lifeaftr | [Open Mingle] Remember Me For Centuries

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[Open Mingle] Remember Me For Centuries

Who: Chara, The Knight, Ginko, Hinata, Chip, Seto, Muffet, Ren, Xion- and anyone else who'd like to jump in!
What: Some exploration occurs, blood is spilled-- everyone has a picnic. In that order.
When: 4/20 ~~BLAZE IT~~
Where: Ziziphus : C5 and D5 closed prompts, B5 for picnicking!
Warnings: Please post your warnings in comment headers!

CLOSED C5 - You're a cherry blossom

CLOSED D5 - You're about to bloom

OPEN B5 - You look so pretty but you're gone so soon

OPEN B5 - ???

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In the midst of the celebrations, Chara and Hinata may also be found, both sporting a few... dots of what appears to be bloods on their clothes. Whilst certain people (Ren) will be waved away with a smile, others may find queries of whether the two are okay met with a glance of apparently significant meaning, from Chara to Hinata.

"We believe we may have discovered something of import, regarding those vines Ignis has spoken of." Says the child.

Whenever there is a gathering in need of food, it's a fair bet Ignis will be there at least for a short time to supply said food. In this case, he's brought a variety of things with apricots in them. Look, he just found new fruit and it was begging to be experimented with. Hopefully, people here like apricots.

He lingers around after dropping off the food, chatting for a little while to see how the explorations went. While he can't see the blood on Chara and Hinata's clothing, he certainly does hear his own name mentioned along with the vines.

"So they finally showed up again? What have you found?"

"Before we talk about it. Can you remind us what you discovered? How the air smelled, what it sounded like? I think we might be able to find a link between these appearances." Hinata briefly covers his mouth, his green eyes narrowing a hair. It would be just like these islands to present more than one creature in the same way.

But he also wants to connect the events. If they can link them beyond the shadow of a doubt...there's a lot they might be able to discover about the murder of the Tigerlily and what might be ahead of them to deal with.

"Certainly. As you may recall, I've had two encounters with them as of present," Ignis doesn't even hesitate once the question is asked. After all, summarizing and presenting data is almost second-nature to him, "The first encounter happened when Ardyn and I were exploring in the south-central part of the island. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. In fact, there were quite a few of those rather skittish mosslings in the area if that tells you anything. Eventually, I realized I was hearing a rustling in the undergrowth behind us, and we found the vine there. It was the strangest thing, from what Ardyn told me. It seemed very interested in us, nosing at us almost like a curious animal would. It made no move to attack us and when Ardyn swung his sword at it, it disappeared back into the undergrowth with amazing speed, leaving behind the most horrible smell. It was a terrible combination of sick, sweet, and rot reminiscent of a rather disgusting creature from our own world. We thought it best not to stick around to tempt fate at that point."

"The second encounter happened while Mira and I were exploring along the coast. We came across an area where it was obvious something large had taken down a great many of the trees. While we were picking our way through the ruined section of forest, we realized that there were three vines watching and following us with great interest. We attempted to return the favor to see if we could learn more about what they were up to, or perhaps how they were following us so well without eyes, but they never did more than follow and 'watch.' After dancing around them for a while and getting nowhere, we decided it best to return to the mana pool. If you think it may make a difference, I believe the trees in the area were predominately a type of dogwood."

He waits a moment, comparing the particulars in the back of his head. There's no doubt about it. They match up. Hinata crosses his arms over his chest. "When we came up here those vines were wrapping up a tigerlily. I'm not sure if you know what they are, but they're a mix of plant and animal. The moment we approached the vines they withdrew back into the undergrowth and left the tigerlily behind. Just like the other encounters it left behind the scent of rot. The scent was really thick."

He has no idea what to make of these vines but they're definitely intelligent enough to learn about their environment. "Chara and I took a look. The creature left behind is dead. On the outside there was no broken skin, or visible injuries. The autopsy yielded two reasons for the cause of death. Malnutrition and dehydration. ...I'm not sure what it means. But I'm reasonably sure the vines are 'learning' about everything around them. Could it be our arriving on the island woke whatever they're pieces of, up?"

[Muffet listens thoughtfully, growing more concerned the more she hears about these vines.]

Could you tell anything at all about how long that tigerlily had been there? The first idea that comes to mind is that the vines had simply trapped it in place for so long that the creature starved to death. The second...

[She looks grim.]

...is that the vines might be able to drain living things of water and nutrients directly, somehow. That they had the creature trapped in order to feed from it.

As much as I would like to think it the former, I suspect the latter is closer to the truth. You said there were no wounds on the tigerlily, correct? If the vines held it long enough for it to die of dehydration and starvation, it certainly would have fought violently to escape before it became too weak to. There would have been some kind of evidence of that, even if the wounds were only minor.

[Ignis shivers at the thought that the vines were watching he and his friends trying to decide if they were edible or not.]

I suspect you are correct about us waking whatever they are attached to up, however, as much as I may want to, I can't let us just assume there is only one creature out there. It is possible those vines belong to multiple creatures.

I wonder...

[She tilts her head slightly and frowns, trying to piece together a vague, nagging little thought at the back of her mind.]

Would poison have been noticeable in the autopsy, do you think? We've already encountered a type of carnivorous plant with hallucinogenic spores back on Enso, so it wouldn't be out of the question for these vines to have some way of drugging their prey. Something to leave it too weary or disoriented to struggle much, perhaps.

[Given that her own venom is soporific and hallucinogenic, the idea seems natural enough to her.]

From there, it would just be a matter of wrapping the unfortunate victim up and waiting for them to die, then carrying away their meal.

[He sighs and rubs his temples. The implications don't settle well with him. He might have to push himself more than he wanted to but. Their lives are at stake.]

We don't have any clues to anything else and you're right. Anyone would fight hard to escape if they were wrapped up like that.

There were no signs of a struggle at all. It's pretty reasonable to assume poison might be why. I wasn't looking for it at the time so if it's there I probably missed it.

[He won't miss it a second time. Hinata lets out a slow breath. What should they do?] We need to find out more. Before these creatures with their vines decide to find out more about us and if we're food, first.

Not all poisons leave obvious signs internally or externally. It can be easy to miss if you aren't looking for it specifically, especially if you don't have the tools you are used to having.

[But what is the best way for them to learn more while remaining safe? The vines have already shown themselves to have some level of intelligence. Once they realize they are being studied, there is no way of knowing how they will react.]

We may need to become more aggressive in our search for information, though I am loathe to do anything that might upset the creature or creatures attached to those vines. People certainly shouldn't be heading out in groups of less than two, and I would even suggest more than three if possible, since that is the largest number of vines we've run into at once so far.

It would help if we could figure out how they are gathering information about us, but while it is obvious they aren't using eyes, there are any number of other senses they could be using. My thoughts lean toward them tracking through movement and sound since that is how I do most of my own navigation without vision, though it's also possible they can track body temperature.

There's simply too much we don't know to be completely safe about this, but if it is poison there are a few basic safety precautions we can try.

[She'd know, considering. Muffet counts out her points on her fingers idly as she speaks:]

Skin contact with the vines would be the most obvious vector, so it would likely be best to keep as much bare skin covered up as possible. It could also be airborne, like those spores, so we might ask around if anyone has something that can filter air, or can make one. Asking the Storyteller for a gas mask might perhaps be going a tad overboard... but then again, perhaps not. Definitely don't eat or drink anything you aren't completely certain is safe- including any of your own food that might have been contaminated, not just things found out here.

[She sighs, briefly.]

It would be nice to think that these vines, whatever they might be, aren't particularly hostile to us, given that they've thus far preferred to run from us instead of attacking. But I wouldn't push my luck...

I wouldn't push luck with this one. Especially when we can't rule out it might have been feeding on this tigerlily.

[Hinata shifts his weight from one foot to the other. They can't be completely safe. It's like the despair virus all over again. Right. He lets out a breath and speaks up again.]

So, we should avoid skin contact and do what we can to stay decontaminated. I want to say we go a step further and don't stay on this island after dark. We wouldn't be able to spot them if they come for us at night.

I agree with having more than one person per search party. And if we can arrange it, each party should take medical supplies with them. I'll gather what I can and put together kits with my spare supplies.

Agreed. Can I ask if one of you will make sure this new occurrence and the safety suggestions make it to the rock by the mana pool? It's still one of our best ways to spread information aside from actual meetings and the communication stones we recently acquired. I would offer to do it myself...

[He chuckles then, expression apologetic.]

...but I'm afraid I'm the last person you want leaving anyone a written message.

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[Open Mingle] Remember Me For Centuries

OPEN | B5 | A Question of ???? Importance

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Just... wandering in here like Muffet was always here and I'm not ridiculously late.

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pretend I didn't lose this in my inbox

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