The Heroes of Light vs. The Sakura Forest (round 1)

[littlemhigan]

Who: Everyone who signed up!
When: October 10
Where: The Sakura forest
What: There's supposed to be an Eidolon here! Lets go find it!
Warnings/Notes: it's October and there are supposedly mimics in here.

This morning is damp and foggy, lingering swaths of mist a testament to the rapid changes in temperature that always seem a hallmark of the fall season. The sunlight is still too new to burn it away, and the world seems hazy and lavender.

It would be beautiful, if it wasn’t so eerie. Perhaps it’s simply the morning chill, but skin prickling up to gooseflesh seems to be a common occurrence amongst the gathered crowd, and Castor herself, standing at the head and sorting people into teams, is not immune to this.

Behind her stands the southwestern edge of the Sakura forest. The fog within seems particularly dense, and as it diffuses the morning light, the forest seems almost otherworldly; a glimpse at something fey and unknowable and eternal. It’s likewise eerily quiet; even accounting for the fog smothering all but the closest noise, there are no audible signs of life from within the forest’s boundaries.

If the hair on the back of your neck is slowly raising, you’re probably not alone in that, either.

“Alright!” Castor calls, once she’s finished organizing people, “That should be the lot’ve ye! We don’t know what all’s about in there, and I’ve had word that the local wildlife has been ornery of late, so keep yer wits about ye, and stay close te your mates!

“I’ve given each of ye a handful of ribbon…” she pauses to hold up a handful of her own, a cheery red that somehow looks ominous in this atmosphere. “A colour te each team! Use ‘em to mark yer way in; I don’t want te have te go fishin’ fer lost souls when all’s said and done, and if ye find somethin’ ye’ll leave an easy way back.

“I’d advise ye sort someone te keep an eye on the Slates. Twelve willin’ they work more’n ten fulms into the wood, stay in touch best ye can over the network. And don’t hesitate te turn back if ye feel things’re goin’ poorly fer you an’ yours. I’d rather ye come back alive and emptyhanded.”

Here she pauses again, seeming to count something out on her fingers. “I think that’s the last of what I’ve got te say. Try and be back ‘fore sundown, yeah?”


[ooc: And go! I will be endeavouring to reply to each party at least ONCE daily, regardless of who’s posted in the meantime (we’ll see how it goes)!]

Comments

[littlemhigan]

The forest seems to close in around the party as they move into it. The fog grows thicker and the light dims somewhat, filtering now through the foliage and mist alike. It's still unsettlingly quiet. Before long, their entry point is lost to the haze and shadow, and they are alone. There is still signal on the iMog slates.

The forest seems timeless and eternal as they travel, and they do travel awhile. There's little of note, save for the occasional copse of yellow-petaled flowers...and, should they listen, a faint chuckle, that sounds like it might belong to an old man. The shadows of trees in the haze suddenly don't look so friendly.

[pidgeypidge]

For the most part, she's been keeping to herself since they'd gathered here. She's only met a couple of her teammates before, but Pidge isn't going to let that get to her. She's probably not going out of her way to befriend any of them, though she smiles at Tidus' announcement. And blinks a little at the sound of Papyrus' familiar booming voice. Well, then.

But then they're moving, and she's pretty content to take up the rear. Her ribbon is tucked safely in her pocket and she has her slate out. Every so often, she'll take a photo as they walk. It's comforting that they still have signal out here, and that's something she's definitely going to be keeping an eye on.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Normally Uendo would be making small talk and jokes to keep the group's spirits up, but right now the idea just feels... wrong, somehow. It's like the fog is sucking out all the natural sounds of the forest and making every word spoken so much louder. Not exactly the kind of atmosphere that's good for chuckles. Though, he could swear he just heard someone chuckle...

He does try to keep a cheery disposition on the outside, at least. See, he's pausing periodically to tie a ribbon to a tree as they go. Not scared at all. Ha. Ha.

"...I'm going to hazard a guess and say that was not one of us laughing just now?" He's not sure whether he's hoping for confirmation or denial.

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja's eyes narrow, when he hears that chuckle. He reaches up to tie a ribbon around a tree branch, walking quietly now. "No. That was... distinctly an elderly male voice, which fits nobody here." I think I already know who we're dealing with.

"It's quite alright. Incidentally, does anyone happen to have countermeasures against lightning?"

[sassafrisk]

When the odd laughter started coming from everywhere, Frisk immediately activated and began to maintain Transience, ready to flashstep out of the way at a moment's notice. Crazy old man laughing was, like, the number one big indicator of a haunted forest, and they were not going to be caught unprepared.

"On it," they say, whipping out their iMog slate and changing gear sets. Their generic green and brown hoodie is replaced with a black one, with lightning-bolt patterns in white spiderwebbing across it. "Tidus, I have a spare if you want one for your Ninja gear. Might be a bit small, but you can wear it unzipped. And what're you thinking, Kuja? Sounds like you might have an idea of what kind of shenanigans are afoot."

[acapriciousreaper]

"On Gaia," Kuja begins, carefully. "There is an Eidolon named Ramuh. He appears, always, as an old man, sometimes decrepit and frail, sometimes angry and thunderous. He had mastery over Lightning. I wouldn't bring it up, but there's so many similarities between this world and Gaia, I thought it bore mentioning."

Just in case, he looks to the sky, to check for storm clouds.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

"Ramuh?" Uendo frowns, shaking his head. "He's well known here in Vaikuntha, too. I've summoned him several times. I can't see him going around scaring people for no reason..."

He's never heard of another old man Eidolon, either... so what does that leave?

"A ghost, maybe? There's been talk of spectral monsters and spirits showing up lately. No reason there couldn't be one here."

[acapriciousreaper]

That gives him pause. "Not Ramuh, possibly. But this feels familiar, somehow... Well, it was only a hunch. Be on your guard, even so."

sorry wait who's the tank here

[wind_in_my_ears]

Klonoa frowns, his ears whipping about as he turns his head to look around. Whatever that sound is, it isn't sounding very mirthful.

"Whatever it is, I don't like how it sounds. We should get ready for anything."

He says, and presses his hands together, gesturing to Papyrus as glowing motes of Regenerative green healing energies suffuse him like dust settling on a pristine countertop.

[einspine]

Oh! That was unexpected, but a relieved smile crosses his face upon taking the spell. "THANK YOU! THAT SHOULD CERTAINLY COME IN HANDY."

Still, the laughter is certainly... ominous. The flowers just as much. He winces a little at the sight, but doesn't comment on it just yet.

Cautious, he prepares a Safeguard. He'll switch to Magitek if he needs to fight, but for the time being, a more defensive job seems handy. "THOUGH IF THERE IS A GHOST HERE, LET'S TRY TO BE CIVIL. COMBAT IS A GREAT WAY TO STRENGTHEN BONDS, BUT WE PROBABLY SHOULDN'T GET AHEAD OF OURSELVES."

[4got10]

Chara had decided to remain a bit more quiet than usual for themselves for this. So far they'd been keeping an eye out around the area, especially a supernatural one with Sense Earth. The laughter, though, is unnerving. They can feel their hands tighten a little into fists. It's alarming; it had been a while since they'd gotten into a fight once they had entertained the Underground years ago, but once they got here their natural instincts for it just kicked back in.

"Let's hope we can talk, but sinister laughter isn't usually a good sign of someone who just wants to hang out," Chara says.

They take a few steps forward beyond the group, though not far, walking a slight circle around their group as they use Sense Earth to see if they can detect the presence of whoever the laugher might be in their immediate area.

[zanarkandian]

"Thanks," Tidus said to Frisk, gratefully accepting the hoodie. It being small just reminded him of his first blitzball uniform. "Don't think I have anything with a NulShock spell, but I'm pretty good at dodging lightning."

Long story. And again, Frisk had the right idea. Transience would have made that little adventure much easier.

"Anyway, are we sure that's the eidolon? Maybe I'm biased here, but when I hear laughter around a summoning...to me, that usually means a summoner's gone mad."

Lol Tidus

[poisonwish]

Papyrus' booming voice raises Snow White's hackles almost as much as the suspicious laughter.

"I agree with Tidus..." he murmured, trying to peer through the fog. "I may have no experience with Eidolons, but when it comes to deranged men trying to use power beyond their means... "

This was giving him angry memories of the Grimms all over again. And regardless of Pap's advice, Snow was already itching to stab whatever threat was out there.

[acapriciousreaper]

"Maniacal laughter is generally part and parcel of going mad with power," Kuja allows. "Admittedly, it was more of a sinister chuckle than maniacal cackling. Though I have to say, Papyrus, I disagree. If whatever this is approaches us with hostile intent, I for one am all for not giving it a chance to get a first strike off."

[sassafrisk]

"Okay, so, consensus is that regardless of the exact type of weird laughter it is, we should keep an eye out," Frisk says. They've played waaaay too many mysterious forest stages to not expect some sort of trickery here. "Got it. Papyrus, do you have any resistance items handy? Especially electricity ones, just in case."

[littlemhigan]

Sense Earth reveals nothing untoward in the immediate area; simply trees and uneven ground and yellow-petaled flowers.

The laughter seems to dissolve into a breeze and leaves an uncomfortable silence in its wake, and that silence lingers whether or not the party decides to keep moving. It lingers and it lingers and it lingers.

Until it doesn't. At least for some of you. From the left, Pidge hears a gasp and a cry of pain from a voice that could only belong to her brother. From the right, Papyrus can hear some very distinctive trombone playing. From behind them, Kuja hears the laughter again, louder and closer and most definitely belonging to the man he kicked off a cliff on Terra.

For the rest, the silence and dread presses in ever closer.

[acapriciousreaper]

The response is instinctive, violent, and immediate. It may even come as a shock, to the people here who are not Snow White, to see calm-and-flippant Kuja's face twist into a vicious snarl, voice shaking with barely-restrained fury. "Garland... GARLAAAAAAAAAAAAND!"

Kuja turns on the spot, the spell flying even as he's turning to look, he knows that voice he killed him if the old man is here he'll kill him all over again if that's what it takes Garland is not allowed to be HERE-

Of course, from the perspective of everyone else, Kuja has just cast a [Focus]-empowered Thundara at an unoffensive tree and probably frightened the living shit out of anyone who hadn't expected to hear a tree explode today.

[poisonwish]

Snow White's attention snapped immediately to his friend the mage. He hadn't heard anything.

"Kuja, what the hell?" They couldn't afford to blow all their spells on nothing, and they couldn't be separated now. Snow White grabbed Kuja's arm firmly, not about to let him run off.

[wind_in_my_ears]

Klonoa YELPS, diving down to the ground and rolling as he looks up to see what's going on. "WHOAH, what's wrong?!" He calls out, pushing himself partways up as he gets ready to dive again. He didn't expect the first shot to be coming from one of them.

[zanarkandian]

Tidus's hard won lightning dodging instincts kicked in the moment he registered that crackle in the air. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought to fine-tune the trajectory of his jumps for his new ninja abilities, so he blinked and found himself wrapped around a nearby tree branch. Whoops. Definitely not the place he wanted to be right then.

"Dude, chill," he grumbled as he flipped back to the ground. He rubbed at his arm, , registering that the air felt heavier than before. "...wait, it's not driving us mad, is it?"

[einspine]

The surprise spell made Papyrus jump, eye sockets BIG AND GOOGLY. The panic that follow certainly doesn't help. Nor does the... ominous trombone music.

Trombone.

Tidus raises a good point, however, and it's enough to drag him out of his stupor. "THAT ALL DEPENDS. DOES ANYONE ELSE HEAR EXTREMELY INAPPROPRIATE AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC?"

[whirluendo_of_puns]

"Yipes!" Uendo almost leaps right out of his skin at the explosion -- so badly startled that he inadvertently switches out with Patches. That is not the kind of expression he ever expected to see on Kuja's face.

"I-I don't hear anything..."

[littlemhigan]

Poor tree.

Garland's laughter scatters in the blowback of the spell leaving silence fo Kuja, but it seems to stir up a few more ghosts. Uendo and his alters hear an old man gasp - the last breath as the life is choked from a frail body. Tidus hears his own old man, yelling for him in that belligerent tone he always had seemed to use.

Snow White, though he starts for Kuja, may pause as he hears Otogi Grimm cry for help somewhere in the distance and Klonoa...Klonoa doesn't hear anything with those ears of his but instead finds himself overtaken by a sudden vertigo; as though he were standing on the precipice of a tall cliff and a stiff breeze could send him over the edge.

For Papyrus, the tromboning continues, more inappropriate and incidental (and ominious) as ever.

[acapriciousreaper]

The rage fades, and Kuja is left breathing heavily, looking disconcerted and uncertain and- surely he's not going mad- But no, others are hearing things too, which means he's not going insane.

"Ahaha. Ahah. I... ah." Kuja clears his throat, adjusts his hair. "I thought- I heard-"
He inhales, exhales. He's composed now, re[Focus]ing himself. Probably. "That, of course, was inexcusable. My sincerest apologies, I- well, I take it the rest of you are hearing things too. Stupid, really, should have known that it couldn't be possible." Try as he might to save face, it's unlikely it's going to work, here. He glances, briefly, at Klonoa and Snow White. "Understand, I- I heard Garland. I'm sorry."

[wind_in_my_ears]

Klonoa gasps, putting a hand on his chest as he sinks down to his knees, panting openly. It's like he's off balance, and he can't fully stand without feeling like he's about to fall over. They're getting attacked, that's certain, but how and by what, he has no idea. There's not much he can think of to do about it, either.

There's only one option he can think of, and with his head swimming, he's not in any position to be targeting anyone but himself. He shakily tries to pull his hand away from his chest before pressing it back, a glowing, wispy aura of cleansing white Esuna emanating through his body. He's not even sure if it'll work--they warned him about how ineffective it can be, but there's not much choice if there's even a chance of it helping them out here.