Jaeger (OPEN)

[Candy Green]

Candy moved with the grace of cat, mostly because that's exactly what she was at the moment, a tiger to be precise, only a tiger unlike any you would see in nature. Instead of a striped furry pelt, she had hard bony plates with spikes poking out at seemingly random intervals, but anyone who knew about biological defense, would see that the spikes were carefully positioned to keep anything from landing a blow without getting speared in the process. What couldn't be seen were the tiny holes in the spikes that dripped a clear fluid, that, once it came in contact with darkness, glowed bright white, like a tiny sun, which weakened most Darkness.

It was pitch black outside, the sky covered with clouds as snow threatened to fall at any moment. Candy wasn't on an official mission, it was a volunteer job. Some kid had lost his dog while hiking in the woods, but had been attacked by a Brute when he tried to go find her. Candy's biggest fear was that the dog was dead, or worse yet, that the darkness had found a way to posses it, she hadn't seen it herself, but rumors came in every now and then of animals suddenly attacking their owners, shortly after Darkness had been sighted in the area.

She reached a small clearing and saw something that horrified and fascinated her. She had never attributed much intelligence to Darkness, except in the case of Razors and Swarmers, both of which had a unique sort of thought process, but what she saw was a Darkness, circling a terrified Labrador, in a shape mirroring the dog, the only way she knew it was darkness was by its eyes, which were black pits. The Darkness though wasn't attacking the dog, and even seemed to be trying to engage it in play, but each time the Darkness touched the dog, a spray of blood resulted. This seemed to confuse the darkness, which acted almost like a dog that had accidently hurt a playmate. She walked into the clearing and the Darkness looked a her, knowing she was human by her thoughts, but, it regarded her with the same look of confusion. The dog, somehow knowing that Candy had come to help ran to her, bleeding from a number of small cuts on her face and legs.

The Darkness moved like lightning, but did not attack, it instead came between Candy and the dog, in a manner that would have been protective if Candy wasn't refusing to believe it. The Darkness growled, but instead of changing form to reflect her fears, it stayed in the form of a dog. Candy decided to test this new theory that repulsed her, in the hopes that it would prove a weapon that the Chasers could use in the future. She changed to her human form, thankfully she could change any clothing she wore as long as it was made of plant or animal materials, so she wasn't naked like some poor shape shifters ended up. She held out her hand to the Darkness and it growled, but, after seeing the dog sniff the hand, it mimicked the action. The Darkness was trying to be a dog...

[Katastrofea Park]

WORDS:	310
TAGGED:	Candy Green
NOTES:	c:

	The gym was nice and all, but sometimes a stationary punching bag wasn't enough. Pale, wavy blue hair cascading down to her waist even though they were tied up in two high pigtails on both sides of her head, Kata began stepping into the depths of the forest, narrowed golden eyes scanning the area. With her futuristic yet protective and unrestricting outfit on and her head held high, she felt ready to tackle the world, despite the chill lacing the wintry atmosphere. Time to kill. Her goal today was to simply annihilate as many minions of the Darkness as she possibly could. Hopefully she wouldn't come across a Swarmer in her journey, but she knew how to defend against one of the monstrosities. She had even killed one before, though with much difficulty and many swipes that nearly ended her life. That was when she had still been an apprentice, though. She was much more experienced now, so soloing this expedition would be a piece of cake. That was, until she caught sight of a girl holding out her hand in the near distance. What was she doing? Brow furrowing, she sharply began striding towards them to see a Labrador sniffing the stranger's hand. Almost immediately, though, her liquid gold gaze was drawn to the Darkness close by both animal and human, in the form of a canine with long, long claws.  "Hey!" Kata cried out to Candy, shifting into a defensive stance. Her authoritative voice sliced through the air, not quite loud rather than firm. Just what was going on? "Are you insane? It'll bite your hand off!" She didn't draw the photon gun or poisoned machete strapped by her side yet, though her slender hand hovered towards the deadly weapons, which were engineered specifically to combat Darkness. Was this person a Chaser? Why was she here? What was she even doing?
BY EDWARD OF GS

[Candy Green]

Candy heard the other Chaser call out the warning, but she dared not turn away, instead she pushed a package of thoughts at the other person, filled with her memories on the Darkness Dog's earlier actions, the way it had mimicked the dog. It also held a plea to stay silent and keep her distance, with thoughts of what would happen if the Darkness became spooked.

She slowly reached out and placed her hand on the Darkness' head, petting it like she would a dog. Its fur was soft and warm, which at first threw her off balance mentally. The Darkness at first responded with what was obviously fear, it cringed, pulling away from her, like a dog that had been beaten. Slowly it leaned towards her, enjoying the petting. This was when it licked Candy's hand, obviously mimicking a behavior it had seen but not practiced. The moment its tongue touched Candy's flesh though, she was slammed with jumbled thoughts. She had tried to read Darkness before, and it was like trying to mix oil and water, next to impossible, and even when the act was successful the thoughts made no sense or were focused entirely on killing and maiming, or just generally causing mayhem. But this Darkness had thoughts more like a dog, not the same in 'texture' but similar in shape and formation.

As soon as the contact broke off the Darkness turned and ran into the woods. But it had left an impression in Candy's mind. The Chaser moved to the other woman's position, her mind reeling.

"It wanted to be a dog. It doesn't want to be Darkness anymore. It was trying to LEARN. I've been hunting Darkness for almost four years, and my aunt was a Chaser for almost thirty years, I have never heard of anything like this." She looked at Kat, knowing who she was, if not knowing her personally. "I know it doesn't make sense, but it wasn't going to hurt me, and it wasn't hurting the dog on purpose. I need to report this to the Research Division. If Darkness is changing, if they can really take on the form of animals, it could mean a new face on the War."

[Katastrofea Park]

WORDS:	403
TAGGED:	Candy Green
NOTES:	c:

	Kata blinked as thoughts began filtering into her mind, thoughts that didn't belong to here. As she viewed them as if she was in a cinema, she quickly realized that they belonged to this person. Telepathy, huh? She continued to physically stare at the Darkness but flicked through the thoughts Candy had sent her, and her liquid gold eyes widened imperceptibly. Trying to play with the original dog, meaning no harm? She had never heard of a case like this before, but she observed once more how the Darkness wasn't attempting to attack yet. If anything, it seemed to be acting as a domestic canine itself. This person wouldn't have a reason to lie, either. How curious. And then the person was petting the Darkness. Kata opened her mouth to tell her not to do that, that was probably a god awful idea, but remembered the thoughts transmitted towards her and decided to hold her tongue. Watching in awe, she mentally took careful not of the creature's actions. It was, indeed, acting like a dog, and the act seemed genuine to boot. This was, by far, the weirdest thing she had witnessed all week--all month, even.  The Darkness trotted off into the depths of the forest, possibly never to be seen again, as the girl turned back towards her. Kata recognized this person as Candy Green, a fellow full-fledged Chaser she had seen around from time to time. This was probably the first time they had held a real conversation though. The information rolling from the other girl's tongue thunderstruck her, but she composed herself and listened objectively to what she had to say. "Er, slow down. So you're saying the Darkness is actually sentient? It can think real thoughts?" she inquired, head aching somewhat from such an unfamiliar concept. All her life, she had known the Darkness to be mindless, bloodthirsty creatures. And now a minion who wanted to be a dog? "Okay, okay, that's just weird. So maybe the Darkness is evolving. Who's gonna believe you? And me, I guess. Everyone'll think you're off your rocker, even if you show them your thoughts, because who knows? Maybe you can fabricate your telepathy." Pursing her lips, she continued, "You're right, this is important stuff. But you'll need substantial proof to bring to the Research Division. Just an anecdote isn't gonna be enough."
BY EDWARD OF GS

[Candy Green]

Candy looked at her, knowing what she said was true, she absently reached down and stroked the injured dog's head as comfort. "If I could get it to trust me, to come back with me...but they'd probably torture it while trying to understand what made it different. I don't like Darkness, but, this one was just like a dog, mostly. It's claws were wrong, and well, when it licked me I think its tongue had blades instead of taste buds." She held up her bleeding hand which looked like someone had used sandpaper to take the first layer of skin off, resulting in a beading of blood.


"We have to be honest though. Do we try and track it down and take it in? Or do we keep our mouths shut until we get proof? Again, if we catch it alive, we'll be taking to be poked, prodded, and possibly hurt badly, then killed, and I don't think I could do it. It was afraid of me, it knew I could kill it, or at least hurt it, but it didn't let that fear lead it to do what it instinctively wanted to do. I've never heard of Darkness feeling fear, but most telepaths don't actively feel out the minds Razors and the like. I'm pretty sure that was a Razor though. It tried to tell me something. But It's thoughts aren't like anything I've ever read before, I'm stilling trying to translate it. Think someone who doesn't understand English, speaking it, but still using words from their native language, which you don't speak. You have to use context to figure it out." Candy placed a hand on the side of her head, a dull throb building in her skull as she tried to figure out what the Darkness Dog had been trying to tell her. It's thoughts had been mostly dog in nature, but there had been parts that were very different. She slowed her speech down as she worked the message over in her head.

"Darkness can read minds, everyone knows that. This Darkness, I think it found something it didn't understand in the minds of this dog and her owner, something that it doesn't get, but wants badly to know." She couldn't believe what she was saying, but it was the only thing that made sense in this crazy situation. "It wants to know love. To have thoughts and feelings like that, it must be an old Razor, one that's been around for a while. I've noticed that the longer they live, the smarter they get, and this one was smart like a wolf. This is crazy."