The Park (Public)

[Mamono Assault Force]

The Park, within the hustle and bustle of Venice's City, is the main meeting point of many Ranchers, enemies and friends alike, where they converse and generally just spend time together and build their competitive and friendly relationships.

All Ranchers are invited to come here, and meet their fellow Ranchers. There's no reason to be shy.

(This thread can be used for interaction between other Ranchers, and you all may use it however you like, so long as it's in character. For example, Termite can say Alex lays down on the grass with Gyuki, and Blue can say Locke steps over with Marla and says, "Hi, may I join you for lunch?" and then talk as they nom sandwiches.)

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

Locke and Celes go harpy 'kite' flying in the park. Locke and Celes each have a long line of string which is attached to the ankles of Marla and Raven respectively. The Red and Black harpies circle over head, soaring about to stretch their wings. The strings are completely unnecessary, but Celes had convinced Locke it'd be fun for a laugh. The harpies consented, but only after insisting that the two ranch hands wind the string around their necks a couple of times, so that the harpies could consider themselves 'walking the humans.'

All in all, it was nice for the two pairs of harpy owners to go for an early autumn stroll in the park.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

Ashley leaned back, her arms draped over the back of the bench as she idly watched the assorted passersby while enjoying a piece of cotton candy. The sight of the two humans with strings around their necks, attached to a pair of harpies that flew above them obviously drew her eye, and she smiled mirthfully as she watched the two bird women flit about in the sky. She had come alone, hoping for a bit of time to herself for once, but she somehow hadn't noticed that more than half of her assorted ranch hands had stalked her in various fashions.

Demeter was hidden in a tree some eighty feet away, the elf's attention divided between her trainer and the two harpies flying in the sky, having been asked to trail Ashley by Deagan in order to keep an eye on her. Dusty was doing much the same, though more because she was bored than due to any fear over her danger to the host of her eggs, and the moth-like devil bug was flitting about off in the distance. Poppy was stalking the human more out of spite than anything, seeking to cause mischief, and Sparkle was stalking the fairy... Somewhat clumsily given that she was trying to hide behind a cotton candy vendor, and kept sneaking pieces when the attendee wasn't looking.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

The two humans on strings neared the bench where Ashley was sitting. Locke was having to resist swaying from side to side as Marla was ranging freely with not much regard to the slack of her connecting line. Raven however was hovering more or less in tandem with Celes.

"Oh, hey, Locke, look... there's another rancher. I've seen her walking about town a few times. Some of her mamono are here too. Look, there's an elf sitting in that tree."

"Hmmn? Elves are mamono? They don't really seem very monstrous," Locke said as he stumbled forward a bit due to Marla's flapping high above.

"You need to read your mamono dex, Locke. Honestly, where would you be without me?" Celes said, then smiled and waved to the woman on the bench. "Hi there! We've seen you around before. I'm Celes and this is Locke. He's the official rancher of the two of us, but it won't always be that way, and for now, he sorta needs me to help him out with things."

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

Demeter noted that she'd been spotted by the two trainers with the harpies, but Ashley paid her no heed still, apparently not connecting the mention of an elf with herself at all. Of course, when the elf panicked and tumbled headfirst out of the tree, ending up in a fairly undignified position given her favored choice in bottoms, Ashley did briefly turn and smirk at the elf. Celes and Locke came toward her before she could call out to her mamono, however, and Ashley stifled her giggles as she turned toward the other two humans. "Howdy!" Ashley replied, smiling as she waved both with her free hand and her cotton candy. "I'm Ashley! I don't remember seeing either of you around before, but I tend to miss things all the time! Haha... I'm not very observant...."

She smiled sheepishly at the two of them before eying the chords tied around their necks. "Oh yeah? What kinda things does he need help with?" Ashley asked curiously as she flitted her gaze between the two, "I've gotten tons of help from people since I started out, so I guess it's only fair that I see if I can return the favor to others if they need it! Or could use it, I guess~ And, uhhh... If you don't mind me asking.... What's with the strings around your necks?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

Locke pointed to the red harpy and the black harpy gliding in figure eights about seventy feet above them, with the end of the string wrapped around each mamono's ankles.

"We're just taking our harpies out for some leisurely flying," he said.

"But Marla - that's the red one - has got it in her head that she's the boss of the ranch, and sorta dictated that we wrap these strings around our necks," Celes said.

"Because apparently she think's she and Raven are walking 'their humans,'" Locke finished. As if on cue, the line around his neck went very taut and he was yanked sideways a couple of yards before the red harpy flitted backwards and began to observe what was happening down below.

"We appreciate your offer, Ashley, but Locke and I are settling in pretty well. Locke just recently won his Rank E tournament and went up in his first rancher level. He's one of the rarer male ranchers on the island."

"A lot of the women don't really think I can do this..." Locke said, shaking his head as he reached up and gave a tug at his string. There was a squawk and a sudden "HEY!" from above as Marla was turned around suddenly. "But I'm betting that with some hard work and common sense, I'll be able to be one of the best. It helps that I've had two great starting mamono and my best friend Celes here on the ranch to work around all the early problems. How have you been handling ranch life?"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Ahhh," Ashley said following their explanation. "Well it's always good to stay positive! I wouldn't know very much about Ranching being difficult for men... Deagan seemed to be doing well enough, but I'm not really from around here, so I don't know! I'm sure that you can do it if you just keep a level head though." She tilted her head slightly, her expression curious. "How was your fight against Envy?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Brief. She only landed a few scrapes on Raven before Marla swooped in with some heavy kicks. She didn't use more than a sliver of her true power on us though - she's just testing to see where we're at. The harder fight was against Oakley in the tournament finals." Locke shrugged, as there wasn't much more to say on the issue of Envy. It had been very much a tutorial fight.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

Ashley nodded in return, "It was about the same for me really, though I didn't have to fight Oakley. Something about her being hurt, or something. Envy wasn't nearly as hard to beat as Demeter when I first met her, even with the cheap shot that Envy pulled."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: The Park (Public)

As if summoned, Envy is spotted on a nearby bench, silently eating her candies while her eyes seemed to observe the two and their conversation about her.

Laughing, a red harpy came soaring down upon hearing Ashley's announcement about Oakley's injury. She landed with such skill that it might as well have been a military talent. "That was my bad!" Marla apologized to Ashley. "I guess I hurt her real bad! Are you sad that you were denied a fight?" she asked.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Nah," Ashley said simply, "I don't like fighting. It's pretty pointless really. But still, comes with the job I guess." Demeter (the younger) meanwhile, was getting back to her feet and reclaiming her decency, and eyed the exchange between her trainer and the red harpy curiously.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

Locke gestured to his red harpy.

"Ashley, this is my partner, Marla. Marla, this is Ashley, another new rancher like myself."

Locke took off his cap for a moment and brushed his brown hair back before the hat back on his head. He then looked sidelong at Marla.

"All it took was one kick for Marla to take down Oakley. She's a born fighter. I'm really lucky to have found her as my first mamono. I sympathize with you about fighting though. I originally wanted to avoid it myself, but when Marla told me she wanted to compete, I had to let her do it. I don't regret it now."

"Yeah," added Celes. "And now we're gonna start training Raven as well. So we'll have two flying aces on our ranch. Hey, maybe Marla's nick name could be the Red Baronet, heehee~"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Hi Marla!" Ashley said, grinning as she waved at the harpy as well. "Yeah... The E-Rank fights weren't very hard. Annoying maybe, but not hard by any means. None of my helpers are much for combat to be honest, but I don't really mind that at all. We handle ourselves pretty well when we have to, and pretty soon I'll be in the black for finances too!" She grinned a bit wider, fairly proud of that accomplishment all told even if it wasn't much of one all things considered. "So you've only got the two harpies eh? Must be relaxing... I think I might lose count of how many strays I pick up soon! Just getting all of them into shape has been a chore all its own."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Well, er..." Locke looked a little embarrassed. He'd wanted to get more mamono, but he and Celes were yet to decide on other mamono types that they wanted to house.

"Oh, so how many do you have? And how do you manage them all? What's your secret?" Celes asked, unashamed to get some tips.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Lets see... There's Tiki, Sparkle, Demeter, Dusty... Jace, Ria... And Poppy!" Ashley counted off each in turn on the fingers of her free hand, "So... Seven total I suppose! Well, for now... I'm apparently quite good at making friends, so I expect that I'll be getting more soon enough! Mostly I just let them do whatever they want so long as they earn their keep, but it's kinda hard to focus on training any one of them at a given time. Now that I'm Rank D maybe I'll be able to do a little better though, so we'll see!"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

Celes nodded, "Well, Locke's been training Marla up real good. But now that he's Rank D, I think he'd better start giving Raven as much attention."

"Of course!" Locke nodded to Celes. His ranch hand had gotten quite attached to the emotionally sedate Black Harpy, who was all ice compared to Marla's fire. "My hope is that I'll have time to train all my mamono. So what do yours do to 'earn their keep, Ashley?'"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"Oh... This and that. Sparkle works at the candy shop when I'm not training her, and Ria works at the factory. Tiki sells her milk, Dusty and Jace go do work wherever they can find it. I'm honestly not sure about Demeter or Poppy though! I mostly just manage everyone. Heh, with so many, it's about all that I have time for during the week! My weekends at Melpha's are pretty booked too, to be honest... Must be nice being able to just spend time with one of them though eh? I'll bet that Marla's really well trained!"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The Park (Public)

"She's got a pretty fierce kick, yeah... but right now her winnings are the only thing earning us money. Maybe we ought to get a few more helpers at the Ranch like you've done. Well, I'll think about it at least." Locke smiled looking at Marla.

"It was nice to meet you, Ashley, maybe we'll see you around the park more often, or you could always stop by our ranch some time," Celes said.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

"More friends and helping hands never hurt anybody!" Ashley agreed, and then waved at the two of them once more. "Maybe! And I offer the same invite to you two! Buh-bye for now though!" With that, Ashley would continue to relax on the park bench for a while, reveling in her brief moment of peace. And cotton candy.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Park (Public)

(Preservative post)