Testing Limits [Closed] - Printable Version

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Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

Iara watched the sun as it set for the fifth time since she'd begun this particular experiment, the sky awash is pinkish-orange tones she found particularly pleasing. She felt the slightest hint of a breeze brush against her skin - the oppressive heat of the day was giving way again to cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, the pounding ache in her skull showed to sign of lessening, and as she walked she felt the near-constant dizziness of the past two days turning to something altogether more like vertigo. With a small sigh, she decided it was time for another break. She sat down where she stood, long past caring to be particular about such things, and tucked her one knee under her chin. She licked her lips, dry and cracked, though the the gesture brought no relief - her tongue felt equally dry. She closed her eyes for a moment, listened to the too-rapid flutter of her heartbeat beneath her ribs.

In retrospect, it had probably been a rather unwise idea, but Iara had always been impulsive, prone to a certain kind of recklessness. It was not, she thought, self-destructiveness that drove her, however, not really. She did not have active abilities, ones that were immediately useful in and out of a fight like those of others like her she'd glimpsed - the man with laser fingers, the girl with the telekinesis, a man she who could shift into a wolf. No, her abilities were passive, of no direct use when faced with a threat but for the fact that she could throw herself at that threat recklessly. To do that, she needed to know just how much she could withstand, what she could survive; too much of what little the woman knew about her abilities had come to her by way of sudden, unpleasant surprises. It made sense, she thought, to learn what she could in a controlled way - thus, over time, a series of experiments.

Iara had noticed that there was something about eating and drinking, that she got hungry and thirsty but that there seemed to be something off about her need for these things - situations where she'd had to do without for a day or two here and there and seemed less affected than she'd once been. She'd already learned that she could do without oxygen, at least for a while (and god she hoped she'd never need to fill her lungs with water again because the body's reaction to drowning was so, so unpleasant), so it was not really out there to wonder about her limits, how long she could do without water, food. The desert surrounding Las Ballenas seemed a good a place as any to test this - if she stayed her for any length of time she'd no doubt have reason to venture into it, if only because she preferred confrontations (which she seemed to find herself in far too often these days, but so it goes) away from possible witnesses and bystanders, and this way she would know how long she could go, if necessary. Preparing for the worse and whatnot.

Iara had taken an early morning bus to the outskirts of town and then walked, wearing a bright turquoise dress and dark tights, her hair tied back loosely. She brought nothing with her - she had few enough possessions, these days, and deemed it safer to leave those in a rented locker at the bus station. After a time she'd left the roadside and walked deeper into the desert, where no one was likely to see her and ask if she needed assistance, or question what she was doing. At first it had been almost pleasant to just walk, letting her mind go where it might. The desert here was so much different than that in Australia - the ground paler, less red, and the brush and cacti here were distinct. Nonetheless it brought back memories, nostalgia. She'd been nineteen, a bit skinnier and far less cautious, determined to hitchhike from Sydney to Darwin. She remembered gazing out at the outback from the window of and talking to Al, who'd told her about his mob, the Arrernte people, and had given her a ride all the way to Alice Springs...

The following days were far less pleasant - she quickly forgot about hunger but the thirst, the bloody thirst was so intense, and more than once she found herself staring at a cactus, knowing there was likely some water inside but no, this was an experiment, she needed to see how long she could go with nothing, out here in the heat. The headache had started sometime during the second day and by the third it felt like a mallet constantly pounding into her skull somewhere behind her eyes. She gave up on keeping track of time, noting only sunrise and sunsets, napping when she could, forcing herself to walk despite the ache in her muscles because if this was a real situation, she'd need to know how long she could walk.

Now, the sun was setting for a fifth time, and she sat in the sand, listening to her heart beating wildly, far too fast. She'd done her research on dehydration beforehand - that she was still alive, still conscious and able to walk after five days in the intense heat proved that this, too, fell under the umbrella of ways her abilities made her very, very hard to kill. She'd tried to gauge how badly off she was - she felt like shit, but then, she had for days. It was getting hard to think, to focus on anything for long, but she hadn't yet hallucinated anything. Earlier that day, when the heat had still been intense and she sat in the hot sand, knowing she was no longer sweating as she had the days before, Iara had decided that perhaps this was enough. She knew she could go at least five days in fairly extreme conditions, which meant longer in better circumstances, and she no doubt already looked and smelled like shit five days in wandering in the same clothes outdoors; she'd need energy to get back to the city, get her stuff, find a cheap motel that would give a room to someone who hadn't bathed for five days. Some time later, after forcing herself up and walking again, she'd realized she no longer had any idea which direction the road had been in - at some point, she'd grown disoriented enough to lose all sense of direction.

The sky grew darker, and the dizziness did not seem to abate this time, even sitting down. Iara considered that she was an idiot, and really should have brought a phone if only for the gps. "Bloody hell," she whispered, throat hoarse. It looked like she might learn a bit more about how slow it took her to die of dehydration than she'd planned. Unless she didn't die and just...stayed in this half-dead shit state hardly able to walk but unable to die, and wasn't that a horrifying thought, but not altogether out of the question. "Fuck," the muttered again, and closed her eyes.

A few moments later, she opened them, the sound of movement nearby drawing her attention. She turned, and saw a coyote standing near some brush, a few meters away. She'd heard the howling of coyotes at night, but this was the first time she'd seen one, and so close by at that. "Hey," she said, mustering a small smile. The coyote stared at her, though it did not react to her greeting. She watched it watch her, several long moments before it turned back and scampered away. She sighed, and shifted so that she was laying down, back against the ground, and closed her eyes. Her head hurt too much to sleep, but perhaps she'd be able to...think of something, if she rested her eyes for a bit.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

Someone was lost in the desert again.

It happened more often than one would think. Not an every day occurrence, far from, but people somehow managed to get into all sorts of shenanigans out here. Most of them sorted themselves out, really. Las Ballenas was lousy with people who could take care of themselves.

But the coyotes had found something interesting, someone arguably edible, which normally meant someone in need of help. It was a bit early still, but the sun was setting rapidly. The night's chill would set in soon; for right now, it was almost pleasant out. As pleasant as it got, anyway. Not that the extreme temperatures in either direction bothered him in any real way, although the heat of the day made him smell terrible sometimes.

Four paws on the ground, he let the coyotes lead him to where they'd found their would-be prey. His coyotes didn't eat people anymore. He made it worth their while not to. Instead, they told him about it; they seemed to register humans in this sort of position as "his" prey.

They weren't wrong. He was just very, very nice to his prey, that was all.

He spotted his newest unfortunate from a distance; an exhausted lump on the ground. The steady rise and fall of her sides implied that she was not, in fact, dead. She might have been unconscious. That would be great--for him, if not for her. Unconscious bodies were way easier. Especially at this time of the night; he could take her all the way to a hospital on the edge of the city without to much trouble.

Still, he approached with caution. You never knew what you were going to get out here, and he was... kind of a vision of death and terror. No one wanted to see a wolf the size of a small horse--with horns, to boot--when they were stranded alone in a desert.

It was Klyk's experience that no one ever wanted to see that, actually, regardless of the circumstances. But this was definitely one of the shittier ones possible. He'd meant to just stick to terrifying criminals, but... he couldn't just know someone was dying in the desert and not do something about it.

He padded closer, silently, across the cooling desert sand, eyes that glowed like embers fixed on her still form. Unconscious, he hoped idly to himself. Unconscious, but not comatose.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

As she suspected, Iara was unable to quite fall asleep, instead drifting in a state of half-awareness, random thoughts fluttering across her consciousness indistinctly. It was comfortable, at this time, neither too hot nor too cold. She wasn't sure how much time passed, when some small sound of movement, some instinct, roused her. Coyotes again, perhaps. Lazily, she opened her eyes to confirm this, and to see if the sun had finished setting yet, thinking she might try to make herself walk a bit -

Shit. Her eye widened as she caught sight of the...thing that was approaching her, already closer than the coyote she'd seen earlier. For a moment, her mind went blank, a confused kind of stillness before a sudden jolt of adrenaline gave her enough clarity - and energy - to react. She pushed herself quickly to a sitting position, her head spinning from the movement and shifted backwards slightly, away from the creature.

"What the fuck," Iara gasped, staring at it from a more upright vantage point. The creature was massive, and there was still enough light to see just how black it was, with glowing red eyes and horns like some kind of demon. "Fuck," she muttered again, quieter this time. She continued to stare, alert and cautious, but the initial spike of panic abated somewhat as the seconds passed by and the creature did not immediately lunge at her. It was unnatural enough that there was a chance it might be one of the things that could harm her; she thought, given her experiences thus far, odds were decent it might not be able to do too much to her. She suspected she'd soon be finding out in any case, under no illusion that she'd be able to get away from the thing in her current state.

"I'm an idiot," she muttered, as she continued watching it, waiting to see what it would do. Why the hell had she thought it was a good idea to bring nothing at all with her?

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

Klyk abruptly stopped moving when the person's--woman, possibly, from what he could see this close--eyes suddenly snapped open and fixed on him.

She was, in fact, not unconscious. She pushed herself up off the ground, and Klyk took note of the hazy, unfocused look in her eyes. He didn't detect a burn on her skin, but that could just be due to its dark color. She looked very rough, dirty with cracked lips. She'd likely been out here all day, the poor thing. And now she had to deal with him. What a terrible day for her, all around.

She was clearly alarmed, but not running, which was good, because Klyk really hated having to chase people for their own good. It made him feel like such an asshole. But some people didn't catch on until he'd dragged them, kicking and screaming, the whole way to the bus station.

He held still, letting her adjust to the sight of him. He knew it was, uh... something to take in. Then he took a few slow, cautious steps closer, head down, nose pointed towards her. He wasn't sure how close she'd let him get, if she would try to run, or turn violent. He'd walk right up to her, if allowed, give her an investigative sniff, but it all depended on how automatically friendly towards giant hellbeasts she was, as a whole.

It was impossible to not look intimidating in these circumstances, honestly, but he could at least avoid sudden movements. Chances were very slim this one was hiding an elephant rifle anywhere on her person.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

Iara watched as the creature stopped, holding still for several moments before moving towards her again, slower this time, it's posture more...cautious, somehow.

It occurred to her, somewhat belatedly, that this was perhaps a hallucination of some kind, the onset of a more serious delirium. She kind of hoped that it might be, though that would be a pretty bad sign as to her state, but well. Better to treat this as real if it was a hallucination, then assume it was a hallucination if it was, in fact, real.

She swallowed as the thing drew closer, her throat painfully dry, and sat up a bit straighter. Everything was still spinning. Definitely vertigo. Still, she needed to think. Options. She could try to run, but, fuck that, she'd get nowhere. She probably couldn't do much to it, with no weapons and dizzy as she was, but if it was going to attack her she'd rather go down fighting than just give up. If she was lucky, maybe its teeth or claws would slide harmlessly off her skin the way bullets did and she could just...wait for it to lose interest and go away. For a moment, she wondered if her corpse would still be as invulnerable to scavengers if she died, but no, focus, she had to focus. Ok, plan: see what it does; if it attacks and she's not invulnerable, try to fight it off.

The creature continued to approach, stopping right next to her. She shifted to meet it's eyes, watching cautiously as it gave her a sniff. Fuck, her heart was pounding even more rapidly now than it had been earlier.

"I think you might find eating me harder than it looks," she said, mostly for her own amusement, coughing a bit as she finished the words. Her voice was quiet, accent mostly Australian though some might recognize a bit of something else, inflections from some other tongue on the edges of some of her vowels.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

Alright, this was good. She hadn't tried to run, and so far she wasn't throwing sand in his eyes. It was something people did with alarming regularity, and he really hated it. He could never really get it properly out without shifting, and it always stung like mad.

Her poor heart was fit to burst from her chest; he could hear the thrum of it in his ears. He couldn't blame her. He gave her a bit of a sniff. Human? Human enough to smell human, anyway. That didn't always mean "just" human, though. Additionally, she smelled terrible; she'd definitely been out here for a while. Either that or she just had a personal vendetta against hygiene. Her voice had an odd sort of accent he didn't really recognize. Not speaking English anyway; if she'd been speaking Russian he might have been able to place it.

Her voice sounded rough, cracked like the rest of her. But it was getting dark, which meant he didn't have to worry about sudden onset heat stroke, and while she seemed pretty shaky and hazy, she didn't seem about to pass out, either. That meant he could take his time with this. It'd be easier on her, psychologically speaking. So he lowered himself onto the sand, laying down in front of her, paws outstretched in front of him. It put his face on a more even level with hers, if nothing else. He prodded at her shoulder with his nose, gently. Let her see he meant no harm, so that she'd scream and hit less when he inevitably needed to pick her up. Hopefully.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

Iara's brow furrowed in confusion when the massive, demonic canine laid down in front of her. This was...not an attack. Or even something that looked like it was leading up to an attack. Nonetheless, when she felt the prod of a moist, cool nose against her shoulder she gasped, loudly, just barely managing to stifle a scream. That, too, was not an attack.

Maybe she really was hallucinating, she thought, except - why, of all things, would she hallucinate this bizarre, demonic dog beast? And she had felt it's nose on her shoulder just now - was it possible to hallucinate touch? She'd always thought of hallucinations as visual, or auditory, but hell if she knew and, shit. What was happening, even.

She wasn't usually very talkative, when she wasn't deliberately setting out to speak to someone for a particular purpose, but there was something about the degree of her disorientation, the thirst and dizziness and the utter strangeness of the situation, the fact that she had no idea of what the fuck was happening... the words just tumbled out of her mouth.

"...what. the fuck. are you? just. fuck me dead, five days and fuck if know where i am why the fuck did I think this was a good idea and you aren't trying to fucking eat me let's see how long I can go without water five fucking days what could possibly go wrong..." she stopped suddenly, the dryness of her mouth and throat too much, and coughed again. Iara was not ordinarily particularly foul-mouthed, but there was a hysterical edge to her confusion and apparently, when she was distressed she cursed.

She bit down on her lip slightly, trying to gather her scattered thoughts, and watched the strange creature to see what it would do next. Despite her best instincts, there was a part of her, a small curious stupid part of her, that was a bit intrigued - the thought of trying to touch one of its horns flickered very briefly across her mind.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

Ooh, she was a talker! Klyk's tail wagged in low, slow arcs across the sand behind him. Five days? A miracle she wasn't actually dead. An actual miracle, possibly, in the same way that it was a miracle when a man could fly, or control gravity, or punch through solid brick walls. She was a swearing talker, too, which was sort of funny. He wasn't sure he understood every idiom she was using. He could not possibly be translating "fuck me dead" right. That seemed like a very odd thing to say to a hellhound the size of a horse. Probably some American slang he hadn't come across yet.

She began a coughing fit again. Poor thing. He really should start bringing water with him, but he hadn't really figured out a good way to do it. All his water came from a well in his backyard, a truly precious commodity in the desert. There was an oasis some... He glanced around. Two miles northeast. Not quite on the way to town, but close enough to justify swinging by with her and getting her something to drink. And maybe rinsing her off a little, if he could do it without risking her freezing in the night chill. She smelled, just... really bad. Five days in a desert bad.

He gave what he hoped was a reassuring lick to her cheek. His saliva tingled, but it also tended to cool the hot and heat the chilled. It might be comforting. It also might freak her out. But she was already freaked out, and he was going to have to carry her, sooo. She'd just have to adjust.

Although. If what she said was true, and she wandered out here wondering how long she could go with water...

Oh well. Klyk didn't discriminate. He saved more idiots than geniuses just by the nature of what he did.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

The more she watched the creature, the less likely it seemed that an attack was imminent. Its posture seemed far from hostile - in fact, as her gaze drifted briefly from its face to the rest of him, she noticed... was that a tail wagging? She watched the slow, sweeping motion for a moment and...yeah, that was a tail wagging.

"Fuck," she said again, bringing her gaze back to its face. This was unreal, and yet, the thing was, she'd seen enough weird shit, was herself an example of weird shit, that she couldn't just dismiss this as definitely not possibly and what -

Her thoughts were again interrupted, this time by the feeling of a moist, wet tongue on her cheek. The wetness of it reminded her of her thirst, and to her utter shame and disgust, there was a moment where her mind drifted to the thought of - no, hell no, fuck how thirsty she was, she was not going to think about drinking saliva.

Iara brought her hand to her cheek, which was starting to tingle in a particular way, not unpleasant exactly but distinctly odd. She rubbed some of the saliva off of her face, and after a few moments her fingers, too, started to tingle. She stared at them.

"Fuck me," she said as the realization hit her. "You're...a friendly...demonic dog creature, aren't you?" The thing had licked her, after all, and was wagging its tail and not attacking her and just. What the fuck.

Very, very tentatively, she reached out, her hand slightly shaky - more from the dehydration that fear, really - and reached for one of its horns, ready to draw back if it reacted aggressively. Never let it be said she wasn't an impulsive fuckwit, sometimes.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

Oh good, she was settling in. The harmless dog act did wonders. Humans were cautious of wolves, but they knew dog body language automatically. A wagging tail and a dopey dog smile did wonders. Not normally... enough wonders, to cope for the rest of him, but you'd be amazed what heatstroke could do for someone's willingness to be open to new experiences.

His tail hit the ground in slow thumps, sending up little puffs of sand. He was! He was a friendly demonic dog creature! She figured it out so quickly, wonderful. Soon, he could get her to an oasis, and then to town. It would be fully dark by the time they got there; she'd really wandered out into the middle of nowhere. That meant he could take her in somewhere proper, like a hospital, and not just drop her off at the bus stop at the edge of the desert.

She reached out, tentatively, and he realized she was going for the horns. It was always either that or his face. No one ever, say, decided to be totally enamored with his chest or the top of his head, or some place nice like that. Nope. Face or horns. Nonetheless, he tilted his head towards her, giving her full access to the horn and the ear beneath it. It was arguably the most solid thing on his body, and somehow, he doubted she was going to yank on it. Let her touch around for a bit if it made her feel better about the situation.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

Carefully, slowly, she brought her hand to his horn, relieved that he hadn't started growling. Gently, the touched it, her hand still for a moment, then moving down along it as it curled, not quite petting so much as just...touching, feeling. She reached the tip and let go, and after a small pause, she reached and gave him a scritch behind the ear. Dogs liked that, Iara was pretty sure, though she'd never had a dog of her own so she was hardly an expert.

"Fuck, life is strange." she rasped, staring at the creature in front of her in wonder. It occurred to her that she knew that there were people like other, people with strange abilities and powers - Ren7 had called them metahumans - but what was to say that there weren't...animals that were the same way. Maybe this was a meta-canine? The thought almost made her giggle. She never giggled. Fuck, she really was getting delirious, even if this wasn't a hallucination, which she was pretty sure it wasn't now, because she was touching it and scritching its ear.

"I'm half afraid I might die here," she said, the odd impulse to talk still there even though she was a bit calmer now and talking fucking hurt, "Which is so bloody stupid because someone strapped explosive to me and I didn't die and this is just me testing... how else am I going to know what I can do if I don't test..." She coughed again. "I'm half afraid I can't...die here" she muttered after a few more moments, barely audible. There was something...comforting, about talking to another living creature, one that wasn't trying to eat her and couldn't understand what she was saying anyway.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

A small hand on his horn wasn't the most frequently felt sensation. He didn't exactly host weekly movie nights. Contact, he knew; hell, he slept in a pile of coyotes every day. But human hands were nice in their own way. Particularly when they gave him a welcome scritch behind the ear.

He wouldn't say this was why he did what he did, but it was a nice side benefit.

He gave the woman another hopefully-reassuring lick. She seemed calm enough that she wouldn't panic if he moved. Hard to tell, she seemed kind of out of her mind, a little, and also kind of uh...

Well. He didn't have to rescue geniuses a lot, like he said. Still, she sounded more invulnerable than he was; he'd been hurt by a point blank elephant gun. He didn't want to try his luck with C4 anytime soon. But that was no excuse for wandering into the desert! One could test ones abilities in a lot of other, safer ways than just... just wandering out into the desert. Goodness. What would she have done if he hadn't showed up? Ah, well, no need fretting over that. He had. Everything would be fine now, and she didn't have to worry about dying or not-dying, which sounded much worse.

He moved, not quite standing up, just sort of shifting along the ground until he was perpendicular to her. He looked pointedly at his back, then nudged her shoulder again. Things were easier if people figured it out themselves. He absolutely could pick someone up--gently--in his jaws and toss them onto his back like a sack of potatoes. He did it all the time. But it would probably a lot less mortal-terror-y if she put two and two together herself. He gripped them hem of her sleeve cautiously between two teeth and pulled her pointedly towards him. C'mon. Up.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-09-2017

This time, Iara did not almost-scream when the hellhound licked her; once again, she noticed her skin tingling where his tongue touched her. How odd. She wondered if it meant anything, that tingling.

She did jump a bit when he shifted, pulling her hand back and watching him cautiously. She followed his eyes as he looked at his back, then at her, then at his back again. She blinked, wondering if he wanted her to pet his back instead. She jumped again when he grabbed her sleeve with his teeth and pulled, but didn't try to pull away from him. Instead she moved her hand to his back and stroked it slowly, from his neck down to his rump.

"Is this what you want?" she asked. It was not, in fact, what he wanted, judging by the shake and the more insistent tug at her sleeve. She considered his pointed gaze again, the tugging, and -

"Seriously?" she said, a bit incredulous. He might be a super-dog, but she was pretty sure dogs weren't for riding. Why would he want her riding him? She was so confused. For a minute she just sat there, staring at him. But, considering everything...she doubted she could walk much further in her current state, and he was obviously smarter than a regular dog/wolf/whatever, and really, worst case scenario she could always jump off him, though she doubted he could take her anywhere worse, could he?

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered finally, and, tentatively, crawled forward, shifting into a crouch. "Remember this was your fucking idea," she added. Slowly, and with not a small bit of apprehension, she climbed onto his back, straddling him the way she'd sort of assumed people straddled horses, and lean forward to wrap her hands around his shoulders - if she was going to be riding a demonic dog, she had no intention of falling off.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - SolitareLee - 04-09-2017

It took a little bit of doing. She seemed to think he wanted him to pet her, which was nice, actually. He wouldn't object to future petting, although if she wanted to thank him, a new doorknob would be more appreciated than petting. Not that he could actually explain that to her. And besides, he really wanted the fox in question to buy him that doorknob. It seemed more fair.

But, eventually, with a lot of tugging and suggestive stares between her and his back, she seemed to figure it out. Honestly, she acted like it was his first time being ridden. He'd been doing this for years, thank you very much, with people much larger than her. Not that she could possibly know that, but she wasn't the size of a small horse just for show.

Well.

She'd find out.

He waited until she seemed to have a pretty good grip on the thick, fluffy fur around his shoulders. He appreciated that; sometimes people went for the horns, like they were handlebars. It was much more uncomfortable. Once he was sure she was on as well as she was getting, he stood. See? Just like riding a... Hmm. Well, riding a giant dog, probably. But it worked! She'd see.

He glanced around, getting his bearings again, before setting off northeast. He started in an easy trot until he felt her grip tighten, her legs squeezing his sides. Once he could be sure she wouldn't fall off... he really started to move.

He'd clocked himself at 130 kph once. It had been a fast but comfortable running speed.

He didn't subject her to that. She'd probably become distressed. He kept to a very slow, easy lope at about half that speed. It would only take them maybe five minutes to get to the oasis this way, assuming he remembered its location correctly. Then she could get some much needed water.

He was only off by a little bit. Little too far to the right. He'd remember next time. He veered to the left, heading straight for the trees he could see shimmering on the horizon. Once he reached them, he slowed to a stop by the water's edge. He sort of just wanted to jump in, but again. Trying not to distress the not-so-delicate woman.

Hopefully she knew not to gulp. Though if explosions didn't hurt her, somehow, he figured drinking too fast wouldn't do her much harm.

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RE: Testing Limits [Closed] - AgentBonkers - 04-10-2017

Iara's grip on the creature's shoulders tightened as he stood and started to move. It felt odd, and not altogether comfortable, riding him, though really she wasn't sure how much of that was because she was riding a demon dog specifically; she'd never had occasion to ride anything at all before, nor any ambition to.

The creature moved at smooth pace, surprisingly fast, she thought, though not so fast as to be terrifying. He was warm beneath her, a contrast to the now-cooling air of the desert at dusk. Where was he taking her anyway? The strangeness of the situation and her dizzy lightheadedness combined into an almost exhilarating feeling. For a few moments, she closed her eyes and simply tried to enjoy it.

The movement beneath her came to a slow stop, and Iara opened her eyes, blinking a few times. Then, she stared at the water, which seemed almost too good to be true. After a moment to gather her witsm she shifted and slid off of the side of the hellhound, the process more awkward than mounting him had been. She stumbled when her feet hit the ground, the vertigo worsening again as she stood upright. She gripped the creature's side to steady herself, then stumbled to the water. She knelt down in front of it, cupping her hands and using them to drink a mouthful, then another. Fuck, it felt amazing, just, utterly amazing, the cool moisture on her lips, her tongue, her throat. She splashed some water on her face and that, too, felt great.

The woman turned back towards the creature who'd brought her to the oasis, meeting its glowing red eyes, her own full of gratitude.

"Thank you. Seriously, thank you, this is amazing," she said. Turning back to the water, she continued to drink, pausing every so often for a few moments before taking another few sips. After a minute or two her stomach began to feel full, however, after so long with with nothing at all inside of it. Not wanting to make herself sick, Iara forced herself to stop for a bit, looking around instead at her new surroundings. She still had no idea where the hell she was, but being lost with water was far better than being lost without. Somewhat surprised, she realized the creature was still there, watching her drink; she'd half-expected he would wonder away now that he'd had brought her to the water. She was still very confused, and not a little cautious.

"So, you a meta-canine then?" she asked, thinking back to her earlier idea. For the first time, she wondered if it could understand her, at least a little bit. After all, it knew she needed water and brought her to some, which required a certain level of intelligence, and if it really was some kind of enhanced animal, who knew what it was capable of? Curiously, she had a closer look at the hound, now that he was standing, and she at a different angle, and, huh.

"So you are a boy, then," she commented.

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