( mini-plot post: open to all )

[jawdacity]

Who: jawdacity & all of cerealia!
When: towards the end of the event (so this won't conflict with any event threads you may already have going). 2-3pm.
Where: Abandoned village + surrounding jungle
What: THERE ARE EXPLOSIONS. And mushrooms.
Rating/Warning: Possible NSFW for gore?

Details about this mini-plot HERE

"World of Loudening Screams" (Watch on YouTube)

(theme song of this post, courtesy of moribound.)



[ it's another muggy, meandering day in the jungle; nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. ]

IN THE VILLAGE

[ if your character is near the center of the village, they'll bear witness to the curious sight of a herd of shuffling mushroom beasts. in terms of threat level, to the experienced hunter they may have ranked low on the scale: slow, lacking an external fang or claw, they seem to be interested only in their endless march forward.

but, if your character is close enough, they may catch sight of a red-haired young man, a manifesto of anger written across his face. one breathless moment, the calm before the storm, and then he hurls a metallic pair of gloves at the closest beast, the gloves trailing arcs of flame.

what may strike your character first is the searing heat, the thrum of the earth below their feet. the whole village is demolished in a moment, the dying cries of the beasts rising above the din. the explosion lasts much longer than it should, the line of mushrooms going up one after another.

if you're too close, you might be torn in two. you might lose a limb, or two, or three. you might go deaf, you might lose your sight. you might lose all your eyelashes, your clothes. maybe the bag of mushrooms you'd collected for dinner is now little more than ash.

keep running. the smoke trails into the air. someone is screaming. the smell of charred meat follows you even after you disappear into the jungle. ]

IN THE SURROUNDING JUNGLE

[ if your character is close enough to the village, they'll feel the blasts, one after the other. the jungle is on fire, quickly spreading. maybe you'll hear the screaming, too; maybe your lungs will fill with smoke. maybe you'll run into one of the last mushroom beasts, fleeing from the explosion only to trigger a lesser one in the depths of the jungle.

it came from the village, didn't it? maybe someone you love was swept up in the explosion.

if you manage to escape the stampede of terrified jungle beasts (some of which may stop to crunch you up as a quick meal as they dash away from the blast), maybe you can venture closer to see what's happened.

or maybe you should get as far away as possible. ]

Comments

[journaler]

[There's ash and debris all over her clothes. On her face there are smudges like she tried to wipe the stuff away, but she's obviously got other things on her mind right now. She may have been going a little fast, and probably tripped at least once, but nothing is quite as surprising as being thrown back like she was, when Jude catches her arm.

She gasps, realizing she's lost count of the times he's been able to sneak up on her. She still hasn't returned the favor.]

Jude! They need us!

[Whoever they may be. She stops for the moment and turns to face him, balling her hands into fists. He's got to understand, right . . . ? He's a do-gooder, too. Not just that, the original do-gooder.

. . . Her breaths are short and quick as she stares at him, and after a moment:]

. . . Are you okay?

[She recognizes healed wounds when she sees them.]

[spyrites]

[He's in a similar state of disarray with ash and debris all over him. He's also suffering from being tossed a few feet so there's dirt and leaves on him too. More alarmingly is that there's also blood and it's unclear where it's coming from although there appears to be an unusually high amount of it. It's not obvious in the smoky haze until a rush of wind clears the air a little.

So when he replies with his usual--] I'm fine. [--he realizes belatedly it doesn't look like that at all. So he hurries to add,] I hit my head. [Hence the need for real medical attention because he's pretty sure he might have a minor concussion here. It also explains the weirdly high amount of blood as the blow had also caused a nasty cut. His healing artes, at least, had helped that. But really he shouldn't even be on his feet.

His other wounds are a little more obvious with a partially healed cut on his forehead and a few on his forearms when he instinctively shielded himself from the blast.

His thoughts are fuzzy but he continues,] I know but the fire is too fierce for you to go charging right in.

[journaler]

[Thank goodness he can mostly take care of himself, though Leia's still full of relief that she found him. She sighs disapprovingly at his answer, though her usual fervor for argument is notably absent for obvious reasons.]

I wasn't charging in.

[She was totally charging in. But for now she'll stop for his sake, reaching a hand up to his head where she first notices the blood. She's shaking a bit when she realizes just how much it is, but he still seems lucid, and she intends to keep him that way.]

Let divine light mend body and mind . . . Cure.

[Her voice shakes. A familiar, warm green light takes him over as Leia closes her eyes. When the spell ends, she almost finds it hard to open them again, but she manages.]

That should stop the bleeding for now. Geez . . . [He must have been close.]

[spyrites]

[He was much too close to the blast than was comfortable. He's pretty sure he's suffered burns too but he isn't allowing himself to register the pain right now. Thankfully his healing artes helped with that and Leia's well timed Cure arte helps much more. Her healing spells are much more potent than his, not being as gifted with a large mana lobe like he is. (His half-Elympion heritage might be behind that.)

He gives a small sigh of relief because that does help a lot.] Thanks. It isn't as bad as it looks. [Head wounds just bleed a lot but... she probably knows that...

He starts to cough and belatedly registers there's too much smoke in the air now.] We need to get away from here. If you want to come back to help I'll go with you but right now we might get trapped ourselves. [They might need to wait for the fire to die down at least a little bit or for those with water artes to extinguish the blaze.]

[journaler]

[It does seem like he's better--enough to move quickly, which may have been her goal in the first place. Still, she's conflicted: she isn't used to running away, leaving the dirty work to someone else. She could heal, help guide people away . . . but it isn't like she's willing to leave Jude by himself, either.

She frowns, clearly not happy about this, but eventually relents under the pressure and increasing heat.]

Fine. Just follow me.

You can keep up, right?

[spyrites]

[He understands how she feels and he'd do the same if he knew he could. He doubts he'll be able to stop her either if she decides to go anyway. For now he just hopes she listens to him for a change and at least waits until the fire is a little less fierce.

He smiles, trying to quell his coughing a little.] Of course. Lead the way. [This is still totally a cakewalk compared to Master Sonia's training, after all. He can do this.]

[journaler]

[THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT MASTER SONIA'S TRAINING . . .

But either way, that reassures her enough to take his hand. There's no way in hell she's willing to lose him in the thickness of the jungle, and so she'll tug him along, even though she doesn't know where she's going. If this was a video game, she'd have a map . . .]

Hey . . .

[After a while, she turns to see how he's doing, stopping to allow them to catch their breaths.]

I just realized something.

[spyrites]

[He follows obediently, lamenting that he can't return to the small campsite he'd made. He had places it near the village since he assumed the village would be a good place for resources. Of course now it was probably gone, undoubtedly on fire. Oh well...

He keeps up well enough. Her Cure spell really helped. He blinks through the haze of smoke that's slowly clearing the further they go and looks at her.]

Realized what?

[journaler]

[The village was too good of a place. Leia frowns, lamenting the fact that she didn't really get a chance to visit it; though in this case, that turned out not to be such a bad thing.

She avoided the worst of the explosion.]

If we run away, there won't be anything for us to go back to.

[No one to save. Food source, gone.]

I get that we need to keep our distance, but what's going to be left of this place if everything burns?

[spyrites]

[His expression grows grim and he glances back toward the blaze.] You're right, but... you shouldn't overdo it. [He's still a little overly concerned about her health even now. He's not even really conscious when he does it either. That plus the dangers of inhaling all that smoke and possibly getting burned...

He sighs. It's a really bad idea, Leia...] Just give me a moment. I'll go back with you.

[journaler]

[She hates that tone.

He sounds tired, and definitely needs more than a moment. Leia hesitates as her heart sinks under the guilt quickly building.]

No-- That's not what I . . .

[She's so conflicted. She doesn't want to be hurt, and more importantly, she doesn't want him to be hurt on her account either, but the sense of duty she's gained since traveling with him and their friends says she should do something. She can.]

I-- I don't know what I should do.

[spyrites]

[Jude is fine being a do-gooder but he does regret a little when his do-gooder... ness... rubs off on others. Then again Leia is Leia. She would've wanted to help whether or not he had anything to do with it.

He shakes his head lightly and regrets it when a sharp pain follows.] It's okay. I want to help too. [Naturally.] I'd just feel better if neither of us went in alone. [He'll watch your back, Leia! And vice versa. They'll be a more effective search, heal and rescue team that way, right?]

[journaler]

[She notices his pain, of course she does. Instinctively, she'll put her hands on his shoulders to try to support him in case he falls over. It's a distraction at least, though it makes it hard to concentrate on a decision.

Then again, it seems she's already reached one.]

It's okay. You're in no condition to go back there, and I'm not leaving you.

[Heal and rescue team, indeed.]

We just have to keep moving. There's gotta be somewhere safe we can wait this out.

[spyrites]

[He feels like he can stand okay on his own at this point. The dizziness isn't quite as bad now as it was earlier. He appreciates her support though. He always does even if he isn't great at making that obvious.

He gives her a reassuring smile.] I'll be fine, I promise. I just need a moment. [He might be pushing himself but...

Anyway, going some place safe is a good idea either way for now.] We should at least get clear of all the smoke. I don't know if there's anything else out there by jungle but all the animals were probably chased away by now, at least

[journaler]

Oh, yeah. The monsters . . .

[Not that she wasn't used to the idea of jungles having them. While she waits for Jude to catch his breath, she thinks back on the faerie that was following her, wondering where it was hiding now.

She almost misses it. Almost.

She trails off there, thinking how they'll cross that bridge when they come to it; and eventually, after trekking away from the smoke for a while longer, she stops.]

Look!

[In the distance, a wall of rock greets them, looking a bit like the base of a mountain. Etched into it, naturally or not, seems to be a small cave . . .]

[spyrites]

[They're easy to forget considering they've been living in a city for so long without their threat. But he's confident they won't be an issue at the moment.

He follows her once they move again, feeling slightly less winded but still suffering a headache. It's lessened slightly too and he takes that as a good sign. The further they get from the smoke the more aware he becomes of their surroundings. Thankfully no monsters seem to have found them...

She stops abruptly so he does too, blinking. It takes a moment but he spots the cave when she points it out. Good eye there, Leia. He can barely make it out from here.

He nods.] That's perfect. Let's have a look. [Assuming nothing lives in there already but only one way to find out.

He heads towards it, approaching it cautiously. Simply eyeing it he doesn't see any signs that anything (or anyone) lives here. It's small but it stretches back enough to provide shelter and enough space for them both. He lets out a breath.]

I think this will work.

[journaler]

[She keeps up with him, seeming relieved at the discovery. It reminds her of the holes they'd make Ludger crawl through all the time . . . only bigger.]

Too bad there aren't any cats hiding around.

[Though it's probably for the best.

She's immediately looking around, as if trying to prove herself wrong. There's so much space in fact that their voices echo a little. It seems safe to sit, so Leia finds a spot by the wall and does just that.]

[spyrites]

[That gets her a weary chuckle from him. True enough. If they had one maybe it could've brought them some supplies like blankets or medicine or something. Then again maybe without Rollo's kingly influence it wouldn't have bothered.

Hey, he had to crawl into those holes too... never again. :(

He sits beside Leia once she finds a spot, collapsing a bit heavily against the rock behind him. He leans against it and relishes in the moment to just rest. His thoughts stray to the explosion though and he grimaces.]

I wonder what happened to cause that. I never noticed anything that dangerous when I was exploring the village.

[journaler]

[She would've given anything to keep talking about cats; and that says a lot, since she still considers herself a dog person. Nevertheless, this is obviously important. She frowns, thinking back on the village, though she hadn't been close enough to satisfy his curiosity (nor her own).

She glances at him for a moment when he sits, though it's hard to meet his eyes without an answer.]

I . . . don't know. When this is all over, I'll have to ask around. I don't think it was any ordinary fire. It had "accident" written all over it.