lmao i meant to cast telekinesis. it's medium int, it's fine--

Nassir scattered from cover to cover, pale eyes glinting through the black pouring off of himself. His breaths started to come shallower, harsher. He had to crack his jaws to allow for panting, but muffled each one about halfway up his throat. They were coming closer, they had to be, he was being hunted like a Lesser -

The black panther's ears flickered back and he ducked around a corner, cowering in the shadow it cast and looking ahead for pebbles to grab a hold of, send scattering in the rhythm of running paws around another blind corner until they went tumbling out of sight.

Anything to distract. Anything to escape.

He screwed his eyes shut, hunkering into the shadow and hoped that that cat-beast simply thundered right on by.

@Vargas

Rocks-... Vargas' head snapped that way, for an instant, and then his fading senses told him what had happened. Ahh. A distraction. How, he wasn't sure--magic, perhaps--but they hadn't been at Nassir, exactly, and there no hearts beat in the direction of that sound.

For a brief instant, some strange impulse urged him to leap for Nassir, instead--then to throw him bodily at Alpha. To "win" on both fronts. It would be hilarious--at least to him; undoubtedly entirely unfunny to the other two. But Vargas stifled a snort of laughter before it could escape.

No; he had to treat this seriously. As if it were life or death. His magic had brought him up closer to Ruby-Beta, and now he crept along the roof, peering down, waiting for the perfect time to strike. It would pass any moment now-

There!

There was the slightest shift of falling rock as part of the burned and ruined roof gave way beneath Vargas' powerful shove. And then he was leaping, downward: a pounce for Ruby-Beta, from above and from the side.

@Ruby-Beta

It kept its eyes on its prey, on the shifting shadows ahead, refusing to be distracted by the scattering of rocks that it sent in another direction. No, if it looked away for even a second, it would lose its mark. But just as it screwed up its muscles to lunge forward, the scattering of rocks above had its heart leap in its chest. The Overseer is here!

They made a mistake, then. They looked up to try and see where he was instead of dodging immediately and, by the time they pinpointed his leap and prepared to scramble away, it was too late and the Overseer was crashing down on top of it. It went down with a snarl, struggling for a moment under his grip, but he was bigger then it, and it went still a moment later, turning its head to look up at the Overseer. "You got me."

@Nassir

The larger of the two beings crashed down into view, and Nassir figured that was the perfect opportunity for escape. Ears pinned down flat against his head, the black panther scattered as cats do: pivoting a full 180 degrees on the spot and making an exaggerated leap before running off full-pelt.

His breaths came quick, and he hoped his feet were quicker. Shrouded in darkness yet, he (hoped he) vanished into the woodwork of Orion's ruined cities.

exit nassir, unless stopped
@Vargas

Vargas glanced up, something strange flickering through his consciousness at Nassir's departure--something familiar--but he couldn't place it; and he looked back to Ruby as he backed away.

He paused, for a moment--a few seconds of not speaking as he ran back over Ruby-Beta's performance in his mind, this time as Overseer rather than predator, making mental notes on what to mention, on what needed improvement, on what had been well done. And when that was done, he did not yet say any of this, instead sitting back on his haunches to regard his creation.

"I will go over what to improve and what was done well, but first: what have you learned from this? How do you think that you did?" he asked.

He sounded patient, and not judgmental at all--which was accurate; he was here to train Ruby-Beta, not to berate it. It hadn't had enough training, and that was his own fault--something they would rectify right now.

@Ruby-Beta

Ruby-Beta got to its feet and turned to face the Overseer, rubbing at its eyes with its front paws. That had been kind of exhausting and now that it wasn't stalking or doing any kind of mental thinking, it was realizing how much work that had been. Limbs that weren't used to actions like that were aching a bit and its mind was reeling. So much for being ready for this kind of thing. "I do not know how to sneak. I could have done better at that. I was not hiding properly. I also need to work on my ability to find my target. And to also focus on the environment around me. I didn't know you were there until you had me."

It put its paw down and blinked its many eyes. "I am actually not very good at any of this, am I, Overseer?" It didn't actually sound too put out about this - in fact, it followed it's assessment up with a short laugh, almost as if this were a game. "Damn, I almost had him too. If you had waited a minute more, Overseer, I definitely would have caught him."

@Vargas

Vargas listened as Ruby-Beta at least successfully nailed all the correct assessments.

"Good!" he barked. "The ability to evaluate your own performance is good. But how about adjusting it? What would you do to improve these things? To teach yourself! Situational awareness, stealth, hunting?"

Its admission that it wasn't 'very good at this' earned almost admiration from the Overseer, until it laughed it off, and Vargas' six eyes narrowed. He did not smile, or laugh, instead staring at it coldly.

For a moment he simply sat, towering and silent, thinking. He reached a conclusion, then, and placed this into the back of his mind. For later.

"My assessment much agrees with yours. You have no situational awareness. Yes, I was using magic to conceal myself, and to find you--but you can do the same. There's nothing stopping you. What magic do you know-?" he demanded.

He attempted to drop himself into shadow, but nothing of his magicka even flickered up. Irritating--and perhaps a good example of how "nothing" stopping them was not entirely accurate, but he wasn't about to bring that up now.

@Ruby-Beta

Ruby-Beta blinked, a little surprised that the Overseer was actually not disappointed with its reciting of flaws but then found itself lost when facing how it would actually get better at these things. "I do not know, Overseer. I assumed that was what you were going to teach me, how to be better at these things. I can always do better at hunting Lessers...maybe that will help?" It felt a sinking feeling of disappointment at itself - odd, sure, but this was the Overseer. It was supposed to impress him, be good, be strong, be worthy.

At the mention of magic, Ruby-beta paused. To be honest, it hadn't even...considered magic. At all. It had just thought that brute strength or...other things would help it out. It tried its magic perhaps...once but that was pretty much it, and it couldn't see it helping in a stalking situation.

Still, it looked around at the ground and picked up a pebble, holding it out to the Overseer. "I can, uh, do this." The stone began to glow a bright green color and it showed the Overseer this little talent. "That's...it. I can do that glass spike thing too, but we all can do that."

@Vargas

Vargas eyed the glowing stone doubtfully.

"...Of use as a distraction, maybe. As bait. But you have to hide yourself. As for your awareness, I can tell you what to do: but it is something that only comes with practice! It is the very first lesson I taught all of you." Being tricked. Hunting one another. Ahh, well. Perhaps being wounded, at the time, had stopped it from digesting so much of the lesson. "Always assume you are being hunted! Outwit your hunter! Anything may be a trap. Everything is a test. Watch your back. Listen behind you, above you. Use magic, if you can. There is magic to sense magic! Magic to sense gemstones! Magic to sense hearts, and blood. I find that to be most useful; it will let you know where things are, how big they are, it is as seeing even in the pitch black, and through solid objects."

The Overseer rocked back so that he was on his haunches, nodding to the glowing stone. "And if that is your magic, try to take it the other way. To make shadows, instead of light. That will hide you. You can't rely on magic, but you can use it; a useful tool." This time, as he spoke, the shadows indeed rose to cloak his form, and to shroud his eyes, and he kept speaking, emphasizing the importance of all of this. "When you are an experienced hunter, you will begin to know what to expect a hunter to do. Where to expect one to be, if it is hunting you. But that only comes with practice."

Vargas paused, eyeing Ruby-Beta thoughtfully. "I gave Orthoclase a task, and I will give you one, and the others. Three tasks, in fact. First: work on your magic. Only with practice will you learn how to distract others, how to hide yourself, with any reliability! Second, hunt: Lessers and Greaters both. Surprise them, and if you can strike them without them first seeing you, then your training is progressing well. And third, train your body. Run. Jump. Climb, swim if you can swim. Learn how far you can leap and how long, and fast, you can sprint, and then push yourself farther. In another cycle, I will test you on all of these things. Understood?" he asked, eyeing it closely.

He didn't want this one to fall behind; it had potential. He didn't want it to get slaughtered, if they turned back up and deemed his creations weak.

But no one could force its improvement, no one but Beta itself--though motivation could, of course, be provided. "There was a time when those who failed were torn apart and painfully remade, in a more useful shape. That time may be coming back--so I suggest that you push yourself, Ruby-Beta."

@Ruby-Beta

Ruby-Beta nodded through Vargas's explanation, looking at the glowing thing in its hand. As if to test out how good of bait it would be, it suddenly turned and hurled it off into Orion, watching as it fell and glowing innocently among the ruined city. Huh. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea after all.

They turned back to the Overseer and continued to take in all of the Overseer's teachings. He had many good things to say and it stored these lessons, to remember later. It tried to replicate that spell that the Overseer was demonstrating, but no darkness came to surround them and it gave up only a moment later. That was fine - it could practice and magic was easy to practice while doing nothing.

The tasks, though, had Ruby-Beta's heart sinking. So long to its life of sloth and laziness, it guessed. It could, of course, completely disobey the Overseer's commands, but it respected him far too much to do that. No, it would do as it was told, however much it just wanted to go back to its den and sleep forever.

"I will do as you ask, Overseer," it rumbled. So it could do the second two tasks interspersed with the first. Easy - with the first one they could just sit in their nest and do absolutely fucking nothing and still be following the Overseer's commands. Their magic wasn't too active, anyways. Just...making light or shadow. And maybe learning how to sense things too.

At the last bit, Ruby-Beta narrowed its eyes. That was obviously a threat but, perhaps quite unwisely, didn't heed the warning whatsoever. It was convinced that the Overseer would not straight up kill it if it failed. Perhaps punish it, make it work harder, but tear it apart? No. Still, it responded neutrally, "I will keep that in mind, Overseer. Do you have any more tasks for me?"

@Vargas