It’s been a few days in the jungle now and hopefully you haven’t managed to die just yet – after all, the fun’s just begun.
On the seventh day of trekking the wilderness, each character who has Fire in their heart will suddenly find themselves pausing in the middle of the day. Something in their chest feels warm and it’s heating up quickly. It spreads from their chest to their fingertips, down their legs to their toes. There’s a bark of laughter against their ear, but it seems that it’s one that only they can hear.
Then without warning, there is a bright light that encompasses their sight entirely and the ground beneath their feet seems to suddenly open. At least they don’t have time to be scared as they suddenly lose consciousness after falling for a few seconds.
Don’t worry. It’ll get better. When they wake up, they hear the following message – and then they hear it again, and again, and again as it echoes echoes echoes.
 You’re all spirited, aren’t you?! You wouldn’t be one of mine if you weren’t.
So c’mon, look alive, look alive! I’ve got something I want to show you all. Stay close, stay close, I can't wait until you see where you'll be living!
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PHASE I [ day one ] It’ll admittedly be hard for Ardeo to show you anything though. When you wake up, you see darkness. Blink a couple times and it’s – yeah, it’s still darkness. Oh, that’s not good. But after some mumbling around in the dark, perhaps you’ll find another. Better hold on so that you don’t lose each other as the steps on smoothed rock, the resounding quality of the noise you make, and the faint sounds of dripping make it clear that you’re in some kind of cave. Probably.
All you have to guide you is the occasional glimmer of light as Ardeo flicks his flaming tail and then pads off in one direction.
But try not to run too fast after him since it’s dark and that’s danger--holy shit. Follow Ardeo enough and finally you'll reach the edge of a cliff with no indication of how deep that drop goes. It won't be a fear of tripping in this cave, but rather a fear of running straight off the path Ardeo set you on. Hope you're good at cliff scaling because, good luck. You're now stuck on some very high cliffs, and if you peer over the edge, deep, deep down in the darkness, there's the faint, warm glow of what might be lava. You probably don't want to fall down there.
Of course in response to your yelps of fear, there’s only the same bark of laughter. Damnit, where the hell did that fox go?
PHASE II [ day one ] Who knows how long Ardeo has been playing this crazy game of hide and go seek, but eventually you hear a faint buzzing. It’s fine, probably. No one ever said that you were alone in this cave but it’s better to be dealing with a fly than a bear, right?
So you see a firefly. Or maybe a firefly sees you. That single hope of light and not being doomed to eternal darkness comes over and says hi, floating around you for a moment. It really is quite dazzling, isn't it? Then, apparently deciding that you’re an idiot safe to land on, it settles itself on your clothes and-- ow.
That burns. Maybe you even caught fire a little.
But before you know it, more of them are coming. Little specks of light all ready to land on you and warm you up a little. You must be cold in this cave. Try not to die from their thoughtfulness, because they're really all over the place.
It’s like this happens a lot or something.
PHASE III [ day two ] Maybe you threatened him or maybe you asked nicely, but it seems that Ardeo is willing to take pity on your poor souls. Every few steps, there is now a will-o-wisp conjured to guide you away from the sudden, steep cliffs and keep the insects away.
However you’re deeper in the cave now and it seems to be getting… hotter? You hear the water more and more now. Eventually you reach a flat surface and see an arrangement of craters in the ground. The surface beneath them glows with heat, apparently reaching high enough temperatures to emit a white glow.
The brave may wander close, curious about what lay inside the craters – and they may lose their faces as the water suddenly shoots up without explanation, a geyser erupting suddenly and burning anyone who got stuck in the splash zone.
However, there are signs of people here. Small housing constructions made in tucked away corners, built of stacked rock and supplies clearly from this very spot. However, there's...nobody here to greet you.
In fact, it seems as though a certain event has been reported to them, and so the natives who clearly are still living here won't be making an appearance. You may feel them watching you, and if you poke around in their homes, Ardeo will make a quick appearance to warn you away, but they're far too wary to step out and say hello.
PHASE IV [ day three ] Finally, after however many miles, Ardeo’s done walking. He walks up the steps of a shrine – or the remnants of one. Broken statues of animal-like creatures lay in shatters and he wanders around the area once, circles quietly, and then lays down, curled in on himself. A second later, he disappears in a flash of smoke.
However the will-o-wisps remain as you’re free to explore. You’re now able to see that the walls of the cave are decorated with paintings. However unlike those of Earth, the humanoid-type people in these images all have different modifications on them. Some appear to have fins, others are plant-like themselves, but the most prominent ones all appear to be on fire. It’s kinda creepy, especially since they’re still smiling – and upon further inspection, you’ll find that some of these images aren’t made with paint at all, but rather they’re intricate scorch marks left on the wall. Oh.
However for the children exploring with us today, Ardeo seems to have pilfered some things from the colony that he liked. There’s paint lining the cave walls, as well as the occasional bundle of sparkly puppy stickers.
Seems this is where he lives, and now you can join him here too. It's a great reward! It's really just too bad about the difficulty breathing and the general difficulty finding food in a place like this that won't spit fire back at you.
Welcome to your new home.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
Welcome to Cerealia's October event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last for the month of October, or IC 3/15 to 3/30. This log will last from 10/15 to 10/22 or IC 3/22 to 3/26. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here.
There are 71 characters with the element of fire.
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ota!
[Oh, boy. Oh, my. Oh, wow. Just what he always wanted: the opportunity to fall into what may or may not be a gigantic pit of lava. It must be his birthday. Or, maybe ending up in Very High PlacesTM where he could possibly die a very gross death is just going to be a thing during this impromptu camping trip. Who knows? It's a mystery.
Either way, now is a very good time to be thankful for the fact that he hasn't felt the need to tilt over today. It's encouraging enough, that he takes a short moment to peer over the edge of the cliff, trying to estimate how long the drop would be and then clicking his tongue when he realizes the closest estimate he can make is "really fucking long". Great. Anyone who might be standing nearby (or doing the same thing) is free to chat him up; he might even welcome the conversation, since it's a good distraction from the drop below.
Otherwise, he might also lend a hand to anyone with less-than-fantastic cliff scaling abilities. Just don't drag him down or he'll be like, super duper pissed.]
PHASE III:
So, yeah. That's a thing. He's on fire.
Anyone who might be nearby will hear him utter something that sounds suspiciously like fuck, before he stops, drops, and rolls. Please help this dumbass out. Or maybe don't, and laugh at him after the fire has been put out and the top layer of his clothes are now very much charred and crispy. This is why we listen to warnings, kids.......]
PHASE IV:
I wonder... What will kill us happy campers first? The elements, or our own shoddy survival skills?
[Said to no one in particular. Maybe. It's hard to know with him.]
WILDCARD:
IV
Yeah that's all Zoro needs to know to remember.
He's doing his best not to look affected, even though breathing is difficult even for him.]
Speak for yourself. Some of us know how to survive just fine, thanks.
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[Breathing seems to be difficult for everyone right now, so that's not a thing he's going to poke fun at. Too bad that doesn't stop him from being a jerk in other ways, if only to get rid of his boredom.
There's a beat.]
... Well, if they could, anyway.
iii!
Of course, considering he missed the whole "Jason snoops around other people's houses despite being warned not to" thing, this scene looks even worse to him. Spontaneous combustion isn't a good look on anyone.]
Oh my god—?! [RUSHING ON OVER. With no water on hand, Kashuu does the next best thing. His heavyass jacket is already in his arms because it's too hot down here, so he immediately starts whacking Jason with it in an attempt to help smother the flames.]
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But thank god someone's around to put his sorry butt out... Kind of. The flames are smothered quickly enough, but if Kashuu keeps whacking him with that jacket for a second longer than necessary—]
—Okay, okay! That's enough. I'm out now. You can stop.
[Rest in peace, his pride............ It was nice knowin' ya.]
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But he'll stop with his fire smothering as soon as he gets the verbal signal, pulling his coat back up and peering down to make sure this poor punk hasn't taken too much damage. Even people who disturb the peace of magical alien natives don't deserve extra injury on top of heat stroke, suffocation and starvation.]
Geez, this place is even more dangerous than that stupid jungle... You okay?
[Offering him a hand up!]
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[Ah, sarcasm. He's the opposite of peachy right now, but he's not about to voice out his laundry lists of complaints. On the bright side, only his clothes seem to have suffered any serious damage. He still gets to be as vain as a bum can be.........
Taking that hand to hoist himself up, though. He can be slightly less of a jerk when he wants to. Sometimes. And he'll be shrugging off the crispier bits of his clothes once he's on his feet.]
Thanks for the help. I appreciate not finding out firsthand what bonfires feel like.
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Nodding at the thanks, though! He pulls his hand back once Jason is on his feet again, setting it at his hip and staring somewhat warily at the spot he'd stop-drop-rolled at.]
No problem. I think that's prooobably just gonna keep being a risk the longer we're down here, though. [Considering how OPPRESSIVELY HOT IT IS. Even without standing near the geysers, Kashuu's sweating.] I never thought I'd be like "wow, let's go back to the jungle 'cause it was a whole lot cooler up there even with its creepy beetles and big freaky dolphin things!" but here I am.
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He coughs.]
No kidding. The jungle? Not that big a fire hazard — as long as you didn't pull a stupid move, that is. [Looking at you, whoever set the village on fire.] Now, we should only count ourselves as lucky if the fireflies don't come to visit around nap time.
[Haha good thing proper sleep is for the weak. And also those who can even manage to get a proper night's rest in these conditions? He looks and feels like an overcooked shrimp already, and that's without factoring in any minor burns. THANKS FOR THE NEW """LIVING""" ARRANGEMENTS, ARDEO. WHAT A PAL.]
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Mmmhm. [At least the jungle fire was easy enough to squash, too. Humidity! It's actually good for something after all...! But his expression immediately sours at the mention of those fireflies, and he glances upward reflexively like he expects some to be lurking nearby. His gaze shifts over toward the nearby house things next, which he of course assumes are lived-in, if only because he can't shake that spooky "I'm being watched" feeling.]
How do these guys even live down here? You can't grow anything, so what kinda stuff do they eat? And what about water? That stuff over there's no good. [Gesturing with a thumb over toward one of the geysers, which erupts in a timely fashion and sends another blast of heat rolling out into the tunnel. EXCELLENT.] Ugh.
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Their primary needs really aren't gonna match up with our own. This place could be all kinds of hospitable to them, for all we know.
[Do fire people even need water?????? Irrelevant questions for the ages.]
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His nose wrinkles, though it's not an expression of disdain.]
All the aliens in the colony have the same kinda needs... [But the game's clearly different out here and he can accept that much without thinking about it for long. Apparently he's not the only one who hasn't considered things that far either, LOOKIN AT YOU ELEMENTALS.]
Ehhh, those spirits really didn't think this through at all. Still a nice gesture, I guess, but this kinda place is no good for most of the people here.
IV
[Suddenly, there is a cyber girl dangling upside down in front of his face! WHERE DID SHE COME FROM, A MYSTERY! But she's there, and she heard Jason's grumbling, and she is not having any of that. Nobody is allowed to die! Not happening!
Okay, so she doesn't have any survival skills herself and these elements are hideous, but there's no need to be so negative about it.]
If we've made it this far, I'd say we're pretty good at the surviving thing.
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he shrugs.]
You can call it depressing. I call it realistic.
[Because, honestly? It's not getting any easier to breathe. Combine that with the fact that spontaneous combustion is a thing and they're in the middle of a volcano, and things don't look very good. Not even for someone with experience toughing it out.]
See, the funny thing about survival... Part of it's based on luck. Do you think you're gonna be feeling as lucky a couple of days from now?
iii
maybe they'll actually try to speak to him, would they use a foreign language or would they underst - OKAY NO NEVER MIND that guy is on fire.
dipper runs over to help, despite not really...having no plan for how to put out the flames. ]
Hang on! I, uh, uhm - [ VEST, right. dipper pulls off his vest to use it to smother the flames. oh my god, this is really alarming. ]
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Alas, clothes don't count as living beings, and some things might be coming out of this ordeal extra crispy... Oops? This is what happens when you don't listen to warnings. Either way, extra crispy vest or not, Dipper will successfully smother out the flames.
And maybe smother Jason, if he doesn't pull away after a second or two.]
Enough! That's— [COUGHS. Goodbye, dignity.] That's enough.
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you know, assuming they actually make it out of here eventually. score is yet to be determined on that one.
dipper jumps upright - with such alarm that he almost knocks himself backwards. he's skittish as a deer right now, having just helped a person not be on fire anymore, and all. ]
Sorry! Oh man, I thought you were [ SUPER DEAD ] - are you okay?
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Yeah, just fine. [SARCASM. But at least he doesn't feel like he has any serious burns, when he rolls over to sit up. He smells like a defective BBQ grill, though.] I've had worse. Thanks.
[At least he didn't ka-boom.]
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Yeah, glad I could help out before it got worse. [ he glances back at the dwelling. ] Iiiii guess they really don't want us poking around in there, huh?
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Oh, I'd say. They really don't seem to like us foreigners. Not even enough to say hello. [Like, man. You would think he would have gotten even a little peek at one of the natives after all that breaking and entering, but nope. Nothing.] ... Or, maybe it's something else. But hell if I know what.
[Nah. This is just what happens when you don't listen to Smokey the Bear, kids.]
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[ maybe it's nothing, or maybe the natives don't really get along with the patron spirit of this volcano. they definitely didn't roll out the welcome wagon for them. something to think about. ]