bird busted out of a zoo or someone's private collection, getting to see it without a cage between them would be a real coup for her.

"Just remember, if it's an ostrich or an emu, don't get too close to it. They can knock your block off with a kick," she warns Ignacio and Itzhak. She also has some sunflower seeds in her bag, because most birds like them well enough. Unless it's a raptor of some sort which will prefer meat but, there are no raptors that big, unless people are hugely exaggerating its size.

Lilith is in little athletic shorts, pink and black Nike sneakers, and a tank-top that's white with the word 'SAVAGE' in cursive on it for whatever motivation or kicks. She has decided to run today, and not just run, but run in the forest. She's looking for a certain place that time and memories have sequestered away, exactly, so she's decided to take out aggression, get some exercise, and do some searching all in one go. However, the longer she's out in the forest and the more she runs into people on a particular hunt of sorts, the more word and overhear she gets, which... well, now she's a bit nosy and on a different kind of search now. She's here, she can help out and find a bird from the zoo, sounds like the kind of weird distraction she needs that isn't too weird, right? Right. She's telling herself that, anyway.

She pauses when she's near the sawmill and more people, though, and catches wind of what Finch is warning while catching her breath and wandering up with adjustment of her bound up ponytail of hair, "... an emu bit a cup out of my hand at a wildlife drive through preserve, I take that warning seriously." She smiles a tiny bit after piping in with that tidbit, looks at the others, then around before drawing in a breath and exhaling it a little decisively, "Okay. This is my morning now. I'll help look around."

Ignacio exists in this life to carry Finch's excess baggage. No laughing at that. She bites! She's talking though and he's nodding and taking queues, "So I head "Ignacio yes you can ride the big bird but don't mock it's plumage." He grins knowing he might get swatted at. He calls up, "Oye, Z? You might not want to go runnin up there like ti owes you money. You'll scare it off and Finch won't be able to ask it a billion questions." Trudgetrudgetrudge. He stops asking confused, "I thought a raptor is a teeny tiny t-rex that travels in packs?"

Minerva gives a look down to the ground when she finds a partial track and there's a bit of a moment taken to crouch down and take a picture. But it's the young man that gets her attention. "Are you hurt?" she asks him. Then there's the crack of a rifle and Minerva goes still for a moment. "That's concerning." she states as she starts to head toward the sound of the rifle.

Finch gives Iggy a little shove and a snort about riding the bird. "Don't you dare. I'll tell Ms. Mags you were mean and she won't like you anymore." His question about raptors makes her sigh. "Birds of Prey, Ig. Like eagles, hawks, falcons, owls. Meat-eaters. Though you aren't all that far off. They may have first existed as dinosaurs."

At the sight of a partial track, she crouches down to inspect it, snapping a photo of it and frowning. That is really large. Really. And one of the toes doesn't seem to touch. "Yeah, that could be a Cassowary but..." she looks around and grimaces at the yelling. "Guys, this looks like a goddamned UtahRaptor print. You know, the velociraptors in Jurassic Park? They were more UtahRaptors in reality. Velociraptors were way smaller than what was in those movies."

Itzhak is SO FREAKIN' EXCITED over the track he doesn't even tell Iggy to shut his trap. He drops to a crouch next to it, long legs folding up, so he can get a close look at it (and a picture). And Minerva's here, too, with her own track, and that lady he was a total dick to at the Twofer that one time. "Irvriya," he says to her, "hi! Look at that, you found one too!" ...Then there's the young guy and Itzhak is actually about to tell him not to mess up the tracks when the rifle crack sounds. Itzhak springs to his feet. "There's people over heah!" he roars in the direction of the rifle.

Lilith drops down to squat in searching comb when the group fans out with added motley participation on the search now, not just park rangers-- she takes a moment to squint at it, tilts her head, murmurs something about 'Big Bird' and checks the nearby foliage to irrationally see that there's no yellow plumage as a remainder of passing, because honestly, who knows in Gray Harbor exactly what can be bastardized and try to kill you at any time, okay? Not that she says any of that. She's quiet and she pushes back up, calling out, "Big bird track-looking thing over here, but--"

Brows a bit knit, she looks over to see what the others see just as the teenager comes hauling in and the rifle cracks in the distance. Then she downright curses under her breath and steps closer to the guy coming in with panic high, hand a little held out, "Hey. Hey-- you're alright, focus a second-- is it the bird or something else?" Her visual attention briefly whips over her shoulder toward the direction of the rifle fire, then goes keen and expectantly watchful back to the lanky teen.

Ignacio wobbles at the nudge and that lopsided grin reasons back, "Miss Mags won't like me any less either." But she's laughed. He's counting it. It counts. God he can't run be he absolutely compensates by being unbelievably pleased with himself. It's an art form. Minerva runs ahead. Itzhak runs ahead. So much for sneaky. And that's when everyone looks down at the tracks. Ignacio, though, never really gets to be in a forest. Central park sorta counts. Sorta. And that's when he points up a the thing catching his eye, "Guys, the fuck is that?" He flaps a hand at Finch, "Baby come lookit this. Pajarito, look. Up. There." He pulls out his camera to take a snap...nope a selfie with it. Ahem. Serious face.

Minerva gives Itzhak a look when she realizes he's there and he's talking to her. "Hey." she states quietly. Apparently he wasn't feeling awkward now that there wasn't a lot of people around. She looks to the track and there's a nod, "That's neat." she states. Then she's off to see about the gun, "Let's not get anyone shot, please." she calls.

Finch moves over to look at what Ignacio found, her concern deepening with every moment. She reaches for the feather to inspect it with a frown. The rifle crack and the kid's story have her moving quickly to grab the thing. "This may be bad," she announces.

Itzhak's eyes get kinda wide as some thing answers him.. "That was unexpected," he says, startled into blankness--then he puts himself between whistle and everybody else like a protective jerk. He glances over at the feather they found, audio processing catches up to the word 'utahraptor', and yeah okay now he's waving the rest of them back up the trail. "Okay mayyybe back it up, guys."

"So if someone got him away, this is... probably a rescue mission as much as--" Lilith cusses under her breath again and watches the teenager blaze off, then looks at the others with a fair amount of spooked uncertainty that's kind of an unspoken 'do we really want to do this' kind of question. Because this place... she turns attention to the goth lady moving ahead and murmurs with a little toss of her hands up, "Of course the goth lady goes -toward- the source of... mrf." The brunette does have some form of common sense now and again, and looks at Itzhak with a tiny twitch of her mouth in both recognition and a general 'thanks' for the call toward caution, then her eyes swap back to the others, then Minerva moving.

She seems a little undecided. It'd be real easy to haul ass, but then again, she doesn't want to leave who she's recognizing as a certain someone's buddy out here now in the event of danger, either. Even if he was kind of a dick last she saw him. Instead, she shifts her weight on her feet and looks treeward at all the encroaching silence that comes after the natural wild life starts to flutter off quite smartly, "So do we want to... collectively see about getting the woman with the rifle away from... whatever this is?"

Minerva closes her eyes and there's a hand that rises, she didn't need to have line of sight on animals to search them out. It's what she sometimes delighted in. "The animal is...calculating." she states. "Though I don't feel malevolence. It's not a simple animal and we should still proceed with some caution in case it's hunting." she tells those around them. "I can try to talk to it." she adds.

Ignacio ain't movin. He does ask Finch, "You get it?" Regarding the feather. It's to Lilith he says casually informs, "Well they may take away her membership card at Hot Topic and Noir Leather if she doesn't. It's a prestigious honour ya know. Lots of upkeep... and I think there might be a kid in trouble." Ever the consummate smartass. he looks to Finch with a slightly more serious expression, "Trouble? Trouble how?" He looks over to Minerva arching an eyebrow curiously and flinches. Fingers rub his forehead. "We can talk to animals now. This... is the new normal."

"Raptors hunt in packs," Finch says in response to Ignacio. "They were possibly the best reasoning creatures in the fossil record aside from marine mammals. They were smart." She swallows at the idea of running into a pack of hungry murderbirds. It's why she calls herself that, like Sue the T-Rex skeleton in the Field Museum in Chicago.

At the sound of an approach, she begins reaching out to the plants around her, preparing to ask them to secure anything dangerous should it bust through the foliage or come running down the trail.

Lilith can't help it, she snorts a sudden laugh at Ignacio's card-pulling comment of smartassery despite the moment, and that's kind of distracting. She might be working on formulating some kind of equally clever response, because her hands go down to her hips and she eyes Minerva a little dubiously, not because she doubts what the other woman is sensing, no doubt, but... talking to an animal sounds like a whole other ballgame, and she's wondering, "Do you have to mentally speak in a series of chirps and calls to--" This seems like a real question, not entirely smartassery, but she doesn't finish it, the others start looking around and responding to other things she apparently isn't catching onto or hearing.

"... what?" She sounds like she doesn't actually want to know. Especially now that Finch is talking about raptor packs, good gracious, the imagination fodder. Her hands slide down off of her hips and she shifts weight between running shoes as if she's prepared to leap at a moment's notice to run or dodge or maybe cover, who knows. It seems as if her window for taking off the way she came is getting pretty close to closed, though, just by way of circumstance.

Oh, Itzhak isn't advocating caution for himself. Only for everybody else. He glances over his shoulder to make sure everybody (except Minerva) is behaving themselves, then shrug-nods wryly at Lilith, yeah he was a dick, that's just how he rolls. "...That means there's a pack of 'em? Not enough tracks for that...right?" He hopes?

He calls, but a lot quieter this time, "'Ey. Come on out," to whoever's standing just out of view.

Minerva doesn't look to see what anyone else is doing. She's trying to keep her focus on the animal, which fails. She gives a look to Lilith, a moment taken to adjust her glasses. "No, you don't need to speak in chirps or anything like that." she states. Then there's a look to the others and there's a shrug, "You can talk to animals if you've got the right things." she tells them. "Think there's other stuff to worry about though, like who is shooting." she muses.

For as casual as the short New Yorker is he's staying fucking close to Finch. There is that hovering half-grin there for Lilith. Calm begets calm in a crisis. He knows that sound though and looks curiously in that direction and to Minerva, "Doc Doolittle, if you can let...whatever know we're not here to hurt it thaaat'd be cool." He pauses though tacking onto Finch's alert, "Yeah and whoever it is is injured." He adds helpfully, "Careful. Humans are dirty. You dunno where we've been." Which is his way of reminding people about pathogens: the 5 second rule. That said he can't help but wonder and from the walking peanut gallery he tilts his head. Curiosity becomes focus and focus becomes clarity. "I think there's someone there trying to track it? She might be hunting it. No fuckin idea." He calls out, "LADY... PUT THE GUN DOWN." He pauses and repeats in Spanish in case, "There's a lot of people over here you probably don't want to hit. If that's you, don't shoot, chica!"

Finch watches the woman, and notes the blood on her leg, frowning. That she can do something about at least. The little pink-haired (today) Ornithologist reaches out both hands, her fingers moving as if pulling puppet strings or weaving a tapestry. As she does so, the hunter's leg wound seals up, and is repaired. Then she lets out a whoosh of breath.

The way Lilith's eyes fixate on the gun instead of the lady maybe say she's about to disable that sucker, but it's not leveled on any of them when the woman comes out so she doesn't. Instead, she kind of squints a little and pays heed because that lady might need that gun on their behalf. The tip of her tongue makes a little tick and press against the point of an eyetooth as she examines the woman's leg for a moment, considering, then she looks at Finch with a bat of her lashes in confusion. Shouldn't you warn people before you go-- that's the look on her face given the tension of the moment and confusion and stranger situation, anyway.

She doesn't say anything, though, she just kind of edges over little by little after a lot of perfectly still toward a tree trunk in the event she needs bodily cover.

Itzhak also freezes. That whistle makes instincts from millions of years of being a tiny shrewlike thing break out a cold sweat and lift every hair. But he doesn't hide. Instead he carefully slips his left hand into a pocket and comes out with fingers curled into brass knuckles.

"Welp, this is going to be wonderful." Minerva mutters as she takes a few steps back, trying to keep the Hunter and others in sight. She was waiting to see what they were about to be faced with. And hoping it was something cute and adorable. But she knew it wasn't going to be. That shit never happened!

Ignacio turns to look at finch and points to her mouthing 'go!'. Sloooowly (because that's the speed at which he moves) he backs away from that spot. He whistles back? It's quiet but hey, maybe it means hi. Look he doesn't even so much as have a cat. Or maybe he has a plan. That look to Itzhak on the other hand says there' s a plan and he's kinda terrified of it. He whistles again. Oh yeah, good plan. Be bait and if there's a problem le the others focus on microwaving it like a Hot Pocket.

Finch's eyes go wide at the sight of the Utahraptor. Well sort of Utahraptor. Those mirrored feathers seem to speak of it originating somewhere else, since they would likely have survived in the fossil record. "H-hello there beautiful. My goodness, you are quite something, aren't you? If you aren't from Over There, I am totally changing my thesis to be all about you," she murmurs. She closes her eyes for a moment and connects with the Smoke Bush. It slowly moves to try to gently take hold of the raptor, and just keep her from rushing in at them.

It takes a lot. It takes a whole lot from Lilith not to set the bush on fire, for one, the second it starts to rustle with movement. It takes a lot for her not to jump from her chosen hiding place and what's seeming to be a bad adjacent location. It takes a lot to hold her breath and stand still and watch what's emerging... emerge in all terrifying glory. Then it takes a lot not to set it on fire instead of the bush because oh shit!

But Lilith does none of the things she shouldn't do. Maybe she's too damn fascinated and rattled to do a damn thing other than hold her breath and gradually shift to ease back a step so that thing can fixate elsewhere instead of her RIGHT NEAR BY. She has no idea what that fixation means for Finch, though, and maybe Minerva really can talk to the thing!

But mostly, Lilith is standing very still to let it rage elsewhere with a whole lot of wide-eyed 'oh fuck' on her because she's too coincidentally close to do much else without extreme risk of lashback. And oh yay, people are talking to it now. Breathe.

Minerva sees the...raptor? Yeah, that looks like a raptor that pokes it's head out over by Finch and the Mentalist doesn't hesitate to start conjuring up something to distract it from the humans. The illusion that she gives is that of an empty trail with the sound of the humans going further up the trail with the wounded hunter. The farther you are from danger...she didn't know what else to do for the moment, she wasn't going to attack it.

Itzhak glares furiously at Iggy, signs an unmistakable 'zip it!' at him, then taps his own chest. He's the one who's the bait here, not the gimpy loudmouth (it's damn near audible from his scowl).

When the raptor steps from cover, though, he gets a little distracted. "Oh," Itzhak breathes, "she's gorgeous." And incredibly deadly. He senses the others singing to her, playing her tempting songs, and he can't do anything like that. He can only hope to intercept her...or her unseen potential packmates.

Ignacio moves sloooooowly into being a mighty 5'7" obstacle slowly flipping Itzhak off?! and, ah, making a *kamayamaya * gesture. His arms are out, hands open. He probably smells a bit of fear and titanium alloy to her truth be told. He tries whistling at her again. There's a goal here and that goal is don't let people get eaten. But since the bird's there and he's there... fuck it. It's a bad plan but he's committed!

Finch maintains control of her smoke bush, dubbing it Puff, but when the woman moves to shoot the creature she just. Can't. let her. Instead she releases the raptor from the bush and yells "RUN!" at it.

For the time being, Lilith is trying to stay on her damn feet when the hatchlings burst free and one of them goes blowing by her to get at real quarry. And with the woman warning and taking aim, she doesn't waste a moment getting out of where still silence and caution had her way too close to the giant raptor in her hiding spot. After grabbing at the trunk of the tree for balance, she bolts out of range into the center of the clearing, both out of gunfire range and other things' range because if something is going to come at her, damnit, she's getting distance.

She seems a little confused, though, as Finch releases the raptor, catching sight of that with backpedaling turn once she's got some clearing distance.

Minerva gives a frown when the raptor doesn't peel off, and that hunter lady is raising her gun. So she does what she does best. There's a snap of electricity that leaves Minerva's hand and into the body fo the lady with the gun. She convulses for a moment and then drops to the ground unconscious. And Minerva doesn't even look like she cares on if the woman is alive or not.

Itzhak is going to set Ignacio on fire without any glimmering, the way he's glaring at him. Completely ineffectively.

A lot of things happen at once then: the smokebush grabs the raptor, the raptor screams, the hatchlings come rushing out--Itzhak grunts as one collides with him, but he doesn't even lose his balance, shoving it off him and away. "Don't!" he snaps at the woman, and whistles himself, a sharp escalating note. The rifle jams. First it jams, that is. Then it just kind of comes apart...and Minerva's tased the shit out of her. "Jee-ZUS," he says, startled by that.

Ignacio has his eyes fixes on the bird...thing...He answers Lilith, "They're trying to study her, not hurt her." But then there's murder children rending the shrub and guns coming apart and- god can anyone else feel the lightening? Okay! get the plan deSantos. Right: the plan is GTFO. The problem with injuries is that the mind gets used to them and doesn't adapt. You move in the way you are used to moving and not how you have adapted. SO when he turns the wrong damn way on his leg that's the start of the end of a noble and heroic gesture. Ye tries to rush Finch the hell out of there as teh favoured snack dujour, but his leg buckles and he manages to hit the ground in a chest slide. Face to baby bird level with that damn bush he covers his head with his arms.

Only muffled angry Spanish remains.

Finch holds mama bird's gaze until she runs off, and lets out a whoosh of relieved breath before dropping down beside Ignacio and covering him with her body. "Dammit Figgy! You took ten years off my life. Are you all right?" she asks, hugging him while likely crushing him to the ground further. Ok maybe not, she weighs 100 pounds soaking wet.

"She'll live." Minerva states as she looks at the woman and then Itzhak, "I didn't have it set to kill." she adds. She does give a look to see where the babies and their mother got off to, "Well, if they are from the veil they probably know how to get back. Though need to have people stay clear of here for the moment until they get out of the area." she nods to this. Then there's a look to the woman out cold, "It's a shame people get electrocuted while out illegally hunting." she shakes her head as she brings out her phone to shoot off a text. "I can call the authorities if we think she's dangerous and needs to be picked up." she states as she looks to the others.

Lilith has never seen a something-strange that hasn't tried to kill or eat her, so really, it takes a moment for Ignacio's explanation to really sink in, especially after seeing those teeth. Then he goes down just as understanding kind of kicks in and the others are all action, so... standing and observing sounds like a really keen trend to keep with for the moment, because face it, she's good at a few things and none of those things are needed right now.

Mostly, she looks a little warily in the distance where the things departed, though, then slowly she wipes her palms off on her hands to look around at the trees and treetops with a vague cant of her head to listen and see if things have quite hit operating normal again yet. But eventually she asks, "... what was the point of her hunting it? She seemed to want it for a reason, not just... it was coming at her."

"God fucking DAMMIT, de Santos!" Itzhak snarls at Ignacio. "Did that seem like a good fucking idea in ANY FUCKIN' WAY?! Don't encourage him, Finch!" He might punch a tree again. ...No, he stuffs the brass knuckles back into his pocket. "I dunno what she wants with 'em." He crouches by the unconscious woman. "But I'm gonna ask her." He squints up at Minerva, gothic tazer. "When she wakes up."

Minerva gives a look around, "Maybe someone collects cryptids. I'm guessing she's skilled...or stupid to be out doing this. And she's got traces of Glimmer, so be aware of that." she states. Then she gives a look down to the unconscious woman and then to Itzhak, taking off her sunglasses, "Have fun with her then." she states with a tip of her hat and then she turns to start heading back down the trail. Humming as she goes along.

"Is she even from this side?" Finch asks Minerva. "Or from over there. I think we'd recognize her if she was a townie." She picks up several feathers to tuck into her backpack because FEATHERS. Sure Finch, act like this was a great and super excellent day while your poor boyfriend is laid out face down in the dirt. "I say turn her over to the cops. She was firing a rifle in a park. Fuck that."

Ignacio carries on with the muffled angry Spanish halts. He peeks at the bird-critter myopically close. There's dirt stuck to his cheek and his eyes are stinging wet. The mirror bird is reflecting his face back at him. He murmurs audible to himself, "... y asi es como termina..." but the bird is off and he exhales and then is squashed by 100# of murderbird of a different sort. Ow! Owowow... his carcas screams stop but his brain comes up with, "...You called me Figgy." His hand flaps out from under him to pat her elbow. Exhaustion leaves him laying in the dirt.