( 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

[souperb]

[ because if they force us to have to deal with the awkward mess of "i was dead but then i wasn't", they better damn well bring us back like the rest of you, but she doesn't say that. milla's only sure because she's been here long enough to accept that death was some kind of far, far away thing and this was just how things were; doubting that fact now when it'd hurt most would be a bad choice.

(even if the circumstances have changed, maybe.)

that's how she took most things nowadays, anyway. they are what they are, deal with what you can, that's it--before, it would've been that she just didn't care. ]

There's no reason to question it. [ so. no physical proof, no stories--only shonen hero thinking, which she's only really going with because it's convenient, rational, and the way of life, from what she's seen. ] It's how things are around here. The only thing doubting that now will give you is a headache and extra stress. Don't bother with things you can't change.

[ is that supposed to be reassuring? who knows, but she figures it's pratical enough and that's all that matters. ]

[zerotohiro]

[Milla your life is complicated and if Hiro even knew half of that he'd immediately shift his focus. Jack (to his knowledge) is the only other person he knew who was already dead and that hardly counted since he was a winter spirit. Milla looks and seems human enough.]

There are reasons to question everything in this place. [It's blurted out before he can think about censoring himself. Facts are facts, yes, but in a place like Cerealia it grows more complicated. He can respect that line of thought, but he's still too curious and too logical in the wrong places.] ...maybe I just don't like the idea of not being able to change things, even if they aren't things I want to change anyway. I like having the option. That's why things happened they way they did at home. I could have done a lot of things but I decided to change the way things were. If I didn't have that...["I don't know what would have happened."]

[souperb]

[ everyone in cerealia has a complicated life... there's a even if you don't like it, some things you won't be able to change at the tip of her tongue, but even she's not cold enough to dump that kind of cynicism in his face at this stage. not only that... well, knowing what she does about tadashi--hiro managed to pull through that and do something from the sounds of it, despite his age and despite who he just lost. whatever that something was.

that's something. a lot of the times she'd just gone with the flow, but now and then she's seen that taking something that seemed different was. better, maybe. ]

I'm here awkwardly trying to offer some kind of help, and you give me all that... [ half-serious; if she admits it outright and says it like it's no big deal, it's obviously not true. obviously. not that she actually thinks anything she had to say could make the situation more okay, and how wryly she says that implies as much. ] You're a little young to be talking that big, aren't you?

[ though she doesn't really mean it--it's more of a jab than anything else, a hint that she... somewhat approves of that take on things in her tone. it's not quite so surprising that he'd say something like that, considering the other heroic types she knows.

all of them are just asking to give themselves migraines... but with that, milla figures hiro'll probably be fine too. ]

[zerotohiro]

[That's for the best. He'd argue to the moon and back about it until they were both blue in the face and...frankly, he doesn't have enough energy for that right now. Superheroes don't just quit. There's always a new angle to approach.

Someday he can tell Milla all about why he's a stubborn asshole. Today's not that day though. He snorts under his breath, flashing her a mildly mischievous look.]

You're doing better than I would if I were you. [That is to say he's hella awkward and he knows it. At the common about his age he shrugs though.] And probably, but so what? I know what I'm talking about and that's what counts.

[He'll be fine eventually. It probably helps that he knows Tadashi will be back even if he's still a little shaken.] ...but I mean...thanks. [For drawing him back out, he means.]

[souperb]

[ oh.

she actually hadn't expected that, it seems, from the way she lets the thanks hang in the air for the duration of one blink, two--then she's turning her expression away from hiro's gaze. ]

Don't bother. You didn't leave me sitting here wondering what to say, since you actually talked--you didn't need to. That's better than I can say I did in the past, so we're even.

[ milla's also trying to keep the embarrassment out of her voice, which makes her poor attempt at aloof indifference something between a pathetic mumble and the vocal equivalent of a distant shrug. a distant, pathetic mumble?

yeah, she's about as awkward as he is. there seems to be a moment where she realizes how stupid she's acting in response to something as simple as a thank you, which prompts her to mentally facepalm. oh, no--not mentally, she actually raises a hand to her forehead, cursing herself for getting in these kinds of situations when she knows she's no good at them. it's like she signs herself up to act like a fool, and yet she can't just... leave.

that's pathetic.

but, less pathetically: ]

... Besides, it isn't like I did much. Whether I was here or not, you would've been fine.

[ or maybe eaten by monsters, but she's trying to be casual about this. ]

[zerotohiro]

[There's a curve of his lips, knowing she wasn't anticipating it and finding it a little amusing. It helps to make him feel better at least.]

Are we? Because this is more helpful than last time. Baymax kept bugging me to talk to people and I didn't want to. [It's matter-of-fact. Now that he's outside of the situation it's easy to see that Baymax was looking out for his best interests but at the time...well. His robot was more of a hoverbot.

He's still watching her closely, assessing the way she seems to be going through some kind of cycle. Whatever's going on in her head isn't something he's privy to and he's not sure he wants to be.]

I would have been fine, probably. [Or he would have thrown himself into a fight he couldn't win.] Doesn't make it any less appreciated since...[An awkward shrug of his own. It's still too difficult to say "since I was sticking close to Tadashi and he got himself killed", but he's hoping all of that is conveyed via shrug.] This jungle's kinda intense. We don't have jungles in San Fransokyo and Tadashi and I don't really camp back home so the last couple of days have been weird. That's all.

[souperb]

Is that so. [ a small mumble, as her fluster dies down. she can actually look at hiro now--her face isn't burning up and she doesn't have thanks on the mind.

... not that her eyebrows don't furrow slightly at the mention of appreciation. of this being helpful. is this actually helpful, or is he just being nice... ah, well. ] It's different without the cushy things all of you usually depend on, but you'll get used to it.

[ and if not he's dead but. considering These Things Might Kill Us isn't really new, "oh no we are in danger" isn't really either, so there's just... the lack of convenience, maybe? wonderful, wonderful tellus. where the lack of cellphone bars is harder than the presence of murderous ______. ]

And at least there's some of us with some kind of magic to make things less difficult. Warmth, water. [ there's, in general, lots of them that'll help him during tadashi's absence, though that's far too mushy for her to say directly. ] No wi-fi spells that I know of, though it's not like you need that.

[ all rather flippantly. Jungle Adventures was more of the life she was used to, rather than-- super high tech life, so the whole thing isn't an incredibly difficult step. with her terrible survival pep-talk all done, there's a curious tilt of her head. ]

... Who's Baymax?

[ she'll refrain from commenting on their odd, odd name or their probably hilariously terrible displays of empathy if they're even worse at cheering people up than she is. that's just sad. ]

[zerotohiro]

[A shrug. There's really nothing there except for pure honesty. Maybe a hint of amusement at his own shortcomings.] Yup. I was fine, Baymax didn't agree. So he called my friends to check on me and…okay, so maybe that saved our lives and that's how we became the team we are now, but y'know…just at first. But it definitely changed things.

I wouldn't call tech cushy. It's just a way of life where we're from. It's not our fault.

[But he's not dead, so there's that. He picks up on the implications well enough and it's his turn to look away, slightly embarrassed. He's not a little kid and he can take care of himself…but maybe it's not a bad thing to know there're people who'll help him out until he figures out something new.] I'm just glad you know what wi-fi even is.

[And that seems to be that. Because she's asked something Important and he blinks in surprise, giving another half-grin.] Tadashi never told you about Baymax? He was his first. He's a nursebot…superhero…my best friend…take your pick. He was with us out here but his battery drained a couple of days ago, so now he's back at our campsite.