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thoughtformed2012-11-29 02:19 pm
coimiceoir) wrote in thoughtformed2012-11-29 02:19 pm
Entry tags:
Log
WHO: Pretty Magical Girl Aisling and The Once-ler (Others can have their own threads, but may not interfere with those two.)
WHEN: Mid-afternoon to evening of Nov, 29
WHERE: A blighted clearing in the middle of the forest
WHAT: A showdown between enemies to decide the fate of the forest
WARNINGS: Violence, deforestation, self-sacrifice, language?? That's enough to be going on with. More may be added.
Generally, the forest is a quiet, enigmatic place South of the city - easy to get to, pretty to look at, but nothing really special. But over the last few days, large chunks have been bitten out of the forest edge, leaving black, scarred territory full of tree stumps, barren ground and dead grass. The creatures that can sometimes be seen frolicking and minding their own business have seemingly vanished. Nor is the edge the only place that these sickening patches show up. If a person can get high enough in the air, one can spot unnatural clearings, dark with rot, scattered throughout the forest as far as the mountain slopes. Occasionally clouds of choking exhaust rise from the trees, heralding the spread of another blighted clearing.
During the middle of the afternoon of November 29th, something even stranger happens. A thick, tangled hedge of thorns grows rapidly along the edge of the forest, encompassing it entirely, even the cancerous sections along the outside. The thorns glow faintly green, shimmering in the sunlight, and anyone attempted to penetrate or damage them will find that they are impervious to any attack while the sun is out. Small explosions rock the woods: flashes of green light and swirls of black... something competing and slowly retreating toward the mountains.
When at last the sunlight fails, the glow of the thorns dims,and they seem to dry, losing vitality and thinning. It's now possible to break through them with energy blast or weapon, though the thorns are still more than sharp enough to tear flesh.
Running, running, always running, and never fast enough, it seemed... Aisling vaulted onto the falling tree trunk, her heart breaking at its cries as it died. A brief speed boost and she slid to a halt at the end of the trunk. There -- there was the elusive culprit - the one who had been destroying her home, her people, her ward.
She drew herself up to the maximum height that her slight build would allow, shouting over the terrible noise of the evil machine.
"Once-ler! Stop this at once! You have no right to do this! Release my friends and remove yourself and your filthy creations from this place. Be warned, the forest is under my protection. Continue your present course of action, and in the name of life, I will stop you!"
WHEN: Mid-afternoon to evening of Nov, 29
WHERE: A blighted clearing in the middle of the forest
WHAT: A showdown between enemies to decide the fate of the forest
WARNINGS: Violence, deforestation, self-sacrifice, language?? That's enough to be going on with. More may be added.
Generally, the forest is a quiet, enigmatic place South of the city - easy to get to, pretty to look at, but nothing really special. But over the last few days, large chunks have been bitten out of the forest edge, leaving black, scarred territory full of tree stumps, barren ground and dead grass. The creatures that can sometimes be seen frolicking and minding their own business have seemingly vanished. Nor is the edge the only place that these sickening patches show up. If a person can get high enough in the air, one can spot unnatural clearings, dark with rot, scattered throughout the forest as far as the mountain slopes. Occasionally clouds of choking exhaust rise from the trees, heralding the spread of another blighted clearing.
During the middle of the afternoon of November 29th, something even stranger happens. A thick, tangled hedge of thorns grows rapidly along the edge of the forest, encompassing it entirely, even the cancerous sections along the outside. The thorns glow faintly green, shimmering in the sunlight, and anyone attempted to penetrate or damage them will find that they are impervious to any attack while the sun is out. Small explosions rock the woods: flashes of green light and swirls of black... something competing and slowly retreating toward the mountains.
When at last the sunlight fails, the glow of the thorns dims,and they seem to dry, losing vitality and thinning. It's now possible to break through them with energy blast or weapon, though the thorns are still more than sharp enough to tear flesh.
Running, running, always running, and never fast enough, it seemed... Aisling vaulted onto the falling tree trunk, her heart breaking at its cries as it died. A brief speed boost and she slid to a halt at the end of the trunk. There -- there was the elusive culprit - the one who had been destroying her home, her people, her ward.
She drew herself up to the maximum height that her slight build would allow, shouting over the terrible noise of the evil machine.
"Once-ler! Stop this at once! You have no right to do this! Release my friends and remove yourself and your filthy creations from this place. Be warned, the forest is under my protection. Continue your present course of action, and in the name of life, I will stop you!"
no subject
He took a little breath and pushed it and the wood splintered and cracked and snapped so easily because it's that dead now. Nothing in the insides. It fell over and then he's leaning towards her, pointing. Right in her face hissing his words.
"I can do whatever. I. WANT. Silencing things that don't have anything important to say doesn't matter. Their home can be with me because I do a better job at taking care of it than you, obviously. And the life in it is mine. Mine mine mine. If you try to stop me, you're going down like that tree."
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She spread her arms in a shoving motion and the knotwork wall rushed outward away from her, speeding faster as it hits the treeline, out over the whole forest right to the very edges. For a moment it hung in the air, then flowed down to disappear into the soil. Everything held still. With twist and a creak, thick, wooded vines burst from the ground, three-inch thorns sprouting along every inch. In moments, a solid wall barred entry into the forest from anything other than flight. As long as the sun cast light on them, they would rebound any physical or energy attack. There one drawback, however. All its strength was drawn from the one who seeded it. And one that large, well. It wasn't easy.
Aisling shivered, swaying a little, and ran a hand over her face. She already looked a little more drawn and tired. But she wasn't giving in. Raising her arms into an offensive posture, she glared at the Once-ler. "Leave the animals out of this. This is between you and me."
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"You've locked us in." And then a wicked grin showed up on his face. She's less of a thread if she already wasted that much energy. "I think they're involved now." He straighten out the front of his suit and took a seat on the trunk of the tipped dead tree, looking over his hand nonchalantly. "You look tired, Aisling. Do you really want to do this?"
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"Any time you're ready."
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Instead she crouched low, drawing her fingers along the soil. Ghostly transparent stalks of green leaped up where they touched, breaking with the ground to trail behind her hand in leaf shapes. Faster than any human ought to, she unfolded and shot into the air, a sparkling thread of leaf-light following her. Twenty feet... thirty... The leaves faded at ground level, the ribbon zipping after her up into the sunlight above the canopy.
Aisling twisted into a spin as she went higher, coiling the whirling leaf patterns about her. They burned brighter and brighter the longer they could soak up the sun till they shone like little stars. Just as she reached the apogee of her leap, she jack-knifed and allowed gravity to reassert its hold.
Down she plunged, gaining speed, aiming unerringly for her enemy despite having her eyes closed against the speed. The bright light merged itself into something almost solid in appearance, it was moving so quickly. The closer she got, the more it curled around to shelter her. If he didn't do anything, that capsule was going to slam into the Once-ler and squash him flat.
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He stepped to the side of the fallen tree and the animals moved back in a circle around him while he lifted that guitar off of him. --An axe. Big and sharp and threatening. She's so fast and going faster and his first reaction is to very quickly swing it at her as hard as he could to keep it from crushing him completely. The deadly sharp object swinging hard enough to take down trees in one chop with the capsule and he's hoping to slash it in half and get to the enemy inside. The force of colliding with something so fast is enough to knock him off his feet though.
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Her own creatures circled the protective ring, snarling and whining and trying to get through to help. Crouched down, Aisling concentrated enough to pull in her shield a bit more to give her enough time to inspect the wound. It was deep, but... yes, she could still move her fingers. It hadn't severed anything too major. But blood loss and taint wasn't going to do her any favors in the long run. She pushed herself to her feet and drew her leaves into concentrated bursts around each hand. She knew she was faster than him. She just had to get in under his guard.
And she was off again, dashing and dodging and trying to get in under that axe to rake him. She wasn't sure if touching him was a good idea, but with luck she'd be able to disarm him, maybe, or lay him out flat, or disrupt his control on the animals - something.
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As soon as he regained himself she's already dashing towards him. She's close enough to reach him so he (in an almost panicked motion) takes a step back and he strikes a deafening note on the guitar that echoed and rippled out like a harsh force of wind in devastating waves, knocking everything over. He took out some animals he had the control on even, the ones that weren't fast enough to get behind him and out of the way. He doesn't care if it did. He's completely focused on trying to hit her and keeping their distance apart.
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Bracing herself against the tree, she shot off again, keeping her distance but keeping moving. Gritting her teeth, she paused up a tree just long enough to hurl one of her handfuls of glittering light at him before resuming her breakneck zigzagging. Her focus was split so many ways - the thorn barrier, the leaf-light spell, keeping her adversary in sight and ahead of his attacks, making sure to keep away from the creatures he'd controlled, pulling her own troops back into the shelter of the treeline - she was going to be lucky to pull this off.
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The animals around react to it by going completely feral- the music driving them mad. They move in. He's forcing them near her while she's trying to keep away. They'll try bite, scratch, and tear her apart and keep her from making a hit on their forced master. Once-ler careful moves himself through the smog, playing this song with the terrible effects. The animals can distract. He's using it to behind her.
And when he does the music will come to eerie stop, giving enough time to hear the sound of that sharp axe swinging for her head.
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It didn't help that the weird melody was disorienting, either. Little quivering motions kept appearing on the edges of her vision, making her spin to face them while she tried to clear her lungs. Then came the animals, snarling and slavering, snapping at her and then turning to attack each other or bite at their own flanks. Their eyes rolled, and they danced about like they were being stung by bees, worrying at the air. She staggered back from them, calling their names and trying to calm them, flinching back from attacks that hadn't been made yet, trying just to breathe - to little effect. One of the smaller animals screamed as fangs snapped its spine, and she clapped her hands to her ears, shaking her head, trying to regain her center. The thorn hedge trembled.
A maddened buck wheeled, a paler patch in the smoke, lashing out every-which-way, and caught her solidly in the side. She fell sideways, breath gone, just as the music stops and the axe swung right through where she had just been standing. She didn't stop to see if the axe had gotten stuck. It was less a retreat and more an undignified scramble, gasping around the searing pain in her ribs and the thick smoke. If she could get up into a tree... A small, fierce little wolf materialized, mouth wide, and Aisling flinched back, despairing that one of her best defenders, young Seaimpín, had been affected, but it wasn't the sprite's flesh that the wolf wanted. Her fangs snapped shut in Aisling's collar and tugged her back toward the treeline.
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The animals calm down because he's no longer playing that tune and he's stuck there in the smoke. He takes a few deep breaths filling his lungs with the toxic substance. Inhale. Exhale. He starts finding it harder and harder to do that. There's red on his shoes. This isn't good. This is bad. What if she was there? Something's wrong with this...
No. No. No. It's quickly dismissed and clouded out by the event around them. Filtering out any thought on it. This is fine. This is good. Who cares if a few things are dying? He's not feeling it because she cut him off from his constant supply of energy he was getting. That's what it is. He rolls his shoulders and tilts his neck side to side then he cracks his knuckles before picking his weapon back up-- the blade now dripping. The grin returns more vicious than ever.
"Aisling? Where'd you go?"
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Trying to contain her shivers, she rubbed a cheek against the wolf's muzzle, then stood, pressing a hand to her ribcage briefly. A jump and she caught an overhanging branch with her good hand, swinging up into the boughs. She couldn't face that axe. Maybe if she could get it away from him... She wanted to do something for the animals, but she would have to keep singing for it to stay in effect, and with all this smoke she could barely get a proper breath, let alone sustain a song while she fought.
Through sheer luck, this particular tree had small, hard fruit still clinging to it, and she was able to pluck several. If she could throw him off a little, maybe she could sneak up on him. One! Two! Three! Amla fruit shot into the smoke, arcing high so as not to hit him, but to land on the opposite side of the clearing. But she didn't wait, hoisting herself higher into the tree, she went in search of sunlight and a breath of fresher air.
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Once-ler's scanning the area, searching for her. He doesn't think to look up. There's the soft thud of the hard fruit hitting the ground and he turns towards it and moves over, ready to take a hard swing at her.
He closed the distance and nobody was there though. His shoulders drop and he releases the strong grip he had on the weapon and kneels down, picking up the fruit to examine the source of the sound. It starts losing all of its color and rots in his palm beyond recognition. He drops it frustratedly and wipes his hand off on his pants then straightens himself out, pointing at one of the animals. Silently ordering it to find her. Find her now. It lowers its head to try and sniff her out but ends up going in a circle-- circles circles. Getting nothing but the smoke.
"You're useless! Completely useless!"
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Her thoughts ran on, providing the impetus to keep going, keep climbing, keep seeking out the light. There! Just ahead...
She broke out atop the canopy, coughing and grimacing at how much it hurt to do so. The sun was lower than she remembered it. Not yet setting, but still low enough for concern. She was running out of time. Regardless, it was good to take a moment to clear her lungs and let the wind pull the smoke from her hair. The sun's light eased some of the pain, warming her when she hadn't realized that she was cold.
Now back to work. She stared down into the darkness, touching the tree and drawing more sparkling light up from the ground and out after her fingertips. Compacting it into a dozen small, bright balls, she took another deep breath in the clear air and dove down into the murk. Keeping to a spiraling pattern, she dropped down to the ground, a train of widely-spaced lights floating along behind her till they more or less make an endless ring. She would have to keep moving to keep it so there wouldn't be a gap, but especially if she varied which height she was at, it would be difficult to tell where precisely she is.
Where would the next attack come from, Once-ler? Can you attack in all directions at once?
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Once-ler's almost panicking that he can't spot her. The animals aren't going to help. They've backed up far enough to clear themselves out of the smoke and now they're out of her spiral. Calling them back in won't do any good with her going that fast and them being far from invulnerable from his own moves.
He has to attack everywhere but he can't. He exhales a breath then suddenly stops with an idea. He puts his dripping axe on the ground and leans an elbow on it, anyone could do with a cane. In a smooth hand movement pulls out a rather large match. Dried dead grass. Dead sickly trees. The air polluted with this toxic chemical-like smoke. It's almost asking for it. The entire thing...
"Aisling, how flammable do you think think everything is right now?"
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With a cry, she seized one of her glowing balls and hurled it at him, pulling in the string to fling them one after the other as she moved. That would certainly narrow it down to one half of the clearing, and if he was smart he'd be able to guess which direction she was headed and get ahead of her. But she didn't care. She just wanted that match to go away.
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He dodged the first ball narrowly by ducking after hearing the cry but after that one after the other-- he wraps his entire hand around the match and turns his back to her. He'll get hit and it hurts and leaves a shearing pain like he's already on fire. It makes him whimper but he's not going to lose this no. no. He won't let her destroy it. He knows which way she's coming from.
And he lit it and looked over his shoulder at her, maniacal. He holds his arm out and turns the match ready to drop it to the ground and let it ignite everything. Three. Two...
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Aisling hit the ground hard, instinctively curling up to roll, but not managing it as smoothly as she would have normally, due to her ribs. It threw her off - smack into the side of one of the idling machines. Stars burst across her vision and it took her a moment to push herself upright, shaking her head. Three of her little green orbs came rocketing back around through the gloom to hover around her hands.
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"Five point three. The dive was lovely but you didn't stick the landing at all."
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"You're the one that started picking fights, you know."
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Something stirred in the pit of her stomach. Something she had been cramming down as tightly as she could - especially in situations like this. Despair was transmuting to rage. Pure and simple. No one had the right to come into her forest and do what they wished, and no one - no one - was going to get away will so much killing. He wouldn't back down? So be it. Neither would she. And she was not going to pull punches anymore.
"Enough." Her voice was low, with a growl behind it. "I didn't choose this. You did when you chose to press your unwanted destruction instead of resolving this peacefully. Anyone has a right to defend their home." The growl was deepening, the volume increasing, coming from all directions at once. It wasn't her, it was the wolf pack! Occasionally a slim, furred shape, hackles raised and fangs bared, slipped through the trees within sight, circling the area without pause. "This will end, one way or another." Her balance had slowly shifted onto her toes, her finger spread like claws, a shadow darker than the Once-ler's smoke falling across that sunburst broach. The bright green of her leaves darkens into a writhing, twisting knot of sharp-edged snake-like forms in a deep teal color, wrapping themselves around her hands.
She leaps into the air, using the smoke as a screen, and wolves dart in from the edges - all snarling fangs and claws and agility - to worry at him and cause a distraction.
this is like a month later reply but i love this thread too much
His previously big round optimistic eyes were narrowed into slits with bubbling hatred in there covering up anything else as he looked around him and readied his weapon. She's not playing with him anymore. She's scaring him but he's proud to let it show. Her leaves are knots and her hands seem like shadowy claws-- bigger than him.
And then the wolves move in and he's trying to keep track of where she went but they're clawing and tearing and he can't get both hands to swing the weapon to stop them. They distracted alright. One of them broke all the strings on the instrument when it swiped at his hand, ripping through the fabric and skin. Animals are terrifying when you can't control them. When they're not your friends. He recoils for a second then yanks the rest of it off frantically and reaches out to grab one of the beasts by the throat and try to drain it for everything it had. Like the trees. It would heal the gashes the pack is making.
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Banríon, the alpha female, launched herself for his arm, ready to tear it to shreds in defense of her oldest boy. The others fell back, snapping at the surrounding, brainwashed creatures, forcing them back away from the main battle. The Once-ler would have no help from his toys.
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Oh god the bites. It's all over and he can't breathe. Is he dying? She surely would kill him. She should have already. Don't go down. Don't stop. If she moves something will snap and she hit something she shouldn't hit. It made him drop to his knees rather quickly. Part of him feeling numb and limp.
A hand's on her now. He had reached up and placed it on her cheek when she bit into him. Draining. He's being drained himself and he's trying to take it from her. He's leeching off while bleeding out. One of them will have to let go or it could kill them both.
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His magic is taking its toll. Her spell is fading, even with the rage fueling it unabated, and she, too, is starting to have a hard time breathing. Finally she pulls free and tumbles backward, gasping, crimson staining her arms to the elbow and all down her front. She scrambles to all fours to regain her balance, foam at the corner of her mouth where a black patch lingers from his touch. Her eyes glint with golden light. There is no sense of recognition or intelligence left there anymore - it's all hatred and cruel cunning. She begins to circle, panting, looking for another opening.
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He finally sits up on his knees after falling once-- twice. His hands running along the ground beside him trying to find some life to latch on to. Something to take and fix this. And he's laughing. Laughing and crying in a state of hysterics that only gets interrupted by him coughing and wheezing. Look what she turned into. Look what happened. She's an animal.
"...H-hey...haha... guess..guess what?" He shifted to get on one knee, putting a hand over where she dug her hands into and pushed himself up-- then staggered sideways before regaining balance. "I have... I have another match. See?"
And he lit it. "Let's play fetch." Then he threw it.
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It ignites with a huff of air and she recoils with a yelp. Flame licks quickly over the patch of ground and finds the trails into the deeper underbrush. She wails, trying to pat it out, but it's already caught. Already spread too far. Hissing with pain, she pulls back scorched fingers, standing, turning, panting as fire climbs the boles around them, nearly a complete ring of flame. She can't stop it. It's already too far gone.
Her rage flickers and fades, overwhelmed by a tide of fear and despair. She has failed. She fought so hard, she endangered her friends, she gave up the path she knew was right... and she still failed. It was all for naught. She collapses to her knees, oblivious to the black patch spreading across her face, feeding on her anguish.
Around them, trapped by the flames, the animals run in a panic, trying to find a way out. Deer scream and gallop wildly off trailed by a stream of smaller creatures taking advantage of the last few openings before the circle closes. Wolves whine and yip, scattering here and there, any attack forgotten in their all-consuming fear.
And she hears none of it.