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.
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no subject
Mind your step, I am not particularly difficult to see.
no subject
It's just cramped quarters, eh?
[Whether it actually is, or not, it's clear that Marco seems to think so. Not enough room to fly? = Not enough room to breathe.]
no subject
Too cramped for my tastes.
no subject
[Lets out a sigh. Because really, birds do not belong in caves, and he is not a bat.]
I don't suppose you can taste the way out, eh?
[All the hopeful.]
no subject
[Quite an odd way to phrase it, but then again he stopped trying to understand humans and whatever else resided here a while ago.]
No. I may be faring better than the rest of you mortals tripping over each other, but there is nothing I have perceived as a way out.
no subject
I'm not...
Traditionally mortal.
[Whatever that means.]
[But he rubs the back of his neck, thinking quickly. Granted, Grell couldn't tell air differences well either... but she didn't need to breathe so..]
[Marco on the other hand, does need air.]
[So he sucks in a deep breath, closes his eyes...]
[And shakes his head.]
Well, if there's no usual ways out... then we'll just have to look for an unusual one.
[Again, whatever that means.]
no subject
I doubt such would be so simple. There is no breeze, the very air is stagnant, aside from us there are very few forms of life. We are likely very far underground.
no subject
Doesn't matter.
[It does matter, and he's a feather away from panic attacks of claustrophobia, because it's not his own mortality that bothers him...]
There's a way, so there's a way out. [Snaps his fingers, and lights his whole arm on blue fire -- which gives off no heat or burning.]
Just like that, yoi.
[Bordering panic or not, he seems to have all the confidence in the world that this will be easy enough to resolve.]
no subject
[Though even as he explained this, he was fixated on the fire the other had formed. Which may seem odd since he's got a blindfold, and is clearly blind. But he could see "magic" in all its forms, it was an ability that did not prove as reliable as it had in Azeroth, but enough so that he picked up that the other was doing something... odd with his hand, and he was trying to figure it out.]
Even if my portal magic were not lost to me here, I would not be able to make one without knowing where to open the other end of it.
no subject
[He flexes both arms together, stretching them better before switching one fully a feathery wing so he doesn't have to keep relying on the other's light.]
But if it's truly as isolated as you suggest, then that brings up another concern as well. [Taps a foot to the ground.] Most of these kids are pretty reckless, yoi. I'm not sure I'd trust them with volatile environs. [An eyeroll and he moves the wing over his own eyes, mumbling loudly.] I'm not even sure I'd trust my wife here long. [In general Grell is the type to rampage first, and make amends... never.]
no subject
[And he just stares. The shape of the appendages themselves, or even the light they gave off was mostly lot on him. The guy was just making himself look stranger. He was still adjusting to seeing such foreign powers. Maybe he'd get better clarity with it in time.]
If children don't know better than to stick their hand in fire, then it is a lesson they ought to learn.
no subject
[Tilts his head to glance at the walls again, trying to remind himself that their constant gradual collapse isn't really that fast, even if it seems that way to him because time screws with phoenix senses nearly as badly as being stuck in a cave.]
No, I'm more worried about them lighting their hands and the rocks around us on fire, yoi. As it seems to be why we've been brought here.
And temperamental caves don't deal with temperamental intruders. [Maybe he can distract Grell with songs and keeping up "YAY ADVENTURE" only extra.]
[And all that is without his haki flaring. If another person has means of sensing the larger part of their surroundings, Marco's not going to bother wasting energy. Especially since he usually operates under keeping his true strength muted so that it doesn't draw curious challengers. His father dealt with thousands of assassination attempts, often daily, and all that for a meaningless title and a war Marco gets to deal with now. He'd just as soon leave it.]
no subject
Then temperamental intruders need to learn how to not poke the proverbial bear. [He has absolutely no right saying this. Literally none. He spends his entire life poking proverbial bears.] If they cannot smarten up and deal with their surroundings accordingly then that is natural selection at its finest.
no subject
[Despite the words and wings, he still doesn't seem particularly fazed by anything. Or maybe it's just an effect of the monotone deadpan.]