Encounterlogs
Nikolais Odd Encounter Sr Korina 240724
On a peaceful night, Nikolai's tranquility is shattered by a woman's desperate screams from the nearby woods. Responding reluctantly to her cries for help, he discovers Cindy, distraint and trembling, her partner Adam missing. Clad only in swim trunks and fueled by a blend of irritation and concern, Nikolai learns that Adam has failed to return from checking traps in the forest, leading Cindy into panic. Despite the absurdity of Cindy's explanation about avoiding electronics for the sake of "energy," Nikolai, a seemingly ordinary man with divine lineage, decides to embark on a rescue mission under the moonlit night, driven by the woman's distress and the urgency in her voice. He quickly realizes that the situation might be more complicated than a simple accident, preparing himself to confront whatever lies ahead in the darkness of the woods.
As Nikolai and Cindy venture into the forest, following the faint trail of Adam's scent mingled with blood, they encounter an unexpected peril - three kobolds dragging the injured Adam away. With a display of divine power, Nikolai scares off the kobolds, saving Adam from a grim fate. Meanwhile, Cindy, witnessing Nikolai's extraordinary abilities, becomes convinced that he is an angelic figure, a belief that further solidifies her gratitude and awe. Graciously, Nikolai dismisses the notion, attributing his success to quick thinking and basic survival knowledge. He emphasizes the importance of seeking medical attention for Adam and advises against nocturnal activities in the woods. The encounter leaves Cindy profoundly impacted, promising to honor Nikolai by naming her future child after him, while Nikolai returns to the serenity of his pool, reflecting on the night's odd and unexpected turn of events.
(Nikolai's odd encounter(SRKorina):SRKorina)
[Tue Jul 23 2024]
In an outdoors pool built into the terrace
In what is sure to be a move hated by the downstairs neighbors, the rooftop terrace has had a large, refreshing pool built into it, filled with cool water to combat the summer months. Situated near the wall, the pool remains in the shade during the hotter hours of the day, though plenty of poolside seating is available on the terrace to the west if one wishes to sunbathe. Tall, floor-to-ceiling windows provide an excellent view of the kitchen and the living room from here.
It is night, about 86F(30C) degrees, and the sky is covered by wispy white clouds. There is a waning gibbous moon.
(Your target's been contacted to help find a civilian who's become lost in the woods.
)
Gleaming under the dim light of the moon that filters through the clouds and casts moving shadows across the surface of the rooftop swimming pool, the waters are a refreshing, slightly chilly temperature, a stark contrast against the warm air of the night. The pool's surface ripples gently with Nikolai's lazy drifting amidst the depths, the occasional lapping of water heard; it's a quiet night, to be sure, with the faint, distant sound of urban life melding with the occasional rustling of leaves, the chirping of a very early bird or the growl of a predator in the woods nearby.
The indoors are quiet too; his partner is likely taking another nap before the sun comes up, and the kitchen and living room are both still and silent where they're visible through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. It's enough to make someone drift off and fall asleep, with the cool waters engulfing them...
Until the blood-curdling scream that pierces through the air all of a sudden, shattering the peaceful atmosphere like glass fallen to smithereens. There goes the peace and quiet.
Through his vantage on the rooftop, Nikolai can make out the cause of the disturbance easily; even if his eyes aren't sharp enough to make out the details of what's going on upon Elm's Bane, he can still make out the feminine figure that stands in the glow of a torch, trembling hard enough that the light flashes this way at that, lighting up patches of green in the canopy, brown upon the ground - and there, a hint of red.
"H-hello?" She calls out, trembling at first, and then louder, ear-piercing, "HELLO? IS ANYONE AROUND? I NEED HELP!"
It's unlikely she's going to shut up anytime soon, and the longer it goes on, the more it seems like nobody else has heard anything to come investigate - not a surprise, considering most people are likely asleep and indoors behind many layers of soundproofing, unlike Nikolai.
"SOMEONE, PLEASE!" It's not stopping.
Nikolai sighs. It's not as if he'd be able to relax with all the screeching, even if the woman's turmoil should eventually waft up to him like a fine psychic perfume. Right now, he's more concerned with chilling out and escaping the summer heat. He steps out of the pool and towels off with a little grumble - this jump would go fine, but he absolutely did not want to slip while he was doing it. Once he's properly dry, he bounds forward and leaps over the terrace railing - then paths down behind the torch to step out of the darkness at the woman's back.
"You are disturbing the night," the big Russian booms, not quite so loudly as the ear-piercing calls the woman had been making, but hypocritical enough. He's also clad only in his tiny American Flag swimtrunks, and is otherwise a mass of well-placed fat and muscle - maybe an intimidating sight for someone not expecting him. "What is problem, woman?"
She screams out loud again, and this time it's even louder, probably because this giant, hulking man popped up behind her without making a single sound. A hand goes up to her chest in hopes of staving off a heart attack from the startlement of it all; her pulse is still beating fast, and fear and panic rolls off her in waves. Up close, now that Nikolai can get a better look at her, it's easier to figure out her panic-stricken features: chocolate-brown eyes widened and pleading, a mess of straw-blonde hair, and the scent of nature like someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. Her frame is sturdy; she's used to hard work, that's for sure.
Shaken she might be, but Nikolai did ask what the problem is, and so she sniffs once, then twice, and speaks with a trembling voice, "I- m-my- my partner, we live in the woods nearby, he-... he went out earlier to check on some traps, and didn't come back, and I was trying to f-follow him, and..." There's a hiccuping sob, and she shines the light of her torch at the patch of red amidst the underbrush: it's the torn tatters of a shirt, caught upon some thorns, the edges of it dark with blood. "Please- please, I need to find him, oh sweet Demeter, what if he's dying?!" She turns to Nikolai more properly now, tear-filled eyes blinking up at him, "Please, sir, help me. I - I don't know how to fight, and-" That's as far as she gets before she's breaking out into heart-wrenching sobbing, fat tears rolling down her cheeks to patter on the ground, filling the air with the scent of salt.
"Bozhe moi," Nikolai grumbles, palming his face and dragging his fingers along his jaw for a moment. "I do not know if you are crazy pagan or what, but has he got his phone number? Have you called him? Easy way to find him." Of course, if the man was really desperate, maybe he'd make a wish - that'd make it even easier to find him. Until then, though, tracking someone by their phone was the easiest way to fix the issue. "These woods are dangerous, so your partner is idiot to do this at night. Make sure you give him proper talking-to when we have him back, da?" And in the mean time, Nikolai can soak up all the worry and fear the young woman has to offer.
Nikolai meant to ask if he has his phone /on him/, not his number.
"We... we don't use phones. The excessive use of electronics and social media brings negative energy into the house," The woman claims; great, so she's one of those people. Now that Nikolai has declared his intention of getting the man back, she seems just slightly calmer, even if there's still the occasional trembling of her hands, and the obvious worry that's overtaken her. At least the tears have stopped. Small mercies, right?
"He does it at dusk, when the energies are focused elsewhere-" What energies? She doesn't elaborate. "B-but he didn't come back when he was supposed to, and I got worried and tried finding him, and-" She sniffs again, /this/ close to tears once more. "I- I will! I'll never let him go out again, s-so please! If you have a way of finding him..."
Considering there's no phone, the best Nikolai can do is follow the faint trail of a masculine scent and the stronger scent of blood that leads further into the forest, if he wants to make up an excuse about how he knows where to go. There's no desperate wishes for survival that reach his Demigodly senses - the man is unconscious, or worse...?
Bracing himself inwardly, Nikolai does the smart thing when dealing with the unknown and possibly-supernatural. "Elaborate on the energies you are talking about," he says, applying some psychic persuasion to help grease the wheels. "Is there to be aware of before we go?" The smell of blood isn't good, but if the man's bleeding out, that's his own problem. Nikolai wasn't about to get his ass mauled off by a rabid grizzly bear shifter without at least asking around first.
"It's just science," the woman says, continuing on with the nonsense now that Nikolai's made the mistake of asking, "Energies are at their peak at dusk and dawn, because of the heightened energy convergence from the sun setting and rising, right? The atmosphere is charged with a blend of solar and terrestrial energies, you know? It's the balance of light and darkness at dusk and dawn that creates this powerful magnetic field that enhances the body's natural rhythms and improves mental clarity and physical equilibrium."
... is she done?
No.
"The EMF fields phones give out interferes with energies too and build up a lot of negativity from prolonged usage. That's why we've both sworn off them, especially now that we have a little one on the way," She doesn't look visibly pregnant, so maybe it's just really early, "it's important to absorb all the beneficial energies and ground the negative energy every day to counteract the negative effects of the EMF, and-... Oh, um," She pauses then, slightly out of breath from the onslaught of information she spouts Nikolai's way. "Are... are we going? He could be /dying/ out there, please hurry up."
It's not /his/ fault that she took so long to explain her bunch of horse shit. Oh - well, maybe it was, but Nikolai had expected her to be more concise. "Okay," he says, mentally filing her under 'not aware'. "Follow me." He beckons the woman towards himself, then follows those mixed scents into the woods. He didn't have his tools, weapons or armour - but he did have experience and plenty of ability to handle things with his bare hands. "Tell me your name," he grunts, keeping an eye out for encroaching woods creatures. It's a good thing he can see in the dark - that torch only points in one direction. "And tell me his. He is probably hurt, da? So do not freak out if we come across him and he is injured. You are on duty to keep him safe. Freak out when you get him home."
She follows behind Nikolai without a complaint, practically vibrating out of her skin by now with anxiety the longer they've spent out here standing around and not doing enough to help the vanished man. "Cindy," she tells Nikolai, "He's Adam. Like from Adam and Eve." She might be a bit of an idiot. "We're both twenty-two, and we've been married for four years." Right at eighteen, oof. "And we've been ready to start building our family for so long, and now that we were finally happy-..." Sniff, sniff. She gathers herself again to continue talking Nikolai's ears off. "A-and we have our differences sometimes, but we love each other, okay? I'd never want for him to get hurt." She sniffles quietly once more, talking much too loudly in the dark forest and sending the light of her torch flitting here and there instead of keeping it steady on the path. It's a good thing Nikolai doesn't really need it to navigate the woods.
There's about two, maybe three other scents passing through here once they get off Elm's Bane and into the nearby forest proper, one - the human, masculine one - tinged with the blood that's splattered here and there, leaving a steady trail across the dirt, while the others seem unharmed, smelling somewhat animalistic. The woods are quiet enough that the only thing to be heard is the snapping of twigs occasionally beneath their feet, and maybe a far-off rustling here and there. And then, a wishful prickling at his senses...
Someone to the left of you wishes to eat this man already without dragging him home first.
... that must be Adam's captives, hopefully.
Struggling not to grind his fucking teeth as he walks along with someone, Nikolai says - rather loudly - "I see wolf tracks. Stop here." He lifts his hand to physically stall her if he has to, then blows out a piercing, ear-splitting whistle, shrill and painful even to human ears, let alone any god damn mutha fuckin' meta shifters that might be skulking around. Sanctuary wouldn't save a corpse, but if the guy was only in the /process/ of dying, things should be okay. He takes that turn as necessary, only beckoning Cindy to follow him once he's had that whistle going for a good little bit.
Struggling not to grind his fucking teeth as he walks along with the nu-age girl, Nikolai says - rather loudly - "I see wolf tracks. Stop here." He lifts his hand to physically stall her if he has to, then blows out a piercing, ear-splitting whistle, shrill and painful even to human ears, let alone any god damn mutha fuckin' meta shifters that might be skulking around. Sanctuary wouldn't save a corpse, but if the guy was only in the /process/ of dying, things should be okay. He takes that turn as necessary, only beckoning Cindy to follow him once he's had that whistle going for a good little bit.
Whether he actually sees wolf tracks or not - it's likely there's more than a few, considering the full moon was only a couple nights ago, but none of them are likely as fresh as whatever they're looking for - Cindy shuts up immediately. Or, more accurately, she stops talking and lets out a loud gasp of alarm and concern, so it's only really a half-shutting up.
The whistle takes immediate effect: it cuts through the stillness of the night and shatters the tranquil ambiance that they had going on, birds startling away and out of their nests, darting away from the source of the noise. A passing owl hoots in curious concern, a single 'hoot' that sounds like a 'what the fuck' if he's paying close attention, before it flies off too. Ahead, where he'd sensed the wish come from, is not a meta-shifter nor a werewolf at all.
In a clearing beyond the treeline is a group of three, two-foot-tall kobolds, dragging along a tied-up man with a chunk taken out of his arm. He's unconscious, a bit of blood on his forehead, but he doesn't seem to be actively bleeding out from the head injury, most of the damage limited to his arm.
The whistle seems to have worked on the fox-headed, pointy-eared kobolds though; they've stopped in their tracks and let go of the man to cover their ears, letting out chittering, startled, noises as Nikolai draws closer with Cindy behind him. And speaking of Cindy...
"Adam!" she gasps out loud once her torch points right at the unconscious man, not noticing the kobolds for the time being. She makes a run for it, trying to rush past Nikolai and get to the man post-haste.
He hadn't /really/ seen wolf tracks to be concerned about; Nikolai had just wanted Cindy to back up a bit before she rushed into the jaws of whatever they were about to encounter. He had expected the rush, though, so that held-out hand snags the woman by the shoulder, stopping her from getting too close. "Don't /move/," he says to the woman, who couldn't hope to get very far against how strong the Russian is, anyway. He could take three kobolds without any equipment, no problem. They could shoot pebbles at him all day long and he'd barely feel it. "Give me your torch," he grumbles, and snags the thing out of her hands before he has the chance. He flashes the light over the ratty fox-men to scatter them, and all that exposed skin he has on display explodes into solar brilliance, denoting his divine heritage. He pushes someone back a step or two, then charges in towards Adam throwing his arms up to make himself huge and ideally scare off the little shitheads.
He hadn't /really/ seen wolf tracks to be concerned about; Nikolai had just wanted Cindy to back up a bit before she rushed into the jaws of whatever they were about to encounter. He had expected the rush, though, so that held-out hand snags the woman by the shoulder, stopping her from getting too close. "Don't /move/," he says to the woman, who couldn't hope to get very far against how strong the Russian is, anyway. He could take three kobolds without any equipment, no problem. They could shoot pebbles at him all day long and he'd barely feel it. "Give me your torch," he grumbles, and snags the thing out of her hands before he has the chance. He flashes the light over the ratty fox-men to scatter them, and all that exposed skin he has on display explodes into solar brilliance, denoting his divine heritage. He pushes Cindy back a step or two, then charges in towards Adam throwing his arms up to make himself huge and ideally scare off the little shitheads.
The kobolds explode, for lack of a better word, into a whole cacophony of high-pitched chittering and chattering and yipping and squeaking, which sounds a little like "Chitter-chatter-screech! Yip-yap-snarl! Squeak-squeal-shriek- AAAAAAH!" in response to the sudden burst of divine light that Nikolai glows with, now trying to shield their eyes /and/ their ears from him. Their prey is forgotten for the time being, and one, a particularly brave one, likely the 'leader', steps up to launch a rock from their cute little slingshots right at Nikolai with all the strength it can muster - it bounces off one of his pecs, flies back off, ricochets from the ground back to the kobold's own forehead - a bullseye! It goes falling back with another terrified screech and grabs at its companions to make a run for it, if Nikolai doesn't chase them further. His tactics of intimidation are more than sufficient.
On the other hand, Cindy has a look of absolute shock plastered across her features when she catches up after Nikolai charges in. She's staring at the Demigod even if it makes her eyes water from all the light, her jaw agape, and it takes another moment or three before she gathers herself enough to fall to Adam's side. "Adam, Adam wake up! You're fine now, right? Adam?!"
As the man on the ground is slowly roused back to consciousness, the woman turns to Nikolai again, looking awe-struck still. "What... what are you...?" she asks in a whisper, then shakes her head to herself. "No, no, I know already. I know in my heart. This is a /sign/. You are an angel, aren't you?" She crawls over from Adam's side to peer up at Nikolai, reaching a hand out to touch the tops of his feet reverently. "Thank you, thank you so much. I'll never forget this. I- I'll name our child after you. What is your name, savior?"
"I am just Russian," Nikolai informs the young woman, handing her back her torch. He's conveniently not glowing anymore, either. "Bright light and loud noise will scare off most predators. Fuck around with torch and whistle; problem usually solved." He backs away from the feet kneeling - which he enjoys, actually, but he can't accept right now - and leans over to hoist the injured man up over his shoulder before turning around and marching the pair out of the woods.
"You are going to want rabies shot, tetanus shot, and medical attention," he informs the pair, not really able to do anything for Adam's pain in the immediate sense. "Ignore bad energies for now. Go to hospital. Pathogen from wild animal bites will fuck you up worse than, eh, EMF. My name is Nick. No more trapping at night, da? Especially in mist. It is like kick-me sign for predators."
/Just/ Russian? She's not buying that. Cindy listens to Nikolai's words with reverence, hanging on to them like he's her new guru instead of whatever counselor or life coach she listens to. "Y-yes, Nick, of course," she says, almost tripping when she follows after him a bit like a duckling. There's questions written across her face: How was he /glowing/? What were those things? Is he going to bless their child to be big and strong like him? Does he want to be the baby's angelic and/or just-Russian godfather?! She doesn't say any of those out loud, though, but the wishes drifting off her are loud.
The trip to the clinic goes uneventful. She stays with Adam once Nikolai drops them off, with many many many more thanks, and she reassures him that she 'won't ever tell anyone his secret', so he's probably not got anything to worry about regarding the secrecy of the supernatural world. Even if she does, she's not got all her screws in working order, so nobody will hopefully think a lot of it.
The child better be a boy, because they're getting named Nick either way. She's very adamant about that. And so Nikolai returns home to his cat a hero, having defeated the forces of evil once again, or something like that, where the cool waters of the pool await once more.
As Nikolai and Cindy venture into the forest, following the faint trail of Adam's scent mingled with blood, they encounter an unexpected peril - three kobolds dragging the injured Adam away. With a display of divine power, Nikolai scares off the kobolds, saving Adam from a grim fate. Meanwhile, Cindy, witnessing Nikolai's extraordinary abilities, becomes convinced that he is an angelic figure, a belief that further solidifies her gratitude and awe. Graciously, Nikolai dismisses the notion, attributing his success to quick thinking and basic survival knowledge. He emphasizes the importance of seeking medical attention for Adam and advises against nocturnal activities in the woods. The encounter leaves Cindy profoundly impacted, promising to honor Nikolai by naming her future child after him, while Nikolai returns to the serenity of his pool, reflecting on the night's odd and unexpected turn of events.
(Nikolai's odd encounter(SRKorina):SRKorina)
[Tue Jul 23 2024]
In an outdoors pool built into the terrace
In what is sure to be a move hated by the downstairs neighbors, the rooftop terrace has had a large, refreshing pool built into it, filled with cool water to combat the summer months. Situated near the wall, the pool remains in the shade during the hotter hours of the day, though plenty of poolside seating is available on the terrace to the west if one wishes to sunbathe. Tall, floor-to-ceiling windows provide an excellent view of the kitchen and the living room from here.
It is night, about 86F(30C) degrees, and the sky is covered by wispy white clouds. There is a waning gibbous moon.
(Your target's been contacted to help find a civilian who's become lost in the woods.
)
Gleaming under the dim light of the moon that filters through the clouds and casts moving shadows across the surface of the rooftop swimming pool, the waters are a refreshing, slightly chilly temperature, a stark contrast against the warm air of the night. The pool's surface ripples gently with Nikolai's lazy drifting amidst the depths, the occasional lapping of water heard; it's a quiet night, to be sure, with the faint, distant sound of urban life melding with the occasional rustling of leaves, the chirping of a very early bird or the growl of a predator in the woods nearby.
The indoors are quiet too; his partner is likely taking another nap before the sun comes up, and the kitchen and living room are both still and silent where they're visible through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. It's enough to make someone drift off and fall asleep, with the cool waters engulfing them...
Until the blood-curdling scream that pierces through the air all of a sudden, shattering the peaceful atmosphere like glass fallen to smithereens. There goes the peace and quiet.
Through his vantage on the rooftop, Nikolai can make out the cause of the disturbance easily; even if his eyes aren't sharp enough to make out the details of what's going on upon Elm's Bane, he can still make out the feminine figure that stands in the glow of a torch, trembling hard enough that the light flashes this way at that, lighting up patches of green in the canopy, brown upon the ground - and there, a hint of red.
"H-hello?" She calls out, trembling at first, and then louder, ear-piercing, "HELLO? IS ANYONE AROUND? I NEED HELP!"
It's unlikely she's going to shut up anytime soon, and the longer it goes on, the more it seems like nobody else has heard anything to come investigate - not a surprise, considering most people are likely asleep and indoors behind many layers of soundproofing, unlike Nikolai.
"SOMEONE, PLEASE!" It's not stopping.
Nikolai sighs. It's not as if he'd be able to relax with all the screeching, even if the woman's turmoil should eventually waft up to him like a fine psychic perfume. Right now, he's more concerned with chilling out and escaping the summer heat. He steps out of the pool and towels off with a little grumble - this jump would go fine, but he absolutely did not want to slip while he was doing it. Once he's properly dry, he bounds forward and leaps over the terrace railing - then paths down behind the torch to step out of the darkness at the woman's back.
"You are disturbing the night," the big Russian booms, not quite so loudly as the ear-piercing calls the woman had been making, but hypocritical enough. He's also clad only in his tiny American Flag swimtrunks, and is otherwise a mass of well-placed fat and muscle - maybe an intimidating sight for someone not expecting him. "What is problem, woman?"
She screams out loud again, and this time it's even louder, probably because this giant, hulking man popped up behind her without making a single sound. A hand goes up to her chest in hopes of staving off a heart attack from the startlement of it all; her pulse is still beating fast, and fear and panic rolls off her in waves. Up close, now that Nikolai can get a better look at her, it's easier to figure out her panic-stricken features: chocolate-brown eyes widened and pleading, a mess of straw-blonde hair, and the scent of nature like someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. Her frame is sturdy; she's used to hard work, that's for sure.
Shaken she might be, but Nikolai did ask what the problem is, and so she sniffs once, then twice, and speaks with a trembling voice, "I- m-my- my partner, we live in the woods nearby, he-... he went out earlier to check on some traps, and didn't come back, and I was trying to f-follow him, and..." There's a hiccuping sob, and she shines the light of her torch at the patch of red amidst the underbrush: it's the torn tatters of a shirt, caught upon some thorns, the edges of it dark with blood. "Please- please, I need to find him, oh sweet Demeter, what if he's dying?!" She turns to Nikolai more properly now, tear-filled eyes blinking up at him, "Please, sir, help me. I - I don't know how to fight, and-" That's as far as she gets before she's breaking out into heart-wrenching sobbing, fat tears rolling down her cheeks to patter on the ground, filling the air with the scent of salt.
"Bozhe moi," Nikolai grumbles, palming his face and dragging his fingers along his jaw for a moment. "I do not know if you are crazy pagan or what, but has he got his phone number? Have you called him? Easy way to find him." Of course, if the man was really desperate, maybe he'd make a wish - that'd make it even easier to find him. Until then, though, tracking someone by their phone was the easiest way to fix the issue. "These woods are dangerous, so your partner is idiot to do this at night. Make sure you give him proper talking-to when we have him back, da?" And in the mean time, Nikolai can soak up all the worry and fear the young woman has to offer.
Nikolai meant to ask if he has his phone /on him/, not his number.
"We... we don't use phones. The excessive use of electronics and social media brings negative energy into the house," The woman claims; great, so she's one of those people. Now that Nikolai has declared his intention of getting the man back, she seems just slightly calmer, even if there's still the occasional trembling of her hands, and the obvious worry that's overtaken her. At least the tears have stopped. Small mercies, right?
"He does it at dusk, when the energies are focused elsewhere-" What energies? She doesn't elaborate. "B-but he didn't come back when he was supposed to, and I got worried and tried finding him, and-" She sniffs again, /this/ close to tears once more. "I- I will! I'll never let him go out again, s-so please! If you have a way of finding him..."
Considering there's no phone, the best Nikolai can do is follow the faint trail of a masculine scent and the stronger scent of blood that leads further into the forest, if he wants to make up an excuse about how he knows where to go. There's no desperate wishes for survival that reach his Demigodly senses - the man is unconscious, or worse...?
Bracing himself inwardly, Nikolai does the smart thing when dealing with the unknown and possibly-supernatural. "Elaborate on the energies you are talking about," he says, applying some psychic persuasion to help grease the wheels. "Is there to be aware of before we go?" The smell of blood isn't good, but if the man's bleeding out, that's his own problem. Nikolai wasn't about to get his ass mauled off by a rabid grizzly bear shifter without at least asking around first.
"It's just science," the woman says, continuing on with the nonsense now that Nikolai's made the mistake of asking, "Energies are at their peak at dusk and dawn, because of the heightened energy convergence from the sun setting and rising, right? The atmosphere is charged with a blend of solar and terrestrial energies, you know? It's the balance of light and darkness at dusk and dawn that creates this powerful magnetic field that enhances the body's natural rhythms and improves mental clarity and physical equilibrium."
... is she done?
No.
"The EMF fields phones give out interferes with energies too and build up a lot of negativity from prolonged usage. That's why we've both sworn off them, especially now that we have a little one on the way," She doesn't look visibly pregnant, so maybe it's just really early, "it's important to absorb all the beneficial energies and ground the negative energy every day to counteract the negative effects of the EMF, and-... Oh, um," She pauses then, slightly out of breath from the onslaught of information she spouts Nikolai's way. "Are... are we going? He could be /dying/ out there, please hurry up."
It's not /his/ fault that she took so long to explain her bunch of horse shit. Oh - well, maybe it was, but Nikolai had expected her to be more concise. "Okay," he says, mentally filing her under 'not aware'. "Follow me." He beckons the woman towards himself, then follows those mixed scents into the woods. He didn't have his tools, weapons or armour - but he did have experience and plenty of ability to handle things with his bare hands. "Tell me your name," he grunts, keeping an eye out for encroaching woods creatures. It's a good thing he can see in the dark - that torch only points in one direction. "And tell me his. He is probably hurt, da? So do not freak out if we come across him and he is injured. You are on duty to keep him safe. Freak out when you get him home."
She follows behind Nikolai without a complaint, practically vibrating out of her skin by now with anxiety the longer they've spent out here standing around and not doing enough to help the vanished man. "Cindy," she tells Nikolai, "He's Adam. Like from Adam and Eve." She might be a bit of an idiot. "We're both twenty-two, and we've been married for four years." Right at eighteen, oof. "And we've been ready to start building our family for so long, and now that we were finally happy-..." Sniff, sniff. She gathers herself again to continue talking Nikolai's ears off. "A-and we have our differences sometimes, but we love each other, okay? I'd never want for him to get hurt." She sniffles quietly once more, talking much too loudly in the dark forest and sending the light of her torch flitting here and there instead of keeping it steady on the path. It's a good thing Nikolai doesn't really need it to navigate the woods.
There's about two, maybe three other scents passing through here once they get off Elm's Bane and into the nearby forest proper, one - the human, masculine one - tinged with the blood that's splattered here and there, leaving a steady trail across the dirt, while the others seem unharmed, smelling somewhat animalistic. The woods are quiet enough that the only thing to be heard is the snapping of twigs occasionally beneath their feet, and maybe a far-off rustling here and there. And then, a wishful prickling at his senses...
Someone to the left of you wishes to eat this man already without dragging him home first.
... that must be Adam's captives, hopefully.
Struggling not to grind his fucking teeth as he walks along with someone, Nikolai says - rather loudly - "I see wolf tracks. Stop here." He lifts his hand to physically stall her if he has to, then blows out a piercing, ear-splitting whistle, shrill and painful even to human ears, let alone any god damn mutha fuckin' meta shifters that might be skulking around. Sanctuary wouldn't save a corpse, but if the guy was only in the /process/ of dying, things should be okay. He takes that turn as necessary, only beckoning Cindy to follow him once he's had that whistle going for a good little bit.
Struggling not to grind his fucking teeth as he walks along with the nu-age girl, Nikolai says - rather loudly - "I see wolf tracks. Stop here." He lifts his hand to physically stall her if he has to, then blows out a piercing, ear-splitting whistle, shrill and painful even to human ears, let alone any god damn mutha fuckin' meta shifters that might be skulking around. Sanctuary wouldn't save a corpse, but if the guy was only in the /process/ of dying, things should be okay. He takes that turn as necessary, only beckoning Cindy to follow him once he's had that whistle going for a good little bit.
Whether he actually sees wolf tracks or not - it's likely there's more than a few, considering the full moon was only a couple nights ago, but none of them are likely as fresh as whatever they're looking for - Cindy shuts up immediately. Or, more accurately, she stops talking and lets out a loud gasp of alarm and concern, so it's only really a half-shutting up.
The whistle takes immediate effect: it cuts through the stillness of the night and shatters the tranquil ambiance that they had going on, birds startling away and out of their nests, darting away from the source of the noise. A passing owl hoots in curious concern, a single 'hoot' that sounds like a 'what the fuck' if he's paying close attention, before it flies off too. Ahead, where he'd sensed the wish come from, is not a meta-shifter nor a werewolf at all.
In a clearing beyond the treeline is a group of three, two-foot-tall kobolds, dragging along a tied-up man with a chunk taken out of his arm. He's unconscious, a bit of blood on his forehead, but he doesn't seem to be actively bleeding out from the head injury, most of the damage limited to his arm.
The whistle seems to have worked on the fox-headed, pointy-eared kobolds though; they've stopped in their tracks and let go of the man to cover their ears, letting out chittering, startled, noises as Nikolai draws closer with Cindy behind him. And speaking of Cindy...
"Adam!" she gasps out loud once her torch points right at the unconscious man, not noticing the kobolds for the time being. She makes a run for it, trying to rush past Nikolai and get to the man post-haste.
He hadn't /really/ seen wolf tracks to be concerned about; Nikolai had just wanted Cindy to back up a bit before she rushed into the jaws of whatever they were about to encounter. He had expected the rush, though, so that held-out hand snags the woman by the shoulder, stopping her from getting too close. "Don't /move/," he says to the woman, who couldn't hope to get very far against how strong the Russian is, anyway. He could take three kobolds without any equipment, no problem. They could shoot pebbles at him all day long and he'd barely feel it. "Give me your torch," he grumbles, and snags the thing out of her hands before he has the chance. He flashes the light over the ratty fox-men to scatter them, and all that exposed skin he has on display explodes into solar brilliance, denoting his divine heritage. He pushes someone back a step or two, then charges in towards Adam throwing his arms up to make himself huge and ideally scare off the little shitheads.
He hadn't /really/ seen wolf tracks to be concerned about; Nikolai had just wanted Cindy to back up a bit before she rushed into the jaws of whatever they were about to encounter. He had expected the rush, though, so that held-out hand snags the woman by the shoulder, stopping her from getting too close. "Don't /move/," he says to the woman, who couldn't hope to get very far against how strong the Russian is, anyway. He could take three kobolds without any equipment, no problem. They could shoot pebbles at him all day long and he'd barely feel it. "Give me your torch," he grumbles, and snags the thing out of her hands before he has the chance. He flashes the light over the ratty fox-men to scatter them, and all that exposed skin he has on display explodes into solar brilliance, denoting his divine heritage. He pushes Cindy back a step or two, then charges in towards Adam throwing his arms up to make himself huge and ideally scare off the little shitheads.
The kobolds explode, for lack of a better word, into a whole cacophony of high-pitched chittering and chattering and yipping and squeaking, which sounds a little like "Chitter-chatter-screech! Yip-yap-snarl! Squeak-squeal-shriek- AAAAAAH!" in response to the sudden burst of divine light that Nikolai glows with, now trying to shield their eyes /and/ their ears from him. Their prey is forgotten for the time being, and one, a particularly brave one, likely the 'leader', steps up to launch a rock from their cute little slingshots right at Nikolai with all the strength it can muster - it bounces off one of his pecs, flies back off, ricochets from the ground back to the kobold's own forehead - a bullseye! It goes falling back with another terrified screech and grabs at its companions to make a run for it, if Nikolai doesn't chase them further. His tactics of intimidation are more than sufficient.
On the other hand, Cindy has a look of absolute shock plastered across her features when she catches up after Nikolai charges in. She's staring at the Demigod even if it makes her eyes water from all the light, her jaw agape, and it takes another moment or three before she gathers herself enough to fall to Adam's side. "Adam, Adam wake up! You're fine now, right? Adam?!"
As the man on the ground is slowly roused back to consciousness, the woman turns to Nikolai again, looking awe-struck still. "What... what are you...?" she asks in a whisper, then shakes her head to herself. "No, no, I know already. I know in my heart. This is a /sign/. You are an angel, aren't you?" She crawls over from Adam's side to peer up at Nikolai, reaching a hand out to touch the tops of his feet reverently. "Thank you, thank you so much. I'll never forget this. I- I'll name our child after you. What is your name, savior?"
"I am just Russian," Nikolai informs the young woman, handing her back her torch. He's conveniently not glowing anymore, either. "Bright light and loud noise will scare off most predators. Fuck around with torch and whistle; problem usually solved." He backs away from the feet kneeling - which he enjoys, actually, but he can't accept right now - and leans over to hoist the injured man up over his shoulder before turning around and marching the pair out of the woods.
"You are going to want rabies shot, tetanus shot, and medical attention," he informs the pair, not really able to do anything for Adam's pain in the immediate sense. "Ignore bad energies for now. Go to hospital. Pathogen from wild animal bites will fuck you up worse than, eh, EMF. My name is Nick. No more trapping at night, da? Especially in mist. It is like kick-me sign for predators."
/Just/ Russian? She's not buying that. Cindy listens to Nikolai's words with reverence, hanging on to them like he's her new guru instead of whatever counselor or life coach she listens to. "Y-yes, Nick, of course," she says, almost tripping when she follows after him a bit like a duckling. There's questions written across her face: How was he /glowing/? What were those things? Is he going to bless their child to be big and strong like him? Does he want to be the baby's angelic and/or just-Russian godfather?! She doesn't say any of those out loud, though, but the wishes drifting off her are loud.
The trip to the clinic goes uneventful. She stays with Adam once Nikolai drops them off, with many many many more thanks, and she reassures him that she 'won't ever tell anyone his secret', so he's probably not got anything to worry about regarding the secrecy of the supernatural world. Even if she does, she's not got all her screws in working order, so nobody will hopefully think a lot of it.
The child better be a boy, because they're getting named Nick either way. She's very adamant about that. And so Nikolai returns home to his cat a hero, having defeated the forces of evil once again, or something like that, where the cool waters of the pool await once more.