The preserve, Thursday night

[tigerundercover]

"To my first A since high school!" Kathy cheered, holding up her bottle of soju in a toast before knocking in back. This wasn't the first toast of the evening and neither Kathy's voice nor the hand holding the bottle were particularly steady.

It had taken many months, but the weather was now warm enough that Kathy was willing to venture outside without concerns of frostbite, hypothermia, or pneumonia. And so, after her EMT class let out Thursday night, Kathy headed into the Preserve to spend the night camping out with Raven, rather than heading back to the house on Apocalypse. She'd miss the guys, yeah, but sometimes you just needed bonding time with your best friend, especially after finding out that not only had you aced your first major exam, but you'd come in at the top of the class.

Kathy killed her bottle, setting it down with the exaggerated care of the well and truly tipsy and then grinned at Raven. "That was the last bottle," she announced. "And now we know how much soju it takes to overcome my metabolism!"

The answer was: many.

[Preplayed with and posted on behalf of spin_kick_snap and Kathy is out of the BDE until Saturday. This post is NFI, but there will be a clinic post in a few where Kathy can be fretted over and interactions can happen!]

Raven	Raven laughed, raising her canteen -- filled with water, since she didn't want to end up trashed trying to keep up with Kathy. "To science," she said. "And the next great EMT in Baltimore!"
Kathy	Keeping up with a superball would have bad, bad consequences for Raven's liver, yes. Good job being responsible, Raven! "Could you imagine me being an EMT back in the old days?" Kathy laughed. "I'd be all, 'Hi, I'm Banzai! I'm here to kick your ass and patch you back up afterwards!'" As always, mention of her old career sent a pang through her, but she was inebriated enough to ignore it. "Though I don't think this is a thing I'll be doing professionally. I just wanted the skills. Stuff gets..." She waved a hand at the woods, a far more extravagant gesture than she'd intended. "...Hinky. Around here." Yes, hinky. Perfect word, good job, Kathy.
Raven	"Hinky," Raven said. "Terrifying, same thing. Have you thought about it? What you would do professionally?"
Kathy	"Thought, yeah," Kathy said, leaning back on her hands and looking up at the trees. "Come to any useful conclusions? Not a one. I keep looking at course offerings for colleges around here and I can't even figure out what I'd major in."
Raven	"Why do you have to major in anything? Why can't you just take some classes?"
Kathy	"At the beginning, sure?" Kathy said. "But at some point I'm going to have to pick something." She ran a hand through her hair. "I have the store now, so the smart thing to do would be to major in business, but that's one--" There was a noise in one of the bushes not far from their camp. "Okay, okay, I get it!" Kathy called over to what she was assuming was a teal deer. "I talk too much!"
Not A Teal Deer	What came out of the bushes was not a teal deer. Not by a long shot.
Raven	Raven leaped to her feet, shifting instinctively as she went. Had Kathy ever seen her bear form? She roared and swiped the thing with a massive claw, sending it smashing into a tree. It bounced right off and lunged at Kathy.
Kathy	"How did that not stop this thing?" Kathy shrilled, bouncing up to her feet. "Better question! What the fuck is that thing?" Whatever it was, it was drawing all of her attention from noticing Raven apparently had a big, fuckoff bear form. All right then. It was heading towards her and it was faster than she expected. Plus, with all the soju she'd had, she wasn't as fast or as steady on her feet as she should have been. She managed to dive out of the way at the last moment, feeling the rush of air as the monster passed. Unfazed, it spun around and lunged for her again.
Raven	"I don't know! It usually works really well!" Raven yelled back, a little garbled since she was, you know, still a bear. She dropped to all fours and charged the monster, aiming to pin it, this time, but couldn't keep up. The thing was almost as fast as Kathy was. "Shit shit shit, watch out!"
Kathy	Now that she was scared and moving, Kathy could feel herself sobering up, but not fast enough. She was still too slow, too uncoordinated. Her preternatural agility was keeping her upright, but it wasn't doing much more than that. She lashed out a kick at the thing, but missed her target, landing a glancing blow that the creature barely noticed. Worse, it pulled her off balance, and she wasn't able to get out of the way as it slammed into her. And then she was flying through the air. Good to see her natural bounciness remained unaffected. That didn't mean that crashing into a tree was going to hurt any less--it just meant she'd bounce off and into something else, instead of just sliding down the trunk with some semblance of dignity. Ow.
Raven	Raven's horrified "KATHY!" came out as more of a full-throated roar before she shifted again, this time going for speed and accuracy instead of pure brute strength. She'd taken out Midknight as a panther, surely she could get this creepy bastard -- Or not. The thing grabbed her in its teeth and flung her aside into a tree of her own. And Raven didn't bounce.
The Thing	The creature set its eyes back on Kathy in an instant, Raven nothing more than a petty nuisance in the way of its meal. It raced up one tree, then came speeding down at Kathy from above, all claws and teeth and skinless muscle, radiating cold, hopeless horror.
Kathy	Kathy pushed herself up on her arms, ears ringing. "No," she said, groggily trying to get to her feet. "No, go 'way." It was not listening. It came for her, fast and implacable, knocking her over once again, though she'd only barely gotten to her knees. Kathy went down with a low moan as it began to feed. Not flesh or blood, but something deeper, like is could suck the very marrow from her bones.
Raven	Oh hell no. Raven had not walked across the continental United States to get Kathy back only to lose her to some weird pink monstrosity in the woods. Raven shifted into a form she'd been using alot lately in her time in the Preserve. It was a good one. She had bulk, she had horns that she could use to scoop the damned thing off her friend, and she had a loud-ass distress call she could use to summon stampeding alots to keep the thing off the both of them while she scooped Kathy off the ground. She was kind of hoping it'd get trampled to death, but that thing was crazy durable. Retreat seemed like the best option.
The Thing	Bays and howls echoed from behind them as the other alots stormed in, separating the thing from its prey. But no matter how loudly the alots crashed and bellowed, it was only distance that softened its cries, not pain nor injury.
Kathy	And for her part, Kathy lay limp and nonresponsive. The creature had only been at her for a matter of seconds, not even a full minute, but it had drunk deep. Her face was waxy and pale, her breathing labored, and her skin so very cold.
Raven	Which Raven discovered the moment they hit the edge of the preserve and she felt safe again. "Kathy? Kathy! No no no no, Kathy, don't you dare do this to me again. Fuck, oh fuck, fuck. . . ." She knelt above her for several moments, hands shaking as she tried to figure out what to do. Her brain was stalling out, all she could think was fuck oh fuck fuck fuck over and over again. "You're the EMT, Kathy, I don't know how to handle this, what the fuck am I supposed to -- CLINIC." Thank god no one was around to see how long it took her to figure that out.