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 Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 5:23 pm
Quote: Curious Findings (17) : Maybe it’s got something to do with the weather, or the construction, or all the other general oddities that seem to occur in Destiny City, but for the first time in nearly fifty years, the historic tree in one of Downtown Destiny City’s parks has woken up. While the tree was known for being alive and growing despite a lengthy hibernation, this is the first year that it’s sprouted leaves–but that’s not all! The unique tree has now also started growing strange pods. Because of the trees legacy–and not at all because of the oddity–the area has been taped off, but that really hasn’t been enough to stop anyone curious enough to investigate. The tree itself is several feet wide and stands roughly fifty feet tall; it’s branches spread significantly and seem like they can hold a lot of weight–which is good, because the pods growing on it have a hard brown shell and can grow up to the size of a soccer ball. Sometimes, the larger ones seem to tremble and shake in place. Maybe it's an animal trying to nibble? Maybe it’s just the wind? Maybe it’s something else. The pods can be pulled from the tree or collected from the ground; the shells are incredibly difficult to crack open, and some of them leak a strange, acidic sap that is strong enough to cause skin agitation–and in some cases there are even reports that it’s burned through wood or fabric. Sometimes, the healthier looking pods that aren’t leaking anything even seem to shake on their own, which is a mystery in itself. Another mystery is why Almadel seems so keen to trade for them…
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 5:25 pm
Athene wasn’t sure why he had chosen to wander in the direction of this particular park of all parks, but the dark-haired eternal figured that it was as good a place as any to think–
After all the area had long since been taped off, and whilst the tape didn’t look like it would be too much of a problem to circumvent, Athene was hoping that the fact that it was there at all would prove deterrent enough.
Mayhaps it did, or mayhaps it was simply too late for most to be about, but either way the area beyond the tape had proven to be seemingly deserted.
It hadn’t stopped Athene from warily looking around, as he stepped in the direction of the historic tree than was known to be somewhere in the area, because he liked to think that he had lived in Destiny City for long enough to know that you never could tell–
But the area beyond the tape had continued to prove as quiet as it looked and Athene figured that he would just have to take the chance, because he really didwant to find somewhere quiet to sit and think.
He still hadn’t figured out why he had started picking up on youma auras as Arian, but for some reason it seemed like at some point he seemed to have somehow managed to gain the ability to do so.
It wasn’t quite the same as when he was powered up, he didn’t feel the sense of cold chill the way that he did when he was Athene–
Instead he’d seen a purplish shimmer around what he'd later realised was a youma.
Athene fiddled absently with the opal charm that he (or rather Arian) had picked up from one of the stalls in the town square near the wishing tree earlier on in the day as he walked.
And then realised that it wasn't just a weird fluke, wasn't just something temporary the way that things had been when he had somehow found himself a cat - although come to think of it he'd ended up as a cat for longer than he'd been seeing purplish shimmers so mayhaps it was simply some sort of strange magical fluke–
After all it wasn't outside of the realms of possibility.
He sighed, in fact given that he was in Destiny City it was probably very much within the realm of possibility given that this was the same city that had had a bunch of murderous giant spiders one Halloween and was also a city where the weird seemed to happen pretty frequently–
Especially around city events.
Athene found himself pausing as the tree into question came into sight, and found himself blinking startled–
Because the tree was absolutely covered in pods.
Hard brown pods in a variety of sizes, although the biggest seemed to make him think of a brown-shelled football.
There were pods that appeared to have fallen to the ground too, and some of them appeared to have cracked–
And were leaking some sort of liquid that Athene had a feeling that he probably didn’t want to get too close to.
The sigh this time was more of a wry one, because the presence of the pods had put paid to his initial plan of sitting under the tree for a while and thinking.
Because whilst there weren't that many cracked and leaking pods under the tree that he could see, there were still enough of them there for Athene not to want to take the chance that he might end up accidentally stumbling into some of said leaking liquid.
He hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to leave though, and eventually curiosity had led him to gingerly take a closer look at some of the smaller (and non leaky) pods.
Athene had figured that Liryn might be interested in the strange pods and so had eventually ended up taking a trio of pods that seemed to be in better condition than the ones leaking liquid - and whilst he hadn’t managed to come any closer to working out why or how he was somehow sensing youma as Arian, he had at least managed to distract himself from thinking about it–
Even if it did mean that he (or rather Liryn), since Athene had no intention of holding onto the pods for longer than he had to, would be left with a new mystery to figure out.
-- 742 words --
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