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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[ Seriously. She'll get by. ]
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[ Dodging more bugs. ]
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[ Choice of words aside, she's taking this idea seriously. ]
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[ Shooting her a glance; she did say she was used to risky... ]
I am so sorry for not being able to type
aw it's no big |D
Lead the way. I'll be right behind you.
[ Though if she hangs around a moment longer to watch him, she'll be treated to a show. Because he'll do something: somehow manage to summon a spinning tarot card in mid-air that, once it floats down before him, he crushes in one hand. The instant he does so, a strange creature appears behind him in a swirl of blue light.
That attracts a whole lot of the bugs, and if Yang hasn't already gotten moving, Yu will at a pretty good pace. They need to get somewhere clear, and fast. ]
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The bonus side effect of being chased by so many bugs is that they give off as much light as they do heat, and they light the way ahead. Now all they need is an open space... ]
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[ Eventually, Yang skids off to the side, leading them to what looks like an empty, cavernous sort of area. It'll have to do, she thinks-- breathing's gotten much harder, and that's wearing her out more than it usually would. She hasn't had a chance to check on her new companion, but she's trusting that he knows what he's doing. ]
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It's enough. The instant they do, Yu leaps over to Yang's side and grabs her arm to pull her out of the way. He'd normally warn her verbally, but he just doesn't have the time to catch his breath enough to do so. Norn, thankfully, doesn't need orders out loud. All it takes is a mental direction from him, and she knows what to do.
Magarudyne is the most powerful wind spell he knows. Once it's cast, it tears through the cavern with storming force, yanking at Yu and Yang's clothing and hair. The fireflies are powerless against it. The spell sweeps up the entire horde that had been following them out and buffets them all out into the dark, crushing them all and extinguishing their lights. Once it's all over, the two of them will be plunged back into darkness.
He can summon another Persona for light, but he needs a moment still to catch his breath. Once he does, the first thing he'll do is offer a slightly hoarse: ]
Thanks.
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It, understandably, also takes her a minute to answer him, and her own voice is a little raspy. ]
Right back at you... you okay?
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[ Another moment or two to catch his breath, and there'll be a snap of blue light in the darkness. Though neither of them will be able to see it, Norn disappears, and Saturnus takes her place, lighting up the space like the natural lantern that he is. But at least he won't set either of them on fire. ]
If we're lucky, that was a lot of them. Maybe not all of them, but a lot.
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[ She glances at the new... thing, offering it a small wave. ]
What a vacation.
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That's a little harsh, don't you think?
[ Yu coughs once, rubbing his chest. All the burns his persona took are making him ache in a deep way. It's strange sometimes to take those hits and those injuries. He's hurt, but not in a way that has physical wounds to show for it.
Saturnus just floats there, not waving back. Sorry, Yang. ]
Anyway, a snowstorm? What makes you say that?
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... Anyway, I think most of us, if not all of us, have already noticed that we're missing a ton of people. And I don't know if you heard the fox back there, but I heard him say I was one of his. That's not the first time, either. Since he's got buddies, and they might've tried to stake their claim on everyone else, maybe the same thing happened to them. Maybe they're dealing with earthquakes or a ton of water or some other 'natural' thing like that. Snowstorm was just a fun example.
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I'll be alright. I just need a minute before we go back.
[ He just needs to breathe. He can bear the hurt. He doesn't want to waste the healing spell. ]
Anyway, yeah, I think you're right. My best friend's been missing for a while, and I know a few others are missing their friends too. The spirits definitely split us up. Let's just hope every theory I've heard about this kind of thing being temporary holds up.
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In the meantime, though... do I get a name?
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[ The request gets a small smile, and Yu props one hand on his hip. The other he extends to her to shake, if she likes. ]
Yu Narukami.
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Yang Xiao Long. Feel like teaming up while we're stuck here, Yu?
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[ Those poor bugs. ]