[OPEN] RECOLLÉ TREASURE HUNT

[appraiser]

WHO: Everybody
WHERE: All around the city
WHEN: Sunday, June 4
WHAT: It's time to go treasure hunting!
WARNINGS: None

Four in One,
under eternal rainfall,
a ReVA event coordinator makes Five,
with clue #1 for you all.

Either by solving the above riddle, hearing the answer through the grapevine, or simply following the trickle of people gathering at the center of Recollé Square this early Sunday morning, one finds Ryoji circling the Founders fountain with a box tucked under his arm and a ready greeting for anybody that approaches him to get started on their hunt. To each team, he hands over a blank sticker and their choice of marker in any of the colors of the rainbow— red, orange, yellow, grey, grey, purple— to write down their name and their team name, along with a small white pin reading "TH 2017 Participant" in bold red. Both the name tag and the pin must be affixed somewhere visible on the front of each member's shirt before he hands over their clue.

Have fun, play hard, get on out of here and find that treasure!

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[ notes: IC, the above can be hand-waved, with top-levels in this post starting from when Ryoji hands your team the first clue. OOC, all clues will be distributed on the ooc/sign-ups post, and any questions can be directed there as well. ]

Comments

Clue 2

[long_live_the_queen]

The car ride wasn't too traumatic. Relatively. Lucy didn't say anything about what was on the radio, but it did take a substantial amount of badgering to get her to put on her seat belt. And a minimum of shotgun-seat-driving suggestions.

She didn't stretch after getting out of the car, but she did shake out her foot a little. The shooting range was one of many places Lucy had never been to—passed by on the bus, sure, but never actually visited.

Until today, through an unlikely chain of events.

"Do I need a license, or something?"

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya shrugged as she marched up the path. This actually was something she should know, for a multitude of reasons. "Hell if I know. What do I look like, an officer?"

Her gaze drifted to Lucy's injured ankle briefly (and a little pointedly), but she didn't remark about it as she kept walking.

Well, not remarking on it yet, anyway.

[long_live_the_queen]

Lucy followed behind Freya like a strangely pink-haired duckling, pointedly ignoring that look at her ankle.

"I'm still talking to you so you're obviously not a cop."

She snorted.

"Maybe you can say you're a chaperone."

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya turned a teasing, shit-eating grin over her shoulder. "Even sayin' that, don't think they'd let me take a middle schooler in."

Short joke that she'll probably regret? Short joke she'll probably regret.

[long_live_the_queen]

That certainly got the expected response of Lucy bristling like a bird! And punching Freya in the side.

She was behaving, she didn't aim for the kidneys. And it was more like an emphatic bop than anything else.

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya laughed, and probably would have even if Lucy did swing for her kidneys. She knew what she had coming.

Arrive at the door of the range, Freya started glancing about for an obvious ReVA volunteer (or a cow-shaped target or decor), but was intercepted by an employee that saw their treasure hunt name tags.

And then they're led out to the outdoor shooting range and the employee hands Lucy a rifle.

"Clay pigeons, huh?"

[long_live_the_queen]

Lucy was still quietly fuming when they walked in, though she stopped when one of the employees introduced themselves and led them elsewhere. There was still a frown on her face, but they didn't seem to notice or point it out if they did.

Ear protectors were next, along with some safety regulations.

And, obviously, the rifle. Lucy was more than a little surprised when the employee gave it to her first. She held it with both hands, neither of them close to the trigger.

"It's heavy." Much heavier than the plastic laser tag things. It was a little surprising.

[belligerentwarrior]

"Make it look a lot easier on the screen, yeah?" Freya glanced at the launcher, then tried to trace an imaginary trajectory. Then she turned to Lucy and her rifle, hand casually resting on her hip.

"You got this?" Her tone was light. A simple question, with no expectations attached. If Lucy wanted to take that shot, it was fine; if she didn't know how, that was fine, too.

[long_live_the_queen]

"I think—so," Lucy said, voice wobbling a little as she tried to move the rifle's muzzle around. This couldn't possibly be that hard. It was a small rifle, the attendant was still nearby, Freya was right there. Just...point the other end at whatever they were supposed to hit (clay...birds?).

"Do you hold it like this?" She has the butt of the gun under her arm, please help.

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya made sure to step into Lucy's field of vision before approaching her, gently guiding her arms until the guy's properly position, like Penelope showed her.

"Brace it right here, and keep it flush. Don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready." Then she stepped back. "Tell me when to launch the target."

[long_live_the_queen]

She was grateful for that, really. Lucy didn't stiffen or twitch away when her roommate touched her arm, seating the gun more securely against her shoulder. The rifle still felt very heavy, and her shoe edged into one of the puddles drying up from when the staff had washed the path down earlier. Someone several lanes down had started shooting at something rapidly, but the sound just made Lucy focus more rather than distracting her.

This wasn't something the teenager ever thought she'd be doing. Today was a day for a lot of firsts, it seemed.

"Okay," she said, tightening her grip on the wood and metal of the rifle.

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya stepped on the lever, sending a pale disk arcing into the air, soaring towards the horizon. Moment of truth, Lucy.

[long_live_the_queen]

It was not, in fact, a ceramic bird—something that threw Lucy off at first. She didn't know what she was expecting, really. It was harder to track the thing than she thought, it moved so fast, and the little disk was already on its way back to the ground by the time she figured out where the trigger was again.

This should have been much easier, just pull the trigger at—

—at a pile of rain-damp debris, a night lit only by distant street lights, where cold beat down on her head and something unpleasantly warm squelched into her toes. At a soldier, fully armed and armored, rolling out from behind that heap of cover—and seeming startled at her presence. She pressed back on the trigger, and the rain-dark world burst into fiery light.

Lucy's shot went hopelessly wide as she jerked backwards, grip going slack enough that the barrel flipped back and almost smacked her in the face.

[belligerentwarrior]

Lucy's sudden burst of movement startled Freya and she jerked back as well. She wasn't entirely sure what just happened; from her perspective, it almost looked like her roommate just... panicked.

"Hey!" She recovered, standing up straight again, hands finding a perch on her hips as usual. "What did I say about keepin' it to your shoulder? You'll get yourself hurt that way."

[long_live_the_queen]

"I—meant to! Just—"

Lucy shook her head, eyes darting to Freya and her mouth open to continue. Her gaze lit on the range employee still looking over at her, in case she was actually hurt.

Not...not a good time to talk about this. That. Whatever she just saw.

The teenager pressed the rifle into Freya's hands, shaking her head again. The images might have faded, but not the scent, the feeling, the sounds.

"Later," she tried to whisper. "Could you...do this?" That was hopefully enough of an alibi for any eavesdroppers; her voice was certainly nervous enough.

[belligerentwarrior]

The irritation in Freya's expression settled into something more stoic at Lucy's whisper, just observing her roommate for a few seconds.

"Right." She accepted the rifle, stepping into Lucy's place without further question and shouldering it. "Go."

[long_live_the_queen]

A lot of tension relaxed out of Lucy's shoulders, and she let her eyes close briefly in relief.

It didn't last long, though; her expression erased into blankness again, and she glanced away. The teenager trusted Freya to know what she was doing, and didn't look back. She paused only long enough for her roommate to step and adjust into place—and stepped on that panel when she heard Freya's voice.

The ceramic disk launched through the air, and Lucy's gaze followed it—it didn't require thought, or reflection on what she'd just seen.

[belligerentwarrior]

It actually took Freya the rest of the three tries to strike the target; she'd only handled a rifle for the first time a couple months ago. The disk finally shattered with a distant crack, and taller woman passed the gun and her equipment back to the staffer.

It wasn't until they'd marched out into the field and Freya knelt down to poke at the clay fragments that Freya said anything. "What'd you see this time?"

[long_live_the_queen]

Lucy didn't comment on Freya's misses, and only perked her head up when she saw the distant target fracture. She waited until the employee motioned that it was all clear—as impetuous as she was, Lucy wasn't about to march off into a field when it was full of live-fire bullets.

When Freya finally did ask her, they were far enough away that no one would hear. No one else, anyway. It was as private as they'd get without leaving the range.

"I shot someone," was all Lucy said. She wouldn't meet Freya's gaze, staring straight ahead at the fragmented target and the paper wadded up beneath it.

[belligerentwarrior]

Her fingers paused, just short of the clue, brow knitting gently together. Those three words brought up a lot of questions, but Freya wasn't sure which one to start with. She knew as well as anyone the nature of these... visions.

"Who?" It was a place to start, though she didn't have many expectations for it.

[long_live_the_queen]

"...I don't know," Lucy admitted, shuffling her feet. That pause made her nervous. But she couldn't just unsay that.

"He was wearing armor, but not on his face or head."

[belligerentwarrior]

"...armor?" That wasn't what she was supposed to take away from Lucy's words. But Freya murmured it to herself nonetheless, brow furrowing further as—the roar of gunfire and engines drown out anything else she might be able to hear, but she could see the bastards well enough in their yellow-and-white, and that was all she needed. Despite how rapidly they were moving, despite the immense recoil of the assault rifle in her hand (how was she keeping that steady in one hand?), enough of her aim was true to disrupt their ranks and focus. It wasn't her usual MO, but she had to admit, it was exhilarating—her fingers curled around the clue.

Freya swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry and her hand shaking with an adrenaline rush she had no right to be feeling.

Then she remembered that Lucy had said something. She hadn't responded yet. Freya wasn't sure how long she'd been silent, but she hoped it wasn't too awkward or noticeable. "That's—not much to go on." Goddammit.

[long_live_the_queen]

Well, Freya didn't respond...negatively? Too negatively. No accusations, no guilt. That silence dragged on uncomfortably long, though; she started to shift on her feet before her roommate finally spoke up again. It was hard not to give a relieved sigh, though Lucy couldn't help the irritated sound she made either.

"A vest, like a soldier. All green."

She remembered seeing waves in the not-too-distance, and the grit of sand underfoot in addition to that sticky unpleasantness. A beach? Again? What was up with that place?

[belligerentwarrior]

Lucy's near-constant antagonism was grounding, at least—made it easier to focus on the now, and not the lingering thrill.

"I meant for context." She unwrapped the clue, standing up and brushing off her knees as she did so. Jumbled words? Like those puzzles... what were they called?

[long_live_the_queen]

"I don't know!" Lucy blurted, almost a snap. Her frustration was boiling over again. "I don't know why he was there, just that he was, and—"

She shot him. There was an awful certainty about it. Lucy's mouth clicked shut, and she shook her head like the memories were cobwebs to shake away.

...did she kill him, too? Would talking about it here count as some confession, if anyone else overheard?