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!
|
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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2/2
I spent the last few years before the city in a school studying magic.
Anything that can be done by one person, can be undone or copied by another.
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.....riiiiight.
What's that got to do with the New World?
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What, and spoil the adventures?
You'll see when you get there kiddo. Magic is nothing unusual.
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Whatever you say, pineapple-head.
[it's an instant before the epithet leaves his mouth that he realizes he doesn't know the guy's name and has to fish for something to call him]
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That's Pineapple Prince to you poor peasantly peons.
[.... yeah.]
[Yeah he did just say that. Made up words and all.]
[Please for the love of god, keep with the skepticism, because he is just...]
[No.]
Or Marco the Phoenix if you insist. Former First division commander.
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[...or does he?]
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So I usually try to remember faces I'll want to punch in the future.
[You do remember his idea of "hello" right?]
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If you want to lose your fist, be my guest.
[he does not like that, no sir]
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[He REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY shouldn't.]
[His father would SO NOT APPROVE.]
[But holy shit it's just so PERFECT.]
[Marco even told the kid he was the phoenix.]
[So you know.]
[FAIR WARNING, RIGHT?]
[No, but that's terrible.]
[Marco doesn't need to pick on rookies, does he?]
[Then again... that was the whole reason he wanted to punch Zoro in the first place... to pick on the rookies.]
[If only Ace was there.]
[If only Namur or Thatch were there.]
[If only anyone but Grell were there, because Grell only ever fires Marco up worse than an entire world of injustices combined.]
[Ahahahahahaha.]
[No, he really shouldn't though.]
[But he has to.]
[WHAT KIND OF SELF-RESPECTING TROLL PHOENIX COULD RESIST?]
[Have another punch aimed for Zoro's face.]
[Please, cut off his fist. Please?]
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The hell's wrong with you?!
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You ducked, eh.
[BORING.]
[HE WANTED HIS HAND CUT OFF.]
[Although actually if Zoro hadn't moved to either slice or dodge, Marco would have stopped short of connecting the punch and just called him a liar. But still.]
What happened to cutting off my fist?
[HE WANTED TO SHOW OFF HIS SPARKLES BLOOD. WHERE IS YOUR ADVENTURE?]
[No, but seriously, he just knows Espio would be bapping him in the head for being such an asshole.]
[/sigh.]
[All the missing of brothers yo.]
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[it's not that he's all talk, he's just mostly talk while breathing is hard. And, he doesn't actually have a need to maim Marco at the moment. They're not enemies.]
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Besides I promised my Pops.
[Poor Zoro. Marco doesn't know him well enough to help figure out the normal meter of Zoro's non-drained state, so while Namur may have been all but pampered and smothered when he was sick, Marco is somewhat oblivious to how badly the heat and surroundings are affecting "normal" humans. It doesn't help that Grell literally doesn't breathe, so he's just a little preoccupied still with worrying about his brothers.]
I just wanted to see if you'd actually go through with it.
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[it's half-hearted at best. Just getting angry is draining enough. Zoro tosses up a hand, brushing it off]
Anyway, I better go make sure Luffy isn't trying to take a dip in the geyser springs.
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[He always assumed Ace's stories were exaggerations.]
He wouldn't actually do that, would he?
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