Warden Time!

[magicalsplashflare]

Who: Mamika + The Warden Crew! (This could be you!!!)
What: Talking to the Warden
When: Beginning of May
Where: The Forest
Warnings: Will be in the header as they come up

[ Neo Eden is officially gone and everyone is back in the Grove, and Mamika, of course, has been planning her trip to the Forest all last month. She has...a LOT of things prepared. Food and blankets and extra clothes and lanterns and even stuff like hand fans and wilderness books. Overprepped and ready to go! The afternoon before, Mamika writes a message in the notebook. ]

Everyone, please sleep well! Please meet up with me by the well in the morning if you want to talk to the Mister Hooldin.

[ Warden. She's doing her best.

Regardless, she put together a bunch of packs with said stuff shoved in them, and Mamika is handing all of them off to people who show up with a little smile. She's still in her school outfit, but her magical wand is out. She probably intends to transform before they actually go out into the woods. Understandably. ]

Okay! Um... so... I'm not really sure what to expect out there! But... we're gonna do our best to talk to him and hopefully convince him to come to the Grove. Someone might have to talk to Miss Mooselady, too, because I don't think they like each other that much, but... um!! I think we can do this!

We should still have things planned in case things go horribly wrong, though...

Comments

[kingincognito]

I'm fine. I think.

[ He can't recall feeling injuries, at least, and if he doesn't move, he won't get pricked. ]

If I knew it wouldn't spread to the others, I would use my magic to burn this away.

[ozmosis]

It might spread to the whole forest.

[ He keeps working his way towards Joshua, making sure to keep his Aura up as he carefully pulls back assorted vines and logs. It's... pretty slow going. ]

Does anyone have a knife?

[ Or a machete or axe or other sharp object...? ]

[ghostharasser]

[Oh, that happens fast. He has a second to react, watching the ground rush up to attack the people he was right next to-]

MAMI-

[And then he gets whacked by a log, sending him back. He doesn't stay on the ground long, barely dodging the thorns sprouting up around him. He'll feel that in a few places later. In the aftermath, he sees Wolfwood go to Mamika, so he turns to Oscar instead.]

I've got something that might work.

[He flips the safety back on his gun, hits another switch and the whole thing changes like a transformer into a polearm. There's a nice, sharp blade at the end.]

[Hopefully that helps them get to Joshua a little quicker.]

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's the sound of something multi-legged and heavy walking around, watching.

Listening.

Dipper will be able to hack at some of the vines and free Joshua! But Stephanie's, Mamika's and Bakugo's hallucinations are going to worsen over time, becoming crueler.

[ozmosis]

[ Oh come on.

Joshua is trapped, Dipper is helping him, Woolfwood is preoccupied, and everyone else is injured... Oscar chews on his lip for a moment, then makes a decision: ]

Dipper, protect Joshua while he helps anyone who got hurt.

[ And then he's going to walk in the direction of whatever it is that's watching them. He is not going to confront it, or even truly separate himself from the group. He just wants to make sure it doesn't have easy access to the 'all the Stephanie, Mamika, and Bakugo you can eat buffet'.

(He leaves the dove with Dipper and Joshua.) ]

[ichoosefight]

[ Steph grabs Oscar's arm before he can get too far away. ...She'll apologize for getting blood on him later. ]

Where are you going? I just said "stay close".

[ She does not consider herself injured so obviously she is not part of the group he just mentioned. ]

[kingincognito]

[ Oh, thank the Founder. As the vines fall away from him, Joshua exhales in relief, letting his muscles relax just for a second. They've been tensed, after all.

But more important things are at stake, here. They can't continue like this. Being able to actually look at the others, he can see that some of them... aren't doing well. Steph gets the quick, scrutinizing glance of a healer making rapid assessments, but considering she doesn't look like she's gravely injured, she gets a pass. For now.

In the meantime, he leaves Steph and Oscar to what they happen to be doing, glancing at Dipper at Oscar's insistence. He'll move to try to heal Bakugo first - he looks like he might be hallucinating, and if he continues to struggle, he might make his injuries worse. Mamika is next on his list. ]

Bakugo! Calm yourself!

[ozmosis]

[ Ghck— ]

I'm not leaving, I'm just—

[ He gestures vaguely in the direction of the ominous footsteps. Which... makes it sound like he was trying to leave, but he's not! ]

—establishing a perimeter...?

[ That's emergency preparedness talk, right? ]

You need to stay calm until your injuries are handled.

[nitrotempered]

[ Katsuki finds Joshua's voice gets his partial attention, but his eyes are on the hallucination that apparently is acting "worse" - which just makes him madder. The anxious feelings from this place and his own inability to contend with what the fuck is going on - makes him just on edge.

He's landed from being in the air close enough to Joshua and whoever else is around him. ]

This is the second damn fuckin' time, [ Katsuki clicks his tongue. ] if they're going to make a stupid illusion at least get it the fuck right! Dek- Izuku doesn't act like that it's pissing me off they think that this is the shit that is going to get me mad - [ Well bakugo, that's because literally anything can get you mad basically. ]

[kingincognito]

[ Looks like it's working to him--

Bakugo is close enough and relatively calm enough that Joshua can begin channeling his healing magicks. Not the Phoenix's, but the magic that Pure Vanilla had taught him before leaving this place. With the amount of healing he already has to do, he doesn't want to risk using his Phoenix abilities unless he absolutely has to. ]

Deep breaths. Those thorns must have held some sort of substance that causes hallucinations. I'll see if my magic might be able to cleanse it.

[nitrotempered]

Somehow fucking got nicked by the damn thing, [ He shows his arm where the thorns knicked his skin, ] it broke my ribs but I'm good. Feels like my blood got frozen over, but I warmed it up with my quirk before it could get any deeper. Don't know what the hell that is, though.

[kingincognito]

[ "It broke my ribs but I'm good"??? ]

Well, perhaps with my magic and your quirk, we can beat whatever it is.

[ His magic is now being redirected to those cuts, just for now. To see if it can cleanse the toxins as well as the wounds. ]

[nitrotempered]

[ He's a child of war Joshua, this is small scale compared to the other shit they go through!!! This is NORMAL!! JOSHUA!! NORMAL!!! ]

Well, I'm ready to fucking go - so lets go!?!? We'll just blast through the vines until they let up - we know what the fuck is causing the hallucinations? 'Cause if I gotta deal with [ Points at fake Izuku behind him who probably isn't there for Joshua!??! ] fake Izuku talking about how depressed he is because I shoved his face into a palm full of explosions - I'm going to fucking flip.

[magicalsplashflare]

[ Mamika might be a magical girl, but she is, in fact, not very sturdy. She's physically strong, of course. She can pick up things three times her own body weight without breaking a sweat. But she's still got the frailty of a tiny teenage girl. She assumed she'd be able dodge anything that gets thrown at her, but woof.

She coughs as she lands, trying to pull herself from the vines and dealing with her own disorientation as standing is too hard. ]

W-wait...! Please, we... want to talk... [ She's trying to adjust her eyes, but then she sees... Is that Altair? No, no, surely not. She wouldn't be here, right? Well, then again, maybe siding with the forest is exactly the sort of thing she'd do??? She tries to tell herself that there's no possible way that's real and she just hit her head or something, but it feels real and the thorns that have jabbed into her feel just as much like the swords that were once in their place, and that alone is enough to set her panic to full.

She doesn't want to die again.

She whips her wand forward to point it upward towards the illusion, to everyone Mamika just pointing it at Nothing In The Air, and sputters: ] M-Magical Splash Flare!!

[ Hopefully before Wolfwood gets there, of course, but this will fire a very very large... pink heart(?) out of her wand that will be aiming for some trees. She's trying desperately to not hit anyone, but maybe making the magical girl with PTSD hallucinate things is bad!!! Who knew-

It will explode on impact. ]

[ghostharasser]

[-Joshua seems fine, now that he's been freed of his vines. Secure the healers, that's priority when the danger has spiked up exponentially. Having been on a quest like this with Joshua before, he's not as worried about him. He's an adult etc etc. Once he's sure he's fine, he does head after Oscar-]

[But then Mamika's state catches his attention. Joshua might be their main healer, but Dipper learned from Pure Vanilla, too. He knows he can help. He runs straight for her only to just barely catch what she's about to do.]

[Ah, he's at the wrong angle to really dodge. This is probably going to hurt.]

[Dipper gets blown straight back from the blast, rip in heck anyone in his way.]

[ozmosis]

[ So the thing is, Remnant has prepared Oscar for a lot of weirdness. But one of the few weird things people on Remnant don't do is call out their attacks. (Code names for team attacks are different.)

So Mamika shouts, and there's an explosion, and Dipper goes flying, and then Dipper smashes into Oscar, and it all happens to fast that Oscar doesn't quite manage to get his Aura up in time. So he goes down with a heavy, painful thud—hopefully not on Stephanie. No vocalization whatsoever, though!

Not because he's just that tough. It's because he gets the wind knocked out of him and can't breathe at all for a few seconds there. ]

[ichoosefight]

[ Only partly on Stephanie. She managed to not get completely flattened by the explosion or lose her grip on the staff, so she's calling this a win! Even if her butt aches from falling on it and it's hard to see. ]

sorry I didn't realize I posted this outside of the thread, it's been...a week

[lupusxylem]

[While everyone else is just out here eating shit, Wolfwood, miraculously, does manage to avoid the explosion. Of course, this does mean he needs to practically dive head-first into the deck to get out of the way, but he'll escape the blast with a rush of wind from the impact over his head and not much more.

Cursing, he quickly struggles back to his feet, his head whipping around as he tries to sight out what Mamika just shot at, but it appears to be...nothing? At least, she definitely didn't aim towards the thorns, or anything else attacking them...and he doubts she'd attack the Warden when she wants to try to leverage a peaceful engagement here.

So...despite his usual inclinations to just rush in guns blazing, he'll hold up both hands and start to approach Mamika, slowly.]

Mamika...it's me, Wolfwood. You're alright...it's alright. Careful where you point that thing, yeah...?

[kingincognito]

[ By the Founder--

Joshua is very nearly satisfied with Bakugo's healing, but what is happening nearby startles him into losing his focus. His instinct is to toss up a ward, but there's no time. Dipper is already getting blasted, and he can't reach him in time. ]

Dipper!

[ Damn. Damn. He gives Bakugo a quick once over, then turns to rush to check on Dipper and Mamika. If Bakugo needs more healing after, he can do that. But the worst of it should be fine now. ]

[nitrotempered]

[ It's in this moment Katsuki realizes how unprepared they are for this mess - at least to him, who has had at least a year's worth of professional training. Able to work alongside others a bit better than when he first started, knowing how to adapt to an array of different abilities on the fly. From his point of view, it felt like he was working alongside civilians reacting and not acting on measured instances - himself included, as his eyes wandered over to his boy problems.

The explosion surprises him, considering it comes out as a bright pink heart, and he backs away enough to avoid its blast, but not enough that he finds himself fumbling to stay standing. He adjusts, though, quickly rushing forward to stand in the way of where Mamika had just landed. ]

Blondie with the stick, on me - let's go! [ Meaning to take front point alongside him, so if anything comes for Mamika, Dipper, Oscar, and Wolfwood trying to get to Mamika - well, it'll go through them first. Hopefully, the forest is whacky as fuck. ]

Oi, medic guy & old man, [ Joshua & Wolfwood ] - heal the girl up, if she means to do what she wanted in the first place. She better get her ass up fast and get her fuckin' shit together, or this is turning into a fight.

[ A beat. ]

Also, who the hell fought this thing before - where the fuck is it? [ He knows its Dipper, but, he doesn't remember his name.... ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Wouldn't you like to know, sweat boy.

[ichoosefight]

It's just a little cut, and I am calm. Calm enough to question how the heck you're gonna 'establish a perimeter' when there are vines busting out of the fricken' ground to attack us. So why don't you tell me what you're actually doing so I can help you not get yourself killed?

[ozmosis]

Because there's something else out there!

[ The footsteps, Stephanie! But Oscar has dealt with enough hero types to know that he's fighting a losing battle, here. He stops trying to shake Stephanie off. ]

I promise I'm not trying to run off on my own. But if that something else comes after us, I don't want it to have an easy path to someone that can't protect themselves.

[ichoosefight]

[ She lets go of his arm to give an exaggerated shrug. ]

There, was that so hard?

So do you have a plan, or are we winging it?

[ She would actually prefer a plan, for one. Maybe then Definitely-Not-Batman won't be able to distract her. ]

[ozmosis]

[ Oscar opens his mouth to share his plan—and it's a good one, too!—but then...

Well. ]