Player Plot: How to Get Away With Moo-der

[singlemilletgrain]

Who: Shu, cows, and you
What: Udder cowtastrophe
Where: Farmlands outside of Elysium
When: Mid-month
Warnings: Animal cruelty



As the farmer plods away to resume tending his fields, Shu shakes her head with a frown and addresses her companion. "That is the fourth farmer this week to report a missing herd of livestock. These aren't small losses, either. It is unimaginable that they simply vanished off the face of the earth."

Not coincidentally, Shu is currently seated atop her own oxen, who is placidly chewing on some grains underfoot.

"Let us examine the pasture. He said there were numerous markings he could not make sense of. These disappearances will be catastrophic for the small farmer if they continue and have a lasting ripple effect on the supply chain of meat. Not just for the Corsairs."

She nudges He Sheng with her ankles.

Comments

[newmemorywhodis]

Link doesn't have a mount of his own; here's here with Shu on foot. Though he does give a few surreptitious, wistful glances towards some of the farmer's animals. (Not the cows, though. The horses.)

But he drags his attention back to the matter at hand. Particularly since the matter involves a potential loss of meat. They certainly can't have that! So he gives Shu a nod, and starts walking alongside her and her oxen as they begin the search.

Though, he doesn't stay completely by her side. He has a tendency to stray, often. Usually to pick up something interesting he's noticed in the field. A pretty flower here, or a useful herb there. And a few grasshoppers and butterflies.

[singlemilletgrain]

Obviously, Link's gaze is caught by the soulful brown eyes and attractive patterned pelts of the bovine survivors. Shu cannot blame him for being so distracted by such distinguished and noble creatures. Though when he starts to jog after butterflies, she partially opens her mouth before deciding that it was unlikely to do any harm. Link, in general, remained a tad bit of an enigma, though she was beginning to understand the young (?) knight a little better.

He gets a kindly nod of approval when he holds up a blue butterfly he manages to catch with his bare hands. (What is he going to do with it...?)

They reach the far side of the main pasture without incident. He Sheng stops in his tracks.

"...Odd."

In addition to a large number of obvious animal prints, there are large chunks of earth upturned, with the occasional visible tread or tire track.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link moves forward, crouching down beside the tracks. They look like the kind made by some wheeled zonai contraptions, or some of the other vehicles he's seen in this world.

What's more notable is that they can see the vehicle tracks coming in and leaving later - but there aren't any similar exit tracks for the animals. Instead, the cow tracks just seem to end in this spot.

"...We should follow," Link says.

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu nods in agreement, her grip on He Sheng's reins tightening as she examines the destruction.

"Of course."

The tracks are not difficult to follow, though they are fairly extensive. Unsurprisingly, they eventually come across a section of wire fencing that has been cut through. The tracks continue beyond, though the earth turns harder beyond the pasture and less receptive to prints.

"That direction should be... unworked land."

[newmemorywhodis]

The lang might be unworked, but clearly someone was moving through it.

Right now though, that fence might scratch and hurt Shu's cow if she tries to walk through it. Whoever cut it didn't seem to have bothered to make it neat and safe - probably because they were in vehicles, and didn't need to worry about that. So Link makes sure to but a but more of the fence away, and turn a few of the sharper wire edges around, so that Shu and her cow can easily walk through.

Once on the other side though, the tracks are harder to follow. So before they disappear entirely, Link finds a nice big tree and climbs to the top. Can he see any signs of where they might have gone?

[singlemilletgrain]

Link is so very forward-thinking. Shu admires his thoughtfulness as she guides He Sheng through the gap in the fence. It is clear that he is accustomed to taking on the role of 'problem solver' in his general spheres, from the unconscious way he goes about things so meticulously and thoroughly. In some ways, Shu has similar inclinations, though as far as 'adventure' and 'exploration' goes, her foresight is a little more limited.

On the ground, He Sheng sniffs at the tracks briefly before giving a snort. ...Cows are not exactly tracking animals, so Shu doesn't think much of it.

"Do you see anything, Link?"

There are some subtle patterns - some disturbed brush, some visible damage to the natural paths. If Link has a keen eye and looks very far, he might even see a few moving figures off in the barely visible distance. Figures moving in their direction.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link has more than a little practice at scouting up high; if anything it's his default response to any new and unfamiliar terrain. So he certainly notices those figures off in this distance.

He hops down, landing softly in the dirt next to Shu.

"There's people that way," he says, pointing in their direction. "Coming towards us."

[singlemilletgrain]

"People..."

Odds are that they're simply farmers or other travelers. But Shu has an instinct that there's no reason in particular for someone to be out in the bare countryside, where no crops are tended and nature grows wild.

"I imagine I'm being too cautious, but -- perhaps we should not draw too much attention. Until we know who they are."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods, with an air of intense focus. Link knows what they need to do. They need to be silent, and sneaky. They need to stay out of sight, and watch without being noticed. He and Shu just need to crouch down, where the grasses will hide them, and...

...and then Link's eyes drift over to Shu's oxen. Her very large, very noticeable oxen.

He glances back at Shu, now looking faintly stumped. How are they going to hide that?

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu looks at Link quizzically.

He Sheng looks at Link plaintively.

"..."


They both stare at Link for the duration of a few moments as a chill, awkward breeze carrying a single wilted leaf spirals by.

"................I suppose He Sheng will have to go back to the pasture."

The ox sniffs audibly.

[newmemorywhodis]

Alas, if only either of them had the ability to make oxen invisible.

But since they don't, they'll have to settle for the old-fashioned way. So while He Sheng is sent back to the pasture, Link crouches down low in the grass. Then, once Shu is ready, he'll head off towards the people he says.

He moves slow, and quiet. He might not have his stealthy Sheikah armour, but that doesn't mean Link can't move quietly on his own. As long as he's careful not to get too close, and to stay out of sight, they should be fine.

[singlemilletgrain]

He Sheng's sorrowful and much-maligned figure fades away into the distance after Shu heaps praise and affection upon her cow. Shu could never be called 'grouchy,' but there is a faint air of petulance conveyed by her facial expressions for a few moments after He Sheng disappears.

...Just a few moments, though.

Then she follows after Link, doing a significantly worse job at staying stealthy given that she has never had much cause to practice this skill. Still, she has the presence of mind, skirt the path widely and keep to the cover on the sides of the road. They progress like this for about five minutes before there is the distinctive sound of footsteps and voices coming from up ahead.

"...on't see... all the fuss is... single cow..."

"...leave behind... tracks straight back..."

[newmemorywhodis]

When they hear the sounds of voices, Link stills immediately - and gestures towards Shu, indicating that she too should stop.

And then, he listens. A single cow? But the farmer had lost an entire herd. Had these people found He Sheng's tracks somehow?

Staying very, very quiet, he shifts forward slightly. He wants to hear better. And perhaps if he can catch sight of them through the grass, he'll get a read on how many of them there are.

[purplexing]

This isn't Donnie's typical idea of an activity but after everything, he feels like he needs a break from being underground. Elysium itself still makes him a bit anxious, but out here things are calmer. Peaceful, even.

"You think something might be making off with them?" he asks, walking alongside Shu and her mount. Some kind of creature finding an easy meal of the local livestock would be a problem, and considering the number of disappearances, more than a bit concerning.

[singlemilletgrain]

It would indeed be considered a peaceful day. Here, far from the chaos sown in Flotsam and the unlit caverns of Vault, the autumn sun is shining mildly and the light breeze carries with it the scent of earth and plant matter. Shu's ox maintains a steady, if not particularly rapid, pace.

What with the evacuation and the pitched battle of the last month, it has been some time since she has reconnected with Donnie. She glances down now with a smile tinged with worry.

"Something would be unfortunate. I shudder to think what kind of creature could devour several herds of cattle whole. A someone might be more likely. Perhaps a rival farmer -- or a thief finding easy prey."

Not usually serious enough to warrant Corsair business, but as Shu had passionately opined, the daily life of a farmer deserved attention just as much as anyone else, even if it were not a glamorous profession.

[purplexing]

It's nice getting a chance to just breathe hopefully without worry of another attack somewhere. With all the preparations he'd been throwing himself into at the mines, he had little chance to work on personal projects. Spending more time in a cave with rumbling still going on over your head while you had the memories of an Imperial barrage still fresh in mind just makes things less and less appealing. It had been a great relief to see that Shu was all right after everything. He'd only heard bits and pieces of what happened in Flotsam, and even if the losses had been on the 'favorable' side, it had still been a difficult fight.

"Yeah... Although where would you hide that many cattle without anyone noticing?"

Someone had to help out the farmers, the non-fighters. Isn't that essentially who and what they're ultimately fighting for in the end? For people so that they can just live peaceful lives that aren't oppressed by the greed of an Empire?

[singlemilletgrain]

"Mm."

She doesn't have any particularly satisfactory answers. While cattle were generally fairly pliant creatures, it was still difficult to imagine that entire herds would simply vanish overnight without kicking up a racket. Nor could she imagine transporting them very easily.

"In plain sight? Amongst a herd of other cattle. Perhaps we should take stock of the largest cattle farms in this region."

It was the most reasonable possibility she could imagine. At the far side of the pasture, the passage of about 20 acres, Shu halts He Sheng with her ankles and swings her legs off the ox.

"Curious."

In addition to the expected animal tracks, there are large regions of flattened fescue grass and upturned earth.

[purplexing]

That makes sense enough. Donnie nods thoughtfully. It sounds far more preferable a situation than potentially dealing with something that had just been very hungry.

"Whoa."

He stops when Shu does, but it doesn't take him long to see why. "Well, something definitely came this way," he says, lowering his goggles, adjusting the lenses to zoom in on the area before them.

[singlemilletgrain]

If Shu were from a world that had such things, she would allow the possibility of UFOs and tractor beams to pass through her mind. As it is, her private thought bubble is toggling between Giant Cow Eating Behemoth or a Very Large Dairy Truck.

"We should take a closer look."

Shu doesn't have investigative goggles, but she will do her best unassisted.

Investigation Begin!

A survey of the area reveals five different sites of potential abnormalities: a region of especially deep upturned earth, a small, shining metal object barely visible through the grass, a portion of a wire fence that has been knocked over, a splatter of some viscous, dark liquid, and some tufts of something fuzzy caught in an area of thick weeds.

Shu will kneel down in the earth and immediately observe --

"Footprints. Human ones."

[purplexing]

Donnie steps carefully after her, his goggles definitely giving him the look of a mad scientist. He pushes them up just so he won't trip what's right in front of him, but not before something shiny had caught his eye.

"Hm," he says as he walks in the direction he'd seen that gleam, tapping his goggles down again when he thinks he's closer.

[singlemilletgrain]

Regrettably, footprints don't usually come marked with logos that identify the origin of the owner, though Shu will note that they aren't the type of tread that might be associated with a farmer's boot. Further observation suggests that the upturned earth has a scarred appearance - as if something heavy being dragged along it, almost like a dredge.

Donnie, when he pushes aside the grass, will find a twisted piece of ornamental metal, alongside glassy shards of what he will easily recognize as formerly belonging to an ether stone. The ornamental metal suggests that it was meant to be affixed to something and not carried on hand. It is possible that it is part of a set. The shards themselves are long and jagged, seeming to be sourced from a stone of a larger variety.

[purplexing]

"That's...odd," Donnie muses as he carefully picks up one of the pieces for study. A broken stone, but what was the purpose? He picks up the pieces, mostly out of habit of hating to leave anything that can still potentially be useful.

"Not sure what this could be for," he says as he glances back towards Shu. "Make anything out from those footprints?"

[singlemilletgrain]

"I am not an investigator, I admit. It is difficult to tell how many people were here - you see, these are all the same kind of footprint. At least, I can tell there are at minimum, three different sizes. It does seem to suggest a uniform."

She moves on to the broken wire fence. It is difficult to make anything in particular of this clue and it is, indeed, expected, but...

"Does it look to you like this was a moving vehicle impact?"

If it were a large truck driving through, she would expect the fence to be thrown forwards and the posts clearly angled in the direction of the force. Instead, it seems more as if it were... crushed.

[purplexing]

"Uniform...?" The turtlekin's brow furrows at that, not liking the implications. He looks at the imprints, but boots aren't something he ever exclusively paid attention to.

He looks over to where Shu has moved before going over to join her, looking around at he ground before the space in question. "If it were a vehicle then there should be even more obvious tracks from that..." he suggests, once again pulling his goggles down.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Oh -- of course. How clever you are."

Having completely failed to think of the obvious, Shu looks at Donnie with admiration and resists the urge to give a kindly head pat. There are indeed no tire tracks of any kind, nor any other sign that something passed through the fence. As Shu says, it seems more as if it were smashed by something landing on top of it.

Donnie's goggles, if capable of some magnification, will find some evidence of painted wooden splinters scraped on the fence posts.