Planeside 2

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Will has acquired a little luna moth shaped pixie drake! As with the rest of the little faeries, his wings are still all shrively and crumpled. It'll be a while yet before they stiffen sufficiently to be used for flight. This particular critter is covered in fluffy pale green wool with large, elaborate lime green wings. And of course a pair of big, feathery antenna that are currently laying back like horns. The strange twilight of the Hedge glints off the teeny faerie's oversized eyes as his little face morphs into a scowl.

"It wasn't gross bug stuff," he protests, along with all the other little drakes in unison. "It was perfectly normal bug stuff."

A beat.

The luna moth's antenna droop a bit.

"Or... I think it was normal? This is all normal for a pixie drake swarm. Make a chrysalis and hatch out. I think other types of drakes do something different?" the swarm of faeries reason. He (they?) look a bit troubled, though. "Why do I know all of this? I just got melted into a swarm of dragon flies and now I know a bunch of stuff that I didn't before. But... ah, haha, who cares, right? It isn't a big deal that I know what I know so long as I know it. Hey! Would you mind sticking around until my wings dry? I spotted some spriggans lurking around under that log and they'll probably beat me up if I can't take to the wing."

And for whatever weird reason, being a swarm of bug-lizards doesn't feels unusual.

It feels normal.

Shouldn't he be afraid right now? Or worried? Or something other than vaguely giddy?

He considers Will's question, though, which manages to rouse some thoughtful murmuring from the swarm.

"Don't the Geth sorta have individual minds, but they just pool their mental resources together when they're near each other?" they all ask in unison. "If I'm doing a consensus thing, I don't think I'm doing it consciously. All the drakes are me, near as I can tell? Or part of me. I think that's why they're all talking at once."

They sure are.

Having a few thousand tiny bug-lizards chattering at once sounds weird. Thankfully they're all saying the same thing at exactly the same time, otherwise it would probably be pretty confusing.

The little luna-moth drake gives his wings a few flickers, trying to get them to straighten out. That doesn't seem to help much, so he settles with just vibrating them. "Is it weird that my name was Drake to begin with, and now I'm a pile of drakes?"

For whatever reason, it occurred to him that sharing his name isn't that huge of a deal now that the Hedge has already got him. What else is it going to do? Make him even weirder? He's already weird.

[Cyber Punk]

[Lornesse Forest]

(Group) Ezra_S: That's true, when you put it that way...
(Group) Ezra_S: :)

((That pic gives me an idea. PM me a description of Lornesse, along with the pic link (just because). I want to play with sounds. ))

Ezra keeps an eye out for who could cause the destruction of the forest, and sights the tough woman first. In a gentle voice, he speaks to her, raising up his hands. "Drop the weapon, we mean no harm, not unless you're the one responsible for destroying the forest. Even then, we need a good reason, oh my, yes!"

Even so, there's a tiny hole forming on his finger as he prepares to disarm her if need be.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shrugs.
"Yeah, sure, I've got nowhere to be. And while some purists might get uppity, I think 'drake' is the right term since you don't have a breath weapon. Usually in video games a drake is a smaller dragon without the powers. Or a male duck." Yeah, aren't you lucky, Drake? You didn't turn into a duck-faerie.
"If we wanted to test it we'd probably have to take separate yous and see if they could both carry a conversation without getting the words all jumbled. But let's not play with your brain before your wings are even dry. Oh and uh, do you know if all of you are roughly the same in terms of things? You all sound exactly the same so I'm going to assume you're all male. Which is good, it means we don't have to give you a talk about doing to people what that hornet-drake did to you."

Even without knowledge of bugs, it's obvious that Drake got stung and then basically turned into a giant egg sac. Like what mantises use! And eggs are a female thing. Most of the time.
"And are all of you flying things? A Mantis-dragon sounds awesome. Their wings can't fully fly though."

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"Or young dragons, or wingless dragons," the swarm of pixie drakes agrees. "Or ducks. But games consider kobolds and goblins different things. I'm pretty sure they're just the German and English versions of the same general sort of stuff. Drakes are a type of kobold, I think? A sort of house spirit that lives in fire places. A hearth drake. But I'm a pixie drake. Because pixies are like little people with insect qualities? But I'm a drake with insect qualities."

That sounds about right.

Usually little people with winged insect qualities.

As opposed to grigs, which lean more toward grasshoppers and beetles and spiders and stuff.

The little luna moth drake scratches behind his antenna with one of his hind feet. "Hehe... But if someone wants to argue that I'm not a proper drake, that's up to them. I think I've probably got more fun things to do than get into arguments about the etymology of things that I didn't think existed until a few hours ago."

That seems like a reasonable position to take.

At Will's comment regarding conversations, several of members of the Drake swarm glance at each other.

"I... maybe?" they reply, still in unison. "Talking all at once feels natural. I think all of me share the same memories. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how my glamour works. Hold on..."

The little moth closes his eyes and grits his teeth, his antenna standing straight up as he strains. After a few seconds of this, he speaks alone with one tiny little voice. "Am I the only one talking?" he asks.

Sure enough, he is.

"Oh, haha, it worked!" he preens, giving his wings a little flap. "Oh wow, this is hard. It's like doing two totally different things with your hands at the same time."

The moth gives a little head-bob. "Yeah, all of me are male. Except the ladybug me.""

One of the ladybird beetle drakes, who happens to sport a jet black shell with two large red spots (who is just as male as the rest of them) sticks his lil' tongue out at the luna moth.

"If there are any odd girls out I think I would have noticed. So I can't do the creepy ovipositor thing. And I'm pretty sure they can only do that to a person who has already lost some of their humanity to the Thorns. The eggs need a hole to lodge into and start growing."

He makes a rather disgusted face.

"Gosh is that ever gross."

The rest of the swarm murmurs in agreement.

By now they're crawling all over the place, covering the nearby trees and shrubs in a veritable kaleidoscope of vibrant wings, iridescent chitin, and pastel fuzz. There do in fact appear to be several mantis-drakes among their number.

"Yeah, all of me have wings," the Drake swarm confirms. "Non-flying insects and stuff are more of a grigg thing, I think?"

[Recaiden]

Keiko is quiet for a while: apprehensive and uncertain - unused to a situation like this. Her ears scan and flick, looking for the smallest sounds and she is hardly watching where they are going...
which scarcely matters. With near miraculous precision, Cao Pi leads the group through the jungle: boldly and confidently striding along without a care in the world. Sun Ce is staring at Keiko the whole time, fairly well ignoring everything else and beginning to act rather thoroughly besotted - rather in contrast to his behavior earlier.

A bird is frightened by the group as they walk by - it makes Keiko jump which makes the Hu and Huli laugh... Keiko brushes them off but is even more upset now: it was a pigeon - the dream is beginning to drift.

Cleo frowns at Sun Ce. She suspects that he is only a dream, but that's no reason not to be concerned about him, not here.
"Don't you worry about the birds, Keiko."
"I do not think, that with all of us here, there is anything to fear."
She goes to take one of the nogitsune's hands, hopefully that expresses the right thing.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shrugs.
"Probably. I don't pretend to know half of the things that can live here. Maybe there are other spider-faeries that aren't grigs. Who knows? Can't say." he puts simply.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Many, many pairs of wings continue to dry. It'll probably be a good half an hour yet before the new swarm of pixie drakes is ready to move out.

Which, of course, is still leaving them restless.

"This is silly..." he grumbles indignantly. "How am I supposed to go home like this? Before today I would have sworn that fae aren't really real. Just silly folklore things. I can't just go back to work as a giant swarm of dragon flies!"

This is very true.

How would the other librarians feel about a heap of lizard-bugs buzzing around the library annoying the patrons?

That just wouldn't do at all.

"Am I supposed to just start over? Or skulk around here in faerie land? Or is there somewhere else I can go?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shakes his head. "You can try to figure out your glamour enough that you can hide in your home world. Or you could stay here. Or you could come to the place where my family has set up shop. It'd be like starting over, really, just in a lot weirder of a place. Someone might have a job for a swarm of dragon flies. Though, there are folks here who might, too. The guy who gave me my ears offered me a job at a mill. But milling isn't my thing." he explains.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

The Drake swarm mulls over that idea.

They don't talk with each other about it, though.

Because they all share the same thoughts. Talking with yourself is silly after all!

Makes you look crazy.

"I guess I could try somewhere new," Drake reasons. "Even if faeries are something that exist back home, I'm not sure if I want to go and bumble into the middle of some kind of secret world. Especially not when I'm still trying to get the hang of my glamour. That sounds like a recipe for disaster."

A bit of buzzing later, and one by one the various little drakes lift off, filling the air with the sound of diaphanous wings. Some, like the various flower-fly drakes, are able to hover with a degree of finesse that would put humming birds to shame. Others, like the mantis drakes awkwardly trundle through the air. And last of all the luna moth Will has been holding takes to the wing, fluttering up near the puca's oversized rabbit ears.

"Maybe I'll try visiting this weird place where your family lives?" the swarm says. "I think I would rather be somewhere civilized where people won't think I'm strange instead of somewhere dangerous like the Hedge."

The land between dreaming and waking isn't exactly known for being kind after all.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will blinks. And offers a small, awkward laugh.
"Well, uh, small problem there. You'll have to figure out how to get out of the Hedge from here. I normally just burrow everywhere. You can probably navigate better than you could as a human, but it's still a tricky place." he explains, a bit embarrassed.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

There comes a collective groan of frustration from Drake.

"Of course it won't be easy," he grumbles. More than a few sets of wings buzz in annoyance. "Well... how else do we navigate? Just look for a door like the one I stumbled in through?" he asks. Without waiting for a reply, the swarm of pixie drakes begin spreading out a bit, crawling over trees and buzzing around corners as they search here there and everywhere.

It's only a few seconds before one of them gets snapped up by a turtle-like sprite for straying to close to the river. With its sharp bill stained bright pink and dragon fly legs sticking out of its mouth all akimbo, the creature vanishes back below the foam.

Judging from the reaction the rest of the swarm has to the loss of one of their number, they either don't notice or don't care.

Though... they are giving the river's edge a little more room than they were a few minutes earlier.

"Is there something particular I should be looking for?" Drake asks with his choir of tiny voices.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shrugs, and goes to look under bushes and other such easily hide-able holes.
"Sometimes I see a mark that indicates the Nexus on doors, but there's no guarantee. A door or arch is likely what we want. Anything that might symbolize a portal." he says, tracing the mark with a paw in the air.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"A portal..." Drake mutters to himself as the swarm zips here and there and everywhere.

There are some of those around.

Door and arches in the sides of the massive trees. Huge stumps that look more like towers than the corpse of a forest giant. Great edifices of weathered stone that speak of monuments erected in the dim ages of the past. And of course, clearings.

Glades.

Drake finds himself remembering that Glades are places that have been claimed by creatures of the Hedge with enough power to impose their vision upon the ever warping forest all around. Sometimes faeries dwell there. Sometimes fae. And sometimes... sometimes a Glade is a gateway into the hellish demesne of the skulking horrors of the Dreamheart itself. Drake isn't sure why he remembers all this, nor where he learned it. But he knows.

Glades are static things.

Kernels of definition in the ever-shifting hedge rows and winding paths.

If there were a place to find a door, it would be in one of the Glades.

Also a good place to find awful things that might press him into service.

But a door's a door...

"I can see three Glades from up here," Drake says, members of his swarm parked up in the branches of a particularly tall tree that sports several bloodshot eyes for reasons that are probably best left uninvestigated. "One of them is all icy, the other has a bunch of big bird cages hanging from things, and the last one looks clockwork. Which should we check for a way out?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shudders.
"The second. Neither of us are dressed for winter, and clockwork would be awfully hard to burrow through. Not that I plan on leaving ya, but you get what I mean." he says.
It's always smart to have a backup plan.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"Okay, cages it is," Drake replies, several of the little critters zipping around Will's head in a tight circle. "Follow me, the path is kind of windy and there's some stuff in the way."

That said, Drake descends, the swarming dragon flies growing thick as they jostle around each other in a vibrant flock of flashing wings, zipping off down the trail and taking a tight left turn between two massive trees. Over and under and around the Thorns they go, easily avoiding the soul-rending spikes with their agility and diminutive size. And oddly enough, as they draw closer together they seem to take on the rough shape of a dragon fly, complete with moving legs and flicking tail. Every now and again a wave of glamour washes over them, causing the cloud of insects to temporarily appear solid...

Weird.

"Is it strange that I know a bunch of stuff about drakes and the Hedge and the Dreamheart and everything?" Drake asks curiously as he pours around and through a thorny bush, several little drakes pausing to sip nectar from its crop of surreal flowers "Because I have all this information that I remember that I'm sure I never learned."

Which is weird.

Usually people only remember stuff that they learned.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

"Not really." says Will, deftly avoiding the obstacles with natural dexterity.
"It's generally how it works. Only real variable is how much you identify with your old human memories. Some folks say they're pretty much the same person, others don't. But you haven't been to Dreamheart, so that would be unlikely for you." he explains as they move.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"And if I went to the Dreamheart, whatever humanity I've got left would be gone," Drake adds. "I wouldn't be a faerie anymore. I would be a full fae. I think I would rather be straddling the line instead of giving up what I've got left."

Sure, he might be a swarm of weird dragon bugs.

But at least he's a swarm of weird dragon bugs that's still partly real.

Feeling equally at home in both the Dreamlands AND the Waking World seems like the better option to him.

Becoming full fae often comes along with some really...

...drastic psychological changes.

Fae don't typically think the same way real people do.

Will seems to be one of the lucky ones.

Regardless!

Our heroes will soon emerge from a tangle of briers strung between two stands of trees to find themselves in the midst of a rather strange Glade.

Which...

Isn't saying much.

Glades are almost always strange.

This one in particular is dotted with huge polished wood hooks rising from the forest floor, brass bird cages dangling from the ends. Should one look closely, it should be clear that the hooks are nothing more than strangely shaped trees and the cages impossible metal flowers. Stones are scattered about, carved deep with runes that weep molten brass into little burning puddle of red hot metal that never seem to overflow. Here and there arches, shelves, chairs, tables, and other decorations have been erected, fashioned from bird bones coated in bronze. Though most conspicuous of all are the feathers. Feathers floating in the air. Feathers burning in the flames. Feathers strewn across the ground.

The acrid scent of smouldering feathers is thick, causing Drake to gag as he alights on various not burning hot objects about the glade.

Hmmm...

Time to look around?

Not a very pleasant one.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will snorts through his little bunny nose tensely. He doesn't like this place at all. He avoids all the superheated metal and instead tries to follow the feathers along the ground in the hope that they'll lead him to a new door.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Just follow the feathers...

It takes a little bit of searching, but eventually Will finds pattern to the feathers scattered about and begins to follow the trail. Drake, meanwhile, is doing quite a few things at once. A few little drakes here, a few little drakes there, all searching out the Glade for signs of a doorway they can use even though he really doesn't know what he's looking for. And, of course, the little luna moth drake is flapping along near the bunny-eared fae.

Why that one specifically?

Because that's the one Will picked to talk to, of course!

Regardless, following the trail of feathers reveals a hidden path that would be overlooked otherwise. That's a common thing in the Hedge, after all. Paths that only exist if you follow precisely the right steps.

And at the end of this path?

Another bronze cage.

But this one?

This one has someone inside it.

They look human.

Or...

Mostly human.

If one ignores the bird-like claws that have begun to grow from their fingers and toes. And the feathers sprouting in place of hair. They're being turned into a faerie.

Slowly.

And judging from the bloodied scourge of briers laying across a gilded table nearby, its Thorns still glistening with blood, one lash at a time.

The boy, who doesn't look any older than twelve, appears to be sleeping fretfully.

Of course he would be a child.

The fae often have a thing for children.

They're so much more malleable than the adults.

"Holy ****..." Drake mutters. "Whatever monstrous piece of **** made this glade is torturing kids."

A look of steely resolve fills the little critter's eyes.

"We have to put a stop to this."

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will nods. "Here, you have any idea how to get them out? The bars might be trapped or something. Seems like the thing someone like this would install." he says resolutely.

[Fenric]

[A Dream of China]

Cleo frowns at Sun Ce. She suspects that he is only a dream, but that's no reason not to be concerned about him, not here.
"Don't you worry about the birds, Keiko."
"I do not think, that with all of us here, there is anything to fear."
She goes to take one of the nogitsune's hands, hopefully that expresses the right thing.

Keiko takes Cleo's hand gratefully and just a tad desperately. Sun Ce soon isn't wearing anything anymore (not that you could tell - whoever is doing the dreaming has no idea what to put underneath the loincloth for a fox and so settles for a "Disney" blankness). The creatures that scamper out are less and less appropriate to the south-central Chinese jungles, and then... Keiko flat out stops and gazes off to the right.

Cleo, dear... Do you notice Jon Pertwee standing next to the Tardis over there and beckoning at us?

[Recaiden]

[A Dream of China]

Keiko takes Cleo's hand gratefully and just a tad desperately. Sun Ce soon isn't wearing anything anymore (not that you could tell - whoever is doing the dreaming has no idea what to put underneath the loincloth for a fox and so settles for a "Disney" blankness). The creatures that scamper out are less and less appropriate to the south-central Chinese jungles, and then... Keiko flat out stops and gazes off to the right.

Cleo, dear... Do you notice Jon Pertwee standing next to the Tardis over there and beckoning at us?

Cleo follows Keiko's look and nods.
"Don't know him myself, but it can't - well, let's go and see what he wants."

She takes a deep breath and vanishes from sight, the better to sneak away from the princes, but the pressure of her hand is still on Keikos as she heads towards the phone booth.

[Fenric]

[A Dream of China]

Jon Pertwee sounds remarkably like Frederick, but his mannerisms are the acidic third Doctor without question

Well, what are you waiting for? In you go, double-quick!

Keiko gives Cleo's hand a squeeze and then dives in through the police-box door!

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"Well, there's an easy way to find out," Drake says as a little firefly-tailed drake flits up to the bars are grabs onto them. As soon as he does, the flash white hot, causing the poor little bug to burst into the flames and go tumbling to the ground like a tiny meteor. By the time he hits the soot-covered floor he's nothing bush ashes and charred chitin. "Yesh... Yeah, looks like the bars are trapped. How are we going to get around something like that?"

As before, losing one of his swarm does seem to bother Drake at all.

It would probably take quite a few of the little buggers getting toasted to do any actual lasting damage to him.

"Please... it hasn't been three days yet... let me rest..." the youth bound in the gilded cage moans.

The sound of voices and the scent of burnt flesh seem to have roused the child.

Drake (in the form of about two dozen little faces) glances over at Will.

His look speaks without words.

Now what?

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will blinks, and looks up.
"How about you gnaw through the thing it's hanging from? Maybe they didn't think of protecting that, too." he suggests.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"Oh... umm..." several drakes stare up at the wooden pole the cage dangles from. "Well, I could try that I guess?"

Hmm...

He'll need several drakes that can chew through wood, though.

Or melt through wood.

Or whatever.

He's not the most entomology-focused sort of person, though. Termites eat wood, right? But he doesn't have any termite drakes in his swarm.

"What kinds of bugs eat wood again?" he asks. "And don't say termites. I don't have any termites."

He should probably read up on insects once he gets back to the Waking World.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will shrugs.
"I don't know, I don't know much at all about bugs! Do you have any with acid blood or something?" he asks, looking around for something sharp he can use on the wood or maybe something he can carry the molten metal and use it to burn the wood.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

"How should I know?" the Drake swarm huffs. "My knowledge of insects is basically limited to knowing that they've got six legs, three body segments, and they aren't spiders."

A beat.

"And that true bugs have piercing mouthparts. I'm not sure why I remember that one."

Silly insect trivia from old animal books.

And as it turns out, he has a bug at his disposal that can spit acid that will chew through most any organic material. Of course, Drake isn't aware of this since he doesn't know much about insects. To him it's just a slim, black beetleish looking drake with red spots.

However!

"I mean... I've got lots of teeth? I can just try chewing gnawing through it?" he offers as several hundred more teeny little drakes come swarming onto the wooden pole and start chewing at it.

The feathery not-quite-faerie child is begging to get the idea that something different is going on. "W-what are you doing? If the scary owl-man finds out what you're doing he'll be mad."

[goto124]

[Lornesse Forest]

(Group) Ezra_S: That's true, when you put it that way...
(Group) Ezra_S: :)

((That pic gives me an idea. PM me a description of Lornesse, along with the pic link (just because). I want to play with sounds. ))

Ezra keeps an eye out for who could cause the destruction of the forest, and sights the tough woman first. In a gentle voice, he speaks to her, raising up his hands. "Drop the weapon, we mean no harm, not unless you're the one responsible for destroying the forest. Even then, we need a good reason, oh my, yes!"

Even so, there's a tiny hole forming on his finger as he prepares to disarm her if need be.

((Will PM you when I finish typing the desc, which to be honest isn't much.))

The woman glares at the vampire as he speaks, as if offended by the suggestion of dropping her weapon. Shortly after Ezra finishes talking however, she slowly lowers her staff to the ground.

'Yes, I was responsible,' she replies, crouching down as the expression on her face softens - with her eyes downcast, she looks less angry and more worried. 'I made a monster. It's bent on destroying the land, and I'm trying to get rid of it. Except...'

The druid sits on the burnt grass beneath her. 'This monster, it's far more powerful than any animal I've ever met. I can't seem to do anything to it, beyond giving it a few scratches, and yet it's able to cause so much destruction. I'm not sure what to do now...

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

"And that's why we should be quiet." Will says, floating up to the swarm of bugs and taking grasp of the wood. He twists it in his grasp, which might help increase the damage, but his intention is to try to set the cage down gently once it's chewed through instead of letting it crash to the ground.