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wilderlogs2018-03-07 06:14 pm
wildermods) wrote in wilderlogs2018-03-07 06:14 pm
THE SQUAD DOES AN INTRO - [modplot] [event]
THE SQUAD DOES AN INTRO
In their homeworlds, they suddenly hear water flowing over stone, the wind through the leaves, and the gentle rattling of Kodama. The hushed sound of treetops waving in the breeze lull them to sleep whether they want it to or not, and in what seems like a dream they fall through a tunnel that passes through layers of dirt and roots and then through seemingly endless boughs of trees.
During this impossibly long fall, spirits whisper in their ears. They tell them that they must save the Wilderlands and the Green. They tell them that they will be given the power or weapons to do it - or that they're already strong enough as they are. They tell them that in the times they're not needed, they may find themselves trapped in the faerie realm known as the Brugh, but that the mirrors will let them speak, and the mirrors will let them see.
And they tell them that they're about to become lost in the forest and that there are others like them, just as lost.
When they wake up, they find themselves in the ruins of an abandoned city; the forest has overtaken it, threading new life through the decay, but the green of the leaves and vines pales in contrast with the broken buildings and streets. Every single building in this city was once a vibrant shade of emerald, and even now, after the slow ravages of time, the green ruins glimmer like they're hewn from precious gems.
The only things that aren't that bright shade of emerald are the statues. Countless statues are scattered through the abandoned city, shaped like men and women and children and pets, all dressed in 1900s era Earth-style finery. These figures are extremely intricate, almost too detailed to be believably carved by a human hand. Many of them are smashed and broken.
Some of the statues don't look human. Among the humans are little beings shaped like china dolls that are made of stone like the rest, instead of porcelain. And in the middle of the city, standing near each other are three strange petrified figures: an axe-wielding man that looks like he was made of metal before being petrified, a man who looks like a human-lion hybrid, and a living scarecrow. All three have expressions of surprise or anger on their faces.
When the characters are brought into this place, the magic that brought them in seems to have trouble getting them all in the same place at first. They find themselves spending brief amounts of time in one spot (sometimes just minutes, sometimes longer) before they're teleported again. Each time they teleport they find themselves near someone new, someone just as lost as them. Those that don't speak the same language may find some difficulties communicating, but over time, the magic of the Wilderlands will kick in, and plant a whole new language in their heads. This magic works faster the more they emotionally connect with other and find understanding without words.
The teleportation keeps zapping them in different places all over the city -- and sometimes outside it, where they can see an abandoned road made of yellow brick that trails off into the distance. Fortunately, the people they keep getting paired off with seem like normal people just like them, and beyond that, they're entirely alone in the ruins.
Probably.
✦ Post in actionspam format. Plots and mod-run events in the game are meant to be in actionspam format to keep a brisk pace.
✦ Please see the OOC post linked up top for more information about the event.
Sariatu | Kubo and the Two Strings
It's a strange thing to even catch Sariatu's attention at all, with her husband dead at her feet all over again, with her son running for his life, and her heart already in pieces even as her sister's blade lands, and cuts her heart and body in two.
The wind and water covers the sound of the sword through her bones. The whispers drown out the cries she can't make in death, telling her things that she has no attention to spare for.
Chosen? No. Let go to my husband.
The Green? No. Let me save my son.
The power to -
She doesn't need to know the power to do what. She wants it. She wants power. No matter why it is given, she will turn it to her own ends, she will turn it on the protection of her son. She wants it. She has a great reason. Yes. I accept this power.
She lands whole. And yet, even in death - still monkey-shaped.
But she can't even care enough to let that appalled observation fill her mind, not when her mind is still full of her death, still full of Hanzo dying in front of her all over again - ]
"Hanzo?"
[She manages one breaking cry, scrabbling on the broken street to get her full height. The deserted emerald city gives her no answers.]
"Hanzo!"
[She shouts at the top of her voice, echoing though the broken towers of jewel. It doesn't matter who else hears her, when she is already dead, when her husband has already gone before her, when her son might come after her soon -
- when whatever destroyed this city might find them before she does.
She spots a sword in the corner of her eye and has her hand on it, pulling it from the ground before she even sees the style of the weapon clearly. When she does get a look at it, she almost drops it again. The blade is etched with open-jawed wolves, running and leaping through thrashing waves, sea creatures with claws half as big as their bodies and eyes that seem black and staring, even though they are only etched in silver. Into the pommel has been carved, with cratered detail, a full and threatening moon.
This is a terrible sword. A strong, sharp, terrible, useful sword.
Maybe as terrible as her need. Maybe as terrible as her grief.
She needs it.]
"Hanzo! Where are you?"
[She screams again, running through the city. Where is he? Where has he gone? He didn't have time to wander far before she arrived. Why is he not here, if she is? Why did she believe he was dead all those years ago?
Why did she just let herself assume that just because she saw him injured within an inch of death, that her father and her sisters would not take it in their awful hearts to do something even worse to him? Why didn't she realize death would not satisfy them, why didn't she know that they would find some way to torture him, to make him suffer all the loneliness and purposelessness he had worked so hard to avoid?
She is a scream away from being consumed again with grief.
In the time that has passed, she realizes, her son has either died or escaped, and if he's died -]
"Kubo!"
[Her voice breaks at even the thought that he may answer her. But she screams her son's name until it echoes through the emeralds anyway.]
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They come darting out from around a corner, and then scramble right back behind it when they see the furry white thing. What is that?? They're reminded of that big fluffy thing the Lunarians had sent, the thing Sensei had called "Shiro"...
Back pressed to an emerald wall, Phos steels themself and peeks back around the corner. Was this thing what had been yelling? The fluffy Shiro thing hadn't talked, but they don't see or hear anyone else anywhere.]
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In that isolation, her last cry breaks off.]
Hanzo -!
[Where is he? Where is he? He died seconds before her. If Kubo is not here, that's a good thing. It might mean he survived her sister. But Hanzo died at her feet all over again. He died as surely as she did. And he didn't have time to go far ahead of her, if he came here at all. And if he never came here at all, if death is not the reunion she assumed, deep down, that it would be -
The sword clatters to the ground. In the silence, she heaves a ragged, despairing sob.]
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They really have no idea what to make of it.
But they can't just ignore the thing. If it's really the worst case scenario, it could just come after them or someone else later. So Phos does the clearly very cautious and reasonable thing: they pick up a pebble and lob it at the furry thing, keeping watch from around the edge of the ruined building.]
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Who's there?
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But it talks. The words are a little strange, but Phos can generally understand them. That's gotta be worth something. At the very least, they can't just fight it without first trying to communicate. They peek back out cautiously, light glinting off their hair and arm so brilliantly it's a wonder they can ever manage any kind of stealth at all.]
Um...that would be me.
[Tentatively, they wave a golden hand, keeping most of their body shielded by the crumbling wall.]
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[She spits out the words like a throwing knife.]
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Uh... [They frown slightly, uncertain, and lean out a little further.] You can talk. And...I don't know what's going on? I was just falling, or...dreaming about falling? Um...
[Shit, they weren't prepared for actual dialogue. They didn't really expect to get this far.]
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I asked who you are.
[No, but that's not her most important question.]
Have you seen a child? A boy, in red. This tall. Or a giant beetle?
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[Forgive them, monkey mom, this is still all kinda super bizarre to them. The height she indicates for said child seems really small, too small for any kind of person they've ever seen. Or does she mean like...a young member of her own kind? Whatever that is?]
I haven't seen anyone in red. [That would cover it no matter what the situation turned out to be, at least.] Or...noticed any bugs, really.
[They pause, not really sure what to make of the fluffy thing. Person? It talks, and...it kind of sounds upset, under all the hostility. But Phos hasn't seen anything that could help, so...]
I can't find my partner, either.
[They creep out from around the corner, keeping their distance still but, uh. Well. Hey there, fluffy thing.]
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I can't find my husband.
[This revelation is followed by her rallying, her sword still ready to defend if need be. She is too used to not showing vulnerability.]
I know he came here before me. [Unless he wasn't here at all. Unless death is not the great reunion after all.] Who else have you seen?
[She pauses, before adding -]
Your partner. What do they look like?
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Actually, that's not new. That's kind of ridiculously familiar.
[There are a lot of talking apes and monkies running around his world. All the apes of Gorilla City, Detective Chimp...]
[The language she's speaking sounds maaaaybe Japanese. There's no way he'd know, though. He doesn't know any other languages than English and a tiny bit of Interlac he picked up in the 31st century.]
[She sounds upset - and she's got a sword, when he's powerless and ain't got squat - so his casual tone changes.]
Hey, I know you probably can't understand me, but I'm friendly. See? [He holds up both hands in a placating way, and gives her an awkward but gentle 'please don't stab me' smile and points to said smile with a finger.] Friendly.
[Despite the fact he looks practically hewn from granite, he's not really the most intimidating. His body language is alert but not hostile, and his expression is a little lost. He's a teenager who's been through a lot of weird crap but this is definitely a strange one, what with the random teleportation and the whole 'it's time to see the wizard' vibe.]
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That's all she's able to do at this point. The strangers she meets can't speak a language she knows, the magic translating some of their speech is incomplete, and what good is asking for answers if nobody can answer them -?
This new young man is doing everything he can to make himself unthreatening, she can tell, but he doesn't look afraid, and for even a boy who looks hewn from a mountain not to be afraid of a monkey her size, with a sword this size, in her state of rage, tells her more than he might know. That he's attempting to communicate with her, when she looks like nothing more than a screaming animal, tells her more still. It tells her that he might have answers, even if they're not to the only questions she cares to ask.
All the running and all the teleporting is starting to sap her stamina, so the breath she heaves in as she points her sword at him is ragged. There's an alley behind him she hasn't explored yet, and he is too calm to be trusted.
She growls just in time for the translation magic to put just the right words into her mind, though she doesn't know it until she's spoken them.]
If you can't tell me where my son is, get out of my way!
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[Aggression and fear are emotions and it helps the language to snap into place.]
[Kon steps back into the alley, not realizing that's where she's trying to look.]
I know you're worried about your kid, monkey lady, but you don't have to be so aggro. Hell, if he's missing, I'll even help you find him.
[It's the super thing to do, just like getting cats out of trees.]
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[She practically shrieks it. Why doesn't anyone else understand that they're dead? That they're here because they're dead? Did no one else come from a violent death?
Why does she even know what that word means?
A moment of understanding is too important to pass up.]
Have you seen a giant beetle? Or a boy, this tall, in red, with a shamisen?
[She can always power past him once she gets her answer.]
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[She probably won't get hurt. For a monkey, she looks pretty handy with that sword.]
[That someone that could get hurt could be him, he realizes. What he's doing is incredibly stupid, but whatever, this is a bad situation waiting to happen.]
And no, I haven't seen either, but like I said, I can help you look.
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The thought fills her head as she tightens her grip on the sword. The kind-faced boy who's not surprised to meet a talking monkey with a sword in a decimated city in the land of the dead, trying to talk her out of keeping her guard up by appealing to her better nature, has made the error of believing that her better nature is that easy to appeal to.
Unfortunately, the man who brought out her better nature has died in front of her all over again, and the child who sustained it is either dead, or still - forever - in mortal danger, and she doesn't trust a boy who's calm in the land of the dead, facing a talking monkey with a sword.]
Or the beings that ruined this city might meet me first.
[The look she gives him is pure suspicion.]
Maybe one already has. Maybe one's thinking he's going to get my guard down.
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[Kon keeps both hands up and lets out a groan of frustration.]
Listen, monkey lady, I don't know how I got here either, okay? I was at home playing manhole cover frisbee with my flying dog, I got tossed into a hostage situation with some gremlins, there was some kind of tree tunnel and an Enya chorus whispering in my ears about something something save the Green something, and now I'm here.
[He narrows his eyes.]
...With someone who's officially becoming my least favorite talking ape, and given how many of them I know or know of that's the bottom of a surprisingly long list.
Either leave me be or let me help you. [A pause.] If you let me help you, I have better sight and hearing than most humans.
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But what someone else might take as a kind offer of help, Sariatu is in no space to accept. Wander through a decimated city with a stranger who might do anything once her back is turned, while her attention is on her search for Hanzo and Kubo?]
No.
[She is not her son, she is not trusting, she would have turned her own husband's help aside and some part of her still knows she couldn't have done anything else, because taking Beetle on their quest still ended with his death, and hers, and this time, her son is not here to insist upon trust.
She keeps her blade level and her heart full of mistrust.]
Get out of my way.
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Easy, easy! I don't know where we are either, and I totally get the urge to yell, but it's not going to help anything.
[That said, she's fully prepared to leap away from the sword-wielding monkey, because that thing looks sharp and Cassie does not want to get stabbed.]
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Tell me ((where I am.))
[She's said it to so many people at this point, and none of them have given her answers she can understand. But what can she do but ask?]
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[Aggressive monkey with a sword. Probably better to keep it's (her? The voice sounded female) attention on Cassie rather than some of the people wandering around lost here. She crosses her arms in an x across her chest, light gleaming off of her bracers.]
((If you want to)) fight, we can ((fight. But I don't)) think that's ((going to)) get either of us what ((we want)).
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[Yelling slowly and loud hasn't helped her yet. Much. It hasn't even made her feel better. But what else can she do?
Anyway, the girl - however foolishly - spoke of fighting. Sariatu couldn't tell if it was a challenge or not, but she keeps her blade ready.]
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[Cassie uncrosses her arms and presents the monkey with her open palms, fingers spread and elbows bent close to her sides, in what she hopes is a universal gesture of "I'm not a threat".]
If we work together, ((maybe we can)) find out ((where we are and)) how we got here.