concoursec | SeeD MISSION: WINHILL INVESTIGATION

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SeeD MISSION: WINHILL INVESTIGATION

Character(s): Winhill Mission SeeD Party (Commander Leonhart, Zelos, Shadow, Tom, Edge), Winhill civilians, a mysterious woman
Location: Wnihill
Rating: PG
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: The Winhill Mission team is sent out to gather more information about a supposed Sorceress.

The Ragnarok had disembarked at 0800 hours that morning; while the trip from Winhill from Balamb wouldn't had taken more than a couple hours at tops, the relocation at Esthar added on several hours traveling time. Nonetheless, it was a rather smooth and speedy journey; the Ragnarok was known to be the fastest ship that technology could provide, seeing as it was a spaceship built by Esthar's scientists themselves.

The pilot, one of SeeD's finest, promptly lands outside of Winhill on an area just behind the rolling hills. Once satisfied with the landing job, he turns on the intercomm to make an announcement to the rest of the ship.

"Commander, we've landed! We'll be stationed out here until the end of the mission." A hiss can be heard, the sound of the boarding ramp being lowered down from the hangar. "Good luck on your mission, SeeD! We can be reached through the communicator should any problems arise."

And, with that, the mission begins.

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The commander rises once the intercom switches off. This is it, they're in Winhill and it's time for them to get down to business. Their mission: find out as much as possible about the woman everyone's been claiming to be a Sorceress and then possibly find her in the area for questioning.

Squall sends a look around at the other four members making up what he likes to call his investigation team, assessing each of them to see how they survived the trip in Ragnarok. "Is everyone ready?"

The sooner we find this woman, the better.

[What kind of an airship was this, anyway? No helicopter blades. No open deck. It didn't even look like a ship.]

[So forgive the ninja a moment of nostalgia. He shakes it off quickly at the commander's question]

Let's get this done!

[There is just a nod in affirmation at the commander's question. The way the ship is shaped is the least of his concern. As long as they got there in one piece.]

'Wonder what we'll uncover here...'

Rising up from his seat, Tom gives Commander a thumbs-up before putting his bracers on. The trip itself was a little woozy - Tom admittedly felt a little dizzy, but it wasn't anything a glass of soda couldn't fix.

"Yeah," He laughed, folding his arms. Part of him desperately wanted to transform into his werepanther state, but he knew better; if they were scared by a supposed Sorceress, bringing a werepanther to town wouldn't help matters.

"Sure, whatever!" Zelos confirmed, swinging his arms up behind his head and grinning like an idiot. He didn't look like he was paying much attention to anything, and certainly didn't look ready for any kind of action - nobody with a brain would groom themself that much for field work.

This should be good... That's all Squall can think to himself as he glances over Zelos for a moment and then nods to the rest. He leads them out to the exit and makes his way down the ramp, squinting against the bright sun as he steps off the ship.

Nothing much has changed in Winhill by the looks of things. It almost looks the same as it did as Squall remembers it being decades ago when he experienced the 'fairy trip' into the past as Laguna with the others. Sure there are a few new additions, renovations have been done... but it's Winhill, it's where his mother had lived.

Squall's just going to push that thought aside and focus on the potential sorceress.

Edge deliberately lagged back as the group moved forward. He'd outlined this briefly on the way here; he had some small aptitude with stealth and recon, so from further back he might see things they did not, or possibly draw an attack if he seemed to be vulnerable and their target was hostile. But he wouldn't break line of sight with the rest of the team.

Being more used to doing missions alone, Shadow was behind the group as well. Plus, with him being...not so human, being a bit unseen might be beneficial for the group.

The terrain seemed deceivingly calm for their mission. He kept on alert, just in case something horrid decided to fly out from nowhere to attack.

It was hard for the citizens of the town not to notice a giant red spaceship landing just outside of Winhill. A large group of them had already congregated, and while some seemed delighted when they caught sight of the SeeDs exiting the ship and walking towards them, others were more apprehensive. Nonetheless, the mayor of Winhill stepped forward with a welcoming expression while assessing his guests.

"You are the group of SeeDs that Cid had sent, yes?" But the moment his eyes settled on Squall, his excitement grew and the professionalism slipped for just a moment. "Oh, Commander Leonhart! Yes, yes, you must be SeeD!"

"Mayor," Squall greeted him with less enthusiasm, looking around at those beginning to gather. "That's right. The Headmaster had a team assembled. Is there anything you can tell us on the woman?"

It was best that he lowered his voice for only the mayor and the members of his team to hear his words. There was no point in getting everyone excited about SeeD being there to investigate, but some of the looks thrown their way were less than cordial.

For the sake of looking sensible - hey, SeeD was here on serious business, after all - Zelos somehow resisted saying anything to the effect of "is she hot?" but he didn't appear to be paying much attention. He was paying attention enough to note Squall lowering his voice, though.

"Hey, speak up, Commander! The rest of us can't hear you!"

"It's called subtlety!"

The ninja stepped up to the group, having seen nothing of interest. Nor will he for a moment, given the way he's facepalming.

How'd he get stuck with them again? Tom rolled his eyes, resisting the temptation to just elbow Zelos and tell him that 'it'd be better if Chief weren't super loud.'

Instead, he shook his head and moved closer to listen. There'd be plenty of time to send his teammates funny faces later.

'That idiot...' Shadow was glad someone else spoke up, else he would have voiced his thoughts. Best to keep some sort of discretion.

Shadow moved up, but was still behind the rest of the group. Standing at a little over three feet tall, it would be hard to notice him, but he could hear just fine from his position.

It was when the rest of the group had caught up with the Commander did the towns people get a full view of the team which Balamb Garden had sent. Most of them were unrecognizable, but the fact that Commander Leonhart had come himself was enough to make most of the towns people giddy. That had to mean that Headmaster Cid had taken their request seriously!

"Welcome, welcome!" Cried the Mayor on a slightly unrelated note to Squall's question, wanting to greet the rest of the SeeD as warmly as possible. But he then quickly returned back on topic, his expression becoming somber. "Yes-- the woman. We haven't seen her until recently, and we certainly would know her if she'd been living here for long; we're not a large town, after all. From all the reports, she's a woman with dark brown hair and green eyes, average size. She's been spotted near the outskirts of the woods by civilians several times now, so I think it's safe to assume she lives around that area."

Zelos's words were ignored and his behavior tucked away on a mental note of 'deal with him later'. Shadow wasn't the only one glad for Edge speaking up to the guy. Squall gave the mayor his undivided attention, nodding as the older man gave him the needed information.

"Is there anything else you can tell us? Does she ever come into town or leave the woods at all? Any other unusual habits we should know about?"

They needed as much information as they could possibly get about her if they were to successfully pull this investigation mission off.

"And details about why you feel she's a threat would help," Edge added. He was still operating under the 'time-compression victim' theory, but he had to admit that it was possible that the woman had come cackling into the town proclaiming herself to be a Sorceress. Not likely, of course...

Ah man, all he'd been saying was that if they wanted a private conversation, they should go somewhere private - they had an audience here craning their necks to overhear. Lowering their voices with such an audience would just result in people mishearing things and rumour-mongering because 'they heard it themselves!'

That, and it would help if Zelos himself could hear what was being said.

Oh well. Zelos shrugged - eh, he's happy being an idiot, why bother changing years of ~~hard~~ zero work? "Well, if you say so."

Shadow continued to listen while looking around at the area. The woman didn't sound out of the ordinary from her description, but if it was enough to cause this much of a stir...

The wooded area hopefully wouldn't be too far away. It would be easy for him to search it out on his own to avoid causing a stir for being a hedgehog. He didn't plan to walk there, either.

"I saw her!"

It was an elderly woman back in the crowd who spoke up. The other civilians turned to look at her as she pushed through and hobbled up to the SeeD, a look of determination on her face.

"She was practicing her magic, I know it! I saw her-- fire sprouting from her fingers, water as well! That isn't normal, I tell you!"

You would be surprised at what's normal and what's not at Garden. But Squall wouldn't say that out loud. Instead he nodded, mentally noting that they had cadets who could manipulate water and fire without so much as the wave of a hand including the one bald cadet who could control all four elements together, and a past cadet that had been returned to their world who could bend metal and sand on a whim.

"No, it isn't." Best to placate them; the faster we investigate, the sooner we can get down to the bottom of things. "We're going to look into it. Anything else?"

Squall sent a look around at the crowd of civilians.

Edge wasn't terribly impressed either; that could be any number of things, from ninjutsu to... other things that people did that weren't ninjutsu. Actually, if he remembered his paramagic theory correctly, wasn't water less likely to be a common attack spell than lightning or ice?

He shot another glance around, tapping his foot. He knew where his sympathy was, at the moment.

'What do they know about 'normal'.

The villagers were mostly telling them information that was pertinent, but a bit unhelpful. Or uninteresting. No ominous black blobs? Not multiple appendages? It surely didn't sound like it.

Well, they'd just have to wait and see.

Although Tom disagreed with the elderly woman's statement, he still shot a sympathetic glance in her direction. Seemed that she was set in her ways - and for this world, magic was unusual - so he couldn't blame her too badly for thinking so. (Though part of him absentmindedly wondered what would happen if he transformed or even appeared in town as a werepanther--the reaction surely wouldn't have been the same.)

If they didn't have anything else to say, they might as well start on their mission... or well. Anything to get away from this crowd.

The group seemed rather pleased that none of the SeeDs had visibly rolled their eyes or dismissed their claims of witchcraft. The mayor, having listened to the elderly woman's account before, nodding before directing his attention back to the Commander.

"Most reports have seen her located in the woods, just over there." He painted to a direction in the east, where a dense forest could be seen not too far away. "Ah... I think you all can find your way on your own, yes? Being SeeD and all."

He nervously wrung his wrists then, obviously not keen on the idea of having to escort the group towards possible danger.

Edge just repeated mentally to himself that he shouldn't judge, despite the fact that if any of HIS people behaved like this the kingdom would consider them a disgrace. He glanced to the Commander -- the growing contempt he felt for the situation was not enough to send him haring off without orders yet.

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SeeD MISSION: WINHILL INVESTIGATION

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