( 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

[moribound]

That's impressive. [Minato's genuinely awed by Korra's power in spite of their dire situation, and he's also grateful since the fires have now been extinguished enough that he can last for a while without his fire protection.

He follows up by raising his Evoker to his head without hesitation, smoke and urgency of the crisis at hand clouding his thoughts enough to not think of how Korra might have acted to such a display.] Skadi!

[A swirl of blue smoke and light surrounds him shortly after the trigger is pulled, followed by the manifestation of Skadi, which he directs towards the worst of the flames before using his power to chill the air enough that the fires are put out in a range as big as Korra's.

He takes a deep breath after Skadi disappears, clearly having exerted himself slightly more than Korra has.] I didn't think it'd work so well...anyway, we can move closer to the village now.

[braavado]

[Guns are fairly new to Korra, but after seeing the damage they could do, and having to dig a bullet out of Terra's chest during the raid, Korra isn't likely to forget them. Still, it takes a second for her to recognize the weapon in his hand, and by then she's too late, her horrified cry catching in her throat.

She takes a step toward him, fully expecting him to fall to the ground, bleeding, but when the smoke clears, he's still there. Somehow, he's still standing. Too shocked to do anything but stare at him, Korra barely pays any attention to his persona.]

...how? [Korra barely manages to choke that out when he's looking at her again.] What did you do just now?

[moribound]

[A heavy sigh follows as Minato looks at Korra, holding up his Evoker to show that it's a gun only in terms of appearance.]

It's not a real gun- I use it to summon my Persona. [Unfortunately that's all he's going to say because they really don't have the time to discuss unimportant questions like "Why do you have to shoot yourself to summon a manifestation of a god?" and "Is there something wrong with you?" right now.]

I don't think we have the time for this... [Inhaling the smoke has done more than just affected his judgment, as he's considerably less patient with questions than he usually is.] Let's go.

[braavado]

[A bunch of questions well up and nearly tumble out of her lips, but Korra manages to catch herself. He's right--they don't have time to stand around and talk when they should be checking for more injured in the village.

She gives him a short nod and breaks into a brisk walk.]

Split up when we get to the houses and meet near the middle after we've checked the area?

[With Korra still trying to shake off her shock, Minato's not the only one a little short with his words right now.]

[moribound]

Got it! [At least that's the plan, Minato doesn't know yet that something else is going to come up that'll prevent him from coming back to the checkpoint but Korra's free to chide him for it.

He likewise starts to walk quickly, making sure to cover his nose and mouth as much as possible to avoid breathing in the particles from the flames.]

Can you heal? If you can't and you meet anyone who needs help, just call for me.

[braavado]

I can! [There's no small amount of relief on her face when she realizes they can split healing the injured between the two of them. That's at least some weight off her ahoulders.]

If you run into trouble with anything, just give me a shout.

[With that, Korra darts into the smoking village ruins.]