mini event: growing pains

[sticksandbonesmods]

Who: The Grove
What: Something is happening!
When: Time is Fake you know that
Where: The General Store
Warnings: :)

It's a normal day, isn't it? Or as normal as it can be in Aldric's Grove while a mischievous and loving skeleton is pranking literally everyone. The Goddess's statues rest in the center by the well. Flowers are blooming. Plantimals are also blooming, and getting into things they shouldn't, and playing. Biblically accurate animals are grazing peacefully or resting in trees.

It might even be pleasant.




Up until a large crash from the General Store. Maybe you should check it out.

Comments

I am so sorry

[winterfrosting]

[so between finding out Clotted Cream was crumbled and everything with the doors and such... well Dark Cacao is always kinda jumpy but he EXTRA is right now.

... so he's legit kicking the door in with his sword out. Maybe yelling]

no you aren't <3

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's a glowing light in the doorway to the backrooms. Nothing in the storefront seems to be out of place, though one of the plantimals- a foxcub that seems to be growing mint and chamomile- is running in circles out of... excitement?

[winterfrosting]

Oh hello sleepy time tea fox. If not for the light he would have assumed it knocked something over while playing.

"Stay back, little one."

Cuz remember this is an actual human larval form or something. He does a corner check for ENEMIES and such before creeping towards the lit up door. He heard the shopkeeper was resting... hopefully they just fell and aren't under attack???

[sticksandbonesmods]

No enemies! Just the sound of someone moving, groaning a bit. It's a deep voice- likely unfamiliar, given that the shopkeeper has been resting since before Dark Cacao arrived.

The backroom opens to a storage room with two hallways going in opposite directions. One leads to a dark room that smells of plum blossoms, while the other is lit up, and the smell of tea left out to sit wafts through the air.

[winterfrosting]

Okay, this is sounding more like an accident than a battle. He sheaths his blade and jogs towards the lit up room.

"I am coming in." He calls out so hopefully he won't get hit for B&E.

[sticksandbonesmods]

"Huh- Domanic...?"

Dark Cacao will find a lovely kitchen, with the aeformentioned abandoned tea in a mug on the counter. It's long since gone cold. But no sign of the man who's calling out to a man long since dead. Presumably, DC will go further, so here's the bedroom he'll find the source in.

Rather than a familiar shadow not unlike Ydalir, here sits a man. An older man, gaunt in the face with graying black hair and grey eyes, utterly baffled.

[winterfrosting]

What a lovely home! The name makes something tingle in his jam, but is completely unfamiliar.

He blinks, not expecting a human man.

"Ah. My apologies. I heard a crash..."

[sticksandbonesmods]

Something passes across the man's face before he manages to regain his composure.

"Weren't a crash. That was... uh. A body growing from nothing. Lucky you didn't hear the cracking, that was... somethin' else.

Sorry for worryin' ya."

...




Sir are you REALLY going to just leave it at that.

[winterfrosting]

"...?"

Yeah that's a lot to drop on a dude. Even with Earthbread magic making a whole ass body from nothing isn't really a thing.

"Is that... something normal for humans? Forgive me, I am still learning such things."

[sticksandbonesmods]

"No. No, it is not. ... Forgive me, I'm- I'm a little out of it. I feel like I've had a cold for months, and then this happened-"

He drags a hand down his face with a soft sigh and shakes his head.

"...Have you met the trader, Ydalir, yet? I was like her. And now I'm... not."

[winterfrosting]

He has not, but he heard alot about the locals from Pure Vanilla. So with a deep "hmm" he nods to himself.

"I see."

...and he's just gonna turn around and head back towards the kitchen with clear intent??? Sir, plz.

... he's gonna warm up that tea he smelled seeping. Apparently a life time as a cookie did nothing to change his past life's tendency to just Do Things.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Heimr blinks and watches him leave, shifting a bit to see what he's doing... before smiling fondly. After a few minutes, Heimr follows- but even for a man of his stature, the clothes he has is... a bit too big for him.

He used to be a seven-foot shadow giant. And now he is only a dilf.

"Thanks."

[winterfrosting]

He just grunts and waves a hand at that. Nope, he kicked your door. At least he could do is be hospitable. In your house. Don't question it.

Once it's reboiled and repoured he carefully hands it over.

"It will probably be stronger than you first had it." Too much seeping. A crime.

[leggierissimo]

[ Crashes always mean something interesting is going on. And who doesn't enjoy a good bit of chaos?

With the doors still on the fritz, Joshua has been largely making his way around via teleportation, which means it's no problem to teleport just outside the General Store! He heard that crash, he's not teleporting into it, good lord no. Not until he assesses the situation. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

It's quiet! Really quiet. Sometimes one of the little plantimals who's been helping "run" the store while Heimr rests pokes their head in. S'up bro?

[leggierissimo]

Well, at least the plantimals don't seem to be too upset about anything. Interesting.

With things apparently safe(?), Joshua steps into the General Store, seemingly relaxed but cautious nonetheless. Something did just make an awfully loud noise somewhere around here.

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's a glowing light from the door to the backroom, and the sound of, perhaps relatably, a long and drawn-out Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

[leggierissimo]

Oh, felt honestly.

Well, that seems to be the way to go, then! Light on, voice groaning, surely there isn't anything bad happening back there. No sir, nobody here but us zombies, or whatever is making that noise.

Joshua makes his way to the backroom, and. Well. He doesn't really care about being polite enough to knock, so he pushes on the door without announcing his presence.

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's a man sat at the counter of a very nice kitchen, hand dragging down his face as he tries to steady himself. He's tall, big-boned but gaunt, with dark hair going grey here and there, and grey eyes.

"... Must'a made a bit of a ruckus. Sorry about that. Have a seat."

[leggierissimo]

... huh! Considering the amount of noise, everything seems to be oddly in order. Another person might have been soothed by the realization that nothing seems to be wrong, but for Joshua, it only piques his curiosity.

Not that he's going to turn down an invitation, though. His eyebrows raise in interest, and he moves to take a seat where indicated.

"That was quite the cacophony, all things considered. What was it?"

[sticksandbonesmods]

"Grew a body in about ten seconds."

He says it so deadpan as he takes a slow sip of tea.


He immediately seems to melt into his seat because holy FUCK he can DRINK and tea is AMAZING.

[leggierissimo]

Ah. Extremely relatable.

"No wonder it sounded so rough." Not that Joshua has to grow a body whenever he downtunes his frequency to a visible level, of course, but imagine if he did. Yikes. No thank you.

It's funny, though, how visibly it's affecting the man. Like a ghost that is suddenly able to touch and experience the living world again. He's seen a similar state in Neku after his return from Shinjuku.

It gets a soft chuckle, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "Been a while?"

[sticksandbonesmods]

"Y'seen Ydalir? I hope so. I used to be like her. A shadow person. 'Fore that, though, we both used to be human. Been... countless centuries."

A beat.

"So yeah, you could say that."

[leggierissimo]

Ooh. Now that's interesting. Both eyebrows raise. Centuries, hm? No wonder the tea is a hit. And with how gaunt the man is...

"Sounds to me like you could use a little pick-me-up." Something more than tea. Because growing an entire body from scratch has to take a massive amount of energy - wherever it comes from - and that energy needs to be replenished. "How's your appetite?"

[sticksandbonesmods]

Heimr pauses, looking at Joshua curiously. There's a mix of eagerness and guilt that he's not aware he's displaying in full- when you don't have a face for so long, you stop remembering how to mask anything.

"... I'll admit, I could use a bite."