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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[An important lesson to learn was to work smarter and not harder. That was the idea that Hiro had in mind as he was going up the cliff. So carefully, he shifts his momentum to a point where he's actually standing up. With the effects of controlling the Gravity Factor, Hiro figures that he could try to carefully walk his way up to safety. He's looking wobbly, but he's definitely standing up on the cliffside compared to hugging the wall entirely. The important part was to not look down. Once again his height trauma has returned to bite at him.]
I-I should call this a new move... How about "Kageyama Moon Walk"? [...] Definitely saving this for special occasions.
[In any case, he's slowly making his way upward. If there's anyone in trouble, then you'd bet that he'd stop to help them somehow. But Hiro had to remember to focus as this was more effort than it looked!]
Phase IV
[So you're looking at the cave walls. Some of these drawing vary from almost cute to super disturbing. But amongst this museum exhibit is something that's even more out there than everything you've might have seen just now. What you'll see is a gross looking set of purple tendrils sticking to the walls and spouting down to the floor like a plant or a disturbing alien parasite. Something has mutated there. It wasn't covering the entire wall, but there was certainly a section of it occupied by this thing. In the center of those tendrils is a bubble of mass that may be shaped in a disturbingly human-ish fashion... There's even a face that looks boyishly disturbed and creeped out as it's trying to breathe.
If the bunnyhood jacket and pants supporting the bubbles weren't a dead give away on who this was... Well, the "creature" would tell you soon enough. Hiro who has become something more than human now was naturally trying to evolve and adjust to his surroundings. It sounded like a good idea in his head, but the execution was... difficult.]
Ugh... Gross. So this is how it feels to have twenty sets of arms... [Wheeze.] I think I've officially creeped myself out.
[Even though he was attempting to manipulate his body and the Factor of Heat to the fullest by trying to turn the heat down, he was still hot. Don't mind the alien boy, everyone!]
WILDCARD
[COME AT ME WITH ANYTHING.]
Phase IV
[Have a weird pineapple headed guy speaking in total deadpan. He doesn't exactly seem fazed at all by the tentacles. Rather...]
[It's the intense heat that seems to have prompted him to speak up.]
[Weirdo, meet weirdo.]
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I-It's more of the former than the latter... I mean, I'm trying to turn down the heat to make things cooler for everyone. But... This stupid body is hard to maneuver with.
[He even tries to move a tentacle around to attempt a wave in his direction. It's awkward and wobbly, but one of those tendrils does move around like an actual hand waving.]
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[This prompts a second glance at the tentacles finally.]
[Although he still doesn't seem to find them particularly odd per se.]
How would that work exactly?
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It's a long and complicated story, but... I can basically control heat. [Along with many other things that he's still trying to grasp now.] Heat is one of the composing factors that created the world and the universe, so the key is...
Um... [A small flame starts to flicker at the tip of the tentacle.] Trying to figure out how to turn it down to a suitable level. [He was trying to make himself a living AC machine, basically.]
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[He has all the faith in you.]
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[ no, she does not recognise you at all, hiro. and she throws a rock at your direction. better get out of the way! ]
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W-wait, wait! Please calm down! I'm not a-- [a beat.] Well, I am a monster, but I'm on your side! Trust me!
[A few of the tentacles wobbly up in a surrendering position! Shapeshifting was so difficult!]
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Y- Yeah, well! Tell me where CERES touched you, or else!
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I-I wouldn't let CERES touch me anywhere! [AHHH] Listen, A-tan... Calm down! It's me! HIRO!
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[ she slowly lowers her throwing arm. ]
H- How sure are you? Prove it!
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Phase IV
However, a melting purple goo talking is something...new. Jabba's pleasure palace, the Ssi'ruuvian aliens, crazy dark spirits... Nope, this was definitely on the top of her "what the hell is that" list. Being a born-and-bred politician, Leia can always fall back on the training she's had to keep her cool and figure out what to do next. And not make completely disgusted faces at whomever she's supposed to be talking to.
Unless it's Jabba and everything associated with him.]I'm not exactly sure what that would feel like, but I'll take your word on the fact that it's creepy.
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[He's oddly cheerful despite with how he looks now. Lord knows if he's just forcing it or otherwise... He never did stay in sad spirits for long anyway.]
Speaking of movies... [There's a short pause.] I have the vague impression that I've seen you somewhere before.
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[Because...well, this young...man? is a literal mess. Kind of...disgusting.]
And there's a distinct possibility that you have seen me before. Are you from the planet Earth?
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[Really... He is actually freaking out on the inside, but isn't expressing it as he could hide his emotions well when it came to situations like this. And knowing that there's a chance of him returning back to how he used to be is what's kept him going. That's one reason why he could hold himself together like this.]
That's right. Earth has plenty of flaws, but it's a sweet planet. What exactly do you know about it?
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[She can sense there's something off about his actual outlook, but with all of the competing tempers that are flaring, sometimes literally, all over the place, she can't pinpoint it just yet.]
I only know that it seems to be home to a variety of interesting people that I've had the chance to meet. And that my life and those of the people around me are seen as entertainment to you all. After seeing the movies, I can see how they could be fun to watch.
[You know, if they weren't real and invasive.]
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I
Well, acting smug at least. This entire trek has been a serious mood killer, but Ene can put on a convincing enough act to tease others. She flies over to Hiro, her LED legs providing little light in the darkness, but just enough to see her smirk.
And the new burns on her face. Ignore those.]
Ohh, are you going to show off your moves, Hero?
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Heh... Yuppers! Now's a better time than any! [Annnd he'll take another awkward step forward.] This will be good training!
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Ene drapes over Hiro, taking hold of his arm super casually because she is a friendly and affectionate girl and not for any sort of comfort and security reasons either of them might need.]
I for one can't wait to see you try to breakdance up the cliff.
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Hm... That might a little beyond my skill level for right now, but... [That reminded him.] I've got a friend who certainly could. She's the absolute best dancer I know.
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Oh, really? Is she here? You could get her to give you some lessons, you need to train and level up those skills!
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IV
Octopus man?
[but he doesn't look as tasty and probably doesn't cook takoyaki.
...probably]
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Octopus man! [He's sure taking this in stride...] I'm still getting the hang of this form.
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I'm Luffy! What are you doing anyway? Hey can you make takoyaki? [it doesn't hurt to ask right?]
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Name's Hiro! And I was trying to turn down the heat with some powers of mine. [Speaking of which...] Hehe... And a friend of mine would've asked the same question! If I could, I'd totally feed everyone.