JULY MINI EVENT - Branching Out!

[pumpkinhollow]

Branching Out

A cool breeze threads through the trees of Lockwood Forest as Teddy Pennyburrow and his gaggle of volunteers begin to set up the camp.

It's been a monumental occasion, receiving enough funding to the Autumn Leaves Dormitory House to give it some much-needed upgrades and expansions, but the process hasn't been without its trouble. Finding somewhere to keep the children while the construction is under way took a great deal of thought and deliberation--- after all, the Oak & Iron doesn't exactly have the space to accommodate so many displaced kids, from toddlers to teenagers--- but with some assistance from those working so closely with the House, a seasonally-appropriate consensus was reached.

What better way to pass the time and make it fun for everyone involved than to have it be a camping excursion?

Summer Camp Season

In a wide clearing within the centermost area of the woods, Mr. Pennyburrow has gathered as many volunteers as he could possibly manage to keep the children active, engaged, and most importantly, safe. Among the roles called for in his volunteer-seeking notice on the public bulletin board, Pennyburrow called help for:

➤

Teachers, to educate the children on survivalism and nature, as well as any other subjects that might be easily taught to a gaggle of children in the woods. Math might prove to be challenging, here. (Anyone aspiring to teach full-time at the Dormitory House are encouraged to join them, as with the expansions and additional funding, Pennyburrow will be looking to hire a few offworld teachers to create curriculums!)

➤

Storytellers, especially anyone with a knack for tales of mystery and terror. (Campfire for ominous lighting while telling the stories will, of course, be provided. The teenagers would be willing to settle for no less.)

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Foragers and cooks, especially with skill in campfire-cooking.

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Warriors and guards, for assistance with keeping the campsite safe from any threats that lie in the forest.

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General attendants, particularly anyone with a keen eye (and potentially with the ability to guide rowdy groups into games to pass the time).

Though the position is voluntary, Pennyburrow still offers a humble 100B to anyone who comes to assist. (Mod note: if your character attends the event, feel free to go ahead and add 100B to their ledger!)

♥

Comments

Pine Guardian, Guardian of the Pine

[thethirteenthchild]

-Day Shift-

Lately, Dahlia's been needing to "eat" less and less. Something is changing. Shifting. It feels safer to be the Pine Devil now. Less likely to result in some unfortunate incident. Like maybe it's something she can reclaim.

(Plus, it's easier to stay cool as a big ol' beastie who doesn't wear any clothes.)

And so, as a method of entertaining the youngsters, Dahlia can be found "loafing" in the middle of the campgrounds sometimes, letting them touch and pet and climb on her. Occasionally, she'll even take a few of the older ones for a low flight. Some of them are a bit rough, yanking on her antlers or trying to touch her teeth, but for the most part, they're pretty well-behaved. This is... kind of fun.

-Night Shift-

This is why Dahlia is really here.

Lockwood Forest is dangerous at night. There are terrifying things in these woods. Things sent by demons, or by Nyarlathotep. Ghosts and fae folk of dubious intent. But the one thing that's nice about being Prince Aster's prize show pony is that she is much, much scarier, and anything with sense will run at the sight of those sharp blue pinpricks.

And so, wings spread in a threat display, Dahlia stands guard all through the night.

[lordoftheozarks]

Tonight, she won't be standing guard alone. From out of the dark comes Erik, dressed down (for him) in a light pair of trousers and a vest with a jacket. He can see her perfectly in the dark and knows she can too, so he has no fear of approaching.

"I thought you might like a little company this evening, if I may?"

[thethirteenthchild]

Dahlia gives a nod of greeting as he approaches, then a thoughtful pause, before she switches form. Not to her human form, however, but the midpoint between this and that, with sharp phthalo eyes and skin to match. A tail with a tuft of dark hair at the end coils around her feet.

She doesn't spend much time in this form, certainly not around people. But if there's one person who has been her friend through absolutely everything, who's been here since very nearly the beginning and still hasn't turned her away, it's Erik. He knew her before she was any semblance of a good person. Watched the fiasco with Ianto unravel, sometimes even firsthand. Supported her after the big reveal, and was patient with her. Dahlia has many friends now, real ones, something she never really expected. But few so steadfast as him. So for once, she will just be herself.

"I'd love that," she replies. "Hope you don't mind the look. Pine Devil's hard to talk in, but if I go blonde again, I lose all the intimidation factor."

[lordoftheozarks]

"I like this look better," he says with utter sincerity. "You are far more captivating and regal in this shape." Her horns suit her as a crown far more than her demon father, in his opinion.

"I was watching you play with the children earlier. You're good with them. I'd say it warmed my heart, but unfortunately, not much besides blood can do that. But the sentiment is the same."

[thethirteenthchild]

Dahlia laughs, somewhere between flattered and disbelieving. "If you say so."

"Regal" isn't normally the aim. But something about this version of herself feels less... heavy.

"I've always liked kids," Dahlia admits. "I didn't think I'd be good with them, but I do like them. It's been... nice. Letting myself become less frightening to them."

[lordoftheozarks]

"I do say so." Hopefully, if he says it often enough, she'll start to believe it more confidently.

"I never thought I'd be any good with them either, and now I am contemplating the prospect of raising one myself. But that is a distant idea."

Still... he can't fully disregard that he is growing unmistakably paternal feelings for Dahlia. What would she think if she knew?

"I'm glad for you too. Children can be like little mirrors. They reflect our actions back on us in a way that is difficult to argue against. If they fear you less, it's because they can see the truth of you--that you are no mindless monster of violence."

[thethirteenthchild]

"...Not anymore, at least," Dahlia murmurs. "I used to be. I used to let myself be that for my own protection, I thought. I suppose in a way, it was that. It was... so that I could detach myself from it all. But if they can see that I've grown, then... good."

[lordoftheozarks]

"That was all you knew to do, and I do not blame you for it. What matters now is that you have been given a choice, finally, to find a better way and you have embraced that. The Dahlia they can see now is the woman you've become through your own effort. If I'd been granted the privilege of being your father instead of the ungrateful one you have, I would be very, very proud of how you've grown."

[thethirteenthchild]

"Two. Aster and Japhet," Dahlia reminds him with a hollow laugh. "And then there was--- something with Cerrit, sort of, but we'd drifted apart by the time he went back to the ferry, I think."

The shining, ultramarine beacons that are her eyes turn to the darkness, casting a faint glow.

"He was the first to know what I was. He took a deal with my father, agreeing to hide what he knew in exchange for the Sending Stones, and he told me to my face that he accepted the terms because he didn't want to rat me out. But then he kept--- looking for loopholes to try and lead others to me. Constables Kennedy and CT. The latter even broke into my home to hunt for clues as a result with Tarantulas and Chief Constable Valdis. I don't tell many people about it, because I don't want to get tangled in another mess of interpersonal drama. But it was because of Cerrit pointing her my way that they did that. I tried to talk to him about it, after the gala last year, but he--- I don't know, he answered strangely and then we didn't really talk anymore and I just---"

Blinking back tears, Dahlia lets out a frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to monologue, I just... I've never had a mother. Some part of me knew I wasn't meant to have one. Given my track record, I'm starting to accept that maybe I'm not meant to have a father either."

night shift

[incomingchoppers]

In the very, very early morning hours, a decidedly non-demonic shuffling sound comes from behind Dahlia. Radar -- looking a little disheveled in nothing but a t-shirt and shorts, holding his teddy bear by one arm -- pads over to where she's standing guard.

"Hey," he mumbles.

(Usually, if Radar's awake this early for no reason, it's because he got socked in the head by a bad dream.)

[thethirteenthchild]

Struggling to ward off her own exhaustion, Dahlia snaps to attention as Radar comes over.

"Morning," she rumbles in her strange, distorted voice. "Nightmare?"

[incomingchoppers]

Radar nods. He rubs one eye with the hand not holding his bear; stifles a yawn.

"I checked on the kids and they're all asleep." Standard Radar procedure after a nightmare: get up and do some kind of work until he's tired enough to sleep again. "'S it okay if I stay out here with you?"

[thethirteenthchild]

"Of course." She leans over, nuzzling him the way an affectionate animal might. "New shirt. Nnnice... but a little c--orny."

With her rough, bestial voice, she lets out a rattling laugh.

[incomingchoppers]

Radar chuckles, too. He presses his cheek to Dahlia's and gives her a gentle scritch, just like she's one of the ranch's horses coming to say hello. "You like it? There's so much stuff at the flea market I dunno how I found something from Iowa."

But obviously he had to buy it once he did.

"Maybe they even got something from Ottumwa hiding under everything. That'd be neat."

[thethirteenthchild]

"Kora's doing," Dahlia assumes. She's always had a good sense of humor. She leans into the scritches. Deer brain likey.

"Want to go there... someday. Visit."

[incomingchoppers]

"Really?"

Radar's whole face blossoms into a grin. Maybe he shouldn't be so surprised -- but sometimes, even though he tries not to, he thinks about how things ended with Linda Sue and how eventually he's gonna have to leave Dahlia for the war, too. If she's talking like they'll really still be together once he's home from Korea, though... boy. A little fizzle of joy shoots through him.

"Yeah, I'll give you the whole tour." He keeps up the gentle scritches, moving to a spot between her antlers. "You can see the farm, and the general store if we go downtown, and I heard we just got a new traffic light right before Miss Mortanne pulled me here. Plus there's swimming in the rivers and they got movies at the Legion every week that're a whole lot better than what we get in Korea. And you can meet my mom and Uncle Ed for real too! My mom'll really like you I bet."

[thethirteenthchild]

"Hhhhope so," Dahlia rumbles. She really, really, really hopes so. What she wouldn't give to be liked by these people.

Daisy is without family. Everyone she cares about is right here. Laios has his friends and his sister, and his sister is evidently some sort of dragon person anyway. But Radar has a family. He comes from a place where magic of any kind is incredibly sparse, to the point where if you have it at all, people might not even believe you. And he loves them so very, very much. He respects them.

Inexplicably, Dahlia finds herself more intimidated by them than anyone else.

"Never seen movie. What's it like?"

Night Shift

[thrashmachine]

Monster of Marrow Isle, meet monster who's spent all day trying to think of a way to approach you.

It's not that Dahlia looks unapproachable like this - even if it weren't for the children crawling all over her for half the day, making her look more like a pony at a petting zoo than something that goes bump in the night. It's not even those sharp antlers, that look an awful lot like the ones at the top of a Dark World menace they hadn't yet managed to vanquish.

It's exactly the opposite.

She's the coolest monster Susie's ever seen.

Susie doesn't manage to figure out what to say while the sun is up, so when it sets, after Mr. Pennyburrow's ushered the his wards off to bed, she sneaks out. (It seems like Kris has done the same, so it's not like they can even say anything if they catch her. Not that they would, of course, but still.) She's careful to watch out for brittle sticks in low lantern-light, squinting up in the trees or around any corners, watching for those small blue eyes---

Snap.

Shit. She freezes, and takes a wary glance around. She's gotten a decent twenty, thirty feet away from camp. It hadn't occurred to her that something else might find her out here before the Pine Devil does.

Still, though, she's made it this far. Gotta go out on a limb sometimes. Clearing her throat, she keeps her voice low, and murmurs into the dark. "...Hello? You there, uh... Dahlia, right?"

[thethirteenthchild]

Unfortunately, the eyes that meet Susie's are not the little blue pinpricks of the Pine Devil's eyes. Instead, there is the wide, blood-shot, wall-eyed gaze of a distorted wolf. It looks uncanny, like someone tried to make a puppet of a wolf from memory, its red and bloodied teeth pulled into a permanent expression that straddles the border between grimace and smile.

Upon seeing Susie, it begins to giggle a canned, cartoon laugh that would be goofy if it wasn't coming from this horrible thing. The darkness obscures the size of its body, but if its footsteps have anything to say, it's torso is much, much bigger than the size of its head would imply. It leans toward Susie, jaws parting, to reveal in its mouth, no tongue or gaping throat, but a rotting, screaming human face.

[thrashmachine]

At first glance, she takes a sharp step back, but stays firm. So it's a freaky wolf puppet? So what? She's squared up with weirder puppets, she'll be fine.

Before she can make a demand for it to get back, though, more and more of it comes into view. The smell of decay is instantly gut-churning, causing her to stumble a few more steps back. She shakes her locked attention to it to snag a branch of the ground, bringing both hands to it, holding it like a baseball bat, just in time to meet the eyes of that screaming face in its throat.

She's never faced anything like this alone. Her heart hammers so loud she can hear it louder than any of the laughter in its uproar.

She's never been so scared in all her life.

And yet...

She can't help but think about the kids back at camp. Mr. Pennyburrow, all fluff and no defenses. The kind nurses at the medical tent, who weren't meant to square up with things like this. There's no way she can let this thing follow her back to the camp.

Her grip tightens on the branch, and as much as she wants to bark something at it, her throat's too tight with fear to get any words out. There's only one thing she can do here.

She clenches her teeth, angles the branch to swing at its head, and rushes in.

[thethirteenthchild]

The contact from the branch is enough to swipe the creature's head sideways, causing it to cry out with both voices as pointy twigs stab into its lidless outer eyes. But this is no Dark World. And that branch is no axe. Here, she is just a child. An incredible, brave child, but a child nonetheless.

Angry now, it lifts a clawed hand twice the size of Susie's head, and goes for a swing of its own. But it isn't fast enough.

From the darkness, a flurry of teeth and horns and claws, roaring out like a territorial buck. The shape plows into the side of the massive creature where its neck and shoulderblade meet, toppling it in a moment so elongated by the thing's size that it almost feels like slow motion. But there is nothing slow about her. The Pine Devil.

She's not even a quarter of this thing's size, but she's strong, and she's fast, and this creature has a long, and very vulnerable throat---- one that curved and wicked teeth, exposed by a lack of lips, are quick to rip open. A spray of blood hits the forest floor. The creature flails, struggling to pry her off of it as it spasms out its death throes, but to no avail.

A slack face with wall-eyes, red teeth, an open jaw with that same horrible human head inside. They lay in a heap on a bed of pine needles and shed bark. And perched above, in the dark, two little marbles of blue light. "You okay?" The voice is rumbling and low.

[thrashmachine]

The crash of the beast hitting the ground, something so colossal that she can barely imagine it in this unwavering darkness, Susie scrambles back. The moonlight cast between the treetops makes the blood that pours forth into the foliage look like ink on the dirt. She's never seen that much blood in real life - it's hard to imagine that it's actually real.

But as quickly as it'd appeared, the creature is slain. It's motionless, yet somehow, even in death, the cruelty in that grin hasn't wavered.

She's been asked something, though. Snap back to reality, Suz. Stop holding that branch like a lifeline. (She succeeds at one of these, for now, and that's enough.)

"Yeah," it's a quiet, underwhelming answer, but she swallows roughly, taking a step forward. The closer she gets, the more she can make out the strange, somewhat familiar shapes of the Pine Devil that she'd seen only hours ago. "I'm good. Wh... what was that?"

[thethirteenthchild]

"Demon," Dahlia informs her plainly, this voice clearly not intended for speaking with. "Look away. Got to eat."

[thrashmachine]

"Oh. Uh. Right. Sorry."

She does an awkward turn on her heel, pointedly looking away. She half-considers looking back, taking a peek at what most assuredly is some serious carnage, but... after being almost face-to-face with that thing, she doesn't know that she has the stomach for that right now.

"...That was, um. Pretty cool. By the way."

cw: implied gore, gross sounds

[thethirteenthchild]

Judging by the sounds, carnage is exactly what is happening. Whatever horror movie foley art Susie is used to, it's nothing compared to the real thing. The live, in person sound of tearing flesh. It's mostly just... wet. Almost like soaked fabric ripping. Followed by a nasty, sloppy series of eating noises paired with animal breathing and grunting, like a dog going to town on a bowl of wet food.

Gross.

When Susie speaks again, Dahlia looks up--- and the corpse is gone the moment her eyes leave it. Ah well. She was full enough anyway. "Just helping," she grumbles, before shifting form back to something easier to talk in. She decides on the tiefling look for now.

Her voice changes to something more comfortable, something more person-like. Feminine, even. "I'm surprised you tried to fight it. That was very brave, but don't get yourself hurt senselessly."