Beyond the Pages ·|· NPC Journal (pages_of_npcs) wrote in beyondthepages, @ 2010-06-12 09:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | 1st task, 2023 11, brian avery, champions, lily evans, niles lexington, tristan moore |
RP: The First Task
Characters: Anya, Isabeau, Jacob // Open to observation/interaction in the stands.
Time/Date: Starting around 10 AM and progressing; finishing around noon
Location: Hogwarts grounds
Warnings/Rating: teal deer, fire, champions
Summary: Avery gets a note to Tom? I mean, um. The chimeras breath fire or something
Status: Open, please jump in. And track.
Visitors from out of school welcome. So jump the eff in. EVERYONE. Use it to further plot or something. Like, Gellert or Avery could show up. Idk, have fun.
Jacob had the questionable fortune of being the first one in line. Sure, he'd be done first, but he wouldn't have the foggiest idea of what to expect. Not that he really had that now, what with them giving him nothing - absolutely nothing - to go on save the task itself, which was to capture an egg.
It sounded deceptively simple, and he wondered what was between him and the egg. The last one had had dragons, everyone knew that. So was it dragons again? Did the tasks remain static over the years?
He remembered how Harry had won it (oh, he'd read up on that tournament in preparation for this one), and he thought about doing something similar if it looked like things could lean in that direction.
When he was called, he stepped out into the ... arena, for lack of a better word, and squinted to the far side of the field. Was that a ...
... what the hell was that? Jacob tilted his head, studying the creature crouched in the mouth of a shallow cave. Creatures? It looked like there were two ... three ...
Oh, shit he mouthed upon realizing what it was. He almost had to laugh; hadn't Tristan guessed it was this at the start of the summer? Man, for a wild guess, that was kind of ... wow.
Jacob licked his lips and started forward. He was aware of the hush that fell over the crowd and he would have sworn he felt the tension spike. Shuddering slightly, he continued to move closer to the beast, drawing his wand. Going for the simplest spell first, he tried to summon the egg. He didn't think it was fair that it was not able to be summoned; if he'd really been hunting chimera eggs, they wouldn't have been charmed.
He was pretty sure.
Either way, it got the attention of the creature and Jacob was painfully aware of six eyes on him. He was also painfully aware of the fact that each pair of those eyes was set in a head that was capable of breathing fire - right? All the heads breathed it? - and he was nervous.
Staring at the serpent's head, he blinked slowly and felt kind of ...
... no. He couldn't be hypnotized. Right? They didn't do that. He was just ... shocked. Licking his lips, he continued his silent face off with the creature, starting to edge around it while trying to think of what to do. Not wanting to take his eyes off the chimera, he did anyway to try to locate the egg.
The creature lunged forward then, though it was jerked short by a chain. Not so short that it couldn't spew fire at him - and it did. With a sharp cry, he twisted out of the way, dropping to the dirt and rolling until he collided with one of the rocks set up in the arena. Panting, he laid there for a moment before he eased up to his feet.
The chimera was regarding him again, the serpent head swaying as if it could hypnotize him. Jacob peered into the cave and licked his lips again. What if he summoned something behind the egg, and the egg came along with it? Classless and possibly verging on cheating. It wasn't bound to win him a lot of points, but ... it should still get the job done. In theory.
Pointing his wand carefully, positioning the objects he wanted to summon firmly in his mind, he once again used the accio spell. He watched as the whole nest of rocks or whatever else there was scooted forward. The egg he was after tumbled free at roughly the halfway point, and he cringed. The chimera started forward, but so did he. Racing like his heels were on fire and his arse was catching, Jacob shot in, crouched and turned and snatched the egg even as he felt a jet of fire searing the back of his robes. He cried out and tumbled, wrapping his body around the egg as he rolled across the dirt. He heard a whistle distantly, and officials were flooding the field to take the creature out of the arena and set up for the next champion.
He was led back to the tent so the healer could see to him, and he anxiously awaited the results. Isabeau was on the field, and he could feel Anya itching to ask him what was out there ... but no way was he going to tell her.
_______________
Isabeau had been on her way out before Jacob had come in, and she waited nervously until the official directed her forward. She strode boldly onto the field, though she quailed slightly when she saw what awaited her at the end.
Keen eyes picked up the fact the creature was on a chain, which meant she had a range to work within. Add to that the distance the fire could reach ...
Isabeau surveyed her scenery, noting possible uses for everything that littered the field. Spying a large, flat, thin rock, she crossed over to it. Murmuring a spell, she transfigured it into a large shield, cast another charm on it to lighten it, then coated it in ice. She lifted it, testing the weight of it, and she nodded to herself.
Gesturing to a smaller rock, she transfigured that into a close-enough replica of the egg she meant to go catch. Striding toward the beast as if she were utterly unconcerned with the fact it could kill her with a wink, Isabeau made her way to the estimated edge of the chain's radius before she threw the false egg as hard as she could.
Getting a proper grip on her wand, she darted toward the cave as the beast lunged toward the false egg. Feeling rather pleased with herself, she reached for the real egg. The collective gasp-scream-shriek of the crowd alerted her to the fact that something had gone horribly wrong, and she turned to see the creature coming at her, effectively blocking off her escape route.
She shoved the shield forward, though it did little good against the hundreds of pounds of charging chimera. She felt something hot lancing her calf, felt the blast of fire against her suddenly flimsy shield and staggered, stumbled, fell.
Gasping, sobbing at the pain in her leg but completely unwilling to release her prize, Isabeau moved determinedly forward, using a combination of physical and magical attacks to keep the creature at bay as well as she could ... but it was something of a losing battle. She wondered honestly if they would let her die here on the field, but even as she wondered, the beast backed off and two brawny wizards were lifting her up, pulling her out of the rock pile. She was bleeding in a dozen places, singed and burned and she was aware that half of her hair was missing somehow. Burned off? Sheared through? She didn't know, nor did she care as she let them carry her off the field, her arms still wrapped tightly around the egg.
As she lost focus on her spells, the shield became a rock and slipped free, and she succumbed to the pleasant darkness of unconsciousness.
_____________
Anya had very nearly panicked when she heard the screams from the arena. She glanced to Jacob, but he wasn't saying anything. Letting herself be led off to the field, Anya swallowed. Part of her didn't even want to go out there, but she didn't think the headmaster would appreciate it much at all if she caved before the first task.
So she stepped into the arena, glancing around quickly until she spotted her challenge. Get the egg, from the rather irate looking chimera.
No problem. No problem at all.
Chimera breathed fire. That much she knew. They had three heads, so she either had to subdue three heads of a fire-breathing chimera or somehow get in behind the creature. She recalled the screams and thought it in her best interest not to engage.
Instead, she cast a disillusionment charm over herself and took the very, very long route to the cave, keeping her eyes on the creature guarding the nest of eggs. Once she was close enough that she thought she could get in and out without an issue, she flicked her wand to send an illusion of a pack of dogs racing past the creature, adding a tweak to the spell so they'd run in circles for a longer distraction.
Carefully but quickly, Anya slipped into the cave, snatched up the egg, and slipped back out. Just as she hit the edge of the cave, it appeared the chimera recognized the distraction for what it was. It turned toward her, but even as it turned, she was already running and was out of the range of the chain before it could do more than attempt to blaze fire at her.
Dropping the charm, she lifted the egg aloft. They hadn't seen much, surely - but that was rather the point. She'd done magic, accomplished her goal, and stayed safe. All in all, she felt rather proud of herself.