zenderael_rl | [Event]

Entry tags:

[Event] - Medena

Who: Medena and you
When: Sunday, April 24 (morning)
Where: Stephanie Cruiser High School
Before/After: n/a
Warnings: Big angry earth dragons being big and angry

For the past week, Stephanie Cruiser High School has seen a plague of plant life in place of its students. Vines broke into the building, crawled over the lockers and decorated the classroom walls with colorful blossoms. Some of the hallways have had their walkways replaced by soft, tall beds of grass. Nothing important has been permanently damaged, though some thick roots have broken into the ceiling of some classrooms to let in precious sunlight. Maybe the students would have appreciated that.

Sunday morning, the earth shakes, centered around the gymnasium, and anything left on books and shelves in the classrooms clatters to the ground. A mighty roar bellows from beneath the ground, splitting the earth and making needing a key to the gym a moot point. The ground bubbles like boiling water with rocks instead of air, pushing the tile around and shoving the doors haphazardly out of the way as a reptilian face made of fertile dirt breaks past the surface.

The roots and vines of the school begin to writhe with new life, lashing out at anyone nearby. Large blossoms shift and clamp down like maws, biting out in defense for whatever parasites dare crawl over Medena's new body.

Medena's bejeweled eyes have taken on a dangerous glow, no long a vibrant green, but a toxic violet. Her body pulsates with a signal, and all the wildlife and monsters in Underwood are going to feel it and share her displeasure.

Her plants are growing at an alarming rate now. Those exploring the gym will see roots snaking in and out of the earth in search of nourishment.

Clearly, she is not a morning dragon.

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He hated to admit it, but he'd been slowly lulled into a false sense of security by the nothingness that was going on. Day in and day out they had been exploring the high school cautiously, at first, but with less trepidation as the days wore on, unable to figure out what the disturbance here was supposed to be. He stood now in one of the upper classrooms, the others nearby, flipping through the pages of a textbook with detached interest. Mathematics, he decided, were best kept to alchemists and mages.

The book had just barely shut before he began to feel the trembling under his feet. "Reliace!" he yelled out on instinct, before a more violent shaking began. Cursing, he moved back out into the hallway. Magic glittered in the air like dustmotes- maybe it actually was the dustmotes- and the vines and flowers they had noticed before were shuddering and slithering about the floor. Something was waking up, but what?

Impulsively, he hurried his way down the hallway, careful of vines looking to trip the unwary, of branches sticking in through the windows that could take out his other eye if he didn't watch out, making his way to the lower floor. Whatever was causing this, it was coming from downstairs.

It hadn't been like this before, or all week for that matter. What had changed?

The shaking snapped her attention away from the roots in the ceiling that she'd been examining, and Nadir's call pulled her attention again. She ran after him, not quite as fast as he was, falling behind in the hallway.

She didn't quite make it to the stairs. She tripped and fell flat on her face as one of the aggressive vines wrapped around her ankle.

When she realized what'd caught her, she was more annoyed than anything else. "Bloody plantlife, why's it always the plants?!"

It figured. It really did. They had been in that building for a week, keeping an eye on things, but when nothing out of the ordinary had happened, Anais had truthfully begun to wonder if they had been misinformed or if the recording had been botched. She had, of course, been willing to dismiss the plant life that had invaded the building, dismissing it as a product of whatever this disturbance was that they had been unable to find. And then, of course, this had to happen. The building was shaking, and Anais had sprung up from the chair she had been occupying and ran down the hall, in search of the others.

"Kahil! Reliace!" Where the hell were they?

Just up ahead, she saw something on the ground... a person? The closer she came, the more she could tell it was was Marlene, trapped by a vine that was moving? What? They hadn't done that before. Frowning, Anais drew her sword and swung at the vine, cutting it in the hopes that Marlene could get her foot free. That probably wasn't a good idea, of course, but for all Anais knew, it might try to drag Marlene off somewhere. That wouldn't be good. They needed her, after all. "Are you all right?"

Benedict had become bored stiff. Every night meeting up just to stand there and watch the plant-life. Who had really built this idea, anyway? It seemed to him that perhaps spell swords WERE unreliable, uninteresting company. He pressed his lips together and sighed, looking out a classroom window, when—

Oh. Screaming.

He should probably care about that, seeing as he was a Cleric, and all. Right. He almost didn't want to, but whirled regardless to the group of individuals now surrounding the vine'd Marlene. He didn't ask whether she needed it or not. A tiny heal spell was applied to her ankle, and he began preparing a series of defensive buffs.

"Seems like it is finally worth the time to be here."

Nadir had continued downstairs, yelling a, "come on, Reliace!" after him, though his tone was unmistakably cheerful. While, for the most part, he was a quiet, almost stern figure, able to keep himself company without concern for others' boredom levels, he had his moments of joviality. For the rest of the time, well, that's why Marlene was around- she was social enough for the both of them.

But something was going on, something was happening, and he was just as quick to mobilize as to settle down, quick and careful as he made his way to the main floor. His curiousity had gotten the better of him, and he had to be careful of the snapping flowers and twisting vines in order not to get tripped or eaten as he made his way down.

On the defensive, he searched the end of the staircase, looking for where the source of the sudden shifting was coming from.

His mind raced as he tried to think of what it could be. Phone out, armed with a flaming sword, he took a picture of one of the vines with the app. Red Orris Root, the app popped up. He frowned. Where did you find something like that in Zen? Safta? He couldn't keep reading, stuffing the phone back in his pocket and looking up the stairs towards the group still making it down. "What do you think- the gym, a classroom, or the cafeteria?"

Edited 2012-09-08 05:23 (UTC)

She kicked the vine off after Anais had sliced it, clambering to her feet. "Sod off, Kahil!" she shouted down the stairs at him.

She shot the other two a glance before following him down, taking the stairs as quickly as she could, expecting them to be right behind her. Catching up to Nadir, she stopped, looking at him and then at the air around them, filled with glowing motes of magic. "Probably the biggest open space," she said. "That's how these things work, yeah?"

"Are you two always like this?" she asked, frowning as she hurried after Marlene. They hadn't done much of that before, but, then again, they had all been bored stiff waiting for things to happen. Of course, now that something honestly was happening, Anais wasn't quite certain what to make of it. If it was a threat, the threat had to be neutralized, of course. But if it wasn't...

Once they had caught up to Nadir, Anais frowned, eyeing one of the vines. Now that she had a better look at it, it seemed almost familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Ah, well, that would come to her eventually, she was certain.

She considered, resting a hand on the hilt of the sword she still had out. "A classroom would definitely be out of the question, then. The majority of the ones I've seen would not be satisfactory to contain whatever has caused this to spread." That, of course, left either the cafeteria or the gymnasium. "It is my understanding, however, that the gymnasium would have the largest unobstructed space. Perhaps we should begin there."

"And put ourselves directly into harm's way?" Benedict's voice was filtered through mana expenditure, however, as his wove defensive spells around the party. The holy light filled him, and whatever irritation he had at flying down the stairs and bounding around corners with impetuous disregard for pacing and others began to silence in its warmth. The moment of calm dissipated.

No, the spellswords were still pushing their luck. "Forgive me." He frowned. He had always hated waiting his turn. What he could remember of it was irritating and most of all an insult to his skill. Over time, he'd developed the habit of trying with all of his might to get off another cure to no avail, only frustrating the invisible clock that bound him.

In that moment, he decided to chain an auto-regen spell, just as usual, and it went.

Just like that.

There was a blip of exhaustion, surprise, and joy, and then nothing.

Huh.

Well, there went the neighborhood. Now he knew nothing at all, right? "N-nevermind, I will just follow wherever you all decide."

"They're kind of a cute couple, if you ask me." Lynea answered, nursing what appeared to be a juice box through a straw. How she had appeared next to Anais without anyone noticing until just now could be anyone's guess. To Lynea, it was just an assassin guild thing.

Aside from being decked out in her alabaster gear, Lynea was treating the whole aggressive plant situation with little regard.

She slurped her emptying drink box. "The cafeteria is clear by the way. Unless someone's thirsty."

Ah, the assassin. What was she doing here? He had taken out his phone again when the others had approached, showing the result of the photo to Marlene. Quick reading was not his specialty with only one eye to scan with.

Ignoring the first of the comments, he looked over to Bene, arching the visible eyebrow at his stammering. Now, however, was not the time to ask if all was well. That would come later. "No worries," he said easily, turning his attention to Anais, glancing again at Lynea before back to the paladin. "Gym, then. Vallinar and I will go in first," he said, putting his phone away again. "We can worry about drinks later."

Unconsciously he moved forward, keeping Marlene to his right as he'd grown used to doing. If the assassin was here, she'd do as she pleased, he was sure, so he ignored her and let her do just that. It was a miracle so few others had shown up.

The ground vibrated uneasily, and the vines seemed just as like to dart away as attack, impeding their progress and having to be hacked away so that they could move. He nearly lost his sword to one particularly grumpy looking plant, but it seemed even plants were susceptible to elbows to the face.

Good day so far, in his books.

She glanced at Nadir's phone. Red Orris Root. "Pakerion," she said. "Around druid territory." She'd had to hunt it a few times for clients in need of materials.

If they were going to be fighting plants, that meant fire enchants for Nadir and Anais's weapons. Those were followed by an ice buff for Bene, to improve his focus and make casting quicker and easier for him.

And then Lynea showed up out of nowhere. Marlene startled and then just stared at the oddly familiar assassin. "How the bollocks did you get here?" She followed it with a fire enchant for her as well, before following Nadir down the hallway toward the gym.

"I suspect she followed one of us without our knowledge," Anais said after a moment, though she didn't bother to spare a glance in Lynea's direction. She had recognized her voice easily enough, and, really, how could she not have when she had made the mistake of bringing her to X-DAV and when she was firmly convinced Lynea was simply following her for her own twisted amusement? "Such is what her kind tends to do."

Fortunately, there wasn't much time to worry about Lynea and how she had gotten there. They had to find the source of this, and perhaps the disturbance that Noelle had overheard them mentioning. Admittedly, vicious plants hadn't exactly been what she had in mind, but it was still infinitely more important than Lynea was. Once her blade had been enchanted and she gave Marlene a nod of thanks, she was off, keeping just behind Nadir so as to not get in his way as they made their way to the gym.

It seemed, however, that Nadir was not alone in almost losing his blade. The more plant life they cut through, the more the vines themselves seemed to realize that they were under attack. One particularly nasty one had even seen fit to try to wrap around the hilt of her blade to try to pull it away. Anais glared at it, using a well-timed Smite to get it to release, eyeing the now singed vine.

"That," she said, "does not belong to you." Not that the plants could understand her, she was certain, but it made her feel a bit better at any rate.

Benedict continued to chain commands, cycling through the usuals. They wore off, it felt, faster in this realm. Perhaps a make-up for the lack of wait time. His mana seemed to last more infinitely, as well; though there was a snap of dizzy fatigue if he chained too many too soon, he could wait far less between and avoid the split-screen that happened to his brain.

The vines moved towards swords, and pointless banter continued between the group. All they seemed worried about was negotiating the location of the vines. Benedict was more concerned with their behavior.

"They do not seem predatory." He mumbled, flicking his glance to one vine in particular that snaked out and towards his shoulder. He, in great agility, slipped nearer to the assassin.

Who the hell was she, anyway? Oh well. She got a haste, regardless.

Lynea only gave a charming smile and a wink to Marlene as both an answer and appreciation for the buff. For Anais, the assassin only gave a dismissive sigh, tossing the now empty box over her shoulder. "You make it sound so unwanted. It wasn't like this little group is so inconspicuous, especially Patches over there."

Like everyone else, Lynea also found the plants rather annoying, though with the fire and Haste, It made keeping the annoyance at bay menial than threatening. A quick slice here, a quick slice there. No wait, two slices for that one.

"Aside from the plants which a good Druid or gardener couldn't cure, what's the hubbub? And who's the new guy?" She asked, pointing with a nod of her head to the priest.

"Let's see," Nadir said, his tone light despite a more considering smacking of a plant, glancing again at Benedict's words. "Not your business, unless he feels like speaking up for himself. Aaaand not your business."

That seemed to sum it all up. "But you'll probably find out anyway along with the rest of us, so why ruin the suspense?"

He was considering Benedict's words now- the plants were hostile, yes, but defensively so. "Try not to hack too much at them," he told the group as they continued on.

The gym was coming up quickly. Pakerion, Marlene had said. Druid territory.

"...Kharveryos changed his surroundings when he appeared at the community hall," he remarked to no one in particular, uneasy. But if it was anything like that- but she wasn't supposed to be hostile-?

Marlene kicked at another vine as she followed behind Nadir. Why did they keep going for her ankles?!

"Well whatever it is, it seems right pissed off," she said.

The gym doors were covered in a layer of writhing vines. Marlene drew her sword and nudged Nadir aside so she could fling an ice spell at them, freezing them solid.

She looked at Anais. "You first, pally."

The more Anais studied the plants as they moved, the more she realized Benedict was correct. They were more defensive than anything else, and, frowning, Anais returned her sword to it's sheath upon her back. She kept one hand on the hilt, however. Over the years, she had become quite adept at drawing it quickly. Somehow, she had the feeling that would come in handy here, especially if whatever was doing this was only trying to protect itself. Not that she blamed it, really. It was in a strange place, after all, and Anais recalled how confused (and a bit angry) she had been when she had first come here. She could only imagine what was going through this creature's mind in the time it had been holed up in the gymnasium.

She waited for Marlene to freeze the vines before she moved any closer to the gym doors, although she did turn to look at her, frowning. "I do have a name, you realize." Even so, she didn't feel like arguing the semantics.

Regardless, she pushed the doors open with one hand, the other still resting on the hilt of her sword. It wasn't until she stepped just inside the gymnasium that she stopped entirely, eyes widening as she saw the very thing she wished she hadn't seen in the center of the room. Sitting there was Medena, and she did not look at all happy.

No. No she did not.

She was less happy than she had been upon first waking. There were no druids, the earth was unfamiliar, and her plants were being elbowed and slashed and frozen.

Medena did not like the cold.

She greeted their entrance with a deep roar that put her rock jaws on full display and called for the earth to tremble around her again. She snapped out her neck forward to strike at Anais like a cobra, but rooted to the ground as she was, the distance was a few feet shy of making contact.

Frustrated, Medena lowered her head back to the ground and settled like an agitated porcupine with sharp rocks forming quills around her body while her blossoms began to release a toxic aroma into the air. It would not be a quick process. They would notice the sweet smell first and have several minutes before anyone began to feel tired. Once the fatigue began to set it, it would escalate rapidly until its victims were in a comatose sleep.

Not good, not good, not good, not good—any aroma leaving a flower of any nature, regardless if Benedict knew what the aroma was or not, was certainly a toxin. This was just one of those common-sense thing you picked up when you started healing on the field. At this point, he was readying a series of antidotes, and suddenly felt that ping of exhaustion writ large. He stumbled on his way towards the door.

He needed to wait, but supplying the mana to preparing the spells was more important than waiting, because whatever it was—"Try not to inhale!"—he shouted, covering his mouth with the sleeve of his tunic. Then, with a glare towards Lynea, "says the Cleric, who is here to watch your smart behind."

Wow, they were pretty seriously tense over little more than plants. Either they were disappointingly amateur or something definitely was up, and the eyepatch guy was right. She'd learn soon enough. wait-

"-Kharveryos? I missed out on that?" Lynea suddenly threw in, with an obvious edge of disappointment in her voice than a sane person should.

Then came the roar, loud and as intimidating as ever, followed by the sudden burst of aroma. It didn't take a genius to know what the scent actually was, and for an assassin, it chimed in on one of the few skills. After all, only the idiotic would use something they didn't have some knowledge or a little resistance in.

"It's just a little neurotoxin." She followed after Benedict's outburst, suddenly working out any kind of kinks in her joints to slow the numbness that would soon set in. "Just keep yourself moving and your mind focused and we can probably hold out long enough until you're all set with that cure, yeah?"

Shit.

Nadir knew Medena. Had known Medena. This was not a beast he was familiar with, angry and violent, yet inherently peaceful and accommodating. To see her in such a rage made her seem an entirely different creature.

And not a single goddamn druid to be found.

"Try to contain her!" Damn it, damn it, the last thing he wanted to do was attack an ally, even if she was in such a state, and none of them were suited to doing much of anything but attacking. "Maybe if we can tire her out she'll calm down!"

Unless they got tired out first. The smell hit him first, sickeningly sweet, and he jerked his head back initially as though that might help him avoid it. To no avail.

"What the hell do we do," he said more exclusively to Marlene, clearly out of his element, if only in the rare event there was something attacking him that he didn't want to hit back. Gathering himself he continued, "switch it up a little. Give Conrad as much of a boost as you can for that antidote he's working on."

As soon as the doors were open and she saw the angry Medena, she whipped her phone out to see what the app had to say about her.

Nothing. Couldn't find a match. With a frown, she typed a quick message to ~~Mal~~ Jack and sent him the picture, a note that he was missing one.

But she didn't have too much time to spare for that, shoving the phone back into her pocket as soon as the others got into a tizzy about Medena. She set a firm hand against Benedict's shoulder blade, channeling the power of ice to him, giving him the ability to focus better and cast faster. It was different from her passive buff, greatly reducing a spell's cast time in exchange for incurring part of the mana cost herself.

"Either somebody fight 'er or talk to 'er, I don't care which."

Anais jumped back the minute Medena snapped at her, although she couldn't reach her anyway. Being a paladin, she had helped face down far scarier-looking things than Medena, but, regardless, a dragon snapping at you would never not be a particularly scary thing.

Still, Medena was not normally aggressive. Perhaps if they tried to talk to her...? Frowning, Anais tugged the sleeve of her shirt forward to use that as a temporary barrier against the toxin she released, and, after a moment, she dared to move a little closer to her.

"Medena, I know we are not your druids, but please do not do this. We were displaced just as you were. We do not wish to hurt you." Of course, that was contrary to them chopping at her vines earlier. Oh, she would be mad at them for that, Anais was almost certain. What she wouldn't give for a druid right now.

Her roots her and her vines ached. Her blossoms had been assaulted. The ground here was different. The taste was atrocious. The air was worse. There was not enough sunlight. Everything was wrong, wrong, wrong. Medena knew what weapons felt like. They had been close. They were here now.

She did not hear Anais.

Medena opened her jaw and lashed out with her tongue: a thick vine that moved like a whip to wrap around Anais and yank her forward. The pulling would continue, dragging Anais toward Medena's open maw while the earth rumbled and churned around her.

"Let her go, please!" Benedict noticed a restored bit of energy as the antidotes began to slip away. That assassin—never appreciative, those types. Never. He took a deep breath, brought himself upright, and focused on chaining a cure for Medena afterwards.

Heal the monster.

Right. But...

"Please, please, drop her, please..."

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[Event] - Medena

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