the view from halfway down 〰 search & rescue

[edenberry ?!]

Hopefully this wouldn't prove to be a total flop....

Edenberry slithers down the trunk of one of many pine trees they have climbed that day, glancing up with a quick confirmatory glance to see if the prize they've hidden between the branches is too obvious... It would make the game most assuredly boring if they could be spotted from a mile away. Satisfied with their handiwork, the black-spined feline had opted to go about rounding up some friends, some clan-mates, and whatever bright-eyed apprentices might be interested in this little exercise. They'd missed their clan-mates sorely in the moons they'd been gone and this felt like a great way to encourage them to hang out with the daylight warrior again, even if the real attention-grabber was the actual entertainment they had provided.

Once they'd successfully rounded up a group sizeable enough to make it worthwhile, they parade their companions back towards the pines with a chipper skip to their step- it feels like being a kid again, bouncing eagerly along with a patrol in tow. In that moment, they could pretend nothing had ever happened... that they were the same Edenberry that had stepped out into spring as a new warrior.

"Alright..." They whirl in a blur of wild tufts to face the arched eyebrows of their cohort, grinning as widely as they can manage to make sure they understood just how fun this game was meant to be. Light-hearted, care-free fun on a day that did not sear them under the scorching sun. It is cloudy... threatening of a rainstorm later perhaps but they pay it no mind. It would be good practice, regardless.

"We're gonna split up into two teams, sound fair? We'll call'em uhh.... Team Squirrel! And Team Finch!" It was a wonder they'd managed to pick much better names for their children, given their lack of creativity now. "We're gonna do a fake search and rescueeee~"

They nod, bouncy and far more excited by their own reveal than probably most that stare at them, impatiently waiting for an explanation on what the hell that even means for the mechanics of the game itself. "We've got... some kittens... stranded in the trees," they paint the scene with a stern furrow of their brow, gazing mysteriously off into the canopy while they struggle to hide a toothy grin. "It's our mission to sniff'em out and save them!" They pause, letting their serious glower fall off their face as they tilt their head to look back at those watching, "I didn't get real cats for this, don't worry... they're just pinecones I smashed a bunch of berries into."

Like a mask falling over their face, the dramatic storyteller returns to their landscape, "But each kit claimed by the opposite team is a kit lost for your group- The goal is simple. Find and rescue as many pinecone kittens as possible!" They bow their head to sniff at the dirt, as if actually worried about tracking the little trinkets they've hidden, playing up their part as a searcher. "Combat is fair game- if the best way to stop your adversary is to get'em on their back paws, do it- Please don't actually hurt each-other though... Spar it out and try to use your best judgement to tell when you've 'lost' your fight."

A bobbed-tail wiggles behind them in anticipatory joy, expecting cheers maybe, for their fantastic explanation and dour scene setting. "Sounds fun, yeah?"

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𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊〰 i want no more than this

• Explanation of the ooc side of things
  Feel free to take either action [Search] or [Sabotage]
  
  [Search] involves your character using their senses to try to pick up on a 'kitten' trail!
  Less than 10 finds nothing
  10-14 points your team in the direction of a 'kitten' [a second 10+ roll will find the kitten]
  15+ points your team to the exact tree a 'kitten' is in
  
  [Sabotage] is just combat basically... You try to prevent one of the other team's members from taking a Search action
  10 or less is a miss
  Higher than 10 is a success
  From there, you can roll however you like to spar or just rp out a quick spar :)
  
  The number of kittens isn't predetermined, mostly so that it doesn't get ended on accident in 5 really good rolls or something so have fun! It's basically just capture the point :3c
  
  Determining teams is up to you, just try to keep it balanced and maybeeee list somewhere which team you're on for ease of access for others!! Have fun!
• -- edenberry / skyclan daylight warrior / any pronouns / 16 moons
  -- mostly white with black pinstripe and green eyes / scarred face and back
  -- color #728c69​

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[Howlfire]

When Edenberry had started gathering cats for her game, Howlfire was admittedly a little reluctant to get involved. However, the more she listened in, the more she was genuinely intrigued by the concept and eventually pledged herself forward. It wasn't like she had much else to do today, so this was the perfect excuse to keep her from lolling about for a few hours.

The chocolate torbie followed obediently behind Edenberry, falling in with the crowd of the other assembled cats, watching with an amused grin to see how excited Edenberry was about all this. She had clearly put a lot of effort into it, and who was Howlfire to spoil it? Once they arrive at the pine trees, she listens intently to Edenberry's instructions, before branching off with the rest of her assigned team. After a little chatter, it seems she has been put forward to try and find one of the missing 'kits'. "Don't worry, I'll rescue them!" Howlfire assured, speaking with a serious tone. She quickly gets to work sneaking about, keeping low and in the bushes to avoid detection from the other team, whilst trying to pick up on the scent of the berries Edenberry might have used. Her head is low to the ground when a vague, sweet scent catches her attention. Howlfire lifted her head, inhaling deeply and trying to determine where the scent was coming from. After a moment, she's certain she's determined the tree to search and makes a vague gesture to the cat closest to her to keep an eye out for the other team, lest they try to stop her.

Howlfire approaches the tree carefully, making a note of any cats on the other team nearby, before positioning herself at the base of the tree. She looks up and quickly determines the best route up, to where a pinecone awaits, wedged between two branches. It took Howlfire but a moment to find purchase in the tree before climbing as fast as she could, not wanting to risk getting caught. Once on the same level with the branch, Howlfire carefully walks across to where the pinecone is and works it free with her mouth, keeping the pinecone grasped firmly in between her teeth as she hurried back down, and spirited the 'kit' back to the waiting safety of her team.

// rolled a 12, followed by an 11​

 

[DOEBLAZE]

Two stints in the nursery and an excitable, if slightly inattentive, apprentice made one more than tolerant of games. She lopes along after Edenberry, Cloudypaw and Primrose ( the latter on one of the last days of her term ) flanking her and Howlfire mingling with the pack of participants nearby. Edenberry's beaming enthusiasm and bouncing gait are both endearing and contagious, and she finds her own weary pawsteps lifting a little more as the sizeable bunch of cats trail the young warrior well into the pines. Now's a good time for games, she thinks . . . a last chance to polish skills and have a little carefree, sun - drenched fun before leaf - fall, and then leaf - bare, descend in full.

The mention of a fake search and rescue has the warrior perking her ears and standing taller to peer at Edenberry over the shoulder of one of her taller cohorts, swept up in the daylight warrior's game. It sounds right up her tree—if there's one thing Doeblaze can steadfastly pride herself on, it's her ability to track a trail into the ground. Her own blanket of wild tufts ruffles in the wind even as she parts her jaws to get an initial taste of it, hoping she might catch an early thread of sweet berry - scent . . . nothing, although Edenberry's bubbly excitement is still contagious, despite their mention that combat is fair game.

Her brows knit together . . . she's no great fighter, and her efforts to remedy that remain undeniably slow and painful. Mostly painful, since her attempts at spars generally end with her coughing, sand - blinded, or otherwise incapacitated. Learning is painful, she supposes. Edenberry launches into a dramatic tale of stranded kittens, one that faintly reminds her of Hollypaw or Candorpaw in the fantastical set of their face and the played - up nature of their explanation. Perhaps that's why she finds it so endearing . . . regardless, she nods briskly in reply to their confirmation, mrrowing " Good way to brush up on our tracking, too. "

The teams split off, and she finds herself mingled in with the other members of Team Finch—that is, until a hint of the round, summer - ripe sweetness of berry snags her nose. Ears at a twitch, she swishes her tail for Cloudypaw to follow—despite the Slate incident, she trusts Primrose on her own—and splits off, delving into the woods with a renewed spirit of competition. It takes her a moment and a couple of useless circles, but she eventually finds herself scrambling up a pleasantly brisk - scented pine to pin a berry - smeared pinecone between her teeth. Dropping back to earth, the corners of her tired eyes crinkle triumphantly as she begins to follow the trail back to her team.

OOC : Team Finch; rolled a 10, then an 11!

✦

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