[ORP] The Restless Dead

[Nezi-ozu]

[N'EZI-OZU OFFICIAL RP PROMPT]

He hadn't been seen often; this was a priest who had kept largely to his defined duties and it may have come at a surprise to see him at the gathering. Yet few could ignore the summonings of a young Chieftain who had determined that what they faced was exceedingly important. Those spirits that lingered were most likely to be those who had not been allowed to pass on, those who had been destined to wander this realm for eternity for unspeakable crimes; to have them among the living was unacceptable.

Thus, the priest had stepped into the 'light' with a solemn expression upon his aged features. He was getting on in years, quickly approaching the end of his own life, and yet up until this point there had been no appropriate offspring within his family to pass on the torch.

"And so we finally meet," his voice cracked from lack of use, for more accustomed to murmuring and incoherent chants within the depths of the catacombs. Nevertheless now was not the time to lose his voice, lest he miss the opportunity to request the aid of the pride. A 'once in a lifetime' moment, it was unlikely that the priests would ever ask for the help of the living again.

...The Divine had an unusual way of working.

"We do, yes," Itiri remarked calmly from his place nearby, though it was not for him to take the lead on this. He had already deferred to the expertise of those who knew the ways of the dead and now was their opportunity to guide the pride correctly in their ways.

"One would hope for better circumstances, but..." It was with a soft cough, asthmatic in quality and no doubt encouraged by exposure to dust. "Now is not the time for pleasantries - we require your aid and we would start with a most simple approach."

A pause, to allow those who were not there for a social call to give him their attention, and then he continued.

"The spirits are lost, strayed from the path and we would seek to guide them back," he waved his paw and motioned towards a wisp that had briefly flickered into view before departing just as rapidly as it had arrived. "They seek the light, yet in these darkened canopies they struggle to find it; confusion birthed from brief splinters of sun and moon between leaf," he pursed his lips.

"We must give them a better light to follow, one more reliable," he explained and turned briefly to pick something up from behind him; when he turned back to the crowd of lions he held a crudely constructed cage of flower stems, and within it lay a firefly.

"We must guide them back to the path, and we must ask you to act as the guiding light they seek."

"Using...your friend there?" Itiri asked, if only to clarify for himself what the old priest wanted from him and others.

"Yes."

"And this path is...where?"

"We will show you the way when you have your light, until then, we must wait until you are all ready to continue." the priest replied vaguely.

At least his instructions were simple enough, they would need to make those odd little stem cages and then after that, find some method of capturing the glowing bug within. Itiri wasn't the most graceful of individuals in that respect and would not doubt lack the finesse to capture the winged creature but he would give it his best attempt all the same.

[RP HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL IT REACHES A NATURAL END - THIS WILL ENABLE PEOPLE TO ENTER THE CONTESTS UP UNTIL CLOSING.]

Path of Fireflies Event!

One of the Amusu has now tasked the pride with making a path of light for the spirits. Though he doubts these spirits are friendly, he is determined to send them down the correct path to whatever end they are destined.

His task is simple, one must make a container for a firefly and then he will show those who have one how to act as a 'beacon'!

Building the Container:

• You may roll a random number (1-3) during your next post.
  
• If you receive roll a 1 your container will not be well made.
  
• If you roll a 2 your container will be decent.
  
• If you roll a 3 your container will be very good/strong.
  
• Depending on how well made your container is, it will last for a specific duration of time before the firefly escapes!

Capturing the Firefly:

• Roll a random number between 1-5.
  
• Roll a 1 or 2 and you will miss the firefly! Post again to try again!
  
• Roll a 3 or 4 and you will catch a small firefly with a moderate glow.
  
• Roll a 5 and you capture a large firefly with a bright glow.

Using the Captured Firefly:

• During the RP you will have a specific number of posts before the firefly breaks out.
  
• Once this Firefly breaks out, you'll need to capture a new one.
  
  • A Weak Container - 4 Posts
    
  • A Moderate Container - 6 Posts
    
  • A Strong Container - 10 Posts
  
  
• You may use the same cage, or try to build a better one if you would like.

The rest of the event simply involves RPing along with your friends and following whatever instructions any Amoosu may give you, whether they be NPC Amoosu played by Ded or Epine... Or if they're living Amoosu played by other players!

Follow the prompts to play along and help build the path of fireflies. <3

 

[- Mynsed -]

Zobuhle’s attention was momentarily stolen from Budek as Isabis called out to them, brows raising in surprise. ”You’d look good with grey fur, too,” Zobu quipped with an amused smirk. Giving another nuzzle to Budek, she moved forward a bit to look at the container, a smile blooming on her face. ”That looks fantastic!” she praised. Her eyes moved over to the other two children with them… a frown appearing.

Azmera and Diallo were doing their absolute best to keep their voices down; they were going to bicker regardless, but if father or mother didn’t hear them, they couldn’t get in trouble. ”No, Diallo, you idiot,” Azmera hissed under her breath. Diallo huffed, settling back from the contraption they were attempting to make.

”You’re ruining it, ‘mera. That doesn’t go there, it goes here,” he hissed back, fur bristling at the insult. Why did he have to work on the box with her? Couldn’t he have made his own? Feeling a hard gaze on him, he looked up and smiled sheepishly at his mother, feigning innocence while Azmera continued to fuss and mess with the flimsy box. A small wind picked up and their container swayed, in danger of collapsing and falling apart.

Zobu sighed and shook her head, before moving over to Budek. There was no stopping the bickering and as long as they kept it on the downlow, Zobu really didn’t have the energy to keep chiding them. She would just enjoy her time with her mate and children. ”I’ll try this out. I think those two are already… trying,” she mused, eyeing their mess of a container, before getting to work on her own creation.

Within minutes, she had surpassed her children in failing at this craft. Staring, she watched as a piece fell off from merely it’s own weight, before looking at Budek’s. She had never tried crafts before but… she couldn’t be this bad, could she? Heat flooded her face and she gritted her teeth. ”Defective materials,” she announced to Budek immediately, chin raising in stubbornness. She couldn’t be this awful. It had to be the material she was given. That was all. A snicker from Azmera had her face heating up even more, ears twitching in slight embarrassment. ”Only thing that matters is if it works,” she continued peevishly, pride dented.

Astoriafallen

 

[- Mynsed -]

Azmera jumped at the stern voice, ears flattening before a drawn out sigh came out. ”I’m sorry, father,” she said woefully… passing a quick, accusing glare to Diallo. Diallo frowned back at her but straightened up; he wasn’t about to disrespect their father. ”Sorry, sir,” he dutifully replied.

Diallo nearly moved away from his sister to catch fireflies on his own… until he realized they made the container together. ”I’ll hold it open while you chase them this way,” he ordered ‘mera. Azmera bristled, opening her mouth to tell him that he wasn’t the boss of her… but a quick glance towards her father had her biting her tongue. ”Fine,” she bit out, moving to chase one, not really trying. Diallo held back remarks, wanting to instruct her how to properly guide a firefly and call her out on her poor skill. But, he refrained.

Zobu smiled at Budek, grateful for him and his way of stopping the bickering. She also smiled because he was able to look at her wreck of a container and call it beautiful. ”Why, thank you, dear husband,” she chirped as a stick that should have been supporting an edge fell off. The container, however, remained standing.

”You can do it, Isa!” their mother cheered, before laughing and chasing after one on her own. The problem was, Zobu kept getting pulled off the trail of one and onto another as the fireflies fluttered near her, never focusing on one too long. Soon, she was out of breath with fits of giggles as the pesky glowing bugs kept dodging, her laughter doubling when she saw Azmera hunting around for one, not realizing a firefly has landed near the base of her tail.

Astoriafallen

 

[Epine de Rose]

It seemed that the Akaraaka family weren't particularly good at crafting - No sooner had Juu approached him with her creation than he had attempted to make his own and well, it wasn't a fantastic sight to behold. Quite frankly it was worthy of pity and there was a high probability that a cub could make a significantly better go of it.

"I think..." he said finally, gazing towards his rather plain and very mangled contraption. "That we will just have to see how this goes," he conceded. It wasn't long before Juu had already begun to make her attempts to capture a firefly but up until this point he hadn't felt quite so brave.

...He had his reservations you see, he was fairly certain the fireflies would howl with laughter and buzz off to tell their friends, only for him to be surrounded as they carefully analysed how poorly he'd done.

He'd see how his sibling did for now and if she did manage to have some success then he'd follow by example, otherwise he may have to sit down and rebuild the cursed thing until he got it right!

AstoriaFallen

 

[- Mynsed -]

Diallo decided that he was quite done looking like a fool. ”’mera, you take over!” he growled, stalking away from the flimsy box. He perked up when their father gestured to a firefly before crouching low, stalking towards the shining bug. Azmera held her breath, picking up the container haphazardly and edging behind him. All of a sudden, he pounced forward, paws cupping. And… did he catch it? Was it there? Suddenly, he felt the ticklish feeling of wings on the bottom of his paws as the bug tried to escape. His eyes widened and he grinned over to Azmera, who grinned back.

”About time!” she hooted with a laugh, coming over with the container. Quickly, and almost losing the bug, they managed to trap it in. "See that, Isa! We caught one too! And it's probably bigger and brighter as well!" Except it wasn't and Diallo gave 'mera a deadpanned look.

Zobu watched them with a wide smile, happy that they were playing nice. But now, she was the only one of them that lacked a firefly. With newfound determination, she crouched and stalked towards one with the container in her mouth… pouncing and dropping the box on top. It quivered, threatening to break… but held still. ”I caught one,” she gasped to herself, in almost disbelief, before a large grin stretched onto her maw. ”Budek! I caught one! I caught one!” she hollered in excitement.

Astoriafallen

 

[MangoMeow]

He tilted his head as she spoke, eyes shifting to look at the nearby wisp before moving back to her. He agreed that he didn't think they were scary, though he wasn't sure he believed that they were actually spirits.It did make him wonder though, and he made a mental note to go investigate on his own sometime....

Shrugging, Kokayi muttered, "It's better than how everyone else is acting around here. I don't think the wisps are actually hurting anyone."

His gaze moved to look back at the crowd as an Amusu spoke up. Looks like things were picking up now, though he let out a snort at the firefly suggestion. "I think I preferred your method of handling things." The adolescent sighed, "I suppose it's something though. Feel like making one?" He probably would, if only to do something interesting.

SilverLutz

Rolling for Kokayi now, since I'll probably have him make a container.

 

[MangoMeow]

Oh great, now they were delegated to catching fireflies. Personally, Kione thought that it was better to just hide away, but he supposed that wouldn't fly, given that the whole point of this meeting was to find a solution to the problem. It seemed like more of a way to placate the pride than anything else.... but then, maybe there were some that needed it, he thought with a side glance at his daughter.

(He ignored the fact that HE hadn't handled the situation well when he'd first encountered it, and still wasn't handling it well, for that matter.)

With a huff, the white lion nudged at the black adolescent beside him, "You going to participate in this?" He wouldn't, but he'd certainly enjoy watching his daughter attempt it.

Mini cast a glance up at him, before slowly making her way over to the supplies to start one of her own. She still wasn't sure of this, but it was something to occupy her, and if she was occupied with something, then others wouldn't feel the need to talk to her. It was a win-win, in her eyes.

Although... her attempt at making a container wasn't... the best. With her father more or less putting his two cents in from time to time and her lack of knowledge on how to really make it nice, the container was rather lopsided.

Still, it was something, and she carefully lifted it up before setting it down between them. "Um.... now what?"  

[SilverLutz]

[This roll is for Sawa, this is Zuko's roll, this is Ruaka's roll]

Sawa hummed softly as she thought back to her time after leaving her old pride. While she had seen floating lights before, they had never been like this. She shook her head 'no' and was about to comment further, but one of the Amusu spoke up and addressed those gathered. She politely listened and had to smile a bit when he held a little cage woven together with stems and blades of grass, a flickering light within.

"It seems they've come up with a solution," she said, looking back at Zuko with a placid smile. "I think we should help. Getting these spirits back to where they need to go would benefit everyone."

Zuko was relieved that an idea had been cooked up, especially since not even a joining rogue had seen anything like this before. He nodded in agreement, more than ready to do whatever it might take to get the spirits away from the pride, even if it was constructing strange little containers out of plants.

"Hopefully everyone will have success in catching those little bugs," he said as he began to scrounge around for things to make the basket out of. "I feel as though we'll need hundreds of them to light the way properly."

---

Ruaka shrugged her shoulders just a bit. Although the little lights hadn't hurt anyone persay, she had heard of them leading the more curious of their pridemates along dangerous paths that could lead to injury or worse. Still, she didn't fear them, for even though they swirled around her and almost encouraged her to follow, she knew better than to listen to those whose spirits were at unrest. Giving them company was one thing, obeying their silent commands? No thank you.

"Sure," she said, glancing down to see if there were any materials handy. There was some dried grass and a few old flower stems that had seen better days, but they would work well for this little assignment.

"I only hope it will work. Lost spirits of any kind should be helped. I know I would wish for help if I were lost, dead or alive."

MangoMeow

 

[MangoMeow]

He tilted his head at that, having not really considered if he was helping the lights or not, and then shrugged. He supposed that he would to, in that situation.

It took a minute to gather the supplies, let alone start making something he had never tried making before, but he was content with how it turned out. It looked sturdy enough to work, at least for a while, and a quick glance over towards his sister showed that at least he did better than her. He glanced up both to see how Ruaka was doing and what they should do next, then turned his gaze over to the fireflies.

"Alright, this is more up my alley." With a smirk, Kokayi stalked low towards one of the fireflies. He was quiet for a moment, before leaping up and catching some of the smaller ones in his mouth, followed immediately by a grimace on his face as he realized that this was not a pleasant feeling.

Oh well. Moving quickly over to his container, he blow the firefly out of his mouth and into it. He took a moment to just stare at his creation, then the lion looked back at Ruaka with a flat expression. ".... This is probably one of the stranger things I've ever done."

SilverLutz