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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[She sweats a lot. And the book is obviously important to him.]
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I'll take you up on that. Thanks.
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Here. What's it about, anyway?
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Oh, uh...it's just my old journal. It's sentimental, you know?
[ well at least that's mostly truth. ]
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[That was awkward. Okay, no talking about the book.]
So. Have you ever been spelunking before?
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Actually, yeah. Buuuut never for this long. [ and never this deep. he didn't know enough about caves to figure how far they'd gone or what the signs might be that they were close to their destination, wherever that was. ] What about you?
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I have, yes. A few places that went really deep in the mountains around Kyoto.
[Which may have connected to portals to the north pole.]
Definitely not my favorite hobby, but this isn't so bad, now that we have torches. And it's at least not so humid as the jungle.
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[ given the choice between a shape-shifter and fireflies...yeah, he'll take the fireflies. ]
But where do you think we're going? Does Ardeo really expect us to live at the bottom of some cave?
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[She's taking you completely seriously too, Dipper. There's genuine interest behind that question.]
And...as for that? I have no idea. Ardeo probably does, but he doesn't think like we do. He...it...is definitely not keeping our well being in mind.
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It was a Shape-Shifter capable of changing into the form of anything it saw. Things got a little tricky when it took on the form of one of my friends.
[ yeah, that was...good times. ]
Yyyyeah, no kidding. He might, you know, consider asking us.
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Well, you dealt with it, I assume.
[Or Mabel did, one.]
and you know? I don't think that thought would've ever occurred to him. His mind is likely too alien to understand the idea that we might prefer the colony.
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[ it also took on dipper's form right before being frozen and left him with a cryptic message about his future.
yup. good times... ]
I didn't think I'd ever actually prefer that place, but compared to this...yeah, for sure.
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[Because that wasn't normal either.]
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[ 'typically', because there had been the odd handful of times he'd used magic. or spells, at least.
talking about this, though, his tone has picked up a little warmth. ]
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[She looks over her shoulder, a little surprised by that. She has no reason to doubt and it clearly makes him happy...]
Cryptids? Ghosts? or other spirits?
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[ gravity falls really ran the gamut of unique supernatural creatures. there were even dinosaurs. ]
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[Or...just the basis for some horrific youma.]
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Have you dealt with a lot of them, too, then?
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[Rei shakes her wrist a bit and out slides a single o-fuda scroll, which she passes over to Dipper. In his touch, it might seem warm, the writing itself radiating positive energy and the quiet, stoic strength of faith.]
I do, yes. Mostly spirits. I'm something of an exorcist, by trade. In the traditions of my homeland, anyway. Not...casting out demons in the name of God like in the movies. I fairly regularly deal with them, though. [In true monster of the week fashion.] But? Some friends and I managed to put a stop to the things that were stirring up the trouble at last, and I don't think there will be too many more anytime soon.
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So how does it work? Are you able to send them away to another world or something? [ if they were able to put a stop to demons causing problems, they must have sent them pretty far. and maybe there will even be a practical lesson for him in her story as well. ]
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As for our enemies? No. We...well, we've fought many. A good many we've managed to cleanse and redeem, appease and rehabilitate them. A few have even become our allies.
Some we've been able to banish, or seal away inside a prison. Some though...[She swallows, turning a little green.] We've destroyed. If there had been any other way, but no magic we had could contain them for long, and they'd have only come back to cause even more harm. So we destroyed them. Sometimes that is the only way, as much as I dislike it.
[But at least none of them were humans. And to clarify, so Dipper doesn't think she's some sort of monster.]
Never people, though, before you think of me as a murderer. Evil spirits, demons, and once I even had to fight a dark god. Which...as you might imagine...was terrifying.
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I don't think it really counts as murder when it's evil spirits. [ he's not sure it really counts as murder when it's evil humans, either. sometimes you have to protect people, you know? at least, that's his theoretical opinion. he's certainly never been in a position to make that kind of call.
well except for that one time with his clones. but that doesn't count! ] Can spirits actually manifest physically in your world?
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But let's...focus on the topic at hand instead of musing about Jadeite and Koan, Rei.]
Yes, they can. Ah. Not ghosts, not without possessing something, but the other kind can. Or they're created by an evil force and given a physical body. That's happened more than once. What about yours?
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Ghosts though? Aren't really all that different. It's just a little unfortunate to run into them, since they're generally more sad than dangerous without a push.
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