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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no subject
flynn's gaze follows yu's. where did that fox thing even run off to?]
As am I. Given his actions and what he said early on, he believes this to be a suitable home for us.
[how he could've believed that... this place isn't one normal people can survive in. fire foxes, maybe, but none of them here look either fiery or like a fox. what it boils down to is needing to find a way to leave and soon.]
At this rate, however, we may not last too much longer.
[the last statement being more muttered than anything else, but is definitely audible.]
no subject
I don't feel like we're being saved at all, honestly. ]
It's only suitable for him.
[ Bald and a bit harsh, but he's growing frustrated, and not for his own sake. He agrees with that muttered statement, and actually nods. ]
We should consider pooling whatever resources we may have left. If we're going to get through this, we'll have to do it by relying on each other. It doesn't seem like we'll have Ardeo to rely on.
no subject
Agreed. If we work together and play our cards right, we should be able to pull through a while longer or at least assure the children and anyone ill won't grow too hungry.
[flynn frowns after taking a deeper than normal breath. not being able to catch his own breath is starting to get to him, too, and he knows he's probably faring better than most. it makes sense for oxygen to be thin underground (which is what flynn's attributing this to), but it breathing keeps growing worse and worse by the day. at this rate, suffocation may happen before starvation.]
If only the air down here weren't so thin in addition to everything else.
no subject
I had the same thought. We need to take care of the vulnerable first. Hopefully the rest of us can hold out a little longer.
[ His mouth works at the mention of the air. He's not as sure as Flynn what that's all about. It doesn't make sense for the air down here to be thin. Maybe if they were at some extremely high elevation, but in the heart of what seems to be a volcano? How can this be? It doesn't feel natural. ]
We can't do anything about the air. I've been wondering about that, but... as troublesome as it is, it's not worth worrying about. [ Even if it may well end up being the worst of their problems. It's also the one they have the least control over. ]
no subject
Fair point. We cannot allow ourselves to dwell on something unchangeable.
[nothing can be done about how thin air is unless they were to punch a hole through the rock and to the outside. considering the fact that they might be deep underground? that would be a bad idea for numerous reasons. plus... even flynn has to admit the air outside, though not as suffocating as in the volcano, wasn't the easiest to breathe, either.]
Better to focus our energies on helping the vulnerable or attempting to locate an exit.
[even if it might be a futile effort. flynn's tried to look for something --anything-- that looks like a it could lead to a way out. nada so far. no weird nobs, no funky out of place items, no secret passage vibes and definitely no normal exit anywhere.]