Cherry Blossoms are srs bzns guys

[trustycrowbar]

Who: Shen, Tsuruya, Gordon, Rosalia, Sherlock, Marisa, others that want to join in
What: Cherry-Blossom Hunting and picnic
When: Blooming season, some week in March
Where: Northwestern Woods

The copse of trees in the northwestern woods was quietly celebratory in the way that they often are on beautiful days. Sunlight dappled down between the leaves. Birds chirped and warbled. The wind could be heard gently hissing among the treetops above.

Nature's party was quickly crashed, however, as the very air in the center of the grove seemed to contract and then violently sneeze out a violent blue crackle of discharged entropy, along with several people in varying races, ages and stages of disorientation. The whole grove seems to give them the silent treatment, birds startled, timid woodland creatures scared off in a half-mile radius, even the wind is disrupted and silent. How DARE they show up and ruin the event...

For what it's worth, Gordon profoundly doesn't care. He stands and dusts himself off, trying to get the stray tachyons off or something. "That... was... AWESOME." He breaks into a wild grin and looks back at the innocent space of air that had just now violently thrown them into the woods, shouldering his backpack. "Good thing I asked about those teleportation pods in the labs! Who would've thought they'd actually work--oh hey, everyone with us?"

Comments

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

"Well, you know what they say, causality and all that! Sure made for an awesome display at least, right?" She points at the shrine. "Oh! Hey, let's go take a look at that place! Not too deep, but it looks really neat!" she suggests cheerfully. "And hey, maybe it'll be a nice picnic shelter!"

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa set off down the path towards the little shrine, commenting that "It sure as heck looks nicer than thunder butterflies. Let's go check it out, I bet there's something cool in there."

*edited. Now, with 50% more clarity!*

[trustycrowbar]

He follows the two girls, keeping an eye out but not particularly nervous. The path meanders its way down down along the slope and back again at a nice soft grade, lower each time, then winds its way over to the bridge. The water gives off small shimmers of sunlight as they get closer.

"Well, that supports the Okinawa theory, but still... why would there be a shrine-thing right out in the middle of--"

He cuts off with a yelp as something squat and purple streaks past in the air, low among the tree canopy. It pulls up and over the lake, cackling horribly, and as he flits there a second and third seem to join him from other copses of trees. They joust there in the air, circling each other, shouting and whooping, and then one by one they swoop down and filter into the building on the lake.

Gordon opens his mouth for the inevitable sarcastic suggestion that maybe they stay the hell away from the place after all, when they hear a girl's scream echo back from the shrine.

"--Oh my god, they've got someone in there!" He realizes, turning to the group.

"Sherlock, stay close to the girls! The three of you meet us there! Shen, follow me!" He forsakes the path altogether and starts off in a run directly down the slope, sliding half the time and catching the thin trees to slow himself.

[nomen_est_numen]

That looks like a really bad way to go down a hill, so Shen instead takes to the trees, half flying, half leaping along the tops. Like you do.

He manages to keep Gordon in sight and even in earshot, as he can be heard yelling down to him: "And what d'you plan on doing when you get there?"

Stopping here to let everyone react.

[trustycrowbar]

"I don't know!" He calls up to him. "I'll think of something! I always do!"

He really wishes he could do that crouching-tiger-hidden-peacock maneuver himself. However he's just a ground-crawling human, albeit one that believes the shortest path between two points is (usually) a straight line. Even if that path involves sharp boulders, moss, mud, and face-level tree branches.

Another scream floats up to the rest of the group, this time definitely not an echo or any trick of the wind; the wind doesn't usually yell "oh please NO" beforehand. Sherlock, Rosalia, Tsuruya, Marisa, have a choice; follow the unlikely vanguard down the hill, which doesn't look pleasant, or follow the path and arrive at pretty much the same time anyway take a little longer.

[solvings]

Stay with the girls? When there's something interesting about to happen? Hell, no. He's already taking his gun out to follow the other two instead of just staying behind.

Someone grab on to him before he takes off in the same direction as Gordon and Shen.

[healeveryone]

"Hey!" Rosalia shouts when Sherlock starts heading off, but she's not sure how much right she has to stop him. The scream's startled her visibly - someone's in trouble, someone needs help - and while she wants to do something, she doesn't know what.

She's pretty sure trying to run down that hill won't end well (at least, she's pretty sure she can't pull off what Gordon's doing); for that reason Rosalia takes a step forward closer to the shrine, but hesitates because she's not sure what Sherlock's going to do. But they should be okay without him, too...right?

[not_good_not_wicked]

No way Marisa is staying back now; something about this situation is causing her soul to demand that she do something about it. She didn't bring her broomstick (What kind of weirdo brings a broom to a picnic?), but she found a broken branch that looks like you could get a few good whacks with it. Gripping her improvised club, Marisa started off down the path to the shrine at a trot, stopping for a moment to look back at Rosalia and ask "You comin'?"

[healeveryone]

It takes a moment for Rosalia to react, but once she's gotten over her shock she nods quickly and runs over to keep up. "Right, I'm coming!" She wanted to help, she really did. Even if she didn't know what there was she could do yet...well, there had to be something!

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

"H-hey, hey! Careful, we don't wanna get in -- aw, dangit!" Tsuruya runs after them, trying to mask her annoyance at these purple things that had to ruin an otherwise pretty fun little trip. And terrorizing some poor girl, no less!

...wait a sec. Didn't she read there WEREN'T any humans outside of Sirocco?

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon, upon reaching the far end of the bridge, looks back to see the others running to catch up with him and the bird. So much for battle plan number one.

"--Ugh, christ... okay, whatever, come on! Shen, can you scout ahead? Sherlock, with me. Girls, stay behind us. I don't know what the hell's going to happen when we get there and I don't think you three can fight... can you?"

It sounds like a stupid question, but here in Sirocco...

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen does just that, vanishing over the treetops. A couple minutes pass as everyone catches up with Gordon and by the time they're making their way further along from the bridge the Peacock returns in a great flapping of wings and tail, landing much more gracefully than a bird his size should. He does have to pause to catch his breath, however.

"There's a tree inside that shrine," he says, pointing a wing in its direction. "A group of those... small purple creatures are... setting fire to it and then freezing it, over and over." He has the decency to look disgusted. "Vile things--the tree is what's crying out like that."

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Gotta stick, don't I? Bet I can pack a pretty good wallop with this thing."

Despite her brave words, though, she seems a little hesitant to keep advancing. Even with her stick. Perhaps she's not a COMPLETE idiot. She sticks back with the other girls, holding her gnarled branch like a baseball bat.

[trustycrowbar]

"The tree...?" He squints puzzledly down at Shen before realizing now's not the time to rationalize. "Okay, just watch yourselves. Stay out of sight if you're not absolutely sure you can handle yourself. C'mon."

The doorway to the shrine is open, and through the angled doors they can see glimmers of scaly dark motion and the occasional flash of fire or ice magic. Gordon draws his pistol from this coat pocket, leaning against the door and peering in. "...what...?"

Just as Shen says, the imps are gleefully circling a single, unleaved, dark-wooded tree that grows in the center through the center of an ornately-constructed dais surrounding a hole in the floor. They flit around and blast alternating sides with shots of fire magic and then put it out with ice, back and forth, like sadistic teenagers torturing an animal for fun. The pleas and squeals of pain really DO seem to come from the tree, completing the grim metaphor.

"Okay. I don't know what exactly's going on here, but it's about to stop!" He growls, leaning just far enough train his pistol on one of the small, circling imps... does he HONESTLY think he's going to hit one from there?

Second part because I LOVE MULTIPART POSTS. XP

[trustycrowbar]

BANG!

In the middle of roasting the tree, one of the imps recoils and squeals, alighting on a branch to grasp at a pierced wing. Wow. For a guy with glasses, he's a surprisingly good shot. For a moment even HE looks a little stunned.

The others screech in alarm, hovering with dark wings flapping. One screams something in an ugly language and points at the door.

"--Crap, here they come! Scatter! Spread out their fire!"

He plunges through the doors and makes for one of the stone pillars holding the roof up. Those who plan to fight, would do well to follow him.

The inside of the shrine show wood partitions and other pillars arrayed around the tree, ideal for cover. The moment he runs in one of the imps still aloft charge up a blast of bluish energy and hurls it at him. It hits the pillar and covers it with an inch-thick ice just after he disappears behind it.

The other one is headed for the door. Someone needs to distract it before it sees everyone outside. WHO WILL IT BE?

[nomen_est_numen]

WHO WILL IT BE?

It will be a clearly irritated bird. Shen darts in through the door at a surprisingly fast run but doesn't bother to take cover. Instead, he makes a beeline for the imp who's approaching the door, sending a flurry of throwing knives its way. An instant after he does that, he takes to the air as well for a very literal flying kick.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa watched Gordon and Shen with a bit of envy. She didn't like feeling like she couldn't do anything, but this was pretty clearly out of her league. What's an ordinary girl going to do against a bunch of flying imps with magic?

Her woolgathering was interrupted by two of the imps noticing the crowd of people outside. The guy in the orange armor looked dangerous, the bird man was clearly capable, even that pale guy in black looked like he knew how to handle himself. But behind all of them was a cluster of nervous looking teenage girls armed with nothing worse than a tree branch. They broke off from the pack to harass them, flying over everyone in complicated looping patterns and started flying around the three girls, laughing. Marisa tried to swing at one as it swooped in close, but then yelped as her stick was set on fire and dropped it before she burned her hands.

[healeveryone]

Rosalia can't do much against the imps. The best she can think of is to swat at them whenever they come too close, but once that nearly gets her fingers frozen she starts to wonder if that was really the best idea. The imps won't let up on her or any of the other girls, though, and she just wants it to stop!

She looks around to see if there's anything that can help, and sets eyes on a bunch of conveniently placed rocks scattered a little way down on the path. They're small, maybe half an inch to an inch across, and unlikely to take out any of the imps for good, but it's worth a try. She dashes over as fast as she can, grabbing a rock and whirling around in the act. "Hey!" And hoping that's gotten the imps' attention, she lobs -

Except the rock completely misses and veers vaguely left of the group. Oops. Rosalia can feel herself turning red, but...well, hopefully she has their attention at least.

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

One of the imps spots the long-green haired girl. Another easy target, it seems. It cackles, charges up a shot, and fires point blank. Everything seems to go in slow motion...

A flash -- and the IMP is covered in ice. And Tsuruya stands, a large stick in hand with ice on it, in a position that clearly indicates that she's somehow managed to smack the spell BACK at it. Wait, what?

[trustycrowbar]

The imp clatters to the ground in a half-frosted heap. The half that isn't frosted is obviously pissed off, wobbling to try to get free. Finally it gives up and casts a fire spell to melt the ice, and then another one at Tsuruya with a small screech of rage.

The one whom Shen attacked just barely manages to tumble through the barrage of throwing knives but he isn't so lucky with that kick. Metal talons bounce the little demon into the ground and it is barely able to get up on all fours, but it raises its claw to cast a blustery mini-tornado from seemingly nowhere, right back at airbourne Shen.

The one with the wounded wing is again aloft and dive-bombing the girls, dodging rocks and thrown items and shooting the occasional spiteful thunder spell over at Gordon to keep him from getting decent aim again. Bastard shot his wing, after all.

[nomen_est_numen]

The wind hits Shen like a... well, like a small tornado, but birds are more used to random wind-shifts than one might think and he manages to flap out of the miniscule weather system, making it to the ground with only a minimum of dizziness.

After a beat he draws his charred but still-sharp polearm. Criminy, he's angry, now. He simply charges the nearest imp with a great swing of the weapon.