trpmods: (Wanderkin)
The Revival Project Mods ([personal profile] trpmods) wrote in [community profile] revivalproject2024-09-10 11:02 am

[Event] [Open Log] Why Did The Tumbleweed Cross The Road? To Meet He Rows

In a way it’s like a scene out of a Western full of cliches. It happens on a quiet day with the streets more or less empty. A wind rolls in from the south, from the path toward the beach. A large bundle of what looks like twigs and sticks curled up not unlike a tumbleweed rolls along in the wind. An orb that moves quietly as it rolls over the roads in Temba, from the outskirts toward the center.

It moves fast, faster than the winds should have allowed for. Someone catching sight, who might want to follow it, would need to jog to keep up. In fact, following it would only cause the orb to seem like it was rolling away faster. Actually, it is. How strange.

The almost tumbleweed rolls with purpose and ease through the twisting roads and paths of Temba, slowing only briefly once it reaches new paved areas. Again, weird, given it should be able to move easier over something so smooth. Then it’s off again, quicker than ever. Rolling and rolling and racing almost until… until the fountain.

Here the twisted, dried out vegetation rolls right up over the edge of the fountain and settles into it. There it rests for a while, still and perhaps sucking up a drink from the water. Only after ten minutes have passed does the bundle of twigs and sticks shiver. Shiver and tremble and quake, like a dead tree caught in a storm. Then it unfolds. Uncurls. Rises up.

The thing still looks like a large, twisting mass of twigs and sticks and branches. But now it unfolds a pair of arms and three supporting legs. A particularly dense clump of twigs lifts up above the shoulders, tilts as it looks around with faintly glowing amber eyes. All told it rises easily to four feet in height, which is impressive as when it had been nothing more than a bundle of twigs it was maybe eight inches tall. Turns out it was very densely packed in there. Now it looks more spindly and delicate, a mass of thin, twisted branches and twigs, with the only real bulk in the more branch-like legs. Legs that still rest in the water, perhaps still drinking.

Amber eyes peer about before the creature gives a series of trembling, shuddering movements. It makes all of the twigs and sticks around what might generously be called a ‘torso’ to rattling and rasping. Rustling and scraping. Groaning and whispering like trees in a breeze. To any who might be observing without Communications it may sound unnerving and mysterious. To those who can understand languages, well, it is clearly a calling.

Little kin, to me come. I return little ones. Come fruit, come frond. Let us speak and together be knowing of the world. So kin calls to kin, and the old stories are shared, the knowledge comes to be known.

The rattling carries an impressive distance. Near to the edges of the city it carries, amplified perhaps by the buildings still standing. And sure enough, over the course of the day, Funfronds will be seen rushing through the city to the Fountain. And a single Barry soldier, to serve as envoy to the arrival.

But that’s for later. For now the strange new Plantkin looks around, looking for something. Until, at last, it sees a He Row. Then the rattling starts again. Quieter.

It sounds like the hallucination of words whispered when wandering alone in the words. A low rattle that, the more that it goes on, the more it will resolve into a certainty of words.

“Summoned I was. By knowing kin and by the little ones. Come for the knowing. So is calling. Kin calls for me, and I seek for those of whom I was told. Come to seek Link. Seek Sonic. Seek Dustin. Seek Tony. Seek the strange animals who speak. Who build like the kin. Who aspire to know. Come and speak, and through sharing, grow together toward the sun.”
faceguy: (Default)

[personal profile] faceguy 2024-09-10 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
not sure yet if I’ll have an open log but opting in!
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Also not sure, but feel free to visit Tony or Stu if they have a post!
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"You're lookin' at him, gorgeous." Whether this being understood Tony in kind was yet unclear, and Tony approached cautiously with a raised eyebrow and skeptically pursed lips. The language it used was unsettling to him, not so much as the Funfronds and their spores was, but without the familiarity of pattern and rhythm that he found in the Barrys and instead a rattling like something coming loose. He had watched the strange approach, hunched over his workbench and studying the flat images caught by his cameras, recognizing the shape immediately and expecting it to maybe roll all the way into the greenhouse, like it would conveniently complete the image that Tony already had of it. When he came sauntering out, it was with a torch still in hand that he juggled casually, and without any expectation that he would be recognized in return. As though he wasn't already prepared enough to circle it warily. "Tony. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you're not going to find the others here. They had the good sense to cut out, head on to the next party." He finally came to a stop, still some feet away from the fountain, head cocked and focus sharp, waiting for a sudden move.
tempredmental: (Default)

Re: [OOC] Additional Interaction Opt-In!

[personal profile] tempredmental 2024-09-10 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm always down for this stuff.
tempredmental: (Coran Are You Okay?)

[personal profile] tempredmental 2024-09-10 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It took Keith a second to realize that the tumbleweed thing was actually talking to him, but, once he figured that out, he started paying closer attention. He frowned a bit.

"Oh, uh... The only one left is Tony," he said. "Link, Sonic, and Dustin are all gone." It happened from time to time. "Sorry." He considered the next part. It had said animals... "Do you mean the turtles? Leo and Donnie?"
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
It would have been helpful to be able to confirm that it was even true that those people had been meeting with the various locals, let alone what they might have been discussing. The surveillance network definitely needed upgrading. The quick glance up at his inadequate cameras was interrupted by the being's rapid approach, making Tony tense and lift the torch readily, hand out to caution it against getting any closer. It was only as the being bowed that Tony relaxed enough to offer a facsimile of the gesture in return, canting forward but keeping cautious watch. "That was you, in the greenhouse? When we were--when the ships were gone?" he tried to contextualize, flicking a finger toward the hangars. "You've got me at a disadvantage. We don't have quite the same reputation. Don't worry, that's a good thing, probably."
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, it's--forget it," Tony said impatiently, not sure he wanted to be invested in that kind of cultural exchange. He had already made the moon scream. "You were going through our stuff?" That was invasive. It was maybe, kind of, possible that they had already done the same to the Funfronds regularly, but not knowingly, so Tony still looked dubious as he pressed, "Find something you like?"
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
It took a moment of hesitation, with the torch still gripped tightly, for Tony to relent enough to ask, "Do you keep records?" If it was a long enough legacy, even if these beings lives turned out to be short cycles like the Funfronds, maybe an exchange could be negotiated after all.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2024-09-10 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Tony had already started to open his mouth and lift a hand when he was interrupted and frozen by the transformation, transfixing him mid-gesture that no longer seemed terribly effective to extend to a tumbleweed. "Having waiting," he repeated, an acerbic mutter alongside a frown of impatience and cautious creep closer and crouch towards its shrunken height.
thepurpleone: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] thepurpleone 2024-09-11 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Catch-All opt-in for all my dudes.
tempredmental: (Being Teased)

[personal profile] tempredmental 2024-09-11 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh... Okay. Keith got it now. Never mind, then.

"Oh, uh... they're the green animals with the shells on their backs," Keith said. "Uh... Donnie and Leo." He shrugged. Mild confusion! But it made sense now.

"Return? Oh..." Keith shook his head. "We don't really have a choice in the matter. We're brought here, and sent on missions, and all that. And sometimes we get sent home. The only one on that list you mentioned that hasn't been sent home and away from here is Tony. But, it wasn't my choice to stay or come back or anything." Not that he minded. He had Lance here, and they had developed a relationship that they didn't have back home... as much as he missed people there, and wanted to go back to finish things, he knew that he'd be going back to the same point from which he left the last time he'd been... 'updated'? he supposed. So, he wasn't too worried about things. It wasn't like his team was being forced to operate while being short two Paladins.
stoicandsarcastic: (Default)

[personal profile] stoicandsarcastic 2024-09-11 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Opting in for Alec, though I don't know if he'll have an open post this month.
stoicandsarcastic: (if you could see what I see)

[personal profile] stoicandsarcastic 2024-09-11 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Alec is entirely convinced he's seeing things. A tumbleweed in the fountain is strange enough. A tumbleweed that unfolds into something else also strange. But the something else talking to him? That takes the cake. If he hadn't been aware of the fae and their various ways he might have flipped out. As it is he just rubs his eyes, blinks, and considers the stick man carefully.

"I'm sorry," he finally says. "I don't know who any of those people are."
stoicandsarcastic: (On the street tonight)

[personal profile] stoicandsarcastic 2024-09-13 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Hopefully the creature doesn't strain its neck too much looking up at Alec. He's stupidly tall.

"Um, me?" He's a little surprised to be asked. "My name is Alec."
stoicandsarcastic: (Together we could break this trap)

[personal profile] stoicandsarcastic 2024-09-13 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
It's a very good question. It probably doesn't have a straightforward answer.

"Uh, thank you?" It's a weird compliment; Alec doesn't know how to answer it. "Do you— what do I call you?"

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