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RP here baybee

"May as well be speakin' to a brick wall with you, sprout." That is what Juno's father, Solanus, had said when he found her hot on his heels during his trek to his worksite for the day. It was a rare sight for his daughter not to be beside him, eager to explore the forest while he tore trees from the earth with his bare hands and chopped them down for processing in town. The massive man was built, in simple terms, like a brick shithouse — all muscle and broad shoulders, eight feet tall, with a hearty belly that spoke of a fondness for drink and skin tanned by the sun. His daughter, though young, already stood over six feet — small, he said, for a half-giant, but she still had time to grow.

Juno laughed. "And you keep doing it, Pa! I'm not going far anyway, so don't worry. I just gotta see if any of my traps sprung." She had set a few out in the woods — simple rope snares and leaf covered pitfalls meant to catch rabbits, or if she was lucky, a deer.

Solanus waved a gloved hand as he disappeared into the brush, fitting his leather gloves tighter as he went. "Be careful, Juno. If anything happens, your mother'll have my head on a pike outside the shop."

That made her laugh harder. He wasn't wrong — Diana, for all her small human frame, would absolutely find a way to make good on that threat if anything happened to their only child. Luckily, Juno knew what she was doing — and Solanus knew it too.

With her father set to work, Juno wandered deeper into the woods. At first she walked in silence, but the birdsong and chipmunk chatter started to bore her fast. So, she began to sing — a tale of a girl lost in the forest, hunted by a wolf. Of how it tricked her, how she outsmarted it, and how, despite her bravery, the beast still devoured her grandmother in the end. Odd choice of song in the middle of the woods, but Juno had never been afraid of wolves.

The snapping of twigs didn't alarm her — but the sudden yelp did. She spun, blonde hair whipping over her shoulder, and bolted toward the sound. It had been loud, maybe even big — a deer, perhaps? They always made strange noises when caught.

Imagine her surprise when she stumbled into a clearing to find not a deer, but a man in black tangled in her trap. Juno stopped a few feet away, a small handaxe hanging loosely at her side.

"Uh..." she snorted. "Never caught a man before. You good?" Clearly, he was not. And she was definitely laughing.

Tox flopped around like a fish, twisting until he could see the girl below him. Blonde, tall, standing near, holding an axe. And-- laughing?

"D-Don't kill me, please," he begs breathlessly. His accent is quite different from hers, and his hood has now been tousled off of his head some to reveal green hair and stark black tattoos on his face. It's... Probably pretty clear he's not from around here.

Her brows lifted. "Kill you?" She repeated, absolutely baffled by the suggestion. Juno had never heard anyone speak in that particular tone before — maybe he was from the mainland and had somehow gotten lost? It would not surprise her, if that were the case.

She stepped closer, reaching up with her free hand to grasp the bottom of the net. "Stay still. I can cut you down, but if you squirm too much, I'll end up cutting a leg off." It would take a minute for her to saw through the rope with her axe, but if he listened to her, he would be fine. "You're lucky I don't use metal traps, friend."

He panics more as she approaches and reaches for him, talking about cutting a leg off- he's still certain this is how he'll die. He grabs at the netting above him, trying to pull himself up and away from her axe.

"Please don't--"

She oddly seems more confused than angry or violent, and she's calling him friend for some baffling reason, but that doesn't mean she's not about to take him back to her tribe or clan or whatever and kill him.

"Don't what? Release you from the trap? If you want, I can just leave you here, but you'll be awfully cold come dusk." She grasped the netting harder to try and keep it as still as possible with all his squirming, axeblade sawing into one of the thickly wound fiber. "But dad'll have my head for that. Now stay still so we can get you out and you can head back to... wherever you came from. You've got a weird accent."

Oh, so... She doesn't know where he came from? Good, that's good, he should just keep his mouth shut so he doesn't blow his cover. It seems like she's trying to help him, maybe? Unclear. For now, he just grips the ropes and waits, trembling slightly with adrenaline, as though he's waiting for her axe to cut into his thigh.

Juno knew how to handle weaponry, and even as a 13-year-old girl, she had the strength most men could only hope to achieve with a lot of effort. She cut through the bottom of the net to make an opening big enough for him to stick his leg through, then dropped her axe so it stuck into the dirt.

"I'm gonna open this up and you're gonna want to jump. I can catch you so you don't go breaking your legs." and if her strength was not terrifying enough, she grasped the frayed edges of the netting and pulled until the hole was big enough for him to slide through; her muscles twitching with the effort.

In turn, Tox clings harder to the netting as his leg is freed, with an unnatural grip strength for a 12-year-old. He's able to hold himself up as she- oh god- she tears through the final rope with her bare hands. And now he's supposed to jump down into her arms? Forgive him a little hesitation, here, giant surface girl...

He hangs there, looking down at her warily for a few long moments. He almost tells her to just stand aside-- he knows how to tuck and roll, and is agile enough not to break his legs from a fall like this. Then again, this is the forest, and he doesn't know what the terrain beneath him is like. To fall on his ankle wrong on the uneven forest floor could put him out of training for weeks, and he can't afford that.

He lets go, allowing her to catch him. He's not overly big for his age, but he is oddly muscular. Still, he should be no problem for her to catch.

"Well, come on, then. I ain't going to hurt you." She assured him, despite it being obvious that he would not believe that at all with the way he looked at her.

Once he jumped, she planted her feet and held her arms out to catch him in a bear hug around his middle, leaving the poor boy squeezed up against her muscular chest. She grinned.

"Safe and sound!"

Ain't? Well, she definitely sounds dumb. But she asserts that she won't hurt him, and truly, her tone seems to match that assertion. Non-threatening. It's weird.

His breath catches and holds, both from the pressure of being suddenly gripped around his abdomen, and the shock of now staring right into the enemy's face. Close enough to feel her warmth, to smell her, to see her face. He expects to be utterly repulsed- for her to smell bad and look disgusting. But neither of those are the case. She smells somewhat like the forest around them, with hints of sweat and other things he can't place, and her face is... Pretty. There's no other word for it, especially when she's smiling like that. His eyes catch on the little brown flecks that dot her cheeks. Maybe her own kind of war paint?

His daze lasts only a couple of moments before he remembers he's being grappled by an enemy, and squirms- but it's not a useless squirm. His movements actually expertly slip him out from her grasp, landing on his feet in a fighting stance. He steps back to put space between them, his hand moving for his dagger and brandishing it at her.

"Don't touch me, vermin," he hisses.

Juno found herself staring at his eyes — so unnaturally green, like some of those poisonous animals her mother told her to stay away from. The prettier they are, the more dangerous. Maybe she was right, given how the man with the toxic green eyes was now calling her vermin and brandishing a dagger.

"Little too late for that, friend." She said, clearly confused by the sudden turn of events. "You know, if I wanted to do anything to you, I would have just left you up there. Is this how you say thank you to someone who helped you?"

"Aren't you the one who set this trap?" How is it helping if she was the one who captured him in the first place?

"I'm not your friend." He looks behind him, toward where he thinks Damian might be. "I shouldn't even be talking to you." She's clearly clueless, and he's only blowing his cover more by hinting at the fact that he's from underground, but he's very flustered.

"Yeah, for animals." She reminded him. Although maybe he had been too frightened to hear her initial comment about not catching people.

She frowned. "Why not?"

He had been. He definitely is only realizing just now that she set this trap to hunt animals to eat. Not to trap innocent people to bring back to her people and make meals of, or sacrifice ritually or whatever they do.

"Because, I..." He huffs, not knowing how to answer that. He looks behind him again. "I'm with someone. If he catches me talking to you, I'll be in huge trouble." Suddenly, punishment from his teachers and his father is much more of a threat in his mind than this clueless surface girl.

She followed his gaze this time and squinted, unable to see anything through the trees. "Why would you be in trouble? I'm not doing anything bad." A beat. "Are you?"

"No." He checks his navigator- there's no ping from Damian yet that he's coming back toward him, but he can probably tell Tox is staying in one spot for too long.

He looks at her again and sighs, like he can't believe she's still not getting it.

"I'm not from here. I'm not allowed to talk to surface dwellers." He doesn't call her dumb, but his tone is sure making it seem like he thinks she is.

Oooh.

"Says who?" She replied. "I didn't even know your kind came up to the surface." Were they even allowed up here? "What do you keep looking for? Your friend?"

Edited Date: 2025-10-21 01:55 am (UTC)

"You're not supposed to know. That's the point." Really good spy work Tox, all but telling the first girl you see that you're a spy from underground. A+.

"He's not my friend, he's my military commander and he will kick my ass."

"Should probably get goin, then, huh?" She leaned down and grabbed her axe, hooking it into her belt before he thought she was going to attack him. "You're welcome for the save, by the way."

He backs up a couple of paces, still facing her and looking at her warily, like he doesn't believe she's actually going to let him go without a fight.

"... Thanks, I guess," he says flatly. He takes one more perplexed look at her before turning to disappear into the trees.

Boy, underground people sure were impolite! Juno watched him vanish into the trees, took another look around to assure no one else was planning on sneaking through, and then pulled her trap down fully. She would have to fix the netting anyway.

After she gathered up her things, she headed back to her father and informed him of the encounter. Solanus looked... surprised, if not a little incredulous at the suggestion that some boy from the underground had made his way up to the surface and actually spoke to her, but Juno couldn't tell a lie even if she wanted to.

"They're not meant to be up here, sprout. If you see him again, best be careful." Was his only warning, knowing full well his stubborn daughter would end up doing whatever the hell she wanted either way.

Enough time passed after that incident that Juno assumed it was a one-off interaction when she saw no sign of the boy. So she went about her usual business in the woods while her father worked - singing another song to herself, this time while skinning a rabbit she had managed to catch.

Tox's training continued, but they didn't come back to the surface for another two weeks, and then three after that. It was a hassle to get up there, what with hidden passages and doors requiring complex spells to open, leading to caves on the surface where they sat invisible so no one would find and meddle with them. Besides, it wasn't like taking a boy up was a top priority.

And the work remains boring. He hopes this isn't what all spywork is like. He thought it would be infiltration and stealth and thievery and poison and classified information. Instead they're just wandering around in the woods, marking stuff on a map. Is this actually important, or are they just telling him it is?

He also assumed the run-in was a fluke, so it's a surprise to hear her singing again. He freezes, considering his options. In truth, he had thought about their first encounter for days afterward, picking it apart in his mind. It was such a strange experience, and the way she didn't fit the stories he'd been told about surface dwellers made him curious about her. He wanted to know more, but figured he'd never see her again, so tried to put it out of his mind.

So when he hears the singing, there is the urge to give it a wide berth so he doesn't get in trouble, but what's stronger is the urge to walk toward it. The call of a siren.

He's stealthier in the woods now, and he creeps through the brush quietly to find a spot where he can see her, but she can't see him. This goes well, at first, and he watches her for a little while. She's skinning an animal, or something- so she's a hunter, then. Or maybe all her people hunt, but then why would he only be seeing her out here?

He's still astounded by how big she is, too. His people are small, thin, pale. Even Tox is a bit big compared to the other kids, and he's a foot shorter than her.

He wants to get a closer look, so he shifts, moving around the edge of the clearing to another bush. This is when he missteps and a stick cracks loudly beneath his foot.

She sang her song and cleaned her kill, the fur separated from the meat so it was not wasted. She was about to pick up a second rabbit when the sound echoed into the air, sending birds flying from the nearby trees. Juno was on her feet in an instant, skinning knife in hand, and turning toward the sound.

"Someone there? I ain't the one you wanna ambush out here..."

He narrows his eyes as she immediately brandishes her weapon. Quite different from when they first met, but this time he has the jump on her, so it makes sense. He draws his own dagger, but holds it at his side.

He waits for a few long moments, thinking. Does he really want to look behind this curtain?

... Yes.

He clears his throat, intentionally but subtly drawing her attention to him. He steps forward, enough to be visible, but still in the treeline.

"If you weren't always singing, it might be harder to ambush you."

Oh. Him. Juno spun the knife and slid it into her waistband.

"Yeah, well, I'm not gonna stop on the chance someone's wandering through. What're you doing up here again?"

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