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 Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 7:52 pm
Quote: When Evil Takes Root (15) : Destiny City is always being expanded and renovated, so controlled forest fires and forest demolition are common enough. And yet, the forests seem bigger. Darker. There’s no logical explanation to it, but logic has nothing to do with it if you pay enough attention. Sometimes, the trees seem to move--more than just how the wind manipulates them. Sometimes, a particularly mangled tree with sharp bark and long, clawlike branches will stand out amongst the others. It isn’t always in the same place, and it isn’t always alone. They can look like normal trees–until they don’t. And by the time you notice, you’re too close to stop them. In the blink of an eye, they’re upon you. They don’t quite run as much as they do slither, and their branches are always longer than they appear. Especially when they are slashing at you or trying to squeeze you. Some of the trees have strangely human shapes molded into them, covered in dark bark. Hopefully it’s just your imagination but you really shouldn’t try to find out what happens if one of them manages to catch you. Any area with one of these trees will feel unnaturally heavy, and when they have congregated it feels exhausting, as if they are draining the energy right out of the air–and you. They fear only fire and seem to feel pain; if you hack at their branches or peel their bark, they bleed. If in too much danger, they will flee into the trees. Once you lose sight of them, it’s impossible to find them again–unless they want you to. Note: If you choose to encounter these strange tree-like monsters, your character will recognize they are not youma. The trees either do not understand or do not care to listen to human words. It will always disappear back into the forest before it can be caught or killed, and if any bark or branches are broken off of it then these will quickly wither and petrify. Under close scrutiny they appear to be normal wood though they do not match anything Earth has seen and when dated may seem to be up to two hundred years old. This RP can be used as a battle requirement as long as there are two powered characters involved; you must be interacting with another player’s powered character. This does not count as the ‘one youma battle’ per stage for growth. This can only be used as a battle requirement once per character, but there is no limitation for how many times a player can use this prompt. Even if your character falls unconscious or becomes trapped by the tree, they must be rescued, either by someone else or a bystander. They may wake up somewhere else, away from the trees and with no explanation, but they will feel exhausted and will be nutrient deficient.
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:21 pm
This city was never safe, he knew that, and he was certain the story he'd heared a client telling a co-worker was further proof of it. Further proof that this city was out to get it's inhabitants, for what reason he didn't know, he knew the cities wild magic seemed to have a mind of it's own and perhaps evben a personality. Maybe it delighted in making things a bit entertaining, for itself at least, every so often. It just didn't seem to communicate these ideas to the inhabitants or ask if it was ok to do x,y, and z to them.
That was ok though, really it was, he was used to it and heas decided to send a text to his doctor and see if they might want to investigate things tonight - to see what might be behind the apparently haunted woods just outside the city. Kioshi might be one to take on most fights, and not back down very easily, but he wasn't stupid enough to go ghalavanting off through the woods like little red ridding hood - no thank you. He wasn't looking to wind up dead or missing somehow...he could hope some senshi, or knights, wound up with such fates though.
His textg message had been answered and now, hours later, he was standing at the edge of the woods all powered up with frost covering the ground about his feet and a chill to the air around him. If things weren't creepy enough, including the mist hanging low to the ground, he certainly helped in giving it a creep factor - not that he cared one bit. As always he'd taken his earrings out, he never kept them in when out on a patrol or powered up at all, tonight was espeically important because he didn't know what he might encounter.
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2024 10:42 pm
At first, he'd considered just going home after work but when he received a text from Miyamoto, well Kioshi but since it was work-related, he decided it would be good to get ahead on his quota while making sure the corrupt didn't suffer from a migraine. JUst in case he made sure he had some things in his bag to manage the symptoms.
The mention of a haunted forest didn't really seem too plausible to him, maybe just some kids getting drunk and getting spooked by a barn owl or something. There were plenty of things that could scare someone in the woods. Powering up, he teleported over to the area they sent him.
Walking the last little bit towards the towering trees, he noticed the standard frost spreading out around the corrupt as he approached. "Looks like a normal forest to me, rare maybe for the city but a forest just the same." Looking over towards the trees, it all looked normal, maybe a bit quiet, but it could be because of all the people who had been going into the woods to see what about it was so spooky.
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Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2024 9:11 am
"Sometimes looks are decieving, and when we're talking about this city it seems to be the case more often than not." From candies that could turn you colors to large bats that turned up out of no where, this city was an adventure and one he was not so fond of. He also wasn't leaving this city, this was home whether he liked it or not.
Eyeing the small wisp at his side, as it decided to do some sort of wiggle in the air, and turned his focus onto the forest then. "It there are reports on the forest attacking people, on the trees moving, I'm going to trust them until proven otherwise, I will always wonder why people outside of thic city do not know about what happens here." But he also figured it was due to magic, it had to be. "I thought I'd invite some help for this...if you don't mind dedicating a bit of time to a walk in the woods."
Turning his focus onto the other, looking over his shoulder at the other, there was a quirk of his lips as he spoke. "Comning?" Turning to face the forest he took the first steps towards the trees and with ewase pressed past the tree line and into thhe forest. His clothing brushing against branches, bushes, and various other flora as he moved. The wisp remained at his side, providing some light, while his finger tips spread a small bit of frost against whatever tree trunk, or branch, they touched.
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Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 2:35 pm
"While that may be true, I still hold my suspicions." Speaking flatly, he took one more look over the forest before following them and the odd little thing floating near them. At least if they happened upon and lost civilians in the woods, he could drain them a bit and then get them out if they were lost. With how dark it was beneath the trees, it wouldn't be as easy for any civilian to tell much from the bit of distance he could have now when draining.
"If we find any injured civilians, I'll look them over as well before we get them out. Senshi or knights though, I don't sense any but if the trees are living and manage to batter them up that just makes things easier for us." It also meant he wouldn't have to worry about being caught off guard while treating anyone who needed it.
Stepping into the first though, the lack of bird song or really any of the normal sounds of wildlife was off-putting. Not that he was scared persay but it didn't feel right. While he liked quite and enjoyed the peace, it felt out of place in nature. "Something is off already, there's no birds or crickets." Speaking in a hushed tone as he stepped in line with Miyamoto, he readied his daggers just in case. The rust-covered things looked nasty, not something he'd want to have to treat but since they'd be used on order it wasn't like it was his prerogative to do anything about their injuries.
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Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 6:58 pm
"I agree, civilians you handle and we can get them out. I don't sense order either...but if any turn up - I can handle them." He would enjoy handling any senshi or knights, there was a lot of forest here and losing a body would not be difficult. They could feed the trees for all he cared.
"If the trees are alive let us hope we are enough to handle them." He did not plan on staying in this forest. But he did want to know, he could turn in a report on it, because if these woods were haunted and was attacking people he did wonder if a youma wasn't behind it...or something else? He didn't know what that other thing could be, though he figured anything was possible, but if it was a youma he wanted to know and see what was going on. Why would a youma be out here, away from so many people, attacking people. There were far less people here for it to attack and feed on.
"No, you are right. It's too still. It isn't natural...." He didn't see any signs of wildlife either and that wasn't normal, even if it was late out. This was not right...
"Something is wrong with this place..." So something attacking people was more than propable.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 1:01 pm
Looking around, he noticed more oddities and stepped in front of the corrupt out of habit given that he had a weapon and they didn't. Something shifted, but it didn't seem like an animal. He couldn't sense any youma either and he really didn't like how quiet it was.
"I saw something move but I didn't hear any animals." Taking another step forward, he kept focused on the area around him and Miyamoto to try and figure out what might be going on. Stepping on a root though, led to a bit of a shock as it retracted then lashed out at his leg.
"s**t!" The hit to his shin had him staggering but he didn't fall. "It's the trees themselves!" Shouting as he turned and tried to see which one was the source, they all looked the same in the dark and that floating wisp thing didn't seem to be helping either of them any.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 6:34 pm
Watching the captain step infront of him the darker haired male shook his head, let them take lead...he'd keep their back safe. Already on alert the others words had him tensing, looking around for whatever may have moved. he hadn't heard it, not a single damn sound, it was already seeming like the stories might just be true. This forest was haunted and dangerous and people were being attacked in the forst - by the forest itself.
Jumping at the others shout, taken by surprise and already on high alert, he wasn't surprised by what the other claimed. The trees were the aggressor in all of this...but why and how. "They aren't youma." He spoke up, he couldn't feel any youma around. So then what sort of magic had the trees behaving like this? The dark mirror had wraiths...nothing like this, as far as he knew anyway.
Moving closer to the captain, figuring it would be best if they stuck together in this, he was ready to use magic if need be. At least the little wisp, moving and hoving here and there, was giving light to things though not enough. "Which tree...." Did it stand out, was something off about it which would tell them which tree was the cause of the attack. "Do we move...or stay here..." As he spoke the little wisp moved closer to one, before seeming to hurry away from the tree, it looked like a person....half in the bark. But there was no skin...no face. But the shape looked human. A knee...the parts of leg right above and below the knee joint. It looked like arms just coming up from the trunk while the shape of a face as well.
"Look!" Pointing as he hoped the other saw it, because the wisp was moving away quickly...as something was moving. It was keeping itself safe, which seemed a reasonable thing to do.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 8:57 pm
"What are they then?" Slashing out with a dagger as a tendril went for the corrupt's long hair. It didn't seem to do much to the thing and he pushed them back away from the tree. "I don't think we should stick around, that tree... looks foul." Keeping himself between the tree and Miyamoto, he wasn't sure if magic would work. If they were magic as well, would fire even work if his daggers didn't? Then there was another sound, another tendril-like root came out and wrapped around his other ankle. "s**t." It pulled him down and he stabbed into the thing to try to get it to let go.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 9:31 pm
"That I don't know." And was why he wanted to investigate this, to see if it was a youma and if not than what. He wanted to write out a report on it, to see if anyone else knew, would anyone be sentg to investigate and would any answers be found. Right now though his focus was on getting the captain free as he lunged for the root, and grabbed it, trying to pry it off his ankle.
"It's...bleeding. s**t." That was just gross - very gross. he was also certain it wasn't hygenic, at least he didn't think so, it was red and liquid and he could only think it was blood. He didn't like that idea, especially when it looked like some person was part of the tree.
"I don't know if my magic will work even." But if it had blood...than maybe it would work? It was, he figured, worth a try. As he held on, tried to unwrap it, he ignored the branch coming down onto his back. The bite of the brnaches, the pull of fabric as strands of fabric gave way, and calle don his magic. "Frozen blood." The words a whisper, made past gritted teeth, as he held on and didn't let a brach pull him away.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:17 pm
Seeing the thing bleed, he pulled his knife out and made an executive decision. "Okay, that's enough. We're retreating." With firmness in his voice and after they'd cast their magic, he grabbed their arm and teleported them back out of the tree line.
It made him a bit dizzy, going down on his knee as he pressed a hand to his temple to try and ease what felt like a migraine or ice pick entering the side of his head. Maybe teleporting with someone during a fight wasn't the best idea but he hadn't wanted to find out if there were more of the things.
"Are you alright? I saw one of them get you." Looking up, he felt a throbbing pain and decided to just rest for a bit. Nothing seemed to be coming out of the forest.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:52 pm
Landing on the ground, sprawling, he sat up slowly nodding his head as he did so. "I'm fine." The other wasn't though, his head was hurting...oh. The teleporting likely had been an issue, as they'd likely recently become a captai nand teleporting someone with them, and so quickly, was likely an issue for them. Reaching out, and up, with his hands he pressed the tips of his fingers to the others temples.
"My back hurts, I imagine it's like being whipped with a stick or something similar, but I'll live." Shrugging. His uniform was ripped up in spots, where branches and even bark had caught, but he didn't think he was bleeding. He would have marks though, oof that he was certain.
"Teleporting someone with you is a big drain, practice makes it easier." And he hadn't been going to teleport out...he'd have rather fought, or at least tried to.
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Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2024 2:39 pm
Freezing for a moment as they touched him, he relaxed as the cooling touch helped ease away the pain. There was something on their hands, he was definitely going to pull some of those sanitizing wipes from his subspace after but for now, he stayed very still as he felt mild frost forming in his hair near his temples as they helped him.
It was odd, it didn't bother him as much as other people trying to touch him but he would think about that later as he looked them over. There didn't look to be any blood on them, at least that was theirs. "I can take a look if you need me to, in a minute though." Some relief showed on his face as things calmed down and he started to look over where the tendril had gotten him. It was bruised but his high boots had done their job.
"I'll keep that in mind, I didn't have as much of an issue with it the other day but maybe that was because she knew we were teleporting so maybe she did it alongside me instead of me pulling her." There were a lot of nuances to this... magic he had access to. It was something he didn't quite like but it made things easier so he'd grin and bear the uncomfortableness of it all just like he was handling them using magic to help with his headache.
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Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2024 2:46 pm
"That's fine, you can look once you've managed to right yourself. Teleporting so quickly, without some manner of focus, when new to it can be a bit jarring." Add to it he'd pulled someone else along and it was draining as well. He'd learned that when he'd been learning to teleport as a super, once he'd joined the Negaverse. Those were lessons which left him worn out but feeling good, because he'd been making progress. It was a skill which order did not posess and he was greatful for, it was useful, another reason chaos was better than order.
"It is like working a muscle..it needs training. It also needs focus in the beginning." Rubbing his fingers into the others skin, circular motions, he let the frost build and cover the others skin gently. Finally withdrawing and standing slowly and stretching a bit. His back hurt, no doubt about that. "It seems the reports are right - the woods are dangerous and it is attacking people. It isn't a youma though." So what sort of magic was behind it? He didn't know...but he wanted to know.
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