thenearshore | [open] the anthem of a bird with a broken wing

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[open] the anthem of a bird with a broken wing

Who: Shun and you!
What: Dragging people out of the spooky dark forest, having Vulture Problems again, and investigating the weird sun-blocking stingray while coming under its effects himself.
When: June 3-4
Where: The spooky dark forest, Nekhbet's temple, affected parts of the Near Shore.
Warnings: Probably some vague PTSD-related stuff in the first prompt, but nothing too serious. Third has more on that front with the potential to get darker given the effects of the stingray ayakashi.

[A: June 3rd, Morning, Far Shore Forest]

[It's been a little while since the dark forest has started appearing, and though Shun's definitely taken brief strolls through it when he's run across it - because whenever he's actively intended to patrol the place, he can never find the damn thing - today's the first time he's doing more than that. It's the fireflies that lead him there first, though he lets them vanish into the far distance once they cross the borders of the woods, and for once, he hasn't been sidetracked into the place when he's had something else he's needed to do or hasn't been in the state to risk staying. He'd been paying for his stubbornness at the festival for about the whole week beyond it, after all.

So it is that he ends up walking purposefully through the trees, head turning at each distant scream or moan that filters through them. It takes everything he has to ignore the urge to run after them, to try and find a source, but constantly reminding himself that it's a lure, like the fireflies and like the nature of the forest itself, gives him something to focus on and minimise the desire to fall into a very obvious trap. Filtering out the distant screams helps for more than one reason, the sound threatening to blur into ones much more familiar to him, but it also means his focus is a little skewed, and when he hears a noise much closer in the trees, his reaction is sharp and immediate as he leaps up into the branches of a nearby tree to check what it might've been.

He can't actually see through the dense foliage to the place he heard the sound, but the sound of any other approach is something much easier for him to notice now, as well as the sight of anyone else roaming the forest. And it is true he's here to patrol, so this scope reminds him of what else he could be doing in this situation, even if it could also find him someone to help track down that stranger noise. Whether one approaches Shun as he's perched in the trees or is approached by him as he winds quickly and skilfully through the branches, his question to whoever he encounters will be the same.]

Did those fireflies lead you in here, or are you here for something else? [He could just ask if people are lost, but maybe this way people who actually are lost won't deny it.]

--

[B: June 3rd, Afternoon, Nekhbet's Temple]

[Anyone in the vicinity of the oddly-shaped, buried-in-a-hill temple that is Nekhbet's might find themselves victim to drive-by vultures, whether in the form of sharp rushes of wind as the large birds swoop excitedly down over people, or wings to the face as a few of them get a little too careless with that enthusiasm. Any amount of investigation will turn up a large crowd of vultures sitting on the hilly "roof" of the temple's ground floor, all tilting their heads curiously and ruffling feathers as Shun picks through the wings of one of them, his grip as gentle as it can be while still being firm as the bird worms around in his hands. Despite being the god of this temple, even he's considered it unwise to go into this particular situation without thick gloves to stop any potential attacks on his hands, and given the pair of tweezers he's angling into one wing, it's probably warranted.]

Hold still. [The remark is more one of open frustration than actually directed at the bird, but it does stop wriggling for at least a moment, and Shun takes the opportunity to get hold of what he's been aiming for. With a sharp tweak, he pulls a narrow thorn out of the bird's wing, casting it aside before smoothing the feathers down and picking through the rest of them. Apparently satisfied, he lets the bird go, and it hops around in front of him in what appears to be some kind of aggressive display for a moment...before it hops into his lap and sits there instead, fluffing its wings importantly.

Shun sighs like he's about to make some derisive comment, but it's interrupted by his notice of anyone approaching, and as his sharp golden eyes look up to scan the newcomer, all of the vultures gathered around him turn to stare intently at them as well, even the one in Shun's lap.

Congratulations, you now have the attention of about two dozen questionably friendly vultures. And a questionably friendly falcon, though much less questionable to people who actually know him.]

If you came to watch that mess, you'll have to wait until another one of them is stupid enough to dive through a rose bush.

--

[C: June 4th, Morning, Near Shore]

[Normally Shun would be doing some training with his powers at this time of day when he has another training commitment in the afternoon, but the weird shadows he's been seeing over patches of sky in the course of his job and general wandering on the Near Shore are getting frustrating enough that he can't put off finding out what it is any longer. It's almost a relief when he gets to the next affected area and the stingray-like thing blotting out the sun is so ludicrously obvious he almost can't believe nobody from the Near Shore has noticed it, but on the other hand, the people below are listless in a manner he's only rarely seen before. The thought puts an unsettled edge to his bearing even as he passes into the shadowed area, and it only gets worse as he questions some of the people beneath it in no more than curt, quick interrogations.

Losses becoming raw once again, as if they'd only happened yesterday. Depressive behaviour thought shed coming back, the listlessness leaving some wondering if there had really been a point to trying to move on. It's different from some, the same from others, but the words weigh down on him in a manner that he knows is unnatural as soon as he notices the effect, and though he knows immediately that he needs to get out of this area, the thought seems to slip from his mind almost as soon as he makes it, replaced with a cloying catatonia. For someone as alert and aware by nature, by necessity as he's been for a long time now, it's an unbearable inebriation, and despite himself, he feels his heart beating faster as he realises that with the size of the creature and the state he's in, he may not be able to escape the area, or at least not for a while. Trying to reach for his godly teleportation ability only nets him a thick fog of twisted thoughts, everything he's had reason to doubt or fear in the last two years tangled into a confusing, impenetrable mess with the excess he'd willingly picked up from the people here settled in over it, and the feeling drives him back to the darkest shadowed areas as the stingray keeps circling overhead, apparently happy in these skies for the moment.

Anyone else in the area may, from a distance, mistake him for an observer, with his slow, seemingly measured steps and his head tilted up towards the ayakashi. However, on closer inspection, his eyes are unfocused and unsettled, his movements short and jagged as he takes another few paces that are clearly taking far more effort than they ever should, towards the edge of the shadow that seems impossibly far in the distance right now. And, perhaps most tellingly for some, his reactions are seriously delayed, his attention snapping to whoever comes near a few metres later than he usually notices an approach, along with a slight recoil as if to prepare for a fight in the moment it takes for him to identify who it is.]

Why are you here? [Right now, the details of just about anything are hard to grasp, including why others from the Far Shore might be in this area. As soon as he pushes one intrusive thought aside, another one pushes through instead, leaving him sifting through things hard enough to live through once with a strained grimace on his face that says he’s going to have trouble doing it alone much longer.]

--

[D: Wildcard]

[[Have another idea? Feel free to poke me for plotting!]]

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[Since Shun figures staying in the tree is probably still a wiser choice than stopping Fubuki from falling over, he just lets that happen, watching him from the low branch with a faintly incredulous look on his face before turning his attention back to the other, weirder tree.]

I thought it was a footstep, but if this thing has moving roots...

[He trails off as there's an odd creak from the tree, perhaps because of their movement nearby. The front root is still on its way out, but from the rear side of the trunk, there's a strange, two-step crunching noise, and one of the back roots begins to snake around the side. Thankfully, it doesn't look quite long enough to reach them - it's close, though, and there's no telling if there's other free roots on that side - but Shun's expression immediately becomes more alert.]

That was it. It's this thing...whatever kind of tree it is. [Does he know any legends about living trees? Probably not.]

That's... [That sure does sound like a footstep.] Huh.

[His hand got scratched a bit, or at least feels like it has; hopefully nothing here reacts to blood. For now he pulls his sleeve up and holds it there with his other hand. The good news is that the tree seems like it can't move that quickly. The bad news is that he can't seem to shake the feeling of dread that's been pressing in on him.

[... It's just a tree.]

Doesn't seem like it was a lure, was it? [That is, unless it brought them here expecting them to stand around.] ... Think it's noticed you?

[That question of blood might get an answer relatively quickly, because even as Shun watches the root, about to answer as to whether he thinks it's noticed him, it starts to creep in the direction of Fubuki. It wriggles itself along the soil to do so, seemingly feeling for something it may have sensed on the ground.

Shun's eyes narrow, because while it seems like initially the tree had just been reacting to the presence of other life, this is quite different.]

...It probably knows there's something alive over here, at least. But move away from where you fell. I think you might've gotten blood on the ground.

[It's a strange concept even to him, but what other answer can there be? That vine on the reverse of it only reacted after that happened. Which begs the question of what it might've caught earlier to cause it to make that sound...or whether that had just been incidental.]

[Even as he takes several steps in the direction from which he and Shun had come, he can't help thinking that the tree is pretty slow. That'd make it easier to get away, but then again, judging from the time it took them to notice it, the tree hadn't been awake before. If it's still in the process of waking up, it might get faster.]

If you're quick, do you think—

[Wait. Something else needs to be checked first.]

—Er, I mean, is scouting over?

[Even without Fubuki's remark, Shun's keeping an eye on how the vine moves - it might be slow now, but it definitely doesn't look like it couldn't get up to a good speed given the right motivation. Which, he suspects, would be having them within reach. And the vine at the front looks like it's not going to take more than maybe another minute to free itself, which means they need to be out of its way by then.]

It doesn't look like it's caught anyone before us, and it shouldn't be able to move around or leave the forest, which was my main concern. The only thing that'd be worth the risk of staying would be if we could mark it enough that people know to avoid it, but even with my power, that would take long enough that I'd definitely have to be fighting that thing off at the same time. [In other words, yes, and even as Shun speaks, he's moving to the other side of his tree, further away from the strange, seemingly vampiric one.

That vine is still rubbing itself along the soil like a sniffer dog.]

[He hopes Shun is right about it not being able to leave the forest. It wouldn't be the first time someone'd gone after Fubuki for his blood.]

Then...let's get out of here.

[He glances back and forth between the ground and the tree as he backs away; getting cut up again would probably be bad. Not to mention make more noise, not that he'd noticed if the tree had reacted more strongly to it.]

What do you think it was luring, if not us? [Since it doesn't seem to be making an effort at catching them and all.]

[There is a brief pause in Shun's movement across the branch - a moment in which he looks back towards the tree, as if he might be fully ready to take the risk he'd mentioned to mark it for others. But he does have someone less capable in this situation here with him, and with the tree likely more interested in Fubuki right now, it'd just mean dragging him into something he may not be able to handle.

As Fubuki moves, the root moves faster, skimming along the ground as if it can sense the faint vibrations of movement, but it stops short around where Fubuki had fallen earlier, unable to go any further and lashing irritably like a cat's tail. Shun watches it before moving into the next tree, further away from the predator.]

When it realised we were here, we obviously became the new target, but it could've been anything. Another god or shinki, an animal, or some other monster or creature creeping around in here.

Hopefully not a god or shinki...

[As he watches the vine flail, he considers hopping up onto a tree himself, but he doesn't want to direct its attention to anything that might be using its tree brothers as stepping stones. And anyway there's the issue of climbing up in the first place; if his sleeve slips, he'd be leaving a bloody trail. The tree might be the only malevolent thing here, but he has his doubts. The trap is too big.

[He settles for continuing to back away.] I don't suppose...you noticed anything that would prevent us from leaving? [The forest probably won't make it easy to get out, after all.]

I doubt it would've had them for long enough that they couldn't have made themselves known, if it was a god or shinki. Something like that would need time to kill someone.

[It's put very straightforwardly, as if it's the first thing that should've been considered. If it was drawn to blood, then presumably it consumes blood, and if it was as simple as spilling it over the roots, then the tree wouldn't have needed to move until they'd gotten close enough to attack.

Even as Fubuki speaks again, Shun's already looking over the trees ahead of them, making sure nothing's changed. So far, he doesn't see any sign of that, and they should be close enough to the edge that it might not even matter if there was.]

Not yet. Even if it came to the worst, it'd take more power than I've seen anything here wield so far to outright stop me from being able to teleport. It could still have some way to interfere, though, so I'd rather walk.

Kil— [He'd been trying to avoid thinking about that. Especially if someone else were like him and had had their perception messed with and couldn't notice until it was too late...]

[He tries to stop thinking about that.]

[He's about to say something else when everything goes quiet. All the screaming and incidental noises just stop.] ... That's not a good sign, is it?

[Perhaps thankfully, Shun feels no need to press the issue further, instead focusing on the forest and where they're heading. As such, he stops in his tracks the moment silence descends on them, casting a now incredibly wary eye around to the trees and lowering himself into a more ready, reactive position.]

No. [Keeping himself low, he continues moving through the trees, faster this time.] Keep moving, but stay close enough that I can get to you if we need to make a quicker escape.

[Jumping out of a tree onto him to teleport them both out wouldn't exactly be ideal, but having both of them on the same surface is probably an even worse idea.]

Would you say they're getting desperate? [The silence is either a signal that playtime's over, or a sign that whatever-it-is really wants to be able to locate the two of them.]

[Though, given that the last threat was a tree and they're surrounded by trees, they'll just have to hope that the forest isn't made entirely of snares. Which is easier said than done. He holds his hand as close as he can and tries to keep an eye on Shun and the ground in front of him at the same time, but he had a hard time seeing in the first place. His pace is slower than he would like.]

Crap...

[He can swear he hears something behind them, but that might just be the sound of his own passage through the foliage, or the ruffling of his clothes, or his own breathing, or whatever else. He can't spare a glance behind, in any case.]

Maybe not desperate, but things that toy with their prey don't like having it taken away. [Even just the tone of Shun's voice expresses an unsettlingly deep familiarity with that concept, and without even realising it himself, his movements speed up just a fraction. His eyes are everywhere, calculating everything, a certain recurring single-mindedness returning to him - where are the escape routes, where are the signs of the enemy, how do they ensure they stay alive.

He hadn't been that far from the edges of the forest when he ran into Fubuki in the first place, and that had been at a far slower speed than this. While he has much more to spare for glancing back than Fubuki does, he can't see anything pursuing them, so maybe it's not too much to hope that they'll cross the borders of the forest before encountering whatever this is on its own turf. On his own, he might've chanced the fight, but he has another life to consider in this case.]

[Just when he thinks that the trap has fully closed around them, the trees thin, the air brightens, and Fubuki is...out. His body jerks him up short as his legs give out; he manages to turn, and rests on a knee, looking back at the forest, breathing heavily.]

Made...it...

[Or so he hopes. He really should get farther away; he levers himself to his feet and starts backing up.]

Hey, Shun...?

[They break through the borders of the forest before Shun even realises they're out, his leap from the trees back onto the ground and roll to break his own fall coming naturally to him, and for a moment or two longer, his eyes continue to dart over their surroundings before he settles. The overall effect is similar to an uncoiling spring, and he straightens up and dusts himself off with a deceptively casual air as he shoots a wary look back at the trees.

Fubuki seems much more rattled than he does, though, and Shun's attention snaps back to him at the question.]

What is it?

Uh, nothing. [Just...confirming. He has no idea what he would have done if Shun hadn't come out, but that's obviously not the case and so he has nothing to worry about.]

Are you all right? [Probably, considering that landing, but it never hurts to make sure.]

[Shun stares at him a moment longer after that, as if expecting him to suddenly come up with something else wrong, but the question of whether he's alright just makes him frown slightly before letting out a slight, dismissive huff.]

Don't ask stupid questions. [So that's a yes. An extremely rude yes, but a yes nonetheless. And while his focus is already on Fubuki, Shun gives him a rather critical lookover as if he's not being a giant hypocrite doing that immediately after dismissing any possibility he might be hurt himself.]

You seem fine, other than the fussing.

[The adrenaline hasn't faded yet, but that might be why he is suddenly very happy.] Even if it's stupid, I have to ask it. [Because certain people wouldn't mention it otherwise and make him worry. Although if he comes off as fussy, maybe he should—]

[A rustling from the trees jolts him out of that thought.] We should...probably go.

[Now Shun's just peering at him slightly, like he can't parse out that logic himself. Never mind the fact that he has no problem pointing out when it looks like his friends are having issues, it's the reverse that he's bad with.

At the rustling sound, Shun's attention turns sharply back towards the forest, scanning for the sight of anything. Still watching the trees, he nods slowly, starting to head back towards where temples are visible in the distance.]

I'll scope it out again sometime later. You can't be the only person who'll ever get lost in that place.

With backup, I hope you mean. [His imagination might have run wild a few times, but there's no way it's not too dangerous for one person alone.]

[His hand throbs.] ... Sorry, I have to get back. Be careful?

[There is a truly remarkable lack of direct answer to that first comment from Fubuki. In fact, from the way Shun just keeps walking, one would almost assume he hadn't heard it at all.

The second thing, however, he does respond to, raising a hand by way of farewell instead of actually using any kind of polite word.]

I'm always careful.

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[open] the anthem of a bird with a broken wing

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